Betterware Catalogue > Reviews (18)

I have to comment as I have been both a buyer and distributor of “Betterware”.

I do agree with most of the comments posted here but I would like to clarify a few things.

Yes “Betterware” can be a bit expensive. This is obviously because they have to pay distributors and supervisors for their work in getting the products to you.

Some of their products are actually very good but quite a few can be found cheaper elsewhere. Beware though of returned items. I returned a Rotarycheese grater 4 times and eventually just got my money back.

The first time I sent one back it was faulty and was replaced by one that had very obviously been used by someone else and returned but put back into circulation. The area co-ordinator that I returned it to did not look at it properly and thought there was nothing wrong with it, so he sent it back to my supervisor when I ordered a replacement. As I said this happened 4 times and I complained about it but my supervisor was totally uninterested in customer satisfaction and did not feel like ordering a new one and so gave me my money back. They do not seem to care.

I have made various suggestions to my supervisor, one regarding the fact that a number of people do not buy from catalogues or from Betterware and must get annoyed at having to remember to put books out and then being disturbed by the distributor who comes to collect them, another about supplying a list of houses that are not interested, but to no avail. I also suggested to Betterware Head Office that a more cost effective and less time consuming way of finding a customer base would be to distribute leaflets offering the choice of whether or not the householder would like to receive the catalogue, once again to no avail.

In defence of the Distributor – Most of us do this to earn a bit of extra money, part time, to tide us over rough patches. This was the only reason I joined. I do not have a drivers licence at the moment and have a toddler at home and I needed to earn the extra money so that I could use it to set up something else and Betterware was one of the few legitimate home based jobs available. I therefore have to work around my baby and this is very difficult when you have to walk for miles lugging heavy books and trying to appease a toddler at the same time. Hence the odd hours. If any member of your family is ill you have to stay at home and sometimes miss your catalogue collection but I am a very conciencious worker and always made sure my books were collected. Doing Betterware is a pretty difficult, time consuming and thankless job. People are always giving up.

The reason some orders may not be fulfilled is that sometimes, when you are going through your catalogues collecting your orders, an order form may be hidden among the pages and even though you have been through the catalogue a number of times, It can still be missed.

If you do not want any orders please tell the person or leave a note in your book. Contrary to what has been said in other comments on this site, we do not like putting books in houses that don’t order it is obviously a waste of time but if you are new at it you are not supplied with a list of houses that do not want a catalogue.

Some people order one month and not the next so you cannot judge who wants the catalogue or not unless they tell you.

I have finally given up Betterware (much to my relief) but to all of the critics, even though what you say is correct you do not know how hard the distributors work. Surely it is better to have them working than living on benefits. So please be a bit more understanding and just leave a note in their book asking them not to leave it there. What you don't seem to realise is that many of us have to sacrifice our weekends and evenings and never get any time with our families and that people who do not leave their catalogues out add on to the time spent collecting catalogues as we have to go back to old territory again and again and until you've done it yourself you don't realise how hard it is.

I personally believe that the system has not been thought out correctly and could do with a great number of changes.

To sum up.

Some of the productas are very good such as the Carbon Remover but I do feel that things are a bit too expensive but that is the cost of having things delivered to your door, as for becomming a distributor, don't unless you are desperate or particularly enjoy that type of thing as it can become very werisome and get you down.

My ex supervisor lives for it and enjoys it - good for her but I'm afraid there is more to my life than Betterware.

I am adding to this as a result of a comment made on my opinion.

Betterware does have a site but when I ordered from it I never received the goods. On querying it I was told that it had been delivered to me by the area distributor. This had not happened and by the time anything was done about it I had already become a distributor. Eventually I had my money returned as they could not find the goods. The distributor does not automatically get payed for the internet delivery and they have to claim it (or something) I do not know if the system has been changed yet or not. I have never ordered from their site again.

Representatives should not get stroppy as this is not good customer service but I'm afraid to say that supervisors actually tell you that sometimes you have to. I was not happy with this and did not adopt this attitude. I was also told to pretend I could not read if someone had a sign on the door saying no catalogues. This astounded me and I have never done such a thing. You cannot force someone to take something they don't want and it certainly will not endear you to them.

As I said I think a rethink is needed if they wish to do business successfully and gain a good reputation instead of a bad one.