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.

My last two avon ladies have been men. Not identifying as women, men who needed to earn some money. The one before that was a woman and a con artist. She took the money - and delivered things of lower value, nothing was ever as ordered.

I did it in the 90's when I was out of work and it was advertised as a job in the job centre.

They gave me an exclusive territory of streets. I had to buy the books, buy items like order forms and delivery bags, buy samples if anyone asked for them and so on. When I put the books out in the so called exclusive territory, I found another rep was already covering them. When I asked the area manager about this, I was told yes I was told she was a friends and family rep so the people in my territory that she was already selling to must be her friends.

Ended up mainly getting orders from a couple of streets of old peoples bungalows where old ladies would order the odd soap or bubble bath and then want to stand and chat for ages when I picked the book up or delivered the order. I didn't mind chatting to them but I ended up feeling like I was some kind of unpaid community service rather than an Avon rep.

Didn't make any money from it as I was never able to hit the minimum order level so I didn't get any commission. Ended up losing money every month as I still had to pay for the books and stationery even if I didn't make any money.

Older and wiser now and very anti-MLM!

I just stuck all of the crappy local takeaway menus in their helpful little bag, never bothered me again. It's rubbish on my doorstep.

I don’t think anyone is going to bother perusing a CCJ for the cost of a catalogue.

So a little update....

Seems DH has already binned it.. it's recycling day so it got added to other stuff.

He did point out only once have we been asked for it back.. so perhaps those who post it don't expect it back as PP have suggested.

Put it in a carrier bag and a post it saying .
no thankyou

This prompted me to look up Betterware online. I see that it got taken over, then the takeover company went bust earlier this year.

The Betterware guy had a bit of a go at me on the doorstep when I was a teen because I didn’t know where the catalogue was. He wasn’t aggressive, just really frustrated. My mother later told me that he was an ex-miner who had been affected by the pit closures.

It seemed innocuous then, but now we know more about the MLM model and how people who are very short of money and/or desperate to be busy are targeted and signed up ….. uuuugh.

We used to get them. There was never anything I wanted so eventually I would immediately put them back out on the doorstep in the original bag (or in a bag of my own if not left with one) each time with a note saying no thank you. Sometimes they wouldn’t come back for ages but it was doing no harm. Sadly these cost money don’t ever bin.

Avon reps get support from Avon to pursue CCJs.

For 50p? Give me a break. The real dicks here are Avon with the way they treat their sellers. What other company charges for catalogues.. it’s hardly as if they can use them for anything else. They get recycled anyway!

It's the positive feelings that exist for when Avon was direct sales and not an MLM. I'll hazard a guess that a lot of people don't realise that it's a MLM now.

But it's not a great sales model is it? l doubt anyone born after the mid 80s has any experience of the Avon lady and playing with samples, etc. Millennials, gen Z and alphas are getting their cosmetics from shops/online not from door knocks.

I am howling at you. A CCJ for a unwanted paper trash book? Unlikely. Don't be so dramatic.

They would only get a CCJ for a huge unpaid order. Not a £2.99 catalogue.

A ccj for an unsolicited catalogue 😂

I feel sorry for anyone who is still an Avon rep. It really is totally pointless now, unless you have a number of customers who don't want to order online.

I really rate their overnight foot creme and actually use it on my feet and hands as a regular moisturiser, but I order online and it comes in a couple of days.

You have to wait several weeks to get catalogue stuff. Then have cash ready to pay when the item is randomly delivered! It just doesn't work for me these days. That said I wouldn't throw the catalogue out but just indicate to the rep that I didn't want another.

I recycled one once and the kleeneze man told me off, as they have to buy the catalogues. Now I just leave it outside straightaway in what ever they've packed it in, until they come and collect it. They stopped delivering them, when a few got wet in the rain. A bit annoying really when I never asked for them.

I didn’t realise Avon was an MLM now. Shame. They actually have (or used to have) some very decent products, and I’d buy regularly from the rep at work. I still use a travel bag I got for a fiver from buying a certain number of items one Christmas. 😊

For those of you touchy about having “junk” through your letterbox, just get one of those aggressive stickers. Be prepared to miss out though. I deliver flyers every year for a local charity event. Not to anyone demanding “No cold callers, no junk mail”, of course. A woman just leaving one of these houses asked me what I was giving out and was genuinely excited to hear about the event, which she’d never heard of. It’s been happening every year but the obvious since 2015….

We no longer get them, but when we did they used to just throw them on the doorstep so I'd leave it there, if it gets wet then that's tough. They usually had a note "we will collect on xxxday" or similar and if it had gone past that time and we still had it then I'd recycle it.

@Nanaof1 My mum got sucked into the Amway thing. The couple who recruited her remain good friends, but I do remember thinking at the time it sounded like absolute bollocks. Plus my mum didn't live in the right area to get lots of customers and her friends were just up the road and already selling to those of their mutual friends that they could.

I think DF was a bit sceptical too, but didn't say anything because mum was so keen and saw it as being something which could be "her thing" rather than "just a housewife". What a waste of a couple of grand that was.

Fuck knows. Its just people trying to make some money.

If PP can be so snotty about it, be glad its not you trying to make living any way you can fit it in, and don't be vindictive enough to throw away their main means of sales.

Jesus fucking christ. The spite on this thread about something so insignificant reminds me of my local facebook page ffs. Just put it in a bag and leave it outside. Include a note that you aren't interested if you have to.

Avon is a scammy MLM - they exploit poor people and should be stopped

Thats why I hate them

The books belong to the rep. Expect an invoice if you recycle / destroy it - and Avon reps get support from Avon to pursue CCJs. Not worth it. Just leave it on the doorstep in a plastic bag

That's given me a really good laugh!!

I do sympathise with people who've paid for the books, but it's always a huge risk if you supposedly value a possession yet for some reason decide to shove it through a stranger's door.

I think a big problem is that they want to force you to engage with their business - whether by placing an order or otherwise dealing with their unsolicited mail and putting it out on the day that they specify. At least takeaway leaflets can just go straight into the recycling, no fuss. Maybe, to a lot of people who do Avon, it's a very major part of their lives; but to everybody else, it's nothing more than a minor irritating irrelevance, just like a wasp at a picnic.

I'm amazed, in 2023, that they still do it by delivering paper catalogues to people's doors. Then again, I suppose that, without those paper catalogues, there's not really any justification for the existence of the Avon lady (or man) anymore, so they either have an antiquated business or they have no business at all.

I think the ire should be directed at Avon who are clearly exploiting people. It's a horrible scammy business model

Nonsense. If you put something through my door that I didn't ask for, you have no right to expect it back. No court in the land is going to support them over a catalogue.

I also had this years ago with Kleeneze, it went straight in the recycling with all other junk mail. The threats we got from the man were disgusting. We did point out he had trespassed on our land as we did not invite him to deliver his crap.

The spite on this thread about something so insignificant reminds me of my local facebook page ffs. Just put it in a bag and leave it outside. Include a note that you aren't interested if you have to.

But it isn't insignificant. You have to notice that one particular piece of junk mail is wanted back and find somewhere to leave it, note the day, remember to put it outside, answer the door if you forget or if they don't see where you've left the book - or if they just figure that pretending they haven't seen it and knocking anyway gives them a chance to give you their spiel/sob story/make you feel connected and hopefully lead to future business.

Imagine if every single piece of junk mail that comes through your door demanded so much of your attention and engagement.

Lots of businesses are like that: they mean a huge amount to you, but nobody else really cares at all. It's a bit like expecting a stranger to care to give your kid a card on their birthday.

It really isn't spite.
I don;t wnat and have never wanted Avon or Betterware or any ofthe other catelogues.

I have in th epast left them on my doorstep, but even in bags they get wet, and 9 times out of 10 they are not collected.
Add to that, due to the way my path/front door is, there isn't a convenient place to put them, so they get stepped on/tripped over.

If they want them back, then don't post them unsolicited through strangers doors! I have a lot of sympathy for people trying to make a living, but no sympathy for this, or for Avon, who sell overpriced crap by explaoiting women selling it.

I know someone who is an Avon rep. They pay for the catalogues so please don’t chuck it in the bin. It’ll likely be someone trying to make ends meet, so if there’s no plastic bag just pop it in a freezer bag or something and leave it on the doorstep with a note saying you’re not interested so please don’t leave any more literature.