Thursday, June 4, 2009

Amway - Amway And The Better Business Bureau

An anonymous poster who resides in Scarbourough Ontario Canada, recently posted a link from the better business bureau which I have attached:
www.bbb.org/western-michigan/business-reviews/multi-level-selling-co/amway-global-in-ada-mi-15000624

The link says Amway Global had an A+ rating. Congratulation to Amway Global. Certainly, even as a critic of the Amway opportunity, I can acknowledge that an A+ rating from the BBB is something to be proud of. However, even as a critic, I have said that my personal dealing with Amway customer service was always satisfactory or better. Here's what the BBB link says about their ratings: "BBB assigns grades from A to F with pluses and minuses. A+ is the highest grade and F is the lowest. The grade represents BBB’s degree of confidence that the business is operating in a trustworthy manner and will make a good faith effort to resolve any customer concerns" Thus Amway makes a good effort to manage and resolve customer complaints.

Many IBOs do not understand or are fed deception. The rating does not apply to your line of sponsorship. The rating does not say WWDB, Network 21 or BWW has an A+ rating from the BBB. Also, IBOs are not Amway! In IBO is an "independent business". Therefore, the BBB rating does not apply to IBOs.

It is this misuse of Amway's credibilty that deceptive upline leaders use to sell their system. It is why so many misinformed IBOs think that the BBB and the FTC endorse Amway. They do not endorse any business. They are regulatory agencies.

IBOs and Amway prospects, I challenge you to point out where the Better Business Bureau or the FTC says that the Amway opportunity is a good and profitable one.
God and search high and low, you won't find that information. You must remember that nobody here has Amway is illegal or provides poor customer service.

Joecool's contention is that the Amway Opportunity, in it's present form and as promoted by many LOS's, is a poor business opportunity for nearly all who register. Amway's average income, when disregarding "inactive IBOs", is $115 a month. If you can retire early on that income, then go for it.

15 comments:

mrmaximum said...

Let's put it bluntly. The BBB and the FTC state that Amway is a great place to buy products and their customer service is very good. These agencies state nothing about the money making end of it, the LOA's or AMO whatever you want to call it.

A very common misdirection that IBO's love to use to borrow as much credibility as they can....cause anyone in the business desperately needs as much as they can get.

Joecool said...

Actually, the FTC said Amway was not illegal, the BBB says they are good at handling their customer complaints. Neither agency said their products were great or were a great value, or that Amway was a good business opportunity.

quixtarisacult said...

So they handle returns, which mostly come from their own 'distributors' who make up the 96% of their customers. It isn't likely a IBO will file a BBB complaint, but aren't they locked into 'binding arbitration' when they have a dispute? Sure, Amway will refund money to those 4%ers who don't like their lipstick or eyeshadow, most likely to keep any additional criticism from coming their way for 'poor customer support'. Seems like they use their high tech systems to satisfy those who are disatisfied, thus limiting at least more criticism from this minority of folk who somehow think buying over priced merchandise to be a wise thing?

Joecool said...

QIAC, you have made a good point. If 96% of the Amway customers are IBOs, then yes, it is unlikely that they would register a formal complaint against Amway.

John said...

where is your facts for your 96%? and if the uplline is currupt why do you need him or her? why can't you just build your own business with your own morals selling the same products? While teaching others how to build a great buisness based on your good values?

Gina said...

The BBB does not rate or give information regarding the validity of business opportunities or their profitability. And before some gung ho IBO rants about how it depends on how you work it...it is irrelavant. The BBB simply allows an avenue for complaints to be processed and rate based on the handeling of those complaints...they say nothing of the Diamonds and many of their questionable behavior. It does not rate the validity of the opportunity or the claims made by so many IBO's.

This is my assumption....IBO's and their behavior can not be considered with the BBB because they are not actual employees of Amway but instead sales reps...so I would imagine that any complaint that someone may have about an IBO and their lies, may get no where with the BBB and it certainly would not affect Amway's rating.

What was Enron's BBB rating?

Joecool said...

Levi, Amway themselves said only about 4% of Amway products are sold to customers, defined as non IBOs. The rest of Amway goods are bought by IBOs. Why do you think we are skeptical when someone says they sell to 10-20 customers?s

John said...

ok very well then no complaints here

Anonymous said...

Gina made the comment about IBO being like sales reps so if a sale rep in another business has no success in selling dose that mean that the company that they worked for was a bad or corrupt one and dose it mean that no other sales rep might have success with that company

Anonymous said...

probably both.

Brandon said...

I am an IBO with the LTD branch of Amway, and I PERSONALLY have 23 clients/customers. I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers, but they are extremely incorrect.

Anonymous said...

prove it.

Anonymous said...

These blogs are so funny to read. I personally read them to learn about the types of skepticism people have when they don't know any better. I have a family member that has been a diamond in the business since I was little and I recently got into business as well. In the last year I have seen 3 people under 40 retire from regular jobs and one couple over 60. By retiring I mean they replaced their income, not millionaires but well over 60k in income. So I guess no matter how many people add to the complaints about Amway, people are still doing great and be very successful! We read lots of books that aren't sold by amway, lots of personal development related so I am not sure how diamonds make money off Dale Carnige and John Maxwell? They do get paid off function attendance because of sustainable business. Isn't that what you would want if you were opening a business?
We have met very great, honest, and hard working people. I will say that it sounds easy but there is work involved. My husband and I built a business prior to this and Amway was a hundred times easier and more fun than that was. I suppose if this is a blog against Amway that this will probably be deleted but I hope that people would do the right kind of research and dig into people who have been successful rather than the ones who quit! Cheers :)

Joecool said...

Glad you enjoyed reading this blog. I make 100K and my readers make 60K by reading and criticsizing Amway. See? Unsubstantiated claims are easy to make.

You'll notice I didn't delete your post because it's pro - Amway.

The Pro Amway folks can't make that same claim. I often have comments deleted on pro Amway blogs even though I don't say anything untrue or disrespectful to the blog or blog owner.

Anonymous said...

anon @6:14, you're an utter joke.