Ulta- Step Up Your Game
(affiliate links inside) 3/15, 3/17, and 3/22 updates at the bottom of the article
Ulta has had my business almost exclusively for a long time. Up until recently, they were one of the only local-ish stores to me that carried my current favorite shampoo and conditioner by Eva NYC. I made excuses to go to Ulta to buy it twice a month because I'm also an Ultamate Rewards member. I've had Platinum status for I don't even know how long- and those free points on purchases add up quickly. I enjoy buying- even splurging at Ulta because they do free perks better than anyone. But the last year or so has been pretty painful for my relationship with Ulta. Instead of going into a store, I've been shopping online a LOT. I'm finding myself too busy to spend hours in my version of a candy store and shopping online seems to have more freebies available, less out of stocks, and they seem to carry EVERYTHING online- and my local stores don't scratch the surface. I'm also getting to the age where I'm not really interested in a 20-something gawking at me and telling me how ahhhh-maaaayyyyzingggg my skin is "for my age"... uhhh fuck you very much. That, and I want to do the mom/spit thumb wipe off motion on the highlighter streaks these girls have on their cheekbones and noses... I shouldn't be allowed in public... I digress...
The issues with me and Ulta really kicked up in the fall. I ordered a bunch of stuff, got my tracking number, and noticed it didn't arrive after about a week. I pulled tracking and it showed delivered and signed for- to the wrong address- in a town two away from me. Surely that wasn't Ulta's fault. Misdeliveries happen. Nonetheless, I called Ulta hoping they could maybe contact wherever it was shipped to- or maybe they sent me the wrong tracking number, SOMETHING. I was told to wait for the shipment to be sent back and redelivered. Um... what? I thanked her, hung up, called back. This time, the woman on the phone seemed to get it. She apologized, pulled a replacement order and shipped it out to me right away. I didn't get the special items or the free gifts with purchase that had since expired from my original purchase. She made up for it with a small gift card. I appreciated it. That was my first odd experience with Ulta and I assumed it would be just a fluke. Christmas came and I had saved up a lot of points for Black Friday and the holiday deals. I placed an online order and got a TON of offers included. I had been using the Ulta app and selected PayPal to check out. When using the app, it opens a new window on your browser to confirm PayPal as the payment method. When it took me back to Ulta, all my points were gone. Thousands of points... poof. And no order. No worries, I had to leave the house anyway, I'll swing by Ulta. I got there, explained to the manager what took place. She told me that my points were probably in limbo because I "didn't complete my transaction"- call customer service and they'll release them. In the store, in line, I was on the phone with customer service- on hold for almost 45 minutes. When they got on, they told me they couldn't release my points. But if I made a small in-store purchase, it would bump my points out of limbo and free them up right away. I did that... and it didn't work. I got back on the phone. I waited another half an hour only to be told that I would have to wait up to 14 days for my points to fall out of limbo and then the last thing she said was- "Next time, be sure to complete your transaction- or don't use points unless you're sure." Ohhhh... that made me angry. Two weeks later, my points are STILL missing. I call back. This rep offers to "loan" me points and put in a trouble ticket for the lost points. I'm frazzled. I missed another sale and I didn't want to have to call back when my points finally resurfaced to pay them back. I told her to forget it. I stayed away from Ulta for a while after that. At the end of February, it was shampoo re-up time again. My points had finally found their way home, and again I opened my app and tried to order. Again, I selected PayPal, and again my points went missing. Seeing red, I now understood why my points were going missing. The PayPal app was telling the Ulta app that a transaction had taken place, reserving my points- but you still had to finish out the order on the Ulta app. Points get reserved by the PayPal trigger, and Ulta can't complete the transaction. I call customer service- this time, I ask for corporate. I get bumped to I don't even know where and I explain the whole ordeal to the rep. She's like "Woah, ok that sucks. Go to Ulta.com and send an email. If enough people complain, they might fix it." You.don't.fucking.say? Then, my favorite one- "Just don't use PayPal on your app anymore." Can you release my points so I can order? Of course not. At this point, I had mental tourettes. Donkey. Bitch. God damn, Fucking turd. Nonsense. Sonofawhore. I don't know how I didn't have a stroke. It seemed insane that I was practically handing the company my money AND the answer to a very frustrating problem for the app (that still isn't fixed, btw) several times, they lost my potential order- and each of those times, I bought my shampoo off Amazon or the grocery store instead. So... Ulta got to wait to get my money again. Last week, my husband ran out of a product we get from Ulta. (Goddamn you!!!!) I went and put it in my cart. I did more shopping... the item was unavailable when I checked out an hour or so later. (Tourette's returns with a passion) I check out- sans his product and the item arrives in lightning speed. I open the box to get my beloved shampoo out and I see the two Ulta brand eyeshadows I had ordered free-floating in the box- cracked, and completely powdered. Ulta boxes are always the size of shoe boxes- no matter what you order. These tiny eyeshadows were just flopping around, slamming into heavy bottles of shampoo and conditioner. (Head slap) I pick up the phone. At this point, I'm giddy with madness. I stay calm and I explain to the woman on the phone about the shadows. She's kind and offers a replacement right away. I ask if she can notate that they should be bubble wrapped. She says "of course"...
They arrived today. Two tiny silver-dollar sized eyeshadows. Completely unwrapped. In a box the size of a shoe box. Do you think they arrived whole? Of course not. I call again, this time I'm convinced it's a practical joke. I explain the situation again. The woman says- "We have no way to add order notes, I'm not sure why she told you she could ask that the shadows be wrapped. We can't do that. Do you want me to reship?' No. Please. God no. Can you just refund it? Points? Credit? I don't care. Just refund it. She agrees and says it will show up in my account within 30 minutes. I now have 4 products to take back to an Ulta store- and no points have been issued. No credit. Sigh... While she was on the phone, she suggested that I send an email to customer service and direct them to forward to corporate for warehouse and shipping feedback. Let them know the products are arriving unwrapped. Ok... I've done this much, I can do that. She also says- "They'll probably send you something or do something for you for all the trouble. Call back if they don't." I don't wanna. So, I send the email. I get a notification that someone will get back to me. A couple hours later, I get a response. I am NOT KIDDING YOU- the ticket was closed with no response. Seeing double AND red, I reply. I'm not nice now. I get a response- "Oh well we already requested a new shipment be sent to you." Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! I explain... again... that I don't want a reshipment. I'm waiting for the next response that will surely cause me to go bald, whereby removing my need to buy any shampoo of any kind and therefore removing my need for Ulta at all. Sigh... Sweet baby Jesus- should shopping with a company be this challenging? All this because of Eva NYC and Anthony Ingrown Hair Treatment for my hubby. Oh, and Ulta's Facebook customer service? "We are sorry to hear about this, and we understand the frustration. Once you receive these items, you can return them in-store if they come damaged again." Gee, can I? For serious? Maybe you can send someone to pick it up because I didn't ask for it. I love you, Eva NYC. If this isn't true love... Apparently, I'm not unique:
Ulta reviews on Consumer Affairs: HERE Trustpilot: HERE Pissed Consumer: HERE
Then you can just search Facebook for "Ulta Sucks"... _________ 3/15 UPDATE: I was feeling exceptionally punchy this morning and decided I'd give a final go to this ridiculous debacle with Ulta and their customer DIS-Service. When I called the 800 number, a cheerful rep named Crystal answered. Before I went into my recent drama, I apologized in advance for any profanity or anger I expressed during the call. She stayed cheerful and basically told me to go ahead and lay it on her. First, we covered the damaged shipment and re-shipment. She went to the order and confirmed that yes, Bonnie, the original rep I spoke to about the broken items did in fact leave a note on the ticket to bubble-wrap the products. She noted that the note was small and the warehouse could have missed it. My follow up call about the reshipment also being broken did NOT trigger a return of points to my account like the rep I had spoken to had promised. So, Crystal refunded the points right then and there and they showed immediately on my account. Then I told her about the email exchange between me and Chantal L and the lack of a response before closing my ticket out. She pulled up the email I sent in responses to the closed ticket and and saw that Chantal did reply and tell me they had placed an order to replace the items again. Crystal saw my angry response that I didn't want a replacement. I wanted a refund. She then explained that their policy is to issue a refund if the replacement is damaged. Laughing in disgust, she also said- "Chantal didn't issue a refund OR another order for you. I am SO sorry." She took this personally and went on a little bit of a lecture explaining that she didn't now why people call themselves customer service if they aren't going to do the right thing for the customer the first time. She apologized profusely. Then I told her about Ulta's Facebook response to me to just "return the products to a store if they come damaged." And how Ulta replied to my posting THIS article on their page with a- "Send us a DM" comment. How many DM's do you want me to send before I publish an article? Gobsmacked, she said- "You shouldn't have to BE a blogger and write an article to get their attention." Amen. So, she promised she would send the entire chain of issues to corporate. I asked her if something changed internally with Ulta recently and she confirmed that much had indeed changed and they took away a lot of the options customer service had at their disposal to resolve issues. Their hands became more tied this year, and it was reflecting in the behavior of their customer service teams. She asked me to run her through the rest of the issues that happened to taint my opinion of Ulta. I told her about the misdelivery, the points issues, and basically- the rest of the blog above. She couldn't believe it- until she looked up the notes in my account and confirmed it all. She couldn't believe the mess. It was nice, and very appreciated to have someone on their end acknowledge the insanity. What can be done to prevent it for me in the future- or anyone else? I'm not sure. But whatever happens, based on this chain of circumstances, the feedback all over the web, and just the general comments when I first shared this post- Ulta has some serious service issues to address if they want to keep their customer base.
Crystal was the first rep to take any extra steps to resolve anything for me since last summer. She was also very kind and sent me a small gift certificate to try to make up for the trouble. It's appreciated. Still, whenever the next time I order from Ulta is, I can't help to cringe and wince in anticipation of another completely avoidable disaster. 3/17/19- Ulta has all Ulta brand cosmetics on sale for buy 2 get 2 free. I figure I'll use the promotion, my points, and the "sorry we fucked up the last time" gift card to get some eyeshadow singles. I like their singles because they work well and when I take them (or one of the umpteen samples I get in my subscription boxes) to the gym with me, I won't cry if they break or get stolen. I burn through dark brown matte shadow faster than anything because I use it to fill the gaps in my brows. It's always worked better for me than anything else... so stock up on brown powder? Makes sense. So the deal is $4 each, buy two and get two free. They are normally $8.50 each. So for $8, I get $34 in eyeshadow? Sold. At 2 a.m., I was adding eyeshadow to my cart like a crazy person. And sure enough, the sale price of $4 and the B2G2 deal showed in my cart. I needed to charge my laptop and didn't feel like getting up- so I closed it and went to sleep. I woke up a few hours later and went to check out and of course... the prices had changed. I went online and looked at the sale. It said "Ulta Beauty Cosmetics". It was on the page that said buy two, get two... yet the price had changed. I call customer service. I get an indifferent girl that tried to tell me that I was wrong. That item was on sale THE DAY BEFORE. IT ended at midnight CST. Man that irritated me. I explained- I added them to my cart at 2 a.m. CST and the sale ad SAYS 3/17- today IS 3/17 and it says Ulta Beauty Cosmetics. She told me it must be excluded. And then she hung up on me. I called back and got a supervisor that told me if I could produce a screenshot of the sale showing the item is on the promotion page, she would honor it. But when I told her I could, she began to raise her voice and interrupt me. When she started talking over me, I got a little loud. I had to actually tell her that her conduct was inappropriate and interrupting and belittling guests who are simply asking for a company to honor their ad is uncalled for. When she didn't stop- I hung up on her. Furious, I called a third time and got another supervisor who agreed with my perspective but his resolution wasn't really very comfortable either. He told me to buy the items at $4 each and then they would go back into my account and issue me a credit for half of the purchase. I haven't decided if I would do that yet because I don't trust Ulta to actually honor what he told me he would do. I'm also not sure I want to commit myself to making another chain of phone calls to get the refund. I asked him point blank- "Why do you guys make it so hard to spend your money here? Why can't you just honor what you advertise?" I know he tried. But unless he was willing to stay on the phone with me while I went through my cart and checked out- it wasn't him I worried about, it was the NEXT supervisor I feared. Whatever I decide, I'll keep you guys updated. I did make a report to TINA.org about the ad. I also filed a BBB complaint and included this article in it. At this point, the article seems to be a running journal of the missteps made by a company I don't anticipate will last another decade- let alone the 30 years they've already been in business. Something REALLY changed here, and it's sad especially when you offer feedback and answers to issues that their executives should already know and address. You do it free of charge, and nothing changes. 3/22/19 After thinking it over, I decided to risk it and see if the company would do what they promised THIS time. I placed my order and once I did, I immediately emailed about the promised refund. I was told that I needed to wait until the items shipped to b refunded. Several days went by and the order shipped, but no refund came. I contacted them again, and the refund was processed. Then, as I waited for my order to arrive, Ulta's response to my BBB complaint came in- it addressed my most recent issue only, but ignored the meat of my entire complaint. They simply replied that they gave me a refund as promised. Everything else was completely ignored and the complaint was closed. But, it will stay on Ulta's record as closed but unresolved. My order arrived yesterday. The shipping box was DEMOLISHED. I actually felt badly for Ulta because this time, unless the warehouse had done this to the package- the damage wasn't their fault. It looked like the box had been crushed in transit and knowing what I'd be up against if I reported it, I photographed everything. The box, as I opened it, and of course... the lack of wrapping once again. The eyeshadow singles (8 of them this time) were all in a single bubble pack with nothing securing them in the box. A Morphe palette under them, completely unwrapped. I hoped for the best, but sure enough- we had some breakage. Two of the 8 eyeshadows were broken. The case on one was totally cracked and the Morphe palette had several broken shadows. I emailed CS and told them about the damage- citing the box's condition. As I expected them to not believe me, they asked for pictures this time. A part of me wanted to be offended because they never ask for pictures, but... this has been a ridiculous chain of events, so I understood. I received a response as I wrote this update. The damaged items have been reshipped. Here's hoping they arrive ok. This rep was professional, prompt, and polite without my having to plead for her or anyone else to be. It's a nice change from some of the mess I've encountered. This will be my last update on this article. If anything new happens in the future, I'll generate a new article. But at this juncture, I'm not sure I'll return to Ulta (at least not online) for a very long time- if ever.
