Aww these always make me sad because I work at Sephora and the only time we've ever had a complaint like this was when a former employee of another store tried to return a shitload of gratis and we weren't nice to her (justifiable, I think) So here's what I'll say about how we're supposed to deal with potential LP.
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Originally Posted by ♥MiCHiE♥
Maybe they're onto the fact that you go in just to "freshen up", have a problem with it and don't know another way to approach you. The whole scenario just seems.....weird. Ofcourse, the samples are there for use, but it's my understanding that store/counter employees don't really care for people taking advantage of them.
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We get a lot of people that work in the mall or work nearby that come in just to touch up their makeup or put on fragrance and then leave. I personally think that's like going into Costco on Saturday to have a lunch off of free samples and not grocery shop. However, I don't have a problem with it unless the person becomes a nuisance, like asking me for things while I'm clearly helping a customer who's truly interested in trying products. We have a lot of regulars who come in just to collect as many samples as they can week after week and avoid buying product. I'm not saying that's what you were doing, but it's a big problem we have at Sephora stores, because our atmosphere is so "touch-friendly," you don't have to ask someone to help, our sanitary items are out in the open, our testers are available to be grabbed and used freely, but we do get people who take advantage and it can be very frustrating.
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Originally Posted by SingFrAbsoltion
Most Sephora salespeople love to follow people around, they get on my nerves. I don't want people staring at me when I'm putting on makeup or looking around! I understand they're uptight about stealing (understandably) but give me some space!
I actually mentioned this to a friend who used to work at sephora and she told me "yeah, they all do that, and they also like to talk shit about customers through headsets" Nice to know I guess.
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Trust me honey, I'd rather get work done and help customers who truly want my help, we don't "love" following people around, in fact it personally makes me horrifically uncomfortable to have to watch someone closely if my manager asks me to, but if we don't watch people who seem suspicious to us, then we're likely to get robbed blind. I'm not saying everybody steals or everyone's a suspect, but if we let our guard down, as we have before, an entire shelf of Chanel fragrance can leave store in less than 30 seconds. That's about $2000 we're basically just waving goodbye to.
We're trained to be aware of who is in our zones, what they're doing, regardless of it being suspicious behavior or not. Maybe there's a client in my zone who is completely clueless as to what something is: if I ignore her, she's gonna give up and leave and miss out on a product she may have liked, and we lose a client. Or if I ignore someone who has a huge bag and is really shifty, she might leave with hundreds of dollars in merchandise. Don't take it personally, we're doing our jobs.
I admit there is a lot of abuse on the headset in stores, people get on them to talk casually to each other rather than communicate a need onstage or something that's relevant to business. We also use them to communicate with our DICs and Management if there is a problem onstage. Would you prefer that we yelled? How professional.
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Originally Posted by scorplove
I don't care if they follow me around. Just don't ask me stupid a$$ questions.
If you think I'm stealing then let me steal whatever it is, then stop me at the door like you're supposed to do. Yeah, and if you know you f'd up, don't go sending the black girl to try to make up for your dumb ass mistake.
That chick ain't my friend and her fake smiling just makes me even madder.
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That's not how it works; we can't just "let you steal and then stop you at the door." There's a 5-step procedure to be followed, and if we don't follow it, we face legal action. It's precautionary if we notice someone who comes in regularly and doesn't want to be talked to, there's a good indiciation that they might be a loss prevention issue; it's like that at just about every retailer, we have to protect our assets, our employees and our clients. People should stop taking things so personally; granted, the way she approached you was rude and completely out of our guidelines. But what if you had been a shopping customer and nobody offered their help? You'd be just as pissed now, except for a different reason. People who don't work retail don't understand; it's a lose-lose situation for us most of the time. If we approach you too much, we're bothering you and you think we're being smug or accusing you of something, but if we don't approach you at all, people get offended adn say we ignored them and complain either way. I'm not a psychic, I don't know if you're a theif, a shopper, or just someone who likes to smell perfume, I'm gonna approach you at least once no matter the situation because
that's my job.
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Originally Posted by janelovesyou
Well technically in retail if they thought you were stealing what they would want to do is stop you before it happened (by offering you assistance and making you aware that they are near) rather then stopping you at the door and accusing you b/c if you really didn't take anything then they could have a major lawsuit on their hands.
But yeah, that story is extra awkward. I've never even had 3 people offer me assistance at Sephora in all my time of going there.
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Exactly; we deter theft by offering extra client service; nobody at any retailer would just walk up to you and say "You have a lipstick in your purse, I saw it!" If there's no proof that you didn't come in with that lipstick, we're screwed.
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Originally Posted by prinzessin784
They probably misinterpreted your comment that you weren't planning on buying anything. Loss prevention training alerts sales people to customers who frequently browse without buying. So as harmless as it was, what you were doing could have been a tipoff to them. Sometimes stores offer bonuses for catching shop lifters so it makes them want to see nefarious intentions in every customer who just wants to look. It's silly and they should have better loss prevention training!
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Precisely, except for that last bit. There is no incentive for us for loss prevention. We don't get a bonus for apprehending a shoplifter, we get a shitload of paperwork and time in court if it goes that far. There's only so much stores can do for loss prevention if they don't have an on-site agent or a camera system, neither of which my previous store had. We have to do our best to deter theft before it comes to that point, because sometimes it's the only way to guard our assets and protect ourselves. But nobody should ever approach the way that person did.
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Originally Posted by Beauty Mark
When I read that, I honestly thought they were on to you sampling things rather frequently. I think it's an awkward thing to approach someone about. Even if you're not the only one who does that, we don't know if they're approaching everyone who does that, if their manager has observed certain customers (which may or may not be linked to race; I get recognized in stores if I frequent them enough) are taking advantage of the sampling, etc.
It may be a weird question to ask if you're waiting for a friend, but if you're in there once a week or so and don't purchase anything, I may assume that you're waiting for someone.
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You're definitely not the first person nor the last, but when we see someone who comes in frequently, never buys anything, and never wants help, it raises flags. Especially if that person consistently does returns or exchanges, and we've never seen them make a purchase to begin with. It's very awkward to hint to someone that we don't appreciate them loitering and having their way with our products and testers, but unfortunately we can't do that, so we just grin and bear it.
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Originally Posted by Willa
Throw rocks at me for that, but I don't really the racism in that case?
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I don't either, but it could be interpreted that they were trying to cover their asses by sending over a more "ethnic" consultant to approach her, because once a black employee approaches a black customer, everything's okay in their mind. That's not true either, I don't care who approaches me if they're green, orange, purple or blue, if they were rude, they were rude. These girls in the Beverly Center store were rude, no doubt about it.
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Originally Posted by scorplove
They came at me the WRONG way.
I feel very offended by what happened and whether or not race played a part in it doesn't matter. The whole experience made me uncomfortable. I don't play the race card. I don't believe Sephora is a racist company.
If they had a problem with me using their samples then they should have said something. By asking me who the hell I'm waiting for, because I'm just walking around the store looking at the testers smacks of stupidity. If this was their way of getting me to not come back to the store anymore, then it worked. I won't ever be going back there.
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Not allowed, unless you're doing something particularly heinous with our products and testers, or you're fishing through the drawers, or opening live product, we can't really do or say anything about it.
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It's only THIS location that treated me like this. I've been to others (Hollywood/Highland and Santa Monica) and the energy has always been positive. What it boils down to is I (the customer) felt disrespected and didn't deserve it. |
I've heard unfortunate things about the LA and NY stores; there's a real superiority complex in those cities in general I guess. I visited a Sephora in NY before I was employed with the company and I could smell the smugness before I walked in. Nobody offered to help me, but they all kept their eyes on me. I guess it was because I had a giant coat on and lots of bags...but did I mention it was the dead of winter and I was a tourist on a shopping spree? Didn't matter to them.
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Regardless, I'm still calling the corporate office to let them know my feelings. |
I encourage you to make a complaint if you feel that strongly about it. We get a lot of complaints if someone gets a wild hair up their ass because we wouldn't do their makeup for free or because we were too busy to do a full consultation with them or whatever, but I always encourage people if they feel very strongly about something, good or bad, they should go through the channels and make us aware. Something like that further lets me know where we have opportunities to make ourselves better and improve our client service efforts.
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience, but if you ever come to Otay Ranch Sephora, you won't, I can assure you that.