Extraordinary Rewards Experience

[BeautyInsiderBT]

Hi Everyone,

We wanted to take a moment to let you know that we are hearing your feedback regarding today’s Extraordinary Rewards experience. If we haven’t been able to respond to you personally yet, please know that we have read your feedback and definitely understand your frustration. The rewards sold out much quicker than we anticipated, so we were unable to send out the planned email or post to our social channels. We’re sorry if you missed out on these exciting rewards. The response has been overwhelming and we are happy to announce that there will be more extraordinary rewards coming this year.

If you have specific questions or need assistance, please PM a moderator for help. We appreciate your understanding and value the helpful feedback you’ve provided here on BeautyTalk.

[vegchililover78]

What I find interesting about this post is that Sephora isn't acknowledging any mishandling of the situation, just that the rewards sold out quicker than anticipated and that's the reason why people didn't receive emails. So disappointing. 

[jemly]

i think an immediate open and honest "we messed up" acknowledgement would've gone over remarkably well compared to the "ha if ya snooze ya lose" (literally) response that's essentially been offered. 

[makeuplovertay]

I have already contacted Sephora and received a reply so I'm not going to complain any further but I am curious why an email was not sent out a day or two an advance with a time that they would release rather than release the products and then tell everyone? I would think that's how most people think (myself anyways) or maybe I missed something?

[PaletteAddict99]

I work in an industry that this type customer handling would violate several consumer related federal regulations.

In my industry you can't **bleep** without a regulator telling you how.:)

I'm sure there is a federal regulator such as the FTC that would think the false and or misleading advertising and then in combination with the 3x points enticement to encourage more spending for the Extraordinary rewards is grossly taking advantage of the consumer. Sephora I really think you need to take this more seriously then you are. Sorry doesn't cut it. You purposefully enticed thousands and thousands of customers to spend just before a giveaway that was not properly disclosed. And now you have the nerve to dangle another future carrot to entice more spending rather then figuring out an immediate equitable relief for your wronged customers.

You can make this good right now but you just don't want to.

And saying you didn't know how overwhelming the response would be has to be another untruth as you know how many calls the rouge has been getting since the first add came out, I'm sure you've seen the volume of 3x points fragrance orders increase since the add came out and you know exactly how many customers have large points banked. Please do not insult us any further we are not a bunch of make up bimbos. We are your most loyal customers and this is just getting worse and worse as far as I'm concerned

[jemly]

given the nature of the 20% off sale last fall (when items sold out almost instantaneously and crashed the entire site, etc) i find it hard to believe it was a surprise to corporate that the perks went so fast, even at 4 a.m. in the morning, because there's a shocking amount of people who stalk sephora.com that are clearly shopping animals (or monsters). 

my point being.......anticipating demand for a marketing tool like "extraordinary rewards" is kind of inherent to the planning of a marketing event in the first place. saying "oops we didn't know we were so popular !" feels disingenuous. 

i'll be honest, i don't really care about points and such. i've been watching from the sidelines because i'm interested in how sephora will handle this from a PR perspective. but i do appreciate, as a stupidly loyal customer, to feel valued as a stupidly loyal customer. and lately i'm noticing a lot that sephora offers basically feels like they're saying "eh that'll do, we can get away with that". and maybe sephora can get away with that but imagine what they'd get in return for making their customers happy. i don't know what the answer is, but there is value in treating customers like they are indeed valuable. 

[Anonymous]

Oh, no--not "feels" disingenuous.  

It most definitely was disingenuous.

"Marketing speak" is at it again.  

[emmaclaire]

Well I personally would love to THANK YOU for all of this!  Thank you so much for showing your behinds once again and proving that the absolute last thing Sephora ever considers is their customers!  Thank you for showing that no one even communicates to one another within the company, resulting in blatant lying to customers, hideous customer "support" (at what point does it become corporate time-wasting and mockery?  I think we just found out!), and an overall air of utter disregard for your most loyal customers.  So thank you for the wake up call!  I will no longer be shopping at Sephora and would legitimately rather buy from ebay than deal with this piece of garbage company.

(Side note: all of the "thank you" comments I made were sarcastic.  Not sure if you guys down at HQ would have been able to pick up on that.)

[annec322]

Oooh!  Another prime example of when my sarcasm sign is needed! On it!  

[chelssss]

lmao love the disclaimer. Some of their employees *cough cough marketing and beauty insider team*, have shown that they don't really use their brain. 

[heatherbee]

Hey ladies!  Let me translate what the post says:

Hem Hem.

Stay tuned!

[shapeshifter]

OMG AWESOME a second chance to be crushed in Sephora Hunger Games!! They can't tell us the actual date and time of the next release because QUESTION MARK? 

I also hate the fact that I will of course be trying again. TAKE MY MONEY AND ALL MY GD POINTS!!

[surfgirlmiami]

I don't care if something is signed or not, I just want the free products. All you had to do was announce a time beforehand, and Sephora completely failed to do that. I have yet to receive an email, and I supposedly had it resolved a week ago. You guys just need to have more available, and understand that not everyone needs a signed pallet. I understand it's probably not cost effective to have enough extraordinary rewards for everyone, I'm a senior in a business school. But please, just at least give everyone a chance. That's all I ask.

[lnum]

As disappointed as I am, I thank the BT mods for responding. I know your job wasn't easy today. 

[LCResz]

True enough, I cannot hold the mods responsible for corporate shenanigans, but I can firmly aim my ire at Sephora the entity, and I just keep delusionally hoping that if we all complain loudly enough we will be heard. 

[upsidesunny]

Ditto.

[Anonymous]

That is true, I really thank you guys, the Facebook CS, and the Rouge line CS because I can't imagine your job being easy today and it wasn't your fault. 

Perhaps we can call in and say thank you tonight because I wouldn't want any of them feeling hurt or personally responsible. 

[shirleylin88]

I agree -

[LCResz]

I must join the chorus and air my disappointment with the Point Perks experience. I was online at 4:30, tried to place an order, but the site was glitchy on my iPad, and sure enough the perk I really wanted was gone. I cannot for a moment believe that a company such as Sephora could not anticipate that response the perks would garner, unless they simply don't follow ANY of the comment threads on their own site! I combed through dozens of pages over the last week since the news of the perks broke, so even my untrained eye could see just how excited the Sephora shopping community was and how downright fanatical Sephora shoppers could be (I know I am, thus my Rouge status). And could you contact anyone via phone at 4am EDT? Nope, so here I sit with nothing more to show for my loyalty to Sephora other than 8000+ points and a ton of disappointment. 😞

[taylorrecherche]

Honestly, I don't understand what the point of the VIB Rouge program is. I don't get anything I didn't get with the regular VIB program; there's no extra benefits it seems. I rarely go into Sephora stores because I tend to get bad service except at the register, I guess because I don't "look" like a big spender. If I ask for in store samples, they're given grudgingly at best. The 100 point rewards are silly: they're basically the same as what you can get as a gift with $25 purchase. Actually, the GWP are often better perks, which is especially sad. I'd hoped to spend some of my 2500 or so points on this event, but that was obviously a hopeless cause. If someone on your end made a mistake by releasing the perks too early, I think you, as a company, should eat the cost to try to get on your customers' good sides again. Mostly, it just feels sort of hopeless, like even if there is another event, I won't be able to get anything nice anyway.

[veronika23]

Sephora want to solve all your problems??? Turn points into "cash" so we can buy any product we want from the store! End of story.  Everyone will be happy!!! We get stuff we want, you get more business.  It's simple. Whoever is running the show isn't the brightest bulb in the batch right...

[ckr60062]

I totally agree. The last time I was in Sephora the sales rep asked if I wanted to spend my points on one of the rewards and I declined. I said "I wish I could use my points as money instead (like Ulta)." She immediately responded "Oh no, but this is better. I love that you can try out all kinds of different products!" I don't know if she genuinely felt that way, or was trained to say that. I didn't say anything at that point, but I definitely think it's better to let people turns points into "cash."