If Everything Goes Right, Great.
If Not, Prepare for Battle.
1st Perfume
My first choice for perfumes is Scentiments.com but there have been occasions when I have had to shop elsewhere. Over the holidays, when everyone was out of stock of many perfumes, I settled for whoever had what I was looking for. One site I discovered — and purchased from — was 1st Perfume. Bad choice. I was not happy with the service I received from this e-tailer.
What the Site Sells
Men's and women's name brand fragrances and some accessories like body lotions.
Navigation and Ease of Use
This site is kind of ugly and cluttered. The home page has a long list of different fragrances and prices broken into Hot Deals, New Arrivals, Clearance, Women's Hot Fragrance, Men's Hot Fragrance, and Wholesale.
There are plenty of ways to search for what you want. You can enter the name of the perfume in the search bar, choose a brand name from a drop down box, or click on the letter to search by brand. You can do all the same things on the top of the site and on the side. There is also another set of hard to click on drop down boxes to choose fragrances by letter of the alphabet. It's all a bit of overkill.
Down the side, they boast high ratings with Shopping.com, Bizrate.com, Nextag.com, and have a guarantee symbol.
They also have a little cluttered box labeled "What Our Client Say" which I assume means what our clients say. Things like that, typos and such, are scattered all over the site and made me wonder about the accuracy of other things besides wording. The "testimonials" are written in the same style ("I love this perfumes...") leading me to believe the testimonials were not real but just hype. Whatever, I knew what I wanted and they had it in stock so I sort of overlooked the obvious.
I searched by name since I knew what I wanted. They did have a variety of items including different sizes of the perfumes and colognes I needed plus things like body lotion and other accessories. Prices weren't too bad. They were higher than Scentiments' but not exorbitant like some other perfume sites I had visited.
Click to add items to your cart.
You will not know if an item is in stock until you add it to your cart. I was fooled several times into thinking what I wanted was available only to see my balance was zero in my cart and the item was out of stock.
I just checked again and those items remain out of stock so it doesn't seem like it was just a holiday thing.
When you DO find something that is in stock, it will be added to your cart.
Checkout is the standard Yahoo yellow and white page.
Fill out your name, address, and phone number and choose between UPS and USPS. You don't know how much shipping is until after you pick one and give your details.
There is free shipping over $100.00 in the US.
I was charged tax as well as shipping for my order. Blah.
They accept all major credit cards.
My Experience
I didn't like the look of the site nor did I like the typos especially in the testimonials that seemed written by the site owners themselves. However, they had a couple of things I needed at decent prices. Many things were out of stock and remain so, though.
Finding what I needed was simple because I knew exactly what I wanted. They don't give descriptions of scents so you should know what you want before you shop there if you choose to.
Once I had found items that were in stock, I went to the checkout. Because my order was under $100.00, I was charged shipping. I was also charged tax because their headquarters are located in New York City.
Shipping is crazy. When I had an item that was only $30.00 in my cart, it was $6.95. When I added another item that brought the total up to $83.00, shipping was $5.49. But the tax was killer at another $7.00.
I input my Visa info and the usual data and everything looked fine. I received a short confirmation letter soon after.
All seemed to be on track and I was pleased to see that my order arrived before Christmas (although it did take a while...). However, inside was the cologne I ordered and a much smaller size of the perfume I ordered and paid for. (I ordered a 3.4 ounce size, got a .8 ounce mini).
I emailed the site immediately and waited a day but did not get a response so I called their NON toll free number during business hours. Got a recording. Many times.
I emailed again because this situation was becoming urgent. I did not want to give the mini as a gift plus I was charged much more for the full sized perfume.
Understanding it was a busy time of year, I did wait a couple of days but still, no response via email.
Back to the phones. I called in 10 minute intervals all day and never got a hold of anyone.
Finally, I got an email response that said I was sent what I order (no "ed" at the end) and that I should recheck my package. There is a big difference between a .8 ounce mini and a 3.4 ounce bottle of boxed perfume. I didn't need to recheck!
I resent a letter saying that I no longer wanted to exchange the item as it was too close to the holiday and wanted a refund for the wrong product.
I got back a curt, almost nasty letter saying I could return the unused item at my expense and it could be subject to a 15% restocking fee.
I don't THINK so. I didn't make the mistake!
I wrote again and suffice to say, after several emails (Never could get them on the phone), I returned the mini and got a full refund. BUT I had to pay to return it.
At that point, I was just glad to actually see a refund for the full price I paid show up.
But I won't ever go back to 1st Perfume.
There are many discount perfume sites that are honest and fulfill orders correctly. There are many that own their mistakes and make things right.
I don't need to shop where I am treated like a problem when THEY made the error.
Shipping and Returns
Shipping is based on a secret formula that I don't know. You can choose between UPS and USPS but they advise UPS. You won't know what you are charged until you check out. Tax is charged in New York. I assume that is the only place it is charged.
Shipping costs are free in the US for orders over $100.00.
According to their return policy, you can return unopened items in original packaging for a FULL REFUND. Items that are not in original packaging will be charged a 15% restocking fee.
If you get the wrong item, as I did, the site FAQs say to do the following: "Q. What do I do, if you shipped me the wrong item?
We apologize in advance if we accidentally shipped you the wrong item. If this, happens please Fax us at 212.628.8084. After the first contact, we will still need you to send a confirmation via email; please send email to info@1stPerfume.com"
FAX? I was not told to Fax anything but sure was given the run around and almost gave up trying to right their wrong.
Conclusion
Decent prices and that's about it. If you are lucky enough to get what you order and it is not damaged, you may have a good transaction.
If you get the wrong item or items or want to return something, good luck. Getting an answer from the people or person who run this site is very difficult. I feel ripped off still that I had to pay postage to return a product that I never ordered and that I had to scurry around finding the right product because these people just ignored my emails and phone calls.
I wouldn't recommend this site. There are too many potential problems waiting to happen. I give them 2 stars. They have a lot of variety but what good is it if you end up with the wrong stuff — and can't get a hold of them to make it right?
Recommended:
No
