Anonymous Consultant 1 Speaks
The consultant sent me her story a few minutes ago, but asked to remain anonymous due to a fear of retribution and retaliation from LuLaRoe. Included unedited below: "We move a lot for my husbands job so it's hard for me to work. I have a master's degree and working short term or even in a coffee shop isn't easy - no one wants to take someone on who is overqualified (even though I'd love a job). So I join LLR. My bestie tells me I'll be great at it, and at the time, I loved the leggings. Knew nothing of the other items. So I start my research. I choose a sponsor - I never met her, hadn't heard of her but found her through google. I liked her because she seemed to use math and facts - two very important things. When I set up a time to talk to her she answered my questions, didn't offer any extra details, and then said 'well my team is full let me see if you'll be a good fit with my partner'. Well, I think, that can't be too bad - I assume the math and facts are legit so her partner should be a good match. The partner is a lovely woman. Educated, humble, kind, but aloof. Has no clue what is going on around her - she does exactly as she's told, when she's told to do it and never questions anything.
While I am in the queue, I start buying other items to try them out. And I don't care for them all - I like a few. But I don't hate them; they just aren't for me. Then I find out the woman I had chosen originally isn't partners with my now sponsor. My sponsor, let's call her Alice, is the direct to my first contact - let's call her Marina. Marina is a trainer. She has no education, and less than a year in the company yet somehow she is 'leading' (and I use that term VERY loosely) a team of over 15 women (by the time I left it was close to 30 not including people signed up under her directs). My first issue comes when my initial comes. I'm missing 45 items. Alice tells me that's normal and to wait. This was Aug 5th. Marina says to wait two months and then you can complain to HO but they have 60 days to send your orders. What? What company has 60 days to send paid merch? So, at the end of September, I still am missing this huge portion of my items. I calculated - it was $950 WS. So I ask Alice again what to do. She directs me to call HO - have you ever called HO?
I spent four days and over 12 hours ON HOLD ALONE trying to get through. On the 4th day, I get a rep and she ASSURES ME THEY WERE SENT AND DELIVERED IN AUGUST AND SINCE SO MUCH TIME PASSED IT'S MY LOSS. Are you kidding me? So I raised hell. That is not ok. But for them, it was my fault because I waited and my fault because I don't have My UPS. I can't get it here - I live in a building with a business on the first floor so My UPS, despite numerous emails and phone calls, can't change the building status in their system. Eventually I get them to resend it. During August, which is my first month as a consultant, I get five holey legging returns. So, I ask in Marina's page how to handle it. She tells me to stop buying items with such a high defect rate and buy something with a higher profit margin. What a stunning advertisement for the company - yes we know the leggings suck so don't buy them. Thanks for that boost, Marina.
This is when I know I will never guzzle kool-aid. Marina starts deleting my comments and questions. She messages me and says it’s best to keep these kinds of things between me and my sponsor because asking in a group setting starts drama. Um, what? So I do my best to work more closely with Alice. BUT ALICE DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE. Literally her advice is to email HO. So I start emailing - but you know what? Those emails are never answered. Well, except one.
I did get one response to ask my upline. What the hell kind of a company allows people to have directs with no leadership or business training? No one knew how to stay legal in their state, what they needed per city and county, how to keep books, donate items, nothing. Fast forward. I get Halloween leggings. The coveted Halloween leggings. And I get a bunch. I sell almost all of them and pay off my initial investment. I already knew I didn’t want to do this forever. I was pissed. They suck and they aren’t treating me the way I know businesses should. Marina is probably my biggest issue at this point, though. She’s rude. She’s demanding. And, like the other horror stories we have read, she only shares exactly the information you can find in your emails from LLR. No more, and certainly doesn’t answer questions. She openly mocks and puts people down and when I finally ask Alice why - she says ‘I think she has some personal things to work through’.
In any other work situation, whether I’m a contractor or employee, never is it acceptable for you to take your crap out on me. It’s called being professional. Anyway back to Halloween. We are in the great TC shortage and Marina wants whoever can buy 1000 pairs of leggings to get them and share them with the team. WHAT? A TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR ORDER ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND?!?! The idea that she is advocating this financial decision with the potential for one to have 10K worth of leggings unsold, is terrible. During all of this, I am invited to participate in one of the very large multi’s because Marina helps admin so her entire team is invited. There are 30K members and they sell upwards of 10-15K in retail sales twice a week. However, Marina dictates if you don’t place one order a week, you can’t participate. And, **this is potentially identifying** her husband runs a very successful software program that is very popular among consultants. As team members we can have a free subscription BUT if you ‘act against the team spirit, you will be blocked from the program, the team multi and the team page’. This means I was buying at least $500 worth of stuff a week - and selling JUST enough to pay my CC.
Next comes the ‘No BST’ rule, which was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The screenshots of emails from HO saying consultants can’t be in BST groups. So, I post it in the page and simply asked for clarification. Marina jumped down my throat telling me it’s my job as a business owner to make my own decisions and deal with the consequences. At that point, I let her know I’m more than happy to accept any consequences I may run into IF AND ONLY IF I AM ABLE TO MAKE A DECISION BASED ON FULL DISCLOSURE. This is when posting on the page turns to admin approvals. Later on that day, guess who is removed from the team page? Yea, me.
Alice says ‘it’s better that way because Marina adds so much negativity to everything’. She’s not wrong but I still need my support system to make sure I know what I need to do. Marina sends me a message the next day that says ‘sorry if I hurt you’. No greeting, no capital letters, no punctuation and most importantly no coaching, talking, training. This is not a business. This is a cult. Do as I say and ask no questions.
After the holidays, I get the merch app. And I have a million questions that no one can answer. I waited weeks and (stupidly) eventually signed it. I didn’t want to have to quit - which is what they told us the only option was if you didn’t sign. My CPA and my insurance agent both advised against it citing the liability issues. Within weeks, I begin wholesaling my inventory off. I’m done. I want out, and I don’t want my name associated with this mess. I am embarrassed to have been sucked into this thinking I could make some money to help support my household. I am currently offloading the remaining inventory in going out of business sales. My termination of relationship letter has been sent and accepted. I’m done. I haven’t paid myself since I started, but my credit card is paid off and I have no debt related to this mistake. The last bits of my inventory being sold is the only income I will make from this. I hope to have the rest gone within the next three weeks!