To chuck the Avon book in the recycling.

[Houseplanter]

So I know there's someone out there trying to make a living and good for them. But i don't want Avon stuff. My choices are to

a leave it out on the step where it'll likely get wet
b keep it in the house but I'm unlikely to be here when they call back
c (and this is my preference) chuck it in the recycling with the rest of the unsolicited trash.

Please leave it out in the plastic bag she should have left it in with a note telling her you don't want it. She will have had to pay for the books!

Not OP's problem though, as others have already said.

Sometimes we do things even though they aren't our problem just because we are human and sympathise with someone trying to earn a little bit of money.

It's junk mail, bin it. Why this reverence for a cosmetics catalogue?! It's not a bloody holy book!

The funniest knock on the door I ever got was an older man who just said, "Horse muck." I was a little confused and said, "Sorry." He repeated, "Horse muck." I stood there looking confused and then he said, "Do you want to buy some horse muck for the garden." I didn't.

My neighbour assured me it was excellent horse muck. I still didn't want any.

I’d have told her she was an arse and owed me an apology for going through my bin !! I think this is the problem with Avon, Kleeneze catalogues and the like. I know for myself that we get so much junk mail I tend to just scoop it all up and put it in the recycling - I wouldn’t necessarily notice one of these catalogues and think to put it to one side.

Now I’ve heard it all - the very definition of shitty products being sold door to door !!

My Avon lady only delivers to houses that have expressed an interest, leaves the catalogue in a plastic wallet with a note saying which day she'll collect so it can be left outside with no inconvenience. I only order something about every 3 visits but I like to look the through. Not sure why all the hate.
Also find the idea of the Avon lady suing me for keeping the brochure frankly hilarious!

That seems to be the most sensible business model, really: accept the hit when you get the new round, in the hope of getting some interest; then just take future brochures to houses that actually buy from you. You could always catalogue-bomb the whole street every year or two, in the hope of getting new interest. It's a sunk cost that you have to build in to your overheads of (hopefully) identifying your customers.

People who put leaflets through - for takeaways, gardening services, conservatories or whatever - have also had to pay for their marketing materials, in the knowledge that most of them will end up as wasted money in people's recycling bins. There's nothing sacred about an Avon catalogue over any other mass-mailing marketing campaigns.

I'm not seeing any hate in this thread - people just don't like being given extra work by strangers who are hoping to make money from them, especially when the stranger blames them if they don't do it.

The funniest knock on the door I ever got was an older man who just said, "Horse muck." I was a little confused and said, "Sorry." He repeated, "Horse muck."

I thought you were going to say he was your local MP canvassing before the election!

It was a long time ago but it still makes me smile as it was so bizarre. Not that I think of it often but if something like this brings it up it definitely makes me smile.

I'd probably have wanted that even less than the horse muck.

We pop all junk mail like that straight in the recycling, it had never occurred to me to do anything else at all till I saw this thread. I'm not leaving junk mail in a bag on my doorstep, making the garden look untidy and advertising that we're out.

I remember an avon rep getting really shitty with me on fb, as someone asked for a catalogue dropped off and I had to nerve to suggest ordering directly from the website

That’s hardly the point - I get that they want to earn a ‘bit of money’ but it adds mental load and admin to my already full bucket of shit.

I once dithered and mithered two weeks about a bloody Avon catalogue getting wet and soggy for two weeks outside my house in a plastic bag looking like litter because we’d inadvertently missed her collection window. She never turned up again.

I haven’t got the time or head space for that. Other folks have shit going on too.

If someone wants to earn a bit of money it's not the best idea to spend £££ on a stack of junk mail and then post it through strangers' doors.

I’d suggest you were giving that vastly more headspace than it required. Leave the catalogue outside the door and forget about. If you still see it there a week or two later, bin it. Job done with minimal headspace usage.

Avon is an MLM, which is fundamentally a a glorified pyramid scheme. Once they've posted a catalogue through the door, it is your property, to do with what you will. And honestly throuwing it away is the best thing to do, because it shows that you're not playing their game

Is it actually an MLM? I don't think Avon reps are in hierarchies of individuals where everyone gets a cut from all their downlines' sales. As far as I'm aware, it's a legit, albeit outdated, business model whereby you buy from a salesperson who gets a commission. Is that not the case?

How can you get a ccj if someone leaves something you didn’t ask for and don’t want on your property and you dispose of it? I don’t get it.

It's not pure direct sales anymore, they also don't seem to give reps exclusive territories anymore. They hide the details well but there are various "leader" ranks that are based on having a team as well as your personal sales. A pp linked to this blog which did some digging https://www.talentedladiesclub.com/articles/is-avon-really-a-better-mlm-or-is-it-a-pyramid-scheme/

There was also something called, I think, Betterware, a catalogue of kitchen stuff that was pushed through letter boxes. One person knocked on our door and we didn't have the catalogue to give back, he tried to tell us we'd have to pay for it!

Yeah this is a known scam. Anything posted through your door intentionally like this is an unconditional gift, and it is in fact illegal for them to ask for payment.

Does kleeneze and betterware still exist?

You can't. It's absolute bollocks.

Imagine if companies could do that! Force all manner of tat on us and take us to court. Preventing that is exactly why laws exist that specifically ban companies from having the right to demand payment for unsolicited goods and services and why that poster was talking out of their arse.

I'm starting to think that poster might have been on the wind up. Problem is, there is so much nonsense thrown up on here by people who appear to believe it that it's impossible to be sure!