If you have purchased a replica item, refer to Scenario 1 for purchases within New Zealand and refer to Scenario 2 for purchases outside of New Zealand. For some guidelines on purchasing preloved designer to assist in safeguarding you against purchasing a replica item, refer to the section "So what do we recommend?" in our Entrupy article here - as well as why we recommend against relying solely on Entrupy, or other forms of AI, for authentication. For our other guides, including how to sanitise your designer piece and general designer care notes, please click here.

Regardless of whether you purchased a replica item locally or overseas, you are entitled by law to a refund of your purchase; the sale of counterfeit is illegal, regardless of whether you viewed at the time of purchase, the seller is private or commercial and whether they were aware at the time of sale of the item being non-authentic or not. For NZ based sellers, if the seller is commercial, they are also in breach of the Fair Trading Act and Consumer Guarantees Act and if the seller is private, they are in breach of the Contract & Commercial Law Act.

SCENARIO 1: PURCHASE WITHIN NEW ZEALAND

SECTION A: You purchased your item through an online auction platform offering Purchase Protection:

• If you purchased your item through a platform such as Trade Me (TM) or Designer Wardrobe (DW), you may be covered by that platform’s Purchase Protection. As TM and DW are the two major NZ online auction sites with Purchase Protection for designer items, we will deal with these two in detail below. If you purchased on a platform other than these two platforms, please review what that platform's Purchase Protection rules entail - generally there will be a timeframe within which you are able to open a claim. If you are within this window, open a claim and submit evidence supporting your claim. It can be helpful to have a professional authenticator provide supporting evidence. If you do not have a preferred authentication provider, we can assist and you can read in detail about our authentication service here. If your claim is denied, or outside of the Purchase Protection window, or your purchase took place in a way that does not cover you with Purchase Protection, refer to Section B below.
• For TM, if you purchased your item via cash or internet banking transfer, or outside of TM, you are not covered by their Purchase Protection - please refer to Section B below. If you purchased your item on TM and paid via PING or Afterpay, you are covered by their Purchase Protection for an item being non-authentic (coverage is up to $2,500, though TM may opt to cover you for more than this), to read their terms in full and ensure you are covered, click here - if your claim is excluded, refer to Section B below. You can open a dispute from your purchase profile. Please note that a dispute must be opened within 30 days of receipt of the item and that in order to prove non-authenticity, TM will only accept proof from the Design House itself. Unfortunately, none of the Design Houses offer an authentication service. As such, while you can open a dispute and submit evidence as to why your item is non-authentic, and we can assist with this and please click here to read more about our authentication service, the decision on whether or not your dispute is accepted is solely at TM’s discretion. If you open a dispute and your claim is rejected or not covered, please refer to Section B below on what steps are available to you next.
• For DW, an item purchased via their site is covered by their Purchase Protection for being non-authentic. The timeframe within which you can open a dispute depends on whether or not the seller uploaded tracking details to DW’s system when they sent an item to you. If the seller uploaded tracking details, DW’s system will notify you automatically that you have 24 hours from confirmation of delivery of the item to you to open a dispute. If the seller did not upload tracking details, the DW system will automatically notify you within approximately one week of purchase that your Purchase Protection will expire within 24 hours. As long as your Purchase Protection is active, you can open a dispute via your purchase profile to advise you are having your purchase authenticated, to ensure your Purchase Protection is extended and stays active. We are the chosen authenticator of DW and if you choose to have your item authenticated by us and it is found to be non-authentic, this will be accepted by DW as grounds for a return and refund and you will be able to arrange this from your purchase profile, provided a dispute is opened while your Purchase Protection is active. Please get in touch with us at shop@myhaute.co.nz and we will be able to assist. 

SECTION B: You purchased an item and Purchase Protection is not available to you:

• Regardless of whether you purchased your item through, for example, Facebook Marketplace, Trade Me with a cash/internet banking payment, your dispute via Trade Me’s Purchase Protection is rejected or outside of their Purchase Protection window, you purchased from a private seller or through a business such as a pawnbroker or preloved seller, you are covered by law for the purchase of a non-authentic item. The sale of replica is illegal - regardless of whether the seller is private or commercial and whether they were aware at the time of sale of the item being non-authentic or not. Likewise, if you viewed the item prior to purchase and were not aware that the item was non-authentic, this does not negate the seller’s responsibility to provide you with a refund if the item you purchased proves to be non-authentic. Below are the steps we recommend:
  
  

1. We find that it generally works well in the first instance to approach the seller with the benefit of the doubt - they may not have been aware when they sold the item that it was non-authentic and even if they were, giving them room to be amenable can prove worthwhile. Offer them evidence of the item being non-authentic, if you have a preferred authenticator, have them provide you with a detailed report on why the item is non-authentic. If you do not have a preferred authenticator, we can assist and you can read about our authentication service in detail here. It is not uncommon for a seller to refute the charge, offer delay tactics, or not reply when approached. Do not hesitate to follow up if you have not heard back positively within what you consider to be a reasonable timeframe - we generally recommend 24 hours.
2. If a seller is unresponsive to a return and refund, advise them that the sale of replica is illegal, that you are entitled to a return and refund by law, that you can report them to the selling platform they listed on (if applicable), as well as the Commerce Commission (for commercial sellers), as well as file a police report and that you may also apply to the Disputes Tribunal and you can list out to them what this means for them: once you file with the police, this will create a police record for the seller. Likewise when you file with the Commerce Commission and/or Disputes Tribunal, this creates a record. If the Disputes Tribunal finds against the seller (and they will also do so if the seller does not attend a hearing and does not respond within 2 weeks of the hearing) they can order the seller to provide a refund. If the seller still refuses to refund, this can be escalated to a court order to withhold wages/benefits to provide reimbursement or a debt collector can be engaged. All of the above can affect matters such as credit rating, loans, future employment opportunities and visa applications.
3. Generally we find that a seller, when explained the above, can appreciate that the implications of being reported to a selling platform or Commerce Commission (if applicable), a police record and Disputes Tribunal filing are not beneficial to them in the long run. In the instance where a seller is still not amicable to a return, you can choose to proceed to report them to the online platform you purchased from (if applicable), report them to the Commerce Commission if they are a commercial seller (this can be done online here), file a police report (this can be done online here) and file with the Disputes Tribunal (this can be done online here and applicable fees for this can be found here). Once this is done, we recommend getting back in touch with the seller to advise them that you have undertaken these steps and offer them once more the option of a return and refund with, optionally, the offer of withdrawing the reports/claim filed once a return and refund has been arranged. It is not unusual for a seller at this point to decide to refund, in particular if given the incentive of having the reports/claim filed against them withdrawn. If meeting a seller face to face to arrange a return and refund, ensure you are safe - if possible, meet somewhere public, preferably where there is camera surveillance, such as at a mall or bank, and with a support person. If posting an item back to a seller, we advise to use a postage option that includes tracking, signature and delivery confirmation - and advise strong caution in returning an item prior to receiving a refund.
4. To file with the Disputes Tribunal, you will require both a full name and physical address of the seller. If you do not have this information, you can apply for it through the Offical Informations Act here. For purchases transacted through Trade Me, you may also opt to apply for this information through them here.
5. Cash purchases, particularly in the instance where they take place in a public place, as opposed to, for example, a home or work address, can sometimes create additional complication, please contact us at shop@myhaute.co.nz for further guidance, if required.

SCENARIO 2: PURCHASE OUTSIDE OF NEW ZEALAND

• If you purchased your item through a platform that offers Purchase Protection, review what that platform's Purchase Protection rules entail - generally there will be a timeframe within which you are able to open a claim. If you are within this window, open a claim and submit evidence supporting your claim. It can be helpful to have a professional authenticator provide supporting evidence. If you do not have a preferred authentication provider, we can assist and you can read in detail about our authentication service here.
• If the platform you purchased from does not offer Purchase Protection or denies your claim, your payment provider may be able to assist - for example, if you paid via Paypal, you can open a claim via them within 180 days of your purchase. If you used a form of payment that does not support opening a claim, or your claim was denied, and your payment charge was linked to a credit card, you may be able to revert back to your bank for a chargeback directly. The window within which a credit card chargeback claim can be opened varies by bank and your bank will be able to advise you on what the window for their credit card chargeback claims is. Generally we recommend to open a claim no later than 30 days of purchase, to ensure you are within the shortest window offered by certain banks. To open a credit card chargeback claim with your bank, you can contact them directly.

If none of the above is applicable to you, please get in touch with us at shop@myhaute.co.nz.