A Message to our Clients about Epic Rewards

[sephoraadmin2]

Sephora is committed to offering our valued Beauty Insiders exceptional rewards to thank them for their loyalty and for being part of our community.  Yesterday we held an Epic Rewards promotion, and while we have held similar promotions in the past, yesterday’s promotion was the largest number of Epic Rewards we have made available to date.

Despite our best efforts to predict the response, demand was overwhelming, resulting in our being out of stock very quickly. We deeply regret this and apologize to our Beauty Insider clients who did not get a chance to participate.  

At Sephora our first and foremost priority is to give our clients an exciting and fulfilling shopping experience.  Those Beauty Insiders who were unable to get one of our limited quantity Epic Rewards, please email us by Tuesday, August 25, 2015, to epicrewards@sephora.com and include your Beauty Insider account number or email address associated with your account. 

Beyond that, please know that we are committed to learning from this experience. Thank you for your ongoing support. We greatly appreciate you.

Sephora is committed to offering our valued Beauty Insiders exceptional rewards to thank them for their loyalty and for being part of our community.  Yesterday we held an Epic Rewards promotion, and while we have held similar promotions in the past, yesterday’s promotion was the largest number of Epic Rewards we have made available to date.

Despite our best efforts to predict the response, demand was overwhelming, resulting in our being out of stock very quickly. We deeply regret this and apologize to our Beauty Insider clients who did not get a chance to participate.  

At Sephora our first and foremost priority is to give our clients an exciting and fulfilling shopping experience.  Those Beauty Insiders who were unable to get one of our limited quantity Epic Rewards, please email us by Tuesday, August 25, 2015, to epicrewards@sephora.com and include your Beauty Insider account number or email address associated with your account. 

Beyond that, please know that we are committed to learning from this experience. Thank you for your ongoing support. We greatly appreciate you.

**********************

Updated August 17

Thank you to everyone who has been reaching out to us about Epic Rewards. We value your feedback and recognize your ongoing loyalty to us, and we are working to get back to you quickly.

To that end, please know that if you have contacted us you will hear back from us in direct response to your inquiry during the period between Tuesday, August 25th through Tuesday, September 1st. The timing of the response to you will depend on when we received your initial contact regarding Epic Rewards.

If you haven’t contacted us yet, please email us at epicrewards@sephora.com. We’ve set up this dedicated mailbox to collect the right information quickly and accurately, separating you from the queue for general Sephora inquiries. When you email us at this address, it will generate an automated response that confirms we’ve received the message. You can then expect to hear back from us as quickly as possible with more information.

Please know that our team is listening, and we take your concerns to heart. We value your support, and we will be in touch soon.

With our sincerest thanks,

The Beauty Insider Team

*************************************

Updated September 1

Thank you to everyone who reached out to us about Epic Rewards. We have reached out to all of those members who emailed us on or before August 25th, and are no longer accepting new submissions. epicrewards@sephora.com has been closed. Please contact us at 1-877-SEPHORA (1-877-737-4672) regarding any other questions or concerns. We have reviewed your feedback and are taking it into consideration as we plan for future promotions. Our loyal Beauty Insiders are enormously important to us.

[Tamara76]

Wow!  Thank you, Sephora!  I really thought I'd receive some points or the equivalent of a 500 point perk, but a $50 credit is awesome!  See - I told you I wouldn't quit you!  🙂

[breanalee]

This is a great way to show appreciation for your customers. Thank you! 

[Lia82]

I just want to say thank you Sephora! I did not expect this.  You have definitely made me feel appreciated.

[Tracib1981]

Well this was an epic surprise! lol I got the email last night, but me and the hubby have a no electronics after 9:00 rule, so I couldn't get on and talk to ya'll! It made my heart hurt lol First off= Thank you sephora!! This was an amazing gesture on your part. It was so unexpected by so appreciated! It actually made those of us who spend spend spend feel like the valued customers that we are. For those of us that were going after the 1k perks, this will actually get most of them! Or at least be a good start towards them! So on that note, I just want to say thank you again and I think that a lot of customers are beyond happy with the amazing customer service that was shown here. 🙂

[gogreyhound]

wow, reallly?? So, let me get this straight. Those who think the world and Sephora owe them something gripe enough and get rewarded because they didn't get an epic reward.  

So what do I get if I think THAT is unfair to the rest of us who just didn't worry about it and went on with our lives?? Good Heavens. Absolutely ridiculous.  Oh, and go chase down those who have "sworn off" BT and purchasing at Sephora to "punish" you, too. Pfffft.

[Anonymous]

I still think people had nothing to complain about, I wish Sephora had not done anything. They are giving in to spoiled behaviour.

[calcutta]

Yeah I agree with this. It's condoning bad behavior, it's like, every time your child throws a fit about not getting their way, you reward them!

[EvilLemons]

I understand your sentiment but respectfully disagree.  Yes, there were some that threw a fit, swore off Sephora entirely, and practically demanded that they receive whatever reward they wished for, but most others were/are reasonable in relating their disappointment. The fact is that Sephora DID mess up.  They advertised 4x (or 3x/2x) points and said, 'earn points so you can get an Epic Reward!!!' and were then blindsided(?!) when there was a huge demand for just a few items.  Were they obligated to 'make it right'?  Nope...but is seems that they are doing so and IMO, it's a good business decision.  'Give 'em fifty bucks and they will stay to spend hundreds and thousands more!'  😉

Of course, I'm not saying anything that's new to anyone here, nor do I wish to rehash anything.  I think, by looking at the most recent responses, it seems that most of us are somewhere between pleasantly surprised and thrilled with Sephora's decision.  

Again I say, well done, Sephora!  

[calcutta]

There are about 15,500 users online on BT, do you really think Sephora has enough rewards for those people? These rewards are limited for a reason, so that they are unique to the people that acquire them. I refrained from posting in all the "i hate Sephora threads" or the "epic failure" threads, but people's reaction IMO was just ridiculous, and Sephora giving out free stuff is also ridiculous. Just my 2 cents....

[EvilLemons]

No, certainly not.  I just think the whole thing should have lasted longer than thirty seconds.  Maybe a minute or two?  I do agree that there were some ridiculous/needy/'poor me!' reactions.  

Sephora doesn't owe us anything except the products that we purchase.  That said, I don't think they expected the backlash that was created.  My mother even heard about it, lol!  She asked me about 'all the people returning stuff to Sephora bc they were mad'.  

I do agree that returning mass quantities of stuff, out of spite, is outrageous.

[calcutta]

But since a lot of people knew about the rewards, I'm sure more that 50K people were online trying to get them, so of course the rewards were gone really quickly.

[chocopudding]

I agree with EvilLemon. There are limited quantities, of course, and I think everyone understood that. I just feel for those people who had their rewards in their carts and had it removed (or not sent even after confirmation!).

The $50 GC is a nice gesture (I wonder how much this is going to cost Sephora? Probably not that much in the grand scheme of things), but like others, this is a band-aid solution. Sephora still needs to review and rehaul its current system in order to stay competitive with other retailers.

[Tracib1981]

My attitude has been from jump, that if i would have missed out, then cool. That is my bad for not being fast enough. I got pissed about the fact that it was in my cart and then removed. BUT! That seems to still be going on since it happened me today with something else. But it is what it is. I feel way worse for the 2 chicks that had the Paris trip in their cart, and they both checked out with it. Someone ended up with some hurt feelings.

[EvilLemons]

Thank you, chocopudding!  I also completely agree with your sentiments.

[NancieNano]

Another BTer and I were just talking about this. There were alot regular BTer's who either tried to tell people they were over reacting and even some that left the board for awhile because they got soooo sick of every new post being  done by people that came crawling out of the woodwork to b*tch about how terribley they'd been treated. Do you think the people that swore they would "never shop at Sephora again" deleted their gift card? lol. I think not.

[ChristalM]

Yeah now I am kinda sad I didn't complain. I tried to get a reward but went on with life when I didn't.If I got upset about it I could have $50 in free money now shop!

[ayeshayh]

Did you guys email? I did and haven't gotten anything yet. But apparently they are still sending them out 🙂 according to CS. My dad always said "the squeaky wheel gets the oil" haha. In this case though you just had to email at least. I was pleasant In mine.. Hopefully they don't disregard it for that reAson!

[Tiiiiiffany]

Rest assured, I was pleasant in mine aswell and I got my GC last night 🙂

[czikimonkey]

Yay Sephora! You have a happy customer again. Thanks for making this right! 

[Anonymous]

I rarely look at the boards so I of course am day to late. I also did 

not get an email notification of this and a am a vip rouge. I love the points system and free samples which is why I buy a lot of products from Sephora. I was disappointed that the epic rewards did not even have a time set. I stayed up all night and day and still somehow missed the opportunity to even attempt to get an epic reward. However I do realipuze this must be very stressful for your company as well. I would also like to tell you that I love the 250 point lip set and maybe youbcould try to include some of those more often.  Overall, I am always pleased with mr purchases and never return anything. Maybe the next epic rewards try could include more amounts of the smaller rewards so that everyone gets a chance. I have over 10000 points. I wanted the 20000 point train case with products but since I missed out on that I just ordered the trai case for 100 dollars. Overall sephora has the best reward program of any bussuiness. One thing to keep in mind, is don't over promise. I have read where a lot of vip rouges don't fell special and we all know we have never received a ' just because' gift. Again, all things considered sephora is the best!!! 

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering why it couldn't be an e-giftcard or something like that.  I guess for financial purposes.  $50 promo credit vs $50 electronic cash.  Would have been nice if they made it so that we could have a deluxe sample promo in addition to the $50 promo.