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.

[jcmb]

Oh and P.S. Sephora, let's start to seriously consider the option of trading points for dollars off purchases. That's reasonable.

[pixy0stix]

 Hold on, no. I'm not done. CONTACT A MODERATOR WITH OUR CONCERNS?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Why, so it can be all secret and others can't read how crappily you treat your customers. Nor so they can see the thuper thecret compensation they're handing out if everyone plays nice? 

This is so shady. So very very shady.

[pixy0stix]

I am so pissed off right now. I received NO emails that this was happening. None. I'm farking rouge and heading into another year of rouge. I've been saving points specifically because I figured an event like this would happen this year, and I had NO WARNING.

Then, THEN, I have to hear on another board that the event had come and gone. Once again receiving no emails. 

I'm livid. I put up with all the Sephora crap and remain loyal to you guys, and this is how you treat us. **bleep**. this.

[tehprincessjenn]

I'm with you! No email, no...s***!

[BrideSona]

I'd like to know how certain BI- (BI, VIB, VIBR) are getting bonus points by calling in or expressing their dissatisfaction while others are left in the dust. What is the protocol for handing out 500 pts to some and not to others? Why are some worthy and some not?

I would think that the BT community (your most loyal) that is on YOUR OWN site daily if not hourly would be at the top of your compensation/rewards list. Its disheartening when we are so brand loyal (something that companies spend millions on to cultivate) but are not valued.

This event may be viewed by your marketing team as extremely successful  in the skewed only the numbers matter kind of way. However, the dissatisfaction to satisfaction ratio is dismal. For every one satisfied customer of this event (I did see someone actually post how happy they were) there are literally hundreds if not thousands that are dissatisfied. You've turned more of your brand loyal customers off. Please let your marketing team know that this may have been a success on paper but it was a disaster in practice and had more of a negative effect.

[Ikon]

So many mistakes were made here and the perks selling out much quicker than anticipated is a very small part in that.

Teasing people and having people stay up all night and then when the perks finally being available, having them say "open to US and Canadian residents" but not letting Canadians check out is much more than "not anticipating something". They're blatant mistakes and inconsideration showing that none of this was planned properly.

It's unbelievable how upset and angry you have managed to make so many people all because of poor planning.

There are a lot of great aspects to Sephora, including being able to sample, generous return policy, great stores etc. I, for one, don't shop there strictly for the rewards or the loyalty. Loyalty programs are meant as an extra to entice customers to choose one store over its competitors but this accomplished exactly the opposite. All because of bad choices and mistakes, one after another.

At this point, it has been almost 24 hours and you would think that someone senior from Sephora would make the right decision and issue a formal apology. There are so many ways that this could have been made better throughout the day - offer a reward code for some $$$ off, some discount promo, some extra 100-500 perks. Anything to fix or ease the let down that your customers were feeling. Turning a bad experience around takes understanding and a quick reaction to make it right - handing out free points to customers who couldn't use them is NOT the right approach by any means. It's like a bad fight, the longer it festers the worse it becomes.

So many people have posted ways this could be made better. There is even a full thread dedicated to solutions. It's a shame that in this day and age where you can get customer feedback like no time before, you choose to completely ignore it. Instead of using it to improve business and develop even more loyalty from your customers, you take your most valuable rouge and VIB, big spenders, and tell them they are insignificant.

Darn shame...

[starsandbucks]

Can I trade in some points in exchange for an advance email next time? 

(That is sarcasm.)

[fatimamummy]

[annec322]

"Stay tuned"

[heartsmyface]

They'll send you an email to let you know when those advanced notices will be released. 

[Sara7000]

Really? You're "...sorry if you missed out on these exciting rewards."

Are you really sorry? If so, you could AT LEAST give those of us who are VIB Rouge or with over 1000 points the $20 off $50 purchase promotion that goes on before Christmas. Sephora has frustrated many customers who exclusively do business with you because they believe in quality rewards. Otherwise, we would all be taking our business to Nordstrom (which I already do and am a strong proponent for), Ulta, Saks, etc.

I also believe its unfair that you are not awarding everyone an extra 500 points. There are women on here who don't feel the need to reiterate the issues 1000x and agree with the concerns voiced. They don't need to keep beating the horse; however, if they don't there is no way they can have a chance at receiving extra points.

My final point is that I did not receive ANY email whatsoever about the extraordinary rewards going live. I find this laughable as you send me emails everyday with random products you're promoting. Like really?

[findingarizona]

I can understand a few system glitches and do appreciate the apology here. However, I'd like to that this is not the first time we, meaning Sephora members who have signed up for emails and updates, have seen products launched before they should have been i.e. the Anastasia Artist Palette, not been sent emails when products were launched and they are sold out by the time the email does get sent out, and last but not least as a VIBR I find it extremely frustrating that I don't receive emails the day that new items launch exclusive to VIBs and VIBRs, its either days after or I just have to stalk the website to make sure I don't miss anything. At some point it is not a matter of "lack of anticipation", it is an EXTREME LACK OF PLANNING. 

[SammyCR]

They are acting as if the rewards came ON TIME and they sold out. I just want them to own up to the fact it came out at a **bleep** time noone knew about unless they were awake all night refreshing the sephora page

[heartsmyface]

That's EXACTLY how it was!  Every fifteen seconds!  At least we had people to talk to during this crazy behaviour.

[Anonymous]

I'm VIB Rouge and I didn't even get an email saying that the rewards were out. I get all the other sale emails.. Thanks for nothing.

[NancieNano]

With all due respect MOD HOSTESS, your explaination makes no sense. You state that "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". You had promised us an email BEFORE the rewards went up so why were rewards even offered before this happened? If a mistake was made on your end, please just be honest and say so because I find your explanation to be an insult to my intelligience.

[divagirl90]

"The rewards sold out much quicker than we anticipated"... but hasn't this happened before? Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome is insanity. This isn't the first time I've missed out on these high point rewards. There was a 1000 pt perk today that I wanted and I wouldn't say that I'm angry about missing it (because I can live without it), but I would have liked a fair shot at getting it. Maybe it would be better if there were lots of great 500-2000 pt rewards sets updated weekly for those who spend more instead of a few 2000+ pt rewards offered every couple of months. I just don't see the points system "worth it" anymore. Just my opinion.

[starsandbucks]

"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."

This sentence suggests that releasing the rewards prior to sending out the email was intentional and the only reason the email didn't go out was because the rewards sold out so unexpectedly (haha, yeah right) fast. So if this is true then Sephora never intended to give its customers advance warning. 

[greenporchlights]

Despicable. 

[sakura26]

Sephora,

I really don't know why I always set myself up to only be let down again. First, the VIB Rouge "parties" are something to be desired for and I no longer bother with that because multiple times your team members acted like they were doing us a favor by having these parties. With that option out of the picture, the only other thing I look forward as a rouge member is the reward perks. One of the mistakes on your end was to send out an email last week that special rewards were rolling out. This created high alerts for all shoppers to stalk your site and it showed that it paid off a week later by selling out before the sun was out (west coast time). It's really irritating to learn about these releases happened without any notification. For sure I did not receive an email today. i understand that it's limited quantities but to have something available before everyone else knows about it especially when it's clear that we have been waiting for this just makes it really unfair. I hope whoever made that decision learns from this huge mistake because now you have many angry, unhappy customers that are jumping ship to other companies. 

[JazaChai]

[all ***s below in consideration of people less potty-mouthed than me; please insert your favorite naughty words to get the full effect]

Yeah, really? I appreciate, a minimum amount, that someone form Sephora has FINALLY come forward to make some sort of official acknowledgement of this cluster****; however, based on what I've seen reported by various people on this forum and elsewhere, parts of this are blatant lies, or failing that extreme idiocy.

For one, there are many indications that you did not intend this to go live at 4am, but rather at a more reasonable time. If this is the case, I would appreciate an honest apology to that tune; "So sorry, we had a miscommunication/mistake/whatever, it went live early, we intended it to go live at X time that would have accommodated more of our customers."

For two, you should have known that things would sell out that fast, as this is not the first time you have done this kind of promo. It also sold out about this fast last August. So either you took no lessons from previous experience (idiocy), or you just... though that 4am would mean fewer sales til a later time when people woke up..??? (also idiocy IMO).

You guys KNOW you have email issues; Rouges in particular have been complaining forEVER that some of us don't get emails. I realize that your general stance is not to announce promos in advance, and I do appreciate the reasoning behind it; but for something as big and time-sensitive as this, get your **** together and do that right thing - ADVANCE NOTICE, B*****S.

I am also glad to see an official verification that additional mega-rewards will be happening; however, this being the case, you also need to address the point giveaways that have happened today. If this is a community-wide injury (and it is), then you need to be giving apology points to the entire community, not just the squeaky wheels, and you need to have some sort of standard in place so that the squeakiest wheels don't get all the grease - e.g., give EVERYONE who had over 1k points the same amount of additional points (except those people who already called in to complain and got points that way, ideally; there have been reports of multiple 500 point awards to the same person, and while they deserve something, those people probably don't need a triple-dip - part of the problem with today's crap was fairness).