Taranjit
I don’t know about you, but I dread having to call customer service or guest services, in this case. It is more a waste of your time over actually getting the help you need. I just recently had to speak with the guest services for Ulta, and it did not go well at all. I ended up getting frustrated and decided to try again later.
This is my second time ever in Ulta, and my mom had purchased an eye cream during our first visit that she wanted to return. Ulta has a 60-day return policy, so here we were going to return the cream that was not working as described. The return process went smoothly. Which is a plus!
Now we had to find a replacement, an eye cream that would not leave behind a white film under her eyes while catering to her needs. We start walking along shelves skimming different eye products, completely lost. We have no idea what to look for when it comes to beauty products, so doubt we were going to find what we wanted. But then, a store employee came up to us and asked if we needed any help. Yes! For once, I actually do need your help.
She was very nice and listened to our needs, and showed us a product that she uses and knows works well. Perfect! So, we took it. Up to this point, our experience was going great, but when we went to checkout, everything went downhill from there.
We place our items on the counter, the lady scans them, and tells us the price. All smooth at this point, until we go to pay. The first time we visited the store, they had a promotion going on that said you would get 40% off your purchase if you applied for a card. Great promotion, right? Naturally, my mom decided to apply because skin care products are expensive.
When she had applied, the lady had told her that they had to wait for the bank’s approval and it was going to take time, so she cannot apply the discount at this moment. However, next time we come in and if we were approved, then we would get that promotion.
So, here we were, card in hand, ready to apply that discount. Except, the cashier had no idea what we were talking about. She called her supervisor, and the supervisor said we would have to contact guest services and ask them. Normally, when I am at a store and there is an issue that requires calling customer or guest services, the cashier does it for us. Because they are usually able to get a faster and better response. However, this lady handed us a sheet of paper with the phone number written so sloppily that it was hard to read and told us to call ourselves.
We were going to be there forever.
But I call because my mom would not let me wait until we got home to do it. So, I stood there, in front of the checkout counter, and I dialed the number, went through a bazillion prompts before I am finally connected with a representative. I sit, (more like stood, small technicality, not as important) here and explain the entire situation, nicely, to the representative, and after having me on the phone for 15 or so minutes, she realizes that she can’t help with that. She tells me that I have to speak with guest services. Then who was I speaking with right now?
The representative says that she would connect me to guest services if I stayed on the line. Here I was waiting on the line as the phone rang for actual guest services to pick up. But, that was not what happened. The call restarted from the beginning and I had to go through answering all the same prompts I did before I was connected with the first representative. So, I enter them again and get connected to another representative, who after telling her the same story, tells me that I have to speak with guest services about that and she will transfer me.
Really?! Then, who was I talking to? What in the world is going on? I thought I was going to speak with guest services this time, but I just got connected to the same department? This is crazy. But, thinking the first lady accidently made a mistake, I told her okay, connect me to actual guest services. She connected me, and again, I had to answer the prompts before I got connected to a third representative from the SAME department. And you can guess what she said. Yup. You need to speak to guest services about that.
Oh my gosh! I was going to lose my mind, except I was in public so not really. Internally, I was losing my mind. If I was home, then it might have been a different story. I might have externally be losing my mind to, but I was in public, so internal mind-losing had to do. People were starting to watch, as I was standing at the checkout counter with a line behind me. Embarrassing and awkward!
Before this lady had the opportunity to “connect” me to actual guest services, or her so-called guest services, I stopped her, and told her that this is the third time that I have been told to speak to guest services, and every representative I had spoken to before her had said they would put me through, but every time I ended up right back here. And her response? Oh, okay. I will put you through directly to the line of a representative in that department. Then, what in the world did the other representatives do?
But, I decided to give it one more chance. They were really testing my patience here. Taking a deep breath, I waited as I was put on hold until the next guest services representative was available. Finally, I get guest services only to have poor connection. I could barely hear her, and she could barely hear me. Her voice was breaking up so much. Really?! Why was this happening to me right now? Or was this their trick to not have to actually do anything? Hmm. Maybe I am onto something.
I tried moving around to get better reception, but she basically didn’t even bother to wait. She told me that she can’t hear me, so I should just call back. And she hung up! Are you freaking kidding me right now?
I just wanted to scream. But I was in public, so I screamed inwardly. Thank goodness, my sister was there with us because I was not in the right state of mind to talk to our cashier about what just happened. Would you be if you were in this situation? It’s so frustrating. And I don’t get angry that fast, it takes a lot to get to me. But this was infuriating.
The cashier didn’t even respond to what just happened. She was like, oh, so you can pay for this now then. Obviously, we paid and just got out of there. We had enough. We were literally in that store, in that line, for almost 2 hours. 2 hours!
Probably will give them another call when I get home but am not sure at the moment. But this has put a bad taste in my mouth for this store. Everyone praises it so much, but I have gotten much better help and customer service at other stores. I guess I am just not made for high-end, expensive stores. Might just be me. Or, it might just be this one store?
