AVON misleads its Representatives into thinking that they can earn money selling AVON products. This is a big fat lie. My credit cards are maxed out, and I have nothing to show for it, and I still owe AVON.
I also tried Leadership, and this is the worst scam yet. They tell you that all you need is 5 Reps. To sign up to sell AVON and you're a Unit Leader. Well if you want to see a check from Leadership and keep your Unit Leader title you have to recruit a ton of people and sell $250 yourself every two weeks, and as a Unit sell $1,200 combined total. You need a ton of people because your entire unit must sell $1,200 every two weeks. It never happens, so you never see a check.
I busted my behind finding people, put ads in the paper, advertised on my car, spent money on business cards, banners, etc. I got a bunch of naive people like myself to sign up thinking they were about to make lots of money.
Now that I'm in a leadership role, I've got headaches. Calls out the kazoo from these people I recruited for AVON. The calls are about simple questions and complaints about AVON. My phone is always ringing and I never have any free time. I spend at least 6 hours a day after working a 40 hr job on AVON task when I get home. AVON wants you to attend leadership rallies, district meetings, hold open houses, and much more. I work full-time and I have no time at all to baby-sit over 20 reps. To be sure they place orders and pay their account balances. And I have yet to see a check from Leadership.
You also have to buy kits to sign-up the people, and you pay for them in advance. Why can't AVON perform some of these services? For example, how the people sign-up online, pay the appointment fee, ship them a starter kit and assign them to a leader in their area. Much easier. Lot's of times, I don't feel comfortable going to meet strangers to sign them up for AVON, or inviting them into my home. It also makes not since to have to assemble kits to give to people. AVON has online training available; why not require the new recruit to take the training before their account becomes active. It's just stupid the way this process works.
Besides the pyramid scam to recruit more reps., AVON is always running out of products. They advertise stuff in the catalogs, you order it and take the customs money, and then AVON tells you sorry we ran out. It'll be 4 - 8 weeks before we get more, or we want be getting any more at all.
So now you as the AVON Rep. Has to face the angry customer and look foolish and take a lot of back talk from a customer, and refund the money. And you just lost a customer because of this.
Besides this, they offer the Reps. An Internet website for $7.50 bi-weekly where customers can login and place orders. This is a nightmare. The prices on the products don't show correctly, there's no way to invoice the customer and collect payment, and you get people who search the internet looking for these AVON Rep. Websites to run scams. They log into, place a big order, and offer to pay by credit card. You take the credit card information and run it through. AVON clears it, then 2 months later, the credit card is reported stolen, the customer is nowhere to be found, and AVON charges the Rep. For the lost. This has happened to me only once, but it was for $900. OUCH!
I did my part; I used the AVON Credit Card processing toll free number to validate the information and the available credit. AVON gave me an authorization number and I ordered the product and delivered it. So now it's my burden to pay for a stolen credit card that they authorized?
So to pay off the $900 charge back, I returned $900 worth of unsold product I had accumulated over the yeas. AVON quickly punishes me for doing this.
AVON suspended my return privileges. I am no longer allowed to return items for instant credit, because of the large amount of items that I returned. Once again I'm kicked in the a* by AVON and out of money again. When I called AVON to ask if there was a way to work out payments for the charge back, I was told put it on my credit card and write if off at Tax time as a business loss. Let's see if that works. But it's my out of pocket loss.
Right after this happened, I get a call from AVON about a customer who has complained that an AVON brochure with my name on it has ended up in his driveway and clogged his snow blower. My response was so, what do you want me to do about it. The AVON care rep. Tells me that I am no longer allowed to distribute AVON brochures in that area and to discontinue the practice of leaving the brochures any where besides the door knob. WHAT!
So let's calculate my losses, AVON is having me train over 20 new recruits for free as a Unit Leader. AVON has gotten $900 out of me for a stolen credit card that they authorized. AVON has suspended my return privileges, and has asked me not to distribute catalogs anymore. So I can't recruit customers, and I can't process returns. But AVON wants me to continue selling product to reach Honor Society and a chance to win a free trip. And they want me to continue recruiting new sales reps. I'm flat broke, tired, and have nothing to show for it. AVON doesn't care.
Do not sell AVON if you are trying to make money. You'll lose more than you make.
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