L'OCCITANE EN PROVENCE — Local services in London

I had an extremely bad experience with L'occitane.

I recently bought a Cedrat Stick Deodorant for £17.50 from the Canary Wharf store. I decided to return it after two uses, because I'd noticed that the scent disappeared after a few hours.

I gave L'occitane the benefit of the doubt, because I assumed it was a bad batch, and returned it.

When I arrived in store, I explained the situation to the lady at the counter, who immediately and abruptly refused to refund the product because it'd been opened. I explained that I was of the opinion it was faulty, and pointed out that a £1 stick of deodorant from the local supermarket lasted longer than this product.

Instead of just refunding the product, the lady then rudely said that she wears the deodorant, and that it's not faulty. She also took it upon herself to smell the deodorant stick I'd bought and again said it wasn't faulty and that there was no damage. She said that unless I'd had an allergy or there was damage, she wouldn't give a full refund.

I respectfully told her that she was wearing a different deodorant stick, so couldn't comment on if the one I'd bought was faulty. I also pointed out that as I was the one who'd been wearing it all day, I was in the best position to say if it was working or not.

I again advised that perhaps the deodorant was from a bad batch.

The lady then walked over to the display where there were the other deodorants, and told me that they were all from the same batch, and that the other ones were fine.

I again pointed out that the one I'd bought was not, and that she couldn't comment on any of them, until they'd been worn. I suggested that customer services might want to do a proper investigation into the entire batch, and asked her if she was accusing me of lying. She said she wasn't.

At this point, she said she'd call customer services, and went into the back. She then came out, and told me that she'd refund it. As part of the refund, she took it upon herself to take back the welcome card I'd been given and didn't apologise for her behaviour.

I left the store extremely shaken and upset. I feel that from the second I went into the store, I was treated with suspicion, contempt and rudeness.

I feel that given that L'occitane is supposed to be a high end store, and it sells high end goods, that when someone makes a reasonable observation about the quality of the goods, that the product should be refunded without an argument.

I wouldn't recommend the Canary Wharf store because of this. I complained to L'occitane, and it appears I've now got a resolution from them, which is good.

But the experience should still never have happened, and I would think twice about...

I had a deeply disappointing experience during my recent visit to the L'Occitane store at Jubilee Place when attempting to return a purchase. The store manager, a young woman with long hair, initially informed me of the store's policy regarding refunds for items bought over 28 days ago. While I understood and accepted this policy, what followed left me rather surprised.

She kindly asked if she could inspect the products, to which I agreed, and I handed over the product box. Upon inspection, the store manager discovered that all the items were in their original, untouched condition. In addition, the box contained a selection of samples that had been graciously provided by a store employee during my initial purchase.

To my surprise, the store manager decided to retain the samples without seeking my permission and then promptly returned the product box to me. That's called daylight robbery. When I questioned her action, she offered to return only 2-3 of the samples, not all of them, which I declined to accept.

This experience left me feeling rather shocked and taken aback. It raised the question of why the store manager did not have the courtesy to request my consent to retain the samples, particularly as they were initially offered to me during my purchase.

The lack of communication and transparency in this situation has left me deeply disappointed with the treatment I received. It is of utmost importance for businesses to ensure that their customers are treated with respect and fairness, and regrettably, I believe this incident did not meet those...

I’ve been reading through some of these negative reviews and can really relate. This is one of the worst loccitane branches in the country. There is an old woman member of staff called Tracy who I felt racism from; I went to return my item today and was on day 27 of their 28 day window. Which she tried to quibble and query me on, making out like I’m committing a crime for returning the item on day 27?! Absolutely ridiculous. She then proceeded to tell me that I was lying about the samples given to me on the order, and then refused to give me a sample of another product I wanted to try before me buying a full size product. It took her close to 25 mins to even process the refund and she was really throwing all of her toys out of the pram doing it. Throwing all excuses under the sun of a new system, you could tell it killed her to give my money back and she’s still probably losing sleep 😂 they had a diary in store which she circled each day on to work out the 28 days, I’m sure if I was of white skin this wouldn’t be the treatment. It’s because I was British Asian. I could sense it from her body language completely. Having been a customer for YEARS it’s safe to say thanks to this ridiculous woman’s actions they have now...