Yesterday afternoon, I went to the ELF warehouse to spend a GatherGreen coupon. The coupon was a…read more$25 for $50 deal, and had expired, so I went in only expecting to trade it in for the original $25 I spent on the coupon, NOT the $50 coupon deal. As it is standard with online coupon services such as Groupon and AmazonLocal that although the promotional value will expire on a specified date, the amount paid WILL NEVER EXPIRE and will continue to be honored by the merchant after the promotional value expires, I assumed there would be no problem.
However, where many vendors will not only allow one to spend the amount paid but will even allow the customer to use the promotional value of expired coupons as well, ELF would not even allow me to trade in the GatherGreen certificate for $25 worth of product. I would understand if they simply wouldn't let me use the promotional deal of $50, but just--keeping my original $25 and not giving me $25 worth of products? I was only asking for $25 worth of merchandise, for the $25 I had already paid, yet the girl acted like I was demanding a special favor.
She kept saying that the coupon had expired and could no longer be honored. No matter how many different ways I explained it, she couldn't understand that I WASN'T ASKING FOR THE COUPON TO BE HONORED. I wasn't asking to spend the promotional amount of $50, I only wanted to spend the non-promotional amount of $25. This is STANDARD PRACTICE with every other online coupon service I've tried.
Finally I gave up, when my phone alerted me that my meter was about to expire. Probably for the best, as my capacity for civil interaction felt like it too was about to expire. I am not one to yell or throw tantrums, but as I walked back to my car, I could see how one might be driven to such behavior. I also felt sad, because previous to this experience, I would have given ELF five stars like everyone else. Their products--with the exception of the Indonesian cacao--have never disappointed me. I've been in the raw lifestyle and a regular ELF customer for years.
Maybe I've been lucky with exceptional service in the past, but this is the only one star review of a business that I've ever given, and I'm not giving them one star because their products aren't good. I'm giving them one star because my experience with the GatherGreen coupon situation was so negative that I was in tears when I left. I'm giving them one star because I don't feel good supporting them by purchasing from them any longer.
This was especially upsetting because the other reason I'd gone in to ELF was to set up a wholesale account. Our raw food business has been using ELF's raw pitted botilla olives on a new pizza we released this month, and we've been going through $100 worth of their olives every week. Pizza orders are skyrocketing and we expect to use much more in the near future.
However, today with only a little research I found the same raw peruvian pitted dried olives online through another one of our suppliers for $6.25 RETAIL for 8 oz., as opposed to ELF's price of $8.69 WHOLESALE for only 7 oz. We will be saving several hundred dollars a month, thousands a year, by NOT buying through Essential Living Foods. ELF would have made $300-400 a month from us, to start.
I hope it was worth it to the ELF customer service lady to treat me as she did, because she lost the company she works for $1000s a year; I just placed an order for three cases of the olives from the alternate supplier I found, in time for next week's orders. At least I have her to thank for inspiring us to look for olives elsewhere. Because of her we will be saving $1000s a year. To me, that's worth the $25 they kept.
...I would also advise against purchasing their GatherGreen coupons. The reason my coupon expired wasn't because I forgot about it. To the contrary I was online several times a week for the duration of the 3-month promotion period, waiting for the items I wanted to come back in stock, and they never did...yet they continued to be in stock at Erewhon and other health food markets (where the coupon wasn't applicable, as it was an "online-only" deal). When I mentioned this to the customer service rep, she informed me that they only do the coupons to advertise their business and to clear their inventory of less popular items. Fair enough. But I won't be buying again.
