"Pointing out the poor customer service, slow shipping and watered down scents would be stating what everyone has pretty much already said, but it can't be stressed enough that you should NOT spend your money with these people.
The final straw for me came after I placed my order, had my credit card charged, then heard nothing for almost a week. I sent a message to their "customer service" department, which took another 4 days before I got what amounted to a petty excuse -but of course no mention of the fact that one of my orders was not in stock and was not shipping with the tiny "sample" I also ordered. I got to experience that joy over two weeks later via a little pink note in my order that stated nothing other than the fact that the item was on back order. No offer of refund, no estimated time of when I could expect to see my order -nothing.
Like many other people here, I too will be making every effort to review this "business" and expose it for what it is, an amateur enterprise that sells high-priced and watered down fragrances, with zero customer service.
If you're still willing to give the people your money after reading the reviews, you have only yourself to blame.
YOU'VE BEEN WARNED."
"I have ordered from The Perfumed Court for several years and have not had a problem. "
"Ok experience with this store"
"Well, frankly, I’m very surprised to see a bad review on this site. I can only imagine that some people have unrealistic expectations.
Personally, I have ordered from this site a number of times and have had only positive experiences. I couldn’t be a more satisfied customer and will continue to order from this site. They have made personal recommendations when asked, delivered what I have ordered (always a quality product) and in a reasonable amount of time. What’s not to like?
For anyone not familiar with The Perfumed Court I also want to add how much I enjoy visiting it, whether to shop or just peruse. The site is just chock full of information including: a glossary, descriptions of fragrance families, information on perfume notes, descriptions of individual perfumes, etc. By being able to order individually or by different categories such as perfume house, price, experience level, etc. etc. you are given an almost infinite number of choices. Something (or many things) for everyone.
This site fills a niche that is definitely needed. I, for one, am very glad that they are here and will continue to visit and purchase in the future."
"shipping was in time no problem with that i ordered 7 small vials some of them were watered down ."
"I purchased a hefty order with this company & received 2 seperate orders which is ok. It took 11 days to arrive I can deal with that too but, I ordered some high end fragrances & one of their shippers orders were fine. However the higher end fragrances came from a shipper in CO & I am firmilliar with all but one of these & they are VERY WATERED down almost to the point there was very little scent. I sent an email to them & I'll see what they say. If I have any problems, I will contact the BBB & I paid via PayPal so Im sup to be covered. Ive never had to test that but I may have to do so with this company. I'll update my review after hearing back. But Buyer BEWARE any company that will send you watered down fragrances is NOT a company that can be trusted."
"Well, to get the ball rolling on reviewing this online company and quite possibly a negative customer experience to come, given the excessive time frame for them to send my order, I write this in the hope that I have to retract it all if the order does indeed arrive.
Call it a premeptive strike it you will. But after reading some other reviews on here, I feel there is some cause for concern.
Firstly, this company had sent me a tracking number for part of my order, sent 10 days ago via USPS ...and still no info on the exact whereabouts of the package....and given that I live in close proximity to the source....that time frame is totally out of sync with whats normally expected for all mail in this area. Normally 4 days at the very max is to the norm....
There is the typical blurb on the website about waiting at least 3 weeks before they ship out a replacement package....
Now, you say , whats the big deal ...just wait the allotted time frame and then contact them directly?
For one thing I seemed to never had bad exp with them when ordering less high end products...but upon ordering items that are popular and in demand in fragrance circles ....I never receive my merchandise ......a number of things come to mind:
1. If the company is out of stock of these items, why not send me an email directly to indicate that and refund the money
2. The markup is not that high compared to other "lesser" brands and I always always received the other items in no time at all.
3. In this day and age of internet shopping, good communication is essential and a given when we do business online, otherwise incur the wrath of unhappy customers.
4. And I hate to say this , but I like many get the sense that this company is doing us all a favor in being in business and we should do what they say and desire in how we deal with them . There is an overriding feeling of bowing down to their dictates. Like in some ways 3 diff ladies working from their home salons ...almost Marie Antoinette airs about them....where the normal rules do not apply ..and we shall do as we please if you will. I could be totally off key on that one, but I have to be honest as I get that distinct impression all told.
5. In this era of efficient stock mgmt, there are many sofware systems available to address keeping you and the customer informed as to what is in stock and what is not and when it will be available for shipping......In my case are they waiting for a new bottle of my order to arrive and then decant.
6. Now this is what I find troubling and I have to be careful as to suggest such could open a whole legal pandoras box for them and honestly I have not investigated enough to be entirely certain, but they indicate 1ml decants, when in fact I have noticed the little decant containers in my last order to be much smaller than the ones used in the past. Like splitting hairs some might say, however, take into account how a fraction less in each decant adds up over time. And they send out many many orders.
So, my order may arrive or may not. Already it is way past acceptable for any internet order and most especially an order that is letter sized at the very most. I would have loved to offer some positive feedback and even with the success I have had with them in the past. But I did not feel overly enamoured in that time. Could this be the straw that finally broke the camels back?.....stay posted
Finally, I just wish Luckyscent offered some of the fragrance samples available at theperfumedcourt.....I have had no issues with them in the past .....and they run a good efficient operation that does not spank of archaic smuggness and arrogance.
"
"My first time ordering from Perfume Court was last week.
Patty's portion of my order waited 3 days to ship after the order was placed, arrived today and I could smell the samples from outside the package before opening. They were leaky.
Diane's contribution to this order was shipped about 4 days after order placement -a solitary Chergui sample - which took over a week to arrive?
More than one email to customer service regarding leaky samples and slow shipping - unanswered.
Too expensive for the lousy, or I should say NO customer service.
Never again."
"I have terrible experience with The Perfumed Court: the shipping was on time. However, perfumed I have ordered I know very well, because I have bought them before. Now, the scent of perfumes is nothing like the original: not happy with it, of cause. Beside, I have ordered sample sizes: sized of bottles I got I could have receive for FREE in department stores where I buy my perfumes. So, I have no idea what The Perfumed Court is still doing in the business and who really want to deal with it? I don't! Never again!!!"
"After reading other people's experiences with this company, I decided to write a review on my recent experience with The Perfumed Court. Mine has been just terrible. Like the most recent one, I had the same experience with a customer svp rep who just argues with you, makes excuses and instead of being professional and trying to remedy the problem, could care less about customer satisifaction but blames others. I agree completely with the recent review which mentions that this company cares more about saving a penny than their retention of customers.
In a nutshell, I placed an order over THREE weeks ago, on Dec 15th, plenty of time to arrive for xmas, via usps which I never received. I informed them IMMEDIATELY after xmas. The customer service rep quoted a 3 week policy that I needed to wait until they reshipped another, AFTER I told them it was a Christmas gift and that I'd ship it back should it ever arrive!
To make it worse, we both assumed the package went missing AT THAT POINT with usps being that the tracking info never updated and it had been over 2 weeks, yet even while complaining about how horrible the usps is for loosing things, knowing it was a xmas gift that hadn't yet arrived, she still wouldn't resend at that point.
At first, she also basically blamed the owner first for being sick and not sending my package out during their 3 day tyical timeframe, but rather in the end of their max, being 5 days (which we dont know to be true since the tracking only shows date they received notification for shipment not actual shipment- I have asked the date of shipment and after 5 emails still don't know the date- for all I know it never shipped!). STILL wouldnt resend knowing this.
Sending out a package FIVE days later is also rediculous being every other company is rushing orders for xmas, but fine the owner it sick and they only ship via usps so it's not like I could have expedited it using fedex or something. So, in this case a good professional company SENDS another out knowing the problem was on their end whether it be your "handling" bec of illness, or the usps. Even if it's not, still it's good customer svc to meet the customers needs. And even MORE So for a Christmas gift!
She constantly blamed the usps repeatedly and even when I promised to send their package back should it ever arrive, they still won't resend the package even after knowing this was a gift for my wife and as of NOW, it's been TWENTY FIVE days since i placed my order at my last contact with them. --which has been several-- All she does is quote the policy which states that you need to wait 3 weeks bec of THEIR insurance policy, which only reimburses them for a loss, which they wouldn't have had if the customer, ME, sends it back to them!!!
Plus, it's been OVER 3 weeks now TWENTY FIVE DAYS and they still won't resend until a min of Jan 10th, 27 days, when I placed my order on Dec 15th!! How crazy is this!
Well, policies are in place to meet certain needs and when they don't, they need to be modified. She mentioned that if they reshipped right after a few days when someone didn't receive their product, they'd have no way of getting their product back should it ever have arrived. Sure, after 5 days, that makes sense NOT THREE WEEKS and when the person tells you they will happily send it back to you, that this was a gift which never got here ontime, when your owner was ill and sent it out much later than typical and expected, when you right away assume the usps "failed us", a GOOD PROFESSIONAL COMPANY reships and without being asked.
NOT to mention you have ALL my info and get a delivery confirmation should the product ever arrive so THATS how you would get reimbursed should it ever come to that!
Ugh, the blaming usps over and over, quoting policies which can be modified to meet the needs of the customer, to not taking into context this situation to the argument and the total lack of doing ANYTHING differently once I was unsatisified, is just totally unacceptable.
I've also asked twice for their ship date, no response. I've asked to speak to these "owners"- no response.
A totally unprofessional, argumentative, dismissive customer svc rep.
My wife, however loves their perfumes, and their site and loves to buy samplers from them. It's a shame that this company could loost a very good customer bec of crappy customer svc/policies and shipment.
Im considering reporting them to the BBB. I certainly will send them a formal complaint to the owners via their direct address, which I found via the BBB website with another complaint.
I'd hate to do that, especially when I think it's a matter of redoing their policy as well as getting better qualifed customer evc reps to handle their company.
This could be a wonderful company is they fixed these issues.
I'd be happy to update when and if I ever feel satisified from this issue.
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******UPDATE*** As of Jan 10th, after I requested overnight delivery or Priority mail, they sent out another pacakge via FIRST CLASS! Again the shipping shows they made a label, not that it shipped today. But that's not the point. They knew how long its been, yet after I request it be sent out days ago, which would be within their 3 week "policy" bs, they still waited AND sent it out regular mail with NO expedited!!!
Again the svc rep claims its the usps for loosing so many of their products...etc Weird, because I've NEVER heard of the usps loosing pacakges. Perhaps the packages are never being sent out???? Who knows.
Also, after several requests for the manager or owner info, still no response only that they are "aware" of my issue.
Now, I'm going to report them to the BBB as well as write a review anywhere I possibly can.
"
"This is an update on my previous review. If I could give this company a zero, I would. Awful people to deal with - I've been going back and forth with this "Customer Service" rep for almost a month trying to get a refund on the garbage they sent me, and she still refuses to admit that there was a mistake on their part. I had to get the BBB involved (which I have NEVER had to do before) and inform her that I did so to even get her to budge. AWFUL!!!!"
"Great concept - absolutely no customer service skills. I received a stale decant, and they just argued with me, making multiple excuses, such as "it can't be stale, it's from Paris" to "our owner said it smells beautiful." Instead of following the old adage "the customer is always right" they could care less if you are happy or not as long as they collect your money."
"I continue to write reviews on various online fragrance resellers as they are one of the trickiest types of companies to do business with. The number one problem with them is that almost every single one of their return policies requires that you return the product UNOPENED. This is a serious problem with this type of product given that if it's stale or fake, or any other SMELL issue, you won't know until you try it.
I chose this company because they were recommended by The Perfume Critic. This company has a long ebay "pedigree" and they are the ONLY company that has Clive Christian X for Women samples. X for Women sells for about $350 a bottle, so samples are really hard to find.
I purchased both X for Women and my all time favorite, First, by Van Cleef & Arpels. First is actually the one I really wanted to try.
As it turned out both of the samples needed to "breathe" as they reeked as soon as opened. However, after a day or so, they calmed down. The X for Women was the real deal, however, the First was not. It smelled old and was weak. It didn't last throughout the day.
The price for the X sample was $14 for 1 ml and for First it was $10 for .5 ml. Adding shipping for this tiny package, it was nearly $30! For this, I expect great product and service.
My issue is that despite several emails to Customer Service, they kept arguing with me about the quality of the First sample. They were also completely unresponsive until I wrote "3rd email" on the subject line.
After 4 emails with them, and their doing lots of the "it's you not us," routine, I finally told them I would add them to this site.
The bottom line is this: Be responsive to your customer; offer a replacement, refund or credit to show good faith; don't argue with the customer about the quality, if the customer doesn't like it, that's what matters; get a clue about running a business - is it really worth $10 to lose a customer and get a bad rating?
In the end, my goal is to find an online perfumery that stands behind their products even AFTER they have been sampled if it's a quality issue. Check out my review of Beautiful Perfumes, they are one of the worst. And keep an eye out for my reviews of other online perfume companies as eventually I'll find a winner...; )
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