You can take your new bag to your local LV store and they will give you credit for the US price. For example, if you bought Pochette Matis in Paris, your price will be 1804 euros after VAT back. The exact same bag in US is sold for $2570. Your US local store will give you $2570 credit towards a new bag. It's a bit of arbitrage although I'm sure if you do it a lot, LV will catch on and ban you. If you do it once in awhile, I doubt they care.The exchange should be fine. The item is valued in the local currency with applicable local taxes. Don’t worry about the VAT. That is over and done with as you are not bringing the item back to France. The item is now considered landed and local thus will be treated as such in any local store for exchange purposes in your store.