Stung by Sephora - Terms and Conditions Not Disclosed?

JoFord63 on 05/12/2015 - 14:58

I thought I was a fairly savvy bargain hunter, but I just got stung big-time! This post it a bit of a whinge and a bit of a warning.

  • Sephora emailed me a Black Friday offer on 28 November: spend $100, receive a $100 gift card. If I remember correctly, a similar image appeared on Sephora's website that day.

  • Sephora did not disclose that the gift card requires a $400 minimum spend and expires on 31 December. These terms and conditions (T&Cs) only became apparent when I received the gift card.

  • The offer was not written as text in the email. There was just a JPG of two sample gift cards with impossible-to-read small print on them.

  • A few T&Cs were written below the JPG, and there was a link to Sephora's T&Cs webpage, but I saw no mention of the minimum spend or expiry date on either.

  • See my screenshot at http://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/142534/35434/sephora_of….

  • Now that I have the actual gift card in front of me, it's clear that the small print in the JPG is of the card's T&Cs. Still unreadable in the JPG though (it's over 5MB so I can't upload it here), even when comparing it to the actual card.

I'd like to find out if anyone did actually see any relevant T&Cs before purchasing (or not purchasing), in which case I'll accept it's my error, my loss. Otherwise I'll be asking Sephora to provide proof that the card's conditions were disclosed in on their T&Cs webpage at the time the offer was available.

Health & Beauty

Related Stores

Sephora Australia
Sephora Australia

Comments

  • Flowerbomb on 05/12/2015 - 15:06
    +5

    Australian consumer law s18 misleading or deceptive conduct. Such onerous terms like a $400 min spend should be in bold to highlight to the consumer. Not sure how you can proceed but I'm sure someone else can jump in

    • JoFord63 on 05/12/2015 - 15:14
      +1

      Thanks Cronut. I will take it further with the company, but first I need to make sure it wasn't my oversight.

      • Flowerbomb on 05/12/2015 - 15:28
        +2

        Pretty dog act of them to be honest. Who will spend $400 in one go on cosmetics? You only have one face. Maybe search fair trading for consumers on Google. ACCC may take action for big companies.

        • Ughhh on 06/12/2015 - 04:13
          +1

          Who will spend $400 in one go on cosmetics?

          Looking at the brands they stock, for lots of women, I say it wouldn't be too difficult. CW and Priceline is probably more on ozbs budget.

        • JoFord63 on 06/12/2015 - 10:26

          @Ughhh: Thanks Ughhh, I agree, not hard to spend a lot of money when the products are so expensive. There are always 1/2 price deals (and coupons and cashback and redeemable points and gifts-with-purchase) to be had at CW and Priceline.

          But I really want to get into makeup, and I have some sensitivities/aversions due to Aspergers (autism spectrum). Sephora offered a solution to one of these problems, so when I thought I could get it at half price, I jumped.

        • Ughhh on 07/12/2015 - 02:50

          @JoFord63:

          From what I can see on the reddit makeup threads, sephora hasn't been living up to people's expectations, from poor customer service to no stock etc. They clearly aren't that interested in the small Australian market, so I doubt they would ever have anything close to 50% off without a ton of conditions.

          Give Mecca a go if you want to get in to makeup.

  • TheAviator on 05/12/2015 - 15:24
    +5

    the $400 minimum spend should at the very least be indicated in the fine print at the bottom of your screenshot. Deceptive indeed.

  • Katie2014 on 05/12/2015 - 18:27
    +4

    It looks like someone else had the same thing happen and they've reported it to the ACCC and also posted to Sephora's Facebook page.

    Thread is here

    They said that the T&Cs were added some time after the original offer went live?

    • JoFord63 on 05/12/2015 - 18:45
      +2

      Thanks for the Reddit thread, Katie, it's very useful. I hadn't been able to find any reports online (including on Sephora's Facebook) from other people who also got stung.

      I wasn't aware of the T&Cs until I received the actual gift card along with my order. I never saw these particular T&Cs anywhere while the offer was on.

      P.S. In case you're surprised that any self-respecting OzBargainer would shop at Sephora given its high (in my opinion) prices and low (in everyone's opinion) stock levels, all I can say is I was caught by the gift card offer which made some expensive brushes appear to be half price. Never tempted by Sephora before and never will be again.

      • [Deactivated] on 05/12/2015 - 23:44
        +3

        Thats a very interesting thread. Sephora are claiming technical difficulties for the fact that the terms and conditions weren't displayed correctly however they haven't apologised for using the term "gift card" incorrectly. It appears that their definition of this term is misleading and they should have used the term "coupon" or "discount voucher" which implies that there would be a minimum spend involved.

  • terrys on 06/12/2015 - 10:49

    "Sephora are claiming technical difficulties for the fact that the terms and conditions weren't displayed correctly"

    IANAL, but a link would be useful to the OP - it looks to me as a laymen very much like something a civil tribunal would view as an admission of 'guilt'.

  • [Deactivated] on 06/12/2015 - 10:57

    Why would a gift card have an minimum?

    • jlogic on 06/12/2015 - 14:00

      Technical difficulties. That's why :P

  • GourmetFoodie on 23/12/2015 - 16:06

    that is terrible. Sephora AU has been such a disappointing experience. i hope they get in trouble for this - please do report them.

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