Beauty Advent Calendars Thread 12 - reeling in the aftermath of SFAC, we soldier on... 💄💋

[LightandBreezy]

Welcome to the 12th thread, we still have 50 days till the daily unboxing officially starts, although I very much doubt any of our calendars will remain untouched until then 😂
Still time for lots more friendly chat, tips and discount codes - to cut down on links as a poster requested, here's link to some very comprehensive run-downs of the calendars https://beauty-detective.com/category/beauty-advent-calendars/
When enjoying those breakdowns please remember that some are OOS already - Harrod's Fragrance, Harrod's Beauty and Selfridges Beauty to name a few.

Oh lord , this is absolutely the worst case scenario. I would be fuming 🤬 and crying . And I know it’s only perfume and I know it’s first world problems but it’s the injustice of it all ! If they had all just sold out to people and there weren’t literally hundreds avalible to repurchase it would be an easier burden to carry .

and I’ll just clarify I was absolutely not blaming anyone on here for others not getting one . If anything the best thing to come out of this shambles is the kindness of strangers effectively going out of their way to help and the trust that that involves . 🩷

No, I managed to buy one last time. This is a screenshot from one of my followers, but I’m still absolutely outraged.

It was such a mess this morning I bet their stock system is all out of whack. Really feel for people getting them cancelled as that's worse than not getting through in the first place. 😢

I think the scalpers just snapped up all the stock again, like last time, and then the website started glitching. That would explain why so many people had their payments declined, while others managed to pay even though the stock was already gone.

Selfridges are also rubbish for loyalty points, stupid key things that don't give you anything and certainly no money off future purchases. If anyone from Selfridges is reading this, you need to up your game!

Those keys annoy me! Spend £200 in the restaurant and they give you 1! And they don’t even unlock priority access to advent calendars!!! I don’t even bother collecting them now. It’s just not worth the hassle of loading up the app.

@SunnyPinkMoose yes @Puravida23 is an absolute ledgend !!! she is the epitome of the spirit of this group …she secured a second calendar in last weeks chaos and forwarded on to me …and might i add took the time to individually wrap each item in bubble wrap !!! I cant thank her enough ❤️. bizarrely the calendar arrived amid this morning chaos when …I was trying to get one for my sister and we are both totally gutted that i couldn’t do it …so have just got come from ebay where ( we got her one ) but it had been an awful stressful experience … and i absolutely feel for you @HolidayHattie and others ….if there is another drop i intend to try again with the intention of solely buying for someone on this group who has missed out

If it helps (for those who didn't get one)
While I'm disappointed for you all Selfridges are abysmal.

Their customer service just replied to me after having a damaged box with two broken perfumes. Smashed glass and everything
And said
" I know this is disappointing but this is a non returnable or replaceable item, we can offer you a 5% refund!"

They'd better do better than that or else I'll be rocking up to Birmingham Selfridges with it and not leaving until it is sorted.

I don't know if I should maybe contact my bank.

I have limited sympathy for Selfridges. They are not the only company in the world to have had high stakes launches. The value of their product catalogue is extremely high, they stock thousands upon thousands of products, have a client base of VVIPs with high net worth, Royalty included, and ship nationally and internationally at the drop of a hat. And they can’t organise a queue? Nooooo…. I think they genuinely didn’t give a shiny one. A few thousand units at £225 ? That is a drop in a very big ocean. This was a carefully choreographed PR stunt. The chatter and publicity regarding this, the downloads, the glancing through product pages, the people making ‘test’ purchases beforehand, buying Selfridges plus subscription in the hope it would smooth checkout for the ‘big one’- and a sell out product? (Scalper v non scalper- who cares?) All publicity is good publicity. they got EXACTLY what they wanted out of this. The majority of us will never have be high end luxury shoppers. So our good will is likely a sacrifice they’re willing to make.

For anyone interested, this (should be) is the link for the festive beauty chest
BEAUTY-BEAUTY-IN-FOCUS-BOX

This has all put me right off Selfridges. Their beauty calendar was the one I was most excited to open this year but it's just going to annoy me when I see their stupid yellow packaging now 😅 I dont understand how regular people can have their orders cancelled but scalpers get through fine. If they can cancel regular customers orders the first time for buying more than one, why on earth can't they cross reference payment methods and addresses or something to stop scalpers? I realise I'm probably simplifying how things work, but there must be some way of checking.

WTF!!!!

so they want to give you, what, about £12??

@NC543210 - that’s appalling. I suggest leaving a terrible review on TP and on FB, etc. if you use those platforms. I would also go into store with the whole thing - if possible- and ask to speak to someone.

Thanks @JoRaRaRa Is that another Olaplex no.3 plus, I spy? They seem to be in everything this Christmas

Ohhhh there aren’t words polite enough to be said on a public forum

Who's blaming anyone? I'm grateful for all the advice and suggestions and people trying to help. Just, for some reason, it didn't work for me.

One funny thing to come out of it is that last week DH had no sympathy for me but this week, because he's been trying himself on his phone and ipad, he's just as frustrated as I am, so much more sympathetic.

If I wasn't on meetings all day I'd be on the first train to Birmingham.
I am beyond angry.
I'll never shop with them again.

Going to call Barclays now and see what they advise. Surely their own shitty policies can't override consumer protection?

Yep!

Absolutely appalling. I've told them that I'll be returning it to the Birmingham store and to inform that manager and pass the case on to their managers there.

and here we were thinking liberty were the pits for sending out replacement Reome with big price stickers on, Selfridges have just overtaken them by a mile!!

two ruined drawers is more than 5% of the calendar!

There is a SFAC on Vinted priced at £549!

Do you have contacts there you can give feedback to?

Barclays have said wait to see if they respond to my follow up email first and then call back if no resolution.

Report it. I spent yesterday doing that after seeing it on here.

I was going to ask if you could do a charge back or something? Item is definitely not as described! Surely the distance selling regulations come in to play here? Is it even legal for them to suggest it's non-refundable?