Things went pear shaped quite quickly for Belle and Bling $5 jewelry after jumping on the paparazzi jewellery bandwagon back in August of 2021,
Although there are no adverse reports on the Better Business Bureau website, at the time of writing this. (3/3/2022). One site that does have a raft of complaints is Scampulse. Some, of which I will list in this review.
So let’s take a look…
Is Belle and Bling $5 Jewelery a Scam?
There are certainly a lot of complaints that indicate a very lackadaisical attitude to processing orders and payments. I usually try to be objective, but from the outset it appears some very bad business management practices were at play, including being under capitalised, rather than the business being set up to scam people.
To try and get some understanding of this company I had to sign up as an affiliate.
I had better add the affiliate disclosure.
This article contains affiliate links. If you purchase something from a link I may receive a small payment at no cost to you. I am not an employee of any company mentioned and All opinions expressed here are mine and are not representative of any company.
In the unlikely event, you buy something after reading this, I might (will most likely not), get a commission. Put it this way, I am expecting nothing, zero.
There is a lot of vagueness about this company… like it is set up on a wing and a prayer. Maybe I should say set up to fail.
Who Owns Belle and Bling
There is so little information available that I cannot even make a business profile.
As someone said, it looks like it is run from someone’s kitchen. (nothing wrong with that if you back your advertising).
Jennifer Lynne is one name that appears to have some authority, and someone called Laura Lowe, manages orders.
Together they have a private book of faces page with 2116 members (March 2022).
Their Facebook page states:- For information on orders, please contact us using the chat option on our website.
There is a snail mail contact address in Ozark, Alabama, in the privacy policies section of their website.
The Belle and Bling Website.
Their website looks to be a basic Shopify theme.
Nothing wrong with that, there are probably hundreds of similar sites all over Shopify.
So it must comply with all the demands set by Shopify for having a store on its platform. So far so good.
The drop-down list also includes an affiliate sign-up and a network-building link with a commission structure (Screenshot below).
Obviously a simple structure.
How do you get to Level 1?
I have no idea. There is no mention of sales targets anywhere I could see on the site.
It seems to be based on sales value.
The policies page has a lot of easy-to-understand rules, but no information on the cost of a starter kit.
To earn money with this, you would need people to be making big, big-dollar purchases.
The affiliate commissions are even more ambiguous.
Apparently, if you order something from my affiliate link I get 45%. ?
Ok, so I get about two bucks from $5 spent. Shipping is free for orders over $50.00 and $5.99 for anything below that.
Take out my commission and it doesn’t leave a lot for FB ads, Shopify and credit card charges and having something left for purchasing new items does it?
All this is beginning to raise the question…
Is it legit? A Money Laundering Scam Perhaps?
From what I can see, and I have looked at a few MLMs this doesn’t make much sense at all.
They have products to sell. As for the money side of it (if this scam business actually meets its payments), there is not a lot left for anyone to actually benefit in any meaningful way.
To be honest it is a mess.
Buying $1.00 items and dropshipping them for $5.00 is just not sustainable.
Transaction costs, advertising costs, costs for labelling, postage and website hosting will swallow your miniscule profit, leaving you with….? a debt.
Ok, maybe there is some change left over from postage. Maybe!. I doubt it though.
A look at the payouts below, and you will see there is so little money at the end of the trial, it is more like a battle for crumbs.
Why is Paparazzi Jewelry so cheap?
Simple answer: Companies buy in bulk, import it, pay the import duties, then spread the cost over a few thousand items.
The leading manufacturer of paparazzi, or bling-type jewelry is… you guessed it, China.
India and Thailand are the 3rd.and 4th. largest buyers of semi-precious stones in the world.
So it is reasonable to assume they also have a substantial paparazzi-type jewelry industry.
Where Belle and Bling buy their jewellery from I have no idea, but I did see some complaints about the quality.
I have bought cheap jewellery from Thailand and it is good quality.
I do know that a minimum order from one Thai factory is about $800.00 US .
Could this be the reason they are having problems fulfilling orders?
Relying on affiliates and network marketing to build up enough sales for an $800 order, or even a $400 order can be challenging in this sort of niche.
Even if they were getting sizable orders it only takes one or two orders for some items shown on the website and not in stock, to throw the whole system into chaos.
As we will see in the complaints, this may be the reason this business is performing so badly.
Also the pricing of jewellery fluctuates with metal prices.
Maybe what they once bought for 50 cents has gone up to $5.00.
Who knows?
Another scenario could be problems with her supplier.
The items seemed to be white-labelled and the designs are not exactly original.
If she has people making her own designs, then it may just not be working out. People want to be paid for their work.
In a reply to one of the complaints, Jennifer mentions she has 4 brick and mortar businesses.
So…that is a lot of Jewellery if all 4 stores are selling jewellery. What is their problem?
Complaints about Belle and Bling.
Selling paparazzi jewelry is one of those impulse buys.
People see pretty things (bling), on Pinterest or other social media. “Ooh so cute and only $5.00” a few clicks and, a sale is done.
The money goes through, you get the receipt, but no item.
The spidery senses tell you something is not right so you make an enquiry.
Below are a couple of complaints about Belle and Bling.
There is a Bella Bling website on Etsy which is more about T-Shirts. So let’s not confuse the stores.
I have no proof they are related.
Feb 12, 2022
Scam? Or poorly put together company
Warning LONG READ AHEAD.
I joined this Company end of November, it was Free and my friend was doing it already, now typically we both do a thorough search of the company/ background/history/ comp plan you name it. This time all we really knew was it was a ground floor company that launched September 6th of 2021, you make 45% Commissions on direct sales, with a 45% discount on this incredibly GORGEOUS jewelry! Sounds too good to be true.. and it is.
The picture on the bottom Is how much money my team spent the 1st 2 weeks, can you guess how many women have received jewelry from November to Today? FEBRUARY 12th.
3.. that’s 3 women including myself. However I’m still waiting on packages from December.
Packages I put big money into, and was told (after placing the orders) that if you’re not shopping directly from Ready to Ship items ( a category I actually didn’t even see my first few orders) that you’ll end up waiting 3-4 weeks due to these being pre orders.
I wasn’t happy about that but I didn’t mind, I figured I’d have jewelry by early January to start selling for valentines day! ? .
As the weeks kept going by, not only did I have questions but my whole team, where we were constantly told to use the Chat service on the website. The only problem is that they do not answer these chats.
We began getting impatient and asking where the company was located, why are things taking so long etc. To be given every excuse in the book along with some shocking surprises.
This (company) is ran out of The CEO Jennifer’s House.
Only 3 women Work on these orders, Jennifer the CEO and her two .. friends?
While more women became impatient bombarding the chats with questions, 2 days later not 1 or 2 of them, but all 3 women (who do the sorting / packaging and shipping ) came down with covid.
God forgive me if I’m wrong in any way, I believe it was a lie to buy time, as do many other women. After waiting a few weeks with sympathy and patience .. they announced that in 3 days we’d have a shipping update to please be patient.
A week goes by with no update , we all start asking questions and they ask for another week.
Weeks go by and they update us that they’re on order #2800 (my downline and I all had orders past 3400)
Now every new company has its issues, but the attitudes from the CEO and the two ladies helping her (mainly the ladies helping her) is what scared me away!
In the leadership group chat where women would ask for help , updates , or help at all, we were threatened by Laura to have our accounts deleted for being negative!
Told we should have Jennifer’s back after all she has done for us !? And always sarcastic remarks like “What do you want Jennifer to do get a helicopter, fly out to the crates and pluck out your jewelry?”
I’m a respectful lady as most of the affiliates are! To be treated to poorly when my girls and I spend our hard earned money on a company blew my mind!
I do not recommend this company at all! You can also find the same jewelry on SHEIN and get it within a week.
Ok one more complaint, 3 is always a good number to go with.
• Jan 25, 2022
No customer service!!
This company I so poorly run and has no ethics. They take your money and you don’t hear from them again.
I placed two orders:
1. Oct.25th, 2021 #2425 (not received as of Jan 24 th, 2022).
2. Oct. 14th, 2021 #2245 which I PARTIALLY received on Jan. 13 th., 2022.
There was no explanation about where my other items were, or if they were coming. As far as I know, I paid the entire cost in October and don’t see any refunds. Oh, and did I mention the jewelry I got is complete garbage!
My earring broke as it fell out of the wrapper!
However, I gave them a chance and emailed them to let them know I didn’t get all my stuff but they never responded.
I have sent at least 6 emails starting in November 2021 but they never respond.
Crappy jewelry with no customer support. Stay far, far away from them!
Final Analysis
This business started using affiliates and network marketing as a way to generate sales.
The problem as I see it, is they are in a very competitive market and are not able to build value into their products.
Even though they have gone to the trouble of having their items “White labeled”
The photos and product descriptions on their website are very basic.
Other jewellery stores have way better presentations with a focus on quality rather than price.
There is nothing new in Belle and Bling’s idea of having others do the marketing for you.
That is the way of MLMs and affiliate marketing.
It looks to be an unsophisticated operation, where once people pay for a product, the owners pay themselves first, then there is not enough to purchase anything from the supplier.
Let alone any affiliates or downline.
This one should be in my list of the 7 worst MLMs here.
With what seems to be an ever-growing portfolio of complaints, expect Shopify to close this store down. Sooner rather than later!
Thanks for reading.
Michael.
