To be honest, I'm so sick of reading stuff like this. Yea, yea, don't read it then. Pass it up - whatever. There's bad customer service in every industry. That doesn't excuse it, but it exsists. Not knowing a brush number or how to use it . . . maybe she was new. Maybe she truly was a dumb ass and didn't think to look at the numbers on the side to find it. I don't know, but I don't think half of you understand how intense our job can be. Customer service is the number one priority. And at my store at least, that can mean jumping between 5 different customers who all have questions about how to use _______ and will ___ color look good me? while someone else wants an eye demo and another has an appointment. On top of which, we have to replenish our stock area, write out our out of stock lists, clean the counter, clean our brushes between each customer, clean the products themselves, answer the phone, do facecharts (which are required) AND manage to keep our cool. I'm not complaining, I love my job. But even for me, as an addict before I was an employee it took me about a year to get completely comfortable with most products - knowing the ingredients, why they're in there, what they do, recognizing the names of products and being able to pull them out of the unit. AND I study my PKM in my free time. Most MAC employees do not. There's no downtime to study the PKM at work. We go to basic once - it's 5 days long and pretty informative, but with the multitude of products MAC makes, it can be pretty confusing. Plus, they're always adding new ones. Yes, we go to update 4 times a year, but update, to be honest doesn't tell us much more besides the inspiration behind major collections, what the names of the colors are and what they look like. If there's a new product, the trainers will go over how to use it once. Some people go to update a month before anything launches. They may forget once it's launched. They're human. And different things are popular in different regions. Just because you love paints, doesn't mean everyone does. Most people who shop at my store never ask for paints. They've never even heard of them until I use it on them.
Our job is to do makeup and sell makeup. Yes, I agree you should know about what you're selling, but now that I've been with MAC for over a year (which isn't even that long) I've seen a super high turnover rate. I'm not sure if it's just my region or what. But basically that means lots of fresh, new employees. Who all love makeup - or they wouldn't be working there, but they can't be expected to know everything right away. If they don't know, so what? You don't know everything. If they don't offer to find out for you - that's another story. In that case, I'd request to speak to a manager and tell them how you feel. Above all else, just keep in mind we're all human, we all make mistakes and we all have different personalities which means we interact with each other in different ways. There's never an excuse for attitude, but remember most of us are there to help you. And think about how you approach the situation. If they say they don't know, or don't understand what you're talking about, do you get an attitude? Do you walk in like a know it all? I'm not saying you do, but I've had customers do that and believe me the last thing I want to do is help them - even though I do. When you point a finger, three more are pointing back at you. Think how you may have contributed to a bad experience you had. . . reactions, etc.
Just to take my money at the till and put the product in a bag for me? And not even to know what it is they just handled? Or that it exists? Or be able to help me in my questions about it? Would i even want to buy it without any basic Qs answerd about it? No i wouldn't as i hadn't used Paints before that time and the SA is the one with the tools on her belt and the one who should 'test' it for me with the right tools/techniques and show me how it is applied and looks. 
