It’s no secret that I do most of my beauty shopping online. With the exception of things that require matching (foundation), I prefer to shop online.
Sometimes, I’ll get perks that I can only redeem in store, so I take the time to go – my Ulta is within 3 minutes of my office, so it isn’t a terrible hassle (plus, they carry my holy grail dry shampoo). In the order in which I received my Philosophy Fresh Cream perfume, I received a voucher to get a Benefit Air Patrol BB Cream Eyelid Primer. “Cool,” I thought. “I can run it through the primer gauntlet and hopefully write a fruitful post.”
The voucher states:
“Beauty Bonus! Visit your nearest Benefit Brow Bar inside Ulta to receive a complimentary Air Patrol makeupper. Plus, enjoy a Free* deluxe mini with your Benefit product purchase!”
Pretty fair – that means it is a true freebie, no purchase necessary, and that there is another deluxe mini you can get if you spend whatever Benefit’s minimum is. I went in, the Benefit employee was busy doing some brows. Neither wishing to interrupt her nor wishing to wait 20 minutes, I did the rest of my shopping and headed to the register. I presented the cashier with the voucher, thinking that they’d have those up front just like every other GWP/freebie. She glances at it for half a moment and says, “You didn’t spend enough with Benefit…” and hands it back to me.
I take it from her, hold it up and read the entirety slowly to her, out loud. This isn’t the first time I’ve had something like this happen at Ulta. “Ohhhh…” she says, followed with a cluck of her tongue. “I don’t think we have that yet.”
The voucher doesn’t indicate dates so I wasn’t sure – but I had the thing for 2-3 weeks before coming in, so if anything I was worried they’d be out. She half-grudgingly goes over to the Benefit counter to see. No, they don’t have them in, but her coworker confirmed that the voucher was as I interpreted it (also known as: the only way to interpret it since it was clear English). Okay, that’s no big deal.
What is a big deal is the attitude and immediate dismissal. No, lady, I’m not trying to pull the wool over your eyes and get GWPs that I did not earn. Ulta sent me this voucher, and you could at least have the damn decency to read it before dismissing me like someone trying to get something for nothing. You already pulled up my Ultamate rewards details and saw that I’m Platinum (and that after that day’s purchase, that I would be $10 away from keeping Platinum for next year). Is that really the treatment Platinum customers should expect in stores?
This store in particular has been nothing but a disappointment in terms of customer service. From my Salon at Ulta experience last fall, to issues like the one I described in my post about preferring online shopping, I’m getting more and more disappointed with this location.
There are some things you can’t buy online, or sometimes you don’t want to fuss with shipping. I want to shop with Ulta more because their rewards program is of greater value to me than Sephora’s, but my patience for the poor service has worn thin; I’m just exasperated with my local Ulta
Why not write a letter explaining your less than satisfactory customer experiences with Ulta to their Headquarters/Corporate offices. Id personally love to see how they do handle these types of issues involving “Platinum” customers. Hey they cant address or fix any issues if they are not first brought to their attention and then given the chance to make it right. Again its just a suggestion. Hope this helps…Have a lovely weekend…Love and Light…Holly…:)…XXXOOO
P.S.. Personally speaking I don’t think theirs anything worse than giving your hard earned money to a company that you are having serious enough issues with that gives you an “exasperated feeling” when dealing with them.
Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc.
Corporate Offices 1000 Remington Boulevard Suite 120. Bolingbrook, Illinois 60440. Phone: 630.410.4800