What a bad turn of events!

My Gucci Bag Is Defective!

It seems my shopping dilemma #01 is giving me a lot of problems. Remember the Gucci Brown Guccissima Tote bag I just bought a week ago...it's giving me grief now! Apparently while taking it out for it's maiden use, unknowingly, I found out there is a small crack on the leather on one side of the bag. The crack is small, almost blending into the creases of the leather, since the original leather is a bit distressed, so it takes a really sharp eye to be able to spot it amidst the huge bag. The reason why I found out was because I shoulder carry the bag and use my hand to hold the side of the bag for additional support. Somehow as my hands ran thru the soft leather, I felt a difference in the textural feel of the leather. There was something 'coarse' brushing against my finger tips. So I examine that portion of the bag and to my horror, I found a small crack(about 0.8cm long, vertical down) on the leather surface. It's so upsetting! A new bag and it happened for Gucci, which is supposed to have reputable quality. Furthermore, my bag is bought a week plus ago, not even fulfilling the 14 day exchange deadline the store has.

(BTW, even though I have taken the bag out for use for just a few hours, I have been very careful not to let anyone, anything 'touch' my bag. It was handled very carefully and no knocks or bumps along the way. I made sure of that. And I was not carrying heavy things. I also examine the crack, it does not look like tearing. The crack was not on a high stress area like where the handles are. It could be the bag already has this defect, just that I did not managed to spot it when I bought the bag. The crack was too subtle to spot. How unlucky!)

As I was in town when I found out this, I immediately brought the bag to the Takashimaya store. The SA told me to bring the bag on Monday so he can show it to the buyer. But the thing is I feel I should be able to exchange the bag immediately and not have to wait to get this resolved. And I feel more could be done to appease my dissastifaction about this incident. This will be a test on Gucci Singapore's service standards. If I do not get good resolution out of this problem, then we will all know what sort of service they offer. The verdict will be out soon.

Do you think I have a right to get an exchange since I can do an exchange on defective goods within 14 days? Or wait till Monday to see what the buyer says?

One thing that upsets me is that the SAs keeps mentioning about repairing the crack on the leather, they did not even remotely mentioned about exchanging the bag, like it was my fault that I damaged it thru my few hours of using the bag. I am seriously not happy about this!