“If you’re thinking about shopping the Sephora sale or have shopped, this is your sign to check your bank statements,” warned TikTok user Emma Kate Osley (@emmakateosley). She says the retailer charged her more than “over a hundred” times for a single $592 order, totaling about $115,000.
Osley woke up one morning to find that an order she had placed on Friday was continuously charged, something that immediately set her in shock and panic. Discover, her bank, also didn’t flag any of the charges as fraud, leaving them on her account statement.
Despite calling Discover and Sephora, Osley struggled to find a solution to her credit conundrum. She took to TikTok, posting a video about the ordeal that has since gotten more than 132,000 views. It’s left many wondering, what should Osley do in her situation?
How does Sephora play a hand in the situation?
Osley warned other users against Sephora’s recent sale. Not necessarily because the company had a machine overcharge, but because Sephora’s customer service line failed to help her when she first brought up the issue.
“ I’ve been contacting Sephora, trying to get answers, and they have been no help,” she said. They said it was escalated to the corporate to handle it because it was such a large amount. But I have heard nothing [back since]. So if you work for corporate Sephora, please help me because this is ultra concerning.”
But what can Sephora do for her?
Technically, the cosmetic and beauty company is obligated to investigate Osley’s situation to see where the problem occurred. They can find out and issue refunds. It’s also possible that they can coordinate with the bank to see where the error happened. The problem escalated on a corporate level, meaning that, in the very least, Osley has a chance for the issue to be resolved. But many people advocated for Osley to just take the issue up with her bank.
“Girl you need to call Discover and tell them you didn’t authorize those charges, forget Sephora [at this point],” said one TikTok commenter.
Discover’s fraud detection services
Many commenters were incredibly surprised that Discover didn’t immediately detect the $100,000+ charges as fraudulent.
Discover does have a free warning system for users. The financial service company will send a text, email or notice of fraudulent activity asking the user if they made those purchases. If Osley indicated that any of the charges were fraudulent over the weekend, for instance, there’s a likely chance that Discover would immediately block her card.
However, this fraud detection system relies on customer input in some ways. It can act on its own if the risk is high enough or the activity is suspicious. In this case, Discover’s system did not catch the charges, and possibly did not send Osley a note to review suspicious activity.
@emmakateosley im honor of the sale, throwback to a few years ago where my order got insanely messed up ??? #sephorasale #shopping ♬ original sound – emmakateosley
An update from Osley
As of Nov. 8, Osley still has not cleared any of the charges on her card. Sephora did end up reaching out to her, however. The company offered her compensation through gift cards and free orders due to the stress and emotional turmoil she endured.
“ So I have reached back out to corporate asking if they’d also be able to comp my other orders I had placed last week for this inconvenience,” Osley said. “They said that they would be able to do that, which is extremely nice. So I’m getting around $360 back from that, which [I] truly do appreciate.”
Osley got a $100 gift card, along with compensation for her original order and other orders she placed. Her next steps are to follow up with Discover and ask them why all of the charges could go through. “ [I’m going to ask if] they’re at least able to honor the cash back value since they did allow all these charges to go through,” she said.
The Mary Sue reached out to Osley, Sephora, and Discover Financial for additional information.
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