I never realized that this post would get as much attention as it does but that tells me that other people may be having the same issues or wondering about the same things I wondered about before giving them a try. I hope that this post helps to answer some of the questions that you may have.
Maybe you remember me talking about a mysterious online shopping club that I joined last month. I didn’t/couldn’t reveal the name due to their marketing rules. However, I’ve since said ‘Goodbye to this company. Actually, as I’m writing this I am in the process of trying to say Goodbye but it’s not an easy thing to do.
I wanted to share my experience, the good, the bad, and the ugly with others.
About the company
A little about the company and its products. They offer what they claim are all-natural, made-in-the-USA products. These range from cleaning products, vitamins, weight loss products, beauty items, essential oils, and bath & body. The company has a preferred member option which was what I had enrolled as.
I believe they claim to have been around since 1985. They also claim to be ‘The Largest Online Wellness Shopping Club in North America’. They currently offer over 400 products with a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee.
The company seems to have a lot of good values and beliefs which I share so I was very excited to be joining them.
The Good
I did purchase the ‘customer’s favorite value plan’. The kit included a variety of cleaners, snack foods, and some vitamins.
Another thing the company offers is Loyalty Shopping Dollars. You can earn these in a variety of ways including watching videos in the Learn to Earn program. In a short period, I watched some videos and accumulated $40-50 Loyalty Dollars.
Shopping discounts are listed as 30 – 50% for preferred members and the 100% Customer Satisfaction Guarantee seems pretty nice too.
They claim to be ‘The Perfect Part-Time Work-From-Home Business’ which was very appealing to me.
The Bad
We did enjoy most of the products we received but none of them were super outstanding. Hence, the reason I’ve not really been posting too much about them. If you know me at all you know that I am all too eager to share about things that we really like – I mean, that’s the whole purpose of our blog here!
The 100% Customer Satisfaction Guarantee is also a little misleading as they say they will credit the customer account for the purchase amount. This does not mean they will credit it back to your bank account.
The Loyalty Shopping Dollars were easy enough to make with the Learn to Earn videos however when I went to spend them I realized that these are only applied after your monthly point minimum had been reached.
Monthly point minimum you ask? Well, you must purchase at least 35 points worth of products. Please note that $35 does not equal 35 points. For some people, this may not be a big deal but for a busy, frugal, money-saving, on-a-budget Momma like me, it is a big deal.
I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about how they promote but they do have scripts to follow. You can’t mention their name on social media and you have guidelines for mentioning their products too. So how are you supposed to promote the company, get referrals, and make money when you have so many restrictions on advertising?
That’s a question I asked numerous call center reps but was told I’d have to contact someone else or a different department. Now I will say that their reps are extremely friendly and courteous they are just very vague when answering questions. Everyone answers the same questions the same way… hmmm…
They suggest using Facebook as I’ll describe below and also getting your friends and family to sign up. If you don’t get people to sign up under you then you don’t make money. Well, you can earn Loyalty Shopping Dollars but that’s not ‘the put it in your pocket and go out to eat kinda money’ that I was looking for.
I’ve been in sales before and I know you have scripts to use but this made no sense to me. Again, I’m not into bashing the company just trying to say that their tactics didn’t sit well with me.
How did I get started with them in the first place you might wonder? I was contacted by a member who was in a Facebook group that I was in. She began by gaining trust and talking about her grandkids. After a few conversations, she introduced her online discount shopping club. A while later I decided to check it out as she had such high reviews.
Once I attended the online conference call/webinar I decided to give it a try. Maybe my timing was bad as it was a stressful period right then with William having his wisdom teeth and all.
I did do a couple of posts mentioning the new discount online shopping club but I couldn’t tell anyone about the special $1.00 membership deal unless you had messaged me for more information.
Anyway… fast forward to the delivery of the products. They arrived and sat on the table for several days before I finally decided to open them. Honestly, I was tempted to just send the package back but I was sure it would probably cost a small fortune. (Good thing I didn’t as I would’ve only received a certificate of credit and not a refund.) I decided to give them a try when we went on vacation. I threw the snack bars in with our kitchen supplies. They were OK but not anything I’d want to reorder.
When I went to place another order to try some different items I learned that I couldn’t use my Loyalty Shopping Dollars until my minimum point requirement had been met. I wasn’t happy and after debating about what to purchase before they decided to send me the default order I decided to just cancel my membership.
I did really like the smell of the laundry detergent but I mean I can’t keep buying $50 of laundry detergent every month. They have rules against reselling products as well.
After searching the site a bit I found the button to cancel. Well, that leads to another link which led to a form to complete, sign, and return. Whew! This is a lot harder to get out of than it was to get into.
I completed, signed, and returned the form and explained my reasons for canceling. I thought that was it but I was wrong. There were a few more aggravations along the way but I just kept telling them No, and sending emails to customer service. A lot of hassle to end my membership.
I’ve had several memberships with companies and never dealt with the likes of this before. Normally I hit the ‘cancel’ button, ‘Are you sure?’ button, or maybe ‘select a reason for canceling’, and then I get a confirmation email along with an invitation to rejoin at a later date.
Sigh…
The Ugly
Well, fortunately, I don’t have anything ugly to say about the company. I may update this at a later date depending on how this membership cancellation goes.
I just checked, two days later, and they have canceled my preferred member benefits and I finally received a confirmation email.
Conclusion
So all in all if you are looking for more natural products to use in your home this may be for you, that is if you can find a representative to help you join the club. Just research the facts and review the requirements before signing up!
If you are looking for a one-stop online shop then this is probably not the club for you and I would just pass it by. We now just buy our essential oils from Simply Earth** and make our own cleaners and such with EOs, vinegar, baking soda, and water. You can Google Search for recipes to find ones you like or check out our posts for some of the ideas that we use.
**This post does contain some affiliate and/or referral links to products and/or services that we use. If you happen to click through a link and make a purchase we may earn a teensy-weensy small commission (at NO EXTRA cost to you) if a purchase is made through these links. These links help to support our family, our blog, and our homeschooling mission. This means that we can keep bringing you great recipes, ideas, and tips for FREE! Click HERE for a full disclaimer. –Thank you!
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