Avon calling... too many times!

So recently, I decided to become an Independent Beauty Consultant with Mary Kay.

I was looking to make a little extra money cuz I figured anything is better than nothing and after looking into it more, I loved the philosophy the company is based on (The Golden Rule and the idea of God first, Family second, Career third). My husband seemed to like that when it came to Mary Kay, it is a consumable, unlike the jewelry I was considering selling, so that would mean I would always have people coming to me for reorders, plus, Mary Kay has a 90% buyback guarentee so if we decided it wasn't working out I could always return what I hadn't used and get 90% of what we paid for it back. I also liked that my unit's weekly meetings and get together was considered girl time too, as at times I get tired of being cooped up in the apartment when I'm not working 2 days a week at my day job.

Now a friend of mine was also considering signing up for Mary Kay after hearing all the benefits and rewards you can reap if you put the effort in, and asked on her Facebook if anyone would buy from her if she sold. Unfortunately, she didn't get a lot of good response and one girl even told her to sell Avon, citing Mary Kay ladies are crazy and pushy - I would beg to differ, just based off my own experiences.

Now true, I have heard stories of sales ladies from various companies who do get a bit pushy and annoying, but the only annoying experience with one I personally have had was with an Avon lady.

I got engaged at the beginning of January 2008 and shortly after I attended a local bridal expo with my mom and mother in law.

Now when you arrive at the expo, they have you fill out and sign a sheet with your phone number and email in order to qualify for any of the drawings they do throughout the expo. Without reading the fine print, I, like all the other soon to be brides, went ahead and filled out the form - who wouldn't want to get put in a drawing to win a free veil or honeymoon to the tropics?

Well, like most of the other soon to be brides, I didn't win any of the handful of drawings they did that afternoon.

A few weeks later, I got a voicemail from a lady who said she was an Avon rep and wanted to get together for a free facial and discuss my makeup for my wedding.

I wasn't interested, as my Matron of Honor did Mary Kay at the time and had already offered to do my makeup for me, so I didn't bother to call this Avon lady back and deleted her voicemail.

Then a week later, she called again and left me another voicemail, similar to the first.

Eventually she reached me one evening as I was driving home from work and was irritated that she was calling me YET AGAIN.

She told me who she was and why she was calling. She asked if I had makeup plans for my wedding yet and I informed her about my Matron of Honor being with Mary Kay and that she was already going to be doing my makeup for me. The lady then offered her free facial to me, but I told her I really didn't have the time and wasn't interested. She said if I changed my mind to please give her a call and I figured that was the end of it.

But it wasn't.

The next thing I knew, I was getting email offers from her EVERY OTHER WEEK. Luckily, I had them sent to an email account I wasn't checking regularly, but still...

I went to this bridal expo almost 2 years ago and it is the only place I can figure where she got my phone number and email address from, as I have never filled out anything for Avon before. TO THIS DAY I am STILL getting emails from this woman. I have NEVER bought anything from her, or from Avon for that matter, and I haven't even spoken to her since that one phone call back in February or March of 2008!!

Talk about annoying!

I finally figured out how to unsubscribe from her emails, as there was no "to unsubcribe from this mailing, click here" link on any of the emails (thank you gmail for implementing a block feature!)

So the lessons learned from this:
-Read the fine print before you sign up for anything at bridal expos (for example) as you never know who they will give your info to and how long that person will harass you for.
-And before you go defending one company over the other, you really can't say one company has crazy pushy ladies while another one is great because there will ALWAYS be someone who had a bad experience with the company you're saying is so great.

Do I think Mary Kay is great?
Sure I do - I wouldn't have signed up for it if I thought otherwise.

Will I tell you that no one is crazy or pushy there?
Well, to be honest, the only consultants I know and have encountered are the ones in my unit and some friends of mine who have sold it in the past. From my experiences, all the women I've met with Mary Kay are really friendly and aren't nearly as overly annoying or pushy as this one Avon lady I encountered was. Those of you that know me know that I'm not very pushy at all! And yet I'm doing just fine with my Mary Kay business.