Faulty magnetic closure on bag

stopwhatyourdoing

Sorry if this is a bit long but I don't want to drip feed information. If anyone could give me any advice I'd be very grateful.

I purchased a leather satchel bag from the River Island website at the end of February 2013.! Upon receipt, I thought the bag looked good quality for the price and it would be ideal to hold my belongings for abreak in London which I had booked to attend a family event.

I arrived at Euston station and had an onward journey to Chingford.! I had the long strap of the bag across my body.! The bag was not overloaded and only contained my purse, a hairbrush, lip gloss and a packet of tissues (hardly very much as I like to travel light).! My purse contained £500 and I also had an Oyster card in the purse which had £100 pre-paid on it.! As I was walking, I noticed on several occasions that the magnetic flap of the bag had come away from the main bag and this left the bag gaping wide open. The bag was not secure despite my attempts to keep trying to close the magnetic closure and holding the bag against me. When I arrived at my destination I was shocked and devastated to realise that my purse was missing from the bag.!

Despite re-tracing my steps as far as possible and making! enquiries with the station staff, I did not find my purse. !I was extremely angry and upset and left in a very awkward situation.! I had saved up over a few months for this trip and then had the embarrassment of having to borrow some money from one of my relatives.! I had wanted to go shopping in London, however, I could not borrow the full £500 from a relative as I have no way of paying it back to them immediately.! I am angry and upset that the bag was gaping open most of the time and despite trying to keep closing it every couple of minutes, I was also pulling a suitcase along and trying to get up and down the escalators on the underground.! I do not know whether my purse was stolen or if it had dropped out of the bag.!

As soon as I got home I contacted River Island customer services who told me to return the bag and they would assesses it. I did this on the 11 th March 2013. Today the bag was returned to me with a letter stating that they had examined the bag and could find no fault with it. That they had not had any other complaints from consumers of the bag as would be expected and therefore I am not entitled to a refund or exchange. They did not even acknowledge the loss of the £600 which was caused by the faulty magnetic closure. I am now left with a faulty bag which is not fit for purpose and a loss of £600. To say I am gutted is an understatement

The current position is that I have emailed customer services informing them that I am not satisfied with their assessment or explanation and will be contacting Trading Standards for advice. Is there anything else I should do anyone? TIA

stopwhatyourdoing

Apologies for all the ! automatically inserted for some reason.

Also I paid £35 for the bag, reduced from £65.

MamaMoo_2

Out of curiosity, if you noticed the bag was not secure, why did you not remove valuable items and put them somewhere else, eg in your suitcase or your pocket? It may be considered negligent that you left valuable items in a bag that you were aware was insecure.
Also, I have several bags with magnetic catches on (usually a piece of metal with a little knob on that clips in to a piece of metal with an indentation and is held together magnetically). I've found that these aren't secure at all and more of a cosmetic feature to hold the flap down. However, if there's any pressure on it (as simple as having something heavy inside of it) the catches are not amazingly useful. Certainly with £500 & a £100 Oyster card floating around a bag with a zip or buckle would be ideal.
Do you have any sort of insurance that covers these items that you could claim from?
Unfortunately, if RI have assessed it and said that it performs as expected and isn't faulty, unless you can prove to the contrary, you have no real basis for a claim. It seems to me that you assumed it would do a better job than it's price would suggest.
Also, if you tried to claim against them in a court, IMO a judge would likely look upon your decision to continue to use a faulty bag as negligent.
Also, AFAIK you can contact Oyster an get a replacement card and either a transfer of funds or a refund. Have you done/tried to do this?

stopwhatyourdoing

Thanks for replying.

With hindsight I know I should have removed the purse once I knew the closure was not sticking. However I have never owned a bag like this before (and never will again)and if the closure is a cosmetic feature, does that mean that I should only use it when I'm not intending to take my purse out with me which would be very rarely, if ever. This seems ridiculous.

I will look into the Oyster card and insurance. Thanks.

stopwhatyourdoing

Also if River Island are saying it is not faulty and can find no problems with the bag but then (if it is taken to Court) the Judge says I was negligent in using the bag if faulty but River Island do not deem it as faulty then one contradicts the other! !!

unholyangel

stopwhatyourdoing wrote: »

Also if River Island are saying it is not faulty and can find no problems with the bag but then (if it is taken to Court) the Judge says I was negligent in using the bag if faulty but River Island do not deem it as faulty then one contradicts the other! !!

It being insecure doesnt necessarily mean its faulty. I'm sorry but i'm with mama, imo the magnetic closures arent secure in the slightest.

I do empathise though and it doesnt help you out for whats happened, but advice for future would be if you're carrying large amounts of cash around, split it up (same also goes for haggling over price because if they see you pull out a wad, they're less likely to come down in price) and put it in different zip parts/pockets or heck even put some in a sock or in your bra. Then if you lose some or are pick pocketed, you havent lost everything.

Unlikely the same thing will probably happen to you twice in your lifetime but you never know!

MamaMoo_2

stopwhatyourdoing wrote: »

Also if River Island are saying it is not faulty and can find no problems with the bag but then (if it is taken to Court) the Judge says I was negligent in using the bag if faulty but River Island do not deem it as faulty then one contradicts the other! !!

It doesn't necessarily have to be faulty for you to be negligent, simply insecure. If you discovered the bag wasn't suitably guarding the contents but failed to do something to remedy this, there would lie the issue.
These bags are fine for carrying a couple of bits of makeup etc, but something bulky or heavy (which containing £500 your purse may have been) can easily knock the catch open. Also, as the catch was only magnetic, it only requires a small knock to undo it (unlike button/zip/buckle fastenings) and so could easily have come undone if your bag got a knock or something. You have to remember that the bag will be bouncing around off of your hips/bum, plus potentially being knocked by other commuters etc. An insecure fastening such as a magnetic or Velcro one probably won't fare too well.
High street bags are usually for fashionable items and are not necessarily as practical as you may wish. I have some beautiful high street shoulder bags and handbags, however some are downright useless at being anything other than a pretty accessory to hold my lippy. I've bought a few bags from reputable and specialised bag retailers for as little as £30 odd more than their high street equivalent and the difference in quality is very noticeable.

stopwhatyourdoing

I understand what your saying, however, to sell an insecure bags makes the bag not fit for the purpose it is intended. Who would actually buy a bag knowing it was insecure? I certainly didn't. This bag is actually quite large and could easily carry a lot more items than i had in it and surely most women carry their purses in a handbag.

stopwhatyourdoing

Sorry, I am grateful for your opinions.

unholyangel

stopwhatyourdoing wrote: »

I understand what your saying, however, to sell an insecure bags makes the bag not fit for the purpose it is intended. Who would actually buy a bag knowing it was insecure? I certainly didn't. This bag is actually quite large and could easily carry a lot more items than i had in it and surely most women carry their purses in a handbag.

Bags are containers. Like all containers, some are more secure than others. I do carry my purse in my handbag, but those handbags have a magnet catch and/or a zip. Theyre also under the shoulder bags that I squeeze to my side so if anyone tries to get into it....i'll know. And as above, if carrying large amounts of cash, I put it in different zip compartments/pockets. You could say I'm overly paranoid but *touch wood* I havent lost a purse or been pickpocketed yet!

stopwhatyourdoing wrote: »

Sorry, I am grateful for your opinions.

No need to apologise You dont need to agree with us and you're not being a !!!! about disagreeing so nothing to say sorry for!

stopwhatyourdoing

Thanks...... just angry and upset and feeling a bit daft for allowing it to happen. To be honest I wouldn't have expected River Island to do anything about the loss or theft of the purse, but to not even acknowledge it or offer a refund or exchange just makes it worse.

Do you think I should still proceed with trading standards of just take it as a lesson learned?