I got permission from a new and obviously smart and eloquent Arbonne consultant to post her comments about the bankruptcy and about what she was told leading up to her signing up. You won’t find her comments on the Arbonne blog. In fact, you won’t find anything but "we love you arbonne" on the Arbonne blog.  You can bet your britches that the Arbonne blog moderator is deleting this these types of comments.

Meet Kathy:

I will say this as a small-time "Consulant:" I signed up last July after months of pressure from a family friend who appeared to be doing well. Also on her team was another family friend who was doing well. I did quite a bit of research online, the business seemed legitimate, so I signed up at the $109 consultant level and did the next month buy an RSVP package ($700 of product for $350) to try the products and have products to demo.

Overwhelmingly, everyone I have shared the products with likes them. The products do work. I like them. I sold a reasonable amount. Do I think they are worth their inflated price? No. I think they are worth the price after the 35% discount, but as a consultant, if you give everyone your discount, then you are not making any money.

Before joining, I was told that Arbonne is debt-free. I was told that I should buy multiple kits to demo (I didn’t). I was told that my DM was one month away from qualifying for her Mercedes (she wasn’t). I was told that NO Arbonne products contain mineral oil (not true) and other ingredients like parabens (not true). I was told they were organic (not so), vegan (debatable), and gluten-free (debatable).

Prior to joining, I WASN’T told that Consultants have to bring 2 Preferred Clients or Consultants into the program every quarter or they lose the 35% discount. I wasn’t told of (what I consider to be) Arbonne’s abusive shipping costs (based on retail price, not box weight). I wasn’t told that Arbonne would collect the retail price sales tax of every product instead of the discounted price, and collect even on "free" or "campaign bonus" products. I wasn’t told that to sign anyone up even only as a Preferred Client, I would need their Social Security Number.

I found your blog in October after a frustrating 3 months in the business. I did sign up enough clients in my first quarter to remain active but after I found your blog I abandoned that idea and quit working Arbonne altogether. I have been patiently watching since for a bankruptcy filing and now here it is. Even up until yesterday, I still received emails from my DM to seek out new clients and consultants and push sales to "help Arbonne through this crisis, it’s what’s best for ALL OF US…."

I realize that higher-ups that are still clinging to Arbonne will chime in and say that it was my DM that wasn’t honest or didn’t give me enough information and that what she did shouldn’t reflect badly on the company, but in MLM the reps ARE THE COMPANY and this is what they are all doing. Arbonne wants sales, what their independent managers are doing produces sales (even if only to each other or to new "Business Builders"), and the company has done nothing to protect or educate the individual Consultant. In fact, prior to joining it is impossible to obtain any substantive information on the business EXCEPT FROM the person sponsoring you and in the interests of sales I believe the company simply turns a blind eye to all of these shady tactics; that Arbonne believes all sales are good sales, all sign-ups are good sign-ups regardless of what representations were made to get them.

I still have not received any email from my DM or Arbonne regarding their Chapter 11 filing and I don’t expect to until they are forced to mail it. In fact I emailed my DM this morning about the Chapter 11 news and she sent me an angry reply denying it and I had to direct her to the Arbonne website where the news is right there, plain to see. If I were not educated, I would still not know about it and could theoretically still be trying to sign up people into my downline. I could be embarrassed by referring people to the website to buy items only to be greeted by the "Financial Restructuring" news.

I have a bad taste for this company now and that is not going to go away. Good thing my investment was minimal enough for me to chalk it up to a semi-expensive lesson in high-end skin care.

I’m disgusted with the way this was handled. Bad Arbonne!