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Is Avon a scam? It sounds like a pyramid scheme to me?

I just joined Avon as a sales rep this week and now that I have done some reading about it online, I think I may have been suckered into a scam. It seems to me that "multi level marketing" is just another term for pyramid scheme. It costs $20 to sign up and each brochure is 1$, you have to pay a 2$ handling fee per order and you have to order something every other campaign. If you only have a few customers, you could easily spend more than you make! They say that the real money is in recruiting and I don't want to recruit anyone. I just want a legitimate job that I can do at home as I am a stay at home mum to two little boys. I really don't want to get sucked into a scam!

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    I see how you could see it that way; it does fall into the realm of pyramid scheme with one major difference- Avon actually sell quality products and have been around long enough to become a legitimate sales company. So even though the basic premise is the same- a person makes more money by recruiting other people- you won't be selling fake investments or excess insurance. Avon has myriad of products that real people enjoy.

    Just as a side note, for whatever reason, Avon sells their stuff online totally eliminating the need for an Avon representative as far as I can tell. Unless the reps are selling the stuff at a cheaper price. I saw that and I thought it really undermines the sales people.

  • watkin
    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    Avon Pyramid Scheme

  • 1 decade ago

    I don't know if I'd consider it a true pyramid scheme but it works that way. My neighbor invited me over for a similiar type of scheme and to see what the truth was I asked about getting people to buy at the bottom level and everyone laughed. Yes the deal was to sucker people to spend the money underneath you. I went through that with Holiday Magic in California years and years ago and bought the kit, got the route. . .all my people were just buying houses and most had a kid or two and very little furniture. They had no $ to spend on expensive makeup. But the thing with Holiday Magic was that the products were superb. I got out of it and used up my own kit and was delighted to have that little black case to use for travel. I understand that some of the Avon stuff is better than it used to be and I used to use skin so soft on a regular basis but that was it for quality. So how does Tupperware work? That's a great product. . .And then there is Mary Kay. . .Good luck. Something should work but don't lay out any $ until you understand the whole deal. There is a rather well to do lady that I volunteer with. She is always out there with one product or another but basically she is trying to recruit you to sell under her so she can sit on her fat *ss while I do the work. Not happening. I had to laugh when I ran into an old volunteer I hadn't seen for awhile. She said she had to drop out because she always got stuck with the woman that kept trying to get her to sell things for her and she was ready to kill her. Good luck but be very careful.

    Another thing you might look into is doing marketing for various companies and mystery shopping. Don't pay anyone for a list of the companies . . .that is a rip. Just watch the paper. Also merchandising. . .you stock products or move their products to end caps. It's fun to show the products and hand out coupons. And my sister did some serious mystery shopping. Again it's the same deal. Some companies will pay you well and treat you good and others will try to scam you into working for nothing. After you get in with a couple of companies and are flexible to work whatever they need you to do, you can line yourself up and make a few extra bucks. I made it through college with a couple of those jobs and I demoed the Brita Water pitcher until my right arm got bigger than my left from standing there talking about the pitcher and holding it up so everyone could see the clear water. But it was talking and you can tell by the length of my answer. . .something I really like to do.

  • 1 decade ago

    Well, I don't know what you read, but the smallest quantity of brochures you can order at a time is 10, and they cost $5.75. That's only 57 cents each. The more you buy, the cheaper they are. There is an order processing fee of $2.50 per order, but if you have 20 customers in one order, it's still only $2.50. Plus you get free shipping on your order as long as you place it on time. The smallest commission you can make is 20%, and the bigger your order is, the bigger your commission. I've been selling for about 8 months now, and I don't make loads of money, but I'm always in the black. Unless you have loads of family and friends willing to buy from you, or live in a heavily populated area, it could take a couple of years to get to the point where Avon could be your only job. But it is possible. Just know that it isn't a scam...

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  • 1 decade ago

    They say they would like you to recrute people but I know someone in Avon that does very well without recruting anyone but it took time to build up to the point were she was making a fairly good profit. She only started with about 8 people she was ordering 20 books at a time she deliver books to people on a street for about 3 or 4 campain's the people that buy she keeps giving books to if they don't it's time to move on with those books till you find other people that buy. If you pickup 2or 3 more then the extra books you move on again. Once you have all 20 people buying you order a secound det of books and keeping doing the same thing's the person I'm talking about does very well and never go's to meeting or any of the extra thing they would like you to do. You can do as much or as little in that business it's up to you.

  • 1 decade ago

    Avon been around for ags. It is true that it could be seen as a scam but they are not becayuse of the results it has given. I personally dont like the avon business model. By the way, someone gave me a stay at home gig tonight. It is $10 an hour. the only reason I wont take it is because I dont need it. If you email me I will send you the info, but, it is a time sensitive job, so you need to email me asap so i can forward you the info. masteroftrades13@yahoo.com

  • 1 decade ago

    Hello-

    Does anyone here know what a true Pyramis scam is .. from the 70"s

    By the posts i dont think so.

    when your saleing a product or service then right away its not a scam or pyramid. when your only recruiting without product thats called a true PYRAMID scam theres still a few compaines out there like that . they will close soon.

    Multi level marketing is an awasome way to make money . the key is the right product or service. but you need to know how to do Multi level marketing otherwise you will fail

    good luck

  • I dont know about avon but I did the mary kay thing,spent over $200 dollars and didnt gain a cent back, tried to get back in touch with my representative after i had bought the kit and never got any calls back from her.

    Source(s): my foot
  • Emoly
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago

    Avon ladies are pretty much obsolete thanks to the internet. Why talk to a representative when someone could just order online?

    You would really have to bust your *** to get any profit out of being an Avon rep.

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