clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Sephora Fans Are Calling Epic Rewards Day an ‘Epic Fail’

Photo: Sephora/Facebook

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Today was Epic Rewards day at Sephora, a promotion in which Sephora Beauty Insider Points of 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 or 10,000 could be redeemed for really, really good gifts. As in 10,000 points could get you a trip to Paris to visit with Lancome, or $500 of Make Up For Ever products along with a training session at the brand's academy, or a Marc Jacobs Incognito satchel complete with matching Marc Jacobs wallet and beauty products.

5,000 point gifts included an Elizabeth & James bag with full-sized fragrance bottles or a jam-packed Drybar blowout kit, while 2,000 points got you huge makeup kits from the likes of Stila, Bobbi Brown, and Benefit. But for shoppers itching to get these freebies in their carts, all of it proved elusive, even the 1,000-point gifts like Bumble & Bumble hair makeover set.

Sephora fielded so many questions about Epic Rewards via Twitter, telling shoppers for hours today that the gifts hadn't launched yet. Sephora had tweeted 17 hours ago: "The Epic Rewards will be launching on 8/10/15 during business hours (PST)."

But Sephora had little information to share about the actual launch time customers could expect. Sephora tweeted things like: "we are unable to give an exact time, but they will be launching soon!" and "yes, definitely today! Unfortunately we don't have more info than that!"

Then suddenly, all the good stuff was gone. A Sephora disclaimer on the site reads: "Rewards that are out of stock will no longer appear on the page. Available online only, while supplies last." But shoppers were still frustrated: