Swapping perfume without the reciept.

[Auntieaunt]

I received a bottle of perfume for my birthday that my mum had purchased via duty free.

It's really not my type of perfume and a bit too expensive just to regift. Is there anyway I could say take it into a shop and swap it for something I actually wear? The bottle I've got is £55 in boots and the one I want is £75- i'd obviously happily pay the difference.

I think it's even more annoying as I was hinting at my partner for the perfume and ended up with concert tickets for a band I really don't like.

You can't buy something from 1 shop and return it to a completely different one no.

I’m sorry but you can’t do that 😂 You are stuck with the perfume

Duty free will swap with receipt but probably not much help if you not travelling again soon.

No it's like buying a top in Top shop and taking it back to H&M

EBay it or regift I reckon

Sell it

No for various reasons:

• in case it’s fake. very hard to verify the authenticity of perfume, or if it has been tampered with
• if you’ve opened/tested it, it is now used
• you don’t have a receipt, the retailer wouldn’t know where you purchased it from, how much you actually paid for it, or if it was even purchased in the first place

For all they know you could be trying to return a fake off eBay or a stolen product. Also, the amount that you actually paid is important as that is what will be used to exchange the product - not the current value. EG the perfume may be currently priced at an average boots for £60, but you made have paid much less at duty free, just say £45. It will be £45 value that you can exchange goods up to, not £60. You obviously have to return it to the same store purchased from, so can’t return something from boots to Debenhams

Remember that you’re only entitled to a refund if the product is faulty, otherwise retailers are well within their rights to refuse a return without a receipt if you just don’t like the product. I think you’re best off asking your mum for the receipt or just putting it on eBay

You can ask and they might well exchange.

It’s nothing like buying a top in Topshop and returning it to H&M because they don’t sell the same items but Boots does. Frequently stores will do swaps without a receipt if they stock the item. Book shops will do that for example.

If you went to buy the perfume that you really want, would you be OK if the bottle you buy had been purchased by someone else, somewhere else, and then sold as new to you? Or would you prefer that the retailer purchased it from an authorised distributor so you knew it was genuine, stored correctly and unopened?

My sister in law bought me a perfume for Christmas (I knew she'd bought it at boots as fil had been with her), I hadn't tried it but some bring me out in a rash so I left it sealed, went into boots and tried the sample. I didn't really like it, so asked if I could swap it, they were fine as it was sealed. It is worth asking, but you are in a bit of a moral dilemma I guess because you know you didn't get it from there. I did so I wasn't lying to them when I asked for help. You could easily sell it on eBay, might be the best option.

Could you sell it on eBay instead? I can’t see a shop taking it back. I was given some perfume at Christmas by a client, in very authentic looking sealed packaging. Once opened it was very obviously a fake, it smelt awful and nothing like the real stuff. Obviously I didn’t say anything, just threw it in the bin. But it made me realise how authentic fake stuff can appear

No you can’t do that.

Firstly, it’s not a product that the retailer you take it back to bought to sell, so it won’t be on their inventory of stock (may seem like no big deal, but literally that one box of perfume won’t be on their books, Sky accounting will be wrong).

Secondly, it could be fake.

Third, it’s duty free, so the normal proper U.K. tax hasn’t been paid on it, so a big retailer would get in serious trouble for selling stock that hasn’t had its duty paid.

Lastly, no retailer anywhere is going to take back a product they didn’t sell (it would be like you buying something from Sainsbury’s and taking it back to Tesco).

Sell it, or regift it.

If boots sell the perfume you want to swap them you can take it back and exchange it without a receipt but it needs to be sealed still. It’s not exactly “right” but it can be done. Just don’t tell them it’s from somewhere else.

The stock thing is rubbish.
If a store sells the exact same item it will make no difference to stock figures. Everyone who had ever bought the item would have to return it as well as you for them to notice a discrepancy. That's not going to happen.
It's up to you OP- they might well take it but why don't you re-gift it or sell it on instead?

Firstly, it’s not a product that the retailer you take it back to bought to sell, so it won’t be on their inventory of stock (may seem like no big deal, but literally that one box of perfume won’t be on their books, Sky accounting will be wrong).

Perfumes aren’t catalogued by bottle on the inventory. Their 200ml bottles of Rive Gauche will be exactly the same as the bottles in duty free and if there is no price label there will be nothing which would differentiate it from Boots stock.

It’s unlikely a fake would have the correct bar codes, so as long as it scans Boots can be pretty sure it’s genuine.

As long as it is sealed it’s really up to Boots.

The fact that it is a Duty Free item and could have been purchased abroad means that most likely it will have a different barcode than the shops on the high street.

I had the awkward encounter as I tried to swap it at boots and the barcode was completely different.

I've opened it up now as it's not as nearly as bad as I thought. It's grown on me and I'll happily wear it until it runs out.

Thanks for all the advice tho! :)