In times of lost jobs, increasing prices from fuel to food and housing, people are desperately looking for ways to save money and yet still derive some enjoyment from life. They buy their children's school clothes in thrift shops instead of department stores and feel guilt because they can no longer give their family "the best" products available.
When a company, that has been, well liked until now, comes along, and offers their customers an incredible sale, todays consumers are so desperate for a financial break, they don't usually stop to look at the possible ulterior motives of these companies, especially when the company, historically, has a fairly good reputation.
The fact is, businesses are in the "business" of making money. When a business is ethical and above board, this can result in significant gains for the business and the consumer. Unfortunately, what happened yesterday was not just destructive for the business that entered into this promotional venture, but to thousands of, mostly women, who were looking for something to make them feel better about themselves and their life, in difficult times. Does this seem like an extreme claim when discussing a makeup sale? Well if it does, do a little research on the history of makeup and it quickly becomes obvious, the impact makeup has had on the world throughout history, beginning in ancient times and carrying through to present day. There is some very interesting information on how a number of makeup manufacturers participated greatly in the war effort in World War II. But enough of the history lesson. Here are the facts.
NYX Cosmetics, a relatively low priced but good quality makeup was going to have a 12th Anniversary Sale. They were offering almost all of their products, expensive and inexpensive alike, for the low price of $1.20 an item, with a limit of 2 on the same item. The sale would last for 12 hours online. Wow! The word spread like wildfire! I too was caught up in this, and arrived on the site early to start putting things in my cart. The sale started at 12 noon May 15, 2011 and would be ending exactly twelve hours later.
This is where things took a turn for the worst. The site would not load at all for many; it would take 3-4 hours to get even one item in your cart, if you were able to log in at all, and NYX, tweeted, for a while that they were working on the problem. Eventually, the tweets stopped, and so did their posts to Face Book, where all their "customers/victims" had gathered to check on progress. I had my cart full by 12:44 AM and took a snapshot of it. I forgot to mention that they did tweet, that they would extend the sale until noon today. Well from midnight last night, until noon today, I and hundreds if not thousands of others, tried to check out, but to no avail. I believe a handful actually did, but as far as I know, those could have been astroturffed.
So now it gets a bit nefarious, NYX tweets, that they will be offering a 50% coupon for all those who can't check out. Bait and switch?
Okay so my points.
1) Their customers, myself included, spent on average from 12-24 hours on their website trying to buy the items we had placed in our cart, in my case; they had been in my cart for over 12 hrs. 2) Instead of honoring their written contract of the sale, they change the terms because their site was not working properly. 4) They said early in the evening, they would stay with their customers through the event to offer support, they didn't. 5) Now with the sale prices ending, my approximately $75 worth of products have increased to almost $500, but out of the kindness of their hearts they'll offer me a coupon worth 50% off. 6) Now this might be the most interesting fact of all. As soon as the sale was over, and in spite of the high traffic still on their site, the NYX Cosmetic website, immediately began to run as smoothly as warm butter. Hmmm! You could go right to your checkout page, and now speedily buy tons of products at their full price!
The fallout of what this company has done, is not just monetary, but emotionally destructive to people who had their hopes dashed, and are now exhausted, hurt , an feeling betrayed by something they thought would bring them a little bit of happiness in very dismal times. For all of you who went into this sale with high hopes for some good deals, and some nice additions to your makeup collection, I am so sorry for what this company has done, and collateral damage it has caused.
What would I like? I would like for NYX Cosmetics to honor their contract and let me purchase my items at the price they were, when placed in my cart. Yes they are still in my cart, I suppose in hopes I would buy them at full price. I have a snapshot of my cart with a date and timestamp. I would also appreciate anyones advice on this, if you can tell me how to proceed, as many of these products were destined to be gifts.
And last? When this is over and done with, I dont ever want to see, buy or have any contact with this company or their products, ever again. |
