Customer Service/Quality Control issues post here.

[Liselle]

susa, I too, support you. You are not being picky or unreasonable - in fact you have plenty of support as evidenced in the last few pages of this thread. You come across as a very nice person not wanting to make trouble. I personally think you need to be a bit more assertive in this situation, but only if you are comfortable doing so. BE isn't delivering on its brand values...exemplary customer service and luxury handbags with your order. It's standard practice for custom orders with any merchant to be final sale. That's to protect the merchant from the whims of customers who change their minds, which isn't the case here. Your bag is not only substandard, it's defective in quality. The degree of the 'natural markings' is far beyond what any reasonable person would consider acceptable. There has been a misrepresentation by BE by omission for what you would receive. You shouldn't have to make accommodations like wearing it backwards or making do. The marked section of the hide should have been rejected outright by the atelier, not used for the back, sides or less conspicuous area. BE's profitabily on the bag or whether they charge back the atelier isn't the issue or your concern. They need to suck it up and do the right thing. If they don't, I would suggest you might want to consider returning the bag to BE with signature tracking and filing a disputed charge with your credit card company. Depending on the terms and conditions of the cardholder agreement you have with your cc company, you probably have to pay for the transaction, complete some sort of declaration letter with details about how you tried to resolve the dispute with the merchant, proof of return of the defective merchandise and the fact that the merchant hasn't replaced or refunded you etc. and the cc company will investigate and process a chargeback to the merchant. Phone your cc company and talk to someone about how you'd go about this.

Good luck to you. I can tell this has already been a stressful situation for you, so hope BE capitulates and does the right thing.

Hi, yes I completely agree with decouverte's excellent practical advice!

Susa, I just want to say, thank you very much for posting about your CS problems. Please don't think that you are 'making trouble' or anything like that! As someone relatively new to BE, I really appreciate information on this sub-forum that can help me make an informed decision on purchasing from BE, and that includes both positive and negative information. To me, that would seem to be the whole point of this sub-forum, to discuss all the good and the bad aspects of the brand! So thank you so much for coming forward! I don't think anybody who has legitimate complaints and wants to voice them should have to hesitate for fear that they may be viewed badly for driving away business from a brand.

I hope that BE resolves this satisfactorily for you, as they should. Personally, I find this kind of service quite unacceptable, and of course this, among other things, will factor into any decision I make on future purchases from BE.

 

[kings_20]

It isn't like Susa is looking to return the bag for a refund, she just wants a bag without all the stripes on the front. To not be able to exchange the bag for one with more even markings is just poor CS on BE's behalf.

When we spend so much on a handbag and having to buy them unseen, we should at least be able to exchange it for one that we the customer deems to be appropriate.

I'm not out to bash BE as I own upwards to 10 BE bags. In this particular situation, I think that the customer is correct.

 

[sgreg]

well, if you could explain to me what you mean by "glamour shots" ........i will do my best

Just photos, the ones you've already posted are lovely (ignoring the multiple "ahems" on it). I'd love to see it with stuff in it! Although if you are still in negotiations with BE perhaps it is better to wait until a decision is reached. I have gone from being pretty neutral about the look of the EM to really liking it, and am itching to see more photos!

 

[lovebags2]

Hi Ladies,

I'm impressed with everyone's great points here.

TG - Thanks for the apology. It takes character to do that!

I just want to say that I still have a feeling once Jackie reads everyone's reaction to Susa's situation then she'll offer a reasonable solution. I'm not trying to defend BE in this case since since already placing Susa thru this terrible ordeal just wasn't right but I still have confidence that BE will come thru in the end if nothing else but for damage control. I think BE is already starting to not be seen in the best light re customer service and not helping Susa will only make matters even worse IMHO.

I"m looking forward to hearing about the resolution soon!

 

[gga]

susa..I think you got some opinions for sure!

gga..I agree to a lot of your points...but OMG..handles..this should be a piece of cake to fix! BTW BV can snarl and grunt..lol

TL..good post..

Well, you would think so, wouldn't you?

And so far I've not run into any major snarls with BV. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I continue that run of luck, then.

 

[susa]

Just photos, the ones you've already posted are lovely (ignoring the multiple "ahems" on it). I'd love to see it with stuff in it! Although if you are still in negotiations with BE perhaps it is better to wait until a decision is reached. I have gone from being pretty neutral about the look of the EM to really liking it, and am itching to see more photos!

I will, promised

right now i am not touching the bag, but you are right, the bag itself is a real beauty, no question , the interior in fuchsia matches perfektly the taupe leather, and I do love the golden hardware with the taupe

oh, i forgot to ask my twin sister bag..........does yours also have golden hw ?

 

[hipnycmom]

Susa, I went on the BE site to check stock photos and swatches and the stock photo of the TMA in Taupe that they have there does have some striations like in your bag, but they are on the back. They are also more vertical as compared to horizontal and they don't look very white. On the swatches of matte leather in BEC there is no indication that there could be markings this big. If it's true that these are normal on matte leather then there should be some kind of mention of this on BEC so that customers don't order a matte leather bag only to be unhappy in the end.

No one else on the forum (that I can remember) has "revealed" a matte bag with the same degree of variation, and I see no photos on the BE website that look like this. I love my BEs but not like this. I do hope this gets resolved. And I would love to see those glamour shots as well

 

[hipnycmom]

Oops. Just saw the BE thread on natural/matte leathers in the main part of the forum...

 

[*suzi*]

I've been travelling all day and am just catching up on this thread from this morning.

I just want to leave a friendly reminder that this thread was created to post quality control issues and that is exactly what Susa did. It is very important to me that we stay on track and support our fellow Belenistas when there is a problem. I appreciate that we haven't had our usual "hit and run" posters that only visit when there is an opportunity to "stir the pot" Everyone is welcome to post as long as they stay on topic. If anyone here gets easily offended by quality control posts, please do yourself a favor and walk away. There are numerous threads below with BE eye candy to improve your disposition.

 

[lovebags2]

 

[Contessa]

Excellent post Suzi.

I'm also hoping that this thread can remain on topic which is CS & quality control issues NOT personal attacks.

I for one am not about to speculate as to what will happen, nor am I about to become clairvoyant.

Susa, I hope this matter will be resolved to your satisfaction- and I say this with utmost sincerity.

And for those of you reading this thread who are considering purchasing your first BE, try to keep an open mind. Everyone's experience and persception is different. Even if a handful of people have had a negative experience, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will.

It's like hearing negative things about a person before you've met them based on someone elses's comments. I find that I base my opinion on what I think......not others......it's called keeping an open mind.

 

[asbb]

I've been thinking about this and I wondered...

If this bag had been full price and arrived looking as it did, would Jackie have then offered a 30% discount? And if so, would Susa have felt better about keeping the bag? It occurs to me that perhaps Jackie's solution would have been to discount the bag but she is unwilling to do so because of the original discount. And I wonder (susa or anyone else) at what price would the bag be worth keeping?

I know some of us would buy a flawed bag for 25-30% off & others would not. And I realize that it's a moot point, but I thought it worth mentioning.

 

[bonniekir]

^^not a bad point at all..actually it's a brilliant observation..should have thought of it myself..lol..I love good deals, and except for the model, which I can't wear..I would have accepted the dicount in this case, because the rest of the bag is obviously flawless.

 

[Jenova]

An interesting point. I am generally very happy (even eager) to buy slightly flawed bags in exchange for receiving a good discount.

Had all the lines been running at the same angle, I might say yes to 50% off full retail price on this bag. For me the leather is too badly marked (it has pronounced lines and many of them) to make 25-30% off a good deal. That is the level of reduction one would normally expect for sale goods in perfect condition or for outlet bags that have undergone minor repairs or have almost invisable flaws.

As the lines run diagonally on one side of the front and horizontally on the other on this particular bag, I would say no to even a 50% deal on it. For me there would be no point in buying a less costly (but still £100s) bag if I didn't want to carry it.

 

[susa]

sgreg wanted to see a glamour pic, here we are: