Why MUA are the Worst New Company of 2012.

Harsh words? Maybe. If you've come here thinking this post will be a rant soley on their 50% off sale fiasco, you're wrong. MUA began irritating me long before then.

Why am I unhappy with the way I've been treated by MUA, then?

Unsanitary Products

We'll start here. MUA had a 35% off sale (free postage) sometime in November or early December. Naturally, I ordered. I wanted to get my hands on the (relatively) newly released Nail Constellations and various basic bits and bobs.

I don't recall recieving any confirmation that my order went through, but it arrived after about four, five days of waiting. I opened it up, everything was fine. Except the fact that my 'Sugar Lips' lipbalm had a hair in it.

Ew.

Ewwwww.

EWWWWWWWW.

The hair was only partially embedded in the lip balm, so I'm guessing it fell in while the lids were being put on (so at the last stage of production) as opposed to being present while the lip balm was actually being created. Even so, I'm fairly grossed out. I don't know if MUA do their own production (unlikely) so I'm not placing the fault for the contaminated lip balm with them. What I AM blaming them for is their complete inaction over my complaint.

I emailed their Enquiry address (mua@fbbeauty.co.uk) on the 21st of December, 2012. My email:

Hi,

I recieved my order from you a week or so ago (order number: #1********)
One of my ordered items was a Love Hearts lip balm in 'Sugar Lips'. The outer packaging was sealed as usual, but upon opening I noticed a hair in the lip balm that must have got there during manufacture. Please could you send me a replacement lipbalm? I've attached a photo of the item in this email. Lena.

Attached were the pictures of the lipbalm in this post.

I am aware that many businesses were beginning to shut for Christmas around this time, so I wasn't expecting a response until the 28th or so. When I did not recieve one, I tweeted on January the 3rd. I emailed again on January the 11th. I wrote on Mr MUA's newly created Facebook page (so it was likely they'd see it) on the 22nd. Nothing. None of this got any response. As of the 12th of February, the mua@fbbeauty.co.uk address is no longer on their Facebook page under 'contact' details, so I guess they've retired it. Their website now directs you to the built in 'Contact' form for enquiries. This I have used to request the whereabouts of my subsequent order, and have recieved no reply thus far.

I opened a PayPal dispute two days ago in order to sort the mess. Funnily enough, they responded to that. I've now regained my £1.30. It's not like I requested a replacement in my emails, or anything.

Social Media
I've had a problem with the way that MUA conduct themselves on Facebook (mainly) and Twitter (less so) for some time now. They've always struck me as...incredibly informal. This is entirely a personal preference, but all the other brands I follow on Facebook seem to respect that boundary and MUA seem different, especially with this whole 'Mr MUA' thing. E.L.F, Revlon and Sleek don't try and convince me that they're a charity working for my benefit as opposed to a money-making business.
When I read posts like, "Another massive effort from the MUA Team today." "...the BIGGEST Facebook REWARD to Make Up FANS!" (you're lying anyway, plenty of brands can manage a 50% off sale, don't try and make me feel guilty because yours went wrong)
"Wow...Thankyou to all of you for your support and patience. This remained a Facebook Offer to our friends that supported us...a thanksgiving and reward..not a commercial exercise. Anyone who know our brand, our products, and what we stand for in passion, innovation and attitude to customer service..will kow that was the case. Clearly this offer has grown out of all proportion..." I'm not filled with confidence that this is a business that knows what they are doing. The terrible written communication doesn't help, either. Call me picky all you like - I expect standard English from a commercial enterprise. It's rude to expect me to decipher yURcrayzeiiie misssspeliiiings if you're trying to take my money. Can't spell? That's absolutely fine. But your business consists of more than one person, so leave the Facebook postings to that person that can spell. OK? OK.

THAT 50% off Sale
Where to begin?

I did experience this a few years back, with Sleek (and a lot more profanity). I think everyone did. For those of you that weren't into beauty blogging back then, Sleek MakeUP held a 50% sale to celebrate reaching 21,000 Facebook fans and the website crashed. It crashed bad. I personally spent the best part of a day trying to order, taking it in tandem with my Mum, and I wasn't the only one. Sound familiar?

Fast forward three years, and MUA are trying to do the same thing. This time, they're trying with MORE THAN DOUBLE the numbers of fans (50,000 versus 21,000) and what appeared to be a quarter of the server space. The MUA website is not particularly high tech or fancy. But unlike Sleek, who annoyed us greatly with their actions but not much with their words (excepting the pizza tweet)

(photo @LipsticksandLightsabers)

MUA took to the Internet to slag us all off. Apparantly it was our fault as customers that the website wasn't working. How dare you guys try and shop? Off the page, NOW. We TOLD you this would happen!

Unfortunately, MUA appear to have deleted the original, pretty damn offensive posts. Wish I had the presence of mind to screenshot them at the time, but I was so shocked by their angry response that I didn't do so. If anyone out there does have screenshots, I'd love to borrow them!
I've never had a company outright post so rudely to its customers, who had done nothing wrong. The blame for the fiasco lies squarely with MUA. If you're going to try and host a sale of this magnitude, look to the good (Models Own, E.L.F) and not to the terrible (Sleek) examples of how. Upgrade your server space. If you openly acknowlege that you're low on stock in some products, for goodness sake order more stock! Don't be surprised and moan at customers when things sell out quickly. And buy some more bloody server space. Apparantly no one at 'MUA Towers' had the presence of mind to go 'Oh, we've advertised this thing for x months and we're very popular on Facebook. Might be an idea to invest in a little more server space and a little extra stock for this sale?'

This post is too long already, so I'll cut it short here. I ordered on the 22nd of January, and as of the 12th of February, I've not recieved my order. And this is why I believe that MUA are the worst new company of 2012.

Did anyone else make an order during the sale?

15 Comments

kirkichi12 February 2013 at 18:17
I was going to place an order, but couldn't get on at first. When I was finally able to get on they had doubled the minimum order value and were being rude as hell to their customers so I decided not to.

I have also tried emailing and tweeting them in the past in an effort to get them to post their ingredients in a more visible manner as opposed to the single page with every product, which hasn't been updated in months to include their new products. I have sensitivities I have to take into account and they don't seem to give a shit.
Unknown12 February 2013 at 18:19
I was going to buy something in the MUA 50% sale until I saw their posts, which where literally telling people off for not listening to them! I agree it really didn't look very professional of the. I doubt I'd bother with any of their big sales through their website. I'm happy with just waiting for Superdrug to have a 3 for 2 sale and get what I want from there.
The Student's Guide To Nail Polish12 February 2013 at 18:34
@kirkichi: So many people had the same issue. I was one of the lucky ones, in that I'd literally just purchased a new laptop and my internet was behaving that day so my speeds were fast enough to allow me to make a (slow) order. At least Sleek offered around a 50% code to everyone that missed out, MUA didn't do that so customers like you missed out on the deal altogether.

Not convinced it's worth tweeting them to be honest. Their page seems dedicated to retweets of product reviews and tweets about *insert reality TV show*. I'm sorry that their website poses problems for you in navigation. It's a shame that they don't mind losing customers because the site isn't very user friendly and can't be adapted into a form that is (i.e, allowing the user to change background colour).

@Linzi Louisa: The posts were so rude! I really wish I'd screenshotted some. I think from now on, I'll be buying through Superdrug as well. MUA take a while to post and send in a bag rather than a box, leaving items more open to damage.
Megan12 February 2013 at 19:57
I would feel exactly the same. I've had no problems with MUA myself but that hair has put me off! :)
The Student's Guide To Nail Polish12 February 2013 at 21:43
Thanks for the understanding, Megan. I'm really hoping (the hair is) a one off because I've never heard of anyone having a problem like this from them to be honest.
Ulmiel13 February 2013 at 00:52
Oh wow. That is disgusting, I am very sensitive about hair in my food, make up, yes, even books I get from libraries. But I guess it can happen. What should not have happen is their attitude towards your complaint about it. Incredible. I have made two orders by MUA, one on 35k and second on 50k offer, all together me and 3 other girls ordered different products and are very happy with them, so I hope and think this was an isolated case. Still, it does not make me feel good to know that if there will be a problem with a product, MUA will not be responsive. And well ... the -50% fiasco ... I tried to be patient about it, but they did many mistakes there and I shared the same thoughts about the server as you did. Especially after they wrote on the FB wall that the problem was with 1300 people on the site ... with 50000 fans on FB page that seemed silly to the point of craziness IMHO. I ordered when the hype and the offer were almost over, which meant a lot of product was out of stock as well, but when I managed to get to the 30 pounds together with friends of mine, I did not bother much.
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