Fake perfumes being sold in mall kiosks

[KimmyAnn_678]

So we knew that a mall kiosk had been set to undercut our department store perfume pricing. Before we knew who the guy was, he came into our department store and wanted to know the prices of a lot of our perfumes, I guess the fragrance girl thought he was kooky shopper. After we found out about his kiosk, he sent an employee to try to get a bunch of fragrance blotters off us and got upset when we told him he couldn't just take our blotters.

I guess he tells customers that he gets his perfumes so cheap because he goes to NYC to buy them (yeah, off a boat from Hong Kong or something!) and he doesn't have to pay employees so he can sell it cheaper.

The 2 times our employees happened to walk past, they noticed perfumes being sold in bottles that weren't the correct bottles, words being spelled wrong (like Dolce and Grabbana) , but some "looked" legit. We are no longer allowed to look at his fragrances because a department store's employees went down and was asking about his prices and he somewhere figured out she worked at Macy's and called our manager and is threatening to call the cops and file harassment charges.

Yesterday a customer came into our store and allowed me to look at the "Beautiful" he had purchased and take pictures. The box is obviously the wrong color if you know your Lauder perfumes, where it lists the ounces, it actually says "oz./oz" like they mistakenly printed oz. twice and the product codes that all Lauder owned companies use was off, but not by much. The perfume of course smelled very off, and they customer had already been wondering why the bottle she purchased didn't smell as good as she remembered Beautiful smelling, The UPC number is however correct and we are concerned that our store will get all the returns of these fake fragrances and that associates will take them back and put them back into stock if they are still unopened not even realizing it was a fake (our manager does not require a CRL on cosmetic products to be returned, so we know we take back plenty of stuff from the local CCO, but management doesn't care we're loosing $ because "it's good for customer service").

Just figured I'd warn everyone... does anyone else have a fake fragrance kiosk set up in their mal?. I'm personally surprised the mall even rented to them, but our mall is a POS as it is, and is more a flea market any more than anything.

I let my Lauder AC and AE know in case they wanted to inform anyone but so far I haven't hear anything back so maybe they don't even care, but the customer was very adamant that we inform someone, He was actually upset that our manager wasn't going to call the cops because we think they're selling fakes.

 

[Kayteuk]

If you have enough evidence you can actually call the cops and get them arrested. I am surprised your reps from Estee Lauder are not taking it a lot more seriously.

 

[nychick1384]

This is a huge risk EL is taking. Customers who buy these knockoffs not realizing they aren't legitimate EL fragrances may start to doubt the quality of EL products. It's a potential risk to the EL brand identity and quality as far as uninformed consumers go.

PS I hate people who sell knockoffs and don't care that they're potentially hurting good companies

 

[KimmyAnn_678]

Yep, still haven't heard back from my AC or AE. I'm also surprised our Store GM isn't more concerned. What is going to happen after the Holidays and we get the returns? I don't know if they have fake Pleasures or Sensuous or anything, at least with the Beautiful if another employee takes one back, I'll be able to tell by the color of the box and hopefully remove it from stock before it gets mistakenly sold to another customer. But they also have Chanel and other fragrances that the one girl said looked legit but she didn't ask for them to be taken out of the case for closer inspection. And if they're selling some fake fragrances, I doubt they magically have some that aren't fake.

And Nychick, that is exactly what I told the customer. It's not really the fact that our store and company is losing money because of those fakes being sold, but the fact that I love the Estee Lauder company and customers are going to buy those perfumes and give them as gifts, and people will think badly of Estee Lauder when they smell off.

It's just upsetting.

 

[nychick1384]

Knockoffs aren't good for anyone except the sleeze-bags who sell them!

 

[roLLerGrrL]

Those places remind me of the animal urine being found in perfume stories.

 

[Cydonian]

I would call the better business bureau or be quite frank with any customers that come in trying to compare your prices. Tell them straight out that the items are fake, and if you have the pictures handy, show them. Knowledge is power and many people don't know any better...

And yes, we have one of those kiosks at every mall. Funny enough, they aren't very aggressive with their sales. They just sort of sit there and read all day... it's amusing.

I used to work in Macy's, as a cosmetic on call person so I worked between all makeup lines and fragrance -- and we ran into a problem with one of those kiosks sending people up to compare the perfumes. I also had a customer argue with me one time that the Sensuous I was selling WAS FAKE. I am at the Estee Lauder counter and this guy was arguing with me... I called security on him. I think he worked at one of those kiosks, lol!!

 

[MissPanther]

I'm good friends with the manager of one of the malls of my city, and he said that if a lot of people complain enough about it, as well as provide evidence they CAN have those kiosks shut down. However, when they originally apply for the kiosk rental, it's really a "first come first serve" kind of deal. There was an asian kiosk trying to sell bath bombs that looked suspiciously like Lush Bath Bombs, however it wasn't until a mass number of friends of lush complained about it to the mall manager did he shut it down.

As for the differences in scent and packaging.... It IS illegal to make counterfeits, however if they have small differences to them (for example the packaging, the name of product), they just barely skirmish the "illegal" part about it. If the code is the same though, you can definitely call them out for it. I suggest first though, you talk to the managers of the mall first.

 

[AiriMagdalene]

If I were you, I'd print out a sign in big bold letters on neon paper that says "WE DO NOT ACCEPT RETURNS OF COUNTERFEIT PERFUMES SOLD AT THE KIOSK IN THIS MALL. THANK YOU" That way you're saying that you won't take returns, and also, people will realize that everything at the kiosk is counterfeit. Bring that into work with you and put it on the store front, and then call the managers and tell them that he's selling cheap illegal counterfeits that people are returning to your store and getting back more than they actually payed for.

 

[smoohead]

Wow...

 

[thepicketywitch]

This is exactly why I NEVER buy anything from mall kiosks.

 

[thelady]

I just bought the small bottle of Ed Harley $50 at Perfume heaven, a kiosk in the mall 33st Nyc, it's a fake, I feel robbed, these people shouldn't be selling they need to be investigated, given a fine and the junk should be confiscated,taken out of business!