To warn you about this scammy make up sales technique

[Ohnowattsthis]

I feel terrible. My mum came back from a trip away with a present for me. A gift bag with a couple of pallets of make up in it.
I think she got it in Norwich or a motorway welcome break type place.

From what she has said and looking up the company I feel the sales pitch was most unfair.
The company is called make up essentials and I have put a pic up of their product with a logo. They are nicely packaged but pound land quality.
It seems that my mum was handed a 'free' gift bag that they then said was free when you brought a little brush. ( a mean trick)
They told her that they were about to move into the department stores and that the gift was to give to your family so they could try the products ( this is how they got her! She would never spend the money on herself but was pleased she could treat me) but they are not - I found this link talking about their scam sales here www.beautiful-solutions.co.uk/2013/10/brand-rant-avoid-this-brand-makeover.html?m=1
From looking up online I can see she mush have paid £35 for a shimmer dust brush and then got the 'free gift bag' the quality is so bad the whole set together can't cost more than a £10.
To show how rediculous they price everything to make you think the gift bag is worth £200 there is a 'make up tips' book ( about 8 pages and laughable) that they say they change 10£ for!!!!
I'm so gutted they got my mum. She is late seventies and very kind, she wouldn't have got it for herself or even spent £35 on a make up box for me usually she just thought they were being kind!
I haven't told her, but I feel sick with these cheap nasty scam products in my house.
If they approach you can I ask that you pull them up on their sales technique. No- the bag is not a free gift. No- they are not a high end make up company.

These people definitely operate in central London, as a PP said they are in Hammersmith tube station. Once I was waiting for a friend and got approached and said "no thanks", when they pushed on I said "no matter what you say I am not buying anything"!! I then watched them being so aggresive with other people, it was pretty shocking.

I have also seen them at the entrance to WH Smith at Westfield London, it reflects badly on both Smiths and Westfield I think.

OP, I second the PP's suggestion about contacting Watchdog, its worth a go.

I'm really sorry this happened to your mum but I'm glad it was just $35. I live in the US and we have these awful mall kiosks that rip people off. They are all Israeli companies and the workers are all Israeli. They have extremely aggressive sales techniques and claim their rubbishy products are worth hundreds if not thousands !!! I had someone trying to push a facial scrub on me (that didn't even work) for the bargain price of $120!!! A full kit was $1000, for that price I could get several years of Botox .

Has anyone heard of forever diamonds (@queensway)?
They got me.
Walking past they told me do I want a free sample. Then took me inside their shop, then to the back and put this gel on my arm.
Then they rubbed it off and told me it was my dead skin coming off (after googling turns out its glue) and that it makes your skin like new.
Then she chatted away about it for ages saying that it was from Las Vegas and had been very successful blah blah.
Then told me it was £50, I felt trapped in this back room feeling like if say no then I have just wasted this girls time and that I would have to do the walk of shame past the other people in the shop.
It's a weird feeling like some kind of ancient sales technique that make you want to pay so that you can leave.
Anyway, I told her all I had in my bank was £30 and she then brought over this shitty body cream and said that was £30. When I went to pay and had my card in the machine she said "Are you sure you don't want to try for £50"
When I got home I checked the cream out and it smelled like the cheap cream you get from PoundLand body bath sets. It was rubbish.
I also googled the company and found lots of people had got ripped off like me.

I got got in Kensington, to be fair it was a salon and the stuff worked but 300 quid a shot! I left and treated myself to a nice glass of wine.
I took the samples with me 😁

Atlas, name sounds familiar but I don't think I've seen them.

Atlas15 are they called Forever Flawless? Between them and some women trying to flog make up and some other people trying to sell scrubs and creams, walking down Queensway is quite a trial these days!

I completely ignore these people, if I am feeling charitable I will say 'no thanks' but normally I just look straight ahead as if I can't hear them!

Yeah it's called forever flawless!
They used to be upstairs but now have a shop where Lazenza (RIP) used to be.

There's a thread on this every few years. The last one I saw was Victoria Jackson in tesco, 5 or 6 years ago. Not seen them there since, though.

Interesting to see Orogold mentioned up thread- I was practically dragged into their Mayfair shop last week by a man who proceeded to rub cream on my hand and exclaimed about all my "dead skin" it could peel away (obviously due to the PVC their products contain). If their stuff was that good they wouldn't need to be so pushy in their sales techniques. I honestly fear for these people getting their claws into my elderly grandmother.

This happened to my mum once while we were out Christmas shopping. They started off with the free gift and then started piling other things into her arms going on about if she bought this and that she would get x amount of discount. Dm hates confrontation so she was nearly about to buy it. I just grabbed it and handed it back. It's awful!

I contacted the consumer Radio 4 show You and Yours and directed them to this thread they are interested in investigating and have put up a media request here

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/media_requests/2667159-BBC-Radio-4-You-and-Yours-media-request-Make-Up-Essentials

Oh! I thought this was just me. WHSmith... I went in to get a magazine, was pondering important things, realised I hadn't got time for lunch and reading a magazine so turned to leave... young thing popped a bag in my hand and said something like free gift, make up... so I sad thanks and left the shop.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! The screeching. Oh how the security man tried so very hard not to laugh. He failed. Apparently a lot of, erm, older ladies had done the same thing... some loudly berated the young lady for being so very silly as to think people would want to pay for a free gifts and generally made a fuss.

Well, I smiled back, told him I only heard free gift and, if she wanted money for it she could have it back. At which point she said I had to pay for it as it was so obviously used! I laughed and walked away... the security guard may have sniggered too

Out of interest, what is in the bag? I shoved it in my carry bag and didn't get to see what it was!

glogirl thank you! That's wonderful! I can't really ask my mum but hopefully someone up the thread will see this.

Ooh! This guy offered me a free gift when I was last at the airport, I was desperate for a pee so ran away. Saw him on the way back but he was between me and the bar - bad move on his part.

Probably the same shit.

I got caught by Victoria Jackson at an M1 service station 7 years ago or so. I was you get and recovering from a mental breakdown so was fragile and not exactly assertive right then! Bag into my hand, do you like makeup? I'll give you this for free, then asking me what other colours I liked etc and kept dropping things in my bag before telling me £35 please as I was about to walk off.

The thing I laugh about now is that she made this big thing of closely examining my face and commenting on what sort of colours and makeup style I usually seem to go for - I wasn't wearing any make up at all!!!

WH Smith admit all kinds of scumbags in their stores. They also allow chuggers to work IN THE STORE.

I avoid WH Smith as much as possible, how fucking dare they sell out their customers to these cunts for a few quid.

I almost got caught in Norwich city centre about 10 years ago.....it was something to do with hair and beauty and the woman wanted £50....she literally started frogmarching me to the cash machine....luckily my then husband got between me and her and i legged it....have never got myself in a situation like that since x

Genuine question, I can imagine my response would be to literally drop the bag (out of panic) and run if it was forced into my hand or not grip it if thrust towards me.... If all the makeup then became damaged dropping on the floor could they do anything? I don't visit cities often but would like to avoid as much confrontation as possible.

If I hadn't read this thread I'd have been one of those that just walked off with it and i think a screeching sales rep would give me a meltdown (ASD)

The people yo complain to are the CEO of the companies concerned.

It's a scam. They know it's a scam. They make a lot of money out of it. They are not endeavouring to be reputable companies. Why on earth would their CEOs be interested in complaints.

GloGirl is that show about the same products as the ones complained about here? The ones on here are makeover

They got me once, when I was working in a pub in London, middle of the day, mid-week, no one in. She came in and was all chatty then "hey seeing as you're a nice girl I'll give you this for free if you buy..."

Sounds like your mum has been scammed, but she chose to buy the product no one actually forced her.

Atlas15 I got grabbed by those people actually in Las Vegas, so that part at least wasn't a lie . I was in a mall not really concentrating and a woman handed me a free sample of cream. No sooner than it registered then she took my by the arm and said come with me, I've got something that will get rid of that ugly pigmentation off your face (cheers, love!). I was still jet lagged, which is the only reason i assume that I let it happen. She rubbed the scrub on me (interesting to learn it's glue!) and then tried to sell me a set for $120! I said I wasn't interested, she then told me I didn't need the whole set, but she'd do me a favour and sell me the magic scrub for cost price at (I think it was) $35 or something. She rang it up through the till and handed me the bag. I said I still wasn't going to buy it, whereupon she told me to get out! I left in my jet lagged state feeling pretty much 'WTF just happened!' Glad I didn't succumb though, I don't mind offending aggressive salespeople.

I went for a laughable job interview with a similar company when I was a student. Walked out shaking my head and complained to the recruitment agency who sent me. Terrible, exploitative companies, I've no idea how they get away with doing what they do.

I think that was Victoria Jackson actually Rino!