I started in MK in September. I listened to my director and placed an $1800 initial order. So far I have spent about 3000.00 on MK including postage, section 2, etc. I have sold about $1500 but I still am a total of $1986.65 in the hole. I didn't go into debt but I took money from our savings account at a time when we really couldn't spare it. I like selling MK. I do. And I have a customer base of 29 so far.. but I really regret that inital order. I see the point of having some inventory but I didn't need as much as I have. I'm very aware of the pink fog and am trying to tread very carefully.. I think things would have been fine except for that inital order.

I don't want to quit.. I just want to not be in such of a negative number.. it just makes me anxious to think about it.

I keep telling myself that I will sell it eventually and I hope that's true.

You're right. I am just not paying credit card interest on my debt.

My problem is I do want to use it.. I like the idea of try before you buy and selling it to other people. I wonder how much more I have sold because I had the inventory on hand- I know a couple of times that made the difference.

I just wish I hadn't listened!!!

I do too.  But if you personally, as a consultant, take a product and try it and don't like it, YOU CANNOT RETURN IT IN YOUR NAME.  If you do want to return it, you will have to use someone else's name on the return form.  And if you do too many returns in a given time period (I have no idea what this is) I've heard that they will "flag" your account and make it hard for you to return.  Someone else will have to fill us in on that.  I never did that many returns when I was in MK.

I found out that a customer base doesn't mean anything! Women are not loyal to any one product! Your customer base changes all the time, so just when you think you are ordering to cover those needs, you lose that customer! Or as UYC said, the products change!!!! I lost a lot of customers because of just that!

When I decided to get out of MK I had $7000.00 in MK and couldn't sell it!!!!!!! I was also and still am $10,000.00 in debt! 

I also always thought it was very unfair that a consultant could not return a product that they bought to use personally. If some people sign up to be personal users then why shouldn't they be able to return an item they don't like?

I agree that MK is a vicious cycle, a vortex that you get caught up in. The longer you stay in the more money you will spend. When you have to place a minimum order just to get the few items you need the inventory just keeps growing and you just get in deeper and deeper. And like others have said they are changing the products so often these days that you are in danger of ending up with obsolete products. Then there is the temptation to buy/have the new products and you get them too, and on and on it goes!

Smartinpink, I know it's been awhile since your original post in this thread... what are you doing now?

I have to agree w/ what others here have said.  Not only are women not loyal to just 1 brand, they are not loyal to just 1 consultant.  Think about it in your 'pre-MK' mind frame.  Consultant A gets you to try free samples & buy some things that you liked.  Time passes, you're running low on those, but you're wondering if there's something cheaper out there.  Then, consultant B approaches you with a massive blowout sale!!  Of course buying from Cons. B makes sense, to the regular unpinked mind.  That's just one example!  There are so many ways this could happen, too.  Esp. if the next consultant who comes along is pushy towards "your" customer.

I did as many returns as possible during the last month of my MK encounter and I found this out: If you put more than $50 or $55 under the same name for a return they will do some or all of these: email you telling you to call in, call that customer to see if it's real or bogus, call you to see if it's real or bogus.  If you try to return more than a certain amount total during one month, at some point (I've forgotten the dollar amount but someone could call MK and ask) they send you the email telling you to call in and they tell you you're over the monthly limit and that they're "watching you". 
I too never went into debt over it but took from family savings.  I too started w/ a "sapphire" order, and ordered again before the quarter was up, bumping me up to emerald (this was before they added pearl to the star levels).  I thought b/c new stuff came out I had to have it, b/c my SD was saying "it's limited edition, you don't want to get orders that you can't fill, this stuff flies off the shelves!".  Ya right.  That's why in 2007 I still had loads of crap from Christmas 2004.  It flew off my shelves alright, right into a box that I sent back to MK Inc!

I had the exact same experience.  I had a new customer who didn't have a consultant anymore, but had an old bottle of something from the classic basic line that she was not pleased with.  So I took an exchange, and submitted it on InTouch, and they 'flagged' it because of the old number.

My question is, what is a customer to do when they aren't satisfied with an older product?  The guarantee does not specify a time limit.

Well THAT'S not good customer service!  But then, it's MK we're talking about...