SEPHORA — Local services in New York

They don't accept Sephora electronic gift cards. What a BS!

My girlfriend went shopping to this store 2 days ago. After having spent time shopping she sent me the amount, I bought a gift card online and sent her the image with the bar code, card number and PIN. These are normally scanned at the register from your cell phone, or sometimes the associate manually enters the number. But in any case I never had problems with those until this visit to Sephora on 86th. At the register the associate said she needed the plastic. Plastic form only, because the card needed to be swiped... Long story short, my girlfriend left this store disappointed and with empty hands. Later in the evening I had to go myself to Sephora again, only this time I went to a different one on 60th and Lexington. Beside of the huge line that I had to stand in, everything else went very smooth. They DID know what electronic gift card was, and they DID scan the barcode straight from my cellphone.

My girlfriend is Hispanic, the associate was white, so I can write it off to discrimination. Although I think it was just the stupid associate who didn't know what electronic gift card was. I think that store management needs to teach their new hires how to use the register first, before allowing them to conduct transactions and upset...

Well stocked but the customer service leaves a lot to be desired. I went to the store today to get the summer friday lip buttée ball Im vanilla, pink sugar, and vanilla beige. I was very lucky to get the last vanilla one and was also able to get the pink sugar one as well. I noticed that there was no vanilla beige boxes so I asked one of the employees and she didn’t seem like she wanted to bother. At first, she immediately said there was none left in stock. I like to be sure so I asked her is she could open the drawer that they usually stock with extra products. She opened it and then closed It immediately with an irritated tone. So, I left it alone and went to take my products to checkout. While I’m in line, I swear I am not lying when I say there are over 10+ boxes of the brown sugar color!!! My issue with this woman was that she was so insistent that there were no more. When I buy my products and leave, I see her near the exit and proceed to say « There’s actually a lot of the vanilla beige up at the line waiting area » and I used a very polite tone. She proceeds to roll her eyes and me and wave her hands up. I’m sorry that my comment was such an inconvenience for you? Maybe you shouldn’t be in a customer service job if you don’t actually like people? Or don’t want to...

Worst experience ever. No one greeted me, though the greeter/woman in the front greeted others. No one offered to help me at all, despite it being 9:30 in the morning and few customers there, with lots of staff around. I found my matching color foundation on my own, only for the woman in the front/greeter to then finally acknowledge me (so late) and only to say, “Did you need help?” almost as if she was annoyed! Ew. I said, no I figured out my color and I’m just looking for the tube with the corresponding number. She proceeds to tell me it’s not there, and calls someone to check if they have more of the color I’d picked out. She tells me they don’t have any more at all, and says “sorry we don’t have it”. Offered no solution and walked away. I continued to look for the tube myself and I found it clear as day!!! I told her it was right there. She pretended to be confused. So annoying. Then I went to the register for no cashier to show up for a solid 5 minutes! This is despite the fact that lots of staff were walking around looking right at me and doing nothing to help. Gross, Sephora. Super disappointed and I see lots of other bad reviews of this location now. I’ll be going to Ulta instead...