LV and the quality
- Thread starter ellc
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I think LV is good quality, even though my mom's speedy I carry is peeling because she didn't keep it in the dustbag.
Truely exquisite quality in my opinion! Louis Vuitton has been around for a while now, and I think that they have earned a very high reputation not only on their quality and craftmanship but also on their timeless beauty.
I think LV quality is amazing. When I was looking at the mono speedy 25 in NYC, a lady put her bag on the counter next to me which was clearly a well loved speedy mono 25. She said, "this is what your bag is going to look like in 20 years." and went on to talk about how it was only $300 20 yrs ago. Anyway, any bag that can last that long and still be in style is amazing.
Ok, now I have a stupid question..is the mono speedy canvas really canvas or is it leather? It looks like leather, but they call it canvas. I was just wondering..I am really new at this and still trying to learn everything..thanks for the help.
Ok, now I have a stupid question..is the mono speedy canvas really canvas or is it leather? It looks like leather, but they call it canvas. I was just wondering..I am really new at this and still trying to learn everything..thanks for the help.
I think it's also due to the fact that LV is turning into a fashion brand, they no longer have the time to test bleeding etc etc before they launch into the market. They release so many new styles each year trying to be fashion forward, it would be impossible to keep up the control
Another problem is that I think they grew a lot quicker than expected. Instead of doing like Hermes, putting up endless waitlists, they try to meet demands and thus this may cause sloppier production because maybe the staff has too little time on their hands. THis may change when they open another factory in India though.
^
Canvas is not leather, coated or not. Mono, damier, MC etc is coated with some type of plastic (vinyl??). Actually all of the products are more or less coated in something to avoid staining. (I'm not too sure about the leather ones though).
Quality is relative. Some people don't care or are less observant so things that are considered to be "defects" by pickier people will not be "defects" to them. If you think about it, nothing really lasts forever and everyone treats their bag differently so some bags will last longer than others.
Personally, I'm only picky when I make the purchase. Then I consider anything bad that happens after to be my own mistake/fault. I don't do returns either because I think it's wrong and because I was raised up in China where returns do NOT exist (nowadays big stores accept returns/exchanges, but generally it's rare). Of course I can always pick out "defects" such as...
1) leather straps fraying even before I use the Trotteur
2) piping is loose so I can see all the stitches where 2 pieces of canvas come together (on the 2nd day of purchase of Manhattan PM!)
3) stitches on handles become loose after a month on MC Speedy 30
4) Onatah Cuir's zipper has this purple glazing which frays even before I use it (and it continues fraying 6 months later)
5) BH's leather on the top edge of the bag frays within 15 days
6) all my scarves pull a lot
7) my mom's Damier Speedy bleeds
8) my wallet has this unglazed spot on the edge
9) Vernis cles has glazing not only on the edges where it's supposed to be, but also ON the leather
10) my dad's belt gets scratched easily on the leather, and even before he used it there were scratches on the sides already!
11) all LV's hardware chips sooner or later (within a few years)
.....
....
....
Now do I consider these to be "defects"? No... It's normal wear n tear. I just have low standards and I think it's important NOT to believe LV is always perfect, otherwise you will for SURE be heart broken.
Personally, I'm only picky when I make the purchase. Then I consider anything bad that happens after to be my own mistake/fault. I don't do returns either because I think it's wrong and because I was raised up in China where returns do NOT exist (nowadays big stores accept returns/exchanges, but generally it's rare). Of course I can always pick out "defects" such as...
1) leather straps fraying even before I use the Trotteur
2) piping is loose so I can see all the stitches where 2 pieces of canvas come together (on the 2nd day of purchase of Manhattan PM!)
3) stitches on handles become loose after a month on MC Speedy 30
4) Onatah Cuir's zipper has this purple glazing which frays even before I use it (and it continues fraying 6 months later)
5) BH's leather on the top edge of the bag frays within 15 days
6) all my scarves pull a lot
7) my mom's Damier Speedy bleeds
8) my wallet has this unglazed spot on the edge
9) Vernis cles has glazing not only on the edges where it's supposed to be, but also ON the leather
10) my dad's belt gets scratched easily on the leather, and even before he used it there were scratches on the sides already!
11) all LV's hardware chips sooner or later (within a few years)
.....
....
....
Now do I consider these to be "defects"? No... It's normal wear n tear. I just have low standards and I think it's important NOT to believe LV is always perfect, otherwise you will for SURE be heart broken.
RE: Louis Vuitton Quality/Longevity
I realize this thread is a bit dated, but the question is always relevant (especially to first-time LV buyers).
My impression of Louis Vuitton handbag quality is based upon several factors. First off, I believe consistency depends upon where the bag is made (USA, SPAIN, FRANCE). Second, I think the quality depends on when it was made (now vs. 2, 5, 10, 15 years ago). The first two may be attributed to factory turnover/attrition, production methods, greater vs. lesser demand, greater or lesser corporate oversight/scrutiny, etc. Third, it is my observation that overall quality and consistency depends on the style/line/price.
Here's the "official" answer, however: Before I was in the market or discovered this forum I wrote LVMH with this same question and they replied that the life of a handbag, with nonexclusive use, could be as many as 30 years.
BUT… if you get a defective bag it will not even last a couple of days before you realize that it needs to go back for a return or an exchange.
The most problematic style, IMHO, is the monogram speedy. It's Louis Vuitton's least expensive full-sized bag on average, and yet is an LV staple because the speedy style is arguably among the most popular. Unfortunately, it is my impression that Louis Vuitton USA seemingly cranks out these bags, particularly the classic monogram line, much, much too fast (there may be exceptions but this is my present-day impression). Visiting two boutiques recently, I noticed that the quality of the EPI and some of the other more structured styles, such as the classic monogram Alma, are seemingly much more consistent (they also cost more).
The problem is that many first-time buyers, myself among them, are introduced to the LV brand through the eternally popular classic monogram speedy. So it makes little sense that Louis Vuitton makes seemingly less effort, in my experience, to make a good "first impression" with respect to the workmanship of this particular style. I literally exchanged speedy 25 bags four times over, and examined nearly 15 more while visiting two boutiques in my effort to get a bag without problems (and so far still out of luck). One had a brownish-black scuff mark (damage from in-store handling, I presume). One had the wrong model number stamped under the leather tab/leaf. Another had rough, peeling and flaking leather edges along a 4-inch section of a rolled handle (the leather tabs were also misaligned). Another had a stitch on the handle that missed causing the needle to puncture a patch of leather that was already beginning to peel. So to be clear, the majority of the craftsmanship problems I experienced weren't just related to a bit of wavy piping here or there, which I accept as normal, but rather truly serious repairs-in-waiting that would have shortened the life of the bag to probably a year or two tops.
Everyone has a different level of expectation, and I do not believe there is anything wrong or right about subjective preferences. What I take more seriously is the way in which LV employees are trained to pressure customers out of comparisons.
Examples:
• Clearing the throat loudly and impatiently less than five minutes after the customer begins his or her selection;
• Telling a customer that they are not supposed to permit side-by-side comparisons (not between dozens of bags but as few as two or three!);
• Using the term "handmade" not as a compliment but as a deflection to get customers to dismiss their gut reactions or concerns about workmanship "irregularities".
See my next post to learn why the abuse of the term "handmade" is perhaps most disturbing of all.
I realize this thread is a bit dated, but the question is always relevant (especially to first-time LV buyers).
My impression of Louis Vuitton handbag quality is based upon several factors. First off, I believe consistency depends upon where the bag is made (USA, SPAIN, FRANCE). Second, I think the quality depends on when it was made (now vs. 2, 5, 10, 15 years ago). The first two may be attributed to factory turnover/attrition, production methods, greater vs. lesser demand, greater or lesser corporate oversight/scrutiny, etc. Third, it is my observation that overall quality and consistency depends on the style/line/price.
Here's the "official" answer, however: Before I was in the market or discovered this forum I wrote LVMH with this same question and they replied that the life of a handbag, with nonexclusive use, could be as many as 30 years.
BUT… if you get a defective bag it will not even last a couple of days before you realize that it needs to go back for a return or an exchange.
The most problematic style, IMHO, is the monogram speedy. It's Louis Vuitton's least expensive full-sized bag on average, and yet is an LV staple because the speedy style is arguably among the most popular. Unfortunately, it is my impression that Louis Vuitton USA seemingly cranks out these bags, particularly the classic monogram line, much, much too fast (there may be exceptions but this is my present-day impression). Visiting two boutiques recently, I noticed that the quality of the EPI and some of the other more structured styles, such as the classic monogram Alma, are seemingly much more consistent (they also cost more).
The problem is that many first-time buyers, myself among them, are introduced to the LV brand through the eternally popular classic monogram speedy. So it makes little sense that Louis Vuitton makes seemingly less effort, in my experience, to make a good "first impression" with respect to the workmanship of this particular style. I literally exchanged speedy 25 bags four times over, and examined nearly 15 more while visiting two boutiques in my effort to get a bag without problems (and so far still out of luck). One had a brownish-black scuff mark (damage from in-store handling, I presume). One had the wrong model number stamped under the leather tab/leaf. Another had rough, peeling and flaking leather edges along a 4-inch section of a rolled handle (the leather tabs were also misaligned). Another had a stitch on the handle that missed causing the needle to puncture a patch of leather that was already beginning to peel. So to be clear, the majority of the craftsmanship problems I experienced weren't just related to a bit of wavy piping here or there, which I accept as normal, but rather truly serious repairs-in-waiting that would have shortened the life of the bag to probably a year or two tops.
Everyone has a different level of expectation, and I do not believe there is anything wrong or right about subjective preferences. What I take more seriously is the way in which LV employees are trained to pressure customers out of comparisons.
Examples:
• Clearing the throat loudly and impatiently less than five minutes after the customer begins his or her selection;
• Telling a customer that they are not supposed to permit side-by-side comparisons (not between dozens of bags but as few as two or three!);
• Using the term "handmade" not as a compliment but as a deflection to get customers to dismiss their gut reactions or concerns about workmanship "irregularities".
See my next post to learn why the abuse of the term "handmade" is perhaps most disturbing of all.
Warning: I hope what I have experienced is NOT true for others (and apologies for the length). I realize that some people will not relate to my product quality experience at all, which is a good thing because it may mean there is hope for me yet in my hunt for a beautiful speedy 25 (not unlike many of the ones I've seen pictured in the forums).
Quality/Longevity PART II
To recap, I personally take issue with the scripted excuses that boutique employees are widely known to make to discourage customers from lingering too long in the selection process. One SA, for example, told me that they were not really supposed to allow customers to compare bags! Another SA repeatedly, loudly and impatiently cleared her throat less than three minutes after bringing out the first bag. Others hover over your shoulder or pass you off to other SAs in attempt to non-verbally urge you to move along (even if no one else is awaiting help). Case-in-point: When I returned to exchange my speedy 25 that had an incorrect speedy 30 imprint under the leather leaf, the SA less than five minutes later said he had to take a lunch break. The thing was, my fiancé had called to find out when he would be on duty that day and we had arrived only 15 minutes after his 3 p.m. shift started lunch? I doubt it! More commonly, however, SAs simply say in response to all questions that the bags are "handmade".
As someone who worked in handbag sales and repair for five years as a student, I cannot completely buy into the "handmade" euphemism LV staff are apparently trained to provide for puckered seams, severely eclipsed piping segments (particularly along corners), flaking handle edges, lopsided tab placement, etc. There's a vast difference between what is normal (because a bag is unstructured/soft), and what is irregular, damaged or defective. Few of us, I imagine, would wear a "designer" shirt with a puckered seam perched on our shoulder yet LV employees want us to believe that when we see a manufacturing flaw that it is "natural". One SA even told my fiancé that a angular blackish-brown scuff mark on the piping, not unlike a scuff you might see on your shoe, was a natural leather characteristic! Such observations are only natural in the sense that the demand is so high for some of these styles that they are cranking them out without, apparently, due quality control (as of this writing and my own personal observations, anyhow).
What would be a legitimate example of handmade vs. defective but perhaps no less welcome depending on the buyer would be differences in the pattern placement/alignment. I also noted a number of pattern shifts between speedy 25s, and while one could make the case that the pattern being off center makes the bag "irregular" it does not meet the "defective" definition in my book.
But there's a bigger point to my story: In truth, most handbags are handmade to some extent even no-name and store-brand bags. If LV did not use mass production methods there would be a US waiting list of ~55,000+ people lasting months or even years for each handbag style to be made entirely on manpower alone. Instead, LV uses modern technology to churn out sufficient quantities of handbags to keep their growing list of US boutiques fully stocked.
Likewise, in auto manufacturing robotic machines do just about everything such that nobody would call a car "handmade" even though it requires many hands to run the assembly line. Yet by LV's definition of the word, any company, from Wal-Mart to Saks could discourage all customer returns/exchanges/comparisons on the basis that items are handmade. So this whole idea that handmade is synonymous with "irregular" or "defective" is, IMHO, an insult to skilled craftsmen and women everywhere.
Recently my mom celebrated her birthday, and to celebrate my sisters and I commissioned a custom quilt for her bed. This quilt was "handmade" in the genuine sense of the word, and yet not a stitch was out of line, puckered or "irregular". Many years before I also had an elderly family member who roomed with a woman who literally wrote books on the history of quilting in the area where my relative lived (she was in her 80s when we met). Her quilts were magnificent, to the point where she had become a well-respected teacher/artist. I am no quilter, but I did take sewing in high school and I remember that our grade depended on how well we could lay down a stitch (and the overall construction of our garments). I received a high grade in that class even though I felt as if I were in completely over my head! So when the last Louis Vuitton SA I dealt with said that a series of very obvious puckers on the side of a speedy I was viewing in the boutique were "normal", I remembered how my high school home economics teacher would have downgraded my assignments if I turned them in looking as if they were made in the same hurried way.
As for a final reason why I know the handmade line is bogus? As somewhat of an artist/crafter in my own right, I have been commissioned to create, among other things, hand-painted wedding gifts. I am certain that if my "handmade" work were nearly as "natural" (sloppy) as the speedy bags I have been attempting to purchase that I would not have happy clients. And I do not think I am alone in the devil-is-in-the-details department, either: I have a circle of friends and family to include those who have designed everything from prestigious wine labels to major automotive Web sites, to popular soft drink logos. In fact, in college I had a professor who, during our "critiques" after design projects were handed in would point to the wall of student work and point out anything that was off-center by as little as 1/8" (without using a ruler). For all of the above reasons, I am aware that genuine craftsmen and women earn their respect not because their handmade products are amateurish in appearance but for the opposite reason: exceptional care and skill.
The fact that one can look around a LV boutique and find alternative lines/styles which seemingly are less "irregular" in appearance than many of the classic monogram speedys I have personally seen is telling in and of itself. Perhaps LV thinks of the classic monogram speedy as an "entry-level product" that does not warrant the same level of attention (labor hours/staffing) that they put into their more costly lines? Either way, it doesn't take a Harvard professor of management, marketing, public relations or organizational psychology to confirm that when a company imparts a poor first impression, it is likely to lose disappointed clients to the competition (but not before they tell an average of seven people). Under the circumstances, how many repeat customers, wealthy or otherwise, has LV lost over the years due to the poor service philosophy with which they indoctrinate their employees?
I apologize if I've overstated my case. I write only because I do not believe those of us who have experienced problems which thankfully isn't everyone should put up with rude service or disrespectful deny-what-is-staring-you-in-your-face excuses from SAs. If any of us bought one shoe and it was noticeably larger than the other, or one heel was higher than the other, few of us would want to wear it, but with LV it is my experience that they expect customers who are shelling out a premium for a luxury product NOT to pay attention to detail because it is, after all, "handmade".
None of this is to say that I would completely write off LV, however. Overall, I believe Louis Vuitton makes many quality products just not, at the moment, the specific style/monogram that I am interested in.
My hope in contributing to this subject is that those of us who have experienced a rude awakening will not put ourselves down for being "perfectionists" or "nit pickers". Being observant, discerning in your tastes, expecting to get what you pay for nobody should ever talk you out of being YOU (or turning a blind eye as it were). Genuine handcrafted items are made with pride by people who care about what they are doing. By contrast, LV's use of the word "handmade" is NOT spoken in the context of a compliment but as a deflection that is intended to pressure customers to ignore their gut feelings and look the other way. Most of us wouldn't grow to accept this anywhere else buying a new car with a warped hood, say yet LV seemingly counts on the power of their brand and the attraction of their image to serve as the be-all, end-all to all questions/concerns (one must "learn" that this is "normal"). Nowhere else in the designer market is one specifically pressured to adopt "lowered expectations" except in the world of LV (at least with respect to the classic monogram speedys, which are my point of reference).
In closing, perhaps it would be a good idea to start a poll that tallies how many LV owners have done an exchange or noticed workmanship issues. The purpose would be to chart the defective/problem results according to individual style and the country-of-origin (and perhaps even according to date of manufacture).
Quality/Longevity PART II
To recap, I personally take issue with the scripted excuses that boutique employees are widely known to make to discourage customers from lingering too long in the selection process. One SA, for example, told me that they were not really supposed to allow customers to compare bags! Another SA repeatedly, loudly and impatiently cleared her throat less than three minutes after bringing out the first bag. Others hover over your shoulder or pass you off to other SAs in attempt to non-verbally urge you to move along (even if no one else is awaiting help). Case-in-point: When I returned to exchange my speedy 25 that had an incorrect speedy 30 imprint under the leather leaf, the SA less than five minutes later said he had to take a lunch break. The thing was, my fiancé had called to find out when he would be on duty that day and we had arrived only 15 minutes after his 3 p.m. shift started lunch? I doubt it! More commonly, however, SAs simply say in response to all questions that the bags are "handmade".
As someone who worked in handbag sales and repair for five years as a student, I cannot completely buy into the "handmade" euphemism LV staff are apparently trained to provide for puckered seams, severely eclipsed piping segments (particularly along corners), flaking handle edges, lopsided tab placement, etc. There's a vast difference between what is normal (because a bag is unstructured/soft), and what is irregular, damaged or defective. Few of us, I imagine, would wear a "designer" shirt with a puckered seam perched on our shoulder yet LV employees want us to believe that when we see a manufacturing flaw that it is "natural". One SA even told my fiancé that a angular blackish-brown scuff mark on the piping, not unlike a scuff you might see on your shoe, was a natural leather characteristic! Such observations are only natural in the sense that the demand is so high for some of these styles that they are cranking them out without, apparently, due quality control (as of this writing and my own personal observations, anyhow).
What would be a legitimate example of handmade vs. defective but perhaps no less welcome depending on the buyer would be differences in the pattern placement/alignment. I also noted a number of pattern shifts between speedy 25s, and while one could make the case that the pattern being off center makes the bag "irregular" it does not meet the "defective" definition in my book.
But there's a bigger point to my story: In truth, most handbags are handmade to some extent even no-name and store-brand bags. If LV did not use mass production methods there would be a US waiting list of ~55,000+ people lasting months or even years for each handbag style to be made entirely on manpower alone. Instead, LV uses modern technology to churn out sufficient quantities of handbags to keep their growing list of US boutiques fully stocked.
Likewise, in auto manufacturing robotic machines do just about everything such that nobody would call a car "handmade" even though it requires many hands to run the assembly line. Yet by LV's definition of the word, any company, from Wal-Mart to Saks could discourage all customer returns/exchanges/comparisons on the basis that items are handmade. So this whole idea that handmade is synonymous with "irregular" or "defective" is, IMHO, an insult to skilled craftsmen and women everywhere.
Recently my mom celebrated her birthday, and to celebrate my sisters and I commissioned a custom quilt for her bed. This quilt was "handmade" in the genuine sense of the word, and yet not a stitch was out of line, puckered or "irregular". Many years before I also had an elderly family member who roomed with a woman who literally wrote books on the history of quilting in the area where my relative lived (she was in her 80s when we met). Her quilts were magnificent, to the point where she had become a well-respected teacher/artist. I am no quilter, but I did take sewing in high school and I remember that our grade depended on how well we could lay down a stitch (and the overall construction of our garments). I received a high grade in that class even though I felt as if I were in completely over my head! So when the last Louis Vuitton SA I dealt with said that a series of very obvious puckers on the side of a speedy I was viewing in the boutique were "normal", I remembered how my high school home economics teacher would have downgraded my assignments if I turned them in looking as if they were made in the same hurried way.
As for a final reason why I know the handmade line is bogus? As somewhat of an artist/crafter in my own right, I have been commissioned to create, among other things, hand-painted wedding gifts. I am certain that if my "handmade" work were nearly as "natural" (sloppy) as the speedy bags I have been attempting to purchase that I would not have happy clients. And I do not think I am alone in the devil-is-in-the-details department, either: I have a circle of friends and family to include those who have designed everything from prestigious wine labels to major automotive Web sites, to popular soft drink logos. In fact, in college I had a professor who, during our "critiques" after design projects were handed in would point to the wall of student work and point out anything that was off-center by as little as 1/8" (without using a ruler). For all of the above reasons, I am aware that genuine craftsmen and women earn their respect not because their handmade products are amateurish in appearance but for the opposite reason: exceptional care and skill.
The fact that one can look around a LV boutique and find alternative lines/styles which seemingly are less "irregular" in appearance than many of the classic monogram speedys I have personally seen is telling in and of itself. Perhaps LV thinks of the classic monogram speedy as an "entry-level product" that does not warrant the same level of attention (labor hours/staffing) that they put into their more costly lines? Either way, it doesn't take a Harvard professor of management, marketing, public relations or organizational psychology to confirm that when a company imparts a poor first impression, it is likely to lose disappointed clients to the competition (but not before they tell an average of seven people). Under the circumstances, how many repeat customers, wealthy or otherwise, has LV lost over the years due to the poor service philosophy with which they indoctrinate their employees?
I apologize if I've overstated my case. I write only because I do not believe those of us who have experienced problems which thankfully isn't everyone should put up with rude service or disrespectful deny-what-is-staring-you-in-your-face excuses from SAs. If any of us bought one shoe and it was noticeably larger than the other, or one heel was higher than the other, few of us would want to wear it, but with LV it is my experience that they expect customers who are shelling out a premium for a luxury product NOT to pay attention to detail because it is, after all, "handmade".
None of this is to say that I would completely write off LV, however. Overall, I believe Louis Vuitton makes many quality products just not, at the moment, the specific style/monogram that I am interested in.
My hope in contributing to this subject is that those of us who have experienced a rude awakening will not put ourselves down for being "perfectionists" or "nit pickers". Being observant, discerning in your tastes, expecting to get what you pay for nobody should ever talk you out of being YOU (or turning a blind eye as it were). Genuine handcrafted items are made with pride by people who care about what they are doing. By contrast, LV's use of the word "handmade" is NOT spoken in the context of a compliment but as a deflection that is intended to pressure customers to ignore their gut feelings and look the other way. Most of us wouldn't grow to accept this anywhere else buying a new car with a warped hood, say yet LV seemingly counts on the power of their brand and the attraction of their image to serve as the be-all, end-all to all questions/concerns (one must "learn" that this is "normal"). Nowhere else in the designer market is one specifically pressured to adopt "lowered expectations" except in the world of LV (at least with respect to the classic monogram speedys, which are my point of reference).
In closing, perhaps it would be a good idea to start a poll that tallies how many LV owners have done an exchange or noticed workmanship issues. The purpose would be to chart the defective/problem results according to individual style and the country-of-origin (and perhaps even according to date of manufacture).
nothing is perfect and last forever. but LV (and other branded goods) in my experience should be able to last you at least few years under normal use of course.
if you abuse your wallets/bags (eg. overloading your wallets with hundreds of cards), then they won't last long.
a friend of mine accidentally left his monogram wallet inside a washing machine, and it is still in excellent condition afterwards. lol.
just use your stuff and take care of them, you should be OK.
if you abuse your wallets/bags (eg. overloading your wallets with hundreds of cards), then they won't last long.
a friend of mine accidentally left his monogram wallet inside a washing machine, and it is still in excellent condition afterwards. lol.
just use your stuff and take care of them, you should be OK.
P.S. While it might seem like I am one of those "problem customers", the reality is that I almost never return or exchange anything, and only on one other occasion in my entire life can I even remember exchanging the same item more than twice. So despite what may seem to be a perfectionists slant of the type that might be expected to return a lot of products for nit picky reasons, I am genuinely in shock that my LV shopping/buying experience has played out like it has. Again, please forgive the rant. I rest my case, LOL.
what do you think of the quality of the lv handbags? i guess it's good but i've heard some bad expieriences. and imo there shouldn't be anything wrong beacause they cost so much... but i'd just love to hear your opinion. if you have bags from other brands you can compare your lv bags to them. i've wanted a lv bag for a long time but i'm not sure anymore. i've just read things which aren't so nice... and if anyone has info about the same thing with hermes you could tell your opinion too.
thank you!!
i'm sorry about my bad english.
I think the quality is good. Good craftmenship and they hold up well.
Lynnd, I get some of what you're saying. I think maybe lv does give more attention to detail on the more expensive bags in their collections. I still love my lv. We just need to make sure we are happy with our purchases. Living with a bag you paid hundreds and thousands of dollars for that is flawed is a shame, but only if it bothers you that much. I know some SA's are not nearly as obsessed about lv as we are. Some of them are just sales people doing a job in retail. But when you find the right SA, finding the right bag that is perfect is a lot easier.
Unfortuately, this is a known defect in Multicolore. LV is aware of it and shouldn't give you ANY problems with requesting a new piece.
Take it back, LV will replace it with the same wallet or give you a choice of another wallet. I had a problem with the accordeon wallet and this is what theu did for me.