LV won't repair my vintage Papillon - Help!

HeatherMarie18

HeatherMarie18

Speedy Crazy
Mar 27, 2006
289
6
#1
I recently purchased a vintage papillon on ebay, and I do not doubt the authenticity of the bag. It has treated leather straps (not cross-grain), and an old "eclair" zipper with a leather pull-tab:

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I brought the bag to LV (Boston) to have the zipper replaced because it was separating from the bag. They just called me back claiming that they can't fix it because the previous owner had the zipper replaced elsewhere (she told me that the eclair zipper is not one of theirs).

I am 99.99999% sure that LV used eclair zippers (as well as talon zippers) on their vintage/French Company bags. I think that the people at my LV don't know the history of French Company bags very well, and just assume that my Papillon is an authentic vintage bag with a non-LV zipper.

I really want to get my zipper fixed, and I don't want to take it elsewhere because then LV REALLY will never touch my bag again! Any suggestions/advice???
 
#3
Call 1866 and ask them about the eclair zippers. I would suggest not telling them about the Boston store's assessment of your item. See what they say and if their are no problems then ask them to talk to the Boston store for you. GoodLVck!
 
#5
LV won't fix French Company items. They stopped doing it a couple of years back. The French Company was fixing them for a while, but now even they don't do it. You might be out of luck with this one.
 
#6
That's correct - the French Company is under new management as of a few years ago and they are no longer repairing them anymore. Sorry. I think the only thing you might be able to do at this point is to take it to a leather repair shop and see if they can put a new zipper in it. Might be worthwhile to try to sell it as is and put the money to a new one, or a new pre-loved one.
 
#7
I have also heard that the French company used Eclair zippers on the vintage bags at one time!

As a previous poster suggested try another LV store, or the information line!!

I have learned that many SA's are not very well versed on their facts!!
 
#9
I just called 866 and spoke with a very nice girl who said she'd speak directly to their repair department and get back to me... It's a shame that they won't repair the French Company items - I guess I might be stuck!
 
#11
As far as I know LV still fixes the French Co. things. I have had a couple of zips replaced very recently. I took them into my local boutique here in Canada and they sent them to the San Dimas factory in California for repair. If your boutique says that they cannot fix it, then insist that they send it off to San Dimas anyway for evaluation.
Sometimes they won't replace a zip if the canvas around the zip area is cracked.
They can be funny though, sometimes they will repair something and other times they have given me 'lame' or very vaugue excuses and refused. I still haven't quite figured out the LV repair dept yet.
 
#13
It sounds like the SA is qouting only what the repair factory has told her. How long was it from when you dropped it off to when they called you back with this information? This is what it sounds like to me, the factory may be quoting this and if this is the case, no matter which LV boutique you go to, they will be told the same thing. Just from reading your post, it really sounds like the factory has already seen it! You can get great deals on the vintage papillons on Ebay, actually probably close to what you would have paid LV to repair this one. I own the cross-grain leather papillon 30. I use to own the 26 and sold that on Ebay, it was mint , so you could get lucky and find a mint vintage one for a great deal!
 
#15
That is BS... for the money we are spending you would think that the SA's would know the history!

I am 1000000000000% sure that Eclair and Talon were both used on French Co. bags... I thought it was common knowledge... guess not
 
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