The Perfume Emporium have stolen my money

Dean_Hamilton

Just a thought but when Matt pulls the plug does that mean the @theperfumeemporium.co.uk e-mail addresses may not be active any longer? I guess they will only assuming he quickly switches to a new web host.

CatherineEM

My experience is just the same as most of the other reviewers. I placed an order for perfume on 9th June, e-mail on 15th June to say it had been despatched via Royal Mail. No sign. I contacted them on 23rd June and was told by Chris that they had called Royal Mail to see if they had an update and unfortunately they have asked that we wait up to 15 working days after it was dipatched until we can ask them to investigate this further.

Contacted them again on the 26th June and asked for a Royal Mail tracking number so that I could track the order online. Chris emailed me one but of course it didn't come up with anything.

Hello,

Your tracking number is BR319231667GB. I am sorry for this delay.

Chris

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: HCE-371466
Department: Support
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed


I chased again on 2nd July and Chris advised me that "Unfortunately Royal Mail have asked that we process a claim for the loss of this order. We can now either resend this order or refund your card."

Stupid me asked that they resend the order, which he confirmed by email the replacement had been dispatched on 3rd July. Still nothing arrived and after chasing and chasing Chris confirmed by email on 14th July......
"Hello,

The replacement did leave us on the 6th July. I am furious with Royal Mail.
They also have no update on this order and I am not prepared to wait yet another 15 working days.

I can send out another order or refund you in accordance with our terms.
Please let us know.
Chris
I then requested a refund which they confirmed they would action on 15th July but still nothing and I keep being told they aim to process refunds within 48 hours, however, this can take up to 30 days in line with the Distance Selling Regulations.

I keep chasing and asking Chris when I should expect my refund and I keep getting the same reply.

Hello,

We aim to process refunds within 48 hours, however, this can take up to 30 days in line with the Distance Selling Regulations.

Regards
Chris

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: HCE-371466
Department: Support
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed

I emailed again today, asking why it takes so long to issue a refund and received a reply following my email

"FAO Christopher Collings

Please advise me when I am going to receive my refund, you've had my money since 4th June which is 8 weeks. I understand the distance selling regulations and have a copy so I know you are in your rights when you say it can take up to 30 days but the fact that you've actually had my money for 8 weeks now and you are saying I will have to wait until the end of August to get a refund. I don't understand why you can't issue a refund within the 48 hours.

In my firm we always give our clients their refund back onto their card with immediate effect especially to satifsty the Treating Customer Fairly (TCF) Regulations.

Please can you advise me why it is taking so long to issue me with my refund. I will be taking further action accordingly if I don't receive a satisfactory reply.

I also note from your website that you don't have a contact number for me to call you and discuss, I know you have alternative methods of contact the online enquiry template because merely providing an e-mail address is not sufficient. But for those customers who specifically request it you do need to provide a phone number and I am therefore asking for a contact number so that we can discuss my refund."

His reply:

Hello,

Legally, we do not have to provide a phone number. We always do our best to refudn asap but this is not always possible. It will be with you within the 30 days though.

Chris

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: VVO-578478
Department: Support
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed


I know he hasn't actually done anything wrong yet as he has clearly said on his website that a refund could take up to 30 days so he isn't actually in breach of contract, but reading all these reviews on this website as well as CIAO, I just know its going to go on and on and on and don't know if I will ever get my refund.

If he takes his website down tomorrow which could be likley that will be it, we will have no way of emailing him or tracking him down and we will have to say good bye to our money. I know in future to check for reviews about sites before buying something. I've placed hundreds of orders through the web and never experienced a problem so I guess there is a first time for everything.

Good Luck to everyone trying to get their money back!

piemagico

The Perfume Emporium is indeed a fraud - do not use this site.

However, anybody who has been scammed should keep attempting to get a refund. Do not take any rubbish from the proprietor and do not give up hope. My experience was that, after around six weeks, I did get a refund. He had to be frequently and firmly chased, but I succeeded in the end.

Nevertheless, this is a fraud, and should be avoided at all costs.

SelenaLouise

How do we stop him from carrying this practice on? He cant do this to people and get away with it! its not fair!

geoff2

My sons run a successful online perfume website, so I can speak with some knowledge of these issues. It does look as if the Perfume Emporium is not very well run. If they are saying up to 30 days for a refund, that suggests they have cashflow or credit problems, i.e. they don't have sufficient ready money to refund quickly and they've probably got a queue of customers waiting for refunds which they can only service as and when they get more cash into their account. However, their defence as regards Royal Mail is correct - if they have a basic service level agreement with RM, then they do have to wait 15 days before an item is deemed "lost", at which point they can pursue a compensation claim, which RM makes as tedious as possible. There's another big glaring truth that I don't think anybody has touched on - dishonesty of RM staff.. As far as Royal Mail is concerned, most of the time "lost" really means "stolen". Stolen by whom? Royal Mail staff of course. It's the elephant in the room that RM does not properly acknowledge. If an item is not recorded/special delivery, an unscrupulous postman can steal it pretty easily. They can work out what's inside the package and whether it's worth a bit. But has your gas bill ever gone missing? No, I thought not. We're all paying for this theft in the form of higher postal costs. Just remember how frustrating and upsetting it is for a retailer when an item goes missing in transit and they get vilified and threatened and insulted in emails and consumer websites, yet nobody ever blames the Royal Mail, who are the real culprits most of the time. The other side of the dishonesty coin is the unscrupulous customer. Some place fraudulent orders with stolen credit cards, sometimes for £100's; some say they never received their order when they really did; some call their card company and say the goods are damaged and do a chargeback when the goods were really perfectly alright. Still, that said, it's quite possible that in this case Perfume Emporium really are not sending the goods, maybe because they only pretended to have them in stock and they can't actually get any more - grey market supply is not guaranteed. I suppose the moral of the story is do your research before you order.

Ivory_Tinkler

geoff2 this is why it is important that Royal Mail are informed of this problem by everyone on here - it is remotely possible that there is a large scale theft going on but I would have thought that TPE would have been claiming for all these losses anyway. I'm sure that if enough claims are made then Royal Mail get their fraud team involved and start investigating which they should do in this case because the problem has to be at TPE's end with so many bottles of perfume going missing!

rosie789

Loss by Royal Mail doesn't explain why Chris is supplying us with fictitious tracking numbers or has stock emails that he sends to EVERYONE (I much prefer the personal touch). Can't really believe that such widescale thievery is going on against TPE when I've since received a few orders, including the same item I ordered from TPE, from another online trader with no problems whatsoever. Do we really believe that unscrupulous posties are deliberately targeting The Perfume Emporium - possibly they've also been "stung" by Chris and are now taking REVENGE!!:mad:

Honestfriend

geoff2, maybe you are trying to be very nice about Mr/Ms Chris. Truth is I have found out how many claims he has in to Royal Mail for the "lost" parcels. Wait for it ..... as of last week, he had... ONE ....! That really does speak volumes. If you were losing so much money, over such a length of time, you would surely have more than one claim in! And, yes, of course Royal Mail make you jump through hoops to get your money back - with the likes of Chris out there, they would be mad not to! Perhaps you could give us a hint as to the name of the site your sons run, then we could all give it a try.

geoff2

Hi Honestfriend, I'm not particularly trying to be nice, because I do think TPE has a case to answer. I notice that TPE is an American website, so perhaps that longer delivery chain has some flaws ... Anyway, since you asked for a hint as to my sons' site, the logo is red lower case, except for the second letter, which is a large blue "X". Sorry to be coy but I don't want to use the forum to advertise as that wouldn't be fair to Moneysavers - not that they'd be fooled anyway!

melannknee

chops wrote: »

Hello I wonder if someone can advise me...

On 21st March I ordered some perfume from from The Perfume Emporium the total amount was £46.49, I received an e-mail on 24th March to say my order had been dispatched, I still hadn't got my order by 1st April so decided to send an e-mail this is the reply I received :-

"Hello,

I am very sorry that you are still awaiting your order. I am upset that Royal Mail still have not delivered. I can confirm to you that your order did leave us on the 24th March.

I have called Royal Mail to see if they have an update and unfortunately they have asked that we wait up to 15 working days after it was dipatched until we can ask them to investigate this further.

Hopefully, you will receive it much sooner than this and I apologise for the inconvenience caused.

Regards
Chris"

I still hadn't got my order by 15th April so I sent another e-mail and got the following reply,

"Hello,

Although I appreciate the frustration, as set in our terms, we are unable to replace or refund an order until the 15 working days since dispatch have passed. This is because your order could still be delivered.

Please contact us again if you are still awaiting your order on the 16th April. We will either send a replacement or offer a full refund.

I am sorry once again for the inconvenience this delay has caused.

Regards
Chris"

Still hadn't got anything the next day so I sent another e-mail on the 17th April and got the following reply;

"Hello,

Unfortunately Royal Mail have asked that we process a claim for the loss of this order.

We can now either resend this order or refund your card.

Please let us know what you decide.

Regards
Chris"

So I asked for a refund and a reply and confirmation that they have refunded my credit card and since then I've heard nothing at all, I've since googled the perfume emporium and there are loads of bad reviews describing exactly the same situation as my own.

Any advice on what I can do next would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

the company have 28 days to forfill the order for you to recive the goods, after this time if you still have not recived your item call your bank who will get you your money it happened to me with a company called two left feet