Do not buy a Sephora gift card. Ever.
My boss got me a Sephora gift card months ago,
like, at the beginning of the summer.
I just now got around to trying to spend it.
And I went to my local Sephora two days ago.
I get the biggest bottle of Glossier you they have,
because I wear it every day.
And I'm like, well,
I have a gift card. I'll just cover whatever it doesn't cover.
And I got some, like,
curly hair spray or something.
I get to the checkout, I give the girl my gift card.
I said, I have gift card.
I'll just cover whatever the gift card doesn't.
I did not know how much was on this gift card because on the receipt,
it didn't even say. So I was just like, whatever.
I'm sure it's something. It can't be that much.
That'll have to pay. So she slides it,
and then it's like, there's nothing on here.
And I'm like,
hmm,
well,
I've never used that before.
And then she was like, ah,
let me try again. Now,
keep in mind,
I took the gift card out of the receipt that it was wrapped around,
like, the original receipt.
I have never used this gift card.
She's like, ah,
it's still saying zero. So sorry.
And I was like, you know what?
Maybe I used it. I really don't remember using it,
but I'm sorry. Maybe I used it.
And then she's like, yeah,
Okay, like,
do you want me to throw it away?
I was like, no,
no, no.
Maybe I'll load money on it,
knowing that
I'm immediately gonna call the number on the back of the card
when I get in my car. So I pay the whole thing,
which was like 130 something dollars,
which I know I could have put it back.
I know that I didn't have to, but I'm just like,
I was probably gonna get it anyways.
I just wouldn't have got this big of a size,
so whatever. So I just bought it.
I know, on me.
But I went to my car, I call the number on the back of the gift card.
This woman answers, and she's like,
hi, how can I help you?
I'm like, listen,
I got this gift card as a gift.
I didn't even know how much was on it originally,
but I just tried to use it in Sephora.
I get to the checkout,
and the girl said that there's a zero balance on it.
I have never used this gift card.
At least I do not think I have.
So can you just give me, like,
the transaction history and maybe like,
the location that it was used at,
so I can kind of get, like,
somewhat of an idea on when I might have used this gift card,
you know, I can't find it
my app, I don't have any emails, nothing.
She's like, yeah,
what's The number. So I read her the gift card number.
So she's like, yeah,
it looks like there was $150 on it.
And I was like, what?
I did not know there was that much money on it.
That's a lot of money, number one.
And then she's like, and it looks like on July 4th,
there was an on online purchase of $130
and then a separate charge the same day of $20.
Okay. That was not me, though.
And I know that, like,
people have probably tried to do this before and, like,
try to get free stuff. That was not me.
The 4th of July, like,
I worked 9 to 5, and then I went to a cookout.
Like, I was not.
That was not me. Also,
it just said online. I would have hooked that up to my Sephora app
so I can get points and have, like,
a proof of purchase, a tracking number.
Okay, say I didn't use the Sephora app.
If I were to go to sephora.com, which.
Why would you do that if you have the app?
Say I would have bought it on there.
I didn't hook any email up to it. Nothing.
No phone number, no email, nothing.
I'm like, ma'am,
that simply was not me. Like,
I know that you probably don't believe me.
That wasn't me. I've never used this card.
And then she's like, yeah,
I'm so sorry, but, like,
there's nothing I can do. Is there anything Else I can help you with.
Okay, whatever.
So I hang up the phone, and then I start researching,
and apparently this happens all the time with Sephora gift cards.
So much so that there is a forum on the Sephora website
where people are talking about this happening to them.
Basically, scammers just go on the Sephora website,
but stuff in their cart.
They have computers that just run numbers all day long
until they find an existing gift card number,
and then they just wipe the whole card
and use it on whatever they were gonna buy.
And that's what somebody did to me.
And I'm reading these comments on these forums,
and this one person said she bought a Sephora gift card online
to have mailed to her house for her daughter
as a surprise. She gets the gift card in the mail,
zero balance on it. When they try and use it,
they do the same thing that I did,
where they call and ask for a transaction history.
The transaction happened when the gift card was still in transit
to her house. Before they even got it in the mail,
it was wiped. And these people are just like, ah,
anything else I can help you with?
Like, how about a more secure system for your gift card
is what you can help me with.
For this to happen so much.
You have a forum on your website of this happening to people,
and it's Not even just on the Sephora website.
There's like Reddit forums.
This happens a lot. So
I emailed Sephora two days ago and I haven't heard anything back yet.
But do not ever buy a Sephora gift card
because they can wipe it before you even get it
or before you even have the chance to think about using it.
Um, so yeah,
I don't know what like, Sephora is gonna do to resolve this with me
or at all, but
if you want to give somebody Sephora money,
literally Venmo them and type in the caption
this is Sephora money for you
because that's safer than buying a gift card from them.
Or literally just put a 50 dollar Bill in their hand and go like this
and say this is for Sephora.
Or don't even go there at all
because if they're not gonna fix something like this,
honestly, go to Ulta.
Any questions I'll be happy to answer in the comments.
Sephora, if you fix this,
I'll take back my statement about going to Ulta instead.
Thanks for listening. Um.
Have a good day.