If someone asks you to sell #Avon, run, run far away, and don't look back. Not too long ago, Avon
restructured and is now the New Avon LLC.
Obviously, they had to find a better way to shield their officers from
lawsuits since they are now structured to rip off their customers.
Suzanne and I have been
Avon representatives off and on for years. We returned to Avon not too
long before my strokes. We had been trying to service our customers that
Avon was ignoring.
We had a customer who
ordered a watch countless campaigns ago. When each order came in, we
would have a notice on our statement that showed the watch would be in with the
next order. We would tell our customer this. She really wanted the watch. The
next campaign would come and still no watch. Finally, we found out the
watch wasn't coming.
The same thing happened
with another customer who ordered a necklace deal, 2 for $20. She
received one necklace, which we charged her $10 for. Campaign after campaign
would come and go, but still no necklace. When the second necklace was
finally in stock, they wanted to charge full price for it. Is this any way to run a company?
We allegedly had a district manager who was supposed to help
us with problems. Emails to her were not
answered in a timely manner, if they were even answered at all. She would send out robot calls announcing
when orders were due, but no human response.
We would get text messages, but no response to ours.
Well, I had three strokes back in May. We decided to just work the website part of
the business and provide links from our blogs to Avon. We had some orders via the website and low
and behold they ended up owing us a huge $1.20.
Gone are the days when Avon stood for quality and customer
service. Instead of selling their core
products that made them who they are, they now seek to sell everything under
the sun.
Time was when a person could order men’s cologne in a bottle
that was shaped like a car or a beautiful swordfish. These were great gifts to give to a man who
already had a thousand bottles of cologne.
The bottle was unique. He could
put it on his dresser with all the other Avon bottles. He wouldn’t wear the cologne because most
real men don’t really use it. Still, it
made a nice gift.
Now, Avon wants to sell bras and kitchen accessories. For the most part, they are trying to be an
expensive catalog version of Walmart.
A person above our district manager responded to Suzanne’s
email that in order to get the $1.20 they owed us, we had to call Avon. She
gave us the not toll free number. It
turns out this number connects us to a customer service center in Guatemala City,
Central America. The not-so-English
speaking customer service representative and her supervisor informed us that
Avon would not issue a credit for less than $5.
Since I originally wrote this post, our district manager's supervisor contacted us and she called customer service with me on the phone. She got an English-speaking representative who fixed the problem right away.
We are told that Avon will hold the funds for two weeks to allow any credits or debits to clear and to make sure the account really is inactive. After that time, they say a prepaid card will be issued for the balance. If they are true to their word, by this time next month (10/22/16) we should have the money. Stay tuned to this blog for updates.
Since I originally wrote this post, our district manager's supervisor contacted us and she called customer service with me on the phone. She got an English-speaking representative who fixed the problem right away.
We are told that Avon will hold the funds for two weeks to allow any credits or debits to clear and to make sure the account really is inactive. After that time, they say a prepaid card will be issued for the balance. If they are true to their word, by this time next month (10/22/16) we should have the money. Stay tuned to this blog for updates.
They did add that we could use the credit for a future
order. How can someone place an order if
Avon has deactivated their account?
If you are looking for a good way to make money, don’t try
Avon. It once was a great company to
work with. Now, they are a company that
is falling apart. They do not care about
their representatives, nor do they care about their end customers.
Perhaps a class action lawsuit is in order. Maybe there are hundreds or even thousands of
people who have been ripped off by Avon.
If you have had a similar experience with Avon, please place
a comment in the comment box below.
If you know of a reputable company for direct sales, like
Avon is supposed to be but isn’t, leave a comment in the comment box as well.
In our upcoming course, I had already written about ways to
make a little extra income, touting Avon as the best way to do that. I suppose I will have to rewrite that chapter
since Avon is so broke they cannot even make a $1.20 refund.
If you are an attorney looking to file a class action suit
against Avon, please email me.
Thanks.
Why do things always work out this way for us?
ReplyDeleteIt will get better.
DeleteMy sister spends a small fortune on Avon, I have always thought it was a rip off.
ReplyDeleteIt used to be that you got value for your money. With the New Avon LLC, you get very little.
DeleteBill spent over 35 years in manufacturing, 25 in Quality Control and 10 in Sales. The poor, greedy business practices never set well with him.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing what some "Corporate" people will do and not realize how bad they are acting. When a company decides to hire customer service in a place other than the US, they are, in effect, telling their customers that the bottom line is more important than the customer.
Delete