COACH- consumer beware!
 

Well they say that when you are displeased by something that you tell 10 people. I'm going online to warn people.


I had a COACH purse damaged, so I sent it in (along with $20 bucks) stating the issue. COACH cashed my check and then sent my damaged purse and a letter that essentially states "we ain't fixing it" back to me.

When I called COACH they said that the purse was damaged by someone cutting it (which was not the case) so therefore it wasn't "their problem".

I am completely shocked by COACH. For such a huge company, and especially one that 'stands by their name', they are basically saying 'um your screwed'. When I expressed my distaste and how I'm now out $215.00 (yes that is how much I paid) the representative was like "so".

I have filed a complaint with the BBB but I highly doubt anything will happen.

If anything I intend to pass on for consumers to be wary of COACH, because obviously they do not stand by their products, except when it suits them.

Would you mind telling us what happened then?

I've never had any problems with the way they handle things or their customer service.

When you got your Coach, did you mail in the registration card with the purse's ID number that is stamped on the inside? I have a number of Coach bags and I always tried to remember to send in the registration card when I bought the purse. I've had to send in a few for zipper problems and the stitching falling apart and I never had a problem with customer service. But, then I made sure I sent in the registration card for the purse.

I am sorry you had that problem. I actually just had the opposite experience. I had the reversible tote. Well after a lot of use, the corners began to rip from wear. I sent it in and just received my credit letter.

Maybe it was because I registered my bag online?

I'm surprised too - I've had to send two bags for repairs, and both times it was handled well. Sorry it didn't hold true for you.

I'm surprised as well. Of all the companies I've ever had to deal with for repairs/replacements/etc., I would say Coach has been one of the best. I'm sorry they weren't as helpful to you.

I too was shocked. I sent my first Coach purse in in like September of 06. The leather was coming off of the purse. They said they couldn't fix it and that I would be given a credit to purchase a new purse.

What is even more weird is when I called today and talked to them, the guy was like "was someone trying to steal your purse" and I told him no. He then went on and on and on repeating that they wouldn't fix purses that looked like the owner had caused damage to them. Yeah because I wanted to purposefully destroy a $215 dollar purse :rolleyes:

Even better this is what their website states:


What is the Coach guarantee?
Coach does its best to make sure you'll be satisfied with every purchase. However, should any item fall short of your expectations, by all means return it to us unused upon receipt. Just enclose the form included with your order and we will send you a prompt refund or replacement, whichever you prefer.

Coach products are made to ensure satisfaction and service for the natural life of the product. If, during its lifetime, your item should require repair, we offer a repair service for many of our products. There is a shipping and handling charge of $20 (plus tax, where applicable) for each item submitted for repair.


Umm when did a repair mean something other than repair. Last time I check a strap breaking (whether accidental or "purposefully" (in their mind)) is still a repair?

I love how they have a frickin guarantee but it isn't applying to me right now. I'll call and complain tomorrow.

I have several COACH purses, but never got a number to "register." Two of them are looking pretty rough. This is a good thing to know, I had no idea!

I'm sorry this happened. My experience has great with them in terms of repairs.

I will say that their repair guarentee is for only "wear and tear" so if it does seem like the bags was purposely damage, they won't repair it. Sadly, there are people that will damage a bag on purpose just so they can get the credit for something new. GRRRR Those bad apples ruin it for everyone :(

Are you near a Coach store? I would take it in and have the sales associate look at it and resend it in for repair (most of the time they don't charge you the $20 shipping fee too). If not, Maybe it can be repaired through a local cobbler.

Good luck!

Oh yeah, there is no need to register your bags anymore (in fact, those cards no longer come with the bags anyways).

Do you all know if Coach's repair service covers stain removal? I don't have a stain per se on my bag. My bag is off-white and the bottom of it is looking a little dirty from setting it down on tables in restaurants or somewhere that's not 100% clean. I'd love to get that fixed!

And I never got a registration card with my bag either.

Sorry to hear about what happened to your bag! Many times, a reputable shoe/handbag repair shop will be to fix it.

ZTAngle-unfortunately no, coach doesn't clean bags.

I had a friend with one of their suede bags to took it to our local cleaners who she knew wouldn't mess it up. I think they were able to clean it a bit for her. You may want to check into that.

All authentic Coach bags have a serial number embossed inside the purse right under the creed. Some pouches (the really small purses) don't have them, but all other bags do.

Coach used to supply registration cards with their bags, but they haven't done that in awhile. You can, however, register your bags online.

Have you tried the Coach cleaner & moisturizer?

I've heard of a couple of people who were able to send their bag in b/c of color transfer issues, but not normal cleaning.

My bag has a cloth bottom rather than leather. Do you know if that cleaner will work on it? I guess I could just bring it into Coach and ask them but that requires me to drive over to crowded mall and I just don't have the patience for it. :)

ETA:

My bag is similar to this one except a few years older. In between those two leather things on the sides is the cloth material which extends to the bottom and has gotten all kinds of dirty through out the 3 years that I've owned the bag.

http://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/Coac...0_front?$main$

Coach does have a fabric cleaner now so call your local store to see if they have it.

Thanks for the info texas*princess. I will look into registering them. :D

Kind of OT, but a few sisters and I bought faux Coach bags while in Manhattan several years ago. They are excellent fakes, right down to the serial numbers. The next year, I was again in Manhattan for a conference, carrying a faux Chanel bag (from the same shopping trip), and got into a fascinating conversation with a buyer for Neiman's about how the fake purses are made. She said that on one of her trips to SE Asia, she toured a Chanel factory and learned that many of the good-quality fakes are made in the same factories as the 'real' bags, with the same material, by the same workers, but they are made after hours on the workers' off time and then sent overseas to family members in this country to sell on the black market.

Anyway, my question was, has anyone ever tried to register a good-quality fake Coach? What would happen if you got caught? (Not that I would condone this, of course. I'm just curious. :p)

I just thought about that too because I had also heard that some of the workers have been known to slip a few out the back door to be sold on the black market.

ITA. But we bought our faux bags in Chinatown in Manhattan, and while they probably would have been $300 at an outlet, they were $25 there. Totally worth it! :p

Also, the fakes we bought all came with Coach registration cards inside. I was tickled by that!

I don't know why anyone would pay $300 for a fake Coach bag.

I bought a fake Coach when I was living in San Francisco for $30. I showed it to my sorority sisters, and they said it looked very believable. In fact, one of my sisters had the exact same design as my fake and we compared it--the only difference between them was a slight difference in color (like my yellow looked a little more faded, a little more worn) but that was it. It even had the little Creed on the inside of the purse.

I bought that purse in April, and by June the straps had broke. lol.

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of buying a fake in the first place? :confused:

I've seen fakes that had the price tags to throw people off.

I didn't know you can register your bags until I read this thread. This weekend, I will register my Coachs and Dooneys.

If you try to register one of the "fakes" you will have the cops at your door. Happened to someone my aunt knew. I also heard that the "fakes" are reals that they can't sell because of a defect... for example the thread coming off my Chanel bag, the zipper pocket inside falling apart, etc. I'm not a name brand person but I really loved the actual look of these bags. We were in Soho.

Typically when it comes to fakes, the "good" (and I use that loosely) manufactures will buy an authentic one and copy every detail of the design. This is why fakes have "grading scales" which determines how much to charge (which is probably why KSUviolet's friend paid $300 for a fake - which is still CRAZY btw).

I personally don't see the point in buying fakes, especially when so many lower cost designers replicate many popular high end designer styles. I know Wilson's Leather has nice leather handbags in pretty much every high end designer's style (ie. Birkin, Speedy, etc.) so why waste money on an illegal bag when you can have something nicer?

Agreed WHOLEHEARTEDLY.

My philosophy is this: If I can't afford to buy 1 or more of the REAL thing in any given year without it breaking my pocketbook, I shouldn't try to pretend like I can...cause really, that is what you are doing when you buy a fake.. you're pretending. Which is why I don't carry fake LVs, fake Fendis, or fake Chanel bags.

I will never be a supporter of knock-offs regardless of how little they cost, or how "close" they look to the REAL thing. It's sick really.

Remember that episode of Sex & the City when Samantha takes her fake Fendi to the Playboy mansion and looked like an idiot when she accused a girl there of stealing her bag?... yeah.

/\/\/\/\/\ I hear ya! I wasn't always able to afford LV or Gucci.

There was a time with Nine West bags and I were BFF! :D

My mother had a similiar situation to ASUADPI. She was help up at gunpoint, :eek: yes, that's right and her purse got stolen. She is fine and the police did recover her Coach. Idiots only took her cash, sunglasses and cell phone. Sadly, there was a gash in the side of her bag, so she sent it to be repaired. She sent a note along with it just informing them of what happened, along with her check. They sent it back basically saying too bad, so sad. She was ticked off royally! We decided that Coach wants to run with the "big boys" in the handbag industry, but maybe their customer service isn't up to the customer service of the "big boys". She had vowed to never buy anything Coach ever again. I don't know if her check was cashed.

Because we know that sane people deliberately destroy 200+ dollar purses. :rolleyes:

I filed a complaint with the BBB and I have a case manager working on it. We shall see.

I think it was already mentioned somewhere in this thread, but sometimes people took advantage of the Coach repair service (i.e. if they couldn't repair it, they'd give you a credit for a new one) by purposely doing things to their bags so they could get credits to get new ones which is why Coach won't repair/credit bags that look like they have been slashed.

I work for a really big corporation in an entirely different industry, so it sucks when your company has a policy that you can't make any exceptions for because the people who aren't trying to abuse the system are the ones that have to deal with the consequences of those that did. Because like they say, "if you make an execption for one person, you have to do it for everyone". And since I'm busting out the cliches, "one bad apple ruins the bunch".

I think a case like lonestaradpi's mom they should have definitely tried to do at least something to help rectify that. How traumatizing :(

You'd be surprised. That $200 credit that you received for your bag could go towards a more expensive Coach bag. There a LOT of bags that average now for $600 and up. I've even seen some people sell their credits on Ebay! :eek:

But good luck though - its a shame that a bad apple spoils the bunch.

In regards to Coach's attemtp to run with "the big dogs", Coach actually has the best return/repair policy of them all. I know that LV has a 30 day return policy - after that, it really is "too bad, so sad". And if you need a repair, they do charge you - unless it is something that they know is a defect. From my understanding, Gucci is the same way as well.

Agreed! I tend to stick to Coach for that reason. They are great quality bags AND they are so good (at least in my experience) with fixing them.

I wouldn't say Coach is considered "designer" anymore. It's classic and high quality, but nowhere near the league of Gucci, LV, Fendi, Chloe, Marc Jacobs, Chanel, or - dream on - Hermes. I was at the Coach outlet this weekend and it was completely INSANE; and though I was happy to take them up on their sale prices, a part of me wept inside...I looked around the store, at the CRAZY rude, low class crowd, and realized how mainstream Coach has gotten. It's too approachable now - the brand has lost some of its luster. I think it needs to cut back on its outlet stores.

On the other hand, the Kate Spade, Michael Kors and Burberry stores were practically empty, and they had some beautiful bags. I've never bought a Kate Spade, because I always thought the bags were nothing special, but I might go back to that store next weekend to get a certain bag. Have to think it over.

/\/\/\ I hear you about Coach :( But truth be told, I will always and forever love Kate Spade's Wellesly!

....even though the real force behind Kate Spade is no longer with the company
....and that their bags are now made in Malaysia
:(

My mother used Coach bags for many years, until she bought a navy bag. Not too long after she bought it, it was gray. She hasn't bought a Coach bag since. This is going back ~15 years, though.

Meh. I have a couple of evening bags, but I don't carry a handbag regularly - I wear pants with pockets.