Ulta Fans Are Upset Over Underwhelming Offers For Ulta Beauty Fest
(Photo: YouTube)
Bella Breakdown
The beauty brand Ulta lands in hot water over their most recent promotional event, the first-ever Ulta Beauty Fest. The Ulta event was posted to the UltaBeauty Twitter page on November 14 announcing the event for Nov. 16 and 17 in all Ulta stores offering an “extravaganza of services, sweepstakes, giveaways and more!” Ulta planned to open all stores nationwide an hour early and promising the first 100 guests get “beauty treats” including “HUGE” sweepstakes prizes.
You would think that a first-time even for Ulta would have received more attention or promotion, but they got a lot of free promotion with the less than happy customers who attempted to attend the event. On UltaBeauty’s Twitter profile everything seems fine without much mention of the event until you look under the event hashtag, #ultabeautyfest.
Going down the feed you can see all the Twitter followers that posted a picture to enter one of the sweepstakes on Nov. 17, but if you look closer you see some less-satisfied customers spilling the tea on the 16th which was the first day of the event.
One Ulta follower took to Twitter saying, “@ultabeauty this is a JOKE. Don’t waste your time trying to be the first 100 people in line for a $5 coupon.”
@ultabeauty this is a JOKE. Don’t waste your time trying to be the first 100 people in line for a $5 coupon 🤣 #beautyfest #ultabeautyfest pic.twitter.com/Qn2HAQyHk2
— Sandra 🌸 (@xosandramota) November 16, 2019
Another follower made a similar complaint saying, “Hey @ultabeauty HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT this morning. Was not worth being one of the first hundred for rude service and didn’t even get what was promised #ultabeautyfest #ultabeauty.”
No one told these people to wake up this early just to waste their time now they’re complaining. #ultabeautyfest
— Shea (@iamsheajenkins) November 16, 2019
This wasn’t the only thing people complained about with some customers reporting that they arrived at their local Ulta store to attend the event and the store wasn’t open as Ulta advertised so some customers ended up leaving. Some customers even reported that their local Ulta store wasn’t hosting the event or offering any promotions at all.
You were suppose to have the chance to win gift cards and get free beauty products or samples and if you took a pic with the floor decal you get entered in a sweepstake. My location had none of that #ultabeautyfest wasn’t anything #ultabeauty promised
— Rachel Pellegriti (@rachelpelly17) November 16, 2019
Some disappointed customers even said that they were taking their business to Ulta’s competition retailers such as Sephora. Customers also reported that they had different promotional giveaways and different stores consisting mostly of product samples that they commonly give away.
The promo invitation for the event was a bit confusing and promised big prizes that anyone has yet to hear about or receive including $2,000 shopping sprees, holiday trips, and beauty services.
(Photo: milled.com)
According to YouTuber KonfusedvloggerKay who attended the event explains her experience at the event saying Ulta sent out invitations to the event through the Ulta App saying that the first 100 customers would receive a swag bag but most customers were presented a voucher for a certain amount off their purchase and a discount for their in-store services.
She says when customers asked about the swag bags the Ulta employees claimed that they didn’t know about the swag bag offer, with customers pulling up the original invitation on the Ulta App and noticed that they changed the offer details before the event. KonfusedvloggerKay says Ulta also claimed that they would be offering a promotion for 30% off Kylie Cosmetics product but the store associates didn’t even know whether it was applicable in-store or online.
The promotion also said that with a $30 purchase you would get a free gift, but KonfusedvloggerKay was told by associates that it was only applicable online and not in-store also saying that other customers were unable to get the free promo gifts. She also went onto say that Ulta was doing in-store giveaways every hour in which they would ask customers to pull certain items that they have in their purse and race over to associate to claim a prize.
The store also featured a graphic that told customers to take a picture of to share on social media to be entered for sweepstakes prizes, though Ulta doesn’t really specify what they will win. Ulta didn’t disappoint everyone though, some were lucky to get good deals and high-value coupons. Some lucky customers got $25 and $100 value vouchers for products. Check out the full list of the Ulta Beauty Fest promotions.
