"First off, they have an F Rating with the Better Business Bureau.

The grade represents BBB’s degree of confidence that the business is operating in a trustworthy manner and will make a good faith effort to resolve any customer concerns.
And they have an F! You have to be pretty bad to get an F from the Better Business Bureau.

http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/Skinwest-100044026

If course I only saw that and these negative reviews here after my bad experiences. Shame on me. next time I will check more reviews. I think I will also post this review to the BBB site to warn others.


Now to the review:

In a nutshell: Rude and arrogant manager (Branden), HORRIBLE customer service, lies about when product is shipped, not told when product is not in stock or will arrve late, no tracking


My experience: Talked to manager by phone (after many calls and not getting through, or getting disconnected) and he acted like a 'know it all' and would not even let me try to explain what happened. He kept interrupting me and telling me how HE is right, and he takes no blame for my product not shipping on time. I said if something is not in stock, then you should tell your customers so they can expect it to be late. But to have to wait almost a month for something that was promised to me 'we will ship it tomorrow'?! The postage was dated 3 and 1/2 weeks after I made the order. So how can they not be to blame? Why not have tracking like other companies do? I am only in Los Angeles!

I was so mad that I decided to make a surprise visit to their "store" which is a stinky, hot little warehouse in San Dimas. Product is stacked on metal shelving units and some was on the floor, and who knows for how long. Many skincare products are heat sensitive and I cannot believe that all of these brands are able to stay fresh this way.

I was expecting an upscale office environment, nice clean space, proper storage. Boy was I wrong! Customer service staff all unkempt and in jeans and flip flops, eating at desks while taking calls, cement floors, complaining staff, product spread all over the place in piles. I asked one of the CS girls about it and she said "Um, I think those piles are the returns". It didn't seem like anyone knew what was going on. The manager was a sweaty mess and seemed like he was about to jump out of his skin. I wanted to talk to him, but he said he was on his way to a meeting - then I saw him drive off in his $$$$ foreign car.

They said I could walk around and look at the products on the shelves, which I did - but one of the girls kept following me, making it very obvious she thought I might steal something. Are you kidding? Most of the product looked old, had dust on it - not sure how much product they sell, but it looked like a lot of it was there for a while. And, it all felt warm. Also there were boxes all over the place, papers, trash. No one seemed to care.

They do it all in this small space! Phones, shipping, postage, selling, storage. No cubicles, no walls, everyone is on top of one another. No wonder everyone seemed miserable. I was only there for about 10 minutes and heard staff complaining as soon as the manager left.

So disappointed. Now for sure I will never buy from them again, especially knowing where it actually ships from. I found out from customer service that the Glendora address listed one their website is NOT their place, but is an office to the Skinwest manager's DAD, who is a dermatologist, is around 75 years old, and offers free services with certain products (huh??) They were all too happy to give me the gossip once the manager left. He does not seem well liked at all.

The REAL address is:

545 West Allen Avenue
San Dimas, CA

It's in a big lot with other small warehouses, so I am not sure of the building number. By the way, they had no problem giving me the real address when I called the 800 number and said I wanted to come get product and talk to the manager. Not sure why this address is not posted on the website, as this is where they actually have all the product and where they do all their business.

I will continue to order from DermStore"

"One of the four items I ordered was out of stock.
They charged me for all four anyway. They never updated me on the missing item. Each time I contacted them, they gave me false information about when the item would be available. One time they even said the item had been shipped to me when it hadn't. They don't seem to care what customers think. Avoid!"

"I have been buying from Skinwest regularly for over a year. Everything is fine until you need customer service. Last summer I did not receive an order and reported it to them with no response after several requests. Finally the order showed up after about three weeks. Same thing happened with the latest order dated May 20. It is now June 3, have not received the order and have sent them three messages with no response.

I don't think I will be buying from them again and I plan to report it to American Express and let them deal with the credit to my account."