Why Are Makeup Returns So Difficult?

I hate doing makeup returns. I particularly hate doing makeup returns at Sephora. It’s a lot of sighing, hissing, eye rolling, huffing, puffing, and blowing my house down if I dare think to return something.

Yesterday, I returned some items at Sephora which is kind of rare for me as I tend to toss something stuff into my makeup graveyard if it doesn’t work for me. I’m also one that places something in a bag, tells myself I’ll return it, pop it under my desk, and procrastinate the return for three months or until it is too late to actually return the item.

Why are makeup returns so difficult though is my question?

I have a few issues with Sephora returns. First off, I’ve returned items via mail on five different occasions and each time I had to call them at least twice asking for a refund well after a month of the return. Typically the reply I got was, “We are backed up with returns and it’ll be issued soon!” I googled this because I thought I was special but there’s actually a lot of complaints on Reddit and even on Sephora’s own message board about the same thing happening to other people.

But store returns are the worst for me….there’s so much attitude that goes into a return. I purchased the entire Too Faced Sweet Peach Collection when it launched. And of course, ironically, I got it as a gift for Christmas a few days later. Thankfully it was my sister who purchased it so, I didn’t feel so bad returning it and she totally knew I likely had it already but just wanted to be safe and got it as a gift for me. My sister is the best just throwing it out there 🙂

I went into store yesterday to return and it was a bit of a nightmare. I actually felt embarrassed about the return as the girl that was doing them treated me like a criminal. It was a lot of huffing, puffing, eye rolling, along with a snippy, curt conversation about whether I used the items (a simple look at the packaging would reveal they had never been used and were in pristine condition).

I have a lot of respect for anyone in retail. It’s not an easy job and I’m positive they deal with a lot of crap daily. But jeez, I was very polite, I had my receipt, and the items were brand new. The return should have been really cut and dry. Why all the attitude?

Do you ever feel like makeup returns are difficult?

Have you been treated crummy when doing a return?

Do share!