Opatra Singapore has reached out to Mothership after its beauty salon located at Suntec City, incurred public wrath for allegedly coercing an elderly office cleaner into spending over S$13,000 on its products.

Opatra is a business specialising in beauty products and equipment based in London. Opatra Singapore is run by a franchisee.

In its statement, Opatra Singapore said that "providing the best possible customer experience" is central to the company and the incident in question has been painted in a different light.

According to Opatra Singapore, the cleaner "purchased our products after our usual facial and consultation" and "changed her mind three days later requesting a full refund".

The beauty company said it refunded the cleaner in order to ensure a "positive customer experience".

This is the statement provided by Opatra:

Providing the best possible customer experience for each and every customer is central to who we are as a company. We value our clients and have built a strong base of happy and satisfied customers in Singapore who trust us and have been with us for many years.

Unfortunately, a customer transaction that happened earlier this week has been painted in a different light. The customer purchased our products after our usual facial and consultation. She changed her mind three days later requesting for a full refund. We complied with this and refunded her the full amount on the same day to ensure a positive customer experience - which is of utmost importance to us.

We are taking this incident very seriously, and are working closely with our service team to ensure a quality experience for all customers. In light of this incident, we are conducting an internal review to make sure that we can improve to provide the best possible service for our customers.

Opatra Singapore is committed to being a premier beauty solutions company that is here for the long term and we welcome all suggestions for improvement. For any queries, please feel free to email us at [email protected]

Best regards

Opatra Team

Not positive customer experience

In response to the statement, Lim TC, the son of the cleaner told Mothership that Opatra Singapore didn't offer a full refund.

Lim said that he and his mother agreed to pay S$380 for two products that his mother opened but didn't use.

Lim also refuted Opatra's claims of providing a positive customer experience.

He said:

"By the way, it should be after my mother spent S$1,180, they offered free complimentary facial... after which, another round of hard selling. This isn’t a positive customer experience."

Background

On Sep. 4, a 63-year-old office cleaner Madam Tay was allegedly coerced by three Opatra Singapore sales staff into spending S$13,180 on beauty products and equipment at the Suntec City branch.

According to Madam Tay's son, his mother was subjected to a five-hour sales pitch with "aggressive and unethical" sales tactics involving free food and a complimentary facial.

There were three Opatra Singapore staff who were part of this "aggressive and unethical sales tactic", Lim said.

He identified them as an employee, a manager, and a beautician.

The former two are Malaysian Chinese, while the latter is a Filipino, according to Lim.

Madam Tay later told her son that she was confused and caved in to the pressure.

She paid S$1,180 via two NETS payments, S$2,000 via her debit card, and S$10,000 in cash withdrawn from a nearby DBS branch.

After Lim came to know about the incident, he went down to the Suntec City branch with his mother and girlfriend on Sep. 7, where they managed to received a refund.

According to Lim, not all of the S$13,180 was refunded.

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Top image courtesy of TC Lim.