Sephora employee says ‘she put her hands on me’. Then her manager apologizes to the customer who assaulted her: ‘wait, what?’

A TikTok creator who says she works at Sephora shared a series of videos describing what she called a “crazy experience” on the job. The video, posted by Alyson Rose under the username @alyrosemakeup, shows a skit where she plays both an employee and a customer.

In the caption of the first video, Rose wrote, “It’s gonna be a NO from me if you do this.” She tagged the video with #sephora, #skit, #retail, #storytime, #retailworker, #sephorahaul, and #karensoftiktok.

According to the video, the skit begins with a customer demanding immediate help while the employee, called Ali, is already helping someone else. The situation escalates when the customer allegedly grabs the employee by her shirt.

Employee says she was told to keep helping the customer who touched her

In the video, the character playing the customer says, “No, I’ve waited almost four minutes. Okay, you’re gonna help me right now.” The employee then reacts with shock after the customer allegedly pulls her shirt, saying, “Excuse me, did you just pull me by my shirt?”

The employee tells the customer, “I’m not helping you, and after that stunt that you just pulled, you need to leave the store.” The customer responds by asking, “Because I put my hand on your shoulder?” The employee replies, “You definitely did more than that, and still you’re not allowed to just touch me.” The employee’s experience with a difficult customer is part of a wider pattern, as a karen customer in was caught on camera berating a special needs employee. 

In the video, a manager then appears and asks what is going on. The customer tells the manager, “I just tapped your employee on the shoulder because she was ignoring me when I was trying to get her attention, and now she’s trying to kick me out of the store.” The manager responds, “Oh my gosh, um I’m so sorry. That is not acceptable.”

The employee then pushes back on the manager’s response. In the video, she says, “Wait, what? No, that’s not what happened. Okay, I told her I was working with another customer and that I would be with her in a minute, and she decided she didn’t want to wait, so she pulled me by my shirt.”

The manager appears to side with the customer regardless. She tells the employee, “Ali, I’m sorry that you weren’t given more prompt attention. Allie, why don’t you go drop that sample off and then come back here and help this woman, please?” The employee refuses, saying, “She put her hands on me. That’s not okay. I’m not gonna help her.”

The first video ends with the manager saying, “Um, okay, well, I guess we have a problem here, don’t we?” The employee replies, “Well, Rebecca, I guess we do,” followed by on-screen text that reads, “Go to part 2!” The dynamic of employee mistreatment is not unique to retail, as a McDonald’s worker was allegedly fired after being assaulted during her first week. 

In a follow-up video, the manager tells the customer she will bring over a different associate named Maria to help her instead. As shown in the video. the customer tells the manager, “Thank you, because she obviously needs more training in customer service. I’ll be writing a review.” The manager responds, “That’s completely understandable. You have a great rest of your day.”

The manager then takes the employee aside to speak privately. According to the video, she tells the employee, “We can’t be accusing customers of things like that. It’s not appropriate.” The employee responds, “Oh no, I’m not accusing her. She did it. If I was accusing her, that would imply that she might have not done it. She definitely did it.”

The manager tells the employee there could be “severe consequences” for making a wrong accusation against a customer. The employee replies, “If I was wrong, then yeah, we could be concerned about that, but I’m not. I’m telling the truth. Why don’t you believe me?”

The manager then appears to suggest that older customers sometimes touch employees, saying, “Well, working with customers who are older can be tricky sometimes. Sometimes they like to put their hands – ” The employee cuts her off, stating, “There is no acceptable reason, Rebecca, to put your hands on a stranger. So I sure hope you’re not implying that there’s any scenario that there is.” The manager replies, “Of course not.”

The employee then suggests checking the store’s security cameras to confirm what happened. According to the video, the manager initially agrees, saying, “Okay, you know what, fine, but you’re gonna have to – ” before cutting herself off and saying it is time for her lunch. The manager adds that the employee has “more experience with these touchy customers,” and suggests she handle the situation instead. The employee responds, “Okay, great talk.”

The video’s comment section shows several viewers reacting to the manager’s response in the skit. One commenter wrote, “The fact the manager said that.. sadly ive had many that would have reacted the same!” Another commenter shared a similar experience, writing, “There was a lady that kicked me in the head on Black Friday and said it was because I was in the way restocking.”

Some commenters focused on how managers should respond to employees in situations like this one. One commenter wrote, “A manager should always validate what her employee said. 9/10 it’s never their fault.”

Other commenters pointed to potential legal implications of the scenario shown in the video. One commenter referenced the manager’s line from the video, writing, “”I guess we have a problem here” yeah we’re about to have a legal problem 🙂.” Another commenter said they would have handled the situation differently, writing, “nope I am quiting and talking to HR and letting them know or I would be pressing charges against the customer.”

Several commenters also addressed the broader issue of customers touching retail employees. One commenter wrote, “Absolutely not. No customer should be touching an associate for ANY reason!”