Unsuccessful Authorization / Pending Order

[janeccman]

Hi there — I just spent 45 minutes on the phone with a beauty advisor from Sephora Customer Service. It was incredibly difficult to understand her. Her English was not fluent and she was reading off a script and responding with template answers.

My last three online orders were apparently declined with an 'unsuccessful authorization' even though they still say 'Pending' on my Recent Orders page. I tried two different credit cards on the last three orders (I placed each order after the previous one failed), but my credit card details had not changed. I've reviewed the billing addresses in my Sephora account with the bank for both credit cards multiple times, and now I'm paranoid something is wrong.

The beauty advisor via phone helped me replace my order (sort of — one of the items from my first of three orders was out of stock by the time my third order was placed, but she didn't seem to understand.) Could someone please PM me? Would love to be able to talk to someone here! Thanks so much 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hi!

Nothing is wrong on your end. 

I just went through something similar with Sephora Customer Service, down to my order still showing as pending yet the order has been canceled. Since they don't send emails to tell you there's a problem in order to "protect the client," the only way you can know for sure is to call them directly.

So I did.

They said my order was due to unsuccessful authorization. I was told my bank said my billing address and shipping address were not correct. I had phoned my bank prior to calling Sephora (because experience told me this is necessary) and they said all of my information was correct, so I know that's not true.

Sephora, however, had no problem taking the money out of my account to the point that I cannot access it. I'm told the money should reappear by the end of the workweek, so we shall see. It is apparently 'on hold' until the information could be verified. My bank informed me that no, the amount had been taken out of my account. 

Imagine taking money out of someone's account, then canceling the order due to unsuccessful authorization of the same bank account's info. That is something I don't understand.

I have also noticed a pattern of every few months or so; a significant number of customers place orders that are then canceled because of this issue. It happened back in May and has been periodically happening since at least 2015. If you google "Sephora unsuccessful authorization," you can see the periods where this happens most frequently.

Because of the pattern, I think the problem isn't individual customers not having accurate information; it's Sephora. Whatever system they use to authorize the orders is faulty. This is to be expected -- authorization systems that are outdated often find glitches, i.e. canceled orders, that show up as patterns. It's a sign that Sephora's IT team needs to get to the bottom of the issue.

I will also say that the Sephora scripts and answer templates for customer service need to be updated as well. I don't want someone trying to get me to reorder the items in my order; I want someone to explain to me why Sephora's POS system continues to glitch for online orders on a periodic basis. If I'm spending over $100 for two items with my order being canceled without an email notification or without the amount being refunded to my account first, trying to get me to reorder items as a template response is the fastest way to irritate me. 

I'd advise you not to place any more online orders with Sephora until they can sort out what the actual issue is. I did not place another order because this is a systematic issue with the way Sephora handles online orders and I'm not willing to dump hundreds of dollars into orders that I'll never get shipped to me -- and apparently, it can take as long as a month for the money to show back up in people's accounts.

I hate that this is a problem with Sephora's e-commerce system; it's why I rarely use the service. I did this time so I could buy some birthday gifts, but with this last experience, I doubt I'll ever use it again. 

It's aggravating, but I don't think it's a problem on your end. I hope your orders come through. As for me, I'll probably just go to a store in my area to see if I have better luck.