Banned returns

[melliesue]

I have been a loyal Sephora customer for years. Today I went to do a return, with my receipt well within the return window. At the register I received a slip of paper stating I am no longer allowed to make returns for 365 days. I was mortified. Only trying to rerun items that looked very different than swatches/images online (where the items were purchased)…again with a receipt that I paid full price for. I have had sensitive skin issues, rosacea and not everything works. I have to be selective with ingredients and truly don’t know until I try. The most baffling part is that this is nowhere in the return policy. If I was making fraudulent returns without a receipt I could understand but that has NEVER been the case. Any return I have always had the receipt and provided that detail information.
In addition, living in NYC, the stores never have anything in my color in stock so the only option is to order online and hope for the best. Now I will no longer be able to do that.

[keelybt]

@ShriandSassy I will send you a PM

[Melissa744]

This happened to me as well after being a loyal rouge member for years. If there are stipulations about their returns, this should be noted in their rules or made much clearer to customers. Also sephora employees shouldn’t be as eager to tell customers to buy something to try since they can return in. Considering I will not be trying on germ riddled makeup at the store. I will no longer be spending my money at Sephora and will look elsewhere to make my purchases. Sephora needs to make their policies clear to consumers or have a new way to sample products. 

[Iamself]

Banned for returns for 365 days! 

Sephora as a company raves and in fact openly advertises their return policy to customers every time setting foot in a store location. At no time is it mentioned there is a limit on said returns in a year. This would have been valuable and appreciated information, rather then being embarrassed at the cashier with a receipt stating that I can no longer make returns.  

I have very sensitive skin, reactive skin with rosacea and each time going into a store location, a different product was sold to me as “amazing”. Well, what’s amazing for someone else is not necessarily amazing for me. If I go home and try a product and it’s stinging and burning on my face and causing redness or causing a break out, I do not want to keep it and wish to return it. I do not want to be stuck with a product that is not going to work for me especially when I’ve spent a lot of money on it. 
Yes, there are samples in the store that you can try on your hand or your face and sort of get a slight idea of what the product might be like but unless you take it home and actually try the product fully on your face for a couple days in your own home you really don’t know what you’re getting. Samples of products are not provided and therefore it makes it difficult to make a decision until you try it. 

I have been a loyal customer and a rouge member at that, needless to say I am very angry. I will be thinking long and hard whether I give Sephora my business again. 

[keelybt]

@melliesue I will send you a PM to help.

[bakeamuffin]

@melliesue I am not super familiar with this but I encourage you to look into The Retail Equation. What I took from it when I searched it several years ago, is that our purchases and returns from different retailers are all monitored in one big hub. When the ratio tips out of balance returns are no longer possible. Different retailers may have a different set ratio that they accept/allow. 
It sounds like this, or a version of this, is what happened to you. 

[ShriandSassy]

Same here!

I would like to know if the return is banned in store only or both online and in store. 

Can a customer service representative answer this? 

This is the first 20% off sale in the past few years where I haven't purchased a thing.

With the products getting more pricey, not being able to return is a huge bummer for me.