| Comment Number: | 522418-12238 |
| Received: | 7/17/2006 7:32:09 PM |
| Organization: | Arbonne International |
| Commenter: | Susan McIntire |
| State: | WA |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
To Whom It May Concern: I have been a direct sales person for six years and worked with Usborne Books, Stampin' Up! and Arbonne International. I've found all of these companies to be reputable and see no need to impose the harsh terms of this Business Opportunity Rule. First of all, there is no need for the 7 day waiting period. We are not talking about selling guns. These are things like skin care, children's books and rubber stamps. Often customers are in such a hurry they want their discounted products yesterday and will not feel you are doing them a favor with a 7 day waiting period. Already we inform them that they have a 3 day right to cancel. If anything, you could extend their right to cancel to 7 days but it is very inefficient to make everyone get back together again in 7 days. In all of my dealings with other consultants, and or demonstrators, none of them have expressed a regret in having joined any of the companies I've worked with. If anyone gets taken advantage of, it's the companies who deep discount their products off retail and have no stipulations that any sales must be made in return. Many times customers sign up just for the discount and plan only limited sales to friends and family in the short term and the companies have to cast a lot of nets to find those people who would like to truly be a business builder for them. In the meantime, the companies have not sold retail, they've sold wholesale without any stipulations as to required sales - there are no penalties if someone simply decides not to pursue the business. A ten year rolling legal action summary seems very, very unnecessary. For Arbonne for instance, we are talking only a $29 sign up fee. I doubt there is anything to report on such matters. As far as cancellations. Given the part-time nature of the sales activities of most individual direct sellers and the likelihood that the independent contractors who sell direct often do so to achieve specific, short-term objectives, the “cancellation” ratio of covered sales to covered purchases is logically quite high. No matter the ratio, the maintenance of this data, is unnecessarily burdensome. I also think it will be used to try to discredit the industry where possible and again, as this can be largely a part-time industry, it would be no surprise to anyone and not worth the cost to compute. Regarding competitive demonstrators. I personally would not want my contact information given out to people within a few miles of me...total strangers. This would be a total invasion of my privacy as most consultants operate out of their home. The alternative of providing a nationwide list of demonstrators in the past three years is insane and would be thousands of pages long. I think Arbonne signed 80,000 new demonstrators last month alone! These proposals are unwieldy. The $500 Federal Franchise Act threshold should should remain firmly intact. I've worked in Franchising for Godfather's Pizza, Inc. which required a paid executive making a 3 figure salary to deal with all the paperwork and franchisees full-time. I'd never be able to conduct my business and sell my goods if I had to do what he did for my little home business. We are more talking about the equivalent of signing up for a Costco membership. Would you require customers at Costco to go through all of that to buy a membership to buy at wholesale and then resell or use for personal use? Nobody would stand for it. I am appalled at all of these proposals. I am the mother of a special needs child who has been out of the work force for nearly ten years. Direct sales has been my lifeblood for social connecting and doing my own business that I can afford. Your sweeping changes would pretty much put me out of my livelihood and into a severe depression. The companies I've worked with are responsible and on the up and up with full disclosure. There is no need for more regulation than already exists. Sincerely, Susan McIntire