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Avon, which began operations in 1886, perfected the art of door-to-door selling. International sales account for 85 percent of revenue.

Ranked near the bottom of the Credit Standards Index (CSI), Avon Products has made a practice in recent years of knocking on the wrong doors.  "So totally screwed up in so many ways."

In 2011, Avon Products, Inc., a $11.3 billion cosmetics company based in New York City, wrote-off $257 million of its accounts receivable or approximately 29 percent of its year-end balance sheet figure of $761.5 million, one of the highest percentages ever documented by the Credit Standards Index (CSI).  Avon essentially wrote-off almost a third of its accounts receivable as uncollectible.