I have a confession…I’m going to become an Arbonne consultant.
My mother in law took me to an Arbonne party about 2 weeks ago - I meant to tell you about it, I really did…
She wants to order some things, so she convinced me to become a consultant so that she could get some products for 30% off.
I live in MN, but if you live in ND you don’t have to pay the $29 fee to join - that’s a great deal.
I’m still going to have to check and see if you get the same stuff in ND.
I’m going to learn how to work the business offline, because I’m interested in learning.
I’m not exactly sure that I will work it offline though.
I am planning on promoting Arbonne online on my sites - it would be irresponsible not too, since I have the websites, and since I have been thinking about adding some ads instead of the adsense ads on the forums.
In fact I have an ebay auction now for 1 month of ad space on Etailers Mall.
Of course I will still have the free ads on Etailers Mall - that’s what the site is all about.
So now you know my secrets.
Oh yeah…unlucky me Josephina has already claimed the Arbonne ad for the cosmetics section of Etailers Mall…and I’m going to leave that up.
I’m not saying that I won’t figure a way to get my stuff in there somehow though 
I’m thinking of adding some new options to Etailers Mall, and I need something to test it on.
January 27th, 2007 - 2:11 pm
I guess it’s about time to tell you that I’ve given up on Arbonne. After repeatedly asking my sponsor to send me the company emails, I was told by her that she didn’t send that information to wholesale buyers.
Because I did not purchase 4-6 RE-9 kits to pass around and let people try for a week (in case you’re wondering this practice is allowed by Arbonne, but is not considered to be the best practice) she wouldn’t send me company emails anymore.
I am not willing to try to bring people into a business when I know that I can’t give them all of the information they will need to run the business successfully, because I don’t have it. Even though the company does offer training materials, and some consultants run their business with no information from their sponsors, I’m not willing to do that…
If I am going to run a business I want all of the information I can get about it, especially when the information is about how to comply with company policies. After all if we don’t comply with the policies, then Arbonne can close our business down.
I emailed Arbonne about the situation a month ago, right after it happened, and asked for clarification about their policies and procedures, and asked if I could have someone email the information since my sponsor was not sending them to me, since I hadn’t purchased the kits.
I still have not recieved a response from the company.
After 2 weeks I called the 1-800 number provided for the company, and was told that only the Vice Presidents were supposed to get the emails from the company, and if my VP and my sponsor didn’t want to give me that information, there was nothing they can do. The person I spoke with on my phone did call the VP, who called me, and talked to me, and had me put on my sponsor’s sponsor’s email list.
Since this person is also a member of the 4-6 kit regime, now I know I’m not going to find out anything different from her - after all in the last training meeting I went to when she was present she was bragging about how she had a relative who wanted to sign up and buy one cream, but she and her sister wouldn’t let her off the phone until she’dsigned up and bought 4 kits - at a cost of $266 per kit (minus the 35% consultant discount) that’s a bit of a jump from the $72 cream she wanted originally.
I do have to add that the VP recommended 4-10 kits instead of the 4-6 kits I was told about originally! Wow!
Anyways, the second person has taken me off of her email list, so I guess I’m done.
I haven’t bought any new Arbonne stuff since I was removed from my sponsor’s list originally. It’s a good thing she did it when she did, because I was planning on buying a website from the company, and I’d already started promoting it to my friends and family.
I should add that Arbonne doesn’t have a minimum amount of products you have to purchase to remain a consultant, but you do have to purchase $100 worth of products per month to recieve your commissionts.
As it was I spent Christmas telling everyone that I if they were still interested they could sign up, but I’d been removed from their mailing list because I hadn’t purchased the kits…when I explained why they wanted me to purchase kits (to pass them out and let everyone try the kit for a week in their home, then pass that kit to someone else to try) I heard a universal “gross.”
I guess I’m not the only one that doesn’t want to use stuff that’s been in several other people’s bathrooms for a week at a time.
After all those stories you hear about “I put Nair in my boyfriend’s shampoo,” I’d be a little bit worried about what had been done to it.
So that’s the story. I do have the email address of a person in compliance, so I might try to email him, just to get a final answer, but I’m not sure yet.
After all, I’m sick of wasting my time on the company.
I’ve already removed all references that I’ve made promoting the products (I think), but I figured I’d leave this up here and let you know what’s going on since I know people are searching for the information.
4/4/2007 Updadte
I still haven’t heard anything back from the email complaint I sent to Arbonne. I sent it through their email system, and I got a confirmation, so I guess they just don’t care.
That’s pretty sad. I hate to think that the same people are out their, brining people in, then refusing to train them if they don’t spend enough money. I did place orders, and I did order catalogs and other startup supplies, so it’s not like I didn’t order anything…but my sponsor didn’t get commission on the stuff I ordered, so she obviously didn’t want to waste her time on me since I wasn’t making her any money.
That’s life I guess.
There will always be unethical people in a business, but it’s up to the business to decide what they want to do about it.
In this case it looks like Arbonne doesn’t care.