I absolutely love ‘behind-the-scenes’ stories from the beauty world. I had a fascinating chat with someone from a brand (who for obvious reasons will remain nameless) about customers who quite literally take the P. Read on and try not to let your jaw drop into your lap.
Customer 1: Uses a body self-tan, is ‘horrified’ to discover that it has stained her La Perla knickers. So, she sends her precious undies, unwashed, to Brand X to make the point. Brand X very kindly washed them for her, removed the self-tan stains and posted them back, but had to inform her that they were unable to remove the non-tan related stains.
Customer 2: Sends back a product to Brand X saying it caused a reaction. That’s fine, but including a urine sample in the package? A little OTT.
Customer 3: Sends back a set of empty pots, deciding belatedly that the products didn’t suit her skin, and demands a full refund.
And the medal goes to Customer 4 who phoned Brand X in hysterics declaring that the Brand X facial exfoliator had eradicated her eyebrows. After being talked down for a few minutes and asked to retrace her steps to the bathroom, it transpired she’d used hair removal cream to freshen her complexion.
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27 comments
Hahaha! Hilarious and horrendous in equal measure. Poor lady who wiped out her brows – she must have been mortified when she realised it wasn’t the brand’s fault but hers!
Oh my god people are crazy and hilarious!
OMG is, I think, the appropriate response here. “You couldn’t make it up” runs a close second.
Was the first customer with the knickers Paris Hilton?
I could NEVER work in customer service, especially in the beauty industry!
Excellent post!
Oh nooo – these are v funny!!
I’m laughing and reaching for the brain bleach at the same time.
Classic!! Thank goodness I don’t work in CS because I wouldn’t be able to contain myself!
I work with the public in a different industry but its still the same, they expect you to do everything for them including wiping their arses.
That’s why I hate them with an untold passion and like my behind the scenes job better.
xx
When I worked for L’occitane a lady came in asking for a cream to stop her hands from drying out in the winter. My manager sold her a lovely, rich hand cream, demonstrating it and even giving her a hand massage.
She returned furious the next and demanded I give her a full refund and compensation because when she used the hand cream on her face it had brought her out in spots.
She repeatedly accused me (6ft, weighty, long haired brunette) of encouraging her to use it on her face the previous day (when I wasn’t in work), and threatened to sue me individually as well as the company. Upon looking at the receipt it was obvious it was my manager that had sold her the product. My manager is 5ft 2, slight and has a blonde pixie crop.
I honestly can’t tell whether this lady was just an idiot, out for some free cash, or slightly unhinged.
Wow, just wow.
HAHAHAHAHA! That’s hilarious x
Oh, these are SO funny! Thanks for posting.
Ha – brilliant! That’s made my day! I’d love to be a fly a wall in this mental women’s lives!
Too funny!
Years ago, when I worked as a makeup artist for a brand, a lady complained to the company saying that the cold sore she had developed on her lip was as a result of me ‘trying to sabotage her wedding’ as she was due to get married in a week. The thing was, though, that I wasn’t even working on the day she quoted in the letter to be able to ‘sabotage’ her! I had never set eyes on her, never mind done her makeup.
It transpired that she had pulled the same trick looking for compensation from several other companies too…Nuts!
Hilarious, I was crying with laughter reading these!
Hilarious.
That poor woman and her disappearing eyebrows, I’d say she was mortified when she realised what she’d done.
Customer 1?! Can’t believe people would actually do that!!
A urine sample?! Good lord! This was too funny!
Unbelievable. Some people are just too obnoxious for words. And when you combine that with stupidity…. oh boy, a deadly combination.
What is truly scary is that some of these people may have children… now or in the future.
Oh I do love this, people really think that they can complain about anything don’t they! It’s always the companies fault and not their own, oh so very amusing to watch their embarrassment!
oh yes, I manage a hair salon & day spa. We have had people complaining that they don’t like their hair colour or cut – 4 months after it was done (just in time for a freebie), or saying a product reacted – when it is 90% empty…it happens often. Makes me sad.
Ew, evidently tese things happen at all levels. Here’s a partial inventory of things I’ve seen or handled while working backstage at Oxfam:
-‘Gently used’ thongs (our policy is not to sell underwear anyway unless it is clearly unworn – but a THONG, no, even just worn once that’s nasty…)
-A game of penis hoopla (involving a plastic willy – my colleague put in in the bin but had to keep fishing it out as the afternoon shift wanted to see it…)
-A whip and two pairs of handcuffs in a whisky tin (our manager threatened to deploy the former if we didn’t stop laughing)
-Various items caked in mud (we were lucky, someone else I know in the sector got handed poo-stained sheets)
-Broken toys
-A used butcher’s apron (I am a vegetarian and so was at least one other person on that shift)
The urine sample, however, tops all of those – why would anyone do that?!?
I’ve had some random experiences in retail, but the oddest was returning a set of false teeth to a ‘patron’ who’d been arrested instore – at the local police station where she was being held.
I worked as an intern for a wel-known high street/drugstore cosmetic brand for a while. One of my tasks was to file complaint letters from customers – they were actually quite entertaining.
One lady bought a foundation which she shade matched herself, and she wore it to her daughter’s wedding. She wanted compensation as her daughter’s wedding photos were ruined because her face looked too tanned in them.
Another lady asked for compensation for ruining her husband’s ‘really really really expensive’ suit. Apparently the quick drying top coat nail polish was not quite quick enough for her.
There are weird people out there.
Not beauty related but have you all heard that phone call that was recorded at a supermarket HQ customer complaints department?
Someone rings up saying he bought a pizza for tea and got it home and it has no topping. They say brng it in and we will replace, he is complaining that he now has no tea and they should send a takeaway pizza to him.
Then he realises that he took it out of the box upside down… 😐
xxx