Now onto the original post.....
I've always been a fan of nail stickers, wraps, decals, whatever you want to call them. I like them for vacations or busy weeks when I can't paint my nails and need them to still look nice. I found out about Jamberry and joined as an independent consultant almost immediately. I've never done direct sales but I knew I could sell something nail related, since it is such a big part of my life. I'm not a nail tech or a professional in any way, shape or form but I'm a fan of nail polish and nail art. It's my "thing."
I signed up as an independent consultant in late August and my Jamberry kit arrived quickly and I had so much fun playing with the decals and making cool combinations with the wraps. So many people commented on the designs and I did extremely well my first few months. I sold to family, friends, coworkers, strangers and did many events. I was on a roll! My commission checks for my first few months were used entirely for spending money for a Hawaiian vacation in December. After the holidays things died down but I bought a ton of inventory that was retired and heavily discounted. The friends who bought from me tried out their product and had issues. I instructed them how to apply them, showed them how great they looked and tried to encourage them to try again. Some did, some didn't. Some still have theirs in the original packaging. Personally, I could only wear them for a short amount of time but that didn't bother me since I changed my nails regularly. I wore them on my toes for 4-5 weeks regularly and that in itself was a huge plus! I'd continue selling them just for my toes since I hated chipped polish on my toes. I wear flats daily and they tend to rub polish right off, even gel polish! So Jams were the answer to my pedi problems and I loved them. I wore my Jamberry wraps in between polish manis and continued to send samples, work my business and try and gain downline team members. I got a few and they did well at first but it died down quickly. I learned new tricks to keep my wraps on my nails longer and I ended up applying gel to them and curing it with a lamp. That's how I could keep them on for 5 days but at the end of those 5 days they looked pretty worn out. Some consultants suggested using a flat iron to seal the tips or spray them with hairspray first. The tips were endless and it was getting exhausting trying to explain them to my customers. Granted, they were much better than polish and that was great but still, I didn't like how they looked on day 5. Some ladies could wear them for weeks and I was amazed.
Fast forward... Jamberry announced new material that was thinner and easier to apply. The adhesive was stronger and everyone was thrilled that the old problems might be over and there was an excited feeling in the air on the Jamberry Facebook pages. But the underlying problem was many of us stocked up on old inventory when it was discounted heavily around the holidays. Here I was with TONS of sheets, no one interested in them and nothing to do about it except discount the prices to unbelievably low and try and sell them. Then they released new designs and I was so excited that I could push them and who wouldn't want unicorns, mustaches, cherries and palm trees on their nails?? Well, not many people is what I found. I could give samples away for days and still never sell anything. But that's okay because I knew I couldn't put in the time I needed to make my business thrive so I just took it day by day. Meanwhile there were issues with clear coating lifting, white backing showing and peeling at the tips. More problems to troubleshoot!
Jamberry also released a Nail Art Studio that allowed customers and consultants to upload personal photos and have them printed. There were issues almost immediately with copyrights, trademarked images and designs and there was a lot of confusion. Consultants had a chance to create a design before it launched and I used personal photos from concerts I had attended. I even included photos of me and celebrities and couldn't wait to wear them. It took weeks for them to arrive because there were issues with images being printed incorrectly and my sheet barely arrived in time for me to wear them to the ACM Awards. That particular sheet included pictures of Kenny Chesney, Darius Rucker, Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean, to name a few, and it didn't get held up in Trademarks at all. I was told later that the Trademarks team went through more training to better catch sheets that shouldn't make it through.
This is the sheet that was approved initially before their rules on using celebrity pictures were modified.
With any new company I expect growing pains and kept being told that I was getting in on the ground floor of something exciting and to wait it out. The cattiness of some consultants was mind-blowing and while I had a great team and uplines, it didn't change the fact that the elephant in the room is the company was growing faster than they could handle it and there were more problems happening and not enough time or staff to pick up the slack. To this day, I don't believe the spectrum or shimmer sheets have even been printed or sold. People who ordered those items were given refunds and credits and yet they still appear on the "shop" page. Some decisions that were made by the company left consultants scratching their head asking why? Tons of money and effort was put in to a marketing campaign and while it got the name out there, it didn't fix the underlying problems. And it redirected all new customers to the main Jamberry page rather than connecting them with a local consultant. I've talked to plenty of independent consultants with a variety of direct sales companies and none have as many problems and hiccups with their companies. They were surprised at how many rules and restrictions Jamberry had on their consultants and I'm even blown away at what they're coming up with now. Posters and graphics have to be approved by compliance, which removes some of the creativity and freedom. Certain colors had to be used rather than us using our best judgement in creating a display board. New logos and branding were introduced and old things were now out of compliance. They censor the posts on the Jamberry Nails Consultant Facebook page (which is only open to fellow consultants) and send messages if people make too many negative comments or just don't approve the post in the first place. During all my drama I was removed from said page while I was still an active consultant. Apparently letting them know that I would be ending my time with Jamberry was the green light they needed to remove me. I let my intentions be known and that was the reason. What does it matter since posts are censored anyways? I had another issue with Nellie in Compliance and she misunderstood a message I sent and terminated me and deactivated my site. I was able to get the site reactivated but when it did I lost all contact information and past customer orders. It's been weeks of me contacting Support to try and resolve the isuse. Without that information I have no way of getting in touch with previous customers to let them know I've left the team. Jane in Support keeps telling me that it's on the list for IT to fix but I honestly think they're just trying to put it off. Either it can't be recovered due to their stupid mistake or they just don't want to. She told me not to take it personal but how am I supposed to react? The turn-around time for IT to fix something shouldn't be 2+ weeks and if it is, they need to increase the support staff. It's just one more reason why I question the integrity of the company. The employees I've dealt with are awful.... rude, condescending women that will lie through their teeth and make you feel like a child. I'm not a child, I'm an adult who paid money to be a part of a company that I thought would be a great opportunity. One of the highest level employees, Jennifer, actually told me she was too busy and didn't have time to work with me on a list of items to return. She said I could still return the inventory for a portion of the paid price and I found out from another employee from Compliance that that was not the case. I specifically told her they were items I purchased during flash sales and on old material and was told Nellie would let me know how much I could get for them. Jennifer also told me that those sales were meant for customers and not consultants and I shouldn't have purchased any to begin with. So, next step is sell the remaining items on eBay without the Jamberry team breathing down my throat. All in all, it's been a complete shit show for the last few months.
I made the personal decision to end my contract as an independent consultant with the company. I can no longer put money into inventory and products that don't sell. I don't have the energy to fight with home office when I have an issue. I've called on a handful of occasions and had more issues than support. That's not how it's supposed to work when I'm a consultant for the company! But it's pretty clear that the minute you open your mouth and say anything contradictory to their beliefs you are on the watch list. I don't like going around and around in an email chain when customer service can't give me a straight answer over the phone. This may seem like sour grapes to some and that's fine. I used to be proud to be a Jamberry nails consultant and was excited to support the company. I wore the shields, passed out hundreds of samples and really enjoyed it. I'm still trying to sell off old inventory for $4 and $5 when they sold for $15 retail. I'm looking to recoup as much money as possible and be done with it. I'm sorry to see it end this way but I have no other choice. I will keep some inventory for personal use but I refuse to showcase them on my blog or encourage people to purchase them. I will go back and edit all posts with Jamberry to remove my "shop" link and tag. I knew it wouldn't last forever but I rode it out as long as I could. The things that have happened recently left me discouraged, disappointed and downright mad. How could I turn around from that and put on a happy face and sell Jamberry any longer? It just couldn't work out. So those of you who purchased from me, thank you! If you have old sheets you want to use, don't hesitate to contact me and I will try and help you! I found ways to wear mine and get through the hiccups of wearing a thick vinyl decal on my nails. The new material is much better but I still have some issues with them wrinkling or peeling, no matter how much heat or pressure I use. If you were interested in Jamberry, try them out. You may fall in love and see them as a great alternative to nail polish. But if you open your mouth and say anything that they don't like, you're in for a world of hurt. I want people to be educated about a company and share my experience. It started great and went dowhill fast. I'm entitled to my opinion and I wouldn't be surprised if there were many others like me who may be afraid to speak up.
