Honestly, I thought I was a relatively intelligent person; however, like others who are posting complaints I fell prey to aggressive, questionable sales tactics. I was visiting Alpharetta and on a whim I went to the North Point Mall recently on Sunday, Dec 4th, 2016. I didn’t even get all the way through the doors when I was physically pulled into a store (no, not a kiosk an actual Bella Terra store – I do not even stop at kiosks let alone purchase anything from them).
The guy looked at my face and asked me what type of makeup I used. I advised him Mac foundation and he told me he could tell because my skin was not in good shape. He assured me that he used to sell Mac cosmetics and knew they were the reason that I had “damaged skin with clogged pores”. This was a surprise to since I had recently had a facial and my skin was in good condition (a little dry, but clear and not broken out, etc.).
He then grabbed my hand and started rubbing peeling gel on it which produced dry skin that he rubbed off. He insisted that I needed to buy this product and use it once a week followed by the moisturizer to get my skin cleaned up. I will admit that I was interested. BUT when he told me the price, I said it was far too expensive and I would just continue using my skin care regimen with Skinceuticals. He absolutely would not let me out of the store and changed tactics by saying “oh this is a damaged box so I’ll give it to you for $60 IF you also buy the moisturizer for another $60. BTW – the same situation at the register – a lot of confusion, pushing additional products at me, told one amount would be charged and who the heck knows what happened. Stuff was being thrown into a bag some allegedly “free”, but at the end of all of the chaos over $300 ends up being charged on my account. AFTER the card is charged I’m advised that if I’m not happy just bring the products back. We do not give refunds, but we will give you store credit to purchase more products.
Then I arrive back home in Pittsburgh several days later. I open the products to use them and IMAGINE MY SURPRISE – the jar of peel was only about 1/3 full and the jar of moisturizer was only 1/2 full (see the pictures attached).
OK so now I realize just how fully I was “conned”, but at this point what was I going to do – I purchased the products in Atlanta, but live in Pittsburgh – no store to even go to so I can return the products. So I decide to try them and AGAIN another BIG SURPRISE – I use the skin peel gel and such a minimal amount of “dried or clogged stuff” appeared! So the guy who tells me how “damaged” my skin is so much so that I just have to buy the peel played me (quite successfully) as a fool!
SO NOW I’m irritated especially after reading so many other complaints. Is the product good, I have no idea since it isn’t doing what I was assured it would do. And as far as the “free” items (some brushes and powder), ANOTHER surprise – when I compare the online prices for the products I did purchase I came to the realization that I paid such a high price for them in the store that they in fact covered the cost of the “free items”.
Honestly, Bella Terra you should certainly take more ownership of the training of ALL employees and management that you allow to sell your products. I would love to be able to try them in order to determine if they are as good as I was led to believe BUT…