Sephora Sephora.com Terrible customer service, discrimination and violation of FTC rules for ecommerce San Francisco CA

Sephora refused to accept and ship an order made by a customer because that customer uses her boyfriends credit card and ships to another name. When the boyfriend tried to call to confirm the order, instead of helping, Sephora refuses to speak (invoking privacy, when the only discussion is about validating payment) and accuses the customer of having a shared account or being a reseller. None of these are true or motivated. They imposed that the customer calls herself, despite being abroad and not speaking English well.

When that is so, they claim that the only way to resolve that, because the account would be “shared” is that she order with a credit card under her name (which she does not have) and shipped to her address (which she can’t do as currently stuck abroad due to COVID-19). Sephora stated that her boyfriend can’t make an account himself as they would deny it also, despite this person being in good standing with valid credit cards and fraudulent history with Sephora (no business relationship with them) or anybody.

Sephora has lost any common sense of customer service as well as no desire to help its customer who just wanted to order for herself. In this time of crisis, you would expect that Sephora would rather go out of its way to help and accommodate. but no, they decided that they will not help instead “reviewing account”, refusing customers and refusing service that had noting fraudulent, illegal or even abnormal! How can this be.

In addition, doing so, Sephora.com violated several rule for online business:

1.     When taking and accepting an online order, the business must notify if it delays or cancel the order. In this case, Sephora.com had confirmed the order, provided a delivery date (May 26, 2020). It is only when checking on status on May 15, 2020, that teh customer noticed that the order had been cancelled (Authorization failed). meanwhile, the credit card bank confirmed that no attempt to run the card (and no denial) had taken place. By not having immediately notified the customer, Sephora.com broke the rule: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/business-guide-ftcs-mail-internet-or-telephone-order . When pointed it to them, they couldn’t care less. It is breaking the law…

2.    When Sephora supervisors claimed that the customer was breaking it policy, they were unable to point to the policy in question or the appropriate clause. In fact they only manage to post rules for international shipment, which did not apply as shipping was within the US. It is also a FTC rule that an e-commerce company must display its policies and must provide them when request. Sephora refused to do so and by this again broke the law.

3.    By refusing to accommodate request to assist Sephora also discriminated against their customer based on her origin as well as her disabilities (i.e. ADA).

4.    By stating that her boyfriend would not be able to  open an account, Sephora further showed today disrespect of customer service and denies service without cause.

So far, the customer has asked Sephora.com

·         to explain and show their policy (per FTC rules). It has not happened.

·         how they can resolve this and have the order shipped (or reprocessed) as requested. Sephora refused offering only that customer must call herself and must order with her own credit card to her own shipping address. None of these are spelled out in any terms visible online (and as per the previous bullet Sephora has not provided the policy… it is not AFAIK in their policy). They even refused to let her boyfriend create an account to order

Sephora has lost a repeat customer More importantly it has shown willingness to discriminate and not provide any service to a paying customer. With such an attitude, there are no good reason to actually shop at Sephora.

Unfortunately, bullies like Sephora always win because, although they broke the law it is not worth suing them! So if you are a lawyer, journalist or consumer organization who wants to investigate and help, feel free to comment we will put you in contact with the customer. It is only if the public react negatively that they will pay attention.

If you agree and do not want to support an non caring abusing and discriminating business, boycott Sephora and Sephora.com.