What Started Out As a Mess Turned Into a Very Positive Experience
Dermacia
One late night, I was watching TV and an infomercial came on for Dermacia Breathable Foundation. As usual, I was sucked in and watched the whole thing, listened intently to the claims, saw the makeovers and was quite interested in the products. As always, I went to the website because I hate calling those hard sell toll free numbers when I just want to ask a few questions.
The site is simple but gives the information I — and you — need to know about the Dermacia line and about the buying options.
What the Site Sells
This site exists solely to sell the breathable line of Dermacia foundation as well as their cleanser, toner, spray hydrator, and brushes. The Infomercial advertises a full kit of two shades of foundation so you can customize the color for your exact skin tone, spray on moisture that gives your face a dewy look and a jolt of hydration any time, cleanser and toner to prep your face before applying the foundation, and two professional application brushes.
The site is much like the Philosophy Girl one that is there for ordering kits and for customizing auto shipping options.
Navigation
This is a simple site to navigate with info you need to know on each product, ingredients lists, before and after photos, and more all broken up into clean pages with good photos and easy to read text.
The site touts that you can order their kit for free (Just pay for shipping and handling) then, if you like the product, you will be charged (what I considered an astounding) two payments of $49.95 each. That's just about $100.00 for the kit — plus shipping. Ouch!
Ordering is simple. Pick your choice of shades — Light, Medium, Tan, or Dark — and continue to the checkout. You will become a member of the "Naturally Beautiful Club" which entitles you to a couple free gifts (the make up brushes) with your first shipment and a complete new kit (90 day supply) for two payments of $24.99 plus $9.99 shipping and handling.
I am not sure why the first kit is so much more expensive than subsequent kits but it is what it is.
Enter your shipping and billing info and pay with a major credit card and you are done. You will get a confirmation letter and a welcome from Dermacia and a shipping email. The kit will arrive in a couple weeks or less in a white box with lots of info and application tips.
You can then log in and switch shades for your next shipment or cancel your membership.
Simple? Yep. However, the key to a website is their customer service. Generally, these infomercial sites have cruddy customer service or worse. I am writing this review to prove not all infomercial sites are alike.
My Experience
This part is not like anything you will read as far as experience with a site goes. It's a strange experience but one that I want to share.
A couple of months ago, after seeing the infomercial, I was interested in talking with the company about getting sample to try to write about in one of anti aging columns that I pen elsewhere on the net.
Not being able to find an email address for the company, I made an order but did not put the correct expiration date or my correct name on the card into the fields. This will usually generate a letter telling me that my order was improperly placed and then I could get the address and explain why I did that. This sounds crazy but that is how I get email addresses at times to speak with site owners.
At any rate, despite the wrong info, I was charged! I don't know how it could have gone through with the wrong name and wrong expiration date (I am talking way off by about 10 years).
I quickly wrote to the address where the confirmation letter came from and explained that they could NOT process my order with the info I gave them and that I was trying to get in touch with them.
They wrote back that the order was already processed and to just send the items back when they came.
I was appalled that a site would allow a charge to go through such as it was and said so.
After a few emails, the charge was removed from my card. That was quite a relief. I would have been happy with that but the company went out of their way to make it up to me by sending me a complete kit free of charge. The customer service rep was wonderful and assured me no charges would appear.
I was leery.
My kit came and I was not charged.
Since I had the kit, I decided to try the products.
I have to say, the claims are true. This is quality foundation and looks great on my skin. It's expensive but those with flaws, spots, or very uneven skin will love it. It is bendable and the two shades are great for getting the perfect shade. The rest of the products are also very good.
But this is not a review of the products, which I hope to review in separately at a later date.
The point is that this website made a mistake and, instead of simply telling me to deal with it or just refunding me, they went above and beyond the call of duty and sent me a free kit to make up for their error. And let's face it, I wasn't exactly playing fair by using incorrect info to get their email address.
Since, I have spoken with customer service by email a few times and they have been helpful and friendly.
This product is expensive and may not be for you but, if you are thinking about it, I have no hesitations about recommending them from a reputability standpoint. They did right by me and then some.
Shipping and Returns
Shipping is $9.95 per kit.
The site has a 30-day money back guarantee:
We know you will love Dermacia, and we want you to try it risk-free. Try Dermacia for 30 days, and if you are not completely satisfied, simply return the unused portions for a refund of the purchase price (less shipping and handling).
I would say that you can believe that you will get a refund if you are not satisfied based on my experience.
Conclusion
I certainly didn't go about getting this kit the usual way but it all worked out in the end.
The mix up was part my fault for trying to get a contact address by somewhat dubious means and partly their for allowing that order to slip through.
However, when the error was brought to their attention, Dermacia righted their wrong quickly and went well above and beyond what they needed to do in order to satisfy me.
As far as quality of products, while this review is not about that, I do like the foundation and I will use it and possibly buy more. It really is breathable and it really does even out my skin and make it look flawless.
This is an expensive kit but one that may work for you. As far as the site itself, there is plenty of info on the product and not as much hype as on some. It's easy to navigate, presents its products exactly as they are, and the customer service is exemplary.
I give this site 4 stars for being well above average in dealing with my problem and for doing so in a friendly, personal manner. The products are darn good, too!
Recommended:
Yes
