The first of my complaints is with their pricing structure. Canadians are charged an average 15% more for items when converted to Canadian dollars (from their US base price). In case nobody at Sephora has noticed, the Cdn/US exchange rate has been either at or above par for nearly a year now. They are using a rate of exchange that that we have not seen since 2008. Do not be fooled by them telling you this price reflects taxes and duties on your order, because those charges are added IN ADDITION to the item pricing, at the bottom of your order. Price gouging much?
I wrote letter to Sephora's customer service, only to receive a boxed answer, that the Canadian pricing reflects the exchange rates, and taxes and duties, etc. Do they even READ customer complaints, or just pick any pre-constructed response to reply with? BS.
And now I'll address their joke of a shipping policy. First - Sephora seems to be the only online retailer who will NOT let Canadians choose a shipping address different from their billing address. Well guess what Sephora? Canadians work for a living too, and just like Americans, they're not always home during the day to receive a mail package. Why can you not ship my parcel to my place of work, so I don't have to waste 20 extra minutes at the end of my day driving across town to the post office and standing in a long line up just to receive my Sephora order.
And taking nearly 2 weeks to receive an 'expedited' package from the US to Canada is absolutely absurd. I've ordered from various online retailers all over the Continental US, and have NEVER had an order take that long to get here.
When I first started ordering from Sephora in 2007, I would get orders inside of a week. Now, it's pretty much 2 weeks. I call their customer service, and I get the privilege of talking to a robot, pre-formed answers they sound like they're reading out of a book, don't even listen to what the customer is saying. "Orders are shipped within 1-2 business days, then it takes that long to get through our Border Free service" yada yada yada. Someone over there in their shipping department is NOT doing their job - period.
I have even had a phone rep tell me if I didn't like the shipping times I could drive to a store in Toronto. Really now.
I've been an online customer for 4 years now, and spend an average $2, 400.00 a year in products, and generally enjoy the selection they offer -- but I see their level of customer service only deteriorating with time.
What they need is a little competition in the Canadian market, and perhaps they wouldn't be so arrogant.
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