Usually after you received a brand-new Chanel bag, you would get excited, thrilled and overwhelmed by happiness. That is for the most people, but in Jasmine’s case, it’s exactly the opposite.

Jasmine felt in love with the Chanel GST, but she wanted it fresh-baked from Paris. So when her cousin decided to travel in France, she quickly asked her to do a favor. ‘Please help me buy a Chanel GST bag in Paris’. Finger crossed!

So her cousin went to the famous Galeries Lafayette in Paris and she hit the jackpot. They had the Chanel GST in black and gold hardware in stock, exactly in the same style that Jasmine wanted. ‘But’, the Shopping Assistant said: ‘It doesn’t come with the original box and the paper bag’.

Honestly, the Chanel experience is partly ripped if you don’t get the paper bag and the white flower. The box is not only for decoration purpose, it has a function. If you’ve been a fan of Chanel for a time, you will learn that the dust bag is for protection purpose. Now you’re back from shopping all day long, together with your Chanel GST. Where to drop? In your closet? Hang it in your room where it can be exposed to dust, light and sun? No way, the color will fade and slowly, it will eat up your beautiful leather. Give me the dust bag and I will put it nicely back into the box, where it belongs!

Now about the paper bag, wouldn’t it add a lot of value if you decides to sell it one day and you still own the complete package? I mean, the box, dust bag and the paper bag with the iconic flower on it?

Back to the story, where was I? Oh yes, at first Jasmine was very happy to receive her very own Chanel GST, but partly disappointed because of the box and paper bag of course. Her mom had a Chanel GST too, and naturally she put the two bags together for comparison. And you know what she saw? THIS:

Can you see the difference? I would personally freak-out. A lot of questions were running through Jasmine head:

‘What is this?’.
‘Why is this happening?’.
‘What went wrong?’.
‘Did her cousin damage it while traveling back to Malaysia?’.

And

‘Is Galeries Lafayette selling fake bags?’.

She was worried, her mom took her to the Chanel boutique in KLCC and asked the Shopping Assistant for support and explanation. The SA couldn’t comment and didn’t want to accept the bag. Now she is torn.

Fortunately she still had the original receipt, but she didn’t know what to do. Eventually she found Bragmybag and posted her experience on our forum: ‘The right bag is less shiny, more mature feel and there is less of a bounce on the diamond shape stitching’.

Chanel has changed leather on the GST in 2010, so we asked the date of purchase of her mom’s bag. Surprisingly, her bag was bought 5 days after, so it was roughly the same time, but in another boutique.

Jasmine’s second worry was that she passed the 21 days of warranty, she doubted whether she had a chance to fight it.

So our advice was: ‘go fight it, because this is unreasonable’. I mean she loves Chanel, she doesn’t deserve such awful experience. Does she need to spend her life with a GST that is handicapped? Eventually she will have no love for the GST. But she rolled up her sleeves and decided to fight.

1 Day later: She went back to the Chanel boutique at KLCC, filed a complain and requested for a total exchange. Cleverly, she also wrote a complain letter to the customer care in France. Chanel decided to investigate the issue.

1 week later: Her request was declined and instead Chanel offered to repair the loose thread and have her bag polished. She was furious, called the supervisor and wrote another complain letter to the France customer care.

2-3 week later: The product manager of Chanel immediately called Jasmine after returning from holiday. She made her case an exception and gave her a brand-new bag in exchange.

We are very happy that despite of everything, she still got her favorite Chanel bag and in the exact shape, color and style she wanted.

There are a few lesson to learn here. First, never give up without a fight. Second, we do not belief that the Chanel boutique in Galeries Lafayette sells fake Chanel bags. The GST was real, but there was something fishy about the quality. It could be a sample version. Whenever you buy a designer bag, Chanel or not, you should make sure that everything is included and check the quality before you leave the store.

Anyone have experience a similar situation? If you have a story, please share with us in the forum.