I am writing this about my friend who is an Avon Consultant. She is the one who signed up with the company, but she lets me use her discount. She has previously sold Avon (me too), but she decided to sign up again for the discount on products. When she first told me she was going to sign up she mentioned from the previous time she was a consultant that she owed them money. They tried calling her for a few weeks, she never paid and they just quit calling. So we talked about and both agreed that if it was still on file that she owed money they would mention that as they were putting her in the system, right? WRONG.

Instead, she ordered her first campaign and everything went smoothly. Second campaign I found about $200 worth of stuff I wanted just for myself (not including what she ordered for herself, and other customers). She didn't have all the money right away, so I let her use my credit card to pay off her consultant balance so the products would ship (since I owed her money for my products anyways). There was a first payment of $75. We check for a tracking link a couple days later, and it hasn't shipped.

According to customer service there was $7 that still needed to be paid before everything was shipped. So I let her use my card again to pay the $7. Couple days later still no tracking link, nor has it shipped. She calls the District Manager, Denise Ley, several times, and emails her SEVERAL times without a response. Finally a week or 2 goes by and she gets ahold of Denise who says that Avon is keeping the money we paid ($82) and we weren't getting our products because of the money my friends owes from when she was a consultant previously. Yes, my friend was wrong in not paying them off years before from when she was a consultant, but they have not even offered us to pay the $40 she owed previously to get our stuff. End of story, no option to get our stuff. They are keeping the $82, and we aren't getting ANYTHING.

Well I have several times utilized the dispute a credit card charge before and everything always ends up working out... so that is our next option. She is going to try calling them (corporate, since Denise won't help us at all) again tomorrow, and if no answer by Wednesday I said I'm disputing the charge and lets see what Avon has to say to my credit card company. I have this feeling that what they are doing is illegal. It would be *reasonable* to say that if she paid the $40 she owed from being a consultant years ago that we would get our things, we/she would. We have absolutely no problem paying the $40 previously owed to be able to get our stuff. But I think it's common sense they can't just say they are keeping all $82 and we're getting nothing, with NO option to pay the $40 owed??? I have this feeling I will be calling my credit card company in a few days. I'll post an update and let you know what happens.