Terrible Customer Service

[MidnightDreamer]

I've spent over 2 hours talking to CS today.  One of my orders from the VIB ROUGE sale arrived in a crushed box, items damaged, birthday gift crushed in a box with no products in the birthday box! Full sized Items that I ordered were changed out for travel sized versions.  No samples. It was a horrible experience.  I had 2 more orders combined in a single box and again no samples and (using rewards points) Sunday Riley creams arrived spoiled, damaged, and leaking.

It took no less than 5 calls today to attempt to fix it, but I'm still left with beauty insider points not credited and items that are damaged.  Of the 5 calls one manager was unhelpful and one CS person was nice, the other 3 could barely communicate on the phone and I had to hang up and call again.

Add to that the 2 VIB playboxes that never arrived - I actually got an empty box with no Playbox inside!  The Other Edition 1 Playbox never arrived even though I paid for it.

Samples, forget samples.  It's a joke.  I'm lucky if I get any samples and when I do they are for things like men's shampoo that go right in the trash.  I've wanted to try a perfume that is only sold online and keep selecting the perfume sample and to this day, after a year of trying to get that sample, I have no idea what that perfume smells like.

Did Sephora get sold or something?  I've been VIB Rouge for years and this last year I'm seeing a decline in care and even boxes are packed with little or no packing material... and items missing.  

Not sure I want to shop at Sephora online since it's Russian Roulette if I get the items I order or if I do get them will they be crushed or spoiled?

I've been so patient, but the damage box I got today was shocking.  I was so looking forward to getting my VIB Rouge sale items...  It was like an elephant sat on the box.

[kimboslice]

I have been wondering the same thing... about if Sephora has been sold or something. They once had great customer service, I would receive the samples that I requested, and my items were always packed with care.

Cutting corners to make an extra buck won't keep me around as a customer! I really hope they return to how they used to be!

[RaquelBT]

Hi @MidnightDreamer & @Anonymous,

I sincerely apologize for both of your recent experiences with us. Please feel free to private message me if you need assistance with anything. Thank you. 🙂

Best Regards,

❤️ Raquel 

[Anonymous]

I am totally with you on this. Looking forward to receiving your delivery only to be completely disappointed is an awful feeling.

I still don't even have my order so I'm really disappointed too!

I made an original order on 26th Dec. It was cancelled by Sephora.

I made a second order on 2nd Jan. It was also cancelled by Sephora.

The reason given for the cancellation was because I had put a hotel address as the shipping address and not a residential address. I live in the UK so don't have a shipping address in the States.

I was advised Sephora don't deliver to hotel addresses unless the recipient is an employee or the owner. I would have believed this had my friend not made an order the day after me to the exact same address. She is neither a hotel employee or owner, purely a guest. The hotel also mentioned they have received other parcels for hotels guests in the park. Sephora DID and clearly COULD deliver to a hotel address and this one specifically.

Having complained (a number of times, each time being responded to by a new person) that I was being treated unequally to other customers it was agreed I could have my parcel delivered to my UK address with the cost waived. Happy days! Or so I thought...

I called customer services as I was told it couldn't be dealt with over email. The cost is expensive for UK to US calls, especially as I don't have a landline and only have a mobile.

A very friendly guy took all my details including my order number and new shipping address and agreed to put everything through for me. There was a sample not in stock but as this was a sample, and therefore free, I was happy for him to replace it for something else.

I held on the line but the guy was having difficulty putting the order through as it only had US and Canada as options and it needed to be the UK. Whilst waiting for him to confirm he had managed to process the order with his manager's assistance (after about 20 mins on the phone, which is going to be expensive) I was cut off. As he had all my details and was just completing the order, I assumed this would still process through and I'd either get an email to say it had or hadn't worked or my account would be updated. I didn't receive an email. My account wasn't updated. It didn't work! (Or any effort was given up on when I was cut off, despite having agreed I was happy with the order to process and all details were updated)!

I called again today, again at my expense, and ended up in the phone for about 40 minutes! I didn't need to give any further information as everything had been logged first time round. However I was told that one of the products was out of stock and possibly not coming back in stock. I was told I could buy the bigger version for an extra $35!

After having explained it was Sephora's fault that my order was not sent and the item was in stock when I made the original order and still in stock when I spoke to the first person on the phone, I asked that they resolve the matter. I was told I could pay more, not receive the product, or keep an eye on when/if the product came back in stock and could order it again and call back to say I'd done so!

Not impressed I asked that Sephora kept an eye on when the product is back in stock and send it to me without me needing to keep checking and call for a third time. Or they pay the difference in cost for the larger product, as had they delivered within the 6 days that I ordered or when I spoke to the agent, I would have received what was in my basket. They refused both.

After 40 minutes on the phone I asked for details of how to make a formal complaint as this had just not been acceptable. After being put on hold again, I was given the normal customer service email address that my previous 6-8 emails had gone to! It appears there is no way or taking the matter further.

I have never heard anything like it! For such a large and established company I would have thought they would bend over backwards to keep customers happy so they keep coming back. This is my first time of ordering online with sephora and I don't think I will ever want to do it again and will be advising others not to either.