CB Sunday: The Fallout

[Sminty2]

Hi all,
Those of us who know, know. All issues, discussions and follow ups, please use this thread. 😊

Thanks @Sminty2

Thanks for the thread, I shared this email in the GWP one...

They are awful but if im being honest I would buy again if its something I really wanted. I'd just use another email and different address.
All the claims they refer to were when I had to contact then about their error. They're a rubbish company that do great edits!

I caught up on the weekend CB fiasco on the other thread. Absolutely shocking. And so random, closing accounts for 1 order!
I agree they do have some very good edits at times and good reductions with special offers. I’ve never been patient enough to work it all out because they always send soooo many emails it’s a bit overwhelming. I don’t think I ever ordered from them but, for some reason, I must have an account because I’m always getting emails from them. Which I am going to close seeing I’m not using it and now I have no intention to do so.
And the vouchers some pps were not receiving on older orders was also very poor.
Absolutely zero interest in ordering from them in the future after all I’ve read on the other thread.
Are they linked to any other company like LF? So I know who else to avoid.

I placed two orders on Sunday for the extra points, both for BOJ sheet masks. I received them both yesterday afternoon. Points were ready to go on my account, and I also had points from previous orders to spend.

I did a £20 order, paid with the credit. I received an email this morning saying it was canceled. I got in touch with CS, then hours later received an email saying my account is closed and I am now banned!

Not too fussed, i much prefer SNK anyway.

Can I ask what happened? I often shop at CB

@Branster The Hut Group owns Cult Beauty and Look Fantastic.

Yes sorry, there's lots of background info missing if you just see this thread out of context.

Well...there was a fabulous offer on Sunday where Cult Beauty were giving 200 bonus points (equivalent £10 credit) for a purchase to gold status members. Normally this would be limited to one order per customer and have a minimum spend but it was allowing us to place multiple orders at low values.
A lot of people were quite restrained and still had their accounts blocked. I really went for it with 7 separate £1.60 orders and ended up blocked. But their doesn't seem to be any real consistency in who was blocked as some people have received their multiple orders and corresponding bonus points.

We're on the thread for sharing discount codes and offers but this CB drama was really taking over the usually fun conversation hence this separate thread.

As expected, messaged through their contact page through the website, they clearly didnt read the issue and said I must have ordered on another account and if I let them know the details they would update me on the staturs of my order. I doubt there will be any resolution.

In case anyone else was curious, I googled to see what other brands THG own so I can avoid, and it came up with the following.

Key THG Businesses and Brands:
THG Beauty: Lookfantastic, Cult Beauty, Dermstore, Glossybox, ESPA, Biossance, Christophe Robin, Grow Gorgeous, Ameliorate, Perricone MD, and Illamasqua.

THG Nutrition: Myprotein (world's largest online sports nutrition brand), Myvegan, Myvitamins, Exante, and Command.

Lifestyle & Luxury: Coggles, AllSole, MyBag, Zavvi, and Iwantoneofthose.com.

Infrastructure & Hospitality: THG Ingenuity (end-to-end technology services),

Hale Country Club and Spa, King Street Townhouse Hotel, and Great John Street Hotel.

Thanks @TreesinthePark, I did Google before I asked but no luck.

Just checked my emails, didn’t read it before. I’m only bronze 😟. I would have done what you did though!

@Caggie09 - that’s what I am worried will happen to me.

I made two orders on Sunday - one small one that I was going to do anyway. Then I made another order, (which I might have done at some point).

I have received both without any problems and the points are showing on my account.

However, I am now worried that if I do another order with or without part-paying with my points, (including those I had before Sunday), that they will close my account.

They seem to be doubling down on this - my guess is one senior manager got angry.

Thanks for the Hut info @psuedocream3 - I think what they have done to you and @TreesinthePark in particular is really bad.

I buy quite a lot from LF, and have credit with them atm. I shall be miffed if that is affected too.

I’m sad about all this - I loved my CB Xmas stockings and the fragrance GWP before Xmas was great.

Tbh, it’s not like I ‘need’ anything, though, (except possibly more shampoo).

@IlovePondI think if they had cancelled the orders from the start, I wouldn't be fussed. But when they've shipped the orders with nothing flagging before, that's not really my issue. Don't then block me for something that was a mistake on their part!

Completely agree @Caggie09 - it’s bizarre and unprofessional behaviour.

It’s as if they are now gleefully waiting for people to spend their points, (including those points accrued from before Sunday), so they can then stick two fingers up.

Just weird!

Good grief! I knew nothing about this. CB is my habitual place for beauty stuff- but I don’t order terribly often and after an order a couple of weeks ago using my Silver credit, I don’t think I had any points by last weekend.

But that all sounds horrible. Not pleasant to think they’ve treated other customers so badly.

I think their IT systems must be a bit of a mess. I had a £10 gift voucher, tried to use it and it was rejected as only having 15 characters not 15.
The 2 byredo samples on the "sampling hub" only show if I buy on my phone, not my ipad or desktop
At lunchtime I ordered the hair edit, used £20 of credit from the 2 orders I placed on Sunday - which went through no problem - and its still processing so I'm half expecting it to be cancelled and my account closed. It should be next day delivery so I'd expect them to push it through quicker than this

The gift vouchers that were given as part of the promotions are in fact promotional codes and go in that box not the gift card box. It’s rather annoying esp as you can only use one promotional code at a time.

Oh thank you Beautyfox, I'll try that next time - if I'm not banned!

Thanks for the thread @Sminty2 I've left a review about my experience on Trustpilot. I'm slightly in two minds about this, I'm annoyed for the people they've been particularly unfair to that only placed one order and had their accounts closed, but I can see from their POV why they wouldn't want to honour the cheeky orders (of which I did 2). But regardless, the response is a bit much - just cancel the orders, surely? No need to ban people, particularly as ultimately it's not outside of the T&C's of the offer. Anyway, I'm going to avoid them and Lookfantastic now, and my bank balance will thank me for it - it was always their discounts that triggered impulse buys.

If points are already in your account - I’m not sure they’d close your account when you try to see them ? Would they have a system sophisticated enough to know when points were accrued ?

Thank you @DidILeaveTheGasOnI did wonder because their websites are very similar.

Nevertheless the CS leaves a lot to be desired

Looks like I complained too soon, order dispatched

@psuedocream3I had no idea so many brands under the same umbrella! And some of these are actually nice.

My last few orders with them were from the first time the amazing 40% off code worked, so I'm wondering if I was already on some kind of naughty list. Anyway I'll mull that over whilst looking buffed, bronzed and smelling fabulous thanks to that haul 😂

@TreesinthePark
Thank you for explaining it all so clearly and

@lovealieinortwo

Sorry for the poor introduction but I didn’t want to make it too outing, not all those affected will wish to announce it, for various reasons.

I know people are worried about making an order in future and that some people only made one order and were banned, losing all their accrued points!

Customers should never be afraid to shop somewhere!

Companies should examine their offers carefully before issuing them.

Mistakes made by a company should be owned, by them, not by punishing the customer.

I don’t shop with them anymore as I had a dreadful experience and vowed to never go back. So I have no skin in the game but I really dislike bullying and honestly, this is corporate bullying.