Skin reactions, batch numbers and expiry dates: a complaint process for beauty sellers

A beauty brand's complaints come in four kinds: the cream that stung, the serum that turned orange, the tube delivered short-dated, and the pump that leaked. Every one is answered from the two facts printed on the pack, the batch number and the expiry. So build the process around them. Ask for a photo of the tube's crimp or the jar's base every time. Write the first replies before you need them. And keep one register that shows when a batch comes up twice.

A skin reaction: the reply, and two lines to leave out

For a reaction, the first reply is the one any health product needs. The buyer stops using it, sees a doctor if it spreads or swells near the eyes or lips, and gets emergency care for any trouble breathing. Our calm template for health-related complaints has those messages word for word. Save them as quick replies.

Beauty adds two lines your team will be tempted to send. Both stay out. "Did you do a patch test?" reads as blame in the first message, however kindly it is meant. Patch-test advice belongs on the listing and the carton, before the buyer buys. "That is just purging" or "your skin is adjusting" is a claim about someone else's skin, made by a person who has not seen it. Even if your label mentions a tingle, the reply does not quote it back.

What to ask, and why the routine matters

Ask two at a time. Someone with a stinging face does not want a form.

1. The product, and where it was bought: your site, a marketplace, a chemist.
2. A photo of the batch number and the expiry, from the crimp of the tube or the base of the jar.
3. When they started, how much, and how often.
4. Anything else on her skin this week, especially anything new.
5. Where it is and what it feels like, in their words. A photo of the skin only if they offer one.

Question four is the one beauty adds. A retinol, an acid toner, a benzoyl peroxide gel, a prescription cream, a salon peel or threading on the same patch: write down whatever the buyer names. You are not collecting an excuse. Your manufacturer will ask what else was on the skin, and only the buyer can tell you.

Colour, smell or separation: stored hot, or made wrong?

A serum that has darkened, a cream split into oil and water, a smell the buyer does not recognise. Heat on the way is one cause: a warehouse in May, a van parked in the sun, a shelf beside the bathroom geyser. A faulty batch is the other. You can tell them apart only by looking at stock from the same batch that never left your storeroom. Photograph it beside the buyer's photo. If yours looks right, suspect the route before the formula.

Whatever the cause, the buyer gets a replacement or a refund. Nobody tells them it is still fine to use; that is your manufacturer's answer to give, not yours.

Short-dated stock is simpler. It is a dispatch failure, not the buyer's problem. Record the batch against every order, even in a plain sheet, and ship the earliest expiry first. Then set a floor: a jar that lasts two months of daily use never leaves with less than [your number] months on it.

What to agree with a contract manufacturer

If someone else makes your range, settle these in writing before the first complaint arrives:

• Who checks a batch when complaints cluster, and what they check it against.
• A retained sample of each batch, and how long they keep it.
• The details they need from you: batch, the buyer's words, photos, the pack if kept.
• Stock that is held or recalled, and who pays for it.
• Reporting a reaction to an authority, if anyone must. Rules differ by product category and change, so your regulatory adviser writes this line.

The complaint register

One register for every channel, marketplace complaints included. A shared sheet is enough.

The hold rule differs by type. For reactions, use the rule in the health-complaint template: two on one batch and that batch stops. For a change in the pack, check your own stock of the batch first. If it has changed too, hold it and call the manufacturer. If it has not, look at the route.

If you ship a handful of orders, a notebook with these columns will do. Do not skip the batch photo at any size. And if your product makes treatment claims or contains a prescription ingredient, this process is not enough on its own; your regulatory adviser should write the reporting steps.

For example: a summer of darkened serum

For example, an invented small brand in Jamshedpur sells a vitamin C serum and a gel moisturiser on its own site and through a marketplace warehouse. Early in the summer, two buyers write that the serum has turned dark orange, and a third that the gel has gone watery.

The founder assumes a bad batch, pulls both batches from every channel and rings the manufacturer. For ten days the best seller shows as out of stock, an invented loss of about ₹80,000 in sales. Then the founder fills in the route column. All three complaints came from warehouse orders. The same batches shipped from the brand's own storeroom drew none, and the bottles still on the shelf looked as they should.

The batches went back on sale from the storeroom. Through the hot months, the serum shipped only from there. The manufacturer's storage line moved from the back of the carton to the first image of the listing. And the three buyers got replacements with no questions asked.

What to do next

Add a batch column and a route column to your dispatch sheet before the next order ships, and photograph one unit of each live batch for your own shelf. The review that sometimes follows a complaint is covered in skincare reviews and before-and-after photos. Beauty is one of the trades in selling online where the batch decides the answer. If you want one owner and one register across WhatsApp, email and marketplace messages with complaint and escalation management, tell us what you need.