Judy writes:
I agree, but there are many people who think nothing of making an impulse buy
with the notion that they'll think about the purchase *after* the purchase and
return the item if they change their mind. That's not so bad if they do it
with items that can be resold, such as clothing, as long as they don't wait too
long and don't wear the item before returning it. But with cosmetics, the
returned item is hopefully being discarded by the store. Over and over I read
people here say something to the effect of "I bought such and such cosmetic on
a whim and got home and decided I didn't like it after all, so I'll return it."
This is inexcusable behavior as it costs the rest of us, who shop
responsibly, pay for the irresponsible shopping habits of others.

Linda

say something to the effect of "I purchased 6 glosses and 12 e/s and 4
lipsticks and now I feel guilty. Plus I tried them and they don't really seem
to work well for me, so tomorrow I'm taking them all back". ugh.

To me, a makeup item is returned only if it is 'bad' or if it causes a skin
reaction. Right now I'm looking at probably $200 worth of glosses and
lipsticks that aren't my color because I had to mail order, but no way is it
the store's fault. I give the items to my sisters or daughters, or I swap or
ebay them. The amount of clothing I have that I just don't 'like' is
astounding. Oh well.

I don't go shopping (ever) with the intention of returning items after I test
them. I test them/try them on at the store.

I just can't express the wrongness of this......

Dana in DE

Dana writes:
Those who repeatedly do casual purchases/returns will eventually lead to stores
not accepting returns at all. When that happens, that's where I'll shop for
cosmetics. I have a sneaky suspicion that some stores *don't* dispose of at
least some of these returned cosmetics, and I'd like to think that the items I
purchase are new and haven't been home with someone else, sat in someone else's
car, etc.

I was at the Chanel counter at Saks one night, and the MA looked exhausted.
She told me the day before they'd had a special deal where if you buy x amount
of products, you'd get a small gwp. They'd also had a national MA there to do
makeovers. She said she's spent the whole next day handling the returns from
that event. I could never be a cosmetics counter salesperson because I
couldn't bring myself to take the returns from frivolous purchases.

As far as internet shopping goes - if you aren't able/willing to keep a
cosmetic if the color doesn't work out for you - please don't order the
item!!!! It's unfair for these etailers to be expected to take returns on
items you bought virtually sight unseen. Everyone knows the color swatches on
websites are inaccurate, so that's no excuse.

I feel strongly about this too, Dana.


Linda

"Hateithere" <hateithere@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20030727032038.23869.00000603@mb-m27.aol.com...

Dana, I agree. I don't think I've ever returned more than two or three
cosmetic purchases.
The few I returned caused breakouts, and once I was actually given the wrong
product.
With mail or Internet orders I realize I am taking the risk of not liking
what I receive.
That's the chance I take, but it does not mean I should return the product.
Audrey

x-no-archive: yes

ahmward wrote:

I'm on your bandwagon ladies. This thread makes me think of stores that impose
a "15% re-stocking fee" on returns. (Mac Warehouse tried this stunt on me once
when I returned a monitor that did not power up -- I convinced them that such a
policy imposed on return of *defective* merchandise was a very bad pr deal --
they nixed the fee) I don't necessarily like it, but I understand it. This is
one reason I could (can) never figure out why Nordie's launched the shoe site.
Good Lord, I imagine a lot of folks order a bunch of shoes and return all but a
few. It is phenomenally expensive to the store to process and "eat" returns
that cannot be re-sold like cosmetics.
-sk

I agree with you all completely. I've been known to yell at my daughter for
removing the tops of shampoo bottles and smelling the contents. Who wants to
buy a bottle that's been opened? Who wants to buy a lipstick that has been
used and returned? I certainly don't, and I wish the stores would disallow the
return of any cosmetics.
How about some used underwear?

this topic really gets me going!
sorry!
cary

Linda wrote:


As an etailer, I stronly appreciate your opinion on this, however, I
think it's important to accept returns within a certain time frame. If
a customer can't see/feel a makeup product and the representation of it
on her computer screen is unreliable, I think she should be encouraged
to try it without having to keep it if she doesn't like it. It's a cost
of doing business. I'd rather someone try it, dislike it and send it
back than never shop my site at all.
fig

----
Who's The Fairest?
www.whosthefairest.com

"Hateithere" <hateithere@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20030727032038.23869.00000603@mb-m27.aol.com...

Under the category "bad" you can include when it is not at all as described
on the packaging. If the packaging says matte and it is really gloss, then I
feel quite justified in returning it, because even if it is quite a nice
gloss, I was after matte.

I recently decided to stop doing any "big ticket" purchases at Ulta
after a bad experience. I never return hair care or cosmetics (unless
wholly defective), as I figure if I don't like it, there's nothing the
retailer can do with it, and it's my problem not mine. However, if I
buy a blowdryer, curlers, etc., I want to be able to return them if
they don't meet expectations (I am a poor grad student, after all, and
want to make sure that spendier things will actually work).

That said, I took a defective hair straightener back to ulta (it just
stopped working). I didn't have the receipt, but it had been a very
recent purchase, and I just wanted to exchange it for the exact same
item. Last year, the same thing happened with a hair dryer and they
exhanged it with no problem. This time they would not. They said
their policy had cahnged in february, and they only took things back
with receipts, and only within 30 days (I just found the receipt this
week, and it is now just past 30 days!). The woman was so rude to me
-- if she'd just said "Oh I'm so sorry, we just changed our policy, and
can't do anything." I'd have been fine. But instead she was
argumentative, insinuated I was lying, etc.

As I walked out, a woman chased after me and suggested I buy the same
straightener again, then use the receipt to return the bad one to
"screw them over the way they do us." I fantasized about it for a
while, but ended up getting a new one from sally's where they have a 90
day return policy (and the cashier made sure to tell me that when I
bought it, which was nice).

cindyetta

Well I can guarantee you we damage anything that's used and returned. It's SO
frustrating when someone returns a lipstick that's clearly just been swiped
across their hand even though they knew they probably overspent. One woman
said to me the other day, "I figured you can make a tester out of it, I only
swiped it on my hand." I looked at her and politely but firmly said, "No, we
don't do that, this will be damaged out regardless of how much it's used. The
fact is, it's used." I hoped she felt guilty. This is why companies have
price increases, or at least one of the reasons, and these returners are the
first people to complain!!

Heather
Who has seen her share of chronic returners - we're urged to call security on
the ones who do it over and over again.

"We must all buy something from him, so he could afford a proper lunch. Then
he'll have the strength to struggle home, fall exhausted into bed, and get up
early in the morning and start the whole process all over again!" (from "Are
You Being Served?")

<Snip>

here's an article that was recently posted in the ebay newsgroup.
it even mentions the sisters that got banned from Filene's
Basement:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/20..._demons+.shtml

david
--
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/derbarbier/
(ebay sales)
http://shops.half.com/derbarbier
stickneedlesinme at mindspring dot com

Heather writes:
How about the stuff that's unused and returned? Lipsticks, mascaras, that kind
of thing?

Linda

Mascaras and eye liners get damaged out no matter what. Powder e/s are not
damaged if they're unused, and the same with lipsticks. So, there is indeed
the chance that while you get an unused product, it could have been a return.
Also damaged out are any screw-top liquid type lotions, makeup, etc. that
aren't purity sealed, because you really don't know whether or not someone
tampered with them and then returned them (at least, that is how I feel about
it.) If it comes in a tube, though, and it looks unused (you can always tell),
it does go back on the floor.

Heather


"We must all buy something from him, so he could afford a proper lunch. Then
he'll have the strength to struggle home, fall exhausted into bed, and get up
early in the morning and start the whole process all over again!" (from "Are
You Being Served?")

Heather writes:
Thanks Heather - I've always wondered what stores did with some of this stuff.
As I said before, I'm not happy to buy something retail that has been in
someone else's possession, especially here in Florida where it's so hot and
humid. I wouldn't want to think that my makeup had been exposed to extreme
heat if it were left in a 130 degree car while the previous buyer owned it. I
also wonder if the previous buyer might have breathed all over the lipstick
while deliberating whether to return it, holding it under her nose to see if
the color looked right on her lips, etc. I'd love for stores to crack down on
cosmetics returns, limiting it to allergies or just plain bad/defective
products.

Linda

Linda writes:

I'm with you, Linda. I think returning something because the color was wrong,
or you has buyer's remorse, is a little bit out of hand. And I hate it when
people say, "I'd like to return this, the SA made me buy it." How exactly did
they do that? Even the worst pushy ones at our counter, and we do have a few,
take no for an answer.

Now I've seen some truly defective products come back, and that I never even
question (yuck, someone once brought a mascara with her receipt, which was
dated two days prior, and this was GROSS - it was all liquidy and slimy.
Definitely an oddball factory reject.

Heather

"We must all buy something from him, so he could afford a proper lunch. Then
he'll have the strength to struggle home, fall exhausted into bed, and get up
early in the morning and start the whole process all over again!" (from "Are
You Being Served?")

Heather writes:
I had the opposite problem with a mascara several years ago. It was a
Christian Dior mascara that was dried out to the point where no mascara would
adhere to the sides of the brush, except for a tiny bit on the tip of the
brush. I took it back within a few days (am not sure, but I think this was at
a Dillard's), and the SA told me that the mascara was supposed to be like that,
and that you were supposed to apply it with the tip of the brush only.
However, when she pulled out another one it was not dried out. She *did*
exchange it for me, but I have to wonder if she really expected me to buy that
line about it being designed like that.

Although I wasn't trying to return one, I mentioned to a Bobbi Brown SA that
the BB lip glosses' brush splayed out in such a way that it was unusable. All
the testers were like that too. She said it was designed to do that over time
so that the brush could lift the lip gloss out of the sides of the container.
I thought she was giving me a line, but as far as I know the glosses are still
made like that so maybe other people have figured out how to apply it with a
splayed brush.

Linda

tungsten35@aol.comedogenic wrote:

And I hate it when
I have had this happen to me. I went to the Lancome counter at Macy's one time
and was greeted by THE PUSHIEST sales person. Quite frankly, I shouldn't have
purchased anything from this women that day, but I really needed a lipliner
that I had run out of. I purchased the one I usually wear, and this sales
person wanted me to get a lipstick to go with it. (I didn't need a lipstick to
go with it, I already have plenty.) She showed it to me, and kept insisting
that I buy it. She really would NOT take NO for an answer. I mean, really,
this women would not listen to me when I said no I didn't want it. To get her
off my back, so that I could the heck out of there, I took it. I didn't want
it, but geez, it was like this women wouldn't let me leave until I purchased
it.( and I needed my lipliner!) I do not feel bad for returning it, and quite
frankly, I will never shop at that counter at that particular Macy's again. I
certainly am not a pushover, but this women was out of control. So yes, some
salespeople will not take no for an answer. I learned my lesson and that Macy's
counter has lost my business.

Erin

Erin writes:
I still can't fathom how this could happen, unless the SA has the customer at
gunpoint and pulls the money from her purse. In this situation I would have
kept repeating "No thank you, I only want the lipliner" until I'd finally warn
her down (or left to go get the department manager to ring up the purchase for
me). I've never had anything like this happen to me, but I'm very definite
right from the start when they ask if I want/need another item to complement
the item I'm buying. Any hesitation whatsoever probably indicates there's a
slim chance of swaying the customer to buy more.


Linda

julanee321@aol.com wrote:
Sorry that you can't fathom how it would happen, but it did. Like I said, I
should have just walked away from the whole purchase, but I needed the
lipliner. The associate would not take NO for an answer. (and no Linda, to be
a pushy sales associate they don't put a gun to your head or pull money out of
your purse!) I don't feel the least bit upset that I returned the unwanted
lipstick, and like I said, I will never shop at that counter in Macy's again.
It's nice that you have never been put in that situation, and I hope that you
never are so that you aren't stuck with an unwanted product.

Erin

Linda writes:

Oh my gosh, that's the lamest thing I've ever heard. You can tell when
something isn't the way it's supposed to be. Yeah, a mascara really is
supposed to be desert dry! Apply it with the tip of the brush?!?! That's so
lame, I have to admit I am laughing. She gets an A for creative effort.

I don't know, it still sounds more like a design flaw to me that they're coming
up with lines for....

I bought a BB Gel liner once that was dried up when I got it home. Thankfully
the SA didn't try to tell me it was supposed to be rock solid and dried out!


heather

"We must all buy something from him, so he could afford a proper lunch. Then
he'll have the strength to struggle home, fall exhausted into bed, and get up
early in the morning and start the whole process all over again!" (from "Are
You Being Served?")