OMG! I got the dreaded letter!

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#167
I just read through this entire thread and I must say I am sickened by the practice of giving these letters to customers. It is unethical of Coach to not at least send a "warning" letter before actually issuing the ban letter. And to add insult to injury, to present this letter to a customer in front of other customers, thereby humiliating the customer, is unspeakable. I think this could be considered defamatory. Shame on Coach.

OP I hope you will take this case to the next level. Make sure you mention that the sales assoc. presented this letter to you in the presence of other customers, thereby causing humiliation and emotional embarrassment (abuse) to you. I am so sorry you had to endure this abuse.
 
#168
^^Mostly what I heard is that they just try to tie the customer with the ebay account, but it's sellers they are worried about, not buyers. They have been successful in multiple cases. I know of one guy who was in CA, I think, and he used to drive from outlet to outlet, purchasing about $10k each time. He was easily caught and banned. In some cases, they have managed to make life very tough on Ebay...and sellers have gotten banned there too. From what I have been told, it's very ugly. I'm pretty sure I've bought from that guy that got banned...if it's the same one the person was talking about. Before I started shopping in the boutiques at all, I strictly limited my purchases to outlets, dept store sales, or (mostly) Ebay. Some of the sellers I used to watch their auctions no longer exist on Ebay. I've noticed that over time, but yet I still see some sellers that I think are probably dept store employees. I also know one person who got fired from Macys (don't know her personally, but I know a person that does know her). She was hiding stock to wait for sales, switching tags, and then putting the stuff up on Ebay for sale. I don't know the Ebay ID, but I guess that put her out of business when she was discovered!
 
#170
baglady39 said:
^^Mostly what I heard is that they just try to tie the customer with the ebay account, but it's sellers they are worried about, not buyers. They have been successful in multiple cases. I know of one guy who was in CA, I think, and he used to drive from outlet to outlet, purchasing about $10k each time. He was easily caught and banned. In some cases, they have managed to make life very tough on Ebay...and sellers have gotten banned there too. From what I have been told, it's very ugly. I'm pretty sure I've bought from that guy that got banned...if it's the same one the person was talking about. Before I started shopping in the boutiques at all, I strictly limited my purchases to outlets, dept store sales, or (mostly) Ebay. Some of the sellers I used to watch their auctions no longer exist on Ebay. I've noticed that over time, but yet I still see some sellers that I think are probably dept store employees. I also know one person who got fired from Macys (don't know her personally, but I know a person that does know her). She was hiding stock to wait for sales, switching tags, and then putting the stuff up on Ebay for sale. I don't know the Ebay ID, but I guess that put her out of business when she was discovered!
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Wow, I don't think I have to worry about this, lol! I could only wish I had that to spend on Coach in a year's time!
 
#171
^^^I also used to buy from one seller on EBay who always had the latest styles at significantly lower prices than the boutiques or department stores. That seller suddenly disappeared from EBay. I always wondered how these sellers obtained their items so quickly and could afford to sell them for less when they were current, just released styles. I figured they probably worked for Coach or for a department store, but that was just a guess on my part.

What feels abusive to me, is the fact that they presented the OP with the letter in the presence of other customers. The least they could have done was to take the customer to a private room and discuss the letter in privacy, thereby sparing her the humiliation that ensued. It would seem (I am guessing) as if this was the decision of the outlet manager. Extremely unethical in my opinion.
 
#172
you always THINK you know the whole story but you don't really unless you are that person. (too lazy to quote and delete but it's from baglady39 previous page)

and as for looking up records the store itself, does not have the ability to do so after a year and hardcopy is up to 30 days on computer, paperwork gets stored and at the end of every year they shred it to make room for next year. and every store has it's own records so if you didn't buy it there they can't look it up even if they wanted to go through all their paperwork--that's if there is any--cash transactions do not print out anything but the original receipt which you take. clienttrack and the usage of that is another story altogether

usually the paperwork gets dug up in case of a credit fraud and chargeback/inquiry by the credit card company on behalf of the individual..i believe a chargeback only can be done until x amount of time, varies between companies but a year suffices I think


edit-also the paperwork is simply the paper you sign which has the last four digit and your signature, nothing that is in danger of identity fraud
 
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#173
shalomnurse said:
^^^I also used to buy from one seller on EBay who always had the latest styles at significantly lower prices than the boutiques or department stores. That seller suddenly disappeared from EBay. I always wondered how these sellers obtained their items so quickly and could afford to sell them for less when they were current, just released styles. I figured they probably worked for Coach or for a department store, but that was just a guess on my part.

What feels abusive to me, is the fact that they presented the OP with the letter in the presence of other customers. The least they could have done was to take the customer to a private room and discuss the letter in privacy, thereby sparing her the humiliation that ensued. It would seem (I am guessing) as if this was the decision of the outlet manager. Extremely unethical in my opinion.
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Yeah, some of them do! There was a person that was posting auctions that worked at an outlet, and I think he/she got caught because that account is no longer active on Ebay. You are supposed to state that you are not affiliated with the company, but actually some employees pass the bags to their friends and get them to sell...that's collection pieces or ones they bought on ED, deletes, etc. A lot of the sellers are Macys or Nordies employees too, though. I once bought from a seller who offered me her dept store discount later as a customer. Periodically she would take a few customers with her on a shopping event during F&F. I guess they get double the discount...or used to, so then they would pick up stock to sell.

ITA...public humiliation is NEVER the right thing to do. I'm very appalled this happens at all too. Never should you be allowed to receive ANYTHING of this nature at the cash register. You're right...if there's a problem, take the customer over to the side and wait till you can privately tell them the problem. I know some customers get out of hand with regard to returns and such and create drama (seen that happen), and that's their own problem, but in this case there is no excuse because the customer is caught totally off guard. I guess in some cases, it may not be possible to send the letter to the address before the person finds out the hard way...just knowing how inaccurate their database is, and people do move, etc, but there is no excuse for this type of treatment EVER. This is why there have been petitions to boycott purchasing Coach products. Like I said, I was never in the place to shoot myself in the foot and not buy the products, and take a stand against something I really knew nothing about, but I would definitely never consider buying Coach from anywhere again if I got any sort of letter.

I didn't even think about other companies that do this. How is that handled?? I guess it must be done more professionally/tactfully since there's not much scuttlebutt about it...at least that I've seen?? I guess I've seen Target, Kohl's, and Brighton mentioned on here casually, but I'm not familiar with the process that other companies use.
 
#175
I had heard of these "ban letters" in the past, but had never heard of anyone being publicly humiliated before this thread. Frankly, it has now changed my perception of coach as a company regarding their ethics. I will still continue to buy from them and actually have started purchasing their stock, but I will carefully pick and choose which outlets I buy from. The manager of my local boutique is a wonderful person, and I doubt very much if she would ever publicy humiliate a customer. I live near two outlets, but have only returned items to one of them and was never asked to fill out any forms. The one outlet I go to the most has a very high turnover in staff, but there a few employees there that are not very helpful or friendly. I have actually witnessed them talking about customers in a very catty sort of way. It really turned me off, and because of that, I don't go there as much as I used to. I actually do most of my coach shopping online or at my boutique, but do enjoy a trip to the outlets every so often.

Like Ms-Whitney stated in her post - you never really know the whole exact truth unless you are the customer who is involved. But I can totally empathize with the OP regarding how this matter was handled and how awful it must have made her feel. I am glad she had the members of this forum to support her.
 
#176
^^There are some other threads here, if you do some digging, where people have discussed it or shared their experiences. For ex:

http://forum.purseblog.com/coach/being-banned-from-coach-stores-did-you-read-94772.html

http://forum.purseblog.com/coach/my-experience-with-the-letter-427946.html

http://forum.purseblog.com/coach/got-a-letter-from-coach-426003.html

http://forum.purseblog.com/coach/coach-declares-war-on-loyal-customers-editorial-article-246689.html

http://forum.purseblog.com/coach/coach-corp-stinks-15399.html

There are a few more, I think...but these are quick examples I pulled up.


I know the other forum I used to be on linked me to some outside sites, and that's were I learned most of this whole thing initially...forgot those links, but actually some of those links I bet are in one of those threads above too. I guess now that I've been here a while, and this is a Coach enthusiast board, a couple of cases were shared with me. It does surface periodically here for sure.
 
#178
wow the more I read the weirder it gets.. I have sold some bags I changed my mind about never used on evilbay and you would have to be dumb to use your real name as your ebay id so thats nothing to worry about... I have run into more problems when I have sold LV items I didn't use anymore.. because when I sell something I always find the lowest price on ebay and sell mine 20% lower so my BIN's go fast. well I was selling an LV item and I got a email from the biggest ebay seller of LV saying if I didin't raise my price she would contact ebay and have my item removed. and Yes she did I fought and won got my item relisted..I don't shop outlets too far for me so that letter will never head my way thankgoodness.
 
#179
^^ :wtf: WOW, I have heard of sabotage but not that. A friend of mine sold dolls, and she had heard (especially in antiques) of some competitors getting their buds to purchase the item, destroy it and then file a SNAD, so that neg feedback and a loss would be left and put the sellers out of business. It's a dirty world, but actually I have seen ebayers list the store of purchase. Sometimes with the name and that info, it's not that hard IMO to track down. Or getting the receipts with the purchaser's name. I've purchased many bags from the bay where a gift receipt was included. Easy to track if it gets in the wrong hands.
 
#180
Just adding a sad story that touched me personally here.

I had a personal shopper that used to buy my Coach stuff for me who I adored. There are only 2 outlets in Canada, and the closest one to me is a 6 hour drive. She lived about 1/2 an hour away it. I would call the outlet and see what they had in stock, then I would let her know what I wanted, and she'd go pick it up and send it to me and I would pay her 10% of the price for her gas, time, etc. Beautiful arrangement. She was also doing this for many of her other customers. She didn't only shop for Coach, she was a personal shopper and would hunt down items people didn't have the time to do themselves.

Well long story short, she also got the letter. She was so hurt and betrayed that she cried all weekend. The SA's at the outlet always treated her like gold, loved her little ones and used to chat to her husband. She used to make a whole weekend out of going to Coach with her family and truly loved the brand and the whole experience.

She was so crushed by this it broke my heart. I wanted to help her fight it by sending a letter to Coach and letting them know what a great service she was providing for many of us who are nowhere near an outlet. Canada is a huge country, and with only two outlets, this lady was doing a great service for Coach lovers.

But she was afraid that if I got involved they'd link me to her somehow and she was afraid that would end poorly for me, so she told me not to do anything.

But boy did that leave a bad taste in my mouth for Coach for awhile. It's s shame that their product is so awesome but their corporate policies are so awful.
 
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