Odd leather smell

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#2,642
cheekflicks said:
Hi Ladies, so glad I managed to chance upon this thread and will like to seek your advice. I bought my first birkin (Orange Togo) in May from a reseller but didn't have a chance to take it out during this period of time. Periodically, I would take it out of the box to admire and would smell something slightly off. I will emphasize that it is a distinct smell but not very strong. I have other H bags but they were all in Clemence so initially I thought it could be due to the leather being Togo.

After chancing upon this thread, I was slightly alarmed and so decided to carry out the sun test (easy for me, I am based in forever hot Singapore!) and left the bag in the car for a whole morning. When I got back to the car, the whole car smelled exactly like the bag! I quickly stuffed the bag back into its dustbag and the smell in the car was gone in around 5 minutes. When I got home, I opened up the dustbag again and smelled the bag. The smell was still there but it didn't exactly got any stronger than before the sun test.

My dilemmas are as such:
1) As I purchased the bag from a reseller (I have the original receipt from George V with the prices cancelled out), will I encounter any issues if I approach my local H stores in SG asking for a refund to my own credit card/in cash? I understand that H stores typically issue store credit and for refunds it is usually to the original credit card it was charged on which was the reseller's.

2) Do any SG TPF members know if the local H stores are familiar with the skunk issue and their response so far to customers with this issue? I am not a frequent customer at our local stores and am rather apprehensive with regards to the attitude of the staff if I bring the bag in.

3) Personally, I can still tolerate the smell as I don't think it is very strong for my bag and do not think that I will be bringing it out under the sun very often. If I do encounter a lot of problems with the H stores trying to refund the bag, will you ladies advise that I keep the bag instead?

Many thanks and sorry for the very longwinded post!
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I had this dilemma as well when I first detect the weird smell. The smell will intensify with use and over time. Mine was not strong at first but as times goes, the smell do get stronger even if you may not use it often under sun. For my case, they send it back to Paris to evaluate and see how best to resolve the issue. I asked for a replacement as I got the bag from local sg store. They seems ok and helpful on getting this resolved when I approached them and asked them politely on my bag smell issue. I'm not sure how they will resolved this if it is not purchased under your name though. Hope this may help.
 
#2,643
cuppy said:
I had this dilemma as well when I first detect the weird smell. The smell will intensify with use and over time. Mine was not strong at first but as times goes, the smell do get stronger even if you may not use it often under sun. For my case, they send it back to Paris to evaluate and see how best to resolve the issue. I asked for a replacement as I got the bag from local sg store. They seems ok and helpful on getting this resolved when I approached them and asked them politely on my bag smell issue. I'm not sure how they will resolved this if it is not purchased under your name though. Hope this may help.
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Thanks for the advice! It's great to know that the local stores are aware of this issue, will definitely feel more at ease if I bring the bag in. Thanks again. :)
 
#2,644
Israeli_Flava said:
The heat intensifies the smell once the smell is activated. After the bag cools down again, the smell can go away, as in, you can't smell it anymore until the next time it is in the sun. With my bag, once it cooled down, you could no longer smell anything except leather (and slight weird chemical).... but once the sunshine was on the leather- STINK BOMB all over again!! It was very distressing and depressing.
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Same thing here. Exactly.

And mine was purchased in the US.
 
#2,647
chkpfbeliever said:
Panthere - Congrats on getting your bag so quickly ! What a nice bonus of getting a scarf. I think that it is not accidental but rather to apologize for the trouble. I hope they do it to everyone that is waiting for a replacement bag. Do you know if the bag was shipped out from Paris or your locat store ?
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VigeeLeBrun said:
panthere, so glad that you received your replacement bag so quickly and you are happy with it. Let us know the test results and good luck with it.
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MYH said:
Hi Panthere55. It looks like replacements are finally rolling in for some of us. Good news.

I also did the sun test this morning and it seems fine. The sun wasn't that strong today but all I could smell was a "hot leather" smell. I hope this is the end of the saga for me. Good luck to everyone else too.
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Kitty S. said:
Congrats on the replacement! 🎈Good luck with sun test!



So true, they should give each of us an apology gift for all the troubles! 😄



Hope it holds up! Good luck!
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Thank you guys! Scarf however was not a gift! I called my SA and after looking into it someone accidently stuck the scarf in my box while packing up my new baby.
 
#2,650
VigeeLeBrun said:
The only time that I have heard H actually give anything away is through a franchise SM in Switzerland unfortunately!

Now back to topic!
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I was given an orange umbrella several years ago by my SM: I went in with my DD and it was pouring with rain, we had a big umbrella between us, but the SM insisted we take another one! So I got an H orange umbrella for free! Mind you with all I've spent there, it's as if I'd bought it, even several times over, lol!
 
#2,652
duna said:
I was given an orange umbrella several years ago by my SM: I went in with my DD and it was pouring with rain, we had a big umbrella between us, but the SM insisted we take another one! So I got an H orange umbrella for free! Mind you with all I've spent there, it's as if I'd bought it, even several times over, lol!
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Lucky you, duna! :hugs:
 
#2,653
cuppy said:
I had this dilemma as well when I first detect the weird smell. The smell will intensify with use and over time. Mine was not strong at first but as times goes, the smell do get stronger even if you may not use it often under sun. For my case, they send it back to Paris to evaluate and see how best to resolve the issue. I asked for a replacement as I got the bag from local sg store. They seems ok and helpful on getting this resolved when I approached them and asked them politely on my bag smell issue. I'm not sure how they will resolved this if it is not purchased under your name though. Hope this may help.
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Hi Cuppy,


Thank you so much for the advice. It is a great relief to know that they are polite and helpful in getting this resolved!
 
#2,654
MsHermesAU said:
Oh no! Are they making you return it? What an awkward mistake on their part :amazed:
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perlerare said:
And of course they immediately said they are more than happy to have you keep it.;)
They did not ????:wtf:
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I wish it was a gift! Oh well :-) Glad to report I took out my replacement b on a pretty sunny day and had her sit in the sun and so far she smells just like leather!!!! So happy!
 
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