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Anti-MLM: Norwex

My experience with the MLM company Norwex.

By Jo. SchmidtPublished 4 years ago 10 min read
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In all my articles about MLM’s, I will not be mentioning names of people, however, I will be saying the names of the companies because I do think it is important to show how each company I have dealt with in the past has acted.

For my first article about an MLM, I will be talking about the company Norwex. This company makes eco-friendly products such as cleaning supplies, and personal care.

The first time I heard about Norwex was when my aunt gave me one of their microfibre makeup removing clothes for Christmas. Although I did like this cloth, I much prefer Makeup Erasers, or the Erase My Face makeup clothes. They are the exact same thing in the sense that they are reusable makeup removing clothes. However, the Makeup Erasers (that you can purchase from Sephora for $25) or the Erase My Face clothes (that you can purchase from Bed, Bath and Beyond for $14.99 for a 4 pack) are much softer and come in many more colours and designs. The Norwex clothes run about $21.99 which is cheaper than the Makeup Erasers, but again, I prefer the Makeup Erasers as you can easily order them online, they have many different colour options, they are softer, and you don’t have to go through the hassle of being linked up to a consultant to place an order.

In 2015, I was invited to a Norwex party my cousin was hosting. The party was fine, I was mostly just there to be nice to my cousin, but also for some snacks. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am all about eco-friendly products in your day to day life, which is a lot of what the consultant was advertising with the Norwex products. However, I do think it is possible to get eco-friendly products for a lot cheaper than the prices Norwex was asking, and a lot easier then, again, going through a consultant. I myself have done tons of research on eco-friendly cleaners and trying to use reusable items, and I have done it in a very affordable way.

Near the end of the party, the consultant gave each guest a chance to win a prize. All she said when handing out the prizes was there are some that are 50% off one item or 10% off your whole order, and then there were some ‘other’ prizes. The prizes went around and I soon learned that these ‘other’ prizes were the prize that you got to host your very own Norwex party! Which, you guessed it, is what I won. Insert sarcastic Woo-hoo here. I definitely didn’t want to host my own party. My cousin was trying to talk me into it, telling me that it doesn’t cost anything to host a party. Except it does, because I would have to pay for snacks and refreshments for the guests, I would have to clean my house for a party, which I did not have time for as I currently was in school full-time as well as working part-time. I barely got a single day off, let alone time to prepare for a party.

As the evening came to an end, my sister wanted to leave, as she was meeting her boyfriend to go see a late movie, and I was her ride there. We were trying to pack up, when the consultant grabbed me (I kid you not when I tell you she put her hand on me and held me back from leaving my cousins house) and told me that she couldn’t let me leave until I made a date for my party. At this point, my sister was halfway out the door waiting for me and I was trying to leave as well. I explained to the consultant that I was very busy as I was working and in school at the moment and didn’t have a lot of spare time. I asked her if she could possibly call or text me in the morning to set up a date when I could see my agenda and know exactly when I would have a free evening. She continued to tell me that she could not let me leave until I gave her a date. So, in an effort to go, I asked her, could I give you a date for now, but can you still call, email or text me in the morning in case that day doesn’t work? She then PROMISED me she would, telling me she ALWAYS texts her hosts to confirm the date. She told me she would make a note to herself to text me the next morning to confirm the date with me and possibly reschedule in case that day didn’t work. So, she and I picked a temporary date, and my sister and I left.

The next day, when I had a chance to check my agenda, I realized I was scheduled to work the evening I had given her, but at this point, all I could do was wait for her to text me back, as she didn’t give me a contact number. I gave her mine to call me and confirm that day, but she never gave me a way to get in touch with her.

A couple weeks went by and I still had not heard from this consultant. At this point, I honestly forgot about the party, having been way to caught up in my school work.

The evening before what would have been my Norwex party, I was at home, doing homework, when I received a call from an unknown number. I answered it and on the other line was her chipper voice. “Hi there! It’s *blank* from Norwex. Just calling to see if you have everything ready for your Norwex party tomorrow and if you are super excited about it!”

I was completely confused.

I explained to her. “I can’t have a party tomorrow, I work. I asked you to please call or text me the morning after my cousins party to confirm a date, but you never did.”

“Well, I just assumed you wrote the date down and it was okay.”

“No, I told you that I am currently working and in school right now and I didn’t know my schedule, nor do I have a lot of free time. So I gave you a date so I could leave, but I asked you to call me so we could change it if that day didn’t work. You told me you would make a note to call me, but again, you didn’t. You also didn’t give me any way to contact you.”

“So you can’t host your party tomorrow?”

I almost laughed. “No, I can’t!”

“Well, I have you written down for tomorrow, why wouldn’t you be ready for it?”

I couldn’t believe this woman. “I am not ready for it because you told me you would call or text me to confirm the date and you never did.”

“Well, is there any way you are still able to host tomorrow?”

“Like I told you, I have to work tomorrow and because you never called me, I don’t have anything ready, I haven’t invited anyone. So no, there is no way I am able to host a party tomorrow.”

I personally think this is a very unfair way to run a business. She was being very rude to me even though this was 100% her fault. She promised to call me to confirm the date with me, and she never did. She also never gave me any way to contact her, so there was no way for me to call her and let her know that that date wasn’t going to work. I found it very unprofessional that she didn’t do the one thing I asked her to please do and then just called me up the day before as if nothing had happened.

After this happened, I honestly was very frustrated and upset. Had she called me the following morning like she said she would and we picked a day that I wasn’t working, I would have been willing to host a party. But after the rude way she spoke to me as if it was completely my fault I wasn’t able to host a party anymore, I was angry and refused to give her or Norwex my business.

She wanted me to pick a new date to host a party, but looking at my agenda, I was completely booked up everyday for the following few weeks. I had either school, work or personal plans that I didn’t want to cancel for a Norwex party.

I could tell she was getting frustrated with me since I wasn’t able to give her a new date right off the bat. She even asked if it was possible to schedule a day that I could take the evening off work, acting like having a Norwex party would be more worth my time then going into work and earning money.

Finally, after a while, she told me, “why don’t you give me a call when you know what day will work for you for a party.”

“Sure,” I said. “Let’s do that, because as of right now, I am looking weeks ahead and there is no where I am free to host a party.”

The best part of this was she nearly hung up after, again, NOT GIVING ME HER CONTACT INFORMATION!

To be totally honest, I had no intention of calling her to set up a party. I was very mad and annoyed with how she did her business and I will not support a company that allows their employees to speak rude to customers when the employee is completely in the wrong.

I thought it was deceitful that at the party, she said she was giving out “prizes” only to have more then half the prizes be ‘host your own Norwex party.’ I have been to a couple other MLM type parties where they have done the same ‘prize’ thing, however, those counslantants told the guests that they would have the chance to either 1:get a prize or 2: host their own party. This left you with a choice. You can risk it and possibly pull a prize of 10% off your order, but potentially end up hosting a party of your own.

There were a lot of things that she did that I found very unprofessional. To begin with, the fact that she physically held onto my arm to keep me from leaving my cousin’s party when I was unable to give her a date. Next, she didn’t call me to confirm or reschedule the date I had given her when she promised me she would call me, and like I said before, she was very rude to me and treated me like it was my fault and my doing when I wasn’t able to host a party, or that I wouldn’t take a day off of work in order to host a party.

But the last thing she did that really got on my last nerve was following us speaking about not being able to have my party on the original day given, she called me every other day for the next 3 weeks before she finally stopped phoning me. I kid you not when I say after I told her I would get back to her once I had my schedule in a couple weeks, she called and left me a message three days later, then continued to call me every other day.

I sent an email to Norwex informing them that their consultant had done all these things and they never responded to me, probably because, as an MLM, they don’t see anything wrong with this. As I will explain as I go into details about other MLM’s I have dealt with in the past, it really seems like they value the sale and recruiting more people more than they care about their customer service.

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Jo. Schmidt

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