My Sleek story

I have 8 or 9 of the Sleek Makeup eyeshadow palettes (that one above is a Limited Edition one called Curious), and I'd been intending to do a massive swatch post of them, but since the 50% Sale debacle I've been loathe to give them any positive attention. I'm sure many of you would have heard about this by now, if not and you're interested, you can read a very detailed rundown of what happened here, and the subsequent fall out, which apparently is still going on nearly three months later, here.



Prior to the 50% sale, I had only tried the palettes, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to pick up some other bits and pieces and see what they were like. I wasn't overly fussed about it - there was nothing I was DYING to get my hands on - so when the system crashed before the sale had even properly started, it wasn't really a big deal to me. And I admit I was one of those people rolling my eyes at the hysteria that went on - people abusing the company on Facebook, swearing never to buy anything from them again, and so on - within a couple of hours of the sale supposedly beginning. I still stand by the fact that a lot of those people were ridiculous drama queens and need to get their head around the fact that it's just makeup - and cheap makeup at that. Even without the sale, a lipstick sets you back about $6US. A pallette is about $10US. We're not talking department store prices here. However, since it's still going on and people have had money taken and been sent things they didn't order without warning and a lot of other rubbish, I think they're perfectly justified in their ranty anger now.

I tried a couple of times and had no luck, so I went to bed and thought I'd give it one more go in the morning, and then give up. I really wasn't that bothered about it. In the morning, the dramas were still going on and the Facebook page had gone ballistic. I tried to do my order again, not expecting to get anywhere, but amazingly it worked. I bought two lipsticks - one sheer and one normal, a nail polish, a blush, some samples of the two kinds of foundation they have, and two of the palettes (they were ones I already had, but I just bought them thinking they would make good presents for someone or something). My order showed as 'accepted' on the website and that was it. I went on with my life, figuring that it would take ages to get to me but turn up eventually.

A couple of weeks later, I received one of the emails that Anastasia talks about in the second post I linked up there - the one that told those whose orders were successful that they would be getting their stuff. My credit card hadn't been billed yet, which I thought was weird, but apparently they don't charge until they send the procucts (though judging by the many horror stories of people who've had money taken, that is apparently not true). The email had said that my order was ready to dispatch "within the next few days".

A couple of weeks later I'd not heard anything further, my credit card hadn't been billed, and my order still showed on the site as 'accepted'. I emailed them asking if it had been shipped and if so when. No response.

I waited a week and emailed again. No response.

Then a few days later I received an automated email telling me that my payment had failed. I realised immediately what had happened - my credit card company had changed its name and issued new cards - the number was the same, but the security number and expiry date were different, so by the time they got around to trying to bill the card a month or so after I ordered, it was rejecting. I emailed them again, telling them I knew what the problem was, and asking for an alternative way to pay. No response, except that I kept getting this automated "payment failure" email every 24 hours or so.

By this time I was over it, and sick of trying to get it sorted, pissed off that they didn't bother responding to emails, and I didn't really care that much about the products in the first place. So I emailed them again, with a big note in the subject line to cancel the order. Guess what happened?

No response. And still the auto emails kept coming, so I just diverted them to my spam folder and resolved not to bother buying anything from them again.

A few days after I'd sent the email telling them to cancel the order, I came home and found a package on my doorstep, which turned out to be my order. So after all that, they sent me my order - and completely intact, surprisingly - without ever having received any money for it.

I briefly considered emailing them and telling them they hadn't taken payment for it - and had it been anyone else I would have - but then I figured, screw them. They made the mistake, they have made a complete hash of their business and they don't seem to even care all that much about how many customers they have pissed off, they can whistle for their money.

So in the end, I received my order for free. For all I know they're still sending those automated emails that just go directly to spam now, but I don't care. And now I have a bunch of products that I refuse to review, haha!