This entire issue is not a Coach issue. It's an issue faced by many many brand-name and luxury goods producing companies. I'm willing to bet money that Coach corporate does not authorize the sale of authentic Coach bags at TJ Maxx or other discounters and that the few that end up there are placed by third party retailers without Coach's knowledge or permission. Companies like TJ Maxx and Target willfully do this, even knowing that the manufacturer has policies against it, until court-ordered to desist.
I agree with you to a point. Especially on the TJ Maxx thing. I don't however agree with people not being able to sell their own bags, that they've paid for.
You are mistaken. Coach sells discontinued styles and colors to TJ Maxx, Filene's Basement, Nordstroms Rack and other discounters. Those sellers are AUTHORIZED to sell Coach and in fact, Coach has a stamp with which they mark the creed in order to indicate that the bag was liquidated to a discounter. These discounters might also get wallets, wristlets, planners, keychains, etc., all legally and legitimately purchased directly from Coach.
Does anyone recall seeing the "X" stamp on the creed? Those are bags that came from TJ's, etc.
And how about newer discounted bags that have a "Z" in front of the style number on the creed? Those too, are MADE BY Coach for the discount retailer.
Here's an example (not my listing) for a "Z" bag:
http://cgi.ebay.com/COACH-SV-VERMIL...655?pt=US_CSA_WH_Handbags&hash=item3f073ac0ff
Hyacinth is correct. And if Coach is employing these bottom feeders, then Ms.Kim is absolutely doing the right thing by bringing it to the public eye. I realize there are some devoted Coachies here, but ignoring the facts presented isn't going to make this any less true, which was my point in my previous posts.
Coach is employing these sharks. My theory is that the law firm is looking for easy money and has approached the manufacturers of commonly faked items offering them a piece of "the take" if they are able to collect anything.
And since it isn't costing the design houses anything, they're going along with it.
Gibney, et al are assuming that many sellers don't know what they have, have no clue about authenticity and are gambling on the assumption that the sellers bought from wholesalers and will "pay up" when money is demanded.
What they didn't count on was the number of honest sellers of authentic items who were going to give in to the extortion attempts. And those are the sellers who have contacted Tabberone, blogs and the press.
The letter threatened her with up to $2 million in penalties, instructed her to sign a statement admitting wrongdoing, and demanded she pay Coach $300.
I wonder how many people fork over the $300? I know Coach gets counterfeited quite a bit, but letters like this just sound like extortion. And they obviously aren't doing their homework well if they can't tell for sure if it's a fake or not.
Guilty until proven innocent? Unattractive behavior from any company.
I'm willing to bet there are quite a few sellers who assume that if the law firm sends a letter, the law firm knows something they don't. These are probably sellers who knowingly or unknowingly bought from "suppliers," "wholesalers" or other distributors of fakes. They pay up to get the attorneys off their backs.
