Avon Cosmetics

Blego

Good Morning all.

I'm hoping someone here can assist with a problem my girlfriend and I are having with Avon Cosmetics.

She has been selling with Avon for 9 months or so now but slowed down over the Christmas period. For the past month or so she has had numerous calls, some asking her if she needs to place an order, but more often calls asking her to pay for goods which she received, but returned as they were goods that she hadn't actually ordered. A whole box full!!

Now, sometimes when a delivery driver delivered her goods she would have a parcel for them to collect - unsold goods, returns or goods that were'nt asked for in the first place. Each time there was something to collect, when asked for proof of collection the driver would state that he couldn't offer such a thing and that it wasn't asked for him to do so. She took this as given, as they obviously knew what they were doing!!! Her Mum realised the same as she sometimes took deliveries when neither of us could be there.

Avon are now stating that they haven't received goods that were returned one of these times, which amount to £127. She has little proof as the driver wouldn't issue a collection notice, but the goods have been returned - or at least they were collected by whoever they used.

From doing a little research myself through Google it seems that my partner isn't the first to be caught out this way. For the past few weeks the phone calls have been more frequent and harassing, which has started to upset her. I've tried to contact them myself just to find out which courier they use, then maybe I could track the collection myself, but they will not give me that information.

We are honest and truthful people and have never been in a situation like this before. So what should we do? Is it a matter of just ignoring them until they go away, or could that cause further issues? Is there any proffesional type of letter we could write? Should I contact OFT or someone like that? There's little point speaking to their customer services company in Mumbai. They don't seem to care and tend to just give the same answer everytime, much like it's scripted.

I'd appreciate any help anyone can give as we are both getting worried by these constant phone calls.

Many thanks.

EssexGirl

I haven't done Avon for some years now, but back then the delivery driver had to sign my returns book to prove he had collected from me. Do you have an area manager? Go back to whoever recruited you.

There is a dedicated Avon thread on here, you may get a better response from there.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3435527

The customer service has always been rubbish in my experience. Hope you get it sorted.

Blego

Thanks EssexGirl.

I'll copy/paste this over there and see what response I get.

many thanks.

Saint_Chris

I'm a avon representative.

When you do returns to avon, you print off a returns form, it has the product number on, and it has the quantity on, along with the price of the return.
Avon do not pay comission on products that are not sold,
eg
a product is £10 in the brochure
comission £2.50
you owe avon £7.50 for the product.

You would be surprised how many people, deduct the £10 ammount from their balance and not the £7.50

so on your returns slip you fill in the the bottom, which asks for date, and the carrier return label number, this is the last 4 digits on the label that you stick on the returns parcel.
Avon send you 3 of these each campaign, the 1st 8 numbers are your account number the last 5 your returns number
ie if your acount number is 12345678

then your return label number would be 123456789876

so 9876 is your return label number which you fill in on the returns slip, you wrap your products up along with the returns form inside, on the outside you put the carrier returns label, which has your account number written and done in bar code.

when you give the carrier your returns he scans it, using a barcode scanner, the same one he uses when you check when he tells you how many boxes your due to receive.

I've also visited avons warehouse and seen what happens to returns, they are received at avon, and the barcode on the front of the package is scanned, the parcel is open and all returned products are manually checked.

You also have another returns form, which if you want you can ask the driver to sign, should you wish to, but to be honest i dont i just let the driver use his scanner, i've been a rep for over 20 years and never had a problem with returns.