We all know designer items are expensive, but we also know they have great warranty and will get you taken care of. However, did you know that many designers will refuse warranty work on an item if it is not purchased from an authorized store and it can’t be have sold at a certain percent below MSRP? Since eDesignerShop does not deal with the manufacturer directly, we do not have an obligation to sell near MSRP, but this means items purchased from us are sometimes turned down for warranty service.

Don’t worry, we got you covered. We offer a one year warranty on all items, including Prada, Fendi, Balenciaga and Tod’s purchased through us. Our policy can be found here:

http://www.edesignershop.net/store/pg/310-Warranty.aspx

What this means, is you don’t have to worry if Prada won’t cover warranty on the BR4098 black you just purchased. If you are buying somewhere else, and the price looks a lot lower than MSRP, ask about their warranty. We all know knock off items may look similar to the real item, but they fall apart very quickly. So is the shop you are buying your items from only there for you at the time you buy the item? Or will they warranty your product? Make sure you are covered if something happens. There isn’t a reason if the item is authentic they would not offer a warranty, because chances are you won’t have a problem, but in the small chance you do, you won’t be stuck.

So, make sure you’re covered when you buy that next designer item! Or just play it safe, choose a nice Fendi Handbag from our store: http://www.edesignershop.net/Fendi_Handbags_Wallets_s/10.htm

Happy shopping!

It’s tough enough to buy stuff online since you are not able to touch that soft Fendi Fabric, smell that Nappa Prada leather or see THE Balenciaga classic design in person, but at least you can get a good look at it with a detailed picture, right?

Wrong. If the place is small, a good sign they are dealing with knockoff items, they do not take their own pictures. their pictures are usually stolen from other websites, and so even when shopping in a category, you will notice not all the pictures are from the same photographer. Some pictures have backgrounds, same bags in different color are taking from totally different angles. In the example below, information is blurred to protect the guilty:

You would never see something like that at eDesignerShop since we have inventory of all the items on our website and we have our own in house photographers for all the pictures on the website. All the pictures always will be in the same angle so you can compare the different Prada bags, or Fendi wallets or Balenciaga items.

Another big red flag is in looking at the detailed page of an item. If you notice, when you click on the thumbnail of a picture, you should be able to see a larger picture, right? Don’t be so sure. If the site is again small, with no inventory and have to steal pictures, you may find that you click on the picture, and it opens up a picture the same size as the original! Even worse, it may open no pictures at all, as in the example below. Again, names blurred out to protect the guilty:

At eDesignerShop, you know the picture you are seeing are of the exact item we have in the warehouse because the pictures are taken inhouse. You know if you try to enlarge a picture, you will be able to do so. You also know that our items are authentic and backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee. Don’t be fooled by cheap imitations!

See our satisfaction guarantee here: http://www.edesignershop.net/store/pg/302-Authenticity.aspx

Shop for our selection of Prada items here: http://www.edesignershop.net/Prada_Handbags_Wallets_Keychains_s/12.htm

It’s time for you next tip to make sure that Prada or Fendi that you buy next online is real and not a bad knockoff copy! So what are the benfits of buying online? Of course, it is cheaper than if you went to a large department store like Neimen Marcus because of the lower costs. Notice the number of lights they have in Neimen Marcus! Those lights are on even on weekdays when tere aren’t more than a few customers in the store. Electricity bill must alone must be in the tens of thousands a month. Even when no customers, there are at least a few employees in each department, right?

So the benefit of buying online is that online stores like eDesignerShop does not have the high overhead that the store has. What’s the down side? You can’t see the item before you make the purchase. This is especially risky because “green” comes in thousands of shades and with a few pictures you might not be able to tell if it goes with that crimson top or that dark stone washed jeans. What’s worse there are a bunch of websites that want to charge you a restocking fee to return it! Not to mention the fact you already paid for shipping the item to you!

Why do they charge you a restocking fee? You just spent $300 dollars on a brand new Tod’s bag, but you don’t like it and they want to charge you 10-15% which comes out to $30 to $45 to put the item back into stock? We’re not talking about something heavy that will take a few people to put back! Bottom line, restocking fees are used by companies that experience a high return rate and this way even if you return the item, they make some money.

At eDesignerShop, we say NO to restocking fees! Once you receive your order, you will have a full 10 days to review the item. If for ANY reason you are not completely satisfied, simply have the return package post marked within those 10 days and there is absolutely no restocking fee. You do not need to contact anyone for any kind of numbers  either. Some people want you to email, or fill out a form to get an “RMA” or “Return Authorization”, etc. You don’t need to do that with eDesignerShop. We also offer free economy shipping to anywhere in the continental United States so you are not out the shipping charges.

Make sure there are no other details they are leaving out. Some companies advertise 15 day satisfation guarantees, but they count the time the package is in transit, so if takes 7 days to get to you, you only really have a day or two to look over the item because likely it will take 7 days to get the item back to them to meet the 15 days. Don’t be caught in the tricks!

To summerize, if the item is authentic and brand new, like you get at eDesignerShop, there is no reason to charge a restocking fee. Make sure the next Prada handbag you add to your collection is exactly what you want and shop with eDesignerShop. If it isn’t the right type of leather or shade of black you are looking for, we will be happy to take it back. If you do keep it, you are also covered by our warranty!

For details on our warranty, see here: http://www.edesignershop.net/store/pg/310-Warranty.aspx

to read all about our easy return policy, see here: http://www.edesignershop.net/store/pg/305-Return-Policy.aspx

At eDesignerShop we often get customers who call us letting us know they have been scammed by a site that popped up just long enough to take their money. The first question that our customer service reps usually ask is:

“Did you try to call them?”

One of the biggest warning signs that the Prada purse or the Fendi wallet you are about to buy is not authentic is if the “Contact Us” page of the particular website is missing any of the following crucial information:

1) Toll Free Phone Number. You should never have to pay a company to contact them, especially when you are about to spend hundreds of dollars with them. It’s the most basic of customer service to have a toll free number for customers to reach them. In case you were wondering, eDesignerShop’s toll free number is 888-498-1688.

2) Address for where they are located. Are they in the United States? Are they in Canada? Red flags should go up if they are located in China, where most of the knock off items are coming from. You should know where the company you are dealing with is based and ships from. How long before you get your items? In the case of eDesignerShop, we are both based and ship from the Silicon Valley in California. This means even when using Free Economy Shipping, your item will arrive to anywhere in the United States within 5-7 business days. Of course if you are in a hurry, express shipping is available.

3) Being a website, at the very least, anyone selling Balenciaga, Prada, or Fendi should at least have an email address. It would be almost impossible for a website to not have an email address to reach them by. However, you may want to try to email something to see if you get a response. A lot of the scammers never reply to their emails. In the case of eDesignerShop, you can email about a Tod’s handbag you are interested in, or check the inventory of that Leather Balenciaga City you want; we will get back to you within 24 business hours.

Basically any legitimate website should make it as easy as possible for you to contact them. Once you contact them, they should get back to you in a timely manner if they expect you to do business with them. So, before you buy that Prada Leather Handbag from a website you’re not familiar with, DOUBLE CHECK that you can contact them and they will get back to you. Making that phone call or waiting a day for the response email could save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

You can contact eDesignerShop from any of the ways found on our Contact Us Page: http://www.edesignershop.net/store/pg/1-Contact-Us.aspx

Every online store has to have some sort of shopping cart software behind it from Amazon.com, to NeimenMarcus.com , to LouisVuitton.com to our website, eDesignerShop.net. It takes a lot of investment to build a secure, professional, dependable site.

What about small companies or individuals that want to sell online? One great avenue is eBay, where you don’t have to have a store at all to sell your items. It only costs a few dollars to list an item and it’s out there. If you have a lot of items to sell, you can open up a yahoo store which costs less than $40 to start.

So if these sites are great, why should you be wary of buying designer products there? First, they are easy and cheap to setup, but they can just as easily disappear. During the years we seen many yahoo stores come and go with the wind, leaving customers scratching their head wondering where to get support, refunds, or questions answered. This is of course the same with eBay sellers. Ebay as a site isn’t going anywhere, but individual sellers are not as dependable.

Because of these reasons, avoid buying expensive designer products from eBay or Yahoo stores. eBay is easy to spot, but how do you spot a Yahoo store? If you look at your browser, no matter if you are using internet explorer, firefox or any of the others, usually to the left of the website address is where you will see the logo of the company.

Here is the butterfly of Neimen Marcus:

Here is the “A” of Amazon:

eDesignerShop eDS:

And for your reference, All the yahoo stores, no matter what their name is, will display the Yahoo Y! logo, including sites like ampmfashion.com:So today’s tip: If you are worried about authenticity, buy from a site that you know will be around. It costs no money to open an account on eBay to sell and Yahoo stores cost less than $50! Why buy a $200+ item from a place that pays less than that to be in business?

We will be back in the following weeks with more authenticity tips for you. To see our collection of authentic designer handbags, go to: http://www.edesignershop.net

You know you’re there when you see the eDS logo

What’s the best way to tell if what you are buying is an authentic Prada Wallet or Fendi Handbag? The short answer:

It’s Not Easy!

When an item goes through a closeout buyout like it does when the item comes to eDesignerShop, the item has gone from an authorized sales channel to a third party that the manufacturer does not deal with directly. Most of the time the items are from previous seasons. The newer items may be from one to two seasons ago, or a few years or more (As of the date of writing this entry, there might be a few items from 2002)!

So no, you may not find the exact item that you see at the Balenciaga boutique in New York, but you might find something that was there last summer. So one sure sign that an item is not authentic is if it is the exact same item as what is currently in Prada stores for ½ the price! Designers have no reason to closeout a current season item that they are selling for full price in stores. However, after the season is over, to make room for next season’s items, it makes sense to sell the leftover stock through outlets or close them out.

In the coming days, we will be adding more tips on, helping you find an authentic item instead of a replica. Check back soon, or better yet, subscribe to our blog.