To warn you about this retail scam?

[BurgundyFlags]

Long story short, bought a bag from a trusted authorised retailer months ago, realised last week that it's fake, and had my eyes opened to this scam that apparently is 'common'.

Here's how it usually goes:

1. Person buys something from authorised retailer, maybe even the actual store
2. Person buys a good fake from Amazon etc
3. Person returns the fake to the original retailer
4. Next person ordering from the original retailer gets the fake

It wasn't a majorly expensive bag (about £75 but it's one that is popular with counterfeiters) but it is disappointing especially since I paid a premium for a brand that's famed for having durable stuff that was supposed to last me 10 years only to get a fake that broke in months!

Just thought I should let everyone know that just because you buy something from the official store or official retailer doesn't necessarily mean it's real these days!

Rolex are not battery powered

Actually, many models were in the 1970's.

This happened to me with a pair of Doctor Martens I ordered for DD from Zalando - obviously they weren’t checked at all as I ordered a black patent pair with black stitching and received a plain black pair with yellow stitching, they were so plainly fake they didn’t even have the correct tag on the back and said something like Mod shoes inside!

i returned them as incorrect item
sent and got a refund, I’ve never purchased anything from Zalando since.

Never knew that! I thought their selling point was their movement

Something to do with a shortage of Quartz in the 70s, so whilst they did continue to make the classic models several battery ones were also released.
I have a feeling they weren’t actually discontinued until the early 2000’s either.

If I had to guess though I’d say the poster here had an early to mid 70s model as that was the time to pick up the Hong Kong copies.

It was only one model, they are quite uncommon.

One model, around ten variants and about 25,000 watches until production ended in 2001.
Not so uncommon that a brief search just yielded several for sale. But that’s not what this about. It’s about bags, and the incorrect assumption that a Rolex cannot be battery.

I read this thread the other day and thought never seen this one.

But today we bought an electrical item from a well known retailer. A part dropped off on first use. A closer look suggests it’s a fake. So now we have experienced this too. Really concerning.

@22pink the story that fakes were made in the sane factory is just a fake rumour perpetuated by sellers of fake bags. In reality the factories are closely scrutinised and would lose their contract immediately. Designer brands are very strict on protecting their product. They spend millions seeking out and destroying fakes. To suggest that they are being produced under their nose is just a bit crazy. The producers and sellers of fake bags like to peddle the story as it make buyers feel like the products are identical. Some of them are. But they are produced in factories that simply copy and produce fakes.

Swedish. Apologies for pedantry. No such letter with the two dots above in Norwegian.

Common scam. Person buys iPhone then returns it as changed their mind. Packing in place but when shop assistant opens package it's stones or other things to make up the weight. This retailer always check their returns even supposedly 'unopened ' ones.

They mentioned something like this on a morning tv show. They were talking about buying crates of unknown goods for cheap from different retailers. Mainly because when items are returned they’re often not resold but out into a big storage bin that’s eventually sold off. This is something that car boot folk like to buy and make a bit of profit on. However they warned for the everyday person not to do so as you can’t guarantee the value. They said electrical especially are often bought to replace a broken one and then the broken one is returned in the packaging for a refund. These returns aren’t always checked by the company when refunds are issued.

@Northbright already pointed out thank you !

Mine looks like this and it is genuine
It depends on the size of the bag.
However if your strap broke you should get q refund anyway depending on how long you had it and normal wear and tear.

How did you find out? Please mention the brand so others can avoid shopping with then

Like this? This is on the John Lewis website.

I had this happen to a customer when I worked for John Lewis. He’d ordered a really expensive coat and when he opened the packaging it was a similar style but a brand we didn’t even stock and obviously worn. The perpetrator had kept the new coat, returned his dirty used coat AND got a refund (all because the returns department didn’t check the item properly). The used coat then goes back into the system for some poor shopper to end up ‘purchasing’. It is impossible to track back who would have done it once it’s passed through the return’s department and they have removed all identifying returns labels etc.

Shocking and something I’d never considered!

Proceeds from sale of counterfeit goods is laundered and used to fund illegal activities ie selling drugs prostitution trafficking dodgey property deals etc etc. After all the UK is the worlds laundromat

YANBU OP but as others have said this is a long running and common scam.
I'm especially careful with Radley,Michael Kors and Fiorelli . It's the oldest trick in the book I'm afraid 😨.

Counterfeited £75 bags?

Are they counterfeiting 5p coins instead of £20 notes as well?

Why would you think that’s strange in a world where we counterfeit charging plugs, batteries and even rizla papers as pointed out above?

How do you know it was originally purchased via Amazon then returned to the major retailer?

This is the 1st I've heard of it.

There's more money to be made knocking off £75 Fjällräven bags than £750 Gucci bags.