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

ukclare

lozza1985 wrote: »

What an awful way to treat people!!! If I was you, I would get as many reps & BD to create a lot of noise publicly, and very clearly point out that you've been left out of pocket because of not having any warning - avon must have known for a while that they were planning to cease trading in Ireland, so they could have given you all chance to tie up loose ends, and also for customers to stock up a bit on their favourite products if they had given you all a few months notice. Shame on Avon for treating you all like this

...and sell you brochures for the next couple of campaigns which they MUST have known would not exist!

IceDiamond

I was an avon rep for a while in NI, for about 6 months. Then I left as many products were out of stock with every order, and many other things about it that I was sick of but won't bother going into now.

Anyway, with my last order they sent me a product that I did not order, and charged me for it. Months later I am still trying to get a refund. I sent the product back with the Avon courier, and heard nothing more from Avon. When I contacted them, they told me I had not returned the product, so they would not be refunding me for it, and that I still owed them the product. I told them I have the slip signed by the courier, and would not be held responsible for the product getting lost, it was between themselves and the courier. Of course Avon 'found' the product straight away.

They still have not refunded the money. They keep saying they will credit the money to my Avon account. What good it that to me? I'm not doing avon any more.

I'm sick and tired of running after them.

hotpot1000

There is no reason they cannot pay the reps what is owed, theyre not in administration or anything.
who's next for the chop?

MarsdenCuckoo

IceDiamond wrote: »

I was an avon rep for a while in NI, for about 6 months. Then I left as many products were out of stock with every order, and many other things about it that I was sick of but won't bother going into now.

Anyway, with my last order they sent me a product that I did not order, and charged me for it. Months later I am still trying to get a refund. I sent the product back with the Avon courier, and heard nothing more from Avon. When I contacted them, they told me I had not returned the product, so they would not be refunding me for it, and that I still owed them the product. I told them I have the slip signed by the courier, and would not be held responsible for the product getting lost, it was between themselves and the courier. Of course Avon 'found' the product straight away.

They still have not refunded the money. They keep saying they will credit the money to my Avon account. What good it that to me? I'm not doing avon any more.

I'm sick and tired of running after them.

Just a thought..... No idea how it works/worked in NI but here in UK credits don't tend to show until the next activity on your a/c so it may be that the credit is 'waiting on the sidelines'? Avon can 'force' the credit through and if you're now an ex-rep they will send you a cheque for any credit balance.

HTH.

MarsdenCuckoo

Pea123 wrote: »

I shall have to find a replacement cleanser, moisturiser, shampoo and perfume as well! It'll probably be hard to come by something as good for a similar price. :-(

Sounds a nightmare for you at the mo; good luck getting everything sorted but at least with our virtual books now couldn't you order from a UK rep? Perfume's a problem as we can no longer post these 'overseas' but the rest of your stuff may even work out cheaper!

MarsdenCuckoo

Pea123 wrote: »

First I would like to say that although I have never contributed to this thread I am a frequent reader and have used a lot of the hints and tips to help grow my Avon business.

I was with Avon in Ireland. I notice of late you've been discussing sales etc in the UK. I thought you might be interested to hear what exactly has happened here. I place my orders on Fridays and receive them on Fridays. I placed my order as per usual last Friday and received items to distribute to my customers. I even received my batch of C8 books. Then on Monday afternoon I received a text from my BD (business developer) to tell me that Avon was pulling out of Ireland. No word on what was happening with regard to the order I placed. No word on what was happening with regard to the returns I had made. Since then I have eventually been told that there will be no delivery this week and that I have lost the money on those items which I was returned. I have 60 euro odd of credit owed to me. As a rep I am out of pocket.

I understand that things like this happen all the time and that 60 euro may not seem like a lot of money, but it was a lot of money to me. Avon gave no notice and actually put the message that is up on the avon.ie website prior to contacting BDs. BDs were not given any additional information to what was put on the website (as far as I am aware). I don't understand why Avon didn't give a weeks notice and tie up their loose ends here. As they have left here in the manner in which they did I wouldn't fancy their chances at ever being able to obtain a foothold in Ireland again as they have done irreparable damage to their image here.

Anyway, I wanted to share what happened. I for one shall miss Avon as I enjoyed doing it, but I would have preferred for it to end in a different manner.

Thanks for finally contributing! :j (But sorry it's under such circumstances. )

Don't know anything about the Irish side of things but am wondering if this is a 'franchise' type set up? Know in other EU countries their modus operandi (not to mention their highly inflated prices) are very different to here in the UK.

Am actually going to an Avon meeting this evening where some of our Area Managers will be present. Will ask if they know anything more or who you can ask for help.

Keep us informed pls from your end.

MarsdenCuckoo

diluvsdiscounts wrote: »

I had an email from my ASM yesterday telling me I had to give her a customer list otherwise my roads would be taken from me. Apparently it's Avons new policy.

Edited to say I have just re read the email and it actually says

[FONT=Default Sans Serif,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Please reply with your customer details by 30th April, if I have not received a reply by 30th it will be taken that your customers are scattered/friends and family and any previously allocated territory will be automatically deallocated.[/FONT]

Sorry, know this is too late for you now but am a firm believer that a rep's customers are just that - the rep's. You're independently self-employed.

Can see the reason for asking for your customer list if you're giving up i.e. to make sure those customers are still looked after, but seems to me your ASM is using bullying tactics. She's fully entitled to reduce your territory if your sales are below those expected/budgeted i.e. without having your customer list, so connecting the two is a tad OTT in my book.

Anyone worried about having territory removed, ask for an up-to-date territory report from your upliner. It will quote your streets, amount of potential/expected customers and value of potential/expected sales per street compared to the value of your last three orders and whether you're 'over/under-performing'. It's easy then for you to compare that to your own customer list and request your upliner to release streets that are not working for you.

diluvsdiscounts

MarsdenCuckoo wrote: »

Sorry, know this is too late for you now but am a firm believer that a rep's customers are just that - the rep's. You're independently self-employed.

Can see the reason for asking for your customer list if you're giving up i.e. to make sure those customers are still looked after, but seems to me your ASM is using bullying tactics. She's fully entitled to reduce your territory if your sales are below those expected/budgeted i.e. without having your customer list, so connecting the two is a tad OTT in my book.

Anyone worried about having territory removed, ask for an up-to-date territory report from your upliner. It will quote your streets, amount of potential/expected customers and value of potential/expected sales per street compared to the value of your last three orders and whether you're 'over/under-performing'. It's easy then for you to compare that to your own customer list and request your upliner to release streets that are not working for you.

I did exactly that as one of my roads only has two customers in it so I thought maybe she could "deallocate" as she puts it and then allocate me the road I was after. By then I had given her my customer list and she said OH no keep that road aswell!! which completely contradicted her email.

MarsdenCuckoo

Hmmm.... Oh well, at least you've got a happy ASM; always useful to forge a good relationship with your ASM anyway so maybe no big deal.

TBH it would be easier if we all knew our reps' customer lists but there is still that Data Protection aspect and as reps are self-employed seems to me that Avon can't have it both ways!

SpendyMcSpenderton

Hiya!

First time poster and I've been lurking a bit looking at these threads for a while.

I'm thinking about becoming an Avon rep I've just got a couple of questions though about the process, what's required etc.

I actually work in sales for a living. Hard core software sales and I've got a background in marketing and advertising as well. So skills set wise very well placed. I know my way around marketing strategy and all the kind of malarkey etc. Obviously this wouldn't be hard sales but I'd be happy to do my own lead generating, advertising and promoting myself.

First things first. How big an area do you get normally? Is it normally far from your house? What would an average order value be? And the big one for me, is it doable without a car?

Really interested in earning a bit extra in my spare time and I really think that Avon could be it. I'm ever so slightly obsessed with cosmetics at the best of times.

Also, how easy is it to do around a full times job as well?

Thanks!