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.

[surfgirlmiami]

That is so random, but very cool!

[bratknits]

OK .. who handed out free mirrors and I didn't get one?

[heartsmyface]

You say the best things! 

[shimmerbait]

Who summoned all the nasties today?

[rbkh]

sounds like one nasty who isn't very empathetic for those who spend thousands more than she does with a retailer.  If you spend a LOT of your hard earned money somewhere, yes, you are definitely owed something- that is the nature of running a business, and overall how capitalism functions. If something misleading is coming from an otherwise reputable GLOBAL business, yes, it does require explanation and follow up and a correction of some sort.  Not being "owed" anything is the equivalent of saying that Sephora doesn't have a responsibility to its customers, when in fact, it does. If you don't understand this, that's exactly the kind of naivete that leads to bad business practices, fraud, corruption... you name it. Fortunately, there are far more educated consumers who are willing to advocate on behalf of the public, and ultimately, look out for those who don't understand this- even if they don't appreciate it.

[surfgirlmiami]

AMEN! (see my rant about reasonable expectation above)

[rchiariello]

Why do you think you are owed something simply for shopping? That makes no sense. Walmart and McDonald's don't have loyalty programs and business is BOOMING! Louis Vuitton partially owns Sephora and they certainly don't have a rewards program. People have such a sense of entitlement nowadays and it's really sad. These rewards are FREE and people are getting bent out of shape over it. You shouldn't expect to get anything more than what you pay for when shopping anywhere. You should be happy and thankful for anything additional the company chooses to give you.

[vicki11]

It is about competition in the market. No company owe anyone anything. But if they don't respond to competition in the market from other strong competitors( better gwp and discounts other stores offer) THEY will be the one facing the consequence. We as customers can always shop elsewhere. Sephora ignoring customers feedback will be equivalent to saying "hey we don't care about your money go spend it somewhere where they do care" and that is exactly what customers will do.

[shimmerbait]

For the most part, rchiariello, I don't feel anyone has a problem with your point of view.   What we have a problem with is your rude, abrasive comment that in no way conveys your point in a respectful manner.

By using Louis Vuitton as your example, you are comparing apples to oranges.  Louis Vuitton sells Louis Vuitton products. Sephora, in addition to the Sephora Collection and other house brands, sells products manufactured by other companies.

And if you believe LV does not reward their high-spend clients, your research is lacking.

[Anonymous]

"What we have a problem with is your rude, abrasive comment that in no way conveys your point in a respectful manner."

Thank you, shimmerbait.

[rchiariello]

As opposed to all the people saying gimme, gimme, gimme? You call those comments respectful or mature?

[rbkh]

...thank you @shimmerbait. well put!

[rbkh]

Sephora officially goes into the category I put Time Warner cable and taxes. Cannot WAIT for a competitor to launch (there's Nordstrom and Ulta for now- and I'm spending more with them since!) and never have to deal with Sephora's constant BS! I understand you can't please everybody but when you have a royal screwup like this "EPIC" fiasco, and do nothing except set up an email and then treat each customer complaint differently (depending on who we end up talking to!!) - it's bad management, not bad customers. If you can't figure out how to make this right, you have no business being in retail.

[LolaPie]

Not to add insult to injury, but I honestly think Sephora should re-think their business model, especially considering they are under the umbrella of a luxury brand of companies. LVMH as a brand doesn't just hand out discounts or have sales every week to make customers happy.  They are selective in their clientele and people shop because of the quality of the product and the quality of the service.  At the end of the day if people don't like the quality of service with a company, they should take their business elsewhere.  I'm not saying Sephora is right in not being able to deliver on an item that was anticipated, but if the company spent less time trying to appease the masses and really took care of the clients who shop for quality of service, knowledgeable experts and niche product selection (not individuals that expect a discount or reward "perks" for being a "loyal" customer) I don't think situations like this wouldn't happen.     

[jenn922]

If Sephora shoppers "expect a discount or reward "perks" for being a "loyal" customer," it's because Sephora set those expectations.

And Sephora set those expectations because that's what it has to do to compete for customers. 

Sephora is far from being as exclusive or high-end as many of LVMH's other brands.  Especially in the US, customers have other places that they can buy most of the products Sephora sells.  Sephora chose to launch the VIB program, chose to add the VIB Rouge level and chose to set expectations poorly for these "big" reward offerings.  They wouldn't have done so if they didn't feel that they had to.

[LolaPie]

I see your point.  Thanks for your comment.  

[vasilissa]

While Sephora is under the LVMH brand, it's still not LV. At the end of the day it sells makeup, which by default are perishables and even the most exclusive is within a person with a normal income's reach. There is a reason why fashion houses have perfume and makeup lines - because these kinds of products attract people who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford designer goods. When Sephora is acting greedy, it reflects negatively on the company. We know walmart is a greedy company, and we know businesses exist to make money, but an exclusive company should value their clients accordingly. It's not just what it sells that makes it exclusive, it's how it treats its clients. I'm a loyal LV client, and I used to be a loyal Sephora client, so I definitely fit "the demographic" of the kind of person Sephora want as a client, and my income potential isn't even close to being maxed out. When you go to LV, you get offered a glass of water of champagne, 1-on-1 time with a SA and when you're done purchasing they go into the back and pack up your merchandise. The SAs there are trained to make us feel like valued customers. The norm in the $1500+ per piece fashion business is to not give out freebies, so it's moot to compare LV to Sephora just because they're under the same umbrella. Sephora's competition - Ulta and the department stores all have pretty generous loyalty programs, and don't come and tell me that Barney's and Saks are anything but exclusive because they appreciate their loyal clients by giving them samples and goodie bags.  Last time I went to Barney's I got a huge goodie bag with several deluxe - and I mean real deluxe, not Sephora deluxe -  samples (Malin&Goetz, Tatcha, Chantecaille etc) and even a few full-size products for free after dropping about $500. Last time I went to Sephora I was offered to spend 100 of my BI points  - that I earned through spending $100 - on a sample from an obscure company that doesn't interest me. 

Sephora doesn't owe us anything, but I think that if they do want to keep a loyalty program, make it on par with its competitors' programs, or just don't have one at all. Personally I had no stakes in the rewards failure, but BI is such a bad program that I think a lot of the outrage we're seeing now is just as much a manifestation of long-term frustration with how bad it is as it is about people being angry about not getting a megareward. I think giving 1000 points to those who complain is just adding to the insult, because there's nothing to spend points on outside the megarewards. Like, if they really want to take their clients and their complaints seriously, they should actually ... do so! 

[spadersgirl]

This situation happened because of the past three epic/extraordinary reward events. So I'm not sure how you think Sephora spends the bulk of the time "appeasing the masses." They have plenty of time to concern themselves with quality of service, and I can tell you that not all Sephora locations are created equal. I have excellent service now but a place I used to go, before I changed cities, made me cringe to go there.

As for having sales and handing out discounts, did you know that many of the brands Sephora carries have sales more frequently (friend and family sales) and at a higher percentage off (20-30%) on their own sites than Sephora ever offers? The Sephora sale section is not to make customers happy. They're merely trying to get rid of extra inventory. I mean there was a pantone eyeshadow from years ago that only recently was taken off the sale section. Also, would you suggest Sephora remove their partnership with JCP in order to be more "selective" seeing is how JCP is hardly a luxury brand? Their business model may need tweaking but I do not for one second believe that being more selective would help them. They became one of the top beauty retailers for a reason. 

[LolaPie]

I thank you for your comment.  When I said "appeasing the masses" it was more along the lines of "Sephora is trying to get every single beauty consumer in the world to like/love their program" and I really don't think it's ever going to happen.  There will always be flaws in the program because people don't feel appreciated or treated fairly at some level.  However, looking at the attempts Sephora has made to try to make it's program better than its competitors in places other than percentage discounts and point perks (ie: free beauty classes, free meet and greets and etc.) it seems that they should focus more energy on experiences that the consumer can have vs. what the consumer can tangibly get for free, but those are just my thoughts.

As far as the sale section, Sephora generally only places Sephora branded merch. (Pantone) and the occasional Kendo/VIBr brand on sale.  Most things that are not Sephora branded or Kendo/VIBr are returned to the vendor. They don't keep stock of other companies brands to put on sale, which is how/why these brands receive their merch back and are able to put it on even deeper discount most of the time.  

I do believe JCP and Sephora should cut ties, I never understood why they joined forces.  If anything Sephora should have acquired Blue Murc. before Macy's did. Anywho, I've enjoyed reading your thoughts.

[ragdoll4mom]

well said

[SarahSmile8]

This was my email to them, doubt I'll get a response though (sigh)...

Hi,

I am contacting you regarding the epic rewards as per your post, you asked everyone to contact you via this address. I am a VIB Rouge member and have spent almost $10,000 just in this year alone and when I saw your epic rewards coming up, I was more than thrilled. I am disabled and have multiple serious medical conditions yet I stayed up all night from midnight until the next day at noon when they were released so I could have a chance at receiving the Marc Jacobs 10k reward, which was the one I wanted (but I would have taken any of them). I saw them flash on my screen but only saw one 1,000 points and one 2,000 point rewards, never saw 5,000 or 10,000 point rewards and it was all gone in less than 30 seconds so I never had a chance to checkout. I spent over $2500 the previous week to earn 4x my points and after suffering in severe pain from staying up over 16 hours to get a reward, I was more than extremely disappointed that I never had a chance to begin with. After this awful experience, coupled with a couple of bad experiences I recently had at the downtown Santa Rosa Plaza Sephora in which I never get greeted, never get asked if I need help (and I am disabled and walk with a cane), and get eyes rolled at me at that particular store and the manager at that store has been extremely rude to me and even said she was going to start charging me for bags when I never had to pay for a bag before (it has nothing to do with the price of the bag, it has to do with the principle and how awful I've been treated at that store, not to mention the sales associate who was supposed to ring me up, I was standing right in front of her, she saw me and ran away (she shouldn't be in customer service let alone working for Sephora as she is clearly either not comfortable with people or she's anti-social or introverted) and the manager ended up having to ring me up, then said she was going to also charge me for a bag (talk about adding insult to injury). That experience alone made me never want to step foot in that store again, so I have gone to the Santa Rosa JCPenny Sephora, where they have been EXTREMELY  kind to me, overly gracious, always greeting me, always asking me if I need help, always going WAY above and beyond for amazing customer service (Christina and Kara at the Santa Rosa JCPenny Sephora have been INCREDIBLE to me and I love them!!!). However, after this awful experience, and the terrible let down of the epic rewards, I am HIGHLY contemplating whether I will ever spend another dollar at Sephora until something is made right. My husband immediately called the Rouge phone line the day of the epic rewards (because I was far too upset to call myself) and was told that all of our comments were heard and taken into strong consideration and that something would be done to rectify this, but so far, we have not heard anything back at all. Also, my first order, I received in 2 days as I paid for 2day flash shipping, but the other order, my 2nd order, was sent out ground even though it's labeled "2day Flash Shipping" on the order and nothing in the order was 'hazardous' so there was no reason for it to be sent out ground. Still haven't received that order yet, although I tracked it and it said it should be here tomorrow. It should have never been sent out ground. I deeply and sincerely hope that something will be done to rectify this as I may never be shopping at Sephora again unless something is REALLY done to make this relationship right again and a pleasant one. Please reward Christina and Kara at the Santa Rosa JCPenny's Sephora, however, as they are 2 of your BEST and most outstanding employees and always go way above and beyond when I am there and I feel like they genuinely and truly care about their customers (although they make me feel more like a friend or family rather than a customer) and honestly should be highly rewarded as they are a huge asset to your company. My first job was at Nordstroms, so I know and value quality customer service and know it when I see it and experience it. 

Thank you very much for your time and consideration and again, I truly hope that our relationship can be restored to how I once felt and loved about Sephora and loved shopping there and hope that I will once again love shopping there, but until all of the above is fixed and rectified, I am afraid I am not going to be comfortable shopping there. Again, thank you very much for your time and consideration.