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The Fashion Faux Pas of Gabrielle An unconventional fashion blogger trying to find her place on the internet

fashion•Uncategorized

Buying a FAKE Gucci Marmont belt on Depop

20/11/2017

Okay, I’ve had a couple of issues in the past with sellers on Depop (items not sent, shouldn’t have been listed, seller not responding etc.) but I really wanted to give this app a go as I’ve heard some great stuff!
I’ve been obsessing over the Marmont Gucci belt for a while, not because of the name but purely because it’s a beautiful, timeless belt. But at £270 a pop from Gucci’s website I could never justify spending that much on a belt – a bag any day, but it seemed excessive even for me.
So, I’ve been hunting online to find one second hand which have tended to be around the price point of £200. Based on this you’ll understand my surprise at finding one on Depop for just £40!
Being the ever so vigilant fashionista, I messaged the seller to ask for proof of authenticity (thinking maybe a receipt, dust bag etc.) as it seemed like a steal for an authentic belt. He replied and said that he didn’t have any of that, just the photos and the serial code on the belt. I told him I’d need to check I had enough money and would probably buy tomorrow (not the full truth as I wanted to do some research – but I did want to check how much money I had in my Paypal from refunds for a couple of bits I’d returned to ASOS & Hobbycraft). Here are a couple of the photos featured in the ad;

And then off I went to Google after noting down the serial number from the pictures “114984AA61N11546626040” and spending some time (when I should have been sleeping – as I type this first part Aaron’s out for the count next to me lol) looking into what I need to look for when spotting a fake online.
I found a couple of points on various websites and thought it would be handy to summarise (for a more thorough overview, eBay have some great forums for this kind of stuff – make sure to check out the link I used here which covers a broader range of belts, packaging and dust bags than what I’m discussing today);

  • Genuine Gucci belts will have 5 buckle holes ✅
  • They will have a 21 digit serial number ❌ I did a character count on Google and this had 23 (after receiving the belt I had the sense to do this, but must have miscounted before ordering – I did a Google search on the serial code and nothing came up so I wasn’t too concerned)
  • Buckle should be held by leather and not aluminium ✅
  • The stitching should be straight and stitches tight, same length and consistent ✅
  • Genuine high quality leather (which I’ll need to check once received)
  • Belt buckles should be soldered on (again I’ll need to check this once received but it looks like it is on the photo)
  • Identifying Gucci stamp – should include “Made in Italy” and a serial number (as per above) ✅
  • Typically the serial number should start with “223” or “114” ✅

Based on the above – I decided to bite the bullet and purchase on Saturday 4th November 2017. I made sure to do everything through Depop as they’ve made it quite clear that if an issue should arise when payments have been made outside of the app then you won’t be protected should there be an issue with payment, delivery or the item itself.
Roll on to Tuesday morning and I get a knock at the door from the postman – I’d completely forgotten by then what I’d ordered so was pleasantly surprised that the belt had arrived!
Straight up – the belt was too big which was unfortunate, but not a complete issue as I could always add another hole to make it fit me. I then went on to check the last couple of points above;

  • Belt buckles should be soldered on ❌ I went online after receiving and found a couple of videos where this part of the buckle doesn’t look the same

  • Genuine high quality leather ✅ – you can smell a genuine leather a mile off and this has got the smell, plus the thickness, sheen and feel is bang on!

Without the documentation to authenticate this, I can’t out and out confirm this isn’t a knock off belt, but I’m quite confident it’s not genuine – the seller also had a couple of the same item for sale and the serial number of the one that arrived was different to that on the pictures; 114985AA6111120.48525040.
The final thing I noticed which confirmed this was too good to be true was the stitching holding the belt buckle on – you can’t notice in the pictures from the ad, but looking at it in real life, one of the lines of stitching wasn’t straight and consistent like the rest of the belt!
FAIL!
Back onto Depop I went to contact the seller about my order and ask whether I could get my money back for a counterfeit item, only to find…

They either have already been reported and removed or decided that now they’ve sold me a fake belt that they would remove their account! I messaged the seller but am not expecting to hear anything back.
I’ve opened up a dispute on PayPal and am hoping to get my money back soon. I got in contact with PayPal after they sent their standard email asking for me to return it to the seller (I was a bit reluctant as I didn’t want them to sell it on to another unsuspecting buyer or to get in trouble for handling counterfeit goods) and they confirmed that it was okay for me to do so as it was the first time this has happened and they would be monitoring the account in future.
Final Thoughts
This is a really lovely belt, despite some of the issues flagged above. I’ve been able to test and document some of the things you need to look out for when purchasing designer goods at a price that is probably too good to be true, so for the sake of my readers – some helpful tips have come out!
This is unfortunate as the rest of the belt was looking pretty promising – I think I’ll do a comparison once I can afford to buy a genuine one using this post to do so (heads up, this won’t be for a while because I can’t afford a full priced one right now!)
Let me know about your experiences with purchasing designer on Depop and whether you’ve had wins or fails when purchasing in the comments below!
I’ll make sure to write a follow up post once I’ve heard back from PayPal and Depop but I’m guessing it’s going to be a while!

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Comments

  1. Katie Henry says

    23/11/2017 at 1:01 pm

    I’m always cautious about buying online because of things like this. Very sorry you couldn’t get your money back, best of luck with any other bargains you may find.

    Reply
    • Gabrielle Banner says

      23/11/2017 at 1:27 pm

      Yeah me too, but I’ve managed to bag some really good pieces before so I’m not totally put off! I’ve since had a refund so will be doing a follow up post about that 😊

      Reply
      • Audrey says

        21/08/2018 at 3:49 am

        Did you get your refund from Paypal or depop?

        Reply
        • Gabrielle Albon says

          21/08/2018 at 4:51 pm

          I did get a refund in the end – I had to return the belt to the seller though, but made sure to check with PayPal beforehand to make sure I wasn’t doing anything criminal!

          Reply
  2. Nunya says

    23/07/2018 at 5:32 am

    You seriously expected a $40 belt to be authentic when they retail for $350+? I find that a bit gullible in your part. No shame in buying replicas, but don’t act like you were fooled into purchasing something legit when the price is 10% of what it should be.

    Reply
    • Gabrielle Albon says

      23/07/2018 at 4:54 pm

      I would say wishful and not gullible – I’ve bought some authentic designer items for a fraction of the cost and decided it was worth giving it a go as I would be protected if it wasn’t genuine. This post has helped a lot of people (I get a lot of traffic) so if me being “gullible” helps them, then I’m okay with that.

      Reply
  3. Paolo Bianchi says

    26/04/2020 at 9:41 pm

    People like you just dont understand. You call yourself a “fashionista” and do all this research on signs of wether the belt is fake or not. Sellers of fake Gucci belts EXPECT buyers to know that it is fake when it is only £40. Literally tens of thousands of people in the western world want a fake rather than paying crazy prices. When a seller lists on one of these sites (depop, ebay, gumtree etc.) they cant give an indication that it’s fake because the listing will be removed but there is an assumption that buyers realise the time of day. You will never get a genuine Gucci belt for £40. Save the time and knowledge that’s been built up for researching the secondary market when prices are at high levels because that’s were the real frauds are. If a seller offers a gucci belt or any premium designer product for that matter at £40 dont research, dont question, dont study just act like an adult and understand. I HATE buyers like you. Think your smart and operate on another level but actually a moron

    Reply
    • gabriellealbon says

      26/04/2020 at 9:51 pm

      Hi Paolo, thanks for taking the time to comment on this post – if anything this is highlighting a point that there are sellers using Depop as a platform for selling counterfeit products. I’d only used the site a couple of times prior (you’ll note this post is now a couple of years old) and I wasn’t as savvy when it came to checking out sellers at the time. I’ve purchased a genuine vintage Mulberry bag for £50 on eBay before, so the belt being genuine didn’t seem outside the realms of possibility. Obviously hindsight is a bitch and I should have seen it beforehand, but I’ve helped thousands of people avoid making the same mistake by sharing this, therefore reducing the amount of buyers you “hate” – you’re welcome.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Follow up on the fake Gucci Marmont belt – The Fashion Faux Pas of Gabrielle says:
    29/11/2017 at 5:49 pm

    […] recently wrote a post Buying a FAKE Gucci Marmont Belt on Depop (make sure to check it out if you haven’t already) and said I would write a follow up once […]

    Reply
  2. Five reasons you need to shop with ASOS – The Fashion Faux Pas of Gabrielle says:
    09/02/2018 at 5:01 pm

    […] and energy purchasing what turned out to be a fake on one Depop – you can read all about that here) and when I realised it was STILL out of stock, I took to good old Twitter to ask them if they were […]

    Reply

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