Welcome to the very first post of Uzzies Uncensored! Leaders love to use the term “blanket statements” when a consultant speaks of the company in generalities that in their mind is not true. We’re here to set the story straight and present you facts and opinions about what it’sreally like to be a consultant with UBAM.
Without further ado, here are your top 10 reasons why you should not join Usborne Books and More.
10: Joining UBAM is not a multilevel marketing company, it’s a direct sales company.
This is the first thing you will hear when joining. These words are often used interchangeably to describe how Usborne operates their company. Rhonda Abrons of Demand Media describes each. “Direct sales can be understood as face-to-face selling. Products and services are presented to consumers at work or home by an independent salesperson. Multilevel marketing is not actually marketing, but an additional technique to systematize and compensate direct salespeople.” Furthermore, “Both direct sales and multilevel marketing are avenues for businesses to retail their products straight to the consumer. Each selling method operates at the end of a chain of distribution that culminates with the buyer receiving the product or service… the difference between direct sales and multilevel marketing methods is primarily in compensation arrangements.”
9: The books Usborne Books sells are available elsewhere, and often at a lower price.
A few years ago, Randall White, CEO and owner of the United States division of Usborne Books ended his relationship with Amazon.com because their price point was too low, and as a result, independent consultants could not compete with Amazon’s ability to sell books at a lower price. Consumers are going to buy a product at its lowest price anywhere they can find. While you will not find all selections, you can find many, if not all books available that an Usborne Consultant sells elsewhere, including: Amazon, Ebay, Barnes and Noble, Half Price Books, and other retail and toy stores, often at a much lower price.
8: Becoming an Educational Consultant is not as easy as you think it is.
Selling to your friends, family and blog readers is one thing. Selling to schools, daycares, and libraries is a totally different ball game. Your #1 competition in this area is longtime favorite Scholastic Books. Scholastic Books owns a portion of Usborne Books and More and sometimes you will even see an Usborne book at a Scholastic book fair event. We will discuss this issue more in depth at a later date, but there are many hoops you must jump through to get an educational venue to buy from you.
7: Usborne Books are not unique
In order to sell a product, it must stand out when surrounded by its competitors. Children’s books are bright, colorful, and provide children an educational need for brain development. Another thing you must consider, whether you like it or not, this market in general, is shrinking. Many publishers are also designing their books into apps for tablets and providing an e-book format. E-books are always going to be cheaper to purchase. Yes, children need to feel and touch items to develop sensory skills, but install an app that goes with a book and watch the book comes to life and a child is enthralled into the person narrating the story, and watching characters come to life. Usborne has no e-book format available for any book they offer and very few apps for purchase.
6: Unless you recruit and create a downline, don’t expect to make much money.
The literature shows a “good” month with Usborne is $400.00 in sales, one venue event, and one educational event. Earning approximately $100.00 for a home show is far from lucrative. If you live in a market that is saturated, you typically end up selling your product for a lower price at book fairs and other events. Only 2% of those who join a multilevel marketing company will be considered a success, meaning, you get a pay check every month in which you can pay your bills.
5: All marketing materials must be purchased by you.
Usborne depends on you to sell their product. They also depend on you to market their product by any means necessary—that way they don’t have to spend company funds to hire a marketing agency to do the work you will do for free. You will need to purchase flyers, often not up to date, out of stock, or out of print. Catalogs have out of print books listed for sale the minute they are published for distribution, and you will need to check the lists weekly for out of stock/print items. By the end of 6 months, your personal catalog will be marked with what is not available more than what is. They are big on branding their product, and you must follow those branding guidelines or you can expect a slap on the wrist.
4: Usborne only has 20,000 active consultants; the time to join is now!
This is a very misleading statement, often said by Team and Advanced Leaders. You are considered an “active” consultant if you buy or sell $500.00 worth of books. Most people sign up to get their 25% discount for their own personal needs. Not many consultants are actually out in the field trying to make a living by being a “Book Lady.” It is a revolving door of people joining and quitting, and you’ll never get a number that shows out of how many of those who joined one month, actually quit the next month. They are considered active consultants regardless for a period of one year.
3: Usborne does not know what kind of company they are.
On a good day, Usborne can’t decide what kind of business model they use to make their company a success. You have a home sales division, which has an onslaught of problems that we will discuss in length. You have a retail division that sells to stores at a wholesale price, and they are slowly ending relationships with some retailers. Does that help the home sales division? No, it tells you there are indeed problems going on internally. You also have a company that has a consignment program so that some consultants, if they choose, can create a large inventory and get a portion of those books for free. It is in this situation those people act as a wholesaler, meaning they buy at minimum, a 25% discount, and then are allowed to purchase a portion, usually after when they have purchased $250.00 in retail, for free, and turn around and sell to other consultants. The math is this: buy $500.00 worth of product and get 1/3rd or $335.00 of additional product for free, that they sell to others for full retail. It is frowned upon that consultants sell to other consultants to get rid of their inventory that did not sell, or because they want to shut down their shop and if you do, you must sell your books for at least 25% off. However, if you are a Team or Advanced leader, they are more than willing to sell to you on the bottom, or among others in a co-op fashion—often selling at full price to those who missed the memo that you should not buy any book from any consultant at full retail price.
2: Expect to stay positive no matter what dilemma you encounter.
You have a ton of leaders who are considered “sunshine pumpers.” Everything must be rainbows and sunshine and all hardships are pushed to the side. They demand it and the CEO demands it as well or it’s time for you to move on. The CEO of the company is present and says “How many CEOs are willing to call you and speak to you? Not many to my knowledge.” We at Uzzies Uncensored have opinions as to why he chooses to call people rather than respond to grievances via e-mail. He’s a seller. Lee Iacocca, whose philosophy was to put a face to the name of a large automobile company, he is not. Many people reach out looking for understanding via the company’s internal online forums on social media, and Advanced Leaders are waiting for someone with a complaint to jump in, ridicule you, twist your words, leaving you to defend yourself when you just wanted to talk to someone who understood the problems you are encountering. These Team and Advanced leaders have forgotten what it is like to be a consultant. They have a list of statements to say to you to keep you in line, and they do a horrible job at managing, training, and encouraging. For example, if you are not having any luck getting anyone to host a party, the solution is to spend the money and do a booth. A booth in their eyes is to recruit people, not to sell the product. When you live in a saturated market, people expect to buy a product. They have no interest in hearing your sales pitch about what Usborne can do for them. If you disagree with anything they have to say, you can expect more than a slap on a wrist… which leads us to…
1: You will be terminated for speaking your mind.
We have witnessed it on more than one occasion. If you express yourself even in such a way that you were looking for solution, or you are expecting to have a healthy debate among adult women on how to run a successful business, the bait and switch tactics go into full swing via Team and Advanced leaders and you are the bad apple of the bunch. They ask, “Why are you even here if you hate this company so much?” They are very, very good at twisting words. In one corner, you have those who say you are intentionally writing negative posts to constantly complain, and it seems to be only leaders who bark this statement. They will also tell you, you are making general statements that are just not true. Consultants are too scared to speak in your defense because they know the repercussions if they do. Leaders also like to say those people who were let go were terminated because they violated the terms outlined in the consultant agreement. The agreement states: “I will conduct my business as an UBAM consultant in an ethical and honest manner and do nothing which may harm or damage the reputation of my business or the Company, or bring the Company into disrepute. I will not make any claims about the Company’s products or business which are not set out in the Company’s literature or directions.” Therefore, if you have an issue, you should private message your upline to discuss an issue you might have. Most people state that their leaders do not respond to their messages, therefore they will go online to a private internal forum to discuss an issue. Instead of discussing issues at hand in a fair, objective, unbiased way, attacks ensue. You are abused, defamed and all the other things that if you dig closer, you will find on Usborne’s policy site and on this blog that you agree that “when using a Communication Service, you will not: defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others.” That is exactly what you can expect from any given Advanced Leader who will brow beat you. What is even more disconcerting is it is allowed. There is no human resource department and home office sides with its leaders. Why are you terminated? They realize at that point if they can’t keep you in line, that you are expendable. They don’t care how much money you have made them, they cannot control you, and if they cannot control you, they run the risk of you exposing the truth of the tactics they use to lure other vulnerable people to join this company.
That’s my take, tell me yours. 
uzziesuncensored.com 
Everything said here is SO true it’s insane!
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There are quite a few consultants who have not done adequate research on the company. If they had, they would never refer to UBAM as a direct sales company. Direct Sales implies that only you make a profit from your sale. In a multilevel marketing (MLM), network marketing, or whatever other business model you’d like to refer to when describing UBAM, the bottom line is that when you make a profit on your sales, so does every person above you.
Also note that UBAM would prefer to give you prizes rather than cash rewards when you sell a certain amount. Please remember that you will be taxed on any non-cash reward (trips, bathrobe, tiara, chocolate, etc.).
The other confusing part about UBAM is that no one knows what name to call us. Are we Educational Development Corp (NASDAQ: EDUC), EDC Educational Services, Usborne Books & More, Usborne Books & More / EDC Educational Services, EDC Educational Services: Home of Usborne Books and Kane Miller, UBAM, etc. The CEO needs to pick a name and stick with it. It’s getting embarrassing. I’ve never know any company to go by so many different names. Branding is so important to them…if that were true, we would know by what name to call the company.
Another issue when you have legitimate questions is to read your manual and watch training videos. This type of response is only helpful if the information was up-to-date.
Oh, Blogger!! You have much, much ground to cover. And lots of research to do before you uncover all of the nastiness and “secrets” within Usborne (I guess we will go with that name).
I look forward to reading more…
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So now the question remains–if I’m already a consultant, how do I quit?
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I would file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and read what your rights are on the Direct Selling Association’s (DSA) website. Please read through the DSA’s website carefully. No one at Usborne will tell you that the company has to buy back any inventory/supplies you do not sell. If Usborne does not comply, then file an ethics violation complaint with the DSA.
Best of luck.
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Hi! I have recently stumbled upon your site, because well you guessed it, I am unhappy with what I am seeing as a “consultant” for Usborne.
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Meanwhile, I’m just a lowly customer and want to know WHERE ARE MY BOOKS for Christmas? I ordered in November and the delivery date I have received is December 27th. This is a major fail in my book. No pun intended.
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This is very interesting.. I signed up about a year ago with Usborne. I have had some concerns fro the beginning, but thought it was just me. I have not really been happy with my team leader from the beginning, but kept quiet. In the last 2 months I have reached out to higher ups in the company regarding my personal situation, and have gotten no response. After reading this, it’s definitely not just me.
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This is really weird! I’m so sorry that all of you are so unhappy. I was blessed with an awesome team!! I have had help from the beginning and am moving my way up. Try to find a good support system. =) With any consultant-type job, there are always blips. Keep your spirits high and you can do anything you set your mind to =)
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You misconstrue this blog as a bunch of people who are unhappy. None of us are unhappy, we are exposing the truth about a company that is not honest in its business practices. Your upline is required to pump you full of positive fluff and stuff or they are reprimanded or fired. We would like to direct your attention to our post Ya, You Got Trouble and read it carefully. The job of your upline is to cover up the problems, and make sure you don’t question anything the leaders or CEO do.
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I have a great dear friend who is a consultant with Usborne and has been for a while now and is most def. happy with what she does as a book consultant. Her book parties bring in way over than $400.00 in sales and she makes more than $100.00 per party. A lot of people will sign up for a company like this and fail as they do not know how to market or sell a product. why is that? because you do not specialize in such. In order to make a lucrative living on something like this and choose not to start your own business you need to be able to not only market but learn how to bring in other audiences. Usborne Books and More is a great company. 🙂 The people that sign up is looking for free money without putting in any work. I have sign up with them recently and do very well for myself. Better than my friend by far.
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Until one shows me your accounting sheet, deducting time, materials, marketing supplies, office supplies and taxes, 400.00 is NOT take home pay and equates to below poverty rate. It has nothing to do with one working harder than the next person (oldest excuse in the book) it’s the realization that when you add the above I mentioned to your “pay” you are making less than 5.00/hr. Let that sink in. You are being used as free advertising and marketing the company because the company does not supply you with the right tools (flyers) to make selling these book a legit business.
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I walked in this business expecting about $50-$100 a month extra as a consultant and be able to work on my own terms and on my own time. I walked in this business being conscious that is not something you get rich overnight with, or probably ever. I walked in this business because I loved the books for my family and my daughter stopped throwing books across the room when I gave her the Busy Car Book and realized that books are fun. I never got told that I was going to make millions in my first month as a consultant. I had a precise guide and training for me to follow and take guidance from and start me up in what could have been the beginning of MY OWN business. I saw the potential, became team leader. I grew as a person, I gained more confidence and I’m still a stay at home mom, able to type up some messages or updates while I lay down in bed to comfort my sleeping daughter. I’m grateful that my husband’s job supports us for the most part, but I feel empowered to be able to contribute to the family income and not having to worry about daycare taking a whole paycheck. The BIG money in these type of business come from your downline. They sell, you earn a portion of their money. You have 100 people selling under you, even if you earn $50 from half of them, is $2500. Can you sign up 100 people in a year? Probably not. Maybe not even 2. It takes a few years, in the meantime you have a chance to still learn and grow and be a better person and still deliver books to children. Either bought them from the parents, or donated through a book drive or whatever. I don’t see it as a bad thing. It is a business of course so they are not going to just give us everything free and wish us a good life. They sell a service like everyone else in the World pretty much. And we use money as exchange medium to get paid for our services. Our services as consultant include knowing the products and consult the buyer about what would be the best product for their family and their budget. Does some consultant rip you off? Unfortunately there are some of those as well… exactly like not everyone in a 9-5 job is not always a pleasure to work with. Stop blaming the company. You have 3 months of “incentive period” to figured out if this job is for you or not, you still get books worth more than the kit cost with the purchase of your kit. If you decide that is not cost effective just go. If your website expires, if you talk to your upline she’ll be happy to sell you the books for 25% off without you having to reactivate it for $8 a month. You will still get the lifetime discount of 25% off. I’m not sure with what idea people signs up with and I’m not sure how you pointing out that the income is average $5 per hour would change someone’s decision. Maybe some people gains more than money. Maybe they are oncologists full time worker and just wanted something happier as a side job to do as a hobby. It probably is not a job for you like being a gymnast is not a job right for me. The business tells you what is achievable. You as individual should keep your head on your shoulders and assess risks, pros and cons of your choices. I did plenty of “regular” jobs before this one where I felt humiliated, not treated equally because I’m a woman, under appreciated, not supported. Did the company tells you that there could be these problems to face when you arrive at the office in the morning? Just find a job that is a good fit for you, attacking other’s people trying to have an honest job just because this wasn’t the right choice for you is a bit boring and desperate. Have you lost a lot of money? Did you lose your hose over it? I lost some money at the beginning, guess what, it was my fault and my poor financial choices, definitely not someone telling me what to do with my money.
Good luck in your pointless crusade. I hope you don’t ruin a lot of good people work and a one of the good opportunities out there to have a job and still be a stay at home mom, or a homeschooling mom, or someone that is trying to gift books to children.
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Spoken like a true robot of the MLM world. Read above… prove me wrong show me a payment stub after ALL expenses and labor and I guarentee you don’t make all you claim. Must feel good you recruit friends and family to make money for you. Your boss is a crook.
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Not a robot at all, I never claimed to make much money as a matter of fact. Do you want numbers? This month I haven’t sold anything, my only working recruit is doing great, she doesn’t do it for me, she does it for herself, this business is opening her doors to schools and directors and other education related opportunities for when she will complete her Media Education master degree. It gets her to meet her community and make herself known and trusted. I got $130 approximately from her sales and sent her $25 gift card to spend however and wherever she wants. To get me $130 she earned approximately $700-$800. Personally, I didn’t really work much this month, I’ve been visiting family for 6 weeks. I also don’t recruit my family and friends, they tell me they are interested and I offer them to join. And I recruit people that I don’t know and meet through parties and they are interested in the business or the discount, they are not friends or family. I don’t understand where is your problem here. I used to live in UK and I have a lot of friends that lived there, Americans, that loved and knew Usborne Books from there and made regular trips to the book store to buy them almost every month. Can you explain to me why does it bother you that my friends that like the books for their personal use for their families buy books from me and get $20 in my pockets at not extra cost to them than to walk in a store and buy them from the store? Please help me understand where is the problem here…
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I’m an Usborne ESR consultant and do it in my free time. I love our books and so does my daughter and all the schools I work with. I’m curious is it just UBAM that you have a problem with or do you have more blogs on other companies? Were you a consultant at one point? I realize that the date on the original article is a few years old. So maybe things were that bad at one point. I joined about a year ago. Personally for me, its been a better fit than some of the other sales companies,I’ve been a promoter for. This is just me, and no I won’t say I make a lot of money. But I’m not doing this to make a lot of money. On average I take home an additional $600 a month for the months I choose to work my side biz, sometimes more if its a school event. For marketing materials all you need is a good printer and ink. If you don’t want to order it from the supply list. We also have digital catalogs so its not like you have to spend money on marketing material. I’ll never forget when I thought I could sell Mary Kay, I spent over 2500.00 in product got some dumb ring for my purchase and barely sold 1000.00 dollars. I got a check for $2.00 while my upline made money off of my $2500.00. So I actually like the fact that we don’t make money off each other. We earn points and that’s fine with me and eventually move up in the amount of commission we make. Oh and I think you have some facts mixed up about Scholastics and Usborne along with the retail department. Perhaps you didn’t know that Peter Usborne’s daughter worked for Scholastics and that is how they have a contract for certain books these books don’t’ come from UBAM. Also they cannot get Kane Miller publications and most retail stores cannot get Kane Miller which was acquired by the EDC in 2008. UBAM is not just Usborne publications you know.
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So let me burst your little MLM bubble. Points. For a trip. Your entire upline, just like Mary Kay makes money off you. You are at the bottom of the pyramid while they are at the top. So why you bust your ass for 600.00 for whenever you decide to work, they sit back and get a check from you and hundreds other. And then when they collect alllll those books, and have 20 extra copies.. they sell them among themselves and down to you when they are out of stock. Don’t feel good for working for such an honest company? It’s pathetic to be a company that distributes books, but their catalogs are never up to date. It’s pathetic they have no flyers for you to offer. So while you are running around from school to school begging for business, making up your own flyers, gas money, wear and tear on your car.. how much of that 600.00 do you think is your free and clear at the end of the day? You have been mislead. Like Mary Kay and all the other direct salea companies you are free advertising and marketing. You have been lied to. Read our interview with a former senior team leader. We stand by every word we say. Our words are the truth. We get a kick out of people who ask us if we’re angry.. sorry to burst your bubble (again) we believe in truth than the lies Randall and his women (that he enjoys saying he owns) who defend his words.
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Lol, at least you’re making me laugh. Hey I’m not one to tell someone to like something just because I do. I’m active duty military coming up on 20 years, no time for BS disagreements. I have an electrical engineering degree and I’m a single parent. It may seem like I’m busting my butt to make my extra money a month with this company, but it’s really not. This is cake walk for me. Of course someone up the chain makes money on our sales, duh!! But what direct selling company doesn’t? There’s pros and cons to everyone of them. I have a daughter who loves to read, I work with kids who love to read. So for my household it’s a win win. Is this for everyone not at all, don’t get me wrong I get your view point. Don’t agree with your original post, but hey that’s my opinion.
You know you never answered my question though and I didn’t say you were angry. Just curious as to where you get your information. Do you make money writing these post and articles? You talk about pushing sells, but aren’t you kinda pushing your views. Also what are you going on about flyers? Maybe you misread when I said you can order that stuff from the supply list. Anywho, I’m to continue to do my side biz, and enjoy my time reading these books with my daughter. Best of luck to you in all your blogs.
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Then why are you here if you don’t have time for “BS dissagreements.” Anywho…
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BTW… I’m not pushing anything. My views are my 1st Amendments rights. Take a government and civics class.
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Congratulation on your freedom of speech. I thought everyone else got it too… I didn’t know that also include the fact that you are speaking THE TRUTH. I thought that was reserved for God or something like that? You wrote a blog, people comments on it and you just reply arguing, never answering the question, implying things that have not been said, quoting articles with no reference or link… it’s really confusing really and very not productive. Thank you for YOUR OPINION. It is noted and appreciated. Good luck in your life! ❤
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Why thank you! We don’t have to justify ourselves. Either we are telling the truth or not. I can assure you we are telling the truth. MLMs fail, you are part of a failing business model. If you don’t believe us, we. don’t. care. We we won’t tolerate is censorship. Randall White and his minons censor their consultants daily. What we will tell you is Tabatha Roach’s video states UBAM is NOT a MLM. That is 100% false. Well all those so called thousands of consultants that your CEO use to spew out but can no longer state. So just because Randall “God almighty” says so it’s true? Please get out of the bubble you live in and do your research. It doesn’t require a college education to do so. Here I’ll start: do your homework by searching how angry investors Red Oak is, Stock Twits and Yahoo finance. Maybe then you’ll wake up and see the only people making money in the company is Randall White. And he’s laughing his ass all the way to the bank, by conning you into buying a kit and his empty promises of you to will make pennies.
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You might want to get glasses, gentle reader. Reader glasses as you will see plenty of links to articles.
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