Advice needed please, not my day!

kelou

Hello All, Today I have received a dress that I got 'bin' earlier in the week and it is a fake. The seller advertised it as a Karen Millen dress bnwt, but were selling as they had bought off eaby and it doesnt fit. It is quite a good copy but neverless, just that. The fabric is wrong, it is not as heavy as a Karen Millen dress should be and the tags are thin and cheap looking. I have been on the ebay forum and it seems this is a very common problem with Karen Millen, and at the moment, Karen Millen will not certify them as fakes in case ebay takes legal action (!?)
What is the best thing to do, I understand if an item is fake the onus is on you to prove it, but how do you so, if the company do not wish to get involved? I have not approached the seller yet and they may not even realise it is a fake. Is there anything I can do or do I just have to accept I have been an idiot? Feeling very annoyed with myself at the mo!

emby

Contacting the seller would be the first thing I would do.
Like you said you have to have written confirmation from the manufacturer/company to prove/disprove the item is a fake, otherwise you will lose the paypal dispute.

kelou

emby wrote: »

Contacting the seller would be the first thing I would do.
Like you said you have to have written confirmation from the manufacturer/company to prove/disprove the item is a fake, otherwise you will lose the paypal dispute.

Hi Emby, Thanks for replying. I think that is the first thing I need to do, but according to the group set up on ebay, Karen Millen will not put anything in writing to confirm it is fake, the store can tell you there and then but they wont put it in writing. Guess I will just have to put this down to experience, just wasnt aware that fakes were so rife. Naive idiot of the week goes to me!

kelou

seems this has come up before! http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2005287&highlight=karen+millen&page=2

emby

kelou wrote: »

Hi Emby, Thanks for replying. I think that is the first thing I need to do, but according to the group set up on ebay, Karen Millen will not put anything in writing to confirm it is fake, the store can tell you there and then but they wont put it in writing. Guess I will just have to put this down to experience, just wasnt aware that fakes were so rife. Naive idiot of the week goes to me!

You're not naive at all, you weren't to know it was a fake.
Definitley contact the seller, they may be good enough to refund on return of the item, but they aren't obliged to do so.

kelou

Just got kids to bed so can focus the mind an contact the seller! Will keep you posted.

cyberbob

Someone a few months ago had a Karen Millen dress that was fake but KM would not write a letter confirming this. Your other option is if there is another thing wrong with them you could open a SNAD under those grounds instead.. So would have to return them for a refund if you won. If your going to do this don't mention fake in the dispute. You could say they were worse quality than was advertised I suppose.

kelou

cyberbob wrote: »

Someone a few months ago had a Karen Millen dress that was fake but KM would not write a letter confirming this. Your other option is if there is another thing wrong with them you could open a SNAD under those grounds instead.. So would have to return them for a refund if you won. If your going to do this don't mention fake in the dispute. You could say they were worse quality than was advertised I suppose.

Hi Cyberbob, Yes that seems to be the general consenus on all the forums and I have been busy googling. You would have kind of assumed that Karen Millen would like to crack down on copy's. Think the SNAD would be worth a go, as it is nowhere near the quality that you would expect from there. I have emailed the seller so will just have to watch and wait. Thanks for the advice, I just feel really dissapointed and cross!

Kestrel

kelou wrote: »

I just feel really dissapointed and cross!

I hope you get it sorted quickly but remember that the seller may not have been intentionally deceiving you, she may have bought it in good faith from ebay and as it didn't fit she has sold it on in the belief that it was a genuine article. You sound as though you know what to expect from a KM garment, if I saw a dress on ebay that I liked and it stated that it was KM I would have no idea how to tell if it was fake or not as it's not something that I'm used to handling and your seller could be in just that position

kelou

Kestrel wrote: »

I hope you get it sorted quickly but remember that the seller may not have been intentionally deceiving you, she may have bought it in good faith from ebay and as it didn't fit she has sold it on in the belief that it was a genuine article. You sound as though you know what to expect from a KM garment, if I saw a dress on ebay that I liked and it stated that it was KM I would have no idea how to tell if it was fake or not as it's not something that I'm used to handling and your seller could be in just that position

Hi, yes completley agree. Dont think (and hope) that they have any idea it is a fake, I do know what to expect from KM only because I have too much of the bloody stuff! Ususlly I would drive down to the outlet at Portsmouth but have been really poorly for the last 10 days and needed a dress for a wedding, and thought I would buy online. It seemed completley fine in the listing, the pic was from the KM website (perhaps alarm bells should have rung there) and the seller said she was selling it as it doesnt fit which seemed plausible. Just never had anything like this happen before and the thought of being £60 down is so depressing, and feel really awkward about broaching it with the seller. Ho hum, will just have to wait and see what she says.

too_much_debt

Have you checked her feedback to see the auction where she won it? You would be able to see what the seller said in their listing about the dress, also you can search items that a bidder has bid on/won using the search facility and that would show who she bought it from if it was recent, also to see if she genuinely bought it.