Thank you guys so much! I was worried when I posted my long post cause I didn't want to get on anyone's nerves, and you guys were so cool!!
Actually I talked to one of the SA and he told me that there were staff that were specifically hired to man the Spirited Away collection, so the existing SA's had limited control on how things are packaged and what is included. And he said that's why there are a lot of inconsistencies.
I made two purchases over the phone since I am immunocompromised, and both arrived without the bath token. I did manage to get one, but I'm fighting with the pop-up SA to get the other one and they're refusing to send it to me (even though I specifically reminded the regular
LOEWE SA multiple times to include the bath token)... Otherwise, I am seeing people having these items shipped with the bath tokes and with multiple notebooks as gifts. So there is definitely a loose following of the rules. My friend was also denied the choice to choose which paper bag to get, I am not sure if it was like that everyone else.
What I'm worried about is sending the bag and them responding with "We apologize for this inconvenience, however this was part of a limited edition collection and as such we are unable to source the material to fix this damage. Here is store credit, you can try to fight us for a refund, but we won't give it to you
"
I want to stress, I have no problems with that individual on tiktok, I actually thought he was extremely nice about it and didn't even make a big deal out of it in his original video. My issue was with them telling me that it was out of stock and that I was unlucky! But a week later, they send him and a few others the packaging and other freebies.
It seems a lot of people got the limited edition notebook message, so they probably got some back after they had closed all the pop-ups (on the 16th of Jan I think). It will be interesting to see if they only send one notebook, considering SAs have been handing out bundles of them to purchasers in store haha.
Perhaps if LOEWE took more of an initiative and some responsibility, people wouldn't be so upset. The comments on multiple spirited away posts were filled with people complaining about packaging. So LOEWE could have easily sent out an email telling people that they're producing more of the packaging, which wouldn't cost much tbh and shipping would be minimal as it is just a piece of cardboard. We have seen that happen with multiple companies and brands. All you do is ask the customer to fill out a form.
Ultimately this just shows that LOEWE is inexperienced with this specific demographic. They thought the people who purchased the spirited away items were just like regular luxury shoppers, who throw out the box and the bag in the dumpster on the street or flat out tell the SA to not include it. Their inability to grasp and deal with the "luxury" treatment that their customers are asking for tells me that they have a long way to go with their services... Or maybe we are just being too petty and childish? Who knows.
All in all, I can safely say that this was an eye opening experience for me. I used to be so into collectible figures and I ended up leaving that world cause the joy of obtaining something was overshadowed by the stress of getting it and stress of the next purchase. So I decided to take a long break and reflect on the items that I have in an effort to be more conscious of my spending and needs. and I'm loving it so far!
