Nordstrom sent me a fake pair of Valentinos!

abdoutots

O.G.
Apr 27, 2008
691
50
Hi ladies, after a lot of consideration I took the plunge and ordered a pair of the rockstud jelly sandals from Nordstrom. The box was delivered just a moment ago and the shoe box and dust bag looked fine but when I got to the sandals they were fakes! The style looked the same but the brand was Wild Diva and the back had a sticker "made in China". I called Nordstrom right away and they're sending me a new pair and they apologized but this incident left me feeling weary about my purchase. Valentino is not a brand I am familiar with and while these were a very obvious fake they still got past their QC, if it had been a better fake it would've probably fooled me too. I am keeping my fingers crossed that there are no issues with the replacement pair but again, I just feel scared about potentially getting a fake and not knowing it.
 
Does Nordstrom sell that brand, Wild Diva? What I mean is, was is it a staff member who just made a mistake and put the wrong shoes in the box, or did someone do a swap? Ordered a pair of expensive shoes, took them out of the box and put those Wild Diva shoes in, then returned the box, and the person who was supposed to check the returns didn't do their job?

I'm glad Nordstrom took care of this.

Ever since I learned about that major scam Loukpeach pulled a few years ago with superfakes, I never thought people who got their shoes and bags new from a reseller but weren't particularly familiar with the brand and got them authenticated were unreasonable. Better safe than sorry.
 
It doesn’t sound like they sent you a pair of fake Valentinos but they clearly sent you the wrong sandals. I’m glad Nordstroms is fixing this for you.

I think In The Ocean was correct, someone must have swapped the real pair for the fakes and returned them, the box then returned to their inventory and was sent to me. I already taped the box for return but it's this same shoe in the picture, a fake.

JOANIE-172-BLACK-2_720x.jpg
 
I think In The Ocean was correct, someone must have swapped the real pair for the fakes and returned them, the box then returned to their inventory and was sent to me. I already taped the box for return but it's this same shoe in the picture, a fake.

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So this is a real brand that makes inspired items and not fakes. Clearly someone at Nordstrom did something wrong.

On another note I was going to buy the Valentinos in red but NM was sold out of my size.
 
This happened to me a year or two ago (I even posted about it in here) - the man in the customer service department in-store accused me of trying to swap them, but the online return ended up ok. Now, I ALWAYS order ship to store and open it in front of an employee.

 
Kristen, just read your post and I am so sorry you went through that experience! This was my fear too, that they would think I swapped them, which of course I didn't. Definitely makes me hesitant about ordering online, much better to do so in person.
 
Department stores are limited in their ability to “authenticate” products. For example, if you return a designer brand to a Nordstrom location that does not sell designer brands (or that specific designer brand), the store has to return it to the warehouse, they aren’t allowed to sell it because they aren’t able to authenticate it. (Though of course this one seems quite ridiculous since it has a completely different brand name.) This is a rare occurrence, but obviously is a possibility as you unfortunately found out. If this is a big concern for you, I’d recommend only purchasing directly from the designer boutique. At least for your first color of a design. At least you’ll have a pair on-hand already to QC a new pair against additional pairs you purchase. But again, this is really pretty rare. Consider yourself struck by lightning in a manner of speaking.

And for additional peace of mind, it’s incredibly difficult to exactly replicate a designer shoe — yes there are replicas in the world, but almost none that are exact. And especially with replica shoes, the sizes are almost never the same. Chinese shoes tend to run at least one size smaller than European sizes. For example, I wear a size 38 in Valentino’s across the board (rockstud heels, booties, caged flats, even the sandals you posted here), and I own around 20 pairs. If I ever ordered a pair of Valentino shoes in size 38 and they were too small for me, that would be a huge red flag for me immediately.
 
FYI, designer returns to the NYC flagship store will require a designer specialist to assess the item before they are willing to accept it. This is at the customer service desk on ground floor of women's store.