Polène handbags

[WillWordForBags]

I was gonna say this many times before. Even though I enjoy the aesthetics of the design on their bag, I think I’m pretty much done with them because of their customer service.

Sure, their bag is at a good price point, but it is definitely NOT CHEAP. ~$300-400 bag is still a lot for many people.

I own 6 of their bags right now (with one more coming from the pre-order) and sometimes found issues here and there. For any irregularities/quality issue I brought up with them, they never seemed to admit that it’s their fault. They would only say it’s normal, and assure that their bag is made with quality and that this presented irregularity is because it’s handmade so it’s not a defect blah blah. I can expect that in almost any emails they respond.

Every time, it took so long for them to respond to my emails. That amount of time they took is almost the same as the return window. I try to understand when they said they have a lot of requests so the response is delayed but please, you can’t be this delayed when you only give such short period of time for customer to proceed with the return. Like if you do not have enough people to handle all the emails/requests/complaints, then you should hire more.

Meanwhile, amid all these delayed responses, they seem to be VERY quick/active/responsive with influencers. This is starting to make me feel like they don’t really care about the actual customers — making it hard for me to further support their products.

You make great points.
They will need to greatly improve their service or their brand will suffer in the long run.

Repeat business is the most important kind for any business and if they’re treating us like this (after so many purchases), we will surely take our hard earned money (I agree that $300-$500 is not cheap by any standard) elsewhere.

We are their biggest fans and they’re not providing the after-sale care we deserve.

 

[hjia4]

Thank you for your input everyone I appreciate it! It makes me so sad because I really love the design of their bags & still want more bags from them but i'm thinking it might be good to wait a bit. I started looking into Polene because of the reasonable price point for the quality as i've read that a lot of luxury brands are declining in quality as well.

So odd that they are calling this a 'small scratch'. That's definite peeling. I would respond one more time and reiterate that, and demand a proper resolution. Did you use a credit card to pay? Can you dispute the charge if necessary? This very much falls under faulty product. Mention that to them, if it's applicable to your situation.

Lesson learned haha I used a debit card so no charge back option for me

As you guys have suggested, I'll definitely reply back to their email & try IG as well. Will update if anything happens!

 

[cinnabams]

I was gonna say this many times before. Even though I enjoy the aesthetics of the design on their bag, I think I’m pretty much done with them because of their customer service.

Sure, their bag is at a good price point, but it is definitely NOT CHEAP. ~$300-400 bag is still a lot for many people.

I own 6 of their bags right now (with one more coming from the pre-order) and sometimes found issues here and there. For any irregularities/quality issue I brought up with them, they never seemed to admit that it’s their fault. They would only say it’s normal, and assure that their bag is made with quality and that this presented irregularity is because it’s handmade so it’s not a defect blah blah. I can expect that in almost any emails they respond.

Every time, it took so long for them to respond to my emails. That amount of time they took is almost the same as the return window. I try to understand when they said they have a lot of requests so the response is delayed but please, you can’t be this delayed when you only give such short period of time for customer to proceed with the return. Like if you do not have enough people to handle all the emails/requests/complaints, then you should hire more.

Meanwhile, amid all these delayed responses, they seem to be VERY quick/active/responsive with influencers. This is starting to make me feel like they don’t really care about the actual customers — making it hard for me to further support their products.

I am done with them too. I had the numero un nano which arrived perfect. Then recently I got the numero neuf mini and realized that the folds are noticeably asymmetrical. I emailed them twice and it's been almost 2 weeks and no reply yet.

 

[phanilla]

Omg, you all brought up interesting points about their customer service- especially after bags were sold to customers. I read all of the comments about late reply issue from them on Instagram and could feel the frustration. I also have mixed feeling with the brand these months, not sure because it's getting more popular now though. (1) I signed up for a notification of an out of stock product and never receive a single email about it. How funny it was that when I added an item in my cart, the system emailed me 3 times in one morning to remind me "Complete your Purchase". (2) The item they said they would never restock suddenly appeared again . It's a good thing for some of us lol, but I feel like their first response of not restocking that model could make the customer settle for another one. Literally 2 weeks before Polene made the Mini Huit Fresh Almond available again online, their reply on Instagram was still "out of stock and will unfortunately not be restocked."

Regarding to issue with the bag, you can also write a review for them with pictures on Google review (the store location), besides email and notify them on Instagram. Their responses on Google, I guess, are similar to what they would respond to customers' complains email. Also, you could read some bad reviews on Google (besides TrustPilot). Not sure if the customer service will be better when they open the store in the States and Japan-- I am "really" looking forward to it

 

[dearbag]

I am done with them too. I had the numero un nano which arrived perfect. Then recently I got the numero neuf mini and realized that the folds are noticeably asymmetrical. I emailed them twice and it's been almost 2 weeks and no reply yet.

I can almost predict their response. I used to email them about the asymmetrical fold on my neuf mini as well and they got back to me it’s normal — not a defect. The second time, I noticed some asymmetrical sew on my huit mini, emailed them and again they got back with the same response — normal, not a defect. They said that their handbags are handmade so some may present irregularity. had I known these irregularities are this common and random, I wouldn’t have ordered it.

 

[dearbag]

Omg, you all brought up interesting points about their customer service- especially after bags were sold to customers. I read all of the comments about late reply issue from them on Instagram and could feel the frustration. I also have mixed feeling with the brand these months, not sure because it's getting more popular now though. (1) I signed up for a notification of an out of stock product and never receive a single email about it. How funny it was that when I added an item in my cart, the system emailed me 3 times in one morning to remind me "Complete your Purchase". (2) The item they said they would never restock suddenly appeared again . It's a good thing for some of us lol, but I feel like their first response of not restocking that model could make the customer settle for another one. Literally 2 weeks before Polene made the Mini Huit Fresh Almond available again online, their reply on Instagram was still "out of stock and will unfortunately not be restocked."

Regarding to issue with the bag, you can also write a review for them with pictures on Google review (the store location), besides email and notify them on Instagram. Their responses on Google, I guess, are similar to what they would respond to customers' complains email. Also, you could read some bad reviews on Google (besides TrustPilot). Not sure if the customer service will be better when they open the store in the States and Japan-- I am "really" looking forward to it

Great great point right here about their restocking what they said they would not restock!!!

After asking them about their possibility of restocking the huit mini in Fresh Almond months ago, and their response to me was never, I also set a notification email in case it ever comes back. After a long wait, I saw many people asking the same question on their instagram and they kept saying they’re not gonna restock it. All this made me settle for the color I like less because I didn’t wanna wait in vain for something that the company said itself would not happen. Then two weeks later after I ordered my mini huit in the other color, the fresh almond just come back in stock out of the blue. I was like what? Part of me I was happy the color I’d been waiting for is back in stock but I was also very upset because I already settled for what I would not get had Polene told me otherwise. It is so not professional of them.

I bit my tongue to get the fresh almond anyway just because I’d been waiting for it, although I feel very stupid because I now have two huit minis with this problem to sell one. I guess I might not be the only one person who ended up getting more items than necessary because they said they would not restock some of their items? I now wonder if they’re doing this (not honest about their inventory) on purpose just to boost their sales. After so many bags with them, this together with all those not-helping responses to complaints are such a disservice to customers that makes me no longer want to support their business.

 

[poleneinblack]

Someone shared their burgundy Huit! This color is definitely unexpected.

 

[cinnabams]

I can almost predict their response. I used to email them about the asymmetrical fold on my neuf mini as well and they got back to me it’s normal — not a defect. The second time, I noticed some asymmetrical sew on my huit mini, emailed them and again they got back with the same response — normal, not a defect. They said that their handbags are handmade so some may present irregularity. had I known these irregularities are this common and random, I wouldn’t have ordered it.

Exactly. All the pics of the neuf mini on their website and IG posts are symmetrical. If this is handmade and the asymmetry is normal, then they should've put that warning in the product description. I ordered the bag expecting it to look exactly like what they advertised. I am so done with them. How can they be a good brand like this?

Great great point right here about their restocking what they said they would not restock!!!

After asking them about their possibility of restocking the huit mini in Fresh Almond months ago, and their response to me was never, I also set a notification email in case it ever comes back. After a long wait, I saw many people asked the same question on their instagram and they kept saying they’re not gonna restock it. All this made me settle for the color I like less because I didn’t wanna wait in vain for something that the company said itself would not happen. Then two weeks later after I ordered my mini huit, the fresh almond just come back in stock out of the blue. I was like what? Part of me I was happy the color I’d been waiting is back in stock but I was also very upset because I already settled for what I would not get had Polene told me otherwise. It is not professional.

Could be they did that so that maybe you would buy it again in the color you actually wanted.

After 2 weeks with no reply from Polene about the uneven folds on my Numero Neuf mini, I posted my complaints on their IG posts and they replied to my email a couple of hours later.

As I suspected, the denied that there's a quality issue with the purse and told me that I can fix it by shaping it manually.

I didn't drop $410 on a brand new purse to have to manually shape it so that it looks like what I should've got. Also, I did try to shape it. It didn't work.

Needless to say, this company is ****. Worst company I've ever bought from. Now I have to lose $20 for return shipping. Also they said I have to submit a separate return request. Who knows how long it'll take for them to actually give me the label.

Please don't purchase from Polene anymore. You shouldn't have to spend your hard earn money on something that is known to have quality issues. It's like a gamble everytime you purchase from them.

 

[WindN]

Someone shared their burgundy Huit! This color is definitely unexpected.

I must say the colour looks different from my burgundy huit mini in real life, the actual colour is difficult to capture in photos and the colour on photos is heavily influenced by the lighting…

 

[WillWordForBags]

Great great point right here about their restocking what they said they would not restock!!!

After asking them about their possibility of restocking the huit mini in Fresh Almond months ago, and their response to me was never, I also set a notification email in case it ever comes back. After a long wait, I saw many people asking the same question on their instagram and they kept saying they’re not gonna restock it. All this made me settle for the color I like less because I didn’t wanna wait in vain for something that the company said itself would not happen. Then two weeks later after I ordered my mini huit in the other color, the fresh almond just come back in stock out of the blue. I was like what? Part of me I was happy the color I’d been waiting for is back in stock but I was also very upset because I already settled for what I would not get had Polene told me otherwise. It is so not professional of them.

I bit my tongue to get the fresh almond anyway just because I’d been waiting for it, although I feel very stupid because I now have two huit minis with this problem to sell one. I guess I might not be the only one person who ended up getting more items than necessary because they said they would not restock some of their items? I now wonder if they’re doing this (not honest about their inventory) on purpose just to boost their sales. After so many bags with them, this together with all those not-helping responses to complaints are such a disservice to customers that makes me no longer want to support their business.

Agreed!
It saddens me because the bag designs are beautiful and the quality that they had been displaying thus far was impeccable and good enough to compete with the premier designer brands.
But these quality issues are worrisome and even more so is their negligence in terms of how they’re handling these issues.

We already know the alerts can’t be trusted but assuring us an item wouldn’t be restocked ever and then doing so is just rude.
Better to say that they “would do their best but cannot guarantee to restock.” That way we still stay on top of the site and not settle, like you mention.

I did the same. Bought a Mansur Gavriel Mini Mini Bucket in an apple green color as a consolation price. Fortunately, I had returned it the second I saw they had the iridescent on sale (had been wanting that bag forever), so when I heard about the Huit Mini in almond being back, I jumped.
But many, like you, are probably stuck with bags they didn’t prefer.

This, plus their apathetic responses is going to really take a toll on their reputation.
Hope someone from the Polene staff reads our feedback.
We are not powerless. We can make or break a brand and they should know that by now.

 

[WillWordForBags]

Someone shared their burgundy Huit! This color is definitely unexpected.

Welcome back, darling. We missed you.
I actually don’t love this color as pictured. Too dark, too cold.

 

[Love Of My Life]

Just pulled the trigger & ordered the Numero Neuf in taupe. For me, it will work well in
my everyday life. JMO, quite stylish, easy to wear & has a modern updated fresh look.
It's a neutral all year around bag
The inspiration of the pleats come from Madame Gres so I thought that was rather
interesting as these 2 sisters really did some good research before designing this collection
What I also like about this handbag is the name Polene is discreetly on the side of the bag

 

[bearygood22]

I can almost predict their response. I used to email them about the asymmetrical fold on my neuf mini as well and they got back to me it’s normal — not a defect. The second time, I noticed some asymmetrical sew on my huit mini, emailed them and again they got back with the same response — normal, not a defect. They said that their handbags are handmade so some may present irregularity. had I known these irregularities are this common and random, I wouldn’t have ordered it.

hi, is the “asymmetrical sew” on huit you are referring to what’s in the pictures above? If it is, it really is part of the bag design.

i am very sorry to hear of the multitude of problems you ladies are facing with customer service. buying a bag should be an enjoyable experience, and it shouldn’t end up with a fight with customer service. What a shame. I hope Polene bucks up, or people will start giving up on them.

 

[kitkat_08]

Yeah, it is a good reminder to always look at goods and ask "what am I paying for?" With Polene it feels like every cent is going somewhere worthwhile, and nothing is going to just having the brand name, the illusion of luxury, or clout/hype. It makes me happy to see reviews talk about how Polene's leather quality and dust bags are as good as the top-tier brands, and sometimes even better.

Really late to this conversation but I'm so glad somebody else also appreciates Polène's dust bags LOL, seems like such a small, silly thing to get excited about but they are SOOOO nice and plush!!!

 

[dearbag]

Exactly. All the pics of the neuf mini on their website and IG posts are symmetrical. If this is handmade and the asymmetry is normal, then they should've put that warning in the product description. I ordered the bag expecting it to look exactly like what they advertised. I am so done with them. How can they be a good brand like this?

Yes to all of this! Not to mention I think some of their photos on the website seem to be heavily lit/tone-adjusted that the actual color of the product looks VERY different in real life — some almost as if it’s not the same product. I really was not happy when I first received my two bags that are much much darker than in pictures and always wonder if this falls under a false advertisement category as well. It’s too far off from pictures I even thought they sent the wrong product.

Agreed!
It saddens me because the bag designs are beautiful and the quality that they had been displaying thus far was impeccable and good enough to compete with the premier designer brands.
But these quality issues are worrisome and even more so is their negligence in terms of how they’re handling these issues.

We already know the alerts can’t be trusted but assuring us an item wouldn’t be restocked ever and then doing so is just rude.
Better to say that they “would do their best but cannot guarantee to restock.” That way we still stay on top of the site and not settle, like you mention.

I did the same. Bought a Mansur Gavriel Mini Mini Bucket in an apple green color as a consolation price. Fortunately, I had returned it the second I saw they had the iridescent on sale (had been wanting that bag forever), so when I heard about the Huit Mini in almond being back, I jumped.
But many, like you, are probably stuck with bags they didn’t prefer.

This, plus their apathetic responses is going to really take a toll on their reputation.
Hope someone from the Polene staff reads our feedback.
We are not powerless. We can make or break a brand and they should know that by now.

I couldn’t have said it better myself!!! They could just say they’re not planning it at the moment but there may be a possibility in the future (like when I got this response from Celine Client Service — pic attached). It’s crazy how they’re handling things made me go from a big fan who kept buying and was willing to help advertise their products to my friends all these past months to this point of bye-I-think-I’m done level. It’s such a shame because they do have a potential to be a strong brand with their product design. Their negligence in a proper after-sales service and response to quality issues won’t do them any good.

By the way, you probably want to check your almond bag again. Because of all these quality issues brought up on this thread I just carefully inspected mine again and found some scuff. I haven’t used the bag at all except bringing it to the couch for picture so it’s coming from them like that. At this point I’m so tired I’m not sure if I should just ignore it or email them and wait another 2 weeks for the response that might not even help, lol. Hate to feel hopeless like this. I really hope yours is in perfect condition with absolutely zero issues!!!