• Determining oil quality is not very easy for many, including the experts who are in this industry for many years.
• We respect customers’ feedback and thus many times we decide not to confront on their views even though we know they are completely or partially incorrect. Lower ratings or negative ratings hurt us but we have to swallow it with pinch of salt. Customers sometimes have dinged us for shipping issues that the shipping company is responsible for. Such ratings are counter productive and it only hurts the buyers who are looking for quality oil because of lack of accurate information due to such reviews. On many occasions, only the negative feedback is listed on Amazon or Ebay, which does not reflect the true quality of the oil. As an example, on Amazon, we sold close to 1 kilo of Opoponax to approx. 15 customers but only one customer who had negative shipping experience decided to leave one star on this product. Such ratings are not only meaningless but it doesn’t help the customer searching for quality oil because the product feedback did not include any details of the oil itself.
• Oils are natural products, even when they are 100% pure they are not always alike when purchased from a different supplier or in some cases even from the same supplier. In case of latter when the batch changes it may not be same quality as the previous batch. Customers are too quick to compare their own experience, which is okay to some degree but a true comparison needs to be made between apples-to-apples. As an example, when someone buys Mysore Sandalwood oil, they are never alike unless the age of oil is taken into consideration along with oil price, storage, etc.. We often come across customers who will claim it’s not same as they had smelled in their grandma’s house.
• It’s always better to ask questions before purchase and many customers don’t. Customers tend to make assumptions based on their prior experience and when the oil doesn’t meet their expectation it results in unproductive back and forth.
• We don’t always have GCMS reports for every oil but we do have other information available that can help customers make educated decision prior to purchase. We will always provide accurate information and we have done proactively on many occasions even when the customers haven’t asked for.