By jennynotjen

As an occasional online shopper and beauty products fan, I was really intrigued when I heard about thebeautysampler.com. Many YouTube beauty gurus and beauty bloggers have reviewed their products (mostly special or limited edition MAC pigment samples) and their service, and they have always been positive.

When they were having a promotion, I decided to make my first order with them. Since the company is situated in the USA, I knew that I would probably wait the standard 6-8 weeks to receive the product (although I’ve never actually had to wait that long with any other online company I’ve purchased through).

Shortly after I ordered, I received email confirmations that the product was shipped and that it was on its way. 8 weeks passed and I didn’t receive anything. I emailed the online shop and asked them if they knew anything about my order and what had happened. I simply got a response 1 week later saying that they were going to “look into it” and follow up with me.

1 month after that response, I didn’t receive any other follow up as promised, so I emailed them again asking if they had found out anything about my missing order. I was as positive as correspondence via email could allow, commenting on how I trusted that they were a great company based on the many reviews beauty bloggers had written about them.

I instead received a rather cold response saying that they would simply resend the order as a “one-time courtesy” because they couldn’t find out what the status of the mailed package was. They made it seem like I was being a nuisance to them because I hadn’t received my package (like it was my fault!) I completely understood where they were coming from, though, because small online shops can’t really often take hits like that and be profitable. However, I’ve experienced lost packages in the mail from online shops before, and refunds were always awarded to me, with no questions asked.Knowing this was common practice, I asked them if they would please consider doing a refund instead, as it would save them in the long run (saving on duplicate products and more S&H costs), and I wouldn’t have to worry about more lost packages. At this point, I just wanted to end my patronage with this store because of their slow responsiveness and their less-than-warm customer service.

All I got was a very icy response saying that they didn’t realize that they had actually run out of the particular pigment samples I had ordered over 3 months ago, and that I would find a refund in my PayPal account.

Throughout the entire 3 months of correspondence, there was no apology for all of the waiting that I did and no mention of the fact that they were sorry that my one and only experience of their shop was incredibly antithetical to all of the online reviews written about them. They didn’t even try to appeal to me as a potential return/future customer.

Although they did end up refunding my money, I never got what I really wanted in the first place - my limited edition MAC pigment samples!

I’ve now learned to just buy my pigments straight from MAC, and trade with friends for limited edition shades. Never EVER buy through thebeautysampler.com!