Avon Products - Avon Cosmetics unfair business practices, lack of support to representatives, competes against own reps, pressure reps to spend more money Ripoff Nationwide

I'm sorry, I'm selling Avon now and I'm also selling Mary Kay. I get 40 to 50 percent profit from Mary Kay. I'm taking money from my account to pay Avon and its not worth it. The products are not good quality anymore. My wife still have jewelry from 30 years ago from Avon. The new jewelry irritates her skin and rashes her neck and wrist up. We went to Fred's and notice the eye shadow on the shelve for $1 was the same in the book for $8.99 she buy the Mary Kay for her and the Avon for the kids. I believe this will be my last month. I thought I was doing something wrong until I read the reviews.

Avon as your own business is what you make it. All direct sales companies have their own websites that people can order from the company instead of a rep. SMC, amway, Marykay, dove discoveries, etc. They all have a website to order from the company. If you work the business you can make it work. You will run into problems as with anyendeavor. If you have missing products you files that on the youravon site and you either ask for a replacement or a credit because the customer doesn't want to wait. it's simple if you give it a chance. You don't just say things about a company because you couldn't hack it. that just means it wasn't for you.

the same thing happend to me...and i read in another report the same thing happening to a lot of people here in the us and in england. i mean the same exact story...im looking into this futher. i believe there is some kind of fraud going on with this company. thanks to the internet now we can prove it. however, i love avon products. they really do have the best products and i want to sell again. there business practices arent fair...i am still trying to find a way to resolve it. theres to many people with the same story for this to be a coincidence. ugggg

I think that even with the situation I'm going through where I say I paid my outstanding balance and they say I didn't, I still think the company is okay - what's horrible is their customer service - sometimes you get someone who speaks english with a heavy foreign accent so it makes communication hard.  When you do find a rep that speaks english, they're clueless.  I've been given two different numbers to call in order to resolve my issue but despite my many calls to these numbers, the phone just rings and rings and rings and rings - no one ever picks up.

Some of the DM's and Unit Leaders are absolutely useless waste of space.  if you get a good one, then you're fortunate and I suggest you work closely with someone like that because they will do their best to help you succeed.

Customer service is an endless maze of just ignorant people who don't know whether they're coming or going.  Only other thing that gets me is all the reps that go on avon's website and give 5 stars to all the avon products.  some of their stuff is crap and these reps know it, but I guess the bottom line is sell and that's why they just go online and give 5 stars to every product.

I have been with Avon since 2002. I have had many DMs and ADSMs ignore me, even after a plethora of phone calls, emails, etc.....maybe that is why I hear DM's are being stripped of their titles due to several no, MANY bad apples. NOT ONCE did a DM or my recruiter upline assist me with ANYTHING. You know what I did? I took advantage of the internet and found many answers just on our youravon.com site alone, plus separate avon rep forums!

To date, I have lost more recruits than I would like to admit because noone would help me set up the appointment and I had to attend this appointment w/ a DM!

There are many MLMs that ARE scams, I suggest you research all you can including how Avon differs: Avon is a Direct Selling company that does not make us recruit recruit recruit! We are given the opportunity to earn the the $ 150 plus bonuses, but many reps like me do just fine not being in leadership!

There is one (I do not know how long it has been around, but there was one called Brown Bag and Partygirl, now a Scarlet lady) and this one, Pure Romance especially does have in home consultants and online you can have a consultant bring you the items you ordered, or Pure Romance will ship to customer directly! I know I would not want a consultant bringing me items like that! But that is what angers me about Pure Romance: They should pick one: Be a DS company or MLM, but not offer online shopping without an e rep! Be one or the other! Not both!

Avon is one of the worst companies to try to do business with.  They make it very difficult to make any money.  I was a representative and recently decided to step down.  I am currently looking to be a Mary Kay representative because because with them, there is no quotas and you always get 50% of what you sell.  Yes, there is an initial start up cost of $124 for a start up kit; but you are getting $500 worth of Mary Kay products.  I also found out that overall, their skin care systems is actually cheaper; especially if I decide to be a rep and only have to pay 1/2 for the skin care system.

With Avon, you usually only get about 20% unless you are a top notch seller.  Most of the time, you lose money because by the time you pay the shipping and handling and pay for the brochures and any samples, that eats away at your profits.  Basically, you are volunteering your time for the community and to Avon. 

It is one thing if you do not have a main full time job and you have that amount of time to devote to Avon; but if you work over 45 hours a week and try to go to school and you are trying to make a little bit more money on the side, then Avon is not the way to go.

I am sorry that this company has been so unreasonable to you.  Avon does not always show common sense.

I came on this report while searching out my credit limit issues with Avon.  I'm still being called a "new rep" by my DM after almost six months of attempting to sell products for this company.  Any advice on direct selling companies that are reasonable in their start up expenses?  I hope to either treat Avon as my "back up" direct selling plan, or leave them altogether.  Thanks...

i am also an avon rep, it is what you put into it. its plainly stated how you make money by selling it in the start up package they give you when you sign up. alot of the reports i have been reading are from ppl who order loads of product up front hoping to sell them, this is completely unnecessary, i would never order a bunch of stuff if i dont have customers who want it and can give me the money for it. that is not how avon works, you take your orders, you dont pay until you get paid by the ppl who ordered from you and you keep difference from what you owe the company. it only costs 10 bucks to sign up, then you get busy getting your books out there and collection your orders. i just dont see how you can lose if you stick to that method

yeah i'm basically having the same problem... I started selling Avon last year and a few month into being a rep, i had lost my mother ... so I ditched Avon and went arcoss the country to take care of all the personal buisness involved , BUT I DID contact my district telling her my situation and that was why no sales or orders that were going to being made.

Last I looked I had owed was 40-50 dollars.(and yes they never explianed how to figure out the cash either they told me they would contact me for a class that never happened)

Upon returning home 2 months later there was a bill in the mail for for 111.00. I then try and log into my online account to see what charges were pending my online account had been canceled. I recieved a email the other day that if I contact coustomer service and my DM would reinstate me.

I call customer service.. the rep's english was very poor, i tried to tell the rep the situation that let to my balance and asked how come the balance was so high. She then just kept telling me to reinstate my account i needed to pay. Still with no explination of why i am paying so much.

At this point i just hung up.. i guess i will just call back and pay it and hope for the best this time because i really did enjoy selling the products, just realize if you dont pay them on time you get charged alot of money .. oh well live and learn i guess...

Hello,
My name is Gia and I've been selling Avon products since this past January. First, I would just like to say I'm sorry about your luck to anyone who had a complaint. I am in no way here to attack any of you. Since I have been selling Avon, I have had no problems like the one described and I am a stay home single mother of three and I make pretty good money selling Avon.

It looks like most of the issues stemmed from a lack of relationship between the consultants and DM's. Personally, I have a great DM that helps me out alot and she even helps me build my downline by placing reps. in my downline for me.

Most of the time I go to my DM when I have question, but
anytime I have had an issue with an order, whether it was a mix up or a return, Avon has always staightened it out for me in a very quick manner.

Overall, I think Avon is a great company to work for because I can work when I have the time to and I enjoy doing it. I guess it helps that I have a good team to help and direct me.

The only thing that I can suggest to anyone interested in becoming a representative is to check out your DM when they come to sign you up and see if this is a person you think you can get along with and trust. If not I'm sure Avon can find someone else for you to team up with and make sure you ask questions and understand everything before signing your name.

I cannot believe that someone else is having the same problem that I am having. I thought I was just stupid at keeping my records and had just messed it all up. But I have been selling for 2 years now at my first Christmas I had an order of $100 where the box was totally destroyed I had so many products missing.

I called Avon as soon as I recieved what was left of my order and reported all of the products that were missing. I was told I would be billed for the replacement order but as soon as I received it to call and they would remove the charges. Ha I had to pay for that lost order and since then my bill has gone up so that I now owe Avon $700. They made me sign a paysell to get my christmas order and because my order was on hold I lost all my customers.


Donette West Virgina

In answer to your question about making money from your sales, Avon do not issue you checks. When you collect the money owed from your customers, they pay full price, and you are charged a reduced price, so you would keep the difference.

If you had customers who owed you $325 for one of the campaigns, and Avon invoices you $260, you would keep the $65.

I used to work for Avon but never got paid from the sells I made. They never did explain to me how I got paid and when I asked them I never got a response. It seems like theyre no help when it comes to helping out. I have twin boys and I dont work. I am a stay at home mom and thought that Avon would help in getting some extra income so to me it looks like theyre a scam. Idk I could be wrong...