If I could give this Ulta no stars, I would. I have had several negative experiences there. Once making a purchase the cashier told me that my card did not scan properly and asked me to scan it again. When I pointed out that it did go through because it came up for Signature she insisted that it didn't and that she was deleting the transaction and for me to rescan my card I expressed concern about being double-charged and she assured me that this would not happen. Wrong! Not only was I double charged for the same transaction, when I went to the store with a bank statement as proof that they indeed had taken twice the money for one transaction, the young woman I spoke with smiled glibly, told me that they didn't handle that in the store I would have to call the 800 number. She promptly ripped a little piece of receipt off and scribbled down a number and handed it to me, dismissing me by walking away. I spent the next 6 weeks calling corporate customer service trying to get a sizable amount of money refunded to my account. Following one delay after another, I finally reached someone in their customer service who tried to assuage me by sending me some paltry $10 gift card or coupon. Next big mistake they made was when I made an appointment at the salon. (Actually, apologies...MY MISTAKE.) When I made the appointment, they advised me to bring a picture to the stylist who is reputed to be excellent at providing the service that I was requesting. I did as suggested and brought a collection of pictures showing exactly what I expected. As soon as the stylist started to dry my hair I could tell that indeed she had come nowhere near what I had requested. She completely changed the color of my hair by about 8 shades in the opposite color spectrum. I tried to be nice, paid my way-overpriced fee for a way under-talented job, and left. When I went back later after thinking further about how I had paid way too much for a very incompetent job, I was told by another sales person that it must have been the water at my house or my hair wasn't compatible with their product, etc. Again... wrong. Not my fault. I went in because I could get an appointment on short notice before heading out of town for vacation. The only other time I've had such horrendous results on a simple highlighting job was another Ulta Salon! And on top of that they offered me no recourse... no refund, no offer to fix the horrible job at no cost to me. Extremely poor customer service implying that it is my fault that my hair did not turn out correctly, and very poor business practice not to correct your errors! I will no longer shop at Ulta. My time and money means more to me, obviously, than it does to them.
If I need cosmetics or hair products from now on, I will simply go to an actual salon with competent stylists. Better yet, stick with Sephora. Much better yet. read more