It never ceases to amaze me how companies like Poshmark can get away with claiming that legitimately purchased bags as being “fake”. My good friend had purchased a designer handbag from the retailer which she had paid good money for, only to get an email shortly after her purchase informing her that it had been determined to be a “fake”.
At first, my friend was in complete shock and disbelief over the email she had received. How could the bag that she had bought with her own money be fake? After reading the email several times, she started to get very angry and emotional. She could feel the irritation bubbling up inside her as she thought about how she could possibly set this situation right.
My friend immediately emailed the company and requested for an immediate refund. She also expressed her discontent over the company’s claim that her bag was “fake” and how she felt completely taken advantage of. Shortly after sending the email, she received a response with an apology and confirmation of the refund.
Despite the company having been so accommodating, my friend was still left feeling frustrated and upset. She had invested a lot of time and money into this purchase only to find out her bag was supposedly “fake”. This was not the first time this had happened to her either. In the past, she had been taken for a fool by companies and she was terrified of it happening again.
What my friend found most annoying about the whole situation was the fact that there had been no explanation as to how the company had determined that the bag was “fake”. It felt like the company had jumped to conclusions without properly examining the product my friend had purchased. It was unfair of the company to make such a judgement without properly informing her of the basis upon which their claim had been made.
The emotional distress that this situation caused my friend made her feel like she would never invest in buying anything from Poshmark again. It’s ironic in a sense because she usually turned to online shopping for the convenience and reliability she had come to expect from it.
However, she had experienced none of that from Poshmark. It simply lacked accountability and failed to provide any valid evidence to back up the claim that her bag was “fake”. Worse still, the company had failed to communicate why it had come to that conclusion to my friend and this had clearly had an effect on her trust in the platform.
Entering into conversations about this topic with my friend made me really conscious of how permissible brands have become in their approach to customer service. It doubles my anger to realise that a company can get away with simply sending out an email without needing to properly investigate and provide evidence to back up their claim.
I stumbled across websites and review pages where people had similar experiences and some went on to share their entire journey with Poshmark. It made me wonder why a company with such a widespread customer base would not bother to invest in providing a better service.
It wasn’t until after my friend’s experience with Poshmark that I found out that luxury brands regularly hire third-party companies to investigate the authenticity of products bought from retailers. So it made sense that Poshmark would have also used a third-party company to investigate the authenticity of my friends handbag.
It was then that I realised that even though companies like Poshmark aren’t always at fault for making these claims, it made sense for them to invest in educating their customers about why a product may have been classified as “fake” and how best to avoid mistakes in the future.
It took quite a lot of time for my friend to come to terms with this situation and move past it but in the end, she could at least take some comfort in the fact that she had been refunded for her purchase. Not to mention that she had also learnt an important lesson about buying from online retailers and being extra cautious about authenticity of products.