Having a woman on the verge of tears right before her engagement photos is not great customer service.
I made an appointment for 1PM two weeks before my engagement photos to have the "custom makeover." I just wanted to make sure my makeup looked awesome for the photos and though that Sephora could handle that.
I arrive in the store around 12:50 and head to the back of the store to purchase my $50 gift card for the minimum purchase as instructed by the woman on the phone when I made my appointment. I checked in and said I had an appointment for one. Another woman approach the cash wrap and said she also had an appointment for one. Uh oh - I was told on the phone they only book one appointment per hour to give focus to that person. Another woman(manager? who knows, she never introduced herself to me) walks up and reviews the appointment book. She then tells me with an attitude that my appointment had been moved and was actually scheduled for noon. Excuse me? The other 1 o'clock appointment had been penciled in ABOVE my 1 PM appointment and a two was written sloppily next to the 1 beside my name. From then on, it was an awkward, well, what do we do, we don't normally have two people at the same time... we can try to make it work. Thankfully the other woman whose appointment had been scheduled at one realized that I was getting my engagement photos taken and allowed me to go first.
I had my skin prepped by a salesperson for Dr. Perricone and she was great. Lots of helpful information and advice. Not super pushy. Afterwards, she let a Sephora worker know I was ready to be taken downstairs for my makeup application. I awkward stood around for five to ten minutes until someone said, "oh I think they're waiting for you downstairs."
Headed downstairs with no guidance and proceeded to stand around for another five to ten minutes until one of women I had spoken to when I got there tried to sit me down with a makeup artist. The makeup artist said "no, no, no. I have a 1PM appointment." After a few minutes of discussion there, finally sat down with another makeup artist, Anna (Ana?). She was WONDERFUL. Completely put me at ease, made sure I was comfortable with the products she was using, asked a ton of questions to make sure she was using the right products.
After the makeup application, we were running a bit late to our engagement photos, so Anna grabbed me the lip gloss so I could check out and get on my way. I stepped up to the cash register with the same woman who informed me with her attitude that my appointment had been moved. She ran me up and as I start to give her the gift card I was required to purchase, with a pained look on her face, informs me of the $50 minimum. I have already purchased the $50 gift card so I've already met the minimum, I tell her. She rolls her eyes at me and says "the idea is that you are buying the products that she used on you." "I am buying one of the products she used on me, I'm running late for the photo session, I don't have time to spend the rest." "Well, that's not really how it works." Whatever, I pulled my credit card out and just ran it through the machine, as she tries to tell me it's okay to use my gift card. At this point, I'm running late, I've had a horrible experience because of this ONE person at Sephora and I'm just ready to leave and NEVER come back to this store. She then hands me my lip gloss with the receipt wrapped around it and tells me to have a good day through a pinched smile that looks like she couldn't think less of me. I'll definitely never shop at the Georgetown Sephora ever again and probably never set foot in another Sephora. read more