i wish we charged all week! oh i know its a good thing. we have custies that always try and get away with free makeup, and we talked about ways of handling those people. we don't have alot of em, but there are some. its just in the way we need to word the policy. and if there are repeat offenders, we are gonna require them to buy a gift card before the appt., then use it to buy their $50 worth. and ya know what, if they try and get around it by returning the stuff on a different day, they get store credit with a gift card!

Because our store has a bunch of "cheapies" the artists decided that this was what THEY were going to do to make their goals.

Trust me, the customers at our store are CHEAP! You really can't push them to get more than what they need or they'll return it, bringing down your counter and commission.

So what if they complain and say that "other" counters don't charge? Let them go to THOSE stores. It's called weeding out the time wasters.

In my area, if they walk up during the week and want a full face, it's still a 50$ purchase.

That's what I thought too. If it's super busy, I let them know, I am only doing one eye.

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*I haven't read the whole thread yet - sorry*

But I just wanted to say, I have absolutely no problem in the world with the minimum purchase policy. THE MAKEOVER IS STILL FREE! Its not like you spend $50 and walk out with a full of makeup. You pay $50, walk out with gorgeous makeup AND $50 worth of product! People wanting one without a purchase ARE INSANE!

Im in Australia. Our minimum purchase is $95. I still don't have a problem (although, it sort sucks when your total comes to $92-$94, and they make you buy something else to get over the $95!)

Oh, and does anyone know if in Australia its $95 fri-sun or all week? I was under the impression its all week but I dont know

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hmm..i didn't even know eye make-up or full face application is free on certain days..i always had the thought of having to buy at least $50 worth of stuff to get your make-up done..and even purchasing $50 worth of stuff, i still think the "make-up application part" is free..hellloooo..you get to redeem it in products..gaah..ghetto people i tell ya..lol

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Same in my area.

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Whew, so I just read the whole thread.

I'm a loyal MAC customer and rarely do I walk out of MAC empty handed. So I completely have no problem paying $45-50 in products for a counter makeover. I certainly don't want the MA's to spend more than 30-40 minutes on my face during these makeovers either, but at the same time, I would feel a tad cheated if she only spent 15 minutes during a makeover when I am shelling out the $50.

The last time I got a makeover at a counter I had a horrible experience. The MA clearly did not know what color foundation to use on my south asian skin and her bright pink blush placement on the wrong foundation left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I looked like a china doll, not a good look for me. Honestly speaking, some of the ladies here at Specktra who aren't even MAs do better makeup than some MAC MAs. Of course, some MAC MAs do great makeup on all skintones and ethnicities, it's just that my experience from the makeover wasn't good.

I really want to meet a great MA who does great makeup on me. I am thinking about making an appt. with the counter for the Nauticals event and I really hope my experience is better. Keeping my fingers crossed!

I have also noticed that the MAs at the freestanding stores sometimes are more knowledgeable than the MAs at counters (just my experience), is there a difference in the way they are trained? The reason I feel that way is because the colors picked out for me by some of the MAs at the freestanding locations usually suit me better than ones picked out by the counter MAs. This has happened at least 4 times, hence the observation.

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We are all trained the same, but in my region you have to start at a counter and need certain certifications to work at a freestanding store.

Therefore, although there are very talented MAs at all Mac locations, you will run into the occasional newbie at a counter.

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There are 4 pages and I need to go get ready for workin' at MAC! So I can't read it all right now. But this is how it goes down at my Macy's MAC:

We do the minimum purchase of $50 for a full application.
For an eye/lip demo, it is minimum purchase of 2 or more products.
For Face/blush matching, etc, we don't charge.
This goes for all week round.
After full applications, we write on the receipt that it was an application, and tell the customer that they can exchange/return product but they MUST keep at least 50 dollars worth.
We keep a list of chronic returners so we can keep track of who is honest or not.
For lashes, you just have to buy the lashes and we'll throw on a little liner/mascara too.

The other counters do makeup for free, but since we are TRAINED and always in demand we NEED to have minimum purchases because if we didn't, like everyone already said, we'd be doing makeup all day and nobody would make goal and we'd have to close down because nobody would buy anything.

It's really annoying though, the people that don't want to buy/try and return it all. They're such backstabbers. We're here helping them and then they just want to get it all for free and not help us in return. It's such BS, they're really bad people. If you don't have the money, or don't want to pay, then those people can just look shit for all I care. I could lose my job because of them not wanting to pay and returning stuff. It's sooo aggravating, you know?

You probably already know this, but sometimes it is the MAC artist's first day/Freelancer's first day/first month, whatever. MAC Freelancers are not trained at all, they are just thrown onto the floor as an experiment to see how they act in the real environment. It's sort of like to see if they're worth training and stuff. Sometimes the MAs are already talented and knowlegeable, and sometimes they are not at all. It just takes time for the artist to get used to everything and learn about the product. After a few weeks/months of actually being hired as a real MAC artist are they trained.

Sometimes the artists don't have any footing and don't know much about product application. You may have run into one of those, and for that I am sorry. But the artist has to start somewhere, and hopefully this one has grown since that last application. Do you know what I mean though? Maybe it doesn't make any sense cuz I'm in a rush!!

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I know what you mean. She could have been new but I don't think she was a freelancer, I saw her pretty much everytime I went to the counter. She was a model for smashbox informercials as well so her own makeup would always be nice. She is no longer working at the counter I frequent though, hasn't been for the past two years.
But I will be certain to get my next makeover from someone who is a regular MAC employee with a couple years experience.

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