Woman Demands A Mum Pay $1,200 After Son Vomited On Her Louis Vuitton Bag!

A mum has turned to an online forum asking for advice following a rather messy situation involving her young son, an aeroplane and a very expensive Louis Vuitton bag.

Posting her dilemma to Mumsnet under the username Incognitoforonenight, the distraught mother explained that while mid flight her young son ended up vomiting over a fellow passenger’s designer bag.

The $1,200 LV tote bag wasn’t stained by the vomit but let’s just say it did retain a rather unpleasant odour. One which the owner says is impossible to get rid of.

Describing the unfortunate incident on Mumsnet, she said turbulence caused her son to be sick. ‘An hour later, the lady behind my seat speaks to my DH (dear husband), saying: “hope your son is okay but he was sick and it’s on my handbag”.

‘We apologised and she said- “No, it’s on my handbag, it’s very expensive and you need to get your insurance to pay for it to be repaired/cleaned.”

The owner of the bag even took it to a Louis Vuitton store and they couldn’t remove the smell either! The family received a scathing email from the pissed off bag owner demanding the money be coughed up to replace the stinking LV. So what’s to be done in this instance? Should the mum have to replace the bag or just offer to have it professionally cleaned again?

It’s a tough one. Some readers said the mum isn’t obliged to do anything under the circumstances and even questioned the authenticity of the bag.

“I don’t think you are legally obliged to replace the bag. And even if you were, it would be reasonable to require her to prove that it really was damaged and that it was genuine. I also think you would be on order to replace with a 2nd hand one, as that bag is not new. I don’t have any LV bags, but I think it’s unlikely a vomit smell would linger unless it went on the handles; isn’t the rest of it some sort of coated material?”

“Unless your son purposely puked on the bag, I don’t think she has a leg to stand on, does she? I would politely say you’re not paying and leave it.”

While others agreed with the LV lady, saying they too would be annoyed if their bag smelt of vomit constantly- especially an expensive designer one!

“I think you’re liable. It’s no-one’s fault really but at the end of the day your child has ruined her bag. It just so happens that she has £900 bag, that’s her choice. Ask yourself if she’d said it was £10 from Primark I bet you would have just given her the £10. This is what travel insurance is for. ”

“So she wiped the vomit off but the bag still smells. I can see her point kind of. I would pay for the bag to be cleaned professionally.”

I must say, this story totally reminds me of a Sex and The City episode where Carrie was asked to take her shoes off before entering a friend’s party, only to find someone had stolen them at the end of the night. After much back and forth between Carrie and the home owner her shoes were eventually replaced, which is just as well because they were a STUNNING pair of Manolo Blahniks!

Now, back to the handbag. What’s really the issue here? Is it the value of the bag or the fact that someone’s property was damaged? Would we have an issue if it was a cheap $20 bag that could easily be replaced? I don’t think so. I believe it has everything to do with the price of the handbag. Imagine spending so much money, only to have it smell of puke every time you use it. On the other hand though, it WAS an accident and perhaps the LV owner could’ve been a bit more careful where she placed her bag?

What do you think? Should the mum have to fork out money to replace the handbag? What would you do?

Images: Mumsnet