How many chances do you give a brand to impress before avoiding them? What are the worst things they can do to lose your business?
I give a brand 2-3 products before I’m pretty much looking elsewhere. Â Poor customer service is the number one thing that can make me stop purchasing from a brand entirely.
Got a question idea? Submit yours here.
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!
Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).
We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!
We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!
Two really bad products in a row will turn me off a brand completely. About five or six mediocre/ average products will do it, too…
Three products max – and it doesn’t have to be the same problem either, whether it be hard, unpigmented eyeshadow, waxy smelling lipstick and crap packaging, doesn’t matter. Three strikes and yerrrrrrout!
two to three products ,
sometimes one really bad product will turn me off
Usually, one bad product will turn me off for a while but eventually I give them another chance. After a second, I’m pretty much done. Unless it’s a brand that I already love and know they DO have great products, then they get more of a chance. But if it’s my first impression of a brand, they’re done pretty quick.
Hmm… I don’t think I have a limit. Well I guess 2 bad things would probably do it for me…
Customer service is a big thing for me, too. I won’t buy from Too Faced after having a HORRIBLE experience that ended in me being overdrawn and slapped with insane fees all because they made a lot of mistakes.
It really depends! If it’s a drugstore brand I may be more open to trying more products since it is not as expensive. If it’s a high end brand and I have tried one or two products I won’t be as likely to try more, especially if I am ordering online!
i wanted Sleek palettes so bad, that i gaved second chance (first time i tried to buy from the was during that awfull 50% sale )
So now its month after ad im still waiting for them to return my money after second order … amazingly bad costumer service. no responds to emails . never again. i hope ill get my money so i can spent it on buying Sleek products from someone else, not them 😀
Yeah, about two or 3 products before I start avoiding them. However, I agree completely with Christine about Customer Service. I will avoid high end quality products for bad customer service. I was MIFFED about the Marine Life fiasco and I wrote to MAC and let them know I was ready to end my relationship with them – wow did MAC come through! I was shocked to communicate directly with someone in management and they more than made up for it with a very nice offer and a personal and sincere apology. Totally turned things around for me. I’ve all but stopped buying Lancome products due to bad customer service. So customer service is huge in my book.
Comepletely agree with Lancome.
Lancome is Estee Lauder trying to act like a snotty Parisian & only managing snotty lol
One. I work hard for what I have, so I will not waste it on a brand/product that does not work for me.
I’m the same way… I am more than willing to drop a lot on makeup, because it’s important to me and I make cutbacks in other areas of my life, but I expect decent customer service in return. If I am going to drop $400/month or more on makeup (yes, sad but true), then I EXPECT fair treatment and good product. One time that they screw up is enough for me… So far on that list are Lancome (awful CS!), E.L.F., Revlon, CoverGirl, and Bare Minerals. And I’m not too happy with Too Faced at all.
If I sample 2 or 3 products from a particular brand and am not impressed, I’m not likely to look at that brand again. I definitely agree about bad customer service – one bad experience at my MAC counter kept me away for months, even from making online purchases. I wavered in the end, though.
It depends how bad that first experience is. Like you, bad customer service drives me away faster than anything. Having a company lie to me, treat me badly, etc, that will make me refuse to give them another chance.
Poor customer service is a real turn off. I would have stopped buy from MAC if I lived in the GTA, I dreaded going into there freestanding stores with the snooty sales clerks. Especially the Pro store *shudders*. They however improved and got ride of the early 20 something single females and now have people that know their stuff the past 2 years.
Cherry Calture has the worst CS I’ve ever dealt with when there is an issue and put me off ever buying through them again.
Certain brands I do love even if some or most of the products are mediocre if there are a few gems in the line. GOSH liquid eyeliner are terrible but there Velvet Touch Liners and Shimmer & Waterproof shadow sticks are on par with Urdan Decay 24/7 products. Hard Candy has to many mediocre lip products but their baked eyeshadows and blushs are comparable to MAC’s.
Lately my macy’s mac counter has been way worse than any store i’ve been to.
My Macy’s Mac counter (Dallas Galleria) has the rudest people working there! I’ve never encountered such terrible sales people anywhere else! It’s weird, because the people working at the Nordstrom Mac counter there are so sweet and helpful.
I try to give each type of cosmetic a chance in a brand. Like if I happen to hate their eyeshadows it wont detour me from picking up a lipstick. Once Ive gone through all types Ill know not to stop at that counter anymore 🙂 More often than not there is something in a brand that I will like so I never totally avoid a brand.
Poor customer service is the number one reason I will bail on a company. That is why I don’t purchase from ELF anymore. I will buy the products I like in store though. I also don’t like when companies try to hide the truth about their products. Like tarte did when someone posted a bad review about the product. I stopped buying tarte for a long time and still haven’t purchased anything.
2 really bad ones of different types in a row. For example, if I buy two sucky mascaras, it might just mean the brand sucks at mascara. They could make amazing eyeshadow. If the brand is specialized, for example, Zoya does nail polish, two nail polishes of different types would be a cream and a glitter. 4 average ones (again of different types) may do it as well, depending on the price point, return policy, et cetera. That’s generally for a brand I’m just trying for the first time, though. Depending on my pool of reference for the brand, I can be pretty forgiving: If I’ve tried and liked a lot of their stuff before and 2 things are REALLY BAD, I’d still probably give them another chance with a different product.
Also, I’m totally with you on the poor customer service thing. If you can’t treat me with respect, you don’t need my money.
I’m pretty much the same way. I’ll give the brand a couple chances after encountering bad products, but if I’ve had a bad experience with customer service, I won’t go back no matter what.
With regards to makeup, 2-3 times unless they release a product that everyone raves about.
It really depends how high my expectations were in the first place. If I would try a really high end brand that I never have before, like CdP, and the products were terrible, it’d only take maybe 2-3 tries. If it’s a drugstore brand, however, I give it more leeway and go 5-6 or so.
depends how big the fail and the brands general rep esp price/product. I look for value vs other brands & if I can get similar quality for a lower price I do.
I guess it depends on how bad that first experience was, but I usually give them the good ole three strikes before they’re out. But two bad ones in a row will easily get the brand that third strike early! Of course, then I’ll still keep an eye on new products from that brand, but it’s probably a jaundiced eye.
This question has really got me thinking. Trying new brands is a risk. Thank goodness so many stores have such great return policies!
I tend to give brands 2-3 chances to change my mind. While a bad product doesn’t give a good first impression, that’s WHY I try at least one other product before giving up. But if I have more trouble finding a GOOD product among the bad ones…no thanks. And if possible, I always always return products I’m not happy with.
OMG yes on customer service!!! (on the flip side, excellent cs will make me try hard to find the good stuff in a line)
and def on different products. Uggh to UD lipstuff but eyes! I almost always end up finding I only like certain items from any brand (TFSI, a handful of Lorac & duwop) but often they end up being fav products. one company I like most of their stuff would have to be EL & I have to say Macy’s EL counter or EL direct always have top notch cs. massive thumbs DOWN to Fresh’s cs (direct)
two chances… no more… or if it makes me allergic or something it can turn me off at once!
Bad customer service will make me stop going to that individual store and try another place that sells the stuff. It’s not the “brand” that’s rude because of one rogue employee… but if it keeps happening, I’ll stop buying from the brand.
If I hear a good review on something and have purchased bad products from the brand, I’ll still give them a try. Customer service is a huge turnoff for me. When I ordered my Naked Palette from Ulta, It had been 3 weeks and the product tracking had still said it wasn’t shipped. I called Ulta and they said, “Oh, your order has been lost, we’ll send you a gift card”. I told them, NO, I want the palette I ordered. The lady said it was an out of stock item but when she handed me over to her supervisor, I told her there must be one SOMEWHERE. She got a hold of one and sent it to me which is great, but it also shows that the other woman could have found the product just as easily but was too lazy to even care or try and just assumed I would be satisfied with a gift card. So I don’t order from Ulta anymore.
usually 1. 2 if they’re lucky
I gave MAC a LOT of chances. Every product I ever bought from them failed me: lipglass, pressed powder, prolongwear lip colour (this product was the worst), nail polish, brushes, and eyeshadows were hit and miss. Back when I used to use MAC (just a teenager), I never knew you could return products if they were bad or faulty. Anyway, I switched over to Chanel and I stopped buying MAC products for a good and I gave away all my MAC cosmetics to friends…I haven’t bought MAC for almost eight years now (except for the odd eyeshadow every year or so). But ever since I started reading Temptalia and other beauty blogs, I’ve decided to finally give them another chance. I will still never buy any of the aforementioned products from them again but I want to try their other lip glosses.
But as far as customer service goes, I find MAC’s girls to be the worst…here at least. They’re snooty and help the girls who they KNOW are buying products. They don’t seem to realize that when they ignore me and don’t help me because I’m “just browsing,” that I’m never going to buy anything from them. For this other reason, I hate going to MAC counters.
Is there ANYONE else out there that doesn’t like MAC either?
And as far as other brands go, I’ll give the product ONE chance but that won’t deter me from the brand. I love Nars but won’t buy their eyeliners after a poor experience with one. I love Chanel but won’t buy their eyeshadows because I don’t like the formula. I don’t believe in an all-or-nothing attitude.
Every time I’ve been to a MAC counter or store, they’ve been rude and too pushy. I always feel like they are looking down at me. I ONLY purchase MAC if its a MUST have & there is no similar dupe. I would rather buy a more expensive dupe. 🙂
two chances and then the brand can forget about me as a customer. mac and benefit will never get another of my hard earned beauty bucks. my tried and true (and rarely fail) brands are laura mercier, bobbi brown, and becca.
1 bad product is enough for me.and counter salespersons are important.if you re rude,then i take your brand the same as well.