The Perfume Emporium have stolen my money

BellaMay21

I was thinking of checking who regulates them after they told me my refund will take 116 days.. I asked for a different set of goods and they said they could not do that either. Scam or what ? I think we need to ensure that this does not happen to future unsuspecting buyers. I have now noticed they are also selling through Amazon.. Amazon not credit check sellers ??

I order goods all the time over the internet and even with the postal strikes and problems I always get my goods delivered. Perfume Emporium tried to blame Royal Mail but I know it is not a problem at Royal Mail.

See below the email I got back from Chris with regards to how long my refund will take.

They would rather I wait almost 4 months for my refund .. can I just say the initial order was made in July ?

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

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Original Message

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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]From: Chris [EMAIL="support@theperfumeemporium.co.uk"]support@theperfumeemporium.co.uk[/EMAIL][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sent: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 8:24[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Subject: [xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxdispatched[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hello,Many thanks for your continued patience.Your refund cheques are currently due in 116 days.ChrisTicket Details===================Ticket ID:Department: SupportPriority: NormalStatus: Closed[/FONT]

dylan1273 wrote: »

iam assuming my next email from "chris" will be stating there is an invsetigation going on please wait. but will keep you informed

p.s i looked up the company number as they are supposed to be vat registered but that comes back as a bad number so i have contacted HM inland revenue to ask if they are infact a VAT registered company

legaleagle84

As a barrister, Chris picked the wrong person to attempt to defraud. I issued a quick court claim against him and the funds for my refund have just cleared in my account. Below are the steps I followed. Simply do likewise and you too will receive your money back. Forget email pleading - Chris will bombard you with excuses about Royal Mail and delays in processing refunds. IGNORE EVERYTHING HE SAYS. IT IS SIMPLY LIES AIMED AT DELAYING YOUR REFUND. Patiently wait 30 days from your order and then send the following email to Chris, inserting the details in the square brackets:

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Dear Chris

On [DATE] I placed my order with The Perfume Emporium, paying £X for “[PERFUME]”. This should have arrived at my dispatch address by [30 PLUS ONE DAYS FROM DATE OF ORDER] in accordance with section 19(1) The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, which states:


19.—(1) Unless the parties agree otherwise, the supplier shall perform the contract within a maximum of 30 days beginning with the day after the day the consumer sent his order to the supplier.


Having failed to perform the contract by [30 days plus one following the placing of my order] , you are now required to reimburse me in full pursuant to section 19(4) of the Regulations:


(4) The supplier shall make the reimbursement referred to in paragraph (2)(b) as soon as possible and in any event within a period of 30 days beginning with the day after the day on which the period for performance expired.


The relevant date for reimbursement under the legislation is therefore [62 DAYS AFTER DATE OF ORDER]. If the full sum is not paid by this date, I shall issue a claim against you and you will be required to pay the cost of issue of £25, increasing the figure owing to £[money owed plus £25].

Regards etc

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If the refund has not arrived by that date, issue a county court claim online against "Chris Collings T/A The Perfume Emporium". The weblink is ww.moneyclaim.gov.uk. It will cost £25 to make a claim, but this is added to the amount due and Chris is required by law to pay it. Simply follow the on screen instructions. The address is found on the Perfume Emporium Website:



When you are prompted for the Particulars of Claim, feel free to use the below template, inserting the details in square brackets as appropriate (leave the round brackets in place):

PARTICULARS OF CLAIM

1. The Defendant is a sole trader engaged in the sale of perfumes. On [DATE OF ORDER], by electronic agreement on the Defendant's website the Defendant agreed to sell and deliver to the Claimant [QUANTITY] bottle(s) of [DESCRIPTION OF FRAGRANCE] (the Perfume) for the price of £X.

2. It was an implied term of the contract that the Perfume would be delivered to the
Claimant's home address by [30 DAYS PLUS 1 FROM THE DATE OF ORDER].

3. On [DATE OF ORDER] the Claimant paid £X to the Defendant.

4. In breach of the contract, the Defendant has failed to supply the Perfume.

5. Because of the matters set out above the consideration for the payment of £X has
wholly failed.

AND the Claimant claims

(1) £X


There is a character limit on the Particulars of Claim and so you may need to amend the formatting of the above template (delete spaces and line breaks) in order to stay within the limit. There is an option to reserve the right to claim interest, but on most orders this will be a matter of pence and calculating it is frankly more hassle than it's worth, so I did not bother with this.

Email Chris with the claim reference number as soon as you have issued it. Chris has 14 days to respond to the claim, and 28 days in which to defend it. He will in all likelihood put a cheque in the post on the day the claim is served (usually two working days from the date of issue). If he does not respond within 14 days, you can enter judgment in default, details of which are explained on the MoneyClaim website.

Follow the above steps and you should get your money back. Feel free to spread the word and post this guide on other forums. The more people getting their money back from this conman, the faster the wheels will fall off his nasty little scam.

MothballsWallet

CatherineEM - it's been a legal requirement since 1st Jan 2007 for company websites to list full contact details (postal address, email address, phone number and fax number): this is policed by the DTI (or whatever they call themselves now).

Edit to add: Just remembered, the DTI became the BERR, and is now the BIS; the BERR website is here while they sort out their multiple websites into one.

Fedup2009

The advice from Leagaleagle84 is fantastic, but how to proceed if you've actually cancelled your order?

Following advice from this thread I wrote the following email 10 days ago, but the only response I've had from Collings is indirectly ... i.e. he responded to the RapidSwitch Abuse ticket by writing "The Perfume Emporium is no longer of RapidSwitch's network." (what a surprise!). The Money Claim Online site was quite daunting :eek:, and the cost is more than the item not provided - even though in theory I should get it paid by Collings.

MY EMAIL:

Dear Mr Collings

I emailed this morning to report that the order (quoted) which I made on 11th October, and which you advised was dispatched on 16th October, had not arrived.

Having since read a truly shocking amount of online complaints about non provision of goods sold via theperfumeemporium.co.uk, I now wish to cancel my order and obtain a refund.

The Supply of Goods & Services Act 1982 states you should supply the refund immediately on request. This takes priority over the Distance Selling Regulations.

If I do not receive a refund of the £18.95 I paid for the Tatiana eau de Parfum and its postage within 10 days, I will commence a claim via Money Claim Online.

I would also like to take this opportunity to get in 'early' and alert RapidSwitch of my complaint re goods not provided (cc'd to this message): The Perfume Emporium IP address being 78.129.247.29 and sister company Sentry Hostings' IP address being 78.129.247.184.

Yours sincerely,
(etc, etc)

Charliezoo

I've been following this thread even though I'm lucky enough to have not been affected.

I'm confused as to how this guy is still trading, how many complaints does it take before action is taken? It must be pretty clear this is a scam by now; the RM don't always provide the best ever service but surely loss on this scale from just one company is unheard of??

legaleagle84

Fedup2009:

The advice from Leagaleagle84 is fantastic, but how to proceed if you've actually cancelled your order?

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The same applies. You have 30 days from receiving the goods to cancel your order, so you can cancel at any time after ordering (assuming the goods don't arrive). Just cancel, wait until 30 days after ordering and then proceed as outlined in my above post. That was what I did. Having failed to receive my order twice I did some digging online, discovered the scam and immediately cancelled my order. Then you wait until 30 days from the date of ordering (note the date of ordering, NOT the date of cancelling) and then send the message as above.

Money Claim does seem daunting, but is actually not too complicated. If you have any specific queries post them on here and I'll be happy to help.

dronners

I am yet another victim of this conman - same story as everyone else. I am still waiting for my refund and will not stop until I get it. SOme great advice on here, thank you.

I just want to know what we can do to close this scam down. Coming up to Xmas thousnads more will be duped and he will continue to defraud people and get away with it. What can we do?

ifstar

As I a said above, if you try writing him a letter as above threatining a small claim and send it recorded delivery then that might be enough as this is what worked with me.

elmlea_em

Like meny of you on here i fallen into this trap, wish i had seen this before ording :mad:
At present i ordered 28/10 all in good time for Christmas, goods still not arrived !!, did chase e-mail to be advise i must wait the 15 days before claim can be logged with Royal Mail, he did give me traking number.

Can i cancel order now or do i have to wait the 30 days from ordering before taking this further?

rosie789

Definately cancel NOW!!! Legally there is no need to wait, and the sooner you cancel the quicker you'll get to "30 days from cancellation" before you can threaten small claims action and stand some chance of getting your money back. GOOD LUCK!!