Rant: Dr. Wu Clinical Skincare

I recently bought the Dr. Wu Intensive Hydrating Serum with Hyaluronic Acid 10ml, which came with a 5ml Intensive Hydrating Gel with Hyaluronic Acid 5ml and one piece of Microinject Hydrating Mask with Hyaluronic Acid.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the Dr. Wu Intensive Hydrating Serum was the bottle was only half full and the product was yellowish in colour (see pictures above, taken with my handphone, not altered in any way). I checked with my La Mer Lifting Essence, which is a 9ml bottle (and came full), and with Dr GL's Skin Repair Serum, which is 5ml each and also came full. Now this confirmed that I only received less than half a bottle of product and that it was possibly spoilt.

So I emailed Evance Singapore, which is the company that distributes Dr. Wu Skincare. They kindly offered a product exchange as I had thrown my receipt away.

This is where my rant starts:

1. Tardiness. The lady who called me arranged for a product exchange on Friday at 11am. At 10.50am, she called to say she will be arriving at 11.15am, with no apology for her lateness. I went to wait for her at 11.15am so she wouldn't have to wait for me to come downstairs when she arrives but she only arrived at 11.25am. I honestly dislike waiting for people and if I made the effort to be early, I wonder why someone who is in an industry where service is important did not make an effort to.

2. Excuses. I had no intention of writing this blog post but this was what irked me so I had to write about it. When the lady opened the bottle in question, she firstly gave the excuse that some sea emollient ingredient changes colour so the serum is yellowish. And that since there is one more year and no smell, it is okay to use. Well, I'm not going to argue against that since it seemed spoilt at one glance and I definitely wasn't going to risk another bout of eczema just to try that out so I didn't even open the bottle. BUT if your ingredient is not stable why give it such a long shelf life. She was the one who said it has been sitting on the shelf for a while and it is a dropper bottle so that's why it changed. Since this is an ingredient problem, I cannot fault the company.

But, it is the next thing that really sounded ridiculous. That this half a bottle of serum IS actually 10ml. I did my research beforehand so how could you say such a thing. This definitely is not the first time I bought a product in a dropper bottle and I have other bottles to compare with! Moreover, I am not any ignorant consumer who will accept such an explanation. It just sounded like excuses to me. She said because it is a dropper bottle, they didn't/can't fill it to the brim. Look at BioBeauty's Advanced Hydrating Serum (pic below), which has hyaluronic Acid as the main ingredient, very similar to Dr. Wu's intensive hydrating Serum. Same texture, same viscosity, same use. This came FULL. What do you mean that it cannot be filled to the brim because it is a dropper bottle? When I told her the about the 9ml and 5ml bottles I compared the serum with, she then gave the excuse that it might have evaporated because it has been on the shelf for a while since the expiry date is in one year's time. And that all the products are like that. All?? Then I don't think I will be buying anything from this brand.

(pic credit:payeasy biobeauty website)

All that needed to happen was to exchange the product and acknowledge that the product is indeed half full and yellowish and not excuses to prove they are not in the wrong. Being late was already disappointing and then excuse after excuse that made me feel that I was the one who is unreasonable to ask for an exchange in product. I mean, look at the pictures and who wouldn't feel shortchanged after spending money on a product that I dare not even try or let alone use on my face.

I can safely say that they have permanently lost a customer. And to think that I had products from Dr. Wu skincare line that I have been wanting to try. All I have left to say is companies should check the quality of their products before selling it to customers. And us customers should always check if we are sold substandard products.