SEPHORA — Attraction in New York

This Sephora on 86th Street in Bay Ridge is an absolute disgrace. I had the most humiliating and infuriating experience because of the so-called “managers,” Josh and Jay, who were shockingly rude, dismissive, and completely unprofessional.

I came in because my online order had been canceled after I missed the last pickup day, which happened because the store was closed. All I wanted was basic assistance to check if the item was still in the store and guidance on what to do. Josh didn’t even check my order or name before dismissing me with, “We can’t help you with that.” When I showed him my email, which proved the cancellation wasn’t due to being out of stock, he still lied and claimed it wasn’t in the store. Only after I insisted did he suddenly find it—clearly, he didn’t care to help from the start.

I asked for someone else to assist me, and Jay came over. She was shockingly rude and made me feel like my concerns were a joke. She even laughed at me and refused to give me her name when I asked. Instead of handling the situation, she walked away and left me standing there.

Things escalated when another employee, Maria, approached me. Instead of helping, she rudely demanded that I leave the store. When I refused—because I was still shopping—she called the police on me. The officers said I had to leave simply because she worked there. This was not only unprofessional but humiliating.

I have no doubt that this mistreatment was racially motivated. I am white, and the staff—Josh, Jay, and Maria—are all people of color. Their behavior was dismissive, discriminatory, and hostile, targeting me for my accent or appearance.

This is not what Sephora stands for. It’s a shame that such toxic, unprofessional individuals are allowed to represent this brand. Josh, Jay, and Maria have no place in customer service or management roles. They humiliated me, ignored my concerns, and escalated a simple situation unnecessarily.

Sephora corporate, you need to investigate this location immediately. These people should be fired. Customers deserve to be treated with respect, and the behavior I experienced was inexcusable. I will never shop here again, and I will tell everyone I know to avoid this store...

I’ve booked at this location several times & never had such a crappy experience like today. From the beginning, NIEZ came off as rude (from the way she greeted me to her responses) when asked what look was I going for her response was completely uncalled for as she said it “didn’t make sense” & I was “contradicting” myself? That’s fine, I kept a positive attitude as it’s my birthday. Usually they ask if there’s a specific brand you would like to use (I always say no because I’m not up to date with current brands & etc) the one time I show her a picture of a CONCEALER that I would like to use from a certain brand, again her response was uncalled for & she just came off as a miserable female dog. She told me to next time put it in the comments as it wastes her time if she has to look for it. FYI, she didn’t even get the concealer lol. The whole appointment, she didn’t say crap to me & when a coworker spoke to her she started saying that she was in a bad mood & was trying to be in good spirits because he said no? DON’T 👏🏻 BRING 👏🏻YOUR 👏🏻PROBLEMS 👏🏻TO 👏🏻WORK!!!! I specifically told her I didn’t want a lot of blush/bronzer & it’s like I spoke a different language because she overdid it. Just because she likes the caked on, extremely obvious, piled on make up to hide her blemishes & flakey skin doesn’t mean I do. I even felt forced to tip her as she didn’t say “it was optional” but rather “here it asks for gratuity” & she didn’t even say thank you. It’s such a shame because I’ve actually booked a skin appointment with her and she didn’t come off as a miserable f the way she did today. I don’t care what problems you have going on in your personal life but girl, I paid for this & it’s my birthday so to have such a poor experience & you’re the manager? I will def not be getting another make up service here. I hope someone above her sees this so it doesn’t happen to...

My wife had an appointment to have her makeup done for an event we were attending. She showed up early, had to wait to find out that their 'system messed up' and that there was no one available to help her. The best they could do was find other locations that had someone standing by, but by that point there wasn't enough time to go anywhere else. They gave her a couple of free samples (that they hand out for free, regardless) and sent her on her way.

As if that wasn't annoying enough, the system that this company uses for scheduling apparently doesn't know how to refund an appointment that was cancelled on their end, and despite receiving a cancellation notice from the system I was left chasing my bank to reverse the charges after they posted.

Luckily my wife was able to do her own makeup. I can't imagine if there was some extremely important life event and they ended up letting her down in that way. Further, they tried next to nothing to make it right, and I was left chasing the bank to get my money back. Zero stars is appropriate for that level of service.

Update: After several days of back and forth in emails, Sephora offered to clear up the billing issue. Thanks but no thanks, that's already taken care of.

Don't waste your time scheduling services with these people - they're happy to take your deposit then willing to give you an 'aw shucks' when they can't provide it. Wasting time emailing back and forth only made matters worse. Find a local store that has a reputation to uphold that you can...