Sephora’s Epic Fail of its “Epic” Rewards

rewardsIt seems kind of a joke that Sephora named their rewards system, where users had banked between 1,000 to 10,000 points their “Epic” Rewards when it was a complete and utter epic failure. Users, like myself, were disappointed by what Sephora promised to be amazing gifts. They’ve been getting everyone geared up leading into Epic Rewards by offering 2x/3x/4x points on all purchases. It was a good strategy too. It led to an amazing surge in sales by women trying to bump up their beauty point banks and score some of the amazing gifts being offered (I have the full list below). Gifts ranged from Nars and Dior to a trip to Paris. If you’ve worked hard to reach Rouge status and you had a bunch of points just waiting this was the time to get amazing gifts. Except Sephora completely screwed it up.

First, they refused to give an official launch time. Women sat waiting, some waiting all night. Some time before noon they tweet that it was launching soon but couldn’t say when. And then….it was gone, all gone. If you had something in your cart, it was taken out; if you tried to checkout you were logged out and your items were removed. Everything was gone in mere seconds leading a lot of people to wonder….just how many of these rewards did they actually have? Because it seems NO ONE is happy. And to add insult to injury, they have the nerve to say “Well, you can still get your 100, 250, 500 points value gifts”. You mean the crap women have been passing on repeatedly and that’s why their points are so high? Yeah, no thanks. How about letting women cash in points for a gift certificate? Sephora better come up with something soon. Because the only person who scored Sephora’s EPIC REWARD was Ulta, and that’s handing all its best customers to another store.

Here is a breakdown of what was offered and their estimated values:

Reward Description Value
1,000 Givenchy-Le Rouge $144 + bag
1,000 Becca $186
1,000 Dr Dennis Gross $156
1,000 Smashbox $157
1,000 Fresh $150 + booklet
1,000 Bumble and Bumble $157 + extras
1,000 Anastasia Beverly Hills $170.50 + signature
1,000 Dior $208
2,000 NARS $59 + $40 + signature
2,000 Yves Saint Laurent $610
2,000 Sephora $425
2,000 Skin, Inc. $310
2,000 KVD $428 + box + signature
2,000 Bobbi Brown $257 + bag
2,000 Benefit $186 + bags
2,000 Stila $264 + bag + booklet
5,000 Georgio Armani $816 + bag
5,000 Elizabeth and James $1,010
5,000 Formula X $800
5,000 Too Faced $588 + 2x Bag + 2xNecklace
5,000 Drybar $575
5,000 Tarte $725
5,000 Tory Burch $898
10,000 Marc Jacobs Bag: ~$2,000 + $692 makeup
10,000 MUFE – NYC Trip $596 makeup + trip + class
10,000 Glamglow – LA Trip $531 + trip + tour
10,000 Chloe $563 in beauty + ~$1500 accessories
10,000 Viktor & Rolf Previous sold at Neiman Marcus

for $2,500 USD

10,000 Lancome – Paris Trip $200 giftcards + ~$200 products + trip

(minimally, flights from the US to Paris

usually start around $1,000 each.

10,000 Bvlgari $465 beauty + ~$2,000 bag