Hello everyone! Been away for quite a while as life has taken over my H obsessions. I am here again because I want to give a warning on a resale shop and to possibly get some advice. WARNING: LONG!
I, in general, don't sell my bags on because I buy to keep but I have/had a 28cm blue jean Kelly bag given to me when my son, now 17, was born and a Medor clutch both which get no use. In fact, I seem to remember starting a thread here about the Kelly bag when I received it - gosh time flies! I didn't use it because it was small for my daily needs and for about a decade I only used 35cm birkins or crossbodies.
I gave the bag to my mother to use and forgot about it until this past October when my mother gave the bag back to me and said she really was not using the bag and perhaps I wanted it back. I knew that I would not use it because the colour and thought why keep in when I could sell it and use the funds to put toward something I would use. I am uncomfortable selling on eBay and did not want to mail the bag anywhere so looked locally to sell it. I live in London and knew of a shop in Chelsea which has been around for many decades and seemed to have a good reputation called Sign of The Times.
I will truncate the story because there are quite a few tos and fros and say I dropped the bags off in person and they confirmed the bags were in excellent condition and they bought the Kelly in particular would fly out of the shop. The bags needed to be sent to the head office for assessment and I would hear back. I heard back after a week and a half and they said they would not be able to sell the bags - I thought odd, but perhaps because the bags were too old for their parameters despite their conditions. I was told a date after which I would pick the bags back up in the shop. I went. The bags could not be located. Phone calls made, the bags were apparently at the warehouse and I needed to contact the head office to give my home address and they would be couriered. I called, they then said the bags were definitely in the shop and I needed to go back to the shop. I went back to the shop. Bags not there. I emailed one again, the person said she would personally go the shop and look. I called next day - bags not found. They said they would compensate me and to email the receipts for the bag. I did so. this was in the second week of December and despite initially saying I would be paid at the end of the week, I was told that I would not be compensated until January 10 due to the holidays.
New Year. I emailed to remind them of this and to comfirm that payment would be made on the 10th. Yes, yes. I emailed on the 9th. Now they say the person who originally handled the case was back from ??? and was looking for the bags. Give them until end of day Monday to locate the bags, If not found I would be compensated. I emailed Tuesday to get an update. No response. I called and left a message. No callback. It is now Wednesday and after a further unresponded-to email and 2 calls straight to voicemail, I am panicking. How could this happen and what do you ladies recommend? Going to the shop is not the answer as they would just fob me off the call head office. I don't know where this office is except that it is in Battersea.
In any event, do not trust the Sign of the Times in Chelsea (and online internationally).
