While I will say my last 2 experiences at this location have been better than the past, it's really hit or miss, so I can only really bump this up from 1 star to 2.
The first time I ever visited this location was 2 years ago with my best friend who has her knuckles tattooed. We asked a woman who appeared to be a manager for assistance on finding a good product to cover the tattoos for an event & her response was "Well, you should've thought a little more before you got those done". As a person who worked in retail management for years, I was shocked that these words came out of her mouth & thought that being judgemental is such a great way to make a sale.
After this experience, I was really turned off from this location, but being the only Sephora in my area at the time & desperate for some high-quality beauty products for a dance recital, I decided to give it another chance. My shopping experience was great until checkout. A friendly guy was checking me out when my card declined. I checked my bank account to make sure nothing was wrong, and I had more than enough money in my account for the transaction. He called someone over for assistance to make sure their register wasn't the problem & it just happened to be the woman my friend & I had the shopping experience with before. After about 30 sec. at the register, she loudly said "It's not us, so that means you don't have the money for it". I explained to her that I had already checked my bank account & that there should be no problem. She rolled her eyes at me & told me to call my bank again to see what the problem was. It turned out that my bank was switching over from Visa debit cards to Mastercard debit cards, & I didn't get the new card in the mail yet. Because they no longer serviced Visa-type cards, mine was no longer valid, which is why it declined. I explained this to them, & the guy was understanding & let me know that they always have the product I was going to purchase in stock, so not to worry. The woman on the other hand ripped the bottle out the bag very angrily with an attitude & yelled at the guy & said "AND THAT'S WHY WE DON'T PUT THINGS IN BAGS UNTIL THEY'RE PAID FOR".
With the way she was acting, it felt like she was intentionally trying to embarass me in front of other customers, along with the associate checking me out. I'm a VIB member well on the way to Rouge status & that's certainly not the right way to get repeat business. & not only is disprespecting an associate totally unprofessional and uncalled for, but it can cause other customers in line reason to speculate that he is not capable of doing is job properly, which was not the case at all.
When the Quakerbridge location opened up, I began making an hour trek there when I could to avoid the Menlo location; the service there is incredible, the store is well-maintained, & they have a great selection of products to chose from. When the JC Penny's Sephora in Woodbridge opened up, I began going there as well.
A few months ago, I was looking for a product that I wanted ASAP & it was only available at the Menlo Park Sephora, so I decided to give the store another chance. I was surprised to discover how helpful the staff was, providing me with suggestions & giving me tips for using the product I purchased.
I had a change of heart and decided to return a few weeks later, & this time the service was total overkill. I was with a friend & I was swarmed with associates. I encountered 2 friendly people who seemed to have good intentions, but other than that I almost walked out. Right after one person approached us, another person standing a few feet away would immediately come up to us & ask us if we needed help. If you heard us tell the last person we didn't need help, why would you ask us? At one point a woman came up to us & said "You guys have been here for almost 20 minutes & still haven't bought anything. I really think you guys need my help". It was incredibly rude & not the way to get a customer to want to talk to you.
At that point, I was turned off again about this location, but when the top off my setting spray came loose, causing it to leak all over my makeup bag the night before a dance competion, I came back in desperation. I ended up having the best experience I've ever had there. I noticed there was a new setting spray out from my favorite brand & when a male associate came over & asked me if I needed help, I asked him if knew anything about it. He was super-friendly & called over someone who was more familiar with the product-line. She was also very friendly & I was impressed that the guy stuck around to hear what she had to say about it, so he could learn from her. We all ended up talking for quite a few minutes & they were so fabulous & pleasant.
After this experience, I decided to keep returning. My recent experiences have been average, & I can deal with that since it's convenient. I just wish there was consistency with their service. read more