Rodan + Fields
Disclaimer: These comments that you are about to read are my personal opinion and you should rely on your own research when deciding whether to pursue the Rodan + Fields business opportunity. Any facts below are provided for reference only and any errors will be corrected.
I have had many requests by my subscribers to share my personal opinion of the Rodan + Fields business opportunity. The time has come for me to do that. What I found very disturbing about this business opportunity is that when looking for information on Rodan + Fields I found the following post “Stop & Read: The Scam that is Rodan + Fields”. This post is by a representative of Rodan + Fields who goes on to tell you that it is not a scam. Clearly people are concerned that Rodan + Fields is a scam. This is the typical click bait titles and techniques I have seen from representatives of countless other scams trying to convince people that their business opportunity is not a scam. Here is what I have found on the Rodan + Fields business opportunity.
Rodan + Fields Scam Claims
Founded by world-renowned dermatologists Dr. Katie Rodan and Dr. Kathy Fields, Rodan + Fields puts the power of dermatology-based skincare in your hands, using a highly effective social commerce business model.
- Flexibility
- The opportunity for long-term, generous residual income
- The ability to travel the world
- New friendships
- A way to reach out and affect the lives of many
- The experience of being in business for themselves, but not by themselves
Reality Revealed in Rodan + Fields Review
Dr. Katie Rodan and Kathy Fields developed Rodan + Fields and in 2002, launched the brand into high-end department stores like Nordstrom. In 2003, Rodan + Fields was purchased by Estée Lauder. In 2007, Dr. Katie Rodan and Kathy Fields reacquired the brand and transitioned the company from department stores to multi-level marketing.
With the Rodan + Fields business opportunity they claim to offer, “The opportunity for long-term, generous residual income and The ability to travel the world”. If you take a look at their income disclosure, you find out how great an opportunity you have.
“…many Consultants may never qualify to receive compensation under this Compensation Plan.”
According to their 2016 income disclosure 44% of consultants did not receive compensation from Rodan + Fields.
90.41% of consultants had a median annual income of $2,016 or less. This includes retail profit. The vast majority of consultants are not averaging even part-time minimum wage with the Rodan + Field business opportunity.
How can this be such a poor way to make money?
…multi-level marketers should stop presenting business opportunities as a way for individuals to quit their jobs, earn thousands of dollars a month, make career-level income, or get rich because in reality, very few participants are likely to do that.
…the majority of direct sellers made less than $10,000 per year from direct selling, with a median annual gross income of about $2,400 or only $200 per month. (59% make less than $10,000 per year and this does not include expenses.)
– Source FTC
Rodan + Fields Products may not be resold on any website outside of Rodan + Fields owned and operated sites and/or via person to person transactions.
Similar post: Crazy Cash Club
Consultants may not represent that the R+F Products or the Program have been approved or endorsed by any governmental or regulatory agency.
You can’t guarantee any results from using the products.
Any video that discusses or mentions Rodan + Fields Products must include this additional disclaimer:
Do not use the information provided as a substitute for medical advice. Results vary and depend on multiple factors, including age, gender, skin type and condition, other products used, health history, climate, lifestyle and diet. Rodan + Fields makes no guarantee as to the results that you may experience.
Rodan + Fields does not distribute Proactiv-branded products and has no affiliation or involvement with the distributor of the Proactiv-branded products. Consultants should not use or display the Proactiv brand or trademark, or mention or reference any Proactiv-branded products, in connection with the sale, advertising or promotion of any R+F Products. Consultants should not compare the R+F Products to Proactiv-branded products, including with respect to any feature or benefit, or otherwise comment on Proactiv-branded products. Consultants should not suggest in any manner that the R+F Products are endorsed by any past or future spokesperson for the Proactiv-branded products, including celebrities who have endorsed the Proactiv-branded products. Consultants are responsible for any representations or misrepresentations they make with respect to Proactiv products or the distributor of such products. – Source Rodan + Fields Policies And Procedures
If you find as a consultant that their business opportunity and products are not to your liking, you are not allowed to criticize them.
Consultants must not criticize or disparage Rodan + Fields, other Rodan + Fields Consultants, the R+F Products, the Program, or Rodan + Fields’ directors, officers or employees. This includes any criticism or disparaging remarks posted on the Internet or any other public forum, both during the period of the Consultantship and after it is terminated. – Source Rodan + Fields Policies And Procedures
In my opinion, with the limited ways in which you are able to sell the Rodan + Fields products this business opportunity becomes a recruiting scam for many. Another reason I feel this is a recruiting scam is that your personal purchases and the purchases of your recruited consultants help you qualify for commissions.
SV is the volume that qualifies a Consultant to be eligible for commissions. With respect to a Consultant, SV consists of:
(i) Qualifying Volume of sales made directly from Rodan + Fields to such Consultant’s Retail Customers; and/or
(ii) Qualifying Volume of such Consultant’s personal purchases.
Personally Sponsored Qualifying Volume (PSQV) With respect to a Consultant, the Qualifying Volume of all online sales of R+F Products made:
(i) to Personally Sponsored Preferred Customers; and
(ii) by Personally Sponsored Consultants or to their Retail Customers.
A Consultant does not receive Commission on SV; however a Consultant does receive Retail Profit based on Rodan + Fields sales to a Consultant’s Retail Customers.
After reviewing some of the teams that sell Rodan + Fields products, I found the following disturbing statement:
We want to avoid retail orders at all costs because they earn us us less commission and they don’t help us to reach that $600 goal each month. – Source Team Transformation
You want to avoid retail sales? I thought this was a direct sales business.
Monthly personal consumption is part of the “System” that some Rodan + Fields teams are pushing:
You are the OWNER of your R+F business. You are the CEO. Act like it. Take care of your business FIRST by running your CRP/PULSE subscription during the first week of the month. Then you know that you have “paid your bills” to keep your company running and can focus on generating new business and supporting your employees the rest of the month. You’re the CEO, behave like it! Did you join later in the month, so your CRP and PULSE are set to run after the first week of the month? That’s ok! You can call corporate and have it set to run sooner and then it will do so every month.
You must have 100 in your SV bucket to earn commission on your PSQV (600 bucket). If you spend $80 on product and $24.95 on your PULSE subscription, you’ve met your monthly requirement (100) in your SV bucket. Think of it as your “overhead” for running your own business. Pretty cheap, right?
CRP is our Consultant Replenishment Program, the personal orders we make each month of $80. This is the ONLY requirement to be COMMISSIONABLE.
WHY is CRP important even though it’s optional?
- CRP is a volume driver in your organization. When you have 100, 400, 500 people in your organization, all with personal sales volume of $100, that’s 10,000, 40,000, 50,000 just in team CRP that you earn on.
- You can use your CRP to purchase “thank you” gifts for big orders, Christmas presents, Birthday Presents, and team incentives and it’s all tax deductible!
- Your $100 SV ($80 in product and $20 Pulse) keeps you commissionable. (Note: you always get paid the difference between the Retail/PC price.)
- It’s automatic. Making sure you walk your consultants through their CRP when they enroll means you never have to worry about it again, and your sponsor then doesn’t have to worry about it either.
- Your annual consultant fee is waived!
- It’s the system. Know it, coach it, replicate it! Enrolling your consultants in CRP is part of the Rodan + Fields system. If you coach your consultants with an attitude of “ah… Don’t worry about it.. We’ll get it later” or “don’t worry about it…. just so long as you have $100 in SV,” then you’re not coaching the system and it becomes a humongous responsibility for you that everyone in your downline down five generations is duplicating properly otherwise someone’s income, bonus or promotion could be on the line.
- Enroll your consultants in CRP on the day they enroll. They can select to have their CRP shipped and billed the next month! It’s the system that we want to duplicate.
Please, when enrolling new consultants, be sure they enroll in CRP during the enrollment process. You can schedule your first CRP for the month following enrollment!
WHAT is PULSE?
PULSE is the system that manages your Personal Website (PWS) and serves as your “back office.” It’s the system we use to manage and track our customers, orders and our team progress. It also includes helpful resources in the Biz Development Library and a calendar of corporate events. It costs $24.95 each month and is automatically charged to your card. You get 20 SV for your PULSE subscription.
WHY is PULSE important even though it’s optional.
By paying for PULSE each month, you are ensured that when customers shop for product or prospects sign on as new consultants, YOU will get credit. They will be attached to you because they will be interacting with YOUR personal website (yourname.myranf.com). Without PULSE, they will have to go to the generic rodanandfields.com site and search for your name and hopefully they will get connected to you.
– Source Skincaresteam.com
In my opinion, here is how the Rodan + Fields recruiting scam works:
- You signup and purchase a $695 business kit because it is the best way to start.
- You purchase monthly 80 SV in product and the Pulse Pro subscription for a total of 100 SV.
- You avoid retail sales because they earn you less commission and they don’t help you reach your $600 goal each month.
- You recruit other consultants to do the same thing.
Once you come to the conclusion you are not making much money with the Rodan + Fields business opportunity you will not have a lot to return at the end of a year because of the 70% rule:
70% Rule
Orders may be transacted directly with the Company on behalf of the Consultant through the R+F Website and/or Pulse Personal Websites (PWS). Consultants receive full credit for all such sales without the need to carry any inventory. Consultants may, at their option, purchase the R+F Products in bulk for resale to Customers, provided that the Consultant retains receipts showing that at least 70% of those R+F Products were resold to one or more different Retail Customers or were otherwise used in support of business activities (e.g., incentives or demonstrations) within thirty (30) days of the last applicable order delivery date. Products not sold to Retail Customers or used for business activities should be for personal use within thirty (30) days of the order delivery date. – Source Rodan + Fields Policies And Procedures
If you sample the products in your business kit, I have seen many complaints about getting refunds for your business kit. Here is one example:
This company is a joke. I purchased a consultant kit thinking that is was a easy as it states it is to return if not completely satisfied within 60 days. I returned everything that was in the kit, even the slightly used items and one un-used regime (mailed back with insurance and tracking information) was told that I would not be receiving a refund because items were used or missing. Once they confirmed everythig was sent back, they still refused a refund but told me they would send me a different product. I did not want a different product. I wanted my refund as promised.
Asked to speak with a supervisor and Ramona told me she didnt have a supervisor, then she came back on and said her supervisor was busy, I said I could hold and finally came back and said her supervisor simply said that was standard procedure and no refund would be issued – she then told me that they would return the products that I returned to them and gave me a case number and told me it would be 7-10 business days before I would receive and if not, to call back and ask for status using my case #. This is NOT what they promote in their literature when you purchase. – Source pissedconsumer.com
Cost
$45 Business Portfolio.
$395 Personal Results Business Kit (Optional).
$695 Big Business Launch Kit (Optional).
$995 RFx Express Business Kit (Optional).
$24.95 Pulse Pro Monthly (Optional).
$25.00 annual renewal fee which is waved if you meet various criteria.
$19.95 enrollment fee for Prefered Customers.
Products
Rodan + Fields claims to offer anti-aging and skin care products.
REDEFINE
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ESSENTIALS
ENHANCEMENTS
Compensation Plan
There are five ways in which Consultants may be eligible to earn compensation through product sales under this Compensation Plan:
– through Retail Profit on sales (at a marked-up selling price) of R+F Products that are sold to Customers by the Company on behalf of an Rodan + Fields Consultant through a Consultant’s Pulse Personal Website (PWS) or the R+F Website;
– through Consultant Commissions (also known as Level 1 or L1 Commissions);
– through Personal Team Commissions;
– through Generation Commissions paid based on an Executive Consultant’s qualified EC Legs and EC Group Downline; and
– through Performance Bonuses or Incentive Programs Rewards that are offered by Rodan + Fields from time to time for sales achievements, in Rodan + Fields’ sole discretion.
The compensation plan pays six levels deep:
A qualified RF Executive Consultant is eligible to earn a Generation Commission equal to 5% of the CV of her or his Generation I, Generation II, Generation III, Generation IV and Generation V and 2.5% of the CV of her or his Generation VI.
Excessive levels in a downline is another sign participants are expected to sell primarily to their downline, rather than to the general public. This makes it an exploitative money transfer scheme. – Source The problem with 5 or more levels of compensation
Income Disclosure
According to their 2016 income disclosure 44% of consultants did not receive compensation from Rodan + Fields.
90.41% of consultants had a median annual income of $2,016 or less. This includes retail profit, but does not include expenses.
The vast majority of consultants are not averaging even part-time minimum wage with the Rodan + Field business opportunity.
Refund Policy
If for any reason a Customer or Consultant is not completely satisfied with any R+F Product, she or he may return the unused portion of the Product within sixty (60) days from the date of order for a 100% refund of the amount paid for the product (including sales tax but excluding, shipping charges) on the credit card used to make the purchase.
Business Building Kits returned within sixty (60) days of purchase are refundable under the Customer Satisfaction Guarantee only if returned with all components of the Business Building Kit included. No refunds will be issued for a partial return from a Business Building Kit.
In addition to a potential return under the sixty (60) day Customer Satisfaction Guarantee, a terminating Consultant may return unsold R+F Products and/or Business Building Kits that she or he personally purchased from Rodan + Fields after sixty (60) days and up to one year from date of purchase for a refund if she or he does not wish to sell or use the items and the items are resalable (see Section 10e below).
10e. Resalable Items:
R+F Products are “resalable” only if they meet all of the following requirements:
- the items are unopened and unused;
- the packaging and labeling are current and have not been altered or damaged;
- the items have a current shelf life;
- the items and their packaging are in such condition that it is commercially reasonable within the trade to sell the items at full price;
- the items at the time of purchase are not identified as non-returnable, discontinued, expired or seasonal items; and
- Business Building Kits must meet all of the above requirements and must also have all components of the Kit included in the return
– Source Rodan + Fields Policies And Procedures
If you give a product away as a sample from your business builder kit, it is going to be a challenge getting a refund. If you use a product from your business builder kit and try to get a refund after sixty days, it is going to be a challenge getting a refund.
70% Rule
Orders may be transacted directly with the Company on behalf of the Consultant through the R+F Website and/or Pulse Personal Websites (PWS). Consultants receive full credit for all such sales without the need to carry any inventory. Consultants may, at their option, purchase the R+F Products in bulk for resale to Customers, provided that the Consultant retains receipts showing that at least 70% of those R+F Products were resold to one or more different Retail Customers or were otherwise used in support of business activities (e.g., incentives or demonstrations) within thirty (30) days of the last applicable order delivery date. Products not sold to Retail Customers or used for business activities should be for personal use within thirty (30) days of the order delivery date.
Rodan + Fields Review Verdict
In my opinion, Rodan + Fields is another recruiting scam that allows their consultants to qualify for commissions with personal consumption of their products and recruiting other consultants to do the same thing. Few people are averaging even part-time minimum wage with the Rodan + Fields business opportunity. They have excessive levels in their downline which makes it exploitative of new consultants that join. They make it difficult to return the products and your business kit after sixty days if you open and test the products. You are not allowed to criticize the Rodan + Fields business opportunity after joining it. I personally would not invest my hard earned money into this business opportunity.
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