STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

erin · Chanel

RE: Is this fair? Coach product problem..*updated*

lynnie · Chanel

ok- this is my honest opinion- take the $150 gift certificate, as long as you are sure that you don't want the $600 bag. Either save it- get some cute sunglasses or whatever, a wristlet, sell it to someone or friend or family for like $100 or whatever if you really don't want it- and then try to get the zipper fixed yourself and have them re-imburse up to $30 of it. I think thats the best bet. I totally know where you are coming from, but since they can't replace the bag anyway and you have used the bag for a few years, its not like they can give you all your money back.

ViViDogWear · Kate Spade

Hmmm... I am reading this thread and thinking that it seems really odd? I completely feel for you nicoley. I think you just need to find someone else to talk to. I have had several Coach items over the years, no have broken, and always good service. My mom bought a purse from the outlet once and it ended up having some kind of problem. She called and they gave her a credit for actually more than she paid for the purse and a catalog for her to order from. She was very happy because she ended up getting a newer style purse. I think that Coach wants to stand by their reputation of quality and I would suggest trying to call again and speak to someone with better customer service skills - always keep moving up the chain of managers, etc and remind them that is what their company stands for. HTH

Dizzy · Marc Jacobs

Aw, that totally sucks. Classic runaround... Keep your cool and refuse to accept it. There's a level of persistance that you can hit, without being obnoxious, that will tip the balance in your favor. Oh, and sometimes call center employees impersonate managers to get you to give up, btw. also, and I know this because a friend spent years in this industry, sometimes they're drunk.

Anyway, here's the thing to keep saying, "I love your products and I'm so disappointed in this. I don't understand exactly why what you're saying here makes sense. Does it makes sense to you? Why? Can you put that in writing? I refuse to accept any settlement that is not in writing." Then start over again with "What can you do for me?" Look at this 50 percent thing as a starting offer and get them to sweeten the deal anyway you can think of - 75 percent off sounds good, since you did get two years use out of the bag. If they get bitchy, lay on the guilt "I just assumed you wouldn't want your name to be associated with a poor-quality product..." Sound puzzled and surprised, rather than pissed. Have fun with it. Make little jokes. Keep playing to their sense of power. "I'm so happy you can do something for me..." Or, flip it and make them feel bad for having no power, "Oh, it's too bad they don't let you do much, just answer the phones, huh? Must be boring for you..." Keep tryign to work your way up to a supervisor.

This might take some time, but it can actually be really fun, I once spent two hours on the phone getting a $40 late fee removed from my card (which turned out to be legit, but they took it off anyway) and a week getting out of a $50 fee to replace a parking garage card stolen from my car. It was totally not worth the money, but the satisfaction was awesome! God I'm weird...

nicoley · Coach

Ok so I just called coach AGAIN.... and just settled on them sending out a 150 dollar gift card... I pushed for either 60% offf or 200 dollar gift card but they would not budge, I give up, oh well.

Disappointing ending...

atlgirl · Gucci

RE: Is this fair? Coach product problem..*Final conclusion*

nicoley · Coach

Ok... thanks atlgirl, what you said is very true... It is fair, and I feel alot better now, I guess I was getting caught up in what great customer service everyone else recieved from coach, I think I needed to look at each situation as different from the other. And knowing that, I do feel better, I mean they didn't have to give me the 150 dollar gc, they could have just gave me 30 dollars and said here fix your bag.

Thanks for making me realize this!

shopgirl · Kenneth Cole

it doesn't seem that you'll get much resolution from calling. write to corporate. almost every company has an executive in charge of customer service. i've done this a couple of times when the usual supervisors/customer service agents refuse to help.

try this guy:
Michael Tucci
President, Retail Division - North America

deborah

lsubatgirl · Gucci

nicoley013 wrote:

Ok... thanks atlgirl, what you said is very true... It is fair, and I feel alot better now, I guess I was getting caught up in what great customer service everyone else recieved from coach, I think I needed to look at each situation as different from the other. And knowing that, I do feel better, I mean they didn't have to give me the 150 dollar gc, they could have just gave me 30 dollars and said here fix your bag. Thanks for making me realize this!

Nicoley- I understand your frustration with Coach and how you expected to buy a quality product from them and you spent quite a bit of money and then it broke and they weren't very helpful in fixing it. I would never think you were acting selfish or a brat or anything similar based on this post and wanting your bag fixed so I hope you didn't feel that way. But I am glad you are ok with how it was all resolved and hopefully you can find someone to fix your bag that you love so you can use it again and maybe find a couple of cute wristlets or a nice bag to spend that gc on. Its a shame not all of us can have the same experiences with customer service reps at these companies but that's how things go. When I do find good service reps at places when I call I do tend to ask them for their personal extensions and their names in case I ever have to call back or someone else does - sometimes they are still there and sometimes they aren't but at least I can try.