A Message to our Clients about Epic Rewards

[sephoraadmin2]

Sephora is committed to offering our valued Beauty Insiders exceptional rewards to thank them for their loyalty and for being part of our community.  Yesterday we held an Epic Rewards promotion, and while we have held similar promotions in the past, yesterday’s promotion was the largest number of Epic Rewards we have made available to date.

Despite our best efforts to predict the response, demand was overwhelming, resulting in our being out of stock very quickly. We deeply regret this and apologize to our Beauty Insider clients who did not get a chance to participate.  

At Sephora our first and foremost priority is to give our clients an exciting and fulfilling shopping experience.  Those Beauty Insiders who were unable to get one of our limited quantity Epic Rewards, please email us by Tuesday, August 25, 2015, to epicrewards@sephora.com and include your Beauty Insider account number or email address associated with your account. 

Beyond that, please know that we are committed to learning from this experience. Thank you for your ongoing support. We greatly appreciate you.

Sephora is committed to offering our valued Beauty Insiders exceptional rewards to thank them for their loyalty and for being part of our community.  Yesterday we held an Epic Rewards promotion, and while we have held similar promotions in the past, yesterday’s promotion was the largest number of Epic Rewards we have made available to date.

Despite our best efforts to predict the response, demand was overwhelming, resulting in our being out of stock very quickly. We deeply regret this and apologize to our Beauty Insider clients who did not get a chance to participate.  

At Sephora our first and foremost priority is to give our clients an exciting and fulfilling shopping experience.  Those Beauty Insiders who were unable to get one of our limited quantity Epic Rewards, please email us by Tuesday, August 25, 2015, to epicrewards@sephora.com and include your Beauty Insider account number or email address associated with your account. 

Beyond that, please know that we are committed to learning from this experience. Thank you for your ongoing support. We greatly appreciate you.

**********************

Updated August 17

Thank you to everyone who has been reaching out to us about Epic Rewards. We value your feedback and recognize your ongoing loyalty to us, and we are working to get back to you quickly.

To that end, please know that if you have contacted us you will hear back from us in direct response to your inquiry during the period between Tuesday, August 25th through Tuesday, September 1st. The timing of the response to you will depend on when we received your initial contact regarding Epic Rewards.

If you haven’t contacted us yet, please email us at epicrewards@sephora.com. We’ve set up this dedicated mailbox to collect the right information quickly and accurately, separating you from the queue for general Sephora inquiries. When you email us at this address, it will generate an automated response that confirms we’ve received the message. You can then expect to hear back from us as quickly as possible with more information.

Please know that our team is listening, and we take your concerns to heart. We value your support, and we will be in touch soon.

With our sincerest thanks,

The Beauty Insider Team

*************************************

Updated September 1

Thank you to everyone who reached out to us about Epic Rewards. We have reached out to all of those members who emailed us on or before August 25th, and are no longer accepting new submissions. epicrewards@sephora.com has been closed. Please contact us at 1-877-SEPHORA (1-877-737-4672) regarding any other questions or concerns. We have reviewed your feedback and are taking it into consideration as we plan for future promotions. Our loyal Beauty Insiders are enormously important to us.

[RoxyDoo]

I would appreciate if there were some nice 500-1000 point rewards available. A full sized lipstick and liner in a popular color.  Please no more deluxe sample kits for 500 points. Department stores give those away.

[starletta8]

I'll reiterate what I've been saying elsewhere on the board. My only hope is that someone at Sephora may read it.

Yes, Sephora, I'm furious about this. And I have the right to be, even though I had low expectations. I have been trying to snag one of these fleeting rewards for the past THREE rounds and have yet to be successful. That's not a reward; that's a lottery.

That said, I'm not entitled to anything other than the opportunity to get one of these. And that, Sephora, is why I'm most upset. I was on the site, on multiple platforms, and refreshed at the right time. Never did I see anything come into stock; I was not even given a chance despite hitting the lotto in terms of time of day. That felt like a true bait and switch or a gimmick. I found it to be shady that quantities were not released in the T&C.

I'm happy for those who were able to get rewards; they won the lottery. Clearly the backlash from these past two rounds should be becoming abundantly clear. Simply handing out more points as a "oops, sorry" doesn't really cut it if we aren't ever realistically going to have the opportunity to cash in those points for something that the customer sees as value.

And no, Sephora, I fail to see 100 deluxe mini mascaras as equivalent to the Marc Jacobs reward or one of the trips. 50 mini cleansers is not the same as the Armani set or the Elizabeth & James set. Please don't try to patronize us by suggesting that they're equivalent in any way, shape, or form.

I've been a VIB Rouge since day one; I requalified for 2016 in February of this year. After the last two rounds, I've been moving business to retailers that don't make me play games for my loyalty. I love my local store, but hate the feeling of being taken advantage of. The lack of even opportunity to redeem my 10K+ points reeks of that. I know as a retailer that you don't owe me anything, but I've been giving you my loyalty in exchange for a rewards system which seems inherently unfair on its surface when it comes to this reward.

If you're giving compensation points, you're making the situation worse for next time when there are a larger group of people with inflated point totals. Likewise, holding the epic rewards right after a point multiplier felt disingenuous when so few could realistically redeem. That's not rewarding those who have been loyal for years.

Like others on the board, I hope that you take a hard look at these offerings; a more fair approach would be to offer some of the 2K/5K rewards (particularly handbags& beauty sets) at a much larger quantity and have enough to go around until we've exhausted the points. I'm not suggesting unlimited trips; companies have marketing budgets and you could certainly come up with some great cross-promotions. Heck, I've got plenty of ideas that I'd be willing share.

Instead, I just feel like a fool. Fool me one, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me this third time (yes, I've never been able to get one of these rewards), and I should be seriously ashamed of myself. 

[albablue]

My thoughts right there! I also felt like a fool, and hate to play games to get a "reward". Maybe some people find these lotteries/games enjoyable, I do not.

[liv545]

That was very beautifully put. This was my first time trying. It was awful.

[sharkington]

*claps* Well said on all accounts. You said it in a much more thought out and eloquent way than me. 

[wheeeee]

This is all true!  Having a 'point multiplier event' is NOT rewarding its most loyal customers.

It is a deceitful marketing scheme!

I say this freely now because hundreds of people have come on this forum and social media sites stating they only shopped the 2x/3x/4x point event to qualify for the prizes.  Now, they are returning everything because they did not get a prize.  

How can you call this a legit Rewards Program???

[Alyvator]

You hit the nail on the head with why I'm uncomfortable with talking about how they held this right after their point mulitplier event. It feels honestly manipulative. They should have known the response because very recently they had another large perk event. It wasn't last year, it was a few months ago! So really this just felt like a gimmick to get people to take more advantage of the multiplier. 

Honestly since the last large perk event, I've been taking my money to Ulta more and more. I feel like their system is so much more straight forward. I get to get cash back for every dollar I spend. I recently got a BECCA foundation for basically free. I found it to be a much better use of points than how Sephora has it set it up. 

[wheeeee]

Same here!  I spent my Ulta rewards on Urban Decay using the 20% prestige coupon which added more value to my rewards cash.

In May, I wanted the UD vault from the Extraordinary rewards.  Never had a chance!

Ulta makes everything easy-peasy!   Sephora should, too.  

[SHolmes221]

Perfectly stated, thank you!!

[BlushHoarder]

I second all of this. I would like to reiterate the part about offering more 1000, 2000, etc. point rewards more often. Appeasing everyone with points means nothing but more people to fight for the two prizes next time. Your points system, as is, has come to be worthless. I have 7000 points (I had almost 9000 two months ago but have tried to unload them every chance I have gotten after the April/May debacle) and they virtually mean nothing. 

I completed the email request and I hope that Sephora does something to restore my faith. I love Sephora. Now, I just need Sephora to love me.

[Lime123]

Well said!

[michelle164]

Thank you for this post ! As a Rouge since the program started that also attempted these rewards 3 times with nothing to show for it I'm glad you were able to eloquently express the disappointment. 

[trishalyn]

If sephora would just release decent 500 and 1000 point rewards throughout the year, then there would be less people sitting on 1k, 2k, 5k and 10k points. Then there would be less demand when the epic rewards rolls out.

This years 500 point boxes were terrible and quite simply, a joke. Most of the contents were offered beforehand as free samples with purchase, so why would we spend our hard earned 500 points on something that we could get for no points. I did not even redeem a single 500 box this year.

Last years boxes, which had the Balenciaga scarf and the Dolce Gabbana Clutch with a full sized eyeliner, now those are boxes worth the points, and while they are limited in supply, almost anybody who wanted one got one, and that makes for happy customers.

[heartsmyface]

I haven't redeemed for anything from the 500 point tier this year either.  They have been mostly of  400 point value:/

[chocopudding]

Yes, the scarf was something unique that I happily traded my points in for - it was something that you can't find at other retailers. AND there was no fighting over those because of limited quantities!

[sharkington]

Remember that D&G Pour Femme and Pour homme perk with that really pretty clutch? I loved that and felt so good about redeeming for something that I actually felt was worth the 500 points. I'd love to see more of that type of stuff again. 

[msjudycyang]

Same! It also came with a full size D&G eyeliner, I really regret not getting the Balenciaga perk with the scarf now, in comparison to what's offered these days.

[tiri]

Yea, this makes sense, and would be most feasible for Sephora, really... If 500 rewards were more "worth" it than they are now and if they didn't make 1000 rewards some sort of a mystical, rare, unicorn of rewards, then there wouldn't be such crazy, uncontrollable (on Sephora's end) demand for things like epic rewards... The root of the problem and where most ppl derive this deep seethed anger is from the fact that now they will continue to have thousands of points saved and nothing to redeem them for. Not so much that "oh the reward was taken away from me and now I am mad." More so "oh the reward was taken away from me.... what am I even supposed to do with these saved points? What is the point of buying? What is the point? Now I am mad."

[nathaliew]

GC: Sephora should just hire you to deal with this situation. I can't stay angry and frustrated after reading your hilarious posts! ❤️ Too funny!

[KateLovesYSL]

Why is it the people who were left out have to send in an email? 

This problem affected over 99.9% of your clients. 

Its best that something is done automatically for everyone so that it is fair.

After the last fiasco in May, the members on BT who took the time and energy to write about the bad experience and provided suggestions didn't receive anything but those that complained via Facebook and Twitter received something ...more points, but at least they recieved something. But no one reached out to give points to those that posted on BT. I had a 10k reward in my cart in May and couldn't check out because Canadians were not allowed to place orders for the first few hours! I was really upset and posted about it but nothing was done about it. Sephora didn't even admit that they intentionally left canadians out in May nor did Canadians get offered any compensation for it.

I hope that something fair and consistent will be applied across the board for all Beauty Insiders.

[albablue]

I complained through Facebook after the May event and didn't receive anything, so only some of those who complained thru social media received something.