The bag arrived and it is fake. The stitching is wrong, the hardware is light, the serial number does not match the brand's format. You already paid, and the seller is already gone quiet. The first thing to do is nothing: do not confirm receipt, do not leave a review, do not throw the box away. Every action you take now either protects the refund or destroys it.
Document everything before you touch anything else. Photograph the bag from every angle, the stitching, the hardware, the serial number, the dust bag, the box, the shipping label, and the listing as it appeared when you bought it. Screenshot the listing, the seller's messages, and the payment confirmation. Save the original packaging. The evidence pack is what the marketplace and the bank both ask for, and the listing can disappear while you are still deciding what to do.
File the marketplace claim first. Every major marketplace has a buyer protection process, and the fake is a clear case: the item is not as described, and it is counterfeit. File it in writing, with the photographs attached, and do not accept a partial refund or a return-shipping offer that puts the cost on you. If the marketplace denies the claim, appeal with the same evidence pack, and cite the listing's own claims against the item you received. If the seller has vanished, the marketplace is still liable under its buyer protection terms. A vanished seller is not a dead end. It is the reason the guarantee exists.
If the marketplace claim fails, go to the bank. A chargeback for a counterfeit item is a strong case, and the bank will want the same evidence: the listing, the photographs, the marketplace claim and its outcome. File it promptly. The longer you wait, the weaker the claim, and the more the seller's silence looks like a dispute rather than a fraud.
Do not wear it, do not gift it, do not resell it. Selling a counterfeit, even as a dupe, is itself an infringement, and it turns you from a victim into a seller. Do not confirm receipt on the platform, because that closes the dispute window on some marketplaces. Do not agree to return it to the seller at your own cost, because the return is how the seller gets the evidence back and resells it to the next buyer.
Report the seller too, even if the refund is already coming. The report is what stops the next buyer from going through the same thing, and a seller with a counterfeit report on file is a seller the platform watches. The refund gets your money back. The report is the part that matters to everyone else.
Keep reading: Reporting the Seller Behind the Counterfeit Listing, The Price Is Too Good: What a Fake Listing Costs You Later, and The Seller Catalogue: How a Fake Seller's Listings Give Them Away cover the nearby cases in this series.
Nothing. Do not confirm receipt, do not leave a review, do not throw the box away. Photograph the bag, the stitching, the hardware, the serial number, the packaging, and the shipping label, and screenshot the listing and the payment confirmation.
File the marketplace claim first, in writing, with the photographs attached. If the seller has vanished, the marketplace is still liable under its buyer protection terms. If the claim fails, file a chargeback with your bank using the same evidence pack.
No. Selling a counterfeit, even as a dupe, is itself an infringement, and it turns you from a victim into a seller. Do not wear it, gift it, or resell it.
Do not agree to return it at your own cost. The return is how the seller gets the evidence back and resells it to the next buyer. Keep the item and the packaging until the claim is resolved.