SEPHORA — Local services in New York

Wish I could give 0 star. One of their staffs treated me with the most abusive and obviously RACIST attitude. I was repeatedly yelled at for absolutely no reason.

The first time she came to me, I was looking at two different eyeliners in my hands. She suddenly yelled at me and asked if I was going to purchase them. She angrily ask me to pick one from the two, so I, getting more and more confused because of her yelling, randomly picked one just to avoid being yelled at. She rudely grabbed one of the two eyeliners from me and walked away. I was scared by what had just happened, but I tried not to think too much about it. I told myself there must be some mistakes. I spent 10 minutes looking at other stuffs, and then went back to find the eyeliner that she grabbed from me to continue comparing.

When I finally made up my mind and was just about to leave for the cashier, this woman suddenly showed up again. She yelled at me once again, and her attitude was even more horrifying than the first time. I can't even imagine the most brutal cop would interrogate a suspect like this. She kept asking me which one was the eyeliner that I actually tried on my eyes, without listening to me or answering my questions why she treated me like this. I honestly told her that I wasn't sure because I had a look at quite a few different eyeliners. She kept yelling at me in front of many other staffs and customers as if I was a thief caught right on the spot. I didn't want to make a scene, so I just answered her bizarre question saying perhaps it was the one that she grabbed from me earlier. She rolled her eyes and yelled in a louder voice, "NO YOU DIDN'T TRY THAT ONE!!! IT'S THE ONE THAT YOU KEPT!!!" I couldn't understand her words. I wasn't so sure about my answer but I was pretty sure that I didn't try the one that I kept. Perhaps I was too shocked by her abusive treatment to realize that I didn't have to get involved in this stupid conversation with her and I should just walk away. I stood there, trying to talk to her respectfully and getting some respect from her, but his woman continued yelling that she was 100 percent sure because she was "WATCHING" me "ALL THE TIME." I was totally shocked by this claim. Was she really saying that she's watching me all the time? Was she just publicly saying that she was doing a racial profiling thing on me, even after the ugly racial profiling scandal of Sephora just a few months ago? She angrily turned around and walked away. Not until then did I realize that another staff, tall and strong male, was following me and standing behind me all the time. Before he walked away together with that woman, he picked up one eyeliner that she claimed to have watched me trying on, rudely put into my hand, and told me to "buy them both if you also want the one that you just picked."

I was scared. I had never been treated like this in my life. Their bizarre rudeness made me almost believe that I did something wrong and I deserved to be treated like this.

I guess this could happen to any person of color customer here. I had a look at all those one-star reviews of this location and a few other Sephora locations in Manhattan, and now I believe this is just in the "culture" of Sephora. Other than my ethnicity, I can't think of anything that could lead to this horrible experience. I'm a lawyer. I do a good job and earn a good sum of money. I dressed well today. I'm a quiet and shy one. I spoke to her in a polite manner until the end even she was yelling at and humiliating me for no valid reasons. It has to be my race, isn't...

This Sephora unfortunately has been a complete nightmare. The staff here are extremely racist and prejudice! NOT POC FRIENDLY!

The first incident I came inside the Sephora to wait for a friend. I took it upon myself to check out the makeup and to kill some time I decided to paint my nails by the nail studio. While I was painting my nails one of the associates approached me and told me that I couldn’t paint my nails where I was at and I needed to relocate to a different area. I moved to the area that they told me to move too and proceeded to paint my nails again. The associate approached the area once again and said that I couldn’t paint my nails with the nail polish I was using. I thought I misheard what they said and kept painting my nails like they left right after they said that. The third time the associate approached me they SNACTHED the nail polish away from me and said that I can’t use that nail polish. Then associate said to me that the nail polish was too expensive and out of my price range and told me that I should use the other nail polishes because it cheap. Before I can even address the associate’s racist and prejudice behavior they walked away. I approached the manager and told them of what just happened and the associate saw and they approached us and try to act that the situation never happened and lied saying that they was only looking for nail polish for me in the back which wasn’t true. I never implied that I needed help with anything because I never asked for any help with anything to begin with. The manager did absolutely nothing about the situation and proceeded to help a client with a question.

The second incident I came into the store with a friend and decided to look at some makeup. The store was extremely crowded and staff were overly occupied. I tried numerous of attempts to get a staff member to assist my friend but they all refused. I took it upon myself to grab a sample cup and pour myself some product. When I was finished getting a sample the staff member named Lea or Leah approached me aggressively and scolded me for giving myself a sample and SNACTHED the sample away from me. But they were non people of color doing the exact same thing and lea didn’t say anything to them and walked away. I walked towards them and asked to speak with a manager and when I told the manager (Andrea) of what happened Andrea completely justified lea’s behavior and said clients aren’t allowed to pour themselves products. My frustration wasn’t that lea was following company procedures my frustration was the way lea approached, spoke and man handled me, while other customers were doing the exact same thing and they wasn’t treated the same way. While Andrea justified that behavior and did absolutely nothing to address what happened and told me not to do it again.

Overall I don’t recommend this Sephora to anyone of color. If you aren’t white or look affluent, they will discriminate against you and mistreat you. Do yourself a favor and don’t waste your time, energy and money in this location. Sephora needs to train their employees and management how to communicate and treat all clients with respect and dignity that every customer deserves regardless of their race, sexual orientation and economic backgrounds.

The following picture has the second employee (Lea) who snatched the product out of my hand (they're the one...

I went in to get a 60 minute makeup service today and the way I was treated was horrible. I had a 3:30 appointment and my makeup wasn’t started until 4:00 pm. Listen if you come in here for a makeup appointment and you really need it done for a special occasion, bring your makeup bag. My reservation made it clear it was for my birthday. Yeah they still wasted my time.

The reason given was that they saw 3:45 on their end. My confirmed appointment text clearly states 3:30 And guess what? My makeup still wasn’t started at 3:45! That actually would have been still been ok. At the end of the day, my makeup artist took a walk in eyebrow appointment, when I had a confirmed appointment which actually costs more. Not logical. No idea why a business would operate that way.

My makeup came out great, but the experience was frustrating. I left a time cushion so I would not cut it close for dinner and they really treated me like my time didn’t matter.

The staff member who manages the reservations in the make up service section actually tried to get me to pay and tip before the service. Out of control. Adding insult to injury. This is my fourth makeup service in a Sephora (including one in that very Sephora), no one ever asked me to pay and tip beforehand. If you buy that it’s to make it easier for you to leave quickly afterwards, well that’s on you. When it comes to paying, all of a sudden, my time is important? This was my first time getting full face, and I never plan to again despite liking my makeup. They are not professional, and lack time management and customer service skills. The ETA given was not accurate. Don’t tell me it’s a ten minute wait when it’s a 25 minute wait. Btw I don’t need an employee on the side telling me how great the makeup is coming along. It’s patronizing. I have my own eyes.

If they do it to you, 1) have your makeup bag and use their nice mirrors and lighting to do your own makeup 2) don’t pay beforehand. It makes no sense. 3) If you were going to do any extras like eyelashes, don’t. Just do mascara and keep it moving. Don’t give them more money when they don’t value your time. If it wasn’t a special occasion, I would have just done focus feature eyes or nothing at all. They got lucky today. Maybe they saw it was my birthday and figured that I’d have a higher tolerance for nonsense. I just wonder because the whole thing didn’t make sense.

Nothing was offered for the inconvenience. Not even an extra freebie bday gift which is funny because I’ve been given an extra one of those when I was not greatly inconvenienced. Ironic.

Hope I saved someone frustration and unnecessary stress on their birthday.

Just look up who had a 3:30 appointment and paid at 5 pm on Saturday, 5/6. That’s all the info you need. Imagine if I was 30 minutes late. My service would have been canceled and I would have gotten charged a late cancellation/no show fee. The amount of that fee should have been taken off of my bill now that I think of it. That would have been fair. Another point: insist the amount of that late cancellation fee is taken off your bill, if they do it to you. It is 1/3 of the amount of...