BrandAlley denies accusations of selling fake Prada handbags

Designer flash sales site BrandAlley has denied allegations made on BBC's Radio 4 consumer show, You and Yours, which stipulate that the website sold fake Prada handbags. During the programmes Monday show, BrandAlley shopper Qian Huang revealed that she chose to purchase her Prada handbag from

the flash sale website because she had been a loyal customer for several years.

After failing to deliver a Prada handbag Huang order during BrandAlley's winter sale last December, the London-based shopper claims that the website got in touch with her via Facebook this February to notify her of its new flash sale for designer handbags.

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Alley accused of selling fake Prada handbags

She ended up purchasing four Prada handbags for over 3,000 pounds, being won over by the 30-40 percent discounted offered by BrandAlley. However, when the designer handbags arrived she noted that “the wrapping was different”. The handbags were wrapped in plastic bags, rather than the cloth dust bags Prada provides for its leather goods.

Later when Huang was browsing a purse forum online she discovered several comments from disgruntled shoppers, who claimed to have been sold fake handbags by BrandAlley. She decided to take the handbags to the Prada store in London to have them verified.

The fashion house sent two of the handbags Huang purchased from BrandAlley to its headquarters in Milan, who stated that the handbags were not genuine Prada products. BBC's Radio 4 stated that they have confirmed this report with Prada, who added that BrandAlley is not an authorized Prada seller.

Prior to her interview with Radio 4, Huang contacted BrandAlley with her concerns surrounding the counterfeit handbags and the flash sales website agreed to give her a full refund and shared their concerns with Prada's report on its handbags. BrandAlley declined an invitation to meet with the hosts of BBC's programme, but sent in the following statement:

“BrandAlley is a highly successful business and its reputation is based on offering for sale authentic designer goods to its customers at substantially discounted prices. Around 90 percent of its products are purchased directly from the brand owner and the remainder from authorize retailers.”

“In all cases, BrandAlley has a rigorous process to satisfy itself that all products offered for sale are authentic. BrandAlley treats any allegation of counterfeiting extremely seriously and has never previously had the authenticity of any of its products questioned by any brand owner.”

“The supplier of the two Prada bags in question has fully satisfied us that they were sourced from Prada. We are undertaking an urgent investigation into the authenticity of the goods and we are deeply disappointed that the BBC has broadcast this story before we had the opportunity to complete our investigation.”

The flash sales site revealed to Drapers that they had been conducting their own separate investigation to confirm the authenticity of the handbags since becoming aware of the situation. “The supplier of the bags in question has fully satisfied us that they were sourced from Prada, and they have now been independently confirmed as genuine Prada products by an expert authentication agency,” said BrandAlley in a statement.

This is not the first time a disappointed customer has spoken out against BrandAlley. Over the past year an increasing number of let down shoppers have taken to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to share their poor experience with the flash sales website.