Amazon deactivated my account . I sent in all the required information, including my sellers certification. Banks statements, shipping notification, invoices, tracking numbers, proof of purchase, pictures of the delivery at my location ,and company information. The Amazon account specialist told me if I provided this information my account will be activated.
I do not understand. I provided everything, I have proof of purchase on all my items.
The guy is a Mary Kay consultant, who insists that he has permission from MK to sell on Amazon.
My bet is that he’s going to end up losing his Amazon account AND his Mary Kay business.
I did a quick look up of how Mary Kay operates. It appears the company works one on one directly with its independent beauty consultants. These individuals then sell the products in person or on established platforms like Amazon and Walmart.
But I didn’t see any mention of sellers buying Mary Kay products to sell from another consultant.
I would suggest following up with the Mary Kay website to get a better understanding of how their products are sold. I hope this works out for you.
Um, it’s not me; this is a link to a post on the NSFE from a suspended seller.
As for MK, from everything I’ve been able to find, you are correct that they sell via “consultants” doing one on one sale (or one to group, like a party). But the terms for becoming a consultant specifically forbid selling on Amazon, eBay, or similar platforms.
My understanding has always been that MK is a multi-level marketing scheme where every consultant buys from another consultant. And that selling on online marketplaces was verboten.
I believe they purchase directly from MK with a portion of the purchase going to their recruiter, and theirs, and theirs…
MLM to be sure, but a less scammy and predatory one than some of the others.
In any event, if MK allowed sales on Amazon we would know. Listings for their product would be more common than cell phone cases.
EDIT: Unless they are more common than cell phone cases? I don’t shop on Amazon much, and I shop for cosmetics even less, so I might just not have realized.
I’m not sure if MK strictly fits the MLM scheme (but not surprised if it does).
But a few years ago, I saw a comparison of many of the big MLMs; with Herbalife, it was something like 98.5% of the “consultants” never made back their investment, and lost money.
Bottom line was that if you wanted to do MLM, go with Herbalife, as it was the most likely to be profitable! All of the rest were even worse.
You may be surprised, they have gotten way more predatory in recent years.
It is indeed a true MLM. For fun I read r/antimlm on Reddit. The horror stories are there and all over the internet. I have never been a part of an MLM but enjoy reading the ridiculousness of it all.
Herbalife is no different than any of the others - no one makes money except the very top of the pyramid and of course the corporation. Check their income disclosure statements to see that less than 98% of ANY of them make actual money. The income figures are BEFORE expenses, and many of them pay for conferences, advertising, etc.
According to the Mary Kay website, a consultant can now sell on Amazon or Walmart or eBay, but they are not allowed to set up a standalone shop as if the products were their own creation.
I found two stores on Amazon selling a handful of Mary Kay products, but thousands of each every month.
Just for fun I kept on reading and learned the Mary Kay consultants who received the pink Cadillacs were the ones selling a minimum of $17,000 a month.
Thanks for the update; I found mostly older references, so didn’t know about the change. I’m not sure if I’m surprised, or think it inevitable.
But I have a suspicion that the OP in the linked thread may not have all his ducks in a row; based on what he’s stated about how unfair Amazon is (by enforcing the rules he agreed to follow in the ToS), I’m not very confident that he actually pays much attention to details.
We’ll see how it turns out; if he comes back with a meaningful answer, I’ll post it here. But I don’t recommend holding your breath.
I agree this NSFE seller will not be reinstated, but the reason is because he is buying products to resell from another consultant, rather than following company rules and signing up as a Mary Kay consultant.
In other words he does not have paperwork showing that he is an authorized seller of Mary Kay products.
Just out of curiosity, how do you know that? That seller keeps insisting that they buy directly from MK and have not (that I saw) mentioned any other MK consultants. This is not to say that I necessarily believe this poster, but I didn’t see any evidence either way.
