Pampered Chef Review

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There are a number of multi level marketing companies that have often been speculated to be pyramid schemes and Pampered chef mlm is one of them.

If you have some decent sales skills, have some interest and knowledge in kitchen utensils and food products, then this might be the online job for you.

In this review we will delve into pampered chef multi level marketing company, how it works and whether it is the right choice for you.

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Table of Contents

What Is Pampered Chef?

Pampered Chef is a multi level marketing company founded in 1980. It uses network marketing to sell kitchen products directly to friends and families just like we’ve seen with Cutco Cutlery and Vector Marketing MLM.

It is a well known company that is available in the UK, Germany, USA, Mexico and Canada. It’s main headquarters are in Addison, Illinois.

The idea behind the formation of this company was to provide quality and functional kitchen products through direct sales.

They have been selling their products through the party plan system and sometimes through cooking shows.

It is known as the only direct sales company which has been acquired by Warren Buffet Corporation for being one of the most famous mlm company in household tools niche.

Who founded Pampered chef?

Pampered chef was founded by Doris Christopher in 1980.

Doris was an economics teacher who loved cooking and all things kitchen related. She came up with the concept of providing people with essential kitchen items such as tools, cookbooks, and food items.

This led to the formation of Pampered chef mlm. The main marketing method became holding a house party and then pitching your products to your potential customers. This method became quite famous in the 1990s and resulted into the company becoming well known.

At the house parties, the new sales pitches were well received. It was quite easy and was the fastest way to market your products to your friends or family members. The house parties came to be known as pampered chef parties (also PC parties/events)

Pampered chef started their influence in 1996 in Canada then expanded in the UK in 1999, 2000 in Germany and recently in Mexico in 2009.

Pampered Chef is considered to be a global company today.

What products does pampered chef sell?

Pampered chef is especially famous for its extensive product line. They have over 300 different types of kitchen tools.

The company puts an emphasis on providing multi-propose tools that people will use instead of accumulating utensils that will be stuffed in the drawers.

These items interest someone that wants an all-in-one kitchen area tool. They provide a full 1-year service warranty on all their items as well. This shows that the company stands behind their products and these products are of the highest quality.

Pampered chef claims that their first priority is to manufacture products in quality over quantity, a common theme with MLM businesses. We’ve seen it with companies like Happy Coffee and even Usborne Books.

Some of the pampered chef products are Stoneware Bakeware, Teak Wooden Spoon, Pampered chef chef’s knife set, Mini Tart Shaper, beer bread mix, gardening tools, kitchen tools, food products, Cut-N-Seal Maker Tart, Pizza and Crust Cutter, and Pizza stone

As a consultant with the Pampered Chef company, you can buy the products at a 20%-50% discount from the company.

Pampered Chef’s brochures and food selections provide as much information as you need to make an educated decision.

Unfortunately, there have been multiple complaints of the products being overpriced compared to the prices offered in local retail stores.

How Does Pampered Chef Work?

Pampered Chef sells its products directly to consumers through its independent sales consultants.

Consultants promote the pampered chef product and business opportunities by hosting parties at their home and inviting family members and friends.

Furthermore, company management host TV shows or events. When attending a Pampered Chef party or TV show, their plan is to demonstrate the utility of pampered chef products in everyday life. This tells people a lot about the quality.

At these events, you will probably be given a Pampered Chef catalog where you can buy some of these products.

Another way that consultants promote Pampered Chef is by creating a website to list products and earn commissions from sales.

Finally, as a consultant you can focus on building a team by recruiting new consultants in your downline. When you bring on new consultants who in turn bring on new consultants, you earn commissions on all of their sales.

How To Join Pampered Chef

To become a pampered chef consultant, all you have to do is go to the pampered chef website and first register as an independent sales consultant.

To do that, you will need your basic personal details and your sponsor’s ID. Your sponsor is whoever recruited you to pampered chef. From there the company can put you in contact with a sponsor who will be your coach or you can get back to the person who told you about the opportunity.

Finally, you have to fill out the consultant agreement form and purchase any of the Pampered Chef consultant kits.

How Much Does It Cost To Join Pampered Chef?

Depending upon your degree of expertise as well as enthusiasm for selling kitchen products, you can pick amongst three major consultant kits:

Starter kit

The starter kit gives you the basic tools to start cooking. The kit costs $99 and contains over $400 in products.

Starting with a starter set is a good way to learn about the company’s product.

Deluxe kit

This is a great option for home cooks with reliable tools. The kit costs $159 and includes $700 worth of products.

With the deluxe set, you can market even more products and also end up making even more money, compared to the starter kit.

Ultimate kit

Ultimate Kit is the home chef’s dream because it has great tools for cooking and testing. The set costs $159 and includes $700 worth of items.

The main goal of the company is to make individuals understand how nice it is to have Pampered Chef products in their cooking areas. By giving you accessibility to the items, these packages will definitely assist you to make even more money.

For your first pampered chef party you might need to invest around $300 or more.

To stay active as a consultant, you will need to sell at least $150 monthly.

The Pampered Chef mobile app

There is a Pampered Chef mobile app that is available for Android and iOS devices. This app allows consultants to manage and check their sales and commission.

You can download the Android version from Google’s Play Store and the iOS version from Apple’s App Store.

How much money can you make with Pampered Chef?

Pampered chef has a comprehensive compensation plan compared to many mlm companies.

For all the sales that you make as a pampered chef consultant, you receive a certain amount of commission. The commission of course depends on the amount of sales made and whether or not you have achieved a certain monthly sales volume.

Here is a breakdown on commissions rate depending on the monthly sales volume:

20% commission rate for $1-$749 monthly sales.
22% commission rate for $750-$1249 monthly sales.
23% commission rate for $1250-$2449 monthly sales.
24% commission rate for $2500-$3999 monthly sales.
25% commission rate for $4000+ monthly sales.

As it is with most mlms, it is difficult to make a huge commission from just the monthly sales. 99% of consultants earn $20 per month which is way below average.

The more preferred way of making money is by climbing up the ranks and getting a higher job title. By recruiting more consultants in your downline and achieving certain sales volume, you get promoted to different levels in the company.

The ranks available from bottom to top in Pampered Chef are:

Consultant
Senior Consultant
Team Leader
Director Promotion
Director Maintenance
Director Re-promotion
Advanced Director
Senior Director
Executive Director
Senior Executive Director
National Executive Director

The higher you go, the more you earn as you get commissions from the sales of all the members in your downline.

Bonuses offered

Pampered Chef offers some extra bonuses for their consultants from which you can earn more. They include:

When your total sales reach $15,000 your commission rate will increase by 2%.
Hiring people under you will help you get a 3% commission on each sale.
Free products and points that lead towards vacations.
Special discounts when buying kits

Pros of Pampered chef

It has been around for a while

The company has been working globally, for a long time since 1980, and now the parent company of the company is Warren Buffett’s organization, Berkshire Hathaway.

They have a 30 day money-back guarantee

The company has a free 30-day money-back guarantee of their products. This is a great selling point for your customers.

Not all product guarantees are the same; only defects are covered under the Lifetime Guarantee.

There are product discounts

Pampered chef offers special discounts for its members. Whether you like your kitchenware or otherwise, you can get discounts of 20% to 50% on all items.

Positive BBB review

Pampered chef has received an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau which proves its legitimacy.

They have an online training program

Pampered Chef has an online training program known as the PC university. This program helps train their independent sales consultants how to grow their businesses. This way, they improve their sales.

No inventory

The only thing that you will need to have with you as a pampered chef consultant is your starter kit. You will get everything you need to start your mlm business straight from the company. Furthermore, you get to be your own boss.

Cons of Pampered chef

The products are expensive

Most products that are sold by Pampered chef are quite costly compared to what they are sold for in local and online retail stores. This makes it difficult to sell to customers.

Poor product quality

Despite priding itself in the high quality of their products, there have been a lot of negative pampered chef reviews concerning the product. Many have complained of its poor quality products and have demanded refunds.

Outdated marketing strategies

The company mostly emphasizes on house parties when training consultants and his is not the most productive way to market their items. Hosting parties to market products can get quite exhausting for both the hosts and the guests.

Furthermore, you will need about $300 or so to host one party. This becomes expensive when you do the math especially if you fail to make any sales during the party.

You lose more than you earn

Comparing how much it will cost you to join and market the products to how much commissions you will get, Pampered chef is definitely not worth the hustle.

To make matters worse, you need to purchase $150 worth of items every month to stay active as a consultant.

No income disclosure statement

There is no available earning disclosure from Pampered Chef. This may be due to the below average earnings of the consultants or the fact that people are not making any money from this mlm company.

To make good money, you need to recruit people

Just like other mlms, to make a decent amount of money, you need to focus on recruiting more consultants in your downline. This is easier said and done. It would be way better if you could just earn good money from just selling the company’s products.

Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Negative customer and employee reviews

There have been a lot of complaints about Pampered Chef from their poor quality products to their bad customer service. Customers have complained that their customer service calls have been neglected and a former employee has complained of their low pay.

Bad reputation

Due to all the negative reviews, Pampered chef’s reputation has been ruined thus making it difficult for consultants to sell their products.

Pampered chef reviews: What people have to say

Although Pampered chef has received an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, there have been quite a number of complaints showing that not many people love pampered chef. A couple of them have been redirected to one pampered chef Lane Addison but there have been no confirmations of the responses they received.

The company has a consumer rating of 2.12 stars out of 5 stars showing that most are generally dissatisfied by Pampered chef’s services

This is what some people have to say:

I purchased a cookie press a few years ago and it never worked properly. I tried it several times throughout the years I owned it following the Pampered Chef Recipe. The dough will not release from the press. This year I decided to email Pampered Chef for help with the press, and I was told to “TOSS IT”. I could purchase cookie cutters on their “sale” site. Thanks, but no! Never again!

-Denise K.

Love Pampered Chef. We have been using their products for over 25 years and no problems with anything. The pizza stones are especially nice and durable. Makes great pizzas and cookies every time. The ice cream scoop is the best. Every item we have purchased has lasted and has not been replaced due to wearing out! That’s amazing to me and worth the slight premium you pay for their product.

-Timothy K.

I have ordered from PC for many years BUT, I will never order a thing EVER again! Still waiting on October 1,2020 for an order placed on May 30,2020! NO communication from PC except a form letter thanking me for contacting them. It is a disgrace that they continue to take the customers money but, don’t have the product to fulfill the orders! The BBB needs to get involved in this!

-Joan S.

Is Pampered Chef a pyramid scheme?

Technically, Pampered chef is not a pyramid scheme, it is a multi level marketing company that uses direct sales to sell its products.

The main difference between a pyramid scheme and an mlm is that for pyramid schemes, there is no viable products and money is only made through recruiting others. For mlms, there is a legit product and one can earn money just from selling the product.

Basically, pyramid schemes are illegal and often fall apart after sometime.

Currently, companies that are under the mlm classification and use network marketing have to follow strict guidelines that clearly prove their business is not a pyramid scheme.

Many have speculated Pampered Chef to be a pyramid scheme because most of those who make decent money are those who have recruited more consultants.

However, that is not the case as there are those who earn from selling pampered chef products thus making it a legitimate MLM.

Pampered Chef Verdict

If you are looking for a full time income opportunity, then I definitely do not recommend joining Pampered Chef mlm.

Even though the company has been around for a while and has received a high rating from the BBB, there are too many complaints about its products and services.

The products are costly and of poor quality making it that much harder to sell to customers. Furthermore, the fact that you have to host pampered chef parties to market your items becomes quite exhausting for you as a host and leaves a dent in your pocket.

Recruiting consultants, the only other way to make decent money, also does not come easy, especially with the company’s growing bad reputation.

All in all, you will end up losing more money than you spend. Since the cons are more than the pros, Pampered Chef is not worth it.

Before you leave

If you’re tired of scams and want a real solution for making money online check out my no.1 recommendation.

It’s helped me earn over $300,000 in the last 12 months alone:

Go here to see my no.1 recommendation for making money online

(This is a 100% free training)

David Fortune

David Fortune has been the editor NoBSIMReviews.com since 2019. He is an expert at writing content on stock advisory services, side hustles, reviewing online business opportunities and many more topics. You can learn more about David on our about us page.

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