The owners of the business pratically built our town so I'm not complaining:D

in pursuit of the almighty dollar
 

Here is a transcript of a report that was on Dateline NBC last year that went undercover with Quixtar (really Amway under a new incarnation):
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4375477/

And lawmakers response to the report:
http://www.pyramidschemealert.org/PS...ommissLtr.html

Interesting site called MLMSurvivor -
http://www.mlmsurvivor.com/news.htm

Here is a list of MLM to at least be wary of (many of them are those infomercials that come on at night):
http://www.mlmresources.com/html/mlm...home_pages.asp


A friend of mine was involved in Nutrition For Life, Intl back in college -- he was convinced by Kevin Trudeau's salesmanship that he would become rich selling these nutritional lifestyle products and he too went to a lot of "motivational conferences" that cost a lot of money. A friend he really trusted got him into; they were both debators and very persuasive people, he eventually realized how much money he was losing and gave it up. He is now an investment banker :)

Just an FYI - Primerica is a wholly-owned marketing arm of CitiGroup. It's a multi-level marketing scheme, and while a sleect few are raking from it, the only people actually getting rich are the ones selling life insurance for citi. If you know anyone who gets involved, I'll personally come to your place and whack you with a rake if you refinance through them - it's an absolute joke.

Don't get involved with Multi-Level Marketing scams.

We have a friend who's gotten involved with this. He's in so deep that he can't/won't accept the fact that maybe it's not a good idea. It's seriously consuming his life. :(

When I last posted in this thread, I mentioned a couple who were selling Amway (or Quixtar, whatever) and tried to recruit my husband and me. A couple of months ago, they tried again! We again made it clear that we weren't interested. We haven't heard from them since.

I have a friend who is a SAHM and sells Tupperware for a little extra $. She often does "party swaps" with people who sell other products - for instance, she hosted a Partylite party in her house, then ran a Tupperware party at the Partylite consultant's home. She once tried to set up a party swap with a Quixtar salesperson. The response: "That's not the Quixtar way."

I know someone who is involved with Primerica and insists on trying to sell me insurance. Every time I see him, he brings it up, and every time, I say no. It's an uncomfortable situation.

Ugh, I ALMOST repeat ALMOST got caught up with one of those schemes - I cant believe they almost got me!

My senior year of college, when I was in the dead heat of interviewing for jobs, I got a call from this "environmental company" to come to interview for a job. Being that I was a chemical engineering major, working in the environmental field was right down my alley. They told me that "a professor" gave them my name. :rolleyes:

So I drive down there for 20 minutes or so wearing my "power interview suit"...yall know, everybody has at least one of those by the time they graduate. I walk in there ready to give a great interview and they are selling environmental crap! Come to find out they were an Equinox Company disguised as an "environmental company" and my COUSIN gave them my name!!!

I WAS TOO PISSED :mad:

Another warning is for people in the Marketing/Advertising field. If a job that's posted on Monster or CareerBuilders looks shady or too good to be true, it probably is. My favorite is the jobs that are in bold and all capital letters that say "Entry-Level Marketing. No Experience Necessary."
A friend of mine applied and got invited for an interview. The told her to wear comfortable shoes since she'd be spending the whole day with the company watching what they do on a daily basis. Comfortable shoes to an interview? That still didn't give her a clue that something was wrong.
The interviewer tells her that he's going to be meeting clients in DeLand (1 hour out of Orlando) and tells her to come along.
Turns out that the company specializes in selling coupon books door-to-door. The "clients" this guy had to meet with were whoever happened to be home that day. My poor friend went door-to-door with guy in the pouring rain in her new business suit that she had bought for the interview.
She called me crying at the end of the day. I think the company was Wentworth or Marketing Dynamics or something like that.

The same thing happened to my friend, but he and another applicant spent the day with an employee soliciting in the dorms at Georgetown University, which is illegal. They got caught, and banned from campus and will be arrested if they are caught on GU property again. The employee actually went back into the dorms after they got caught, however my friend and the other girl walked the 2 miles to the metro so they could go back to the office and get their cars, and get the hell out of there.

Not only did I apply to and interview with a company like that, I worked there for three weeks! Well, it wasn't three full weeks..I was at my old job part-time for two of the three weeks. When I was hired I was told as a management trainee, I'd be going out in the field for a couple weeks just so I could "see what the salespeople do so I could relate to them." Going out in the field=door to door sales of coupon books. Oh boy, did it ever suck. I had to be there at 9:30 or so for meetings, then I'd go out and was expected to be out til about 7 or so, then came back for more meetings. It was VERY cultlike. Everyone was talking about how they were going to run their own offices and stuff and if you were really good, you got to go on a "business trip" to somewhere in the middle of nowhere, staying five or six to a hotel room, doing door to door sales there for a couple weeks. I never went on one. :) During the third week I talked to one of the guys and found out that not only was he still doing door-to-door sales, he had been doing it for two years! I quit the next day...went in to turn in something (I forgot what) and left, never to return. That's the only job I ever walked out on.

EXACTLY! This is why I won't make the big bucks. I let people know that I'm a consultant with MK but I don't want to impose myself on them. If they are interested in the products, they can let me know. I had a cousin tell me that she needed a foundation and I dropped it off for her (as well as some other products as gifts). A friend needed help with her skin and I sent her samples - and she purchased some of the products that I sent samples of - but she also knew that she didn't have to. I KNOW that my family would help me out by hosting a show or something like that, but I don't want them to do that so I just don't ask - and what I have been told is that you aren't imposing, that you are offering a service. True, but I still don't feel right. There is also the whole inventory thing. Yes, if you are able to sell a lot you should be buying products from the company, but a LOT of people buy because they feel pressured to, etc.

Now, to go along with the comment about staying away from negative people. This is partially true. You shouldn't avoid negative people to the point of alientation, HOWEVER I know that if I hang around negative people for too long that I get bitter and then its time for me to stay away from them for a while (this includes my parents!).

Anyway, that's my little $.02 worth of this discussion.

It's a freaking pyramid scam

Just saw a commercial during the Macy's parade for Amway... touting how great it is, how they had $7 billion in sales, allowed people to start their own businesses, etc. Made me remember this thread.

The "your own business" stuff is crap. You're a salesperson for them. It's not your own business.

^^^^ Ooooooh you about to have 10,000 posts!

So anyway, I met this lady at the post office who, as it turns out, was a fellow Greek. So we have a conversation and she tells me that she has this fundraiser for nonprofits. As a fundraiser, I'm like cool, tell me more.

So she comes over and we talk and it's an MLM!!!! UGH! Basically they wanted my job to buy a website portal for FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS (Our real website didn't even cost that much!) and then convince our friends to only book their vacations through our site.

What might have actually worked is if my job sponsored trips for fun and took a portion of the proceeds. But no, that wasn't the plan.

I felt so.... I dunno.... betrayed.... how can you prey on a small nonprofit and ask us to shell out that kind of money that we could NEVER make back unless it was a full-time endeavor.

Amway is a great business that does a lot of good for a lot of people. There's a reason for their success - businesses that are scams don't last that long.

It's a lot different from many MLM systems, because you don't put any money down - no "give us $1000 and we will make that back for you five times over!".

I don't work for them or anything, but I do think that they are a great business.

Somebody needs to step back from the kool aid...