SG police probing perfume subscription service I’vre after complaints of wrong charges, unfulfilled orders

SINGAPORE: The police are investigating online luxury scent subscription service I’vre after disgruntled customers lodged reports claiming they were wrongly charged and never received their orders.

Self-professed perfume fanatic Srimala Balakrishnan had S$494.50 (RM1,730) charged to her debit card by the company in November, even after she cancelled her subscription, she told The Straits Times.

The 41-year-old nurse had seen an advertisement for the company – whose name means intoxicated in French – on social media in May and was enticed by its deals, she said.

She bought a premium subscription plan for S$44.95 (RM157) a month to receive three sample sized bottles of perfume every month, picked out from I’vre’s inventory of designer fragrances. These came in I’vre-branded 8ml spray bottles called atomisers.

The company offered two other plans – the cheapest one, priced at S$19.95 (RM70), entitled customers to choose one atomiser a month from I’vre’s catalogue of more than 200 scents, while the S$34.95 (RM122) plan allowed customers to choose two bottles monthly.

Everything went swimmingly the first two months but from the third month, she noticed that every time she ordered a more expensive scent – anything that retailed above S$400 (RM1,400) for a 50ml bottle – it would invariably be out of stock and she would be forced to settle for a cheaper one.

She also started to doubt the authenticity of the scents she received, after the well-known Victoria Secret (VS) Bombshell perfume she ordered smelled “very off”.

A check at a VS boutique confirmed her suspicions that she had not received VS’ Bombshell, she said.

Though she had hoped to support the young founders behind I’vre – Christian Kwok, 22, and Elaine Yuan, 23 – these red flags made her cancel her subscription in October, said Balakrishnan.

The next month, she found out that S$494.50 (RM1,730) had been charged to her debit card by I’vre; this was 11 times her previous subscription fee.

An email from the company to Balakrishnan, seen by ST, blamed the charge on a system bug and claimed a refund was being processed.

But to date, she has not been refunded and the company has stopped replying her, said Balakrishnan, who filed a police report on Nov 28, seen by ST.

Accounts mirroring Balakrishnan’s have surfaced online in recent weeks, with a flurry of complaints from customers of repeat charges to their bank accounts – also attributed to a system bug – unfulfilled orders and refunds promised but not received.

On Dec 5, the company announced on its website and through an email to its customers that it had been acquired and would close down, despite celebrating its first anniversary with a yacht party only two months before.

In a thread on the Reddit forum, the news stoked anxiety among customers still waiting for refunds, even as I’vre began promoting its clearance sale on its website, with luxury bottles worth hundreds going for S$100 (RM350) a pop.

Another aggrieved customer, S, who did not want to disclose her name, said she bought two bottles of perfume in the clearance sale even though she was worried that she had not been refunded for being wrongly charged in November and December.

She has not received her orders from the sale, which cost S$200 (RM700), added the marketing executive, 27.

“I’m just in shock that I ignored so many red flags,” she said.

“But money is still money. I’m angry.”

In response to ST’s queries, Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) president Melvin Yong said Case had received 17 complaints against I’vre as at Dec 14. All were lodged between Nov 1 and Dec 20 for overcharging and unfulfilled orders, he added.

Two police reports made against the subscription service were seen by ST. When contacted, the police confirmed that investigations were underway.

In response to queries from ST, Kwok said I’vre is no longer accepting new orders, after its clearance sale, and fully focused on fulfilling existing orders.

He added that the company would not close down until all existing customers were satisfied.

Kwok also clarified that only parts of the company had been acquired, not the entire operation.

He denied all allegations of impropriety, citing a lack of manpower as the reason for slow order fulfilment and handling of customer enquiries.

In the last two months, the company had been plagued by internal issues, he added, and the team was culled from 10 employees to four.

I’vre also suffered cash flow issues after its lead investor Seed Ventures cut funding, said Kwok.

Addressing claims of repeat charges, Kwok said there had been a “misconception”.

The company used third-party systems Shopify and Seal Subscriptions for its transactions that would misinterpret customers’ custom orders and charge customers several times the fixed price, he said.

He added: “Since our launch in October 2022, we countered this issue by having our team manually make price changes to each individual customer.

“The issue at hand for us currently is that we lack the manpower to accomplish such a large task within a short timeframe.”

Kwok denied all accusations of charging customers without delivering products, stonewalling customers and delivering cheaper or different perfumes than the ones ordered.

“As for our closing down sale, we have made it clear to our customers that shipping may take some time, and we aim to have it all delivered before Christmas Day. However, we understand that, due to our lack of customer support at the moment, our customers may get the wrong impression,” he said. – The Straits Times (Singapore)/Asia News Network