Let me start this off by saying this certainly was not supposed to be free – but after a lot of back and fourth a credit was extended to my credit card as a “I’m sorry we screwed up.”
As most of us know, Lady Gaga came out with a new perfume titled Fame. The perfume got a lot of notoriety because it’s a black liquid (which does not transfer to your clothing) and when she was telling people she wanted to make a fragrance she kind of said she wanted it to smell of blood and semen o.O. I received a sample of the perfume at Sephora and ABSOLUTELY fell in love. I was going to buy it right then in the store, but my boyfriend told me I should check online to see if I could get a better deal since it was the holiday season upon us.
I did a lot of searching online and the toss-up was between Macy’s and Ulta. I decided to go with Ulta because of their reward program. Not that it really matters because I don’t shop at Ulta very much because the one store near me is an hour away and it’s in the most horrendous excuse for a mall I’ve ever seen. ANYWAY!
The Ulta website stated the gift set included a 3.4 fl oz bottle, a bar of soap and a 0.34 fl oz roller ball. I clicked on the image associated with the description and the gift set shown was exactly what was listed on the website. So I went back and fourth with myself “Do I really need this?” and I just bit the bullet, ordered it and about a week later it was delivered to my house. Upon opening the box and pulling out the gift set I realized the gift set I received was for the 1.7 fl oz bottle. I didn’t order that, so I sent Ulta an e-mail inquiring and on the next Monday (I sent the e-mail Saturday) I received a generic e-mail back telling me to ship it back to get the right product.
Then the cycle continued – I called Ulta since I figured talking to a human being would be easier than trying to get the problem across in e-mail. After explaining to the customer service rep she forwarded an e-mail off (they have the weirdest chain of command BTW) and I got a call back from the customer service rep later in the day. Basically saying we screwed up, but too bad for you. They thanked me for pointing out the mistake (?????) and said if I was still unsatisfied I could return it to get what I wanted – which isn’t even available to their store. That made no sense to me, so I inquired further about well, if I bought product X and you sent me product Y shouldn’t you willingly exchange it for what I wanted? Even if you admitted you made a mistake on your website, but you’d honor it since I didn’t make the change on their end. I then get an e-mail from an apparent supervisor, who basically told me return it and get your money back and order it from another company that has what you want because the tech group made a mistake but there’s nothing they can do to fix it. So that ticked me off. I work in purchasing as a living and one thing that boggles my mind is bad customer service. With so many businesses trying to save money and doing things online and preserve face, a little goes a long way and bad customer service echoes so much louder and clearer than good customer service (sadly). So in an aggravated “fury” I e-mailed them back saying this is the worst level of customer service, provide me with a prepaid UPS label for return, credit me back once received and don’t expect business from me in the future. Later on in the afternoon I got an e-mail back from the rep stating as a one-time courtesy they’d extend a credit to me for the amount paid and I could keep the product.
I was flabbergasted. I wasn’t expecting that in the least but I do say it was a nice gesture on their behalf for remedying the situation. Granted, I didn’t get the exact product I was looking for (size wise) but to get a set for free as an apology? Thanks, Ulta.
