Issue with buying bag unseen

[rosrey]

Hi,

First time here and I gotta say I love this forum. It's helped the hours go by much quicker at at my less than exciting work place. I'm thinking of buying a Balenciaga from Aloha Rag. However, how do I know the bag they'll send is not a returned item? Are there ways to tell? I want my bag brand spanking new! Thanks.

 

[bbagbubba]

I suppose you can't be 100% certain, but Aloha Rag charges a $50 restocking fee, and the customer has to pay return shipping, so I think that discourages people with buyer's remorse, for instance, from buying and then returning for little reason. If the bag was defective, I feel confident that AR would not re-sell it.
I'd be more worried about this if you were planning to purchase a bag from Barney's, Neiman's or another big retailer with a more liberal return policy.

 

[redney]

Welcome to the PF, rosrey!!

AR puts several brightly colored tags that are very visible on the exterior of the bag and I believe (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) that these tags must be intact when returning it. The tags are bright neon green and orange and it would look really weird for someone to actually use the bag with these tags on it.

I bought my Rouille Box sight unseen from Aloha Rag and am so pleased with it! I called and spoke with a really nice SA (it wasn't Jumpei whom many PFers adore) and she was very nice and picked a gorgeous bag with great leather for me.

But if you are wary and do not want to pay the high restocking fee, you could order from BalNY.

 

[powderpuff100]

I suppose you can't be 100% certain, but Aloha Rag charges a $50 restocking fee, and the customer has to pay return shipping, so I think that discourages people with buyer's remorse, for instance, from buying and then returning for little reason. If the bag was defective, I feel confident that AR would not re-sell it.
I'd be more worried about this if you were planning to purchase a bag from Barney's, Neiman's or another big retailer with a more liberal return policy.

I agree and I also feel that SA's at places like NM etc. may not be as Bbag savvy and might accidentally accept a swapped fake bag as a return.

 

[joyeaux]

I'm in your same boat rosrey. I researched this quite a bit and Aloha or BalNY seem to be the safest for brand spaking new bags. Another thing that's hard about buying sight unseen is not being able to see the color IRL or try the size... but the good thing about Balenciagas is they usually retain their value and are easy to resell! The ladies here are also wonderful about sharing pictures and describing their bags. Good luck!

 

[bbagbubba]

AR puts several brightly colored tags that are very visible on the exterior of the bag and I believe (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) that these tags must be intact when returning it. The tags are bright neon green and orange and it would look really weird for someone to actually use the bag with these tags on it.
quote]

Hi redney,
You're right. I forgot about those little tags!