Is Pampered Chef a Scam? See What This MLM Scheme’s Cooking!

Is Pampered Chef a Scam? See What This MLM Scheme’s Cooking!

Welcome to my Pampered Chef review!

If someone told you that you'd make money selling kitchen products, you might have found the idea funny. 

But there's actually a business opportunity that provides you with just that, and they're called Pampered Chef.

First of all, I must Congratulate you for taking your time to do your own research before buying into any "seemingly good" product.

That's the way to avoid scams and find the legitimate way to make money online!

Let me be completely transparent with you, I'm not associated with Pampered Chef in any form.

So, rest assured that I'm not here to pitch or sell anything to you.

Instead, I'm here to reveal the story behind Pampered Chef and their unique business opportunity. 

Can you really make a decent stream of income from Pampered Chef? 

Read on and find out. 

Pampered Chef Review Summary

Product Name:  Pampered Chef

Founder: Doris Christopher

Product Type: MLM (Kitchen products)

Price: One time payment of $109 for Starter Kit or $159 for Deluxe Kit or $249 for Ultimate Kit

Best For: People who're good at organizing parties and selling products. People who're also knowledgeable about different kitchen products and what they can specifically do.

Pampered Chef logo

Summary: Pampered Chef is not a scam, and it's far from being one. Their company provides a unique business opportunity within the MLM industry, but they fail to meet the expectations of their customers. Their products are terrible in quality and their service is questionable to say the least. 

Rating: 40 /100

Recommended: No

More...

What is Pampered Chef?

Pampered Chef is a multi-level marketing company that was founded back in 1980 by Doris Christopher. She was a home economics teacher who thought of providing functional and quality kitchen products, and through that idea, Pampered Chef was born.

Today, Pampered Chef is a global company that operates in the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, and Canada. They directly sell kitchen tools, cookbooks, and food products.

Their headquarters is currently located in Addison, Illinois.

Pampered Chef began selling their items to housewives through their party plan system, or simply a cooking show. This is done by hosting a social event where products are shown and demonstrated, with orders taken before the event concludes.

Pampered Chef gained popularity in the 1990’s and started on their global influence in 1996 in Canada. They further expanded to the UK in 1999, Germany in 2000, and then Mexico just recently in 2009.

Pampered Chef is the most famous in network marketing circles. And in 2002, the company was acquired by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, which made the entire company look more legitimate and authoritative in the MLM circle.

Pampered Chef Product Line

Pampered Chef is not your run-of-the-mill MLM company. I would rank them to be as legitimate as Young Living and Usana Health Sciences.

They sell kitchenware products and they have pretty much anything you want to stock your kitchen with. Their products are also affordable but high in quality.

They’ve got bakeware, cutlery, appliances, grilling accessories, dishes, holiday sets, you name, they have it.

Here are some of the favorites…

  1. Emoji cookie cutter set: $10
  2. Kids pizza making set: $45
  3. Herb infuser: $10
  4. Soups, stews, & chilis cookbook: $8.50
  5. Manual food processor: $52.50
  6. Small bamboo knife block set (4 pieces): $165
  7. Beer bread mix: $11
  8. Dutch oven & cookbook set: $139

Do The Products Work?

Now, I’d like to point out two things: their product and their service. When I was browsing through their product reviews, I found that Pampered Chef doesn’t really provide “quality” products like they claim they to.

Here are some screenshots of the reviews about their products:

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I was under the impression that cookware would last at least a few years before they start to even show wear and tear, but Pampered Chef products seem to decline in quality faster than the other commercial (and cheaper) brands out there.

Now on to their service. It seems to me that their lifetime warranty is riddled with fine print. You’d think that a lifetime warranty would be enough to sell people on kitchen products because that’s already a lifetime coverage.

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Combing through different warranty-related reviews made me think of two things:

  1. Their consultants should be more educated in what their lifetime warranty actually covers. I can see that these are nothing more than consultants misinforming their clients.
  2. For the price people pay for their products, I’d expect them to just honor the warranty and replace the broken product when needed.
Jerry Huang, Founder of Smart Affiliate Success

I'm Jerry!

I Created My Own 4-Figure Monthly Passive Income at just 21 Years Old!

4 figure monthly passive income

How To Make Money With Pampered Chef?

Pampered Chef may be a step above other MLM companies, but they don’t really set themselves apart in terms of compensation. They are simply using a commission-based sales structure that doesn’t provide anything unique.

When you’re a consultant for Pampered Chef, earn money by:

  • Selling their products
  • Building your team to sell their products, so you increase your earnings

How To Get Started With Pampered Chef?

To become a consultant for Pampered Chef, you must purchase a consultant kit. There are three kits to choose from, and this depends on your knowledge and enthusiasm with selling kitchen products.

  1. The Starter Kit ($109) gives you products and business tools worth $450
  2. The Deluxe ($159) gives you products and business tools worth $650
  3. The Ultimate Kit ($249) gives you products and business tools worth $1000

Note that they are not giving you products worth that much (e.g., kitchen products to sell worth $450 for only $109).

If you want to host a party, Pampered Chef will offer you host credits, which can give you anywhere from $25 to $50 off your kit.

Everything in the kit is designed to convince your friends that cooking is great with Pampered Chef and that their kitchen needs a new set of spatulas.

Pampered Chef Compensation Plan

Browsing through their compensation plan, I found that there’s nothing that spectacular with what they have to offer.

I don’t want to go into too much details, but you can check out their comprehensive compensation plan here.

Now on to the tidbits:

As I mentioned earlier, you earn money through commissions based on your monthly sales.

These commission rates vary and will depend on the monthly sales your make.

  1. $1-$749 in monthly sales gets you a 20% commission rate
  2. $750-$1,249 in monthly sales gets you a 22% commission rate
  3. $1,250-$2,499 in monthly sales gets you a 23% commission rate
  4. $2,500-$3,999 in monthly sales gets you a 24% commission rate
  5. $4,000+ in monthly sales gets you a 25% commission rate

And then you have these extra bonuses from:

  1. Recruiting a team, and you’ll earn 3% of each sales of each member
  2. Discounts on products
  3. Free products and points towards vacations

Most consultants make that 20% commission rate, which is pretty below average for an MLM company.

You need to hit the $15,000 mark in career sales to bump up your commission rate by 2%, and once you have a decent team size, your commission rate goes up to 31%, which is not that bad.

Of course, you need to build a big team if you want to make a decent income out of their model.

The upside is if you can’t make money with their model, at least you’ll always have access to discounted kitchenware.

Here's a video that helps explain their compensation plan further:

Tired of MLM? Check out my #1 Recommendation Here!

Pampered Chef Ugly Truths Revealed

#1 - Products Are Expensive But Poor In Quality

This is hitting two birds with one stone. Now, I am not saying that all of their products are expensive, but their products are certainly priced higher than other comparable brands.

It’s difficult to convince people to pay for that markup when they have other options.

On top of that, Pampered Chef products are riddled with bad reviews about their quality. I mean, just look at what I’ve uncovered.

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You’d think that for an international brand, you’d be getting the quality that you paid for, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.

#2 - Hosting Parties Can Be Exhausting

The first or second party may be fun since you and your friends can just get together and you’ll sell a decent amount of products. But at some point, your friends and family won’t want to sit through the same presentation every week.

You will need new groups of people to keep the profit machine (if any) turning. Some people can make this happen because they may have a wider reach or a bigger circle.

Let me go into detail for this:

You’re hosting a party to sell the products, but you’re still spending REAL money for the venue, utensils, and probably the food. Pampered Chef won’t be the one to sponsor your party. The best they could do was give you credits, but that’s just about it.

So in theory, if you spend $300 a party, you’d have to sell that amount just to get the money back. You’re not exactly gaining any profit before you hit that $300 mark.

But for majority, this can be difficult to maintain. Thankfully, Pampered Chef does give you other options on how to promote their products.

#3 - It's Difficult To Turn Into Full Time Income

I can hardly think of any MLM company that actually gives you the ability to earn full-time income. Now, I couldn’t find any income disclosure statement, which is a big disappointment for a company like Pampered Chef.

But I did find their Earning Potential document, which I think is just for show.

Pampered Chef Earning Potential

Based on the chart, they are telling me that I only need to spend an average of 8 to 15 hours per week for me to earn a decent stream of income, which would be $1400 minimum and could go as high as $18,000.

That’s where I’d draw the line because I’m pretty sure I need to spend more than 15 hours a week to do the following:

  1. Build a team
  2. Train a team
  3. Sell more products

With this kind of returns, people are better off with other means of making money online like affiliate marketing

What I Like About Pampered Chef?

#1 - Compensation Plan Is Easy To Understand

From among the many reviews that I’ve written, their compensation plan was probably the easiest to understand, and I kind of liked that.

The details are laid on their website and on their compensation plan document, so there’s no question on just how much you can make with the company (potentially, of course).

#2 - Great Discounts on Kitchen Products

For anyone who likes to cook or bake, the discounts on their kitchen products as well as the ability to make money on them is a pretty good deal for how much you paid to get into.

Every Pampered Chef consultant has access to exclusive discounts on products and the ability to earn free products through their bonuses.

Is Pampered Chef a Scam?

Pampered Chef is not a scam. I like the idea behind their company, but not so much sold on the quality of their products. I also wouldn’t recommend it to be a sustainable income opportunity because of the reasons that I stated above.

The absence of any income disclosure statement doesn’t give me the confidence that anyone can make decent money out of Pampered Chef. So because of that, I can't recommend this as a sustainable method for making money online. 

The commission rates are below average and you need to hit the mark in career sales to get that bumped up by 2%, and you have to recruit a lot of people to make it worth your while. 

On top of that, Pampered Chef isn't exactly what most people consider as a top-tier brand of kitchen products. People would still want to go for Tupperware or Kitchenaid if that's the case. 

Then you have their line of kitchen appliances. What's stopping people from just buying the best brands like Samsung or LG? 

Indirectly and inconsequentially, Pampered Chef is pitting their consultants against the best brands in the market today and they don't have anything unique to provide that will make people even want to look at their brand. 

How I Make A Living Online?

I'm not a fan of MLM, not because it's illegal or not profitable, but because of all the restrictions and the expensive costs involved.

Instead, Affiliate Marketing is my top recommended business model for anyone to make money online.

The reason is simple...

  • You don't have to recruit anyone to make money
  • You have the freedom to promote any products you want and not being restricted to only promote the products from one MLM company
  • It's Free to get started

In fact, with affiliate marketing...

I've personally created a 4-Figure Monthly Passive Income Stream and become financially independent at just 21 years old without any College degree or working experience!

Through my own hard work, I went from a broke restaurant waiter to living my dream laptop lifestyle in less than a year's time...


If you want to discover the secrets of how I did it at such a young age, click here!

Justin Hagen
 

Justin has worked as an SEO and content specialist for the last 9 years. His success in the industry has allowed him to graduate from college, pay for a wedding, and pay for their first car. He recently joined Jerry as a writer for the Smart Affiliate Success blog.

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