MLM = morons losing money

[mrnoodle]

I have had it up to my eyeballs with MLM people. Melaleuca, Quixstar/Amway, all of em. I'm sick of people pretending to be a friend, only to find that they're lubing you up for the Mystery Meeting at a restaurant to talk about "the Plan." I don't believe you when you say that you get a $5,000 check in the mail every month -- if by chance you ARE telling the truth, you got it by selling "training materials" at 400% markup to your "downline," which is an abominable misuse of trust and so-called friendship.

When I say I'm not interested, guess what? I'm not interested. I don't care to hear that "it's not a pyramid scheme," because it is. I don't want to hear that Quixstar is different from Scamway, because it's not. I don't want to hear "if it was such a bad thing, the government would've shut it down," because the government is the only thing more corrupt and misleading than your so called "business." I don't believe that you are the most closest and bestest friends with your so-called "mentor," and I don't believe he makes $45 million dollars a year simply by virtue of his winning smile and deep concern for my financial well-being.

I think you still believe the shit that these cults are shoveling into your pliant, eager, empty skull only because you've sunk a bunch of money and time into "the Plan" and are hoping beyond hope that it's not all hogwash, and that someday, the 48-pack toilet paper rolls bought by your "downline" will add up to enough money to erase the fact that your friends and family cringe every time you approach. (rants should have run-on sentences)

I don't care how much money "the corporation" makes, how much it's grown in the last 50 years, whether or not it made the Forbes 20 or 400 or whatever number. It's not a real business. It's organized thievery, and the only people who are successful are the ones who aid and abet the crime lords that run the company.

You do not make money by convincing your acquaintances to buy off-brand hand soap (don't start with your "we carry name-brand items that every family uses" spiel or I'll brain you with a shovel). You make money by convincing people to convince people to convince people to convince people that they should go to conventions and buy tapes and books. Period. They make em for a dollar, sell em to 'diamonds' for 2 dollars, who sell em to 'emeralds' for 3, who sell em to Direct Distributor Whatevertheyares for 4, who sell em to you for 7. If 500 newbies come to a convention and all buy 3 tapes and 4 books, SOMEONE is truly "realizing financial independence." That person is not you. It's the pinky-ring-wearing snake oil salesman behind the podium and his poofy haired, faux-diamond-encrusted trophy hag, who carry literal sacks of cash out of the venue and into their American-made McLuxury car.

I want to vomit.



no, it didn't happen to me. At least not recently. It's happening to a very good friend of mine who is trying to support his family and is about to piss away a good chunk of change and time. What's worse is the in-road that his "friend" is using to suck him in. Hell, I'll just come out with it. Our drummer has a new acquaintance who allegedly plays bass, has some talent, and is looking for a gig. Well, we're sitting around with the guy the other day talking music, when suddenly here comes the spiel. I just rolled my eyes, as did mike, but nate's going through a rough patch financially and you could see that vacant far-off look come into his eyes when the dude started talking about his residual bonus checks.

I would've almost believed him if...get this.... HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY BASS GEAR BECAUSE HE HAD TO SELL IT FOR LIVING EXPENSES. Um. That extra $30k doesn't go as far as it used to, I guess. Which won't matter, because if one of us doesn't buy into his amway bullshit, the chances of even seeing him again are zero. These cultists only look for people to recruit, everyone else is an unmotivated loser in their eyes.

I want to talk to my friend about it, but if I don't cool down I'll say the wrong thing and mess things up with us and with the band. The programming quixtar's followers receive is thorough, I'll give em that much.

[Elspode]

You *nailed* it, my friend. Motivational speaking + products to move = bad stuff.

[dar512]

This sort of thing seems prevalent in certain areas. We got hit up a number of times when we lived in Seattle. Hasn't happened at all in Chicago.

[lookout123]

at my old firm (that evil place where i had employees) 2 members of my staff got sucked into quixstar. i tried to steer them away until one of the guys freaks out in a staff meeting, telling everyone that i am trying to keep him from a "real moneymaking opportunity" so that i can keep him "as an employee, making an employee's wage". he transferred to a different office a couple of months later when the glow from his new business relationships wore off. i couldn't believe it - these guys were supposed to be 2 of my better salespeople and they totally bought a cheesy salespitch.

[Clodfobble]

Amen to that, noodle.

My husband got hit up awhile back by a total stranger, after a very long casual conversation in the Home Depot toilet department. This one wasn't even selling things, it was somehow based on website logins. But he was fairly livid when it suddenly dawned on him that this wasn't just a really overly friendly guy who liked talking about the vagaries of home plumbing. Pyramid schemes are a bit of a sore spot with him--as a child, his mother and father both bought into Amway completely, and it really hurt them financially.

And yet he still swears that their vitamin products are the best you can buy.

And my mother recently got sucked into an organic skin products pyramid scheme, but she pretends now that she only joined because she wanted to use the products, and figured it would be better to buy from herself than someone else. Yeah, uh huh.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

And yet he still swears that their vitamin products are the best you can buy.

There's nothing preventing Amway products from being good, it's their business practices that are destructive. Likewise, my mom has a plastic Tupperware collander that's at least 30 years old and is only now starting to deteriorate, even after being partially melted on the stove. I haven't been able to find one with as good a design (holes small enough to hold pasta, easy to clean, enough holes), even in some pretty upscale kitchenware stores.

But I'm not sure how a consumer can really know how good a vitamin product is. I just pick 'em by the taste.

[jaguar]

Are those free ipod/mac mini etc ones MLM or just dodgy marketing stuff (getting people to sign up to stuff then cancel + selling details)?

[Beestie]

Someone invited me to lunch and proceeded to lay out that spiel out on me a few years ago. He told me that if I recruited x people that I'd get a residual from all of them and all those that they recruited and all the ones that the recruits recruited.

So I asked him: "If all everyone is doing is recruiting new salespeople to generate downstream residuals then who's doing the selling that's generating all this residual? ... [pregnant pause/blank stare] ... Oh, I am when I buy the 'starter kit.' I see."

Check Please!

[Undertoad]

And y'know, this is one of the advantages of age, because after a while you've seen all this kind of shit and it's harder to take you in.

Which doesn't explain why the elderly are scam and telemarketing targets...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Because they're lonely and willing to talk. The longer you can keep them talking the better chance of wearing them down.

There's some truth to the old saw "You can't cheat an honest man" and the flip, "You can always cheat a larcenous man".

[Radar]

Nice. I've lost a few "friends" who invited me to "dinner" and it turned out to be MLM's. It's happened at least 4 or 5 times over the years. When I was a kid I actually was going to do one of them. I even put some money into product and stuff. Then I realized even if the product was great (and this particular product really was) it's not worth my family or friends trying to avoid me.

[monicakat]

My younger brother is obsessed with finding some website where he can take surveys and earn money for every survey completed. He purchased a list of sites that do this (against my MANY warnings) and then said they were a faulty source, THEN BOUGHT ANOTHER ONE!! Total spent:$80.00. Total earned: $2.00. That was three months ago.
I love my brother very much, but pretty much consider him a MLM. I don't think he'll do it again (oh my god, if he does......), hopefully he's learned his lesson. But I'm seeing more and more of this every day. The things where you mail off a buncha letters to different people and they're each supossed to send you $...
it's worthy of a big huge rant!

[smoothmoniker]

nothing to add but a hearty "Preach it, Preacher Man!!!"

[cowhead]

uh, yeah a solid amen to that..

I almost got taken in by Markowitz.. man! they're like a cult. good thing I had left my checkbook at home.

(they sell all that gawd-awful junk you see in kwik shops and such)

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Which doesn't explain why the elderly are scam and telemarketing targets...

Well, many elderly people like to think that they are not meant any harm, particually if the person scamming them is "such a nice young man/lady." They are from a time when most people were honest, while now most people are dishonest (especially if they are trying to sell you something.) And then you have the senile elderly who can't remember what the news tells them about not helping strangers and usually fall for sob stories and money making scemes. It really makes you feel bad for them. But then again, you have MLM people who should know better and do it anyway. There wouldn't be scammers if no one fell for it, I guess.