Aspinall of London

After my previous scathing review of the product quality of Aspinal (the red handbag) I was reminded that I also purchased a travel set which is a superb quality leather. I had no problems with this product, and I use it often and would recomend this to anyone.

I have also found the name of the sales assistant previously mentioned in one of my letters of complaint Belinda. She was extremely helpful and very patient.

I purchased a red bag from Aspinal this time last year and completely fell in love with the design. I was served by a blonde sales assistant in the Westfield store who, upon request transferred the goods so that my husband could pick up the goods from their city branch.

I found the quality of the leather poor and the bag handle snapped after one week of use. This is totally unacceptable for a £400 bag. I contacted the Aspinal of London customer service department and found them ignorant and rude, but they eventually directed me to one of their branches.

I returned to the Westfield branch with my bag and the same sales assistant served me and agreed to exchange the bag although there were non in stock at the time. She was extremely attentive and, although she only worked part time, called me out of work hours to notify me that the bag was in stock and that I should come into the store the following Saturday to exchange the bag.

However, when I came in store the bag offered was not the same quality leather as my original bag and when I pointed this out to the sales assistant she agreed with me, and consulted her manager about the appropriate action to take. I then explained the problem to the manager, who was extremely rude and obnoxious. She refused to exchange the bag insisting it was the same quality, when it clearly was not as the leather was grainy.

The original sales assistant agreed to find me a new bag of the same quality of my original one and called head office and contacted their other stores. She then personally went to their other store the same day to pick me out a similar bag.

I have awarded Aspinal of London 2 stars for customer service but I would really like to award the sales assistant 5 stars for going above and beyond. I would like to give their customer service department 0 stars for their impersonal approach. It seems as though the management are ignorant to the level of service expected when selling "quality" products. The sales assistant was a credit to the company, but one gets the impression that this is not a one off incident.

I have bought two suede albums on separate occasions, both monogrammed from aspinall of london. The service was extremely quick. Goods delivered perfectly packaged. And I would certainly recommend their gift boxes. No bad points about quality or service. Angelina