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25.02.2011, 10:48
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| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | The only thing I took away from this story is : why would anyone pay 1000 CHF for a bag???? | | | | | COrrect what Angela said! They are soft and nice, However i paid 745 for a bag and 210 for a key holder!  
I have now great news! I contacted the lawyer this morning and he was very understanding, i explained him everything.....
He made a compromise and cut down the fine into half!
I will be paying now 100CHF! Yuhu....so this is a good experience I am passing on to the people on EF!
Just have the good arguments and fight for you what you believe in and try to negotiate and you will get what you want!
Have a great day everyone!   | The following 10 users would like to thank Praktikum for this useful post: | | 
25.02.2011, 10:53
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Züri
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| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | ... fight for you what you believe in ... | | | | | Would you own a fake LV product again?
| 
25.02.2011, 10:54
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| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | AbFab, Eyebeebe & PaddyG - are you white northern Europeans per chance? (Begga, I know you are )
No idea what the OP's racs/skin colour is, but I've been through customs 100s of times too and rarely stopped (once in Basel, once in Zurich). But I'm a white Anglo-Saxon.
On the other hand most people I know who are not white (Europeans) get stopped regularly. Including one case a UK national who was stopped "because he was black" - reason as given by border chappy.
Another friend reported that she was regularly stopped when alone (HK British-Chinese) but never when with her Swedish partner.
These are two quick examples off the top of my head. Sorry if this is news to you, but Swiss customs target foreigners as identified by skin colour.
HTH | | | | | Hmm.....So they stop people based on their colour!!!   
Beside to what and how i feel, it can be very true!
I dont look Swiss at all, but I have a very FAIR colour!!! and on that day, I just dyed my hair fresh dark BLACK!   | 
25.02.2011, 10:55
| Junior Member | | Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Zürich
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| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | So I suppose Praktikum is a very very bad girl and the rest of us are really nice people!
We always buy the real things and no no no we never download songs or movies without paying for them.
So what was this thread about? What OP asked for?
In my opinion LV should go after the factories who make those products.
Not for the easy target, the buyer.
But then they will have to deal with powerful countries making serious money from this market. | | | | |
Last but not Least! Louis Vuitton is making money from the people who buy their goods, AND from the people who DON'T!!!
I paid LV twice! | 
25.02.2011, 10:56
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| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | I will be paying now 100CHF! Yuhu....so this is a good experience I am passing on to the people on EF! | | | | | Diplomacy: The ability to tell a person to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.
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25.02.2011, 10:57
|  | Forum Veteran | | Join Date: May 2009 Location: Zug
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| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | Last but not Least! Louis Vuitton is making money from the people who buy their goods, AND from the people who DON'T!!! 
I paid LV twice!  | | | | | Well, not really, as this probably amounts to less than what you would have paid first time round to LV ... | 
25.02.2011, 10:58
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| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | 
I don't have a problem with what Praktikum did, but, to my knowledge, I've always bought the real thing and don't download songs or movies without paying for them.*
What was your point again?
<gets down from moral high ground> *although this may be due to my technical limitations rather than anything else... | | | | | Carlos, i bought real Stuff from LV!
One fake thing was given to me and I travelled with it over 10 years!
Anyway, now it is over and I am looking at the full half of the glass, 100 CHF is fair enough!   | The following 2 users would like to thank Praktikum for this useful post: | | 
25.02.2011, 10:59
| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | You might be wondering how these fakes are made so cheaply. The answer is the factories in the third world make say 100,000 shirts for Hilfiger. Then on the night shift they make another 50,000 and sell these as fakes. So the difference in pricing is mainly the profit the brand names are making. Which fool pays Fr 1,000 for a Fr 30 bag? Not me! | | | | | That is not 100% accurate, in my country they make adidas, GAP and other trademarks and what they do not sell to the companies are called "saldos de exportacion or export leftovers" and they are still sold with the appropriate tickets and they are still original!
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25.02.2011, 11:03
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| | Re: My fake Louis Vuitton contraband was seized at Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | You are a foreigner and get arrested by customs officer often? Hand him this paper:
Dear Mr Officer when
you drive your japanese car,
you tank fuel with arab oil
you switch your korean LCD TV
you drink your scotish whisky
you eat some iranian pistaches
you dine on a swedish table
you have brazilian or new-zealand meat
you have spanish vegetables with italian olive oil
your kids play with chinese toys you have chocolate made with african cacao
you have nespresso with ethiopian coffee
you tranfer money using indian e-banking
you get support from an irish or north african call center
you can finally sleep under egyptian cotton made sheets
you turn off the light coming from a plant fed with russian gaz or nigerian uranium
think about me.
Mr Officer don't tell me now you don't like foreigners. | | | | | suggest to put this one 1st on the list for the Swiss customs officers | Quote: |  | | | By the way, you don't get much LV bag for Chf 1k and the "cheapest" Hermes Birkin is now around Chf 10k. | | | | | My thoughts exactly. You get a handle of the bag, and not the bag itself. Last time I checked it was around EUR2,000-3,000.
Just an addition to the customs officers issue.. I heard that when you start arguing, you get more fines / taxes (they can also stop you and make you pay Swiss VAT when you return from shopping in out-of-Suisse). So better keep silent and agree.
I assume that might have been the case with the OP...
| 
25.02.2011, 11:09
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| | Re: My fake Louis Vuitton contraband was seized at Geneva Airport's Customs
Was going to suggest you negotiate paying half of the 200 chuffs with them Pratikum, seems like you already did. Glad you got it sorted in the end. Just remember moving forward: LV is soooooooooo yesterday | Quote: | |  | | |
On the other hand most people I know who are not white (Europeans) get stopped regularly. Including one case a UK national who was stopped "because he was black" - reason as given by border chappy.
Another friend reported that she was regularly stopped when alone (HK British-Chinese) but never when with her Swedish partner.
These are two quick examples off the top of my head. Sorry if this is news to you, but Swiss customs target foreigners as identified by skin colour.
HTH | | | | | Fail
I'm Asian and have done a fair amount of travelling in and out of Zurich. Never ever been stopped.
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25.02.2011, 11:09
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| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | I send 2 letters to you  | | | | | I think in this case one letter is enough. I suggest the L ... | Quote: | |  | | | LV is soooooooooo yesterday  | | | | | The word is "timeless" dahhling....
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25.02.2011, 11:10
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| | Re: My fake Louis Vuitton contraband was seized at Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | |
Just an addition to the customs officers issue.. I heard that when you start arguing, you get more fines / taxes (they can also stop you and make you pay Swiss VAT when you return from shopping in out-of-Suisse). So better keep silent and agree.
I assume that might have been the case with the OP... | | | | | You pay VAT only if you shop for more than 300 CHF
| 
25.02.2011, 11:13
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| | Re: My fake Louis Vuitton contraband was seized at Geneva Airport's Customs
What do women with breast implants do ? Do they get a fine ???
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25.02.2011, 11:14
|  | Forum Veteran | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Zurich
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| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | Hmm.....So they stop people based on their colour!!!
Beside to what and how i feel, it can be very true!
I dont look Swiss at all, but I have a very FAIR colour!!! and on that day, I just dyed my hair fresh dark BLACK! | | | | | Hope they did not ask you what brand of hair dye did you use 
saved you another 100 chf | 
25.02.2011, 11:20
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| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | good question especially when you know following facts:
- different parts are produced in asia and assembled in France/Spain allowing them to make insane margins while writing "Made in France".
- LV was a family business since end of 19th century and they collaborated witht the pro-nazi regime of Vichy during WWII
- they organize the grey-market when it serves their business. | | | | | I don't get the point. Are you trying to say that they are evil, so it is ok to cheat them? If they are so bad, just don't buy their bags... | Quote: | |  | | | - only 1% of the bags you see in the street are genuine LV bags | | | | | On a global scale. I'd bet that the percentage is better in Zurich. | Quote: | |  | | | I've seen in Paris buses of chinese tourists queuing to buy LV bags for 600 euros (everything is organized that way). | | | | | 600 Euros is a fairly low end model then... Honestly, I have waited in line in front of a LV shop on vacation before myself: The brand never has discounts and in this way you can at least shop tax free. (and some say that the money some of the mainland chinese tourists burn here is not exactly the one on their tax declarations...) | Quote: | |  | | | LV is a damn good business with high margins. | | | | | If you think so - buy some of their stocks. The company is called LVMH and their Moet and Hennesy stuff isn't low margin either.
But to make the picture a bit more balanced:
- How much is the rent for their flagship stores?
- How much is their advertising?
In short: It is not only a high margin business, it is a high margin-extremly high cost business.
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25.02.2011, 11:21
| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | I will be paying now 100CHF! Yuhu....so this is a good experience I am passing on to the people on EF! | | | | | Bad mistake to judge others by your own standards, us EF people are not cheats | 
25.02.2011, 11:33
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: CH
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| | Re: My Louis Vuitton @ Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | I don't get the point. Are you trying to say that they are evil, so it is ok to cheat them? If they are so bad, just don't buy their bags... | | | | | I don't encourage cheating. Many people don't know the history of a brand when they buy it. I never bought and will never buy LV. | Quote: | |  | | | If you think so - buy some of their stocks. The company is called LVMH and their Moet and Hennesy stuff isn't low margin either. | | | | | I'm more Hermes ...but they have some troubles with LVMH. | Quote: | |  | | | In short: It is not only a high margin business, it is a high margin-extremly high cost business. | | | | | Telecom is also high cost business (building infrastructure) but it does not have such margins (after liberalization).
| 
25.02.2011, 11:44
| | | Quote: | |  | | | That is not 100% accurate, in my country they make adidas, GAP and other trademarks and what they do not sell to the companies are called "saldos de exportacion or export leftovers" and they are still sold with the appropriate tickets and they are still original! | | | | | Aren't these what we might call overstocks/closeouts or even seconds (with slight blemishes) in the US? They are original AFAIK, just sold at a reduced price.
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25.02.2011, 11:47
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| | Re: My fake Louis Vuitton contraband was seized at Geneva Airport's Customs | Quote: | |  | | | ^^^ This is the bit I don't get.
I have been through airports literally 100s of times over the years including about 10 times through Geneva and have only once been stopped just once in the green channel at Zurich and then not searched. I was asked where I had flown from. I replied the UK and was waved on... | | | | | My husband has dark skin and he is the lucky one who always get the search. | Quote: | |  | | | You might be wondering how these fakes are made so cheaply. The answer is the factories in the third world make say 100,000 shirts for Hilfiger. Then on the night shift they make another 50,000 and sell these as fakes. So the difference in pricing is mainly the profit the brand names are making. Which fool pays Fr 1,000 for a Fr 30 bag? Not me! | | | | | Spot on! I worked in the industry, I know how it works! Same for the LV leather they used. LV will order 1000 piece of that leather and the manufacturer will make 2000 of them, same quality, same partern. They give the order back to LV and sell or send the other 1000 to their production.  A fake LV can be as good as the original.... believe me, those are not sold for 30-60 euro but more like 300-500 euro. How do I know that? Oh, ummmh, a friend of mine has one... | Quote: | |  | | | - they organize the grey-market when it serves their business.
- only 1% of the bags you see in the street are genuine LV bags
LV is a damn good business with high margins. | | | | | Yep, it is such a huge market, the company didn't want to let pass this opportunity. Let's not foul ourselves, LV and brand names gets their money from the fakes too! Too much money into the equation... | Quote: | |  | | | In my opinion LV should go after the factories who make those products.
Not for the easy target, the buyer.
But then they will have to deal with powerful countries making serious money from this market. | | | | | Nope LV is already making good money from this market, this is why they don't go after the factories... But the play on the image of the poor guy who gets copied and here is the fine (extra cash) to the customer who didn't put 1000$ on their bag but ''just'' 50$... | Quote: | |  | | |
The word is "timeless" dahhling.... | | | | | What kills the brand this huge amount of fake going around.... it isn't cool and sophisticated anymore to own a LV. Because everytime you see one, you'll think it is a fake....  They know that, they have to get as much as possible from it (fakes included) before the brand lose his Timeless, posh image.
| 
25.02.2011, 11:52
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| | Re: My fake Louis Vuitton contraband was seized at Geneva Airport's Customs
Meh, what's wrong with pockets? Keys in one, wallet in the other.
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