Beware of Sephora Credit Card! Worst Reward Experience Ever

[biubiubiu12]

This is the worst credit card reward experience I have ever had, and it's also the only bad credit card reward experience I have ever had. Did not feel "rewarding" at all.

I had two credit card rewards totaling 185 dollars ($30+$155), expiring in late December and January. On 11/24, I used $103.55 on the Sephora website. On 11/28, I realized my credit card rewards balance says $0.

On 11/29, I called Comenity customer service, who said the system takes about 10 days to calculate the remaining amount. I said I was hoping to use the remaining ~$82 for Cyber Week shopping. They told me to call Sephora customer service. I did, and Sephora customer service told me to call the credit card department. I did, and they said that if I didn't use the entire amount in the first transaction, the remaining amount would be forfeited.

I told them I was unaware of this, they told me to look at credit card terms and conditions, I read through and didn't see it. The customer service person said: You can request a copy of the T&C. But the transaction already happened, what's the point of getting a copy of T&C now? I told them that I just wanted to get the remaining $81.45 in rewards back, and they escalated to a manager, who said no and "It's weird that the Sephora page didn't tell you that when you made the transaction". 

Nowhere on the credit card T&C, credit card statement, and Sephora transaction page explicitly say that: if you don't use the entire amount in one transaction, the remaining amount will be forfeited.

I went onto Reddit and saw many people saying this is the worst credit card experience, they had all sorts of trouble using the reward, and they are canceling this card. Comenity customer service manager told me they had never heard of anyone having this problem before. I don't believe her but maybe many of us are just having all sorts of problems.

I hope more of us bring up the credit card issues here so that Sephora can see how frustrating it is for us and maybe consider a different credit card partner. Just doing cashback with some big credit card companies would make it better for us than this.

(Oh yeah, I also waited about a month to get my credit card. They lost the card during shipping and had to ship it again upon my request. But they told me they couldn't extend the 25% discount period, it started when I opened the card. They make it hard for you to exercise the benefits promised. Really really sucks.)

[biubiubiu12]

For anyone reading, Sephora did an accommodation and credited my account.

Sephora’s customer service is great, but Comenity ugh. I still wish Sephora can look for another partner.

[DaneeBT]

 @biubiubiu12 I'm so sorry for this experience! The Sephora Credit Card Rewards must be used in full in a single transaction and any unused portion will be forfeited. This is listed here:

https://www.sephora.com/beauty/credit-card

[biubiubiu12]

Okay, but there's no explanation for why Sephora had to use up my $30 reward and part of my $155 reward. It could've used up my $155 reward so that I could still have the $30 reward. Can I get the $30 reward back?

[LaurieBT]

@biubiubiu12, I'll look into this further. It looks like your private messages are turned off, and you can adjust your preferences in your Community settings (on the browser only, not the app). If you would like to send me a private message with more information, I'll look into this. Thank you! 

[biubiubiu12]

That's odd! My Private Message was turned on. I sent you a message, lmk if that works or if there's anything else I should do.