Even though I have not shopped at Isaac Reina in Paris, I have experienced their customer care and…read morewould like to warn everyone to abstain from shopping from this company online.
Why?
After a very long internal conversation with my 'not wanting to spend money on myself' me, I decided to purchase a bag from Isaac Reina online. The company is based in Paris and I learned about it from a beautiful small shop in London, who sells bags from this brand, but just did not have the right type and colour.
During my payment process, to my surprise I was charged about €40 for the postage for a fast delivery, which I did not specifically ask for - it was the only option and I assumed it was mainly due to insuring the bag would arrive perfectly.
I did receive news from the company three days later by e-mail, telling me my order was being processed and I would be informed when it would be on it's way. Christmas frenzy, I thought. Of course it couldn't have arrived very early. To my even bigger surprise however, I received yet another e-mail another few days later, explaining they had made a mistake and the bag was in fact not available anymore. I had two options: get a refund or accept the bag in another colour. Since the whole reason for purchasing via their online shop and not in the beautiful small shop was the colour, I accepted the refund.
Now it gets interesting. They were really fast in refunding, however the prize was entirely different: roughly Pounds 40,- difference from what I had originally payed had been refunded to my account. To me it seemed they simply had forgotten to refund me the postage costs, which I informed them about. After many e-mails back and forth it turns out that they seriously expect me to pay for the bank charges both ways. Basically I have been punished for their initial mistake and payed Pounds 40 for a product I never received.
Their original words:
"..., we cannot refund you for some additional costs related to a third party.
Indeed, our company is not responsible for these additional costs... "
Since I know a little bit about customer care and online business, having one myself, this is the worst business practice I have ever experienced, especially given it was entirely caused by them. I obviously bought in good faith of the information on the website reflecting reality and not an illusion.
Be aware when buying from them online; you will be charged for banking fees and you might very well never receive the item you decided to buy.
The bags might be beautiful, their business practice isn't!