Horrible Service

On the evening of the 26th of September 2018 I walked into the Truworths Canal Walk store as I had ran out of my Estee Lauder foundation, as I searched my purse I noticed that I did not have my foundation bottle with me so I was not certain of the foundation shade I needed.

I was going to attend an event the following day so I desperately needed my foundation. I approached the Estee Lauder counter, the lady there was quite preoccupied with a few clients but I communicated with her that I needed foundation but was not certain on the shade I was looking for. She rushingly tested a foundation on a small section on my face (she only tested one shade on a small section of my face) it was in the evening so the shade did look okay although I was not certain but I trusted the expertise of the Este Lauder consultant to give me the correct shade and she was in such a hurry to attend to the rest of the many clients that were in the store.

I woke up the following morning to make my way to the event I was attending. I opened the foundation and I immediately noticed that the shade is much darker than my skin tone, however I decided to just literally take a drop of the foundation and test it because it did not make sense to me how the Estee Lauder consultant would give me such a dark shade, perhaps when it was on it would look good I thought to myself... Indeed the shade was way darker than my skin tone, it was unusable, there was absolutely no way that I would be able to use it.

At that point I was running late so I did not wear makeup, I decided that I would return the foundation at the Truworths store in Cavandish Mall as it is on my way to my destination. I arrived there and I was assisted by a friendly Estee Lauder consultant, unfortunately they were all out of the shade I needed (Maple) so the consultant provided me with a bit of the tester Maple foundation just so I could do my makeup for my event and she took down my details to call me when they receive the shade.

A few weeks passed without a call so on Friday the 16th of November I decided to just exchange the foundation at the Canal Walk store where I initially bought it.

I stated this at the counter, the lady at the counter opened the foundation and proceeded to tell me that they could not except it because it was “used” I proceeded to explain what had occurred and that I had obviously had to test the product to determine for certain that it was the incorrect shade! This was to no avail and I the manager was consequently called.

- [ ] I proceeded to explain again, the manager called the Estee Lauder consultant that had assisted me, she came with the most horrible attitude I have even encountered and proceeded to lie and say that I walked in and requested a Mocca shade of which I’ve never ever used. She was raising her voice and giving me dirty looks to a point where I had to request her to not look at me in the manner that she was looking at me in. - [ ] I remained adamant that I could not just give away R600 and what was I supposed to then do with the obvious incorrect shade that I was giving? The altercation continued to no avail, I was feeling so frustrated and just disrespected by the condescending way the consultant was looking at and addressing me. I was furious, I offered to simply just leave the foundation there as I had no use with it. The manager said that they had to wait for the Estee Lauder “Rep” to decide on the matter and requested me to leave my details with the promise that they would get back to me the same day.

Today is Saturday and I have received no feedback, I originally got tested and switched from the foundation I previously used to Estee Lauder at that very store. I have bought every single Estee Lauder foundation of mine at that very same store since.

I feel like I was treated in such a low horrible manner, the Estee Lauder consultant has zero customer service capabilities and I am furious to say the least.

At this point I will never recommend Estee Lauder nor Truworths and I will be closing my Truworths account as I feel that if a store or product brand does not respect its clients then they are not worth my hard earned money.

I also feel that Estee Lauder needs to train their staff, how can a professional makeup artist get a shade of foundation so wrong? Above that Estee Lauder needs to train their staff on how to handle clients, soft s****s and respect.