This was supposed to be a great week for makeup lovers: Sephora is having a 20% sale for their top-tier customers who belong to their rewards program. Unfortunately, technical issues have locked customers out of their accounts and some believe something more sinister is at work: that they've been discriminated against simply for being Asian.
Sephora's rewards program works in tiers; as you can see from the chart on their website shown below, their are three ways you can get perks. VIB Rouge is the top tier and in order to belong, a customer has to spend over $1,000 at Sephora in a year. VIB is the next level; customers have to spend $350 a year. This 20% sale is only open for VIB and VIB Rouge customers and certain exclusive items are also available for purchase.
But numerous customers on Sephora's allege that they've been locked out of their VIB accounts because they have Asian last names and/or international email addresses. Customers say that after finding themselves unable to purchase products on the Sephora website, they called Sephora's customer service line, where they were told they had been permanently blocked from using their accounts for trying to buy products (according to their terms of service, Sephora has the right to do this Facebook page and on a reddit threadwithout providing cause). The current consensus among many shoppers is that in order to prevent reselling of makeup overseas at a lower cost (which is a serious issue for retailers), the company is blocking customers from purchasing during this sale. Specifically, customers allege that this is happening most often to Asian customers.
Sephora has not responded to an email requesting comment, but on Twitter they've written that their website is just overloaded. That does seem to be the case, at least in part; many Australian and Canadian customers are also reporting issues with account lockouts and other people in the United States seem to have had issues with Sephora account lockouts even before the sale started. In one comment on Facebook, Sephora wrote that 'at this time we are unable to reactivate accounts' and directed customers to send them a private Facebook message with their email addresses 'for further review.' And as a Sephora employee noted on reddit, ' During my shift today beauty insider was down and has been faulty the past week. I could still find customers in store (even Asian customers) but I was not able to get online or sign new ones up. I had many stores all throughout the state calling me saying they were having the same problem, If that means anything to anyone.'
#Sorry! You may have trouble accessing our site as we are experiencing a high volume of traffic. We're working to fix this ASAP.
- Sephora (@Sephora) November 6, 2014
@AyeMaeDae We are so sorry for the inconvenience! Our technical team is working to get the site back up and running as soon as possible....
- Sephora (@Sephora) November 6, 2014
But website issues aside, Sephora hasn't explained why customers who called their customer service line were told that they violated Sephora's terms of service with their purchases. Others are being told that there are quantity limitations on the number of purchases they could make, but they say that those limits weren't clear before the sale started.
Allegations that Sephora is deleting negative comments on their Facebook page, however, seem slightly overwrought; there are still tons of critical responses there. Instead, Sephora's been deleting posts that had email addresses in them to prevent people from posting their personal account information in public.
Despite the technical issues, many customers still think Sephora is being discriminatory. On reddit, one wrote that she believes this is a larger issue with Sephora that extends outside of this particular sale:
Long-time Sephora customer here. I moved to Taiwan a few years ago, but really wanted some Sephora goodness. I sent an order to my (western last name) friend and had her re-ship the package to me, I had no issues with the order.
Recently tried to make another order and send it to my brother (Chinese last name) who lives in Miami to bring back to me on his next trip home. My order was canceled and when I asked, they gave me the same TOS bullshit. When I asked which part of the TOS they were talking about, I was ignored.
Whether or not international and specifically Asian customers are being targeted by Sephora, it's clear that the company is struggling with some serious technological and customer service issues - ones they really don't want to be having as the holiday season is gearing up, especially amongst their most rabid (and vocal) consumers. Image via Sephora/Facebook
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