Has anyone else ever been told this by an SA before?

TPF may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others

BagsAreMyBabies

BagsAreMyBabies

O.G.
Dec 4, 2006
2,346
43
#1
Last night I ran into Coach to grab a card case to match the Beat 18 that I had just ordered. I asked the SA if he could tell a difference between the $75 one in store and what seemed to be the exact same one on Saks.com for $50. He started telling me that the Coach sold at department stores are of lesser quality and come from a different manufacturer. I laughed and said that was absolutely not true. He continued to argue with me and I just gave up and left. Has an SA ever tried this on you? Just curious
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: p3b, amateurjeweler and Satcheldoll
#2
BagsAreMyBabies said:
Last night I ran into Coach to grab a card case to match the Beat 18 that I had just ordered. I asked the SA if he could tell a difference between the $75 one in store and what seemed to be the exact same one on Saks.com for $50. He started telling me that the Coach sold at department stores are of lesser quality and come from a different manufacturer. I laughed and said that was absolutely not true. He continued to argue with me and I just gave up and left. Has an SA ever tried this on you? Just curious
Click to expand...
I've never been told that at all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: amateurjeweler and BagsAreMyBabies
#4
I think that is true. They have different Coach bags made for factory outlet, retail stores like Macy's and their boutique. If you look at the tags maybe you can tell the difference. I know the factory outlet bags are much worse than the department store bags. I have never purchased from their boutiques. Coach is a good value. Their bags usually last a year and you can send them in to get repaired so that is nice.
 
#7
MSV0 said:
I think that is true. They have different Coach bags made for factory outlet, retail stores like Macy's and their boutique. If you look at the tags maybe you can tell the difference. I know the factory outlet bags are much worse than the department store bags. I have never purchased from their boutiques. Coach is a good value. Their bags usually last a year and you can send them in to get repaired so that is nice.
Click to expand...
Yes, outlet bags are definitely lesser quality, but department store bags are the exact ones that Coach carries unless it is a department store exclusive. Coach used to do those a lot - I'm not sure how often they do these days.
 
  • Like
Reactions: amateurjeweler, tulipfield and JenJBS
#8
I guess I should have clarified in my original post that I wasn't questioning whether it was true or not. It absolutely is not true. I just thought it pretty shady that an SA tried to tell me it was so that I would make my purchase with him and wondered how often that occurs. After he said it, I pointed to my bag that I was carrying and asked "So what do you think the quality is on this one? There's another one over there (pointing to same bag on the shelf)? Should we compare?" He responded "No the quality is the same but you bought this through Coach." Nope, ordered from Saks like I often do. Exact same bag, exact same price as in the store.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: ildera5, amateurjeweler and JenJBS
#11
BagsAreMyBabies said:
Last night I ran into Coach to grab a card case to match the Beat 18 that I had just ordered. I asked the SA if he could tell a difference between the $75 one in store and what seemed to be the exact same one on Saks.com for $50. He started telling me that the Coach sold at department stores are of lesser quality and come from a different manufacturer. I laughed and said that was absolutely not true. He continued to argue with me and I just gave up and left. Has an SA ever tried this on you? Just curious
Click to expand...
well they lied to you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BagsAreMyBabies
#12
crazyforcoach09 said:
well they lied to you.
Click to expand...
LOL, oh for sure. I was just curious about how often this happens. By the responses above and how many people believe it to be true, my guess is a lot more often than I thought. Luckily, in the 30 years that I have been buying Coach, I have been blessed with honest SAs. This was just some random kid who probably heard someone else say it. It's preposterous to think that Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman's or Nordstrom is selling "lesser than" at the same price. I guess those Pradas and Chanels were "lesser than" too, LOL. BTW, figured out the difference on the card case. I was looking at two different ones. One with canvas on both sides that was an older style and one with leather on one side that is the newer version on Coach's website.
 
#13
The made for factory bags at outlets are lesser quality. But the ones at department stores come from the same warehouses that COACH stores get theirs from. Basically once COACH makes a bag they go to the warehouse. Then each department store plus COACH North America, COACH EU, etc. all have their own buyers that decide which colors they will purchase to place in their stores. That’s why sometimes you’ll see a color at a department store that’s not at COACH. Or a color oversees that’s not offered in the USA/Canada. I had a long conversation about this with my SA last year. He’s been with the company for a really long time. He said it’s silly that COACH doesn’t offer all the colors they make in a bag, but it’s up to each set of buyers and what they think will sell best in their market to decide which they choose. But the bags are all made already, just sitting in the warehouse.
 
  • Like
Reactions: americandreaming, hotstar16, pandorabox and 7 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top