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Beware of Selling Avon Products
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- I recently signed up to become an Avon representative. What a mistake. The up-line (recruiter) came to my home & signed me up intentionally or unwittingly (which I doubt) omitting pertinent info which would have saved me time, money and headaches. I strongly suggest anyone contemplating becoming an Avon representative thoroughly research the company online and get all of the info you can, including complaints of current and previous reps.

From my experience and from what I have researched, the only way to achieve adequate compensation for your time and effort as a rep, is to invest money and take losses for at least a year or two. Most people who sign on as reps are trying to make extra money on the side or need supplemental income to live on. This is not the avenue to reach those goals unless you have a good amount of extra cash to work with, and even then you will probably take a loss.

One other way to make money is to be a recruiter (up-line) or a team leader, or a position above these. Of course, there may be one mandatory qualification: a lack of moral integrity. I have thoroughly researched this company and the internet for blogs and complaints. 90% of the feedback I have seen is negative regarding a position solely as a representative. There are charges for placing your orders ($5.00 for each order), and fees for brochures and bags and samples, which will most likely suck up any profit you may have coming to you.

You make 40% on your first campaign (if you haven't managed to secure a good customer base by your first campaign (2 wks or less after signing on), your profits will probably be quite low and spent on fees/charges). I ended up OWING Avon after placing my first order. On my 2nd and FINAL order (fortunately, I realized soon enough that I was getting scammed), I made enough to break even. BUT, they wanted me to pay 60% of that up front before releasing my order this time.

In this common situation, unless you are able to convince your customers to pay you up front, you have to come up with the money yourself to pay for your order before they release it. If you are late paying, you are fined. I qualified for a $100 credit line upon signing, which was taken from me after my first campaign, without explanation, even though I paid my first campaign on time, placed my new order on time, and had no returns or anything like that. I called the service line to inquire about this and they said they couldn't lift the hold from their end and to call the DM. The DM's phone line was busy ALL DAY.

I am not alone in my opinion that this company obviously makes it very difficult for you to succeed financially in the business as a rep, and rely on the naivety of new reps and the immorality of the recruiters to make profits for their corporation.

In my research, I also noticed a lot of new reps/prior reps complaining of being scammed by "customers" (not to mention being scammed by the company as well), who sent them emails to place orders, and then paid with stolen credit cards. The reps were responsible for repaying Avon for these misfortunes, and of course the late fees, etc. I had one of these scammers try to hit me, but I outsmarted them. Avon may even be responsible for setting these credit card scams up themselves. Who knows with this company. Their lack of moral integrity and dishonesty is appalling. Capitalism is out of control.

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Just the facts, Ma'am
By -

I have inquired with Avon with regards to my no credit status. I was informed that Avon Inc has no hand in regulating the change in status. They did, however, inform me that I had to talk to my DM. So, I am here asking why did I lose my credit status with Avon? What are the necessary steps to take in obtaining my credit status back?

For the record, I have never paid late. My account is current with no outstanding balance nor has it ever been in the 17 months I have been an active representative. Thank you for taking the time to look into this issue. I look forward to hearing from you.

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Selling Avon
By -

If only the general public knew just how much Avon Products Inc. truly cares about the Representatives and their customers, they would be amazed. Just find another company/store who will give credit for items that they ordered in error, customer changed their mind, wrong size ordered etc... who will give INSTANT credit on the item as far back as 12 months, with no questions asked, AND then allow 3 1/2 months to allow the Representative to return the item!!

As stated in prior review by: ** on 9/5/2010, Avon is a business! Representatives are 'business owners'. No matter what type of business you own, it takes much dedication and hard work to be successful. They are not employees of Avon, and the Customer Service Specialists go through intensive training for 8 weeks before being allowed to serve the Representatives. Avon supports so many charities and public awareness groups. Several examples of these are: Breast Cancer, Domestic Violence, our proud Service Men and Women of the Armed Forces.

I find it so very sad that the critics of Avon Products, fail to recognize the hard work and dedication of Avon and their Customer Service. The next time you try to get a refund for a purchase from any other company (such as Wal-Mart, etc.) that you purchased 9 months ago, with no receipt, just remember some of the above information. The Customer Service specialist work sometimes 10-12 hours per day. Especially during Holiday Season. They work hard to satisfy each and every call they take.

Those people are well aware that Representatives deserve World Class Service, and do everything within their power to provide it. Problem is, "you just can't make everyone happy all of the time". And, of course, there are just some people that no matter what you do, NOTHING would ever satisfy them anyway.

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AVON rips off Representatives
By -

I am a representative with Avon and I placed an order in campaign C-21 in 2009 and shortly after one of my customers called and asked to cancel her order. I called Avon and asked for help in doing this and the woman on the phone told me I couldn't just cancel one portion of the order but would need to cancel the entire order and then re-order the parts of the order I wanted to keep. She did this for me on the phone and then we placed the parts of the order I wanted with her assurance it was all taken care of.

The following week I received 5 boxes on my doorstep in which not only were the items shipped that I had asked to cancel but everything I wanted to keep was double. I called Avon and explained the situation to a woman in India who told me she would take off all of the products that were shipped by mistake. So one by one we went through all of the products. I indicated to her that I didn't feel it was fair for me to pay to ship this all back since it was not my mistake, she agreed and said that if Avon wanted the products back they would contact me to let me know how to get them back to you at no charge to me. I heard nothing.

The boxes sat in my house for months and I finally had enough and gave most of the products away. A few weeks ago I received a letter in the mail stating I owed Avon $240 for the products that had been sent to me by mistake. Within days of that I received a letter from a collection agency. Previous to that there was no bill, no contact at all. I called customer service and was told I had to send them back. I explained the situation and was told that I “should have” sent them back and Avon would have reimbursed me the cost of shipping. Had I have been told that in the beginning that would have been done, but I wasn't.

I asked to speak to a supervisor and retold the story again and got the same answer. I then called the customer service number in NY and sat on hold for over an hour with no answer. I then sent a letter to the CEO Andrea Jung with no response. I then called her office and was treated very rudely by someone in customer service there and was told I could not speak to anyone else to try to rectify the situation. I am amazed at a company who stated they are all about helping women would treat people this way. Shame on AVON, they will not see a dime from me.

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DO NOT GET SUCKED INTO THIS TREADMILL OF FALSE CHARGES
By -

For some reason I thought I might make a few extra bucks selling Avon, I have used Avon products in the past and thought it would be sweet to get a discount on the things I liked as well. I was supposed to get 50% commission on my first four orders, didn't happen. When I asked the lady who signed me up there was a blah! blah! blah! No real answer. Things quickly went downhill and on my last order, I received ZERO commission, I was charged FULL PRICE. Well, that was enough for me, I am too busy to mess with this for the very little or NO financial rewards. I could make more extra money selling blood!

Well, I sent an email through my "website" stating that I had no desire to sell anymore. Then I started receiving statements at home saying that I owed THEM money, not much, like $23 and some change. Well, I began to actively pursue getting them to shut down my account and quit sending me bills that I did not owe. I got another bill, it was for a bigger balance due, what the heck? I tried to log-in to my account online to see what the bill was actually for, the mail I received showed no detail. I was locked out of my account because I had a balance due.

I emailed customer service directly and was told I would have to send an email through my website, I emailed that I could not because I was locked out, DUH! It took me almost two months to get a "detailed" bill to show what I owed (which, by the way, my account had a ZERO balance when I paid for my last order!). There were charges on there for stuff like "monthly fee" "late charge" and other made up stuff!

Now I am getting calls from a collection agency on a $46 made up charge! I told them that I was in contact with Avon directly and then they called again anyway and when I informed THEM that my number was registered on the DO NOT CALL registry, the person kept threatening me and asking why I was "running away" from this debt. Geez! It's $46! It is the PRINCIPAL of the matter, I do NOT OWE THEM, THEY RIPPED ME OFF and now they want MORE.

I went online and paid over half of the debt just to try to make it go away, we will see if Avon will write the remaining $20 off or add more charges and hound me forever over something I do not owe. I am very close to filing a complaint with the FTC on these thieves! DO NOT EVER CONSIDER SELLING AVON, IT IS A RIP-OFF!!!

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Horrific Business Ethics from Avon
By -

NEW YORK, TORONTO -- BEWARE if you are ever called for an interview by AVON. Be very leery of what is ahead of you, in regards to their interview hiring process. You will experience the most horrific unprofessional business ethics ever. I am a victim. I was required to take over 12 hours of time from my work for interviewing, and then only to be told after telephone interviews, 3 hours of testing, driving over 2 hours to meet with a RSM, and spend a whole entire day for FREE following another AVON DM around where this DM exposed me to second hand smoke in her CAR for over 4 hours, when I specifically told her that I did NOT smoke.

And then I was told that I would have to drive another one hour and forty minutes to meet with a RSM from Avon for another interview. In total it cost me $100 dollars in gas money and over 12 hours of time off work, and I didn't attend another 8 hour day FREE that they would of requested that I attend.. Their RSM from the Great Lake Region for Ontario was so unprofessional that after spending 12 hours of my time with her and the Company and $100 dollars, this RSM ** of Avon did not even return any of my emails or calls to her for over a month. And then when she did, she told me that I never ever attended all the interviews or even the three hour test??

I was totally insulted and appalled at the lack of Business ethics. I have emailed the head office and they have not even had the courtesy to respond, Just be leery, the one DSM that I followed around said quote that the company doesn't care about keeping reps that sign on to sell Avon.

They just care about getting one new rep recruited a day so the company gets their $25 dollar sign up fee and the fees from their samples they have to buy. That is enough for them, and they don't care if the rep sells or stays with the company. They make enough each day just trying to hook new other reps each day and believe me, it all adds up to hundreds and millions of dollars for AVON to mistreat the population like this. I wish no other potential candidate to be treated like I was by AVON.

They are an awful company, so don't let anyone try to sign you up as a recruitment to sell or don't apply for any DSM positions. You will be in for the ride of your life, with nothing but insults like I was, AVON should be ashamed of their business ethics, there are NONE. For further horrific details call me at ** or email me at **.

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Avon - Won't cancel an order if you made a mistake, They ship it immediately... So be careful when ordering and double check every
StarStarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 2/51

OK today I decided to treat myself to some things with avon.com. Its easy to order, and I figured I deserved a treat for myself. Well, I recently moved and forgot to change the zip on my account. I remembered to put my correct address, just not the same zip code. Yes, my fault completely. But how Avon handled it, I thought was a little odd. They will not let you cancel an order if you made a mistake because immediately after they get your order, its apparently too late to do anything.

They will not refund you for a good week or 2 til the item is returned to them (it must be shipped first, so do NOT order by Paypal, I made that mistake and now have to wait. If you order by credit card you can at least dispute it). Also they told me if I did dispute it with Paypal, I could NEVER order Avon again because it would be fraud. Really? If I dispute it to cancel it, it would be fraud? All because of 1 mistake? To know a company would do that, for me wanting to get my money back if I didn't get the product, is a little out there. So I found the way they handle their billing is horrible.

At least with Amazon, I can cancel an order if I make a mistake, because not everyone is perfect. But Avon won't even give you time to change it. Within 15 minutes they said they didn't have the order. When it was 30 minutes they said it was ready to ship. And with Paypal, they bill you instantly so, they have gotten my money. So be very careful.

Because of my mistake its going to take at least another week to get to me, luckily the second representative was a little nicer to me and was willing to call me when it reships. I realize my errors but how a business handles their products is a reason why I shop. I don't think ill be ordering from Avon for a while... at least not the website.

Resolution Update 02/02/2013:

got products

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It's a Business
By -

I understand why people may feel they are being ripped off by Avon but folks wake up. This is a business. There are expenses involved. Try having yourself as self employed in other fields and you will quickly realize that it is not easy. If you are not willing to keep your books properly and treat Avon as a biz then you will be disappointed. Don't expect to just "sell" without having costs. Weigh what you want to do. See if you really want to be self-employed and if you have the motivation to deal with it.

If not, don't do it. If you want to try it keep your records. That simple. Don't blame a company for your own shortcomings. Not a single biz out there is perfect. You will not be handed your income free and clear. This does involve WORK so be prepared to do that. Not only in the "Hi how are you" aspect but in the bookkeeping area as well. Good Luck.

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AVON IS A WASTE OF YOUR DIMES, NICKELS, AND QUARTERS.
By -

Avon supposed to be a business for women right!!! Well to me their not, because they act like men!!! They have that look and negative attitude, well it is not Avon problem. My advise ladies!!! If you are thinking about becoming an Business woman, like I am, just go to college or go back to college and get your certificate or degree in Business Management. Because Avon is not the way out, they will SUCKER you to join their business, and it seems good at first, but miss a payment, and you will see the excitement!!! Its just getting started.

Avon will send you a friendly reminder letter that your account is past due, and they want your money, after you ran around in circles for their company, selling their products to your CUSTOMERS!!! Do not give Avon the upper hand, to close your account. They will resend you the last reminder letter along with Sunrise Credit Services, Inc. In my opinion Avon is a total SCAM!!! And a total WASTE OF ANYBODY TIME and SERVICES!!!

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Avon rips Representatives off
By -

After seeing the commercials for Avon I decided to give it a try to earn extra money. Less than months I quit, Avon pays reps 40% of the total earning minus Avon fees. Avon charges an order processing fee, an order processing charge, and other fees that apply, not to mention sell tax. Also, we have to pay for campaign booklets, bags (if needed) and other items. I decided to leave it along when I submitted an order one week and the following week I submitted 2 more order not quit a day apart.

When I receive my order and bill I was charge for a multiple order processing fee of an extra $14 plus the other fees Avon charges. Also, Avon only wanted to pay me 20% of the total earning for the order. I didn't think this was fair because Avon receive 60-80+ percent of representatives earning.

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Avon Products Rating:
Star Star Empty star Empty star Empty star
1.8 out of 5, based on 4 ratings and
28 reviews & complaints.
Contact Information:
Avon Products
1345 Avenue of Americas
New York, NY 10105
212-282-5000 (ph)
212-282-6049 (fax)
www.avon.com
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