It's more like 37 things. Original grammar & spelling retained 🙄

====================================================

From a SeneGence Queen to her minions

1) Order your inventory. All orders in your first 30 days can be purchased at 50% if it is 300PV+ [over $600 USD worth]

• Let's face it — no one wants to buy cosmetics from an “empty store”... If you have it – you will sell it.
• You will up sell items because you have them in stock.
• People don't want to wait for their cosmetics
• Avoid restricting your sales ... always have inventory on hand.
• Your customers will pay for your inventory orders if you are booking each week.
• Ask your upline field leader for suggestions of what to order per season.
• Try to order a minimum of 300 wholesale (300PV)... you will NOT make money or save money ordering below this level. (Shipping is too high & Discount is too low!)

2) Get customers .... Swipe the back of your hand with the same lip colors you put on yourself every morning.

• Make this a habit.
• It will start conversations with others... they will want to know what is on the back of your hand. DO NOT WAIT until your inventory or supplies arrive .... use whatever lip color you have to start “wowing” others right now.
• Set up bookings NOW for when your kit & inventory arrives next week.
• Hit the road running... (and remember, it's never too late to get started...)

3) Know your Schedule.

• Buy a diary just for SeneGence.
• Mark out the times you cannot do SeneGence due to outside work, family, etc.
• CIRCLE all of the time slots you can do SeneGence. Try to FILL each CIRCLE with a BOOKING.
• Use your CIRCLE TIMES to find new customers, host demos, do follow-up calls with clients, or to interview clients to become distributors.
• CIRCLES that are FILLED with these types of activities = $$$$$.

4) Training is Key to Success.

• Soak up as much information as you can each week.... start by listening to the CD's and DVD's in your kit. Watch the video.
• Attend trainings, local trainings & conference call trainings each week.
• Write each training event on your calendar.
• Book yourself for training first.
• Learn Something New Each Week.

5) Shadow another Distributor — Learn by watching an experience distributor.

• Take advantage of these opportunities whenever possible.
• Contact your upline to schedule a shadowing experience.
• Learn how to Earn.

6) Carry your Testers & some Product on-hand at all times!

• You never know when you might sell something...or sponsoring someone!
• Be prepared to swipe others with color & to book an appt. on the spot.
• Use the 3-foot rule... if there is a woman within 3 feet of you – you should talk to her... Start the conversation by saying... “Have you heard of SenseCosmetics?” or “Is that Lipsense you are wearing?” or “Have you seen this lip color before?” or “I'm launching a new line of all-day cosmetics in the area, have you heard of SeneGence?” THEN... proceed to asking her if you can show her a SAMPLE of the lip color on the back of her hand. SWIPE. Ask her if she can rub it off. Ask her if she would like to try it... BOOK the appt.

7) Give EVERYONE 2 Choices!

• Swipe them with color – then say “We are looking for Customers and Distributors” ... “Would you like to have a look at the full product range” .... Let them decide if they want to purchase or sell themselves.

8) Spend MOST of your time NOW Booking Demos, Booking Individual Appointments, etc.

Book, Book, Book...Everything * Everything comes from BOOKINGS. * Everything counts as a booking too... 1 on 1 appointments, group demos, tradeshows, trunk shows, referrals... etc.

9) Offer the entire line of products to everyone; you will increase your sales and your re-orders.

• Sell LipSense first and then offer then the other products.
• Follow up your new customers and ask them if they would like anything else (perhaps a mascara or eye liner) Book a demo.
• Each Hostess can have 2 demos for you. A lippy party and an Eye party.

10) Do Customer Care Calls within 48 hours of purchase.

• Check back with them, this is how you retain your customers.
• Give them another call every 2-3 months after each purchase for re-orders.
• People get busy & will appreciate your help and you will love the increase in your re-orders by making the phone calls yourself.
• Good follow-up insures Great re-orders!

#antiMLMmovement #SeneGence #advice #LipSense #PyramidScheme #uplines #frontloading

We are outraged. This is an American SeneGence Queen (ie a very senior distributor, way high up the pyramid), complaining to her downline that she doesn't want to see them buying anything except food, toilet paper, and SeneGence products. Kidding not kidding, huh? A 😂 isn't softening any blow. She ain't kidding. She's pissed as hell.

We've been hearing grumbles from the senior uplines over the past 8 months that their commissions are dropping massively — fewer distributors are active and ordering, those who do order are ordering less often, and fewer products — so the uplines aren't earning anywhere near as much as they were last year. Panic is setting into the ranks. Aaaw diddums.

Does she really think that behaving like this towards her downline is actually going to motivate any of them to place an order? Even the ones who have drunk the Kool Aid are going to be offended by this little tantrum.

SeneGence — you are so doomed. Distributors are quitting, orders are dropping, the market is saturated, the quality of your stuff is falling, and no-one cares any more. All your increasingly-frequent, increasingly-desperate sales, special offers, and new products aren't going to save you.

(Nor are abundance exercises or positive mindset challenges. Just sayin'.)

Cross-posted on The Anti-MLM Coalition.

#SeneGence #LipSense #frontloading

I signed up for SeneGence around February 2017, right in the thick of the Out Of Stock (OOS) Apocalypse. I signed up under a local woman I befriended. I’d been wanting to help my husband out a bit by taking the financial load off his shoulders and possibly “going back to school” with some online courses. I was excited at first. I paid my $55 (ie over $60 after S&H and taxes), joined every Facebook distributor group I could, listened to my upline for guidance and listened to and observed from other distributors because I was the new kid and they obviously knew more than I did about how these things run, right?

When I signed up, my upline kind of but not really made me aware of how dire OSS was. She flashed me her phone, showed me all the stuff that was OSS, but reassured me that there was plenty of LipSense to get me started with, and I needed to order right away. Order business cards. Order packaging. Start a group. Plan a party. Indiscriminately add friends to it because if they wanted to leave and not support me, they would, and friends that wanted to see me succeed would stick around.

Recruit recruit recruit. Sell sell sell. Party party party.

(Even as I’m writing my blood is boiling to think of how I got suckered into this mess, despite being such a cautious person.)

I listened to her because I thought we were friends. I listened to the group chatter when things were really bad and NOTHING was in stock but skin care products no one cared about because all we’re ever told is “Our lipstick is the best and it sells itself”. Hint: it doesn’t sell itself.

I continued to listen. I continued to front load when I had no money to do it with. Another reason I started this was to help with debts, not add to them! But over and over again I read “front load” from uplines that we as newbies are supposed to be able to trust and look to for guidance. I read so many stay positive, God’s got this type things. I’m a follower, but I have a hard time believing God is in something that felt so off for me.

This went on for months. I’d feel discouraged about why I did this in the first place and I’d consult with my upline, she’d give me a generic pep talk and ask a lot of questions about why I started this to begin with, building a business, etc. All I wanted to do was pay some bills and maybe further my education! Not build an empire!

Over time I realized how I’d been used. That alone made me mad, but what made me even angrier is that I didn’t even see it coming.

There’s two kinds of distributors: ones that just sell product, and ones that sell possibilities. The ones that sell possibilities build big teams, get big commissions off those big teams, and give them the cheery pep talks when there’s an impending mutiny because nothing is in stock. Those are the ones who were sickengly positive all the time, discouraging any sort of questioning the situation and squashing it as “negativity” and “if you aren’t succeeding, you aren’t working hard enough” which is utter and total bullshit. I realized it too late after I’d spent hundreds if not a few thousand trying to stick it out, keep positive, and “girl boss” my way out of a bad situation.

It’s so easy to fall for the tactics. I really do like the lipstick but the pitches I was advised to give to sell product never felt genuine. I felt like I was misleading everyone when I tried to sell a whole overpriced kit when you don’t even really need the remover (it tastes awful anyway), or to act super pumped for a product that I hated or didn’t work (looking at you, mascara and lip volumizer).

I lasted about four months before I jumped ship. I was not happy doing this business. I wasn’t excited. I was super jaded about the company and their shadiness, their misleading methods of selling product, the distributors chugging that SeneBlue Kool-Aid and trying to get others to shut up and chug it, too. I got so sick of it all and was really depressed for a while because I felt like a failure.

I sold off what I could in a final going out of business (GOOB) sale, and sent the rest back to the company. I got reimbursed, not fully, but enough. I feel burned by someone I trusted, too. I really felt like she knew how bad it was and glossed over it to get me to sign up. She was really convincing and reassuring, and I totally fell for it like a complete sucker. I doubt she’s going to pay me for my extra leftovers I gave her, too.

I know not everyone’s experience was like mine. I should have known better, should have trusted my gut about this company and MLMs, but I was pulled in by playing to my best intentions.

Moral of the story: if it doesn’t make you happy to do, don’t do it. And don’t fall for pushy sales tactics, no matter who they’re coming from.

I will never, ever do an MLM again. I’d sell a kidney if I needed money that badly.

— Jaded And Not Blue

#SeneGence #LipSense #frontloading #outofstock #cult #MLM #antiMLMmovement #truestory

Photo by Tyler McRobert on Unsplash

Photo by María Victoria Heredia Reyes on Unsplash

Hello Anti-MLM world! For purposes of the blog, you can call me MaidenDisenchanted.

A little bit about myself. I am currently a SeneGence Distributor, disenchanted and maneuvering my way out. I signed up in early 2017 just before everything went out of stock. I tried LipSense in 2016, and immediately fell in love with it (I had used long-wear lipsticks for years and this was the best I had ever experienced). I still love LipSense! But over the course of the last year, I have come to realize that the business opportunity is just bad.

See, I had originally signed up just to get a discount on my own products. I honestly wanted almost every color, and thought signing up was the way to do it. Yet, I still had a “launch party” and invited some friends to try it. And I even sold product at cost to them, because I wasn't going to be doing this as a business (yes ... I know that's against the rules). Well I was honestly floored at how many people wanted LipSense! So, I decided to give the business thing a go (and sell at retail, or only discount up to 15%). And then everything went out of stock.

Photo by Anete Lūsiņa on Unsplash

I had been a demonstrator for another MLM (rubber stamping), about 10 years ago. Their commission was only 20%, so I was thinking I could run my LipSense business the same way (have parties and place orders). And with SeneGence, the commission would be a lot bigger, right? Well … not quite. First, there wasn't enough product to take orders, compile into a party, and order. And wait, if I actually did a party, I was stuck having to give away product for the hostess rewards! My old MLM had a smaller commission, but at least they provided the hostess benefits and everything was generally in stock!

But, I wasn't smart enough at the time I was realizing all of this. I thought that because so many people I knew loved LipSense that it would actually be profitable for me to just buy product and sell it. So I started buying colors, one at a time, as they came in stock. I spent HUNDREDS on shipping costs alone in 2017! But at the same time, I really was selling, and I was selling a LOT! And I ranked up just three months after signing up!

At times I had more Facebook parties than I could keep up with. (My husband came to dread times when I was doing a Facebook party because I would literally disappear. I would be “home” but not really “home.”) So I justified how many orders I was placing because I was genuinely selling at least enough to offset what I was ordering. But then I was also justifying a lot of expenses in materials, mirrors, shelves, brochures, etc. I thought this business would work in the long run. I did vendor events (but I barely broke even on them, and I spent hundreds of dollars in supplies to get ready), only to decide I didn't really like spending all day on a weekend away from my family. Vendor events were way outside my comfort zone.

I had an active Facebook group (and I spent WAY too much time on it!), and I was introduced to people I would have never met otherwise. Some of these women have become close friends, and I am grateful that I didn't run my business in a way that people felt “sold” every time they talked to me. I really kept my personal life and “SeneLife” separate for the most part.

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

However, it was not until I started compiling my records to do my taxes that I realized what the real damage was. See, first I was getting things like my 1099 from SeneGence and my credit card processors. I realized that I had moved over $12K last year and I thought that was amazing! Until I saw that I had spent closer to $20K in product orders, supplies, and shipping etc. And SeneGence doesn't make it easy for you to track how much you ordered. Yes, it's all there, but if you want to total it out … you've got to do that yourself. I had about $3K in inventory left at the end of 2017. It was eye opening to realize I had given away so much product in giveaways and incentives. I had often done free shipping and no tax, so I was eating a lot of costs. There was literally NO PROFIT, even though I moved THOUSANDS of dollars in product.

Prior to seeing the exact numbers in my tax documents, I had already begun seeing large numbers of distributors going out of business. In many cases, these distributors had bought more than I had, and for the same reasons. When nothing was in stock, you bought what you could, when you could. And many of these distributors were realizing that inventory left over at the end of the year is taxed as an ASSET and isn't deducted from your income. So they were having to pay taxes on the product they overbought! I was seeing GOOB (going out of business) posts in groups on Facebook selling product cheaper than I could buy it directly from SeneGence. I was really concerned that so many had overextended themselves, and then I started feeling like a jerk keeping these deals from my own customers and expecting them to pay more from me.

And then I started seeing the posts in my team group pages that were encouraging FRONT LOADING* every month.

I ran across a two-part video of a leadership training by none other than Joni Rogers, the Founder and CEO of SeneGence:

Inventory Build Part 1

Inventory Build Part 2

It was EYE OPENING. For one, Joni mentions in the first part that not building inventory (front loading) is “Hold[ing] back [your] opportunity to sell.” Seriously!?? Taking on more inventory than you can sell is just putting yourself in debt, or spending money that could go ANYWHERE else. If product had been in stock, I want to say I would have not stocked up as I did. But then again, this is where the SeneGence compensation plan manipulates you to buy more. Remember, in order to get 50% off, you have to order $1,500 in retail product! To get 40% off you have to order $600. And pay sales tax on the retail value!

In the end of Part 2, she refers to a woman with a $100K budget of her husband's money as “Ms. Rocks-a-lot.” (I guess this was me.) It really showed me what SeneGence really thinks of its distributors. They are dollar signs, plain and simple. The entire premise of Joni's method of encouraging inventory and budgeting it is an assumption that EVERY booking will net $500 in sales. This has been proven to be false. (Yes, I had some parties get way over $500, but I had others that barely qualified at $150.) Plus, with market overflow as we currently are experiencing (and so many going out of business—understandably), I feel it is absolutely dishonest that Joni is encouraging Crown Princesses to use this dishonest method of accounting to their new recruits.

And then I saw these types of graphics flowing down from the Amethyst Queen (or Ruby Queen? I can't keep track) way above me.

I mean, really?! There is so much in this post that is misleading. The assumptions in the numbers here are that every person who signs up will spend 300PV every month ($600 retail at 40% off). This is simply not true, especially for those of us who got wise as to how much we were ordering.

Additionally, when I was doing two Facebook parties in a week, I was spending multiple hours every night in that week to prepare and engage in those parties! And I sponsored only ONE person EVER as a result of a party. Granted, I have never been a fan of MLM pyramid style compensation, so recruitment was never a priority for me. The only people who signed up with me were people who came to me asking about it and wanting to do it. And I have never encouraged any of my team to keep inventory or recruit. And, I was mistaken to believe an income could be had by selling LipSense alone.

What I have referenced above is only a drop in the big fat bucket of misleading information flowing down the ranks of SeneGence distributors. And there is absolutely no forum to question any of the Kool-Aid in team Facebook groups. I have been called out for being negative, just because I questioned the numbers in posts like the one above. I thought by openly questioning them, perhaps other distributors could avoid making the same mistakes as so many of us.

So, I am leaving SeneGence. I am lucky to be one of the few that didn't take on tons of debt, but I spent money that could have taken my entire family on a cruise! It makes me sick to think about that. I am trying to figure out how to get rid of my inventory. I love the products … guess I could have a 10 year supply … if it actually is any good after that long.

And if this post helps someone avoid making the same mistakes I did, then it has been worth it. Even if you want to stay with SeneGence, please read the above, get all the information, keep detailed and accurate records, and DON'T DRINK THE KOOL-AID!!

— MaidenDisenchanted

*Front loading or inventory loading is the practice of buying a large amount stock up front, generally more than you can sell easily.

#SeneGence #LipSense #frontloading #inventory #MLM #antiMLMmovement #antiMLM #pyramidscheme

It really looks like SeneGence distributors are quitting in droves, and the numbers of orders are dropping, given this ever-so-slightly panicked and bullying post by a Crown Princess.

We're frankly aghast that she's telling her vast downline that to be very successful, they have to order 750 PV every month. NO EXCEPTIONS. (This isn't a requirement from SeneGence, by the way, it's her own speshul rule.)

Do you know how much a 750PV (points value) order costs? It's a lot. Hundreds and hundreds of whichever currency you're working in. In the USA, it's just over $1,000.

It also buys you a shitload of stock. If you were only buying LipSense, that would be 60 tubes of the stuff. SIXTY. TUBES. EVERY. MONTH.

So, who is this REALLY benefitting? Sure as hell ain't our CP's downline. Unless they have a large number of customers, with new ones coming in constantly (cos let's face it, even the keenest customers don't need new cosmetics every month), they're only going to be stockpiling & front loading at a great rate.

They'll end up in debt, and having to offload stock at low prices. That wouldn't happen, would it? Oh wait ... how many 'LipSense Buy/Sell/Trade' groups are there on Facebook? Yeah, we've lost count too 🙄

The ones who are brave enough to voice any concerns about how they can't afford it are told “If money's the issue, then there is no issue.” Get out there and sell stock. And the only reason they can't sell stock is because they told themselves they couldn't. The Secret and Attraction Marketing are big things in SeneGence. The 'science' of these is completely debunked, but as we know, bad science never stopped them before.

But as long as the Cwown Pwincess gets her huge monthly commission payout, does she really care at all about the financial burden she's putting on her downline? We doubt it.

#SeneGence #LipSense #frontloading #bullying #cult #CrownPrincesses #downline

That about sums up my whole SeneGence experience. I should have run like the wind, when I joined and saw the amount of colors that were out of stock. I didn't, though. I didn't know any better. I was quickly told that colors come in, and to buy them as they do. I placed my first 300pv order like it was what I was supposed to do, no questions asked. As more colors went out of stock, less came in. I kept buying because I NEEDED to have multiples of all the colors. After all, SeneGence is just hitting their peak, and the LipSense sells itself, right?

Soon after I joined, it was announced that the colors were getting cut down to 36. I was disappointed, but would get onboard if it meant more of the remaining colors would be availble. That wasn't the case. The colors were cut, and still to the day I quit this month, there was never 100% in stock. Colors came in and often went right back out. To resolve this, we were encouraged to buy colors that were in stock, and trade them for colors we needed. That only worked if someone was willing to trade for what you had, and if you wanted to immediatley lose money off your profit margin, because now you not only had to pay for SeneGence to ship your colors to you, you now had to put money out to ship trades.

Somehow, despite the crazy out of stock issues, I pressed on. I found myself purchasing way more then I was selling, because I had foolishly convinced myself that this was going to get better. I told myself I would come out on top with a good stock, and would make all my money back and then some. I convinced my husband that these purchases were a sound business investment, and that he shouldn't worry. I even had three ladies who joined under me (two of which are now also considering quitting), and I would explain things like the out of stock as growing pains, and that it would all be worth it in the end.

It wasn't until a few months had passed that I realized this wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I started realizing my upline wasn't helpful at all. With SeneGence, you are supposed to be involved with your first five uplines, as they are the ones who benefit from your purchases. My 1st and 2nd upline were almost non-exisitent, and rarely reached out to see how things were going, or if they could help me in any way. My 3rd upline was out to make herself successful at your expesne, to say the least. She would always push the 300pv, front loading, buying to trade, and became very defensive and offended if anyone said something negative about SeneGence, no matter how true it was. She and my 4th upline did have a little better communication with us girls than 1 or 2, but they gave pointless trainings that were of no benefit to running a successful business, and often lacked the knowledge to answer simple questions anyhow. My 5th upline, who literally became a Crown Princess the week before I quit, and never reached out to us lower lines.

It wasn't til mid-July that I started to see all of these things in a bigger picture or maybe that's just when I woke up, and knew that I had made a bad decsion. I had been buying more and more stock up to this point, for no logical reason, and realized I needed to do something. At this point it was too late, and I was in too deep. I started trying to get my on-hand stock down to a manageable amount, but the product just wasn't moving. No one wanted to buy at full retail because there were so many distributors offering it at a discount, including myself. I took the time to go back through my invoices, and saw that 90% of my sales were from when I ran a discount. Very few were actually purchased at retail. Desperate to get rid of the product, but not break compliance, because I still somehow hoped things would somehow turn around, I offered a sale again. 5%, then 10%, then 15%, but very few sales were made. I started waiving my tax, offering free shipping, which moved a little more stock, but nowhere near manageable. I decided to have a secret sale of 25% off in my closed customer group. I trusted these girls, and most of them had become loyal to me, so I figured I owed it to them to give them first crack at my stock, at such a high discount. The sale was a success for moving product, and I had a small glimmer of hope.

I somehow thought I could still make things work, but as soon as the sale was over, no one was buying. Everyone had gotten so use to me discounting that they didn't want to buy at retail, or with free shipping. They wanted full blown blow-out sales, and I can't blame them. I'd be doing the same thing as a customer, as we all want the most for our money. That was when I finally realized I couldn't continue on with this business. Never would I be truly successful, because this product that sold itself, and was worth $25 retail, didn't and wasn't.

If you choose to join, please do your research. Don't let them convice you the you can start your business for just $55. The $55 is an annual fee, and you have to buy stock. There is absolutely no way to be successful if you just order as people buy colors. To get 50% off you need to order 750 pv, if you order less then that, your discount will be less. So many things that if I had been told back in February, I would have NEVER joined.

I have now sold through almost all of my stock, at 25 to 40% discount. I have lost money. I have lost family time. I have failed. Don't be like me.

— C.D.

#SeneGence #truthaboutlipsense #toolate #dontmakemymistake #successforuplinesatyourexpense #uplines #LipSense #MLM #frontloading

Front loading or inventory loading is the practice of buying a lot of stock so that customers can buy from you right away. Basically, sure, it's a good idea to have stuff in stock, and customers do love being able to get what they want immediately.

However. Front loading sails very close to the “Pyramid Scheme” wind in Direct Marketing (DM) and Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) businesses, especially as distributor orders are usually linked to bonuses, rewards, progression to higher levels, and earning commissions. Distributors often place orders for stock just to qualify for something, not because there's a demand for their products, or that they've sold a lot.

This is what we're told to do, in the private Crown Princess and other royal groups for distributors ...

And this is what the official SeneGence Distributor Policies and Procedures Guide (2017) states (covering their legal butts by stating that progression within SeneGence doesn't depend on stockpiling, even though it does):

Front loading is, of course, of great benefit to the company, and uplines. It means THEY earn big commissions and get big sales. Not so great for the downlines, though. So it's a win-win-lose sort of deal, where the distributors lose out, purchasing too much stock, getting into debt, and often ending up selling stock at a heavy discount just to get it out of their house.

The Federal Trade Commission (USA) rules that front loading is inappropriate activity:

Front-loading or inventorying of product in which excessive product purchases are viewed as prohibited consideration for the requirement that individuals make an initial investment of product purchased to engage in the opportunity.

Kevin Thomson, an MLM attorney, writes:

The courts add another layer to this definition that muck it up a little: inventory loading can occur when distributors are purchasing a minimum amount of product in an effort to qualify for bonuses. FTC vs. Omnitrition

Here are just a few articles you can read about front loading in MLM:

• MLM Basics: What is Inventory Loading?

I particularly love this quote from the above article (my emphasis added):

Modern MLM sales people don't really stock products in their garage or storage, but instead, just take orders and the items are drop-shipped straight from the company's fulfillment center.

SeneGence, still stuck in the dark ages ...

• MLM Basics: Inventory Loading and Front Loading

• Where Have All the Products Gone?

• What is Front Loading or Inventory loading?

SeneGence founder, Joni Rogers, used to work for Mary Kay, and seems to have copied a great deal of the Mary Kay business model (their annual conventions are also called Seminar, just for starters!)

• The Mary Kay New Year, New Recruit Frontloading Wipeout

• Front loading: How Mary Kay Predators Rope their Prey into Large Inventories and Bigger Debt

#frontloading #inventory #SeneGence #LipSense #MLM #debunked

I became a distributor because I liked the products. I'm a born saleswoman — I love sales, and have been a recruiter for 8 years. This business was perfect for me, I have never done an MLM before (I also own my own business), and I evaluated all the numbers my upline told me, as far as earning potential to sell the product alone (I did have girls sign up under me), I was repeatedly told there were two ways to make money — selling the product and building a team ... ok I'm good with that ... except that was not the case AT ALL.

There was zero stock available, so I had to fight to buy 10 of 3 different colors when colors came out to get to $750 PV. Crunching the numbers buying under $750 PV just didn't make any sense. Anyway now I'm $1,000 in the hole and I have learned sooooo much about SeneGence's business practices that I frankly feel disgusted.

The things that bother me the most ... the fact that the Fast Start program was taken away — why? This makes it SO difficult to get started, spending $750 (which comes out to be closer to $900 after shipping and handling and prepaying taxes) ... it's such a huge risk.

Putting girls I love (my downline) in this situation makes me feel very uncomfortable. I know their financial situation and they want to make an honest buck — but I do not feel SeneGence is honest at all.

The other thing that REALLY bothered me was on my upline pages they would promote posts on how to “make money on sales alone” they say — buy $750 and sell for $1,500 make $750 profit (which you re-invest right back into SeneGence of course). THERE IS NO WAY IT IS POSSIBLE AT ALL TO MAKE $750 PROFIT OFF OF A $750 INVESTMENT. Simply — the exorbitant shipping and handling charged FROM SeneGence negates that profit margin entirely — it's impossible even if you happen to have sold exactly everything you bought (like that's going to happen), and what about testers?

We forgot to mention that a large part of our inventory is dedicated to testers. I recognize it takes money to make money, but the way SeneGence promotes making money is TOTALLY DISHONEST. I absolutely can not compromise my integrity just to get someone to take the bait and become a distributor and front load a bunch of product. I would rather eat my $1,000 loss then to propel the lie posed by SeneGence and their successful distributors. There is no legit income opportunity to sell the products alone. I can ask on my upline's page “Who is making a profit on sales alone” and out of over 1,000 — it's crickets — maybe one person claims to make a profit months down the line ... My time is waaaay more valuable than that.

Let's talk about the Shipping and Handling and TAX from SeneGence. You are charging way too much — just skimming every which way you can to make money off your distributors. WHY ON EARTH DO YOU CHARGE TAX ON SHIPPING???? HOW IS THIS EVEN LEGAL???? Just further proves that you are skimming in anyway possible.

Let's talk returns, you are supposed to send us the colors that were returned — but now you just give a credit — you don't return the tax paid on it and we have to pay S&H AND TAX again on these returned products! Come on give us a break ... also why are there WAY more colors available — almost all of them — on the Australia's distributor site, when the colors are shippped from the USA? We all know you are trying to create a fake supply and demand to create this buying frenzy ....

– Distributor 2

#SeneGence #LipSense #MLM #distributor #debunked #frontloading #inventory #truestory

I personally signed up for the LipSense. Having sold other MLM companies I wasn't new to this so I hopped on board.

Wow, was I wrong, I had never logged into a site to order products and there was nothing to order. My upline didn't tell me this little bit of important info. I just made a game out of it, called it the Hunger Games and went to trading sites where that is a whole new blog post.

I have a great team, meaning, myself and my recruit and her recruits I had a great team when I sold another MLM, so I felt that I could do this, with that being said with “front loading” that is pure bull shit!

I personally don't have credit cards and pay cash for everything, so I don't understand why a person can't just give me their credit card info and plug it into YOUR system and have the product shipped to me or THEM! Ohhhh, that may make sense ...

And let's talk about the personal website, can we get in the same century? If I logged into that I would get out and drive to Walmart to buy something. Geesh. Even the website needs updating. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing, but some of the product knowledge, why do we have to listen to it?! Can't we read it?? I'll get off my soapbox now.

— Holly Harris

#SeneGence #LipSense #MLM #distributor #debunked #frontloading #inventory #truestory

Dear Joni,

We are writing you in the hopes that you will take some time to understand what we are saying, and where we are coming from. We love and believe in your products. We are distributors because of that love and belief.

It saddens us to see the rapidly growing negativity all over the internet regarding the company. There are literally hundreds of groups on Facebook where distributors are going out of business and/or selling stock at crazy low prices. They are terrified, because during the OOS months, they hoarded colors and products because they didn’t know when those products would become available again. Now, everyone is panicking and trying to get out of the debt that this has caused.

The products simply cannot sell fast enough. We are each, only one person. We cannot spend 23 hours a day promoting, selling, packaging, marketing, shipping, invoicing, taking orders, and so on, to try to earn a profit. We have families and children, careers and lives. We signed on because we believed we could have fun, sell a product we loved, and earn some extra income on the side.

We have all been distributors for several months, if not longer, and even with steady sales that have kept many of us busier than both our day jobs and our families do, we can say that most of us still have not made any profit. Most of us are in debt, some of it running into thousands of dollars.

There are a few reasons why it’s not profitable to sell your product, and we believe that with a few changes, it could be the amazing and life-changing company you claim it to be. Not just for a select few Crown Princesses, but for all of us.

The key to a company’s success is to hold on to integrity, and not get swallowed up in the greed. We see the women pushing their downlines to order 300pv and “front load”, so they can earn their commissions. That is pure greed. Many of us have downlines, but we refuse to climb to the top on their backs. There has to be a better, more humane way.

If things continue with no changes, SeneGence will end up like LuLaRoe. A passing fad that is in its death throes now, with their $25 leggings going for $5 all over the internet. We don’t want to see this happen to SeneGence, and if you think it can’t happen, you’re wrong. As fast as it exploded is how fast it can implode. Life on the web moves fast.

Here are a few ideas we have collectively put together, with the hopes of saving the company, and our business investment in it.

1. Lower shipping costs or provide free shipping for orders of 300PV and higher.

2. 50% discount for distributors who purchase 300pv. 750 pv is really high and it's partly to blame for causing the OOS issues and the overstock issue that current distributors have. This is causing tons of going out of business sales all over the internet, where the product is being sold to customers for up to 50% off. We've seen LipSense as low as $11!

3. Low cost personal website — we need modern, well-designed and user friendly sites, where our customers can place their own orders, and we receive commission on the orders.

4. $40K a month is just greed. At 150 Crown Princesses, if they each earn $40K a month, that is costing the company $72 million a year. That is insane. How about capping that monthly commission income for the Princesses, and using some of that to make real changes to help the majority of your distributors, who are the majority of your workers, and making pennies.

5. Training — ones we don't have to pay $2,500 for. $500 for a weekly call? Why?

6. Branding. Please do something current and attractive ASAP. To be selling your products for the amount they’re priced at, they need to look like luxury items. They don’t at the moment, because of the amateurish logo, packaging and marketing materials.

7. End the monthly PV for commission earnings, stop “pay to play” (which is sailing very close to the wind with illegal pyramid scheme definitions) and give us credit where credit is due, we shouldn't have to purchase to earn commissions!

8. Bring back incentives for new distributors to sign up. Right now, there is ZERO reason for anyone new to sign up.

9. Release the new colors and products at the same time, so everyone has equal chance to get it if they need it.

10. STOP NEW DISTRIBUTOR SIGN UPS when there is no inventory to sell them!

11. Retroactive “Fast track” for those who were ineligible when they signed up.

12. Employ a UX / information design specialist to redesign Back Office so we can find things, and documents are arranged in a logical, systematic way.

13. Cap the “hoarding” of stock during times of OOS, putting limits on how many of each item a distributor can order at any one time. This is the reason for the going out of business sales all over the place. All that does is hurt those of us who are trying to sell the product at full retail.

14. Don’t use Crown Princesses and Queens as your communication channels. It becomes one big game of Chinese Whispers, with rumors running rife. One way of making sure distributors get clear information directly from you is to send out emails of updates and action plans.

We truly appreciate you taking the time to read this, and hope that you and your team will sit down and carefully consider the points we have made.

Sincerely, Your Distributors

#SeneGence #LipSense #MLM #distributor #debunked #frontloading #inventory #truestory #openletter