What is the name of your state? CA
The direct sale company resides in TN
I joined a new direct sale company in October, there was no "handbook" just a general contract which was fine.
Over the last 3 months, the company has experienced some problems (very late shipping, missing orders, not answering phones or emails) there are about 2400 consultants signed up for this company and it just got overwhelmed. People were complaining on the company forum, which was not allowed. I built a private forum for consultants to join so we could vent our frustrations. The owner did not like this.
Last night new websites were released, and in the course of this, new contract had to be agreed to. The contract referred you to the new handbook. In the handbook, it says;
9.1 Grievances and Complaints
When a Consultant has a grievance or complaint with another Consultant regarding any practice or conduct in relationship to their respective ** business, the
complaining consultant should first report the problem to his or her sponsor who should review the matter and try to resolve it with the other party_s up line sponsor. If the matter can not be resolved, it must be reported in writing to ** corporate, which will review the facts and attempt to resolve the issue.
Grievances with **, the company, products, services, policies or procedures should be taken up directly by the Consultant to his or her Sponsor or ** corporate. Discussing, or writing about the grievance (whether it be in blogs, forums- public or private, message boards, websites or any other public format) prior to notifying ** and allowing ** ample time to address the grievance ( 2-3 weeks) is in direct violation of this agreement, and could lead to termination of the Consultant Agreement.
9.2 Reporting Policy Violations
Consultants observing a Policy Violation by another consultant should submit a written report of the violation directly to the attention of ** Corporate. Details of the incidents such as dates, number of occurrences, persons involved, and any supporting documentation should be included in this report.
9.3 Disciplinary Sanctions
** reserves the right to sanction any Independent Consultant as specified in these Polices & Procedures when : (1) it is determined that the Independent Consultant has violated any provisions of this Agreement, including the provisions of these Policies & Procedures in their current form and as they may be amended from time to time at ** sole discretion; (2) the Consultant has violated any laws, regulations or standards of fair dealing; or (3) the Consultant has conducted him/ herself in a fashion that , in the company_s sole discretion, damages or tarnishes the reputation or goodwill of **.
9.3.1 Disciplinary Sanctions
Disciplinary Sanctions may result in one or more of the following corrective measures:
_ Issuance of a written warning or admonition
_ Requiring a Consultant to take immediate corrective measures
_ Imposition of a fine, which may be held from bonus and commission checks
_ Loss of rights to one or more bonus and commission checks
_ ** may withhold from a Consultant all or part of the Consultant_s bonuses and commissions during the period that ** is investigating any conduct allegedly violative of the Agreement. If a Consultant_s business is involuntarily terminated for disciplinary reasons, the Consultant will not be entitled to recover any commissions withheld during the investigation period
_ Suspension of the Individuals Consultant Agreement for one or more pay periods
_ Involuntary termination of the offending Consultant_s Agreement and ** business
_ Any other measure expressly allowed within any provision of the Agreement or which ** deems practicable to implement and appropriate to equitability resolve injuries caused partially or exclusively by the Consultant_s policy violation or contractual breach
_ In situations where deemed appropriate by **, the company may institute legal proceedings for monetary and/or equitable relief.
All disciplinary sanctions are in addition to ** right to terminate or cancel the Agreement with or without cause.
** shall notify a disciplined Consultant by e-mail, US Mail, Courier or other reasonable commercial means. Notice will be sent to the latest address listed with ** for the Consultant. Sanctions shall become effective when sent or upon Consultants actual notice, whichever occurs first.
So basically she is forbidding us from discussing things like lost orders, bad product, back ordered items and no refunds. The constitution gives us the freedom of speech, is it legal for her to take that away and forbid us to discuss problems within the company? AND, if we violate it, or know others are violating it, we have to turn them in and lose our commissions earned to that time?
Many of us have invested hundreds of dollars on product and samples and have recruited huge downlines, we can't just walk away. But the thought that we might get "terminated" and not paid our past due commissions because she didn't like us discussing the fact that an order has taken 3+ months to get, well that's insane!
Is there anything we can do??
(I edited this post to remove company name. Where the company name was, I put ** )
The direct sale company resides in TN
I joined a new direct sale company in October, there was no "handbook" just a general contract which was fine.
Over the last 3 months, the company has experienced some problems (very late shipping, missing orders, not answering phones or emails) there are about 2400 consultants signed up for this company and it just got overwhelmed. People were complaining on the company forum, which was not allowed. I built a private forum for consultants to join so we could vent our frustrations. The owner did not like this.
Last night new websites were released, and in the course of this, new contract had to be agreed to. The contract referred you to the new handbook. In the handbook, it says;
9.1 Grievances and Complaints
When a Consultant has a grievance or complaint with another Consultant regarding any practice or conduct in relationship to their respective ** business, the
complaining consultant should first report the problem to his or her sponsor who should review the matter and try to resolve it with the other party_s up line sponsor. If the matter can not be resolved, it must be reported in writing to ** corporate, which will review the facts and attempt to resolve the issue.
Grievances with **, the company, products, services, policies or procedures should be taken up directly by the Consultant to his or her Sponsor or ** corporate. Discussing, or writing about the grievance (whether it be in blogs, forums- public or private, message boards, websites or any other public format) prior to notifying ** and allowing ** ample time to address the grievance ( 2-3 weeks) is in direct violation of this agreement, and could lead to termination of the Consultant Agreement.
9.2 Reporting Policy Violations
Consultants observing a Policy Violation by another consultant should submit a written report of the violation directly to the attention of ** Corporate. Details of the incidents such as dates, number of occurrences, persons involved, and any supporting documentation should be included in this report.
9.3 Disciplinary Sanctions
** reserves the right to sanction any Independent Consultant as specified in these Polices & Procedures when : (1) it is determined that the Independent Consultant has violated any provisions of this Agreement, including the provisions of these Policies & Procedures in their current form and as they may be amended from time to time at ** sole discretion; (2) the Consultant has violated any laws, regulations or standards of fair dealing; or (3) the Consultant has conducted him/ herself in a fashion that , in the company_s sole discretion, damages or tarnishes the reputation or goodwill of **.
9.3.1 Disciplinary Sanctions
Disciplinary Sanctions may result in one or more of the following corrective measures:
_ Issuance of a written warning or admonition
_ Requiring a Consultant to take immediate corrective measures
_ Imposition of a fine, which may be held from bonus and commission checks
_ Loss of rights to one or more bonus and commission checks
_ ** may withhold from a Consultant all or part of the Consultant_s bonuses and commissions during the period that ** is investigating any conduct allegedly violative of the Agreement. If a Consultant_s business is involuntarily terminated for disciplinary reasons, the Consultant will not be entitled to recover any commissions withheld during the investigation period
_ Suspension of the Individuals Consultant Agreement for one or more pay periods
_ Involuntary termination of the offending Consultant_s Agreement and ** business
_ Any other measure expressly allowed within any provision of the Agreement or which ** deems practicable to implement and appropriate to equitability resolve injuries caused partially or exclusively by the Consultant_s policy violation or contractual breach
_ In situations where deemed appropriate by **, the company may institute legal proceedings for monetary and/or equitable relief.
All disciplinary sanctions are in addition to ** right to terminate or cancel the Agreement with or without cause.
** shall notify a disciplined Consultant by e-mail, US Mail, Courier or other reasonable commercial means. Notice will be sent to the latest address listed with ** for the Consultant. Sanctions shall become effective when sent or upon Consultants actual notice, whichever occurs first.
So basically she is forbidding us from discussing things like lost orders, bad product, back ordered items and no refunds. The constitution gives us the freedom of speech, is it legal for her to take that away and forbid us to discuss problems within the company? AND, if we violate it, or know others are violating it, we have to turn them in and lose our commissions earned to that time?
Many of us have invested hundreds of dollars on product and samples and have recruited huge downlines, we can't just walk away. But the thought that we might get "terminated" and not paid our past due commissions because she didn't like us discussing the fact that an order has taken 3+ months to get, well that's insane!
Is there anything we can do??
(I edited this post to remove company name. Where the company name was, I put ** )
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