Avon Hints and Tips (Part 2)

pretzels

bit of a problem here lol
ive been waiting in for my delivery, my husband came home so i told him to wait in for it whilst i went to tesco....
on my way back from tesco i get a phone call from dh. the delivery guy has been and asked dh to sign for 3+1 boxes...
there were only 3 boxes there so dh said he's not signing cos there are only 3 boxes there and the invoice stated 3+1 is 4.
the delivery man siad he will bring the other box/bag tommorrow but my dh said no, how do i know you will bring it tommorrow
so two peed off men. no delivery for me...will he come back tommorrow do you think?

deanos

Personally i would just have crossed out the +1 at least you have most of the delivery , the +1 items are usually the free gifts anyway

Pinzy

Hubby was right though not to sign for the extra thing if it wasn't there. Get the number for the courier company off your ASM or SL, give them a call and check with them about redelivery.


Regarding the VAT issue - as far as I understand it, if Avon is charging us 2.5% less for the stock, we have to pass that on to the customer. I would understand that to be a legal obligation.
The books we have were pre-printed some time ago, so obviously their prices are now out of date. Presumably we would have to do the same tactic as Tesco et al, whereby rather than repricing everything, just knock amend the total.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/BeginnersGuideToTax/DG_4015895?cids=Google_PPC&cre=Money

Basically, for the purposes of our Avon brochure. VAT is zero rated on the following items:

• Books
• Children's clothing

So the prices will not change for those.

• as an aside, if anybody asks you - yes women's sanitary products are zero rated, but that only applies to the "essentials", so the Simply Delicate range is applicable for VAT.

For everything else, the price in the book is including a 17.5% markup for VAT, so 2.5% will have to come off that price.
It's not too difficult to work out for customer orders i.e.:
A C18 customer order
10000 Dreams book - £4
Arabian Glow lip balm - £5
Dressing Gown Age 9/10 - £9
Bond Girl 007 Perfume - £16
TOTAL = £34

The book and the dressing gown have no VAT (well, zero rated), so the prices will be the same.
The lip balm and perfume have VAT. The total for those will need to be amended.

I'm setting up a spreadsheet with a formula to work it out automatically. (3 years as a secretary at KPMG means a lot of accountant friends!) If you want a copy sent just let me know.


I suggest we all get in touch with our ASM's/Sales Leaders, to try and make sure that Avon send out some VAT literature (if only saying "we've reduced the prices") with all invoices sent out after 1 December.

Of course if Avon haven't made any effort to reduce the prices, they're breaking the law.

Mousie_2

deanos wrote: »

Of course its legal, you do not have to pass on the savings if you dont want to

i cant see how its legal. it'd be like going into boots, buying some shampoo and makeup and being charged 17.5% vat and the sales assistant pocketing the difference

deanos

At the end of the day its YOUR business its up to you what you want to do, you dont have to pass on the savings if you dont want to.

We are going to charge brocure prices.

Take your example from boots , before the vat increase an item cost £10 and £1.75 (17.5%) went to the government and £8.25 goes to boots, today` the item still costs £10 but the vat is £1.50 (15%) went to the government and they now Boots pocket £8.50

Its perfectly legal they do not have to pass on the saving but they do have to charge the correct VAT amount

Read a bit more about it here >

http://www.realbusiness.co.uk/news/business-education/5481261/do-i-have-to-pass-on-the-vat-cut-to-my-customers.thtml

Larumbelle

Regarding VAT, I spoke to an accountant friend today and this is what he told me:

We each of us pay VAT to Avon on the goods we buy, since Avon is liable to pay VAT. If you look at the 'legal advice' sheet you should have received when you signed up, our MOV discount rate is 24% and HOV is 30%, but they work out at 20% and 25% after you have paid the VAT on your order.

We are not many of us selling £67,000 of Avon goods, so our customers do not in fact pay any VAT at present, as we are not VAT registered and do not pay VAT.

(Incidentally, I have discovered there are a few really high flying sales leaders who would turn over £67,000, most of these deliberately cap their sales rather than charge VAT.)

Therefore we should benefit from the drop in VAT, since Avon will have to charge us at the reduced rate, but our customers will not pay any different price because they already buy their items VAT free.

Hope this helps.

Pinzy

Big thanks to your accountant friend Silver.

It is all in the distinction isn't it. Like you say, luckily this time it works in our favour, but if VAT went up we'd be worse off. Part and parcel of the business.

Now I know for sure we don't charge the customers VAT anyway, it's all cool! That makes life a lot easier!

So when the customer does ask, we just tell them

"The Avon Rep pays the VAT for the goods, we don't charge you VAT in turn, because we're below the VAT threshold. As we don't charge you VAT, there's no reduction in price."

Just waiting for a snotty customer to say - well if you're getting the stuff cheaper you should let us have it cheaper! I suppose I'd say we're not getting it cheaper, we're just paying less tax. We pay tax so you don't have to ;-)

Of course now we just wait and see whether Avon are going to raise their prices, rather than letting us have some extra pennies...

picklepick

hi guys

does anybody have a phone number for avon that isnt in india please? they are so unhelpful at the call centre and i couldnt get my point across properly. its to do with a late payment charge that was added after id already paid the full amount owed.

thanks

deanos

The call centre is now based in India

picklepick

yes but the letter i got was from corby, so you cant speak to anybody there then?