topic Re: Grrrrr Ulta in Beauty

Grrrrr Ulta

Abrowneyegirl — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 02:51:20 GMT

I rarely shop Ulta and once again I am reminded why.

I put together my online order, I had everything in my bag in a matter of minutes- went to pay and HALF the items in my bag were sold out!!

What's the point of putting items into your shopping bag if they are going to sell it out from underneath you?

I bought nothing.

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

ECBG — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 02:57:52 GMT

That IS VERY upsetting!!!!

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

KailaS — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 04:10:39 GMT

Very upsetting but it is happening on many websites. These are different and challenging times.

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

CalminHeart — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 11:04:05 GMT

We need to be patient. So much is shut down right now that many places can't get the stock they need.

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

jackthebear — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 11:53:56 GMT

@Abrowneyegirl wrote:
I rarely shop Ulta and once again I am reminded why.

I put together my online order, I had everything in my bag in a matter of minutes- went to pay and HALF the items in my bag were sold out!!

What's the point of putting items into your shopping bag if they are going to sell it out from underneath you?

I bought nothing.

at the best of times, their shelves are half empty

the store near me, looks like a going out of bus sale

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

Abrowneyegirl — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 12:14:35 GMT

@CalminHeart wrote:
We need to be patient. So much is shut down right now that many places can't get the stock they need.

I completely understand shortages, I am not annoyed by shortages or things being out of stock.

What I do NOT LIKE is wasting my time selecting items, putting them in my cart and then finding that they removed them from my cart and sold to someone else!

I can understand if I had items in my cart for 30+ minutes or something but I did not I filled my cart in less than 12 minutes and tried to check out.

That would be like you going to the grocery store filling your cart up and going up to the cashier to pay and having the manager take the items from your cart and give them to other customers to buy.

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

pommom — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 13:50:49 GMT

On Jen Luvs Reviews (youtube) yesterday, she mentioned that Ulta is furloughing their employees. Word is that they are not going to pay their vendors. Hope this is not the case. The store nearby is new, well stocked and staff very helpful and friendly.

Smacks of bankruptcy.

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

RedRedHair — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 17:14:42 GMT

In my state, all Ulta and Sephora stores are closed -- online shopping only. The same goes for many other retail shops -- Chicos, JJill, Macy's, etc. Some retailers are offering online ordering with curbside pickup. Inventory is getting low for many stores. I believe things will get better, but for now it's going to be hit and miss. Unfortunately, having items in your online basket doesn't guarantee they will be available when you're ready to check out as online shopping is different than in-store shopping. I am sorry that you didn't get your items.

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

Tricolor — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 14:13:41 GMT

I would not fault Ulta. If you have listened to the hosts of QVC most items aren't on AD right now because they don't know when they will get stock back in. Last week Perlier was on HSN and Skip mentioned that they have many products in Italy which they can't bring to the States yet. Hang in there. We will get back to some kind of a normal way of life in time.

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

Jordan2 — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 21:47:36 GMT

This often happens to me on Sephora's website. A lot of websites say just because you put it in your cart, it might not be there when you check out. I don't understand, if I have something in my cart, how can you sell it right out from under me, don't they know I'm going to buy it?

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

Trix — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 06:25:42 GMT

@pommom wrote:
On Jen Luvs Reviews (youtube) yesterday, she mentioned that Ulta is furloughing their employees. Word is that they are not going to pay their vendors. Hope this is not the case. The store nearby is new, well stocked and staff very helpful and friendly.

Smacks of bankruptcy.

@pommom You can check these facts on real business and retail news sites, but Ulta was doing just fine before COVID-19. In fact, their 2019 sales reports, particularly the most important 4th quarter, was one of the best in their history. As for furloughs, it's a fact of life right now around the world in retail. Many chain retailers have furloughed their hourly sales floor workers. In most cases senior salaried managers are getting paid). By furloughing the stores don't have to pay the workers, but are continuing benefit packages for full-time hourly workers. Hopefully most of those people will be able to file unemployment claims and quickly begin to receive that until brick and mortar locations can open up again at full capacity. I fear it may not be an immediate return to the daily 10-12hr store hours we are accustomed to when general merchandise retailers get the go ahead to reopen, so they may not need to bring everyone back right away.

As for the disappearance of items in a shopping cart, I have had that happen on more than one occasion (multiple sites) since everyone was shifted to online shopping. Most recently, shopping Wacoal bras I started leaping around looking for the best price on particular styles and colors in my size. This is a regular manner I shop for name brands online, but this time it caused me to miss out on a couple of bras as when I went back to the shopping cart of the first place ... gone. We're talking no more than 10 to 15 minutes.

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

pommom — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 15:14:48 GMT

Echoing posts here that things are either taken from carts or sold out.

I took a look at an eyeshadow palette, bookmarked it, placed it in my cart and wandered over to other palettes for a look-see.

Couldn't have been 2 minutes later, came back to purchase and it was sold out. On waitlist.

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Katcat1 — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 05:49:59 GMT

@Abrowneyegirl That is totally ridiculous. Those items should be yours until you checkout. I would be mad too. I lucked out at Mario Badescu's website with 25% off and free shipping. First time I am trying his products. I bought 3 products and it ended up costing me $30 total so it was like spending $10 ea. and that is a very good buy.

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

Katcat1 — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 05:53:22 GMT

@pommom I am surprised they keep customers. I have never experienced anything like that.

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LisaMofSLC — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 04:14:22 GMT

Re any online shopping:

I have been lucky in getting everything I have ordered from everyone, except Amazon of all places. Usually their items arrive very quickly. This time I ordered a book, and was told via email it might take longer than usual since priority items were being shipped first. So I watched the tracking and it was slow but getting closer to delivery. On THE day it was supposed to be here, I get an email on Thursday it will be late but IF it doesn't arrive by Saturday (tomorrow), I can request a refund. What was being tracked if there is no book? So hopefully Amazon is an easy company to get refunds from.

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

Icegoddess — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 04:25:42 GMT

My question would be whether the item was actually in stock when you put it in your cart. Maybe the site hadn't been updated yet. But, I agree If it shows available and you put it in your cart they should not sell it out from under you.

I actually lucked into some seeds the other day. I placed my order and got my confirmation E-mail. Later in the day someone posted in a FB group a list of seed companies that were still selling and the one I ordered from was not on the list. I mentioned it and the person who made the list said the website said they were no longer taking orders. Guess I got in under the wire. Of course, I haven't actually received them yet, but it was just yesterday or day before. I'm losing track of time.

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mistriTsquirrel — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 06:08:56 GMT

I emailed them about this sometime last year. Told them "you wouldn't allow another customer to take something out of my hands in one of your stores. Why do you let that happen online?"

I was told that nothing was guaranteed to be mine until I finished checking out. I guess it's because people put stuff in their carts and leave it there and don't check out.

When 21 Days of Beauty is going on, I put what I want in my bag before the sale starts. Then I refresh the page until the price changes, which is usually around midnight, central time. Then check out quickly.

That only works when you know ahead of time what the sale items are going to be though.

But yeah, this isn't something that's happening because of the pandemic. It's their policy. I've encountered that at Sephora too. I think a lot of online retailers do things that way.

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

Abrowneyegirl — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 13:07:51 GMT

@Icegoddess

I too am losing track of time. I never know what day it is!

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Abrowneyegirl — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 13:12:39 GMT

@mistriTsquirrel

Thank you for that information.

I have no problem with a retailer saying "your cart expires in X mins" because I agree you should not put items in your cart with-holding them from other shoppers indefinitely.

Re: Grrrrr Ulta

cassiem — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 19:42:45 GMT

I understand and commiserate, but many inventory systems are set up so that the product doesn't come out of inventory until it's purchased. The same thing happens in the store. Many times I've looked for a product on the shelf and while the salesperson says there's one in the store, it's nowhere to be found. Someone in the store could have it in hand or have placed it on the wrong shelf.