fed up with Sephora

[shatteredshards]

To make a long story short, Sephora has given me some of the worst customer service, or lack thereof, of any company I have shopped with.

The incident that has finally broke this camel's back goes something like this: I emailed their customer service on March 1st to ask for the ingredients on an eyeliner pencil. I never got a response.

I emailed again on March 20th, and doublechecked my email address carefully. Never got a response.

Emailed again on March 26th with a different email address and provider. Needless to say, I still don't have a response.

Pretty abysmal results for their claim of "We will respond to your query within 24-48 hours."

I'm ticked, I'm taking my business elsewhere, for good, and I want them to know it. But if I email them, it'll probably be ignored like the rest of my emails, and if I call them, I don't know if I can get it out because I subconciously become sugary-sweet nice when I'm on the phone. Yesterday I called and all I accomplished was closing my Beauty Insider account, and the woman never asked me why I was doing so.

Do I call and ask for a supervisor? Do I slink off into the background while they continue to treat their customers like crap? Am I the only one who's been treated like crap?

 

[MizzMelroseMood]

They could've atleast answered your email and told you sorry they couldn't give you an ingredient list for whatever reason they may have, but I don't think thats a reason to just totally avoid Sephora forever.

 

[shatteredshards]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MizzMelroseMood They could've atleast answered your email and told you sorry they couldn't give you an ingredient list for whatever reason they may have, but I don't think thats a reason to just totally avoid Sephora forever.

If I had sent one email, probably not. But as I said, I sent 3 over the course of a month, and all of them were ignored. I even said in my 2nd and 3rd emails that I had sent previous emails that went unanswered.

And I wish I could say this is all that's happened to me, but over the years I have routinely received crap service from them; I can't even count how many times I went into my local Sephora (which sadly happens to be at the Mall of America) and was completely ignored, even by employees standing a foot or two away from me, and even when the store was nearly empty. Sometimes I've gone in dressed nicely, sometimes I've gone in looking like a stereotyped teenage shoplifter, it never seemed to make a difference.

 

[Makeup Emporium]

I agree with you! I don't think companies should be allowed to get away with poor (or no) customer service! Specially in this day and age when we are all a little more careful with our pennies for a company to act that way is just not right. Customers are why they are in business and should be treated as important as they are!

I would call and speak to someone. A silent protest is not going to make them take notice; they will not even know about it. Call them, post on their facebook page, make sure to let them know that you were a loyal customer and how you were treated. If as customer's we don't make the companies aware of their shortcomings how are they going to know what to change!

 

[Blushbaby]

Sorry to hear that. I always get great CS from staff instore and over the phone on the occasions I've called. Maybe it's my British accent!!!

Keeping quiet won't change anything though. Make a noise, complain and be heard!

 

[Winthrop44]

I agree that their customer service is pitiful. When a return I mailed them was taking forever I called and was told it was in their warehouse but had just not been credited to my account yet. After another few weeks passed and I called again I was told it was never received! What?! They further said they couldn't do anything else without a tracking number. Um...if a tracking number is so important why isn't one included on *their* return label which is what I used? I told them I would never order anything from them again and so far i haven't. I don't think they could care less.

 

[angi]

Whenever I've had awful customer service in the past, and I really, really need to get my complaint listened to I find out who the CEO (or equivalent) of the company is, and then email them. Usually gets a response!

 

[westindiesangel]

Smart businesses WANT to hear your complaints, so complain! If I were you I would call them and ask for a supervisor and complain, and about the store I would go to the store, ask for a manager and complain. It may fall on deaf ears, but hopefully it doesn't. They obviously need to get their acts together and maybe your feedback will help them & you.

 

[nez_o]

That's weird, I always email them and receive a response within hours. Maybe check your junk email?

But I am I would call in and complain and ask to speak to someone higher up.

 

[cetati]

This IS very odd... I've never waited more than a day on a return email from Sephora.

 

[mae13]

That is really odd. I have maaaaaany issues with how Sephora runs its business (especially in regards to how it treats some of its brands, not to mention this VIP crap recently), but other than one CS fuck-up, they are generally very good when it comes to that sort of thing. I've certainly never had to wait more than a day for a response back.

Maybe your e-mail is bouncing their responses? Or maybe for some reason it's not going through to them? But with two accounts, that would be weird.

Either way, if you tend to not do well over the phone, I would highly suggest writing a thoughtful, rational and clear e-mail outlining why you are unhappy with the level of service you have received, listing particular examples. I would then call the CS line and speak with a supervisor, asking them to whom you can send this, and make it clear you want a response.

 

[shatteredshards]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nez_o That's weird, I always email them and receive a response within hours. Maybe check your junk email?

I actually did, quite a few times, because that was my thought when I didn't get a response to the first email.

Also for the record, I sent the first two with the Gmail account that I had signed up as a BI with and got frequent sale emails from Sephora through, and the third from one of my Hotmails. Nothing ever showed up in the spam/junk folders, unfortunately.

mae13, thank you for the suggestion, I'm curious to see how they would handle that.

 

[mae13]

If you keep pushing, eventually it will get escalated up to someone who will do something for you. We had one client who had an email go all the way up to a bigwig. By the time it came back down to the store, we SHOWERED her with gift cards and free shit. But she was also nuts, so that's not to suggest you should go her route - someone inevitably does pay for a customer's ire. But that's not to say you shouldn't get to have some sort of answer for the crap CS you've been getting.

 

[shatteredshards]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mae13 We had one client who had an email go all the way up to a bigwig. By the time it came back down to the store, we SHOWERED her with gift cards and free shit. But she was also nuts....

*laughs* Oh, I know that type, believe me. We have a repeat customer at my workplace that we literally make no money off of due to the nature of his purchases, his use of cupons, and BS claims that our things are broken, yet he complains to corporate about how we allegedly mistreat him and keeps coming back, multiple times a week. I'm sure corporate would love to hear about the threats of physical harm he and his wife keep giving my coworkers.

I don't want any gifts or discounts or whatever from them, they're not going to bribe me back at this point, because they've kind of already bribed me back before (the discount coupon BIs got before Christmas got me to come in "one more time" after I had given them an earful on an after-purchase online survey). I just want a freakin' response and for them to stop being jerkfaces!

 

[Civies]

I always get ignored when I go into Sephora and I see a lot of people also getting ignored unless they directly ask for help- which I think customers shouldn't have to unless they told the sales that if they needed anything they would ask. All the Sephora's in my area are always like this but when I do see them helping people they are generally very nice and helpful which is weird.

Like people have said, I think you should bring it to their attention about your concerns because they will definitely not notice your absence since they are such a huge company. Being a huge company, they should be able to do something about it in your favour to try to please you to retain your business.

 

[cetati]

Oh, I DO agree that their in-store customer service completely blows. However one of the things I love most about Sephora is actually that no one bothers me while I look at stuff unless I ask for help but I can see why that would bother people.

 

[shatteredshards]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cetati Oh, I DO agree that their in-store customer service completely blows. However one of the things I love most about Sephora is actually that no one bothers me while I look at stuff unless I ask for help but I can see why that would bother people.

I know some people prefer to be left alone, and I don't necessarily expect the employees to come halfway across the store and ask me if I need help, but if I'm standing a foot away from one while they stock a display, I do expect them to at least say hello to me rather than completely ignoring me. I can circle the store 3, 4, 5 full times and not even get a hello, much less someone asking me if I need help.

 

[MissCrystal]

i know what u mean i sent sephora over 5 emails regarding their VIB and no reply. This has been going on since December 2009, i mean i have over 850 points im a loyal shopper and this is the thanks they give. And i have sent emails from my hotmail before and they always got answered within a couple of days. And i mean u emailed them asking about an eyeliner and they didn't even respond ?? WTF isn't that the whole purpose of their CS .. pffft


I'm so over them I'll get my MUFE at the bay counter now.

 

[Meisje]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shatteredshards Also for the record, I sent the first two with the Gmail account that I had signed up as a BI with and got frequent sale emails from Sephora through

This is not directly related to the issue but I thought I'd mention it:

Gmail has an issue with marking entire domains as "safe." I tried to add an entire domain, ie all addresses at @domain.com to my safe list and it wasn't possible. So unfortunately, if you have one email from that domain approved to your Gmail, it has no effect on how it deals with other addresses from that domain. I think it's pretty stupid.

As for Sephora, I've only emailed them twice about CS issues and they've responded quickly. I did have problems with not receiving BI emails --- I had to change my address twice. Gmail was blocking them and not even putting them into my Junk Mail, so I never had the option to unblock.

 

[shatteredshards]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meisje As for Sephora, I've only emailed them twice about CS issues and they've responded quickly. I did have problems with not receiving BI emails --- I had to change my address twice. Gmail was blocking them and not even putting them into my Junk Mail, so I never had the option to unblock.

Hmm, that's good to know. I hadn't actually marked any Sephora emails as safe, they just came to me as they should have. Usually if I mark something as junk it does keep coming in, just to my Junk folder, but who knows what happened there.

Unfortunately, Gmail being secretly selective doesn't help that my Hotmail email didn't get any answer, either. I'm thinking I might send one last request through Hotmail and if that gets ignored like the others, I'll be writing out a long email or actual snail-mail letter to a CEO or something.