New Satisfaction Guarantee Policy
For decades, Mary Kay has offered a 100% satisfaction guarantee on its products. That meant a customer could return a product at any time, for any reason, and get her money back, so long as she had “proof of purchase.”
Without the merry go round of consultants, however, this sometimes became complicated. As we know, almost everyone loses money in MLM, so women quickly crash out of MK. What happens when the customer’s original consultant no longer exists? The customer could return it to another active consultant, who had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get a refund and get the money back from Mary Kay Inc. Or the customer could approach MK Inc. and ask them for a refund.
It was well known that consultants with very old products they couldn’t unload could get a friend to “purchase” them, and then “return” them, so the consultant could get a refund of the wholesale price from MK. They had to be careful with this game, though, because corporate could catch on quickly.
Now Mary Kay is changing things up, and only honoring returns within one year of purchase.
I have to believe this is yet another cost cutting measure, as Mary Kay continues its death spiral, and is looking for any way possible to save money.
What do Mary Kay lifers think of this? Overall it appears positive. Here are a few sample comments:
I do find it interesting that recruiters and directors aren’t so worried about any products expiring when they’re loading up new consultants with thousands of dollars of inventory that they can’t sell. They’re just worried when the people who were duped find ways to recover some of their money.
What do we think of this new policy?
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“It was well known that consultants with very old products they couldn’t unload could get a friend to ‘purchase’ them, and then ‘return’ them, so the consultant could get a refund of the wholesale price from MK.”
This also gets around the “unopened” requirement. Clever. Dishonest, but clever.
Everywhere else has time limits on returns, usually way shorter than a year. Exploiting loopholes in return policies is a major part of retail shrinkage (loss of profits through theft, accidents, etc). Being overly generous in the name of customer satisfaction is just asking to be taken advantage of.
It’s a reasonable and fair change to me. I do think it points to a culture shift that’s happening. I think they’re becoming less concerned about being the “nice” company and getting down to business with what’s happening to their bottom line. I imagine more changes in prizes and recognition will be next.