Vent: Bad experience at Sephora a couple of days ago

MAC_Enthusiast

Well-known member
They were doing their job by trying to provide customer service. If noboby asked you if you needed help, would you say that nobody offered to help you because you are black? Ok, you were offended. Everybody does things differently and what's offensive to one person might not be offensive to another.
 

MAC_Enthusiast

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by scorplove
There are girls (and guys) in the mall that DO sample our stuff all the time and we don't care and vice versa. Granted we are smaller stores, but STILL...

They could have either told me the TRUTH or handled it differently. Obviously, training in TACT is needed here.



They just asked if you needed any help! What's wrong with that??
 

MAC_Enthusiast

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by scorplove
I'm sorry, but the bitch copped a slight attitude when I asked her WHY she was asking me if I was waiting for someone. I felt like I was surrounded by security and not by a sales associate. Sending that black chick over with that fake ass smile was the icing on the cake.

What? Cause she and I both black there's some sort of secret understanding we have? The whole thing was just so stupid.


How do you know "they" sent her? Maybe she came over on her own? Sounds like you are assuming a lot.
 

MissChriss

Well-known member
Why is everyone attacking this poor girl because she didn't like the service she got inside of this store. Goodness. You are giving her the 5th degree. You were not there...she was!!
 

MAC_Enthusiast

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by scorplove
There are WAYS to do things.



They'll probably send their one and only black employee over to me again.


Another assumption based on race.
 

Shimmer

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissChriss
Why is everyone attacking this poor girl because she didn't like the service she got inside of this store. Goodness. You are giving her the 5th degree. You were not there...she was!!

Probably because SAs for cosmetics lines get slammed like this all the time, customer relations get called and it's all over someone (not necessarily the OP) being hyper sensitive and could have been avoided.
 

lainz

Well-known member
i think people are just playing devil's advocate to help her see a different side of it.
 

MAC_Whore

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissChriss
Why is everyone attacking this poor girl because she didn't like the service she got inside of this store. Goodness. You are giving her the 5th degree. You were not there...she was!!

I appreciate your concern, but no one is attacking her. People are just presenting their views. It just so happens that the majority of posters don't happen to agree with the OP.

The reality is that if you put something up for discussion, you should expect to hear comments that may support your feelings and others that do not. I don't think anyone in this thread has been cruel or out of line.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I realize I wasn't there. I am basing my comments on the OPs recounting of the events, her words.
smiles.gif
 

PMBG83

Well-known member
That(those) heffas seem a little sketchy. Now it could be b/c they dont want you using the samples that much but damn I bet the creator would say otherwise considering you probably tell everyone you know how good it smells or other ppl smell you and asks what it is and wants to or does buy it. But the old follow the ethnic person around thing is still more prevalent than I believe our society might recognize(unless youre the ethinic person). Now I have to admit that hasnt happened to me to my recollection maybe b/c Im under 5ft tall and no one really notices me?
 

SkylarV217

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by MAC_Whore
I appreciate your concern, but no one is attacking her. People are just presenting their views. It just so happens that the majority of posters don't happen to agree with the OP.

The reality is that if you put something up for discussion, you should expect to hear comments that may support your feelings and others that do not. I don't think anyone in this post has been cruel or out of line.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I realize I wasn't there. I am basing my comments on the OPs recounting of the events, her words.
smiles.gif


I completely agree , If you don't want unbiased opinions , don't post on a message board. While the ladies here back each other up , they also let us know when our thinking is not always correct ... IE the relationship board. Thats the whole point of message boards like this! You can't always expect honest opinions from your friends .... That why we ask things here
 

astronaut

Well-known member
I encounter the same type of "harassment" from Sephora. Actually, it's what they are trained to do I think. Supposedly it's good customer service. I find it annoying more than anything. Every time I go to Sephora, I have to be prepared to be approached 10 times by different SA's. Sometimes, I just want to shop and peace and it gets tiring turning every corner and aisle and being asked the same questions by different SA's and having to repeat the same answers.

The thing that actually PISSES me off though are the SA's that approach me from behind. I like to have my space and I think it's a human thing to not want to be approached from behind. I'm just standing there, looking down at my hand looking at swatches, and all of a sudden I hear I voice from behind asking me what I need help on. If I don't look up and turn around, they'll wait. It's just so bizarre and annoying.

BUT the thing that pissed me off THE MOST was when I was clearly on the phone and an SA approached me and said, "How can I help you?" while I was talking. Then I looked at her, I was still talking in the middle of a conversation on the phone, and she just stood there and waited for me to say something. I just think that's rude.
 

MAC_Pixie04

Well-known member
Aww these always make me sad because I work at Sephora and the only time we've ever had a complaint like this was when a former employee of another store tried to return a shitload of gratis and we weren't nice to her (justifiable, I think) So here's what I'll say about how we're supposed to deal with potential LP.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ♥MiCHiE♥
Maybe they're onto the fact that you go in just to "freshen up", have a problem with it and don't know another way to approach you. The whole scenario just seems.....weird. Ofcourse, the samples are there for use, but it's my understanding that store/counter employees don't really care for people taking advantage of them.

We get a lot of people that work in the mall or work nearby that come in just to touch up their makeup or put on fragrance and then leave. I personally think that's like going into Costco on Saturday to have a lunch off of free samples and not grocery shop. However, I don't have a problem with it unless the person becomes a nuisance, like asking me for things while I'm clearly helping a customer who's truly interested in trying products. We have a lot of regulars who come in just to collect as many samples as they can week after week and avoid buying product. I'm not saying that's what you were doing, but it's a big problem we have at Sephora stores, because our atmosphere is so "touch-friendly," you don't have to ask someone to help, our sanitary items are out in the open, our testers are available to be grabbed and used freely, but we do get people who take advantage and it can be very frustrating.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SingFrAbsoltion
Most Sephora salespeople love to follow people around, they get on my nerves. I don't want people staring at me when I'm putting on makeup or looking around! I understand they're uptight about stealing (understandably) but give me some space!

I actually mentioned this to a friend who used to work at sephora and she told me "yeah, they all do that, and they also like to talk shit about customers through headsets" Nice to know I guess.


Trust me honey, I'd rather get work done and help customers who truly want my help, we don't "love" following people around, in fact it personally makes me horrifically uncomfortable to have to watch someone closely if my manager asks me to, but if we don't watch people who seem suspicious to us, then we're likely to get robbed blind. I'm not saying everybody steals or everyone's a suspect, but if we let our guard down, as we have before, an entire shelf of Chanel fragrance can leave store in less than 30 seconds. That's about $2000 we're basically just waving goodbye to.

We're trained to be aware of who is in our zones, what they're doing, regardless of it being suspicious behavior or not. Maybe there's a client in my zone who is completely clueless as to what something is: if I ignore her, she's gonna give up and leave and miss out on a product she may have liked, and we lose a client. Or if I ignore someone who has a huge bag and is really shifty, she might leave with hundreds of dollars in merchandise. Don't take it personally, we're doing our jobs.

I admit there is a lot of abuse on the headset in stores, people get on them to talk casually to each other rather than communicate a need onstage or something that's relevant to business. We also use them to communicate with our DICs and Management if there is a problem onstage. Would you prefer that we yelled? How professional.


Quote:
Originally Posted by scorplove
I don't care if they follow me around. Just don't ask me stupid a$$ questions.

If you think I'm stealing then let me steal whatever it is, then stop me at the door like you're supposed to do. Yeah, and if you know you f'd up, don't go sending the black girl to try to make up for your dumb ass mistake.
nonono.gif
That chick ain't my friend and her fake smiling just makes me even madder.
angry.gif


That's not how it works; we can't just "let you steal and then stop you at the door." There's a 5-step procedure to be followed, and if we don't follow it, we face legal action. It's precautionary if we notice someone who comes in regularly and doesn't want to be talked to, there's a good indiciation that they might be a loss prevention issue; it's like that at just about every retailer, we have to protect our assets, our employees and our clients. People should stop taking things so personally; granted, the way she approached you was rude and completely out of our guidelines. But what if you had been a shopping customer and nobody offered their help? You'd be just as pissed now, except for a different reason. People who don't work retail don't understand; it's a lose-lose situation for us most of the time. If we approach you too much, we're bothering you and you think we're being smug or accusing you of something, but if we don't approach you at all, people get offended adn say we ignored them and complain either way. I'm not a psychic, I don't know if you're a theif, a shopper, or just someone who likes to smell perfume, I'm gonna approach you at least once no matter the situation because that's my job.

Quote:
Originally Posted by janelovesyou
Well technically in retail if they thought you were stealing what they would want to do is stop you before it happened (by offering you assistance and making you aware that they are near) rather then stopping you at the door and accusing you b/c if you really didn't take anything then they could have a major lawsuit on their hands.

But yeah, that story is extra awkward. I've never even had 3 people offer me assistance at Sephora in all my time of going there.


Exactly; we deter theft by offering extra client service; nobody at any retailer would just walk up to you and say "You have a lipstick in your purse, I saw it!" If there's no proof that you didn't come in with that lipstick, we're screwed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by prinzessin784
They probably misinterpreted your comment that you weren't planning on buying anything. Loss prevention training alerts sales people to customers who frequently browse without buying. So as harmless as it was, what you were doing could have been a tipoff to them. Sometimes stores offer bonuses for catching shop lifters so it makes them want to see nefarious intentions in every customer who just wants to look. It's silly and they should have better loss prevention training!

Precisely, except for that last bit. There is no incentive for us for loss prevention. We don't get a bonus for apprehending a shoplifter, we get a shitload of paperwork and time in court if it goes that far. There's only so much stores can do for loss prevention if they don't have an on-site agent or a camera system, neither of which my previous store had. We have to do our best to deter theft before it comes to that point, because sometimes it's the only way to guard our assets and protect ourselves. But nobody should ever approach the way that person did.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Beauty Mark
When I read that, I honestly thought they were on to you sampling things rather frequently. I think it's an awkward thing to approach someone about. Even if you're not the only one who does that, we don't know if they're approaching everyone who does that, if their manager has observed certain customers (which may or may not be linked to race; I get recognized in stores if I frequent them enough) are taking advantage of the sampling, etc.

It may be a weird question to ask if you're waiting for a friend, but if you're in there once a week or so and don't purchase anything, I may assume that you're waiting for someone.


You're definitely not the first person nor the last, but when we see someone who comes in frequently, never buys anything, and never wants help, it raises flags. Especially if that person consistently does returns or exchanges, and we've never seen them make a purchase to begin with. It's very awkward to hint to someone that we don't appreciate them loitering and having their way with our products and testers, but unfortunately we can't do that, so we just grin and bear it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Willa
Throw rocks at me for that, but I don't really the racism in that case?

I don't either, but it could be interpreted that they were trying to cover their asses by sending over a more "ethnic" consultant to approach her, because once a black employee approaches a black customer, everything's okay in their mind. That's not true either, I don't care who approaches me if they're green, orange, purple or blue, if they were rude, they were rude. These girls in the Beverly Center store were rude, no doubt about it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by scorplove
They came at me the WRONG way.

I feel very offended by what happened and whether or not race played a part in it doesn't matter. The whole experience made me uncomfortable. I don't play the race card. I don't believe Sephora is a racist company.

If they had a problem with me using their samples then they should have said something. By asking me who the hell I'm waiting for, because I'm just walking around the store looking at the testers smacks of stupidity. If this was their way of getting me to not come back to the store anymore, then it worked. I won't ever be going back there.


Not allowed, unless you're doing something particularly heinous with our products and testers, or you're fishing through the drawers, or opening live product, we can't really do or say anything about it.

Quote:
It's only THIS location that treated me like this. I've been to others (Hollywood/Highland and Santa Monica) and the energy has always been positive. What it boils down to is I (the customer) felt disrespected and didn't deserve it.

I've heard unfortunate things about the LA and NY stores; there's a real superiority complex in those cities in general I guess. I visited a Sephora in NY before I was employed with the company and I could smell the smugness before I walked in. Nobody offered to help me, but they all kept their eyes on me. I guess it was because I had a giant coat on and lots of bags...but did I mention it was the dead of winter and I was a tourist on a shopping spree? Didn't matter to them.

Quote:
Regardless, I'm still calling the corporate office to let them know my feelings.

I encourage you to make a complaint if you feel that strongly about it. We get a lot of complaints if someone gets a wild hair up their ass because we wouldn't do their makeup for free or because we were too busy to do a full consultation with them or whatever, but I always encourage people if they feel very strongly about something, good or bad, they should go through the channels and make us aware. Something like that further lets me know where we have opportunities to make ourselves better and improve our client service efforts.
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience, but if you ever come to Otay Ranch Sephora, you won't, I can assure you that.
 

MAC_Pixie04

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by scorplove
Until that person actually puts the item in their bag or pocket, you treat them as the potential customer you know they WON'T be. LOL! You honestly never know who a person is or who THEY know, so you should ALWAYS come correct. That druggie could be related to a bigwig that might be friends with your manager. Also, our company promotes secret shopping with a vengeance, so you're tested on EVERYTHING.

I never would have treated a customer like Sephora treated me even without LP or diversity training. That *ish was just plain wrong.



You honestly think we'd wait until we SAW someone put it in their purse or pocket, or that someone who would steal would actually LET us see them put it in their purse or pocket? You've got to be kidding; as someone who works in retail, you should really know better than to use that as a defense. That's the whole point, if we're near you and make you aware of our presence, you WON'T put it in your purse or pocket. It's not Store of Trust & Live Product, we're a huge retailer and we get hit with theft a lot...should we just ignore you next time? We have 4 mandatory LP trainings a year, and we get more when policies change or when our store has a incident where LP is required. Trust me, I know a thing or two about how to deter theft and how to alert someone when there's someone in the store who's putting things in their pockets. I'm not gonna stand next to them and smile while they shove a $200 skin serum in their pocket before I try to do something the best way I know how. My old store wasn't fortunate enough to have cameras or sensors, so we were pretty much on our own at protecting our assets.
 

tiffanykei

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartcolor
I am shocked that the SA did that. That actually makes the company liable for a lawsuit for "defamation of character" or whatever. Sephora teaches you to NEVER accuse someone of theft for that very reason.

-Lauren


Technically... she wasn't "accused" of theft.
smiles.gif
This whole situation seems a bit off to me and we can come up with countless reasons as to why this SA did this. :T

I agree with the girls who mentioned.. if you like it so much, just buy it.
smiles.gif


I rarely ever go into Sephora and if I do, I always walk out with a purchase.
smiles.gif
I only go shopping when I actually NEED something so.. ;p but never have I been treated so rude.. EVEN with my 4 year old daughter running around and dipping her fingers at samples.
ssad.gif

I guess I'm just in a good town?

Also, as a Senior Manager in Retail, to prevent theft, we provide "extra" customer service. We know it annoys y'all but there's an upper lady/man who likes to be a pain if we don't do as we're told. It's policy. Plus, we do this because at our store, we can't stop them or chase the girl down for shoplifting. The only thing that we CAN do is provide customer service to PREVENT it from happening.

Example:: In our training manual, when you see a customer put something in their bag, we can't football tackle them like we want to. We walk up to them and say something like.. "Hey! Did you know that the pants that you put in your bag is our best seller? Let me hold it at the counter until you're ready to pay for them!" with the friendliest attitude possible.
 

MAC_Whore

Well-known member
Quote:
Originally Posted by tiffanykei
.. "Hey! Did you know that the pants that you put in your bag is our best seller? Let me hold it at the counter until you're ready to pay for them!" with the friendliest attitude possible.[/I]

That reminds me of the movie Notting Hill when the shoplifter shoves a travel book down his pants lol
 

tiffanykei

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by MAC_Whore
That reminds me of the movie Notting Hill when the shoplifter shoves a travel book down his pants lol

HAHAHA!!! OMGOSH that's true!! ;p
 

lyttleravyn

Well-known member
Maybe the SA's didn't see the others approach you. Or maybe the SA who asked you if you were waiting for someone meant if you were waiting for another SA (if they were getting you something), and then just didn't know where to take the conversation. (I have that happen to me sometimes...I haven't thought my responses/questions through all the way. I've definitely said some silly things by accident! haha). Just a thought.

I'm sorry you felt uncomfortable while shopping
ssad.gif
Shopping should be a happy time! haha :-D
 
Top