This is the true story of how things went when I decided to return my broken luxury bag. It was quite a ride and if I’m completely honest (as I always am), the ending really surprised me!
I’m recording all the hoops I had to jump through here so that there is information available for those, who also find themselves shocked by the bad quality of their “luxury” purchase and wish to get their money back. It is then up to you to decide whether you want to travel down this road or whether you just accept that you threw away thousands of €$£ for nothing in return.
Returning a Broken Luxury Bag – The Process
Let’s start with the basics. Buying something from this particular brand had been my life-long dream, and in 2021 I decided to make that dream come true. A year earlier I had started freelancing and 6 months later became a full-blown entrepreneur. It was enough to grant myself a major gift!
That gift was the handbag that I had been admiring online for a couple years already. I had to order it online from the brand’s official website because they don’t have any stores where I live. As it later turned out, this was a mistake! With an online order you are treated as a second-tier customer.
And oh my goodness I was excited when the bag arrived! I still have the video of me opening the box. The bag wasn’t just a stuff-carrier for me, it represented my unexpected success and ability to thrive against the unlikeliest odds.
Which is why I was extremely shocked when only after 3 years the back of the bag showed bad signs of wear. Signs that shouldn’t be possible if the bag was in fact luxury, as in constructed from actual good quality leather. This looks like something that you’d expect from a faux leather bag, doesn’t it:
As a special item I didn’t wear this bag often. So, how on Earth could it look like this after just 3 years of very little wear? I was so shocked I let it be for a while… But there was no getting away from the fact that the broken luxury bag needed to either be fixed or refunded!
And to get the wheels turning, there was only one thing I could think of doing:
1. Contacting the personal sales representative
After ordering the bag online I shopped in the actual brand store in Firenze in a couple occasions. This was before I noticed the breakage on the bag. When you shop in the store you get a personal sales representative who sends you special offers and who you can contact about new collections and in case of questions.
So, I took a photo of the broken luxury bag and sent it to my sales representative through Whatsapp. At that point I was back up North so they couldn’t do much for me from the store in Florence. They told me that in order to get it fixed I needed to take the bag myself to a physical store… How convenient that there were none where I lived.
2. Consulting an actual luxury leather brand
I had no travels booked for any destination that would’ve had such a store at that point, but I wanted some proper answers. Clearly I wasn’t going to get them from the brand itself, so I took myself and the broken luxury bag to a leather studio I knew.
Stella Soomlais is an Estonian brand that creates proper quality leather bags from high quality (= durable!) leather. If that wasn’t enough, it also beats these formerly-luxury-brands in true luxury: sustainability. They get the leather from the European meat industry, which means they help reduce waste. Their leather is also veggie-tanned, which guarantees much better quality than the brands we all know. You’ll see why.
The lovely people at the studio were able to shed some light on the miserable situation. Unfortunately what I learned made me even angrier and more disappointed:
- The leather had been chemically tanned (probably using chrome), which “kills” it
- Chemically tanned leather always turns white so it needs to be dyed
- The chemicals used are so toxic that the leather can’t absorb any dyes, so the bag had be PAINTED
- What was causing the damage on the bag was the paint wearing off………………….
How fucking EMBARRASSING for a brand that claims to sell ‘luxury’ products?!?! They actually thought they could go on forever scamming their customers like that! So, what’s next? Nothing left but taking the bag to the fucking store.
More on the topic: Shitification of the Fashion Industry – Things to Consider in 2026
3. Flying to a country where they have a store for the brand
The reason I ended up shopping at the actual brand store in the first place was the fact that in winter I escape to Italy. So, once I booked flights back to Italy I made sure I’d land in a city where they had the specific brand’s store: Milan.
- In the store they welcomed me with open arms and weren’t at all shaken by the fact that their products were such trash.
- They kindly volunteered to send the bag to the factory to be fixed and wrote up the receipt for it.
- Then they showed me their new collection and promised to keep me updated as the matter proceeds with the factory.
Great service, sure, but as you have probably gathered by now, a broken luxury bag is extremely expensive not just because the product costs a packet. Nowadays you can be sure that the product is of bad quality, and if you want it fixed (which is an option), you’ll have to pay extra for the flights, hotels, taxis, etc. And because the products are such bad quality these days, you have to prepare for the following:
4. Getting the verdict from the factory
About five days later I got a text from the store in Milan about the factory’s response: “The bag cannot be fixed. It is here waiting for you so feel free to pick it up whenever is convenient for you.”
As the lovely people at Stella Soomlais had predicted, my broken luxury bag was so badly made that it was nothing short of trash. They obviously didn’t specify why they couldn’t fix it, but thanks to my visit to the legit leather studio, I already knew. You can’t just paint over the part that’s worn because it would show and ruin the bag even further…
At this point there was no other option but to either get my money back for the scam that the bag was or exchanging it for something else. Since the brand’s quality was now provenly bad I, of course, hoped for the former option.
I texted the Milan store about this and they told me that because I had ordered the bag online I had to call the customer service line to sort it out. Aka, if you order online, you’re not really entitled for the same level of service you’d get if you had bought it in the store… Idiotic!
5. Contacting the brand’s customer care to get a refund
So, to the customer service I called first thing the next morning! It was a short call where they asked me to send them an email with photos of the broken luxury bag, receipts, etc. Great! That way I could really present the case for them. This is what I wrote:
Very legit, to the point and should cause a reaction. Or so I thought. Once again, I was clinging to the notion that these formerly luxury brands still held up at least some of those standards… And once again I was quickly proven wrong:
5. Realising the shitification of a former luxury brand
For my eloquent email I got a basic response that had basically been copied from any kitchen appliance brand that offers a 2-year warranty, after which the appliance will break:
“We would like to inform you that we have carefully evaluated your request. After verifying the details provided, we are sorry to inform you that a repair intervention is not technically possible [indeed!] as the brand’s warranty covers only material and production defects for two years from the date of purchase [= the brand takes no responsibility for scamming consumers].
Therefore, we are unable to offer an alternative solution in this instance. …kindly inform us if you have the possibility of picking up your handbag from the boutique or if you need us to arrange a delivery…”
From this lazy and arrogant reply we can clearly see that what we’ve grown up to know as ‘luxury brands’ no longer exist. They are now just another fast fashion brand with extremely over-bloated price tags. There is nothing to justify their pricing,
- not the materials used; painted leather and polyester (= fast fashion)
- no service beyond the buying experience
- instead of valuing the craftsmanship the brands’ factory workers are underpaid slaves living on a pittance (= fast fashion)
- there’s none of the integrity that one should be able to expect from a brand that dares to call itself a ‘luxury brand’ (= fast fashion)
- absolutely no regard for the customer experience (= fast fashion).
6. Ending my customer relationship with the brand
I’m not going to lie, I shed a couple tears after receiving the above response. Tears of disappointment and rage. That broken luxury bag had meant so much to me when I ordered and received it… Another lifelong dream shattered into shit. No matter how much it had all meant to me, there was only one thing left to do; it was time to burn the bridge.
I finished the extremely annoying and disappointing, let alone expensive process by replying with the following email:
“Wow, I thought there would be at least some integrity left in [the brand] but I can see there isn’t. You clearly did not “carefully evaluate” my previous email.
Right then, I have no use for a broken bad quality bag so I will not be picking it up. You may dispose of it as you see fit. I hope you won’t incinerate it, though, as the world is already drowning in toxic fumes created by the fast fashion industry, which [the brand] has decided to lower itself to.
Have a day,”
7. Admitting defeat
Instead of registering any of it, I got back a robotic email stating again that the bag is worn so could I come and pick it up… EXCUSE ME?! That’s precisely why I want my money back!! A luxury leather(!) bag does NOT wear like that and I have many proper leather bags to prove it.
I almost filmed a video of my travel bag, which is proper leather and which is still in pristine condition although it has experiences plenty of throwing, bumping and scratching. But then I realised what the problem was. The former luxury brands have completely forgotten what quality is!
For 2 weeks I argued with this robotic customer care agent who either genuinely doesn’t know what quality is, or was ordered to ignore the lack of quality. In the end I had to admit that I had put 2 000€ on something that was complete trash to begin with… 2 000€ that I will never see again…
The End
And there you have it; the absolute shit-show that is returning a broken luxury bag… Or trying to do so. Basically, if you invest in these former-luxury-brands in the 2020’s and beyond, understand that you’re just throwing money into trash. It would be better to heat your house by burning the same amount of cash in the fireplace. Or make a fire with the stack of cash on a hike to barbeque some marshmallows.
You’ll need to do some research these days if you want to invest in actual quality. And that’s why I’m here! The Outlandish Blog is the place where you can find well-researched and actually sustainable brands that offer the highest quality products. And they’re nowhere near as expensive as these fake-luxury brands! Because their pricing is legit ;)
Find Highest Quality Brands Here
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