Every day, I call cosmetic company after cosmetic company (either their marketing departments or customer service call centers), send e-mails to the same, and visit cosmetic counters in stores in order to gather product information for the product reviews that will eventually show up on Beautypedia.com. I do this day after day, (it is a full time job), despite the frustration because I really do love my job, even though getting information from a cosmetics company is harder than squeezing water from a rock.

It’s a sad fact, but more than half of the e-mails I send asking for information about a company’s products (often the same as any consumer might), never gets a reply. Even fewer phone calls are ever returned. If I were a customer, I would have long since thrown in the towel on trying to contact these companies, and I surely would never purchase any products from companies who seem to place such little value in their customers. Understanding that strong customer service breeds brand loyalty, and with such a competitive market to boot, it makes sense that the smaller brands tend to reply more often, because to them each and every customer counts. It’s ironic that even with a smaller brand’s limited staff they are still able to excel at customer service, while the large companies are definitely remain the worst offenders – and with their deep pockets and overpriced products, there’s just no excuse!

Here’s a classic example: Christian Dior. In the past two weeks, I have made no less than 50 calls to 1-800-929-DIOR – a number which, incidentally, is not available anywhere on their website, and was given to me by the extremely helpful customer service staff at Nordstrom, because Dior’s old customer service number on file here at Beautypedia is out of service, with no forwarding number either! Each time I call Dior, I’m greeted by a fancy French-accented voice that instructs me to press #1 for “Product or Consumer Information.” From there, the phone rings twice before a voice tells me that no one can take my call. Then, a dial tone. No option to leave a message, no operator to re-direct my call. This happens no matter what time of day it is, on any day of the week. If it weren’t my job to be so tenacious, I would’ve given up on Dior long, long ago.

At this point, contacting Dior directly has become somewhat of an office joke. For about a week straight, I would call three or four times per day on speakerphone just for amusement. As a result, we’ve become strangely endeared to the voice on the other end (I’ve named her Frenchy), and each time I am transferred to “Product or Consumer Information,” I wait, brows raised in mock anticipation, until the inevitable “We’re sorry…” and then the dial tone that follows. In the meantime, I’ve taken to calling Dior counters for the information I need, but because department stores have to stagger their schedules, the counters are rarely staffed with anyone who knows anything about Dior. Case in point: It took no less than 14 calls to Dior counters across the country before I found one staffed with an actual Dior representative. When I asked her my product question, she replied: “I’m sorry, I’ve only been with Dior for 2 days, but I worked for Chanel for years, do you have any questions about that brand?” I must admit, I was tempted to give her my answer in dial tone, but I knew she wasn’t to blame. It’s all just typical of an industry that doesn’t really want to answer customer questions unless they have your cash in hand first – and probably not even then!