My buyer is questioning the authenticity of perfume she purchased.

[up-please1]

My buyer is questioning the authenticity of vintage perfume she purchased and would like a refund. I purchased the perfume from Myer originally, but no longer have the receipt to prove it. Although I know the top notes of a perfume can change over time, she says it does not smell right and is also questioning the packaging. I want my buyers to feel comfortable with their purchases so I am happy for her to return it. But should I have to pay return postage?? I tried the ebay chat, the operater basically said it will all work out, but could not give me an answer regarding return postage as its not one of their options. Interested to hear your thoughts on the return postage options.   

[imastawka]

APost's guidelines for posting perfume -

We can deliver some dangerous items, if they meet certain conditions and are packed in a specific way.

Our dangerous goods exemptions policy does permit very small quantities of some dangerous goods (known as "exempted" dangerous goods) when carried on a contract basis and by road transport only.

There are specific requirements for how these goods are packaged and who they are delivered to.

Please read clause 62 through 65 of the Australia Post Terms & Conditions for more information.

https://auspost.com.au/business/shipping/check-sending-guidelines/dangerous-prohibited-items

Perfume is something that cannot be photographed to describe it as INAD.

Maybe the buyer is trying to get free perfume, or not, who knows.

Up to you if you want to stay in their good books, and refund without return.

[clubesquire]

It’ll be your judgement call OP. My knowledge is limited only to personal experience and that is that I don’t like perfumes if they’ve aged a bit. I wouldn’t buy a ‘vintage’ perfume it I knew it was such.

If you don’t have this happen often and consider there’s a ring of truth to what the buyer is saying (consider the big picture too), follow the suggestion by Kopes and others, refund it, let the buyer keep it, and move straight on to activities more worthy of your valuable time - my honest opinion and exactly what I’d do.

Sorry, it’s going to be a loss I think. No matter what you do.

melina.

[countessalmirena]

Melina, like you, I wouldn't buy a perfume that has changed its notes due to age. (I used to keep telling my mother to use the perfume I've bought her - use it up! I say... It's not going to last for ever! I'll buy you some more once the contents are getting low! - but she is nicely stubborn and doesn't want me to "waste" my money. My strategy has cunningly changed; I just say things like "Spray on a little of that perfume" rather than "Use it up".)

up-please1, I'm sorry that you're in this situation. By now you've probably resolved the issue one way or another (probably by giving a refund).

I don't think I'd risk selling a perfume online, particularly not a vintage perfume if I didn't have the original receipt. I'm very bad with receipts; I tend not to keep them for more than a few weeks.

[chameleon54]

---

@countessalmirena wrote:

Melina, like you, I wouldn't buy a perfume that has changed its notes due to age. (I used to keep telling my mother to use the perfume I've bought her - use it up! I say... It's not going to last for ever! I'll buy you some more once the contents are getting low! - but she is nicely stubborn and doesn't want me to "waste" my money. My strategy has cunningly changed; I just say things like "Spray on a little of that perfume" rather than "Use it up".)

up-please1, I'm sorry that you're in this situation. By now you've probably resolved the issue one way or another (probably by giving a refund).

I don't think I'd risk selling a perfume online, particularly not a vintage perfume if I didn't have the original receipt. I'm very bad with receipts; I tend not to keep them for more than a few weeks.

---

Lucky you. As a registered business owner I have to keep all of my reciepts for 5 years. Each year I collect a couple of shopping bags full of reciepts which all have to be sorted and noted for the accountant. I have four filing cabinet drawers in the shed just full of reciepts, accounts and tax invoices. I have always wondered what happens when people are audited and they pull out a five year old bag full of blank little rectangles of paper as the ink on many reciepts only lasts a few months

[lyndal1838]

I have that problem with our fuel dockets.....the solution I use is to copy them all onto one A4 sheet of paper on my printer.  One sheet of paper will usually take a month's worth of dockets which I staple to the sheet.

Most other receipts that we get are not as sensitive but if there is another one I just use the same method.

I am very glad we don't deal in stock....just services.

[countessalmirena]

When I was doing something other than I'm doing now, and the keeping of receipts was a necessity, Chameleon, I scanned them with an app on my iPhone called JotNotPro, and I'd regularly upload them to Dropbox, into a specially created folder for them.

I've just had a quick look on the App Store, and there's an app specifically for scanning reciepts as well... which could be a good resource as I see it offers full text search, etc., etc.

[brerrabbit585]

But will the ATO accept copies of receipts, which can very easily be doctored? I find receipts last a lot longer if I keep them in the dark, but they are getting worse for fading.

Talking of doctoring receipts, a plumber and I were talking about one of my neighbours once. The neighbours' insurance company rang the plumber and queried a receipt because it seemed unusually high for the work done. Turns out the neighbour had added a 1 and changed the receipt from $111 to $1,111 when he claimed. The insurance company rep sighed and said something about the neighbour having so many properties insured with them (around 40) so I'll bet they let it pass rather than query it and risk losing his business.

[countessalmirena]

---

@countessalmirena wrote:
[...] there's an app specifically for scanning reciepts receipts as well...

---

Typographical error. It was glaring at me. I could not sleep, I could not rest, I found no surcease for my tormented soul until this could be corrected.

[countessalmirena]

brerrabbit, they were accepted.

Each scan - I think I saved them as PDFs - was done on the same day as the date of the receipt, so the date of file creation would have matched... While it wouldn't have been impossible for me to doctor the PDFs, I'd have had to be quite nifty about doing it. Also, the receipt numbers would have been easy to check with the company or business that issued the receipts.