Monday 6 February 2012

Online Ordering From KIKO - And Why You Shouldn't Do It

This was initially going to be a product review, but instead I wanted to share my experience about ordering online from KIKO, with a warning about their shameful, practically non-existent customer service. I placed an order for 4 Water Eyeshadows and an Eyeshadow Stick on Tuesday, 17th January. I received my order the following Tuesday, so a full week later, having been completely unaware that it was coming from Italy, as it doesn't say anywhere on the KIKO UK website. When I opened the package I noticed that they managed to send shade 102 of the Water Eyeshadows twice and didn't send me a 101. So I e-mailed them as there is no UK phone number on the website. They e-mailed me back the following day with what seems like an automated e-mail and requested that I send a photo of the products received. Now if the shadows had been damaged, I'd understand, but why do I need to provide photographic evidence that they sent me two of the same eyeshadow? Anyway I replied with a photo and that was 12 days ago. Since then I have not heard from them.

I am absolutely gobsmacked by this non-existent customer service. I'd just like to exchange one of the 102's for a 101 or get a refund if they can't send me a 101. And as this wasn't even my mistake, I would expect them not to even require me to return the extra one like many other brand would (I once received a damaged eyeshadow from Bobbi Brown, phoned up and was sent a new one immediately that arrived the following day), but I don't even mind, I'll send it back - at their cost of course! However, it's been 12 days now since I first e-mailed them and since then I have e-mailed them repeatedly, and they haven't bothered to respond. I then raised this issue with Paypal, started a dispute to which they also didn't respond and now I have escalated it to a claim, and still no answer. As there is no customer service number anywhere on their website, all I can do is wait for them to e-mail me or for Paypal to hopefully give me a refund. All I can say after all of this is that I will NEVER EVER order from them again, or even buy their products from their store in London. Their products are nice, but not worth this awful hassle and I am now officially boycotting KIKO. 

Have you been let down by bad customer service? Feel free to share your experience in the comments!

6 comments:

  1. Oh wow, what a bad attitude! I'm sorry this happened to you! I have only bought nail polishes from Kiko and always at a store. The staff has always been friendly and helpful. :)

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    1. I've only once been to their London store and had no problems, but obviously you're dealing with the Italian mother company when you're ordering online and it seems they have no idea about customer service. I am really gobsmacked, never before experienced anything like this. Once had a slight problem with Nars (they also deliver from abroad), I returned an eyeshadow and had to keep e-mailing them for a refund, which I did get eventually. At least there was a UK return address for that, whereas KIKO only has an Italian return address, and I need to find out first how they're proposing to sort out the problem. Well, I guess I kinda have already - they're not.

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  2. Oh dear - I wish I'd seen this before :( Hope my order is correct when it gets here. As you say, it's odd that they don't mention that it's being sent from Italy.

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  3. Hi girls, I am an Italian lady and I been living in the UK for 8 years. My mum, who lives in Italy, regularly orders from Kiko in Italy without problems but I have never order from them from the UK. I am sorry you have experienced such poor customer service, it is so annoying and a pity for the company as well, because their products are really very good quality for the price. Was not there any customer service telephone number in the e-mail that confirmed your order? Usually if you place an order in Italy they include the following contact number 0919885520 in their order confirmation e-mail, but this number may not work from abroad (the prefix to Italy is 0039). I just wanted to say, if you would like to place another order in the future and you have problems you can contact me at alicetodd73@gmail.com and I may be able to help you even if I do not work for Kiko. Bye for now
    Alice
    www.whatmakeupareyouwearing.com

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  4. I have just placed the £97 order with them it says on the website that they dispatch the next day If you place your order through the week, three, nearly 4 days later and they still haven't shipped it- not even packed it, the money has even been returned to my bank because originally it was a pre auth on my card and so when they going to take the money again I don't know nor when they going to ship it I don't know! I figured it was coming direct from Milan but if I get any more problems thankfully a new store just opened up in my home town and I've made myself known, so I think I'll just deal with the store. So stupidly I didn't pay through PayPal, I paid with my bank which are very bad for getting refunds from, you have to sign forms that basically say you're lying and will get you locked up if they find out that it's a lie, accusing you of all sorts! So I'm hoping there are no problems with it if it finally does arrive because I doubt I'll ever get a refund unless the store can help me but no doubt they'll probably say they can't help for online orders or something like that! I'm in their club as well! Not good for a first time online order when I've been a customer of theirs for years and have been following them since before they have had a store in the UK!

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