A 30-year-old company worker had to wait for a whole month to replace the strap of her Louis Vuitton Speedy 30 handbag. What was even more incredible was that she had to pay almost 500,000 won ($460). There was a shop specializing in repairing luxury goods near her house but decided to head back to the department store where made the purchase just in case. She has only regrets.
“I complained but the response was something like, ‘If you don’t like it, go to a local repair shop.’ I enjoy luxury products but it seems like they are taking Korean consumers for granted,” she said.
Another 38-year-old office, who recently returned from studying in the U.S., was taken aback when he went to purchase a Mercedes-Benz E350. He bought the same model for $50,000 in the United States but was more than 100 million won ($90,000) here. “Even taking into consideration of the two years that have passed, this is ridiculous.”
This is nothing new in the Korean market but it is getting worse, some consumers say. They had thought that prices would go down after the implementation of Free Trade Agreements and after-sales services leaves much to be desired. “These luxury goods companies continue to maintain the attitude of ‘take it or leave it,’” one person interviewed for this article said.
In actuality, the Speedy 30 costs 1.435 million won ($1,300), which is about 300,000 won ($270) more expensive than in Europe and Stokke strollers, a type of baby walker are usually around twice what they are priced at overseas. In the case of the BMW 7 Series and the Lexus LS, prices here are double those in the United States. Following the initiation of the FTA between Korea and the European Union, Chanel initially lowered its prices by a small margin but then hiked them to a much higher level last February.