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.

[EvilLemons]

This line is particularly silly:  'Despite our best efforts to predict the response, the demand was overwhelming...'.  There is NO way they didn't anticipate the demand.  NO way.  Also, to sboden, thanks for the chuckle.  

[veronika23]

Exactly! Because apparently they don't know how to pull stats.

[veronika23]

I wasn't really going to rant but now I am beyond PISSED!  I don't really care that I missed out. Whatever. But this isn't about getting my hands on something.

So you give Canada their own warehouse, complete with lack of brands, items, promos and samples. You say this is better for you guys and cuts down on shipping time. FYI it does NOT! The warehouse is maybe 6 hours away from me and it takes just as long to get my items... anyways. You offer us some rewards but we aren't good enough to get the same stuff as the US. We get less choices and no trips! So we are all thinking we are getting our own rewards and might have a fighting chance since we now have our own warehouse. Nope! Wrong!  Why are people in the US getting rewards shipped from Canada????  YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS! Either we have a separate system/warehouse or we don't!  Thanks for once again screwing over your Canadian clients! 

[sabby88]

I agree! How does the Canadian website only have 5 samples for the past 2 days? How come majority of the products listed on the website are out of stock? How come I've been to 2 Sephora's last week and the stock on the shelves (especially UD) was pretty much empty!! Not fair at all! 

[Lunality]

What what what?! Americans had access to some of our portion of the rewards?! Where did you see that? If it's true, I will get really really mad... Seriously I wasn't angry before this apology, but after Sephora started making excuses...let's just say I'm not in a good mood. What do they expect us to be? Idiots?! 

And now I'm finding out some epic rewards are being shipped from the CANADIAN warehouse to US....we really got f@cked by Sephora. 

[fatimamummy]

That thing Veronika, from aftermath of Epic reward , I had the thought that their wasn't separate inventory for Canadians. All I heard is Canadian clients including me were able to peek only 1000, 2000 pts rewards because bigger were already sold when epic rewards were launched on Canadian site.  I was thinking they have all the inventory at US warehouse,,  but this is even more ridiculous that they send separate inventory to Canadian warehouse and let US clients redeem from both side ..... Totally unacceptable. 

[BaseballMommy]

hehe, sbowden, I get what you're saying with the cake reference:)

And I agree. I was under the impression US and Canada both had their own reward stock coming from their respective warehouses. For US to get stock out of your warehouse for this event is totally unfair. And I'm saying this as a US citizen.

I really hope Sephora will straighten out all the mess with Canadians. Y'all have every right to be frustrated.

[ExquisiteGypsy]

I was pretty shocked to hear this too, Veronika. It just makes me sad.  I know we're treated as second-class customers and get screwed over every time, but the lies to Canadians really do have to stop. A little honesty and transparency would go a long way.

In the meantime, I will continue to do what I've been doing since the last round of rewards in May. I realize that there is an incredibly minuscule chance of ever being able to get a large reward in one of these events, so I'll just keep draining my points balance by redeeming for multiple 100, 250 and 500 point perks (as lacklustre as they may be).

[surfgirlmiami]

I'm not Canadian but yes, I will be doing the same thing as you by draining my points balance on 100, 250, and 500 point perks. Doesn't seem like we have another option, because I certainly am not waiting another year just to have a small chance at getting an "epic reward"

[darkiceis]

I agree with you about then doing exactly what they said.  The only improvement which caused the issues is that they had such a small inventory of rewards and thousands of ppl who wanted them.  They just need to increase the inventory dramatically. 

[bratknits]

The consumerist nailed this event and the Sephora points system.  "Effectively buying raffle tickets."

[jellybean917]

A raffle ticket would have been preferable. At least then, I could be in the running for a perk and not waste my day refreshing.

[VeronicaRena]

I'm going to send an email simply because I am nosey and want to know what they're going to do to make this right.  BUT they have lost me as a customer

[heartsmyface]

Oh please let us know how they handle you.  Curiosity. 

[prettyangry]

Are you sad that you weren't able to spend the thousands of points you have accumulated for an epic reward? Don't worry, simply beg for it in an email, and Sephora might give you EVEN MORE useless points FOR FREE! This offer is available for a limited time only. 

[Anonymous]

 I would be interested to know how many of each reward was actually available, because Sephora cant be that ignorant and think only a select few would want these "gifts". People wait and spend/save all year for these rewards and the lack of effort to accurately account for the number of rewards vs. customers interested. Kind of astonishing. Fool me once- shame on you,    fool me twice- shame on me. Well shame on me for believing we even stood a chance to even participate.

On a happier note; I am super happy for those that were able to snag a gift or two cause some of those were fantastic so kudos to you and enjoy those gifts!!!!!

[darkiceis]

I tried to get a reward and wasn't able to. It's ok, its not the end of the world.  I do understand why people are upset. I have no issues with the release time being during normal business hours. There is a simple fix to issue.  The ratio between rewards and BI/VIB/Rouge needs to more realistic. That is all. 🙂

[BaseballMommy]

Exactly. I missed what I was going for and understand people being upset, especially those that had it in their cart and then lost it upon checkout. But, perspective, there are much larger problems we face in life.

I do think Sephora needs to consider changing their rewards program in general. If they offered points to cash, better 500 point perks, or even (gasp) 1000 point perks more frequently, people wouldn't have so many points hoarded with nothing to do with them. That's the problem. There isn't a good outlet for points. 

[darkiceis]

I agree, the rewards should be revamped.  A lot of the 'rewards' can be redeemed with a promo code.  When there is 20k+ people  trying to redeem rewards of an inventory of let's say even 1000 rewards in total (i'm assuming here and using this as an example) then that is where the issue is.  They also should just offer more 1k perks more frequently.  When the Marc Jacobs 1k perk came out it was sitting there for so long.

[heartsmyface]

This seems like a good thing to petition for.   Where's our lawyer friend?

[BaseballMommy]

I'm in the medical field, so it's certainly not me, but I'd sign a drawn up petition for a revamp of the points system:)

I'm not sure Sephora will actually read all of these emails being sent to them, but I did mention what I wrote above in the email. I outlined it for them and mentioned I'm only echoing (but also agree) with what I've seen mentioned multiple times on BeautyTalk. 

Hint hint, Sephora, this is what people want!