A piece of cubic kept falling out from a Chanel earring 30-year-old Lim Joo-hyun received from a friend several months ago. When she took it to a Chanel boutique in central Seoul, however, she was disappointed to hear that it would take about a month to be fixed. 

“I was told that they do not have the same piece and that it would be replaced with a similar one which might not fit as well. The cubic fell out about two more times since then. Now I usually keep the earrings safe at home because I’m afraid it might fall out again when I wear them,” said Lim.

So-called luxury brands from overseas are a pain in the neck for many South Korean consumers who expected high-end after-sales services and received almost nothing in return.

According to a document Rep. Lee Seong-nam received from the Korea Consumer Agency in September, the number of consumer complaints regarding 20 luxury brands in Korea was steadily increasing from 407 in 2008 to 596 in 2009 and 995 in 2010.

Kim, a housewife who declined to give her full name, was hoping to give her daughter her old Gucci clutch bag after fixing a tear in it, but was also disappointed to hear from the brand that they do not fix fabric and leather.

“They said that they do not offer any services for leather or fabric, because the moment the materials are worn off, there is no way to undo it. They told me to find a private repair shop instead,” said Kim. 

“It is true that my bag is old but don’t we call it a luxury bag because we are able to hand it down for generations? I am not sure if we can call Gucci a luxury brand anymore.”

A clerk at a Gucci boutique in Seoul said that the brand offers only basic mending services like re-gluing or fixing zippers, snaps or stitches.

Even worse, some shops in local department stores refuse to offer repair services for items that were not purchased in their store, even though it is of the same brand. At Lotte Department Store in Sogong-dong, central Seoul, many watch and accessories boutiques put out signs saying “AS is unavailable for items purchased overseas or at duty-free shops for the rights of department store customers.”

“It is not our policy but some of the brands requested it. We are not in a position to ask the brands to only offer after-sales services for products sold at our department store. The brands may have different policies, so it would be better to ask individual brands,” said a PR official at Lotte Department Store.

Several headquarter offices of such brands, however, did not know about the new regulations. One brand said that AS should be available at any shop nationwide; that they only charge a fee to service items purchased overseas, and would send in an e-mail to the shop in the department store to enable the service.

Still, consumers are frustrated because of the lofty behavior of the brands and boutiques. As an alternative, private repair shops are becoming popular in Myeong-dong in central Seoul and around the Apgujeong-dong area in southern Seoul. Prices vary according to the materials and the condition of the product that is to be fixed.

Customer loyalty, however, remains firm regarding so-called luxury brands.

During the past six years, most of such brands at least doubled or showed explosive 10-fold growth in terms of total sales, according to the audit reports of 12 overseas luxury brands with branches in Korea handed into Financial Supervisory Services.

Louis Vuitton Korea, for example, marked total sales of 497.3 billion won last year, which is more than a four-fold increase since it first exceeded 100 billion won sales in 2006. Prada Korea’s sales skyrocketed as well, from 26.9 billion won in 2006 to 251.2 billion won last year.

“The more expensive it gets, the more Korean consumers love the brand. Inconvenient AS does not really seem to matter to them. As long as consumers continue on coveting luxury goods, they will remain easy prey for the brands,” said an insider in the luxury goods market.

By Park Min-young (claire@heraldcorp.com)