~Avon Hints & Tips (Part 8) ~ Please read first post :)

qwertykeys92

Yahay that's great - I'm sure you'll love it - I am and this is only my first campaign!

nicki_2

Is it just me or does anyone else think that one of the return options should be something along the lines of "not wanted - had a reaction to product"? I've had a customer return 2 mascaras as she's had an allergic reaction to one and doesn't want to risk using the other as a result. The best option I could find was "doesn't like for some other reason", surely it would be in Avons interest to know which products people react to :mad: Now I'm stuck trying to figure out how much of a discount (aka refund) to give her on the next order (she didn't want the money back as she's also exchanging stuff as she felt physically ill when she smelt it :eek:) as one of the mascaras was part of the anew eye giftset

lozza1985

Hmm, I'd read into kleeneze thoroughly before joining, there is some threads on here about them.

Not to put you off, it obviously works for some people, but it's a lot of money upfront - we started kleeneze and Avon at the same time. Did kleeneze for less than 2 months before we decided we wouldn't even be able to break even - there were lots of extra costs like paying £5 every month to order online (they might have ditched that by now though). We sOld our books to try and get some of the money back as it was just depressing collecting in 200 books to only have £10 in orders. We thought Noone round here did kleeneze as we never got a book, but all the streets for miles around get at least 2 a week.

Don't think I'm trying to say only join Avon - different companies work for others, I just think that companies that expect a big upfront payment aren't very good, if you want extra cash why would you pay that much, and when you can't guarantee getting any orders, can you afford to loose that amount of money? Definitely look into all the hidden costs of kleeneze and other companies you're thinking of.

lozza1985

nicki wrote: »

Is it just me or does anyone else think that one of the return options should be something along the lines of "not wanted - had a reaction to product"? I've had a customer return 2 mascaras as she's had an allergic reaction to one and doesn't want to risk using the other as a result. The best option I could find was "doesn't like for some other reason", surely it would be in Avons interest to know which products people react to :mad: Now I'm stuck trying to figure out how much of a discount (aka refund) to give her on the next order (she didn't want the money back as she's also exchanging stuff as she felt physically ill when she smelt it :eek:) as one of the mascaras was part of the anew eye giftset

There is a special returns process for products that have brought out a reaction - you have to ring Avon to get the process started. It's pretty straight forward, Dh had to ring about a product that brought his mum out in a reaction. It has to get sent back through the post but they give you a Freepost label to this.

~evanesco~

Meh, Avon have held my order. I thought they would. My credit limit is £534 for my second campaign, my order were almost £650, so I'll give them a quick ring tomorrow and pay my deposit. Really impressed with my round so far. Still not fully canvassed my 3rd Street. 2nd Street are all up to date with C6. 3rd Street are now back order on C6 and 1st Street currently have C7 sitting in their homes. I should be able to drop down to 40 books for C9. I hope. I want all my territory on the current campaign and it's slowly catching up.

Had to return 2 orders totalling over £60 because one didn't get paid and the other never contacted me after I called twice. Shame really, but it's one of those things.

Spent a fair bit of my commission on lovely goodies for me, some new perfume, shower gels and bag for DG.

Still if it keeps me in cosmetics and smellies I'm happy, anything left over I save for my tattoo I've been yearning for. So far I have £11 :P

I,_Geek

Big upfront payment - my understanding is that with Kleeneze the brochures you buy at first will last a long time (i.e. don't change every 3 weeks like Avon). So you could still spend that much on Avon brochures, but spread out over a longer period of time - and of course if you decide Avon isn't working out you can stop at any time (maybe using whatever brochures you've already bought in) and not have lots of brochures in the house that could be good for another few months. I can imagine having to replenish Kleeneze books before they expire (if they last for several months) because they'll get tatty. Avon brochures are sturdy and better quality, but even they shown signs of wear after about 4 uses.

lozza1985

O yeah they last about 6 months - think they change about December/January and May/June.

The other thing to bare in mind is you're going to loose brochures - you'll get that with any brochure based business. With avon it doesn't matter so much as you didn't pay so much for them, and obviously can't use them for as long - but when you were banking on using those brochures for another 4 months with kleeneze, it's even more heart breaking. We started with 200 books, and ended with about 120 after less than 2 months, it took a lot of trips back to collect up all the books, but we had to - otherwise we would have had far less books. As in some areas it's saturated with kleeneze reps, if someone has already told the previous x amount of distributors I don't want a book, then you go and deliver one as you don't know - they tend to end up in the bin as people have lost their patience and don't realise that it was an honest mistake, that you didn't know that they didn't want a book.

As I say, I don't want to say don't join kleeneze - just research things thoroughly before you shell out any cash. Could be worth asking in the streets round you if people get a kleeneze brochure, to see how busy your area is - you might be lucky and theres noone/few people doing it round your way. We assumed as we hadn't had a book in a year that noone did it, and yet they do - they just don't bother with our street (I think as we're a cul de sac on a hill lol) I just don't want to not warn you - we went into it believing it would be hard work, but possible, to make our money back and then to earn - and it just wasn't, no matter how many times we got told we could, and there were the "hidden" costs that we didn't realise about which just made it even more impossible. I wish we had researched things a bit more fully before taking it on face value as it would have meant we hadn't been left out of pocket.

Drea

lozza1985 wrote: »

O yeah they last about 6 months - think they change about December/January and May/June.

The other thing to bare in mind is you're going to loose brochures - you'll get that with any brochure based business. With avon it doesn't matter so much as you didn't pay so much for them, and obviously can't use them for as long - but when you were banking on using those brochures for another 4 months with kleeneze, it's even more heart breaking. We started with 200 books, and ended with about 120 after less than 2 months, it took a lot of trips back to collect up all the books, but we had to - otherwise we would have had far less books. As in some areas it's saturated with kleeneze reps, if someone has already told the previous x amount of distributors I don't want a book, then you go and deliver one as you don't know - they tend to end up in the bin as people have lost their patience and don't realise that it was an honest mistake, that you didn't know that they didn't want a book.

As I say, I don't want to say don't join kleeneze - just research things thoroughly before you shell out any cash. Could be worth asking in the streets round you if people get a kleeneze brochure, to see how busy your area is - you might be lucky and theres noone/few people doing it round your way. We assumed as we hadn't had a book in a year that noone did it, and yet they do - they just don't bother with our street (I think as we're a cul de sac on a hill lol) I just don't want to not warn you - we went into it believing it would be hard work, but possible, to make our money back and then to earn - and it just wasn't, no matter how many times we got told we could, and there were the "hidden" costs that we didn't realise about which just made it even more impossible. I wish we had researched things a bit more fully before taking it on face value as it would have meant we hadn't been left out of pocket.

Thanks for letting me know. I am a bit between two minds with it because others have said the same. I think once I get started with Avon I can ask around if Kleeneze books are going out (or see them myself) and see what interest there might be. I'd do Betterware but knowing my luck I'd end up with two completely different areas to do for them and Avon

lozza1985

Perhaps you could try a company that is more party plan based - not to everyones cup of tea, I know it's never appealed to me, although they do tend to have brochures as well, but I know theres a couple of candle companies which seem like they have reasonable costs involved, and at least with a party plan company if you're paying x amount to join - you usually get products worth more than that so it would be harder to end up out of pocket.

nicki_2

lozza1985 wrote: »

There is a special returns process for products that have brought out a reaction - you have to ring Avon to get the process started. It's pretty straight forward, Dh had to ring about a product that brought his mum out in a reaction. It has to get sent back through the post but they give you a Freepost label to this.

I didn't know that! I don't know which one it was and I've already done the returns this time round (all boxed up and sealed etc) so this time it'll have to go back as a "not liked for some other reason". Its not good for my sales, though another £200 worth of stuff, but I need the money more than I need the stock!