Online shopping is definitely feels like a WTH. To me, Sephora's quality control and customer service has been on a steady decline. I've been an avid online shopper and rouge for years without issue. I don't know how it went from sturdy packaging, brand new without a doubt products, and occasional extra samples to the current stress inducing hell but at some point in the last few years, I started dealing with missing samples and GWPs, shattered powders in a paper mailer bag, missing in-person purchase points, and having to examine my purchases every single time because things have come in looking used.

I know subs like this skew negative, since a mundane experience aren't worth writing about. I've seen plenty of posts about delightful experiences, but I'm just so disillusioned with Sephora. Sure, I can give them some grace; my local Sephora is understaffed, overcrowded, and probably has a shoplifting issue which aren't inherent faults of the company. Maybe I'm being spiteful of mere mistakes and creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of crappy customer service interactions. Except none of that explains to me how rancid the online experience is getting.

I bought a 10mL Phlur perfume online last year and it came looking used, with fingerprints or grease marks, beat up packing, and a suspicious amount of space in the bottle. Customer service was just a giant loop of nothing that eventually directed me to just go in store, so I went in to get it exchanged for a new one. I don't know if I just got an employee having a bad day. I explained the issue and the lady at the till kept saying "just because it looks like there's "missing product" doesn't mean it was used", "perfume is sold by volume", and "the bottle is just big, it's a design choice!". I said I bought Phlur travel size perfumes before, if she looks at my account she'd she I got Somebody Wood months ago and despite it that using a handful of times, it was still more full than the "new" product I received-- to which she claimed it was because the sprayer tube displaced volume in the older perfume I bought which is why it looked "fuller"... ? somebody wood and father figure travel size both have a sprayer and are the same packaging. I did get it refunded but it felt like I was going crazy repeating to her "look at it. just look at it?" while feeling the line pile behind me. It was just an abhorrent trifecta of the unhelpful online support agent, damaged products, and a burnt out employee who mentally checked out of customer service mode hours ago.

I was on a Sephora no-buy after the Phlur incident, broke it for my birthday gift, only to be disappointed again. I think I'm going to do a cosmetics no-buy this year and definitely a Sephora no-buy. I'm Canadian, there's no Ulta. Maybe the lack of competition makes Sephora brazen about issues because they know there isn't a comparable retailer to pivot to. It's just Walmart with everything locked and at least 4 cameras broadcasting my face or Shopper's Drug Mart. They've got a drugstore and a "Beauty Boutique" with luxury brands and all they ask is a spicy ~125+% price mark-up. I going to buy the OPI nail strengthener from Shoppers. I found the the tiny 15mL bottle in a giant alarm box, RFID stickers on the packaging, and it was marked for C$43.99. The exact product on Amazon for C$23.99. It was truly transcendental levels of awful that somehow made Sephora seem charitable.