I have to vent for a minute. I ordered two items during the recent The Balm sale and one of them never showed up. It's been marked as delivered by the post office on the 10th. I contacted Hautelook the next day to alert them to the problem, but to also ask for their shipping address, as I needed it in order to contact the post office (they wanted the address of the shipper). Hautelook responded pretty quickly, didn't give me their address, and said the post office has 7 business days to deliver the package after their stated "delivered date" of the 10th and to contact them after the 22nd if it hasn't shown up.
When working with my post office in the past about missing packages, I've found that the faster I contact them, the more likely they will find my missing items. I ended up finding the box for my other package, so I used that address to start a case with the post office on the 12th. The post office stated that they would get back to me within two business days, but when I hadn't heard anything by the 15th, I called. The woman I spoke to said they were aware of my case and would call me back within an hour. It's now the 17th and I haven't heard from the post office and haven't received my package.
I'm very annoyed that I can't start the refund process on something I ordered on June 23rd, that was shipped on July 3rd, and marked as delivered on July 10th until July 22nd. I realize this is postal service issue, and not really a Hautelook issue, but I do a ton of online shopping and Hautelook is the only company I've encountered that wants me to wait over a week past the delivery date before they'll investigate.
I have an above average amount of packages go missing, which I suspect has to do with the fact that there is a house a block north of me that has my same house number and our street numbers look very similar if you're in a hurry. Generally, I will contact the post office or delivery company immediately and the issue is looked into within a day or so. and if the post office tells me that the package was delivered, I contact the company and they immediately start to remedy the situation.
It's just frustrating and disappointing that I know what the end result is going to be, since this is a flash sale site, but that Hautelook wants to keep my money for a month before refunding me. I mean, it's not as if they have more product to send out.