Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Amway and WWDB Teaching?

A comment left on my WWDB blog. I thought it might be helpful to other readers who share a similar situation:

My husband wasn't abusive when we met and were first married. That started happening maybe six months after we were married.

He was already in Amway when we met, but he wasn't very active. After we got married, he started to get more active in "the business."

I didn't know much about Amway when I met him. I met his upline sponsors when we got engaged and I thought they were just good friends. After we were married, I went to a rally and was struck by how the wives seemed to be so supportive. Then I heard the Emerald wife speak, and all she did was edify her husband or go on to "us gals" that we needed to let go of any negativity. As I went to more functions, I heard the wives tell "us gals" to be submissive - that we were wrong for having any needs or requests. It's one of the kids' birthday or your birthday and there's a function? Guess which one takes priority. You can celebrate later when you're "Free," when you're a Diamond.

I thought there would be some sales training. I went to an Artistry clinic - they taught us how to put on makeup and showed us some of the latest colors. But there was nothing about how to find customers, generate sales, or even have a makeup party. At one time, there was a tape by Bettyjean Brooks (wife of Jim Brooks, WWDB) about how to build a retail business. I ordered it, but never received it. She and Jim divorced. Jim stayed in WWDB and the tape suddenly became "unavailable."

Husband really followed the "fake it 'til you make it" teaching. To everyone, he was Mr. Successful. After our child was born, I became a stay at home mother. He led everyone to believe that it was our Amway income that allowed me to stay home. We weren't even at 1500 PV. We never made any money. I kept my mouth shut and played the submissive/supportive wife role. Keeping the books, running call-in and pickup for our downline, and trying to peddle the products to "customers." He never tried to sell anything - that was the wife's job. WWDB taught that.

It all came to a head when the police got involved because of the abuse. He had to move out of our house. He lied to everyone, saying that it was all really nothing and that the courts (and I) were blowing everything out of proportion. After going through counseling and therapy, it was clear to me (and to the therapist) that he was not being honest with any of us. I filed for divorce.

It was then that the upline contacted me. Our sponsor (the wife), platinum and emerald each called me. It started out that they were "concerned" about me and wanted to counsel me. When I told them exactly what happened and why I was leaving, they told me that it was "unbiblical" for me to leave my husband. Yelling at me. Accusing me of negativity. They also said that there was no way he could have done those things, that they just couldn't believe it. I offered to let them see a copy of the police report. Nobody ever took me up on that offer.

Now, I can't say that Amway taught him to be abusive, but I wholeheartedly believe they taught him to be a good liar and how to hide the truth and dodge questions. They did everything short of preach that the "little lady" stay at home, pregnant and in the kitchen. Wives on stage used to brag about how the couple drove a hundred miles and left their kids sleeping in the car while they went inside someone's house to show a plan.

Freedom, indeed. More like servitude.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw somewhere there were 19000 new platinums in 2012. This compares to 55000 in 2011. Worldwide figures.

Joecool said...

Even new platinums may not mean anything because we don't know how many failed to re-qualify at platinum.

Anonymous said...

Thats true. I would assume 4 out of 5 dont requalify. And most of those fall back shortly after reaching platinum

Anonymous said...

Reading these type of stories is scary to me. I take the critical approach considering I don't know if its true or not and I haven't heard anything like this at my meetings.

I am new at this. I really want it to work but using the same critical eye, I find it hard to believe that it works due to the fact that they do not control how many distributors they have, many or almost half of the items sold are very expensive (and even if you get better quality stuff from the store you still spend less sometimes), and I'm paying shipping costs. Now most distributors pay shipping but dang! Between the IBO prices and the shipping it is like how do I get any savings here? How do my customers get any savings? How do the people I personally care about get savings?

What also throws me off about being a member is that they want you to start calling people immediately. If I just started, why would I call anybody? I don't even know if I like the products yet or if its actually saving me money to use them.

It just seemed very "car salesmen" like. They type that would have you over pay thousands on a car on top of any dealership fees. It was like hurry up and do it are usually bad deals.

Again, I really want this to work and I am trying to figure out how it can work for me by using actual business skills such as calling the people who you really want to work with now, build a team (not just for Amway) to work on projects... I guess I just wish this was the real deal. But without it being more about sales (than recruitment) I just don't see it working. Eventually you run out of people to recruit. Also do I really want 400+ IBO's to track? And with all of them promising that if they get at least 100 people under them they can be good? (I increased the amount of people needed because of the fact that many IBO quit or don't buy much so if you have 4 times what you need, your income will be "steady" - at 4% per person, if you get 25 IBO's you have 100% income... 100 IBO's would better guarantee you at least get 25 doing what they call "CORE")

So what do you guys think? Is there any way to make money in the business? If there was, how would it work?

Joecool said...

Do an honest assessment of your business. Are the products really worth it or can you get the same products (or similar) at Costco for a fraction of the cost? If your honest answer is Costco, then people you try to sell products to will likely have the exact same conclusion.

Also, your upline will want you to purchase "tools" and attend functions. These things cost time and money and it won't change the fact that products are hard to sell.

In the end, what can you realistically accomplish doing this?

Anonymous said...

freedom.
& i just came across this article randomly,
After that "abuse" happened I would've accepted the counselling, its free and it helps. It would've probably bettered the relationship for all you know?
WWDB is an awesome business, where THOUSANDS of IBOS are actually making it !
You just have to be CORE and follow the steps, success doesn't happen in a day you have to be CORE for atleast 6 months to see the results , and in 2-5 years if you're CORE you will be DIAMOND.
JUST BE POSITIVE :D


*** Just a positive girl in a positive mindset , CORE! :D

Anonymous said...

yikes.

Anonymous said...

Wife and are platinums and easily make what the plan shows. Just gotta work it.

Joecool said...

But only 1 out of 200 IBOs make platinum. The rest are losing money.

Quazar said...

That's why there are 2% wealthy people and 98% broke people because they want a "get rich quick" opportunity. Most people aren't will to do what it takes to get the dream life, instead they are searching for the dream job that is ultimately building a life for their bosses family, where you are told how much you will make and what you are worth. So you are right...most don't make it to Platinum. That's because they still think like an employee and don't understand the entrepreneurial mindset.

Joecool said...

2% wealthy and 98% broke sounds like an Amway function, not the real world.

Thinking like an employee doesn't mean you cannot accumulate wealth. You are just putting up a strawman argument.

Anonymous said...

Look at the glaring contradiction between what Anonymous of July 18, 2014 says, and what Unknown of September 13, 2016 says. This is the core fraud of Amway.

The first guy says it's easy to make Platinum: you "Just gotta work it." That's the basic lie they tell every recruit at an Amway meeting: Just duplicate us, and you'll be rich. Anybody can do it!

The second guy says "Most don't make it to Platinum," and "there are just 2% of wealthy people and 98% of broke people."

So what's the real truth, you Amway buffoons? That the Amway plan is do-able for everybody, or that only 2% are going to make it?

Decide which side of your mouth you're going to talk out of, especially if you're posting comments on a public website.

No wonder the Amway bigshots discourage IBOs from coming here to comment. The fraud becomes too obvious to hide.

Unknown said...

There are good and bad in all that we do. Is Amway is the destroyer of your marriage, or was it already in trouble? Not being an Amway distributor, or an Amway hater either one I can look at I objectively. Can you?

Joecool said...

When Amway is looked at objectively, it is a piss poor business opportunity and a lousy way to try to earn a few dollars. There's really not much good about Amway as a business opportunity or a supplier of quality and competitively priced products.

Anonymous said...

Unknown at January 11 says the he is "not an Amway distributor."

Yeah, sure. And I'm the Queen of Romania.

The only persons who come to this website to make positive comments about Amway are Amway IBOs.

Anonymous said...

honestly though how hard did you work? how many people did you help? how long did you stick around? how often did you plug in to your up-line? did you listen to audios and kate? did you go to the functions or did you make excuses? if you followed c.o.r.e. then there is no reason that at 1500 PV you're not making money. unless you make 1500 pv with you helping no one.

Joecool said...

I was hard core and worked my butt off. I sponsored 12 front line and had eagle parameters and never missed a meeting and was plugged into upline. Still, at 4000 PV I had no net profit. Upline advice was a lie. Plan and simple. Upline only makes false promises. I could have gone onto platinum but having seen the numbers, I concluded that platinum would have been no better. After number crunching and more demands by upline, I made a business decision to leave. And it was a decision I have never regretted.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous at 8:03 AM --

You're an idiot. Persons who are "Core" in Amway are ones who get hosed the worst. Up-line makes most of its money off the fees and labors of "Core" types, who have dedicated their minds, bodies, and souls to doing every goddamned thing that Amway demands. They go broke pretty quickly.

Anonymous said...

My wife and I just went platinum this year and we've had nothing but great experiences with it. Upline does not make most of it's money off fee's and labors lol... I don't make anything off of people being Core. That's all for them. I don't get paid when people buy books and listen to audios. Thank God I didn't listen to you my friend or I'd still be broke just like you.

Joecool said...

Anonymous, I'm not sure why you're lying but ok. Tools and functions are a big money maker for diamonds. Platinums make some loose change from the audios and such but the real money begins at emerald or diamond.

You're free to prove me wrong but you won't. LOL

Anonymous said...

Anonymous at 4:19 PM is definitely lying. He's Platinum, but he doesn't make money off his down-line's purchase of CDs and books? Who the hell does he think he's kidding?

Anonymous said...

The money those Diamonds make does not come from the products by the way. Almost all of their income comes from the tapes, books, and selling tickets that fill stadiums. It's really very sad for all those desperate people in the audience.

Anonymous said...

If you talk to Amway Diamonds privately, they'll laugh if you ask about profits from the retail sale of Amway products. Some of them will even tell you that they haven't handled actual Amway products for years. Only the lowly down-line IBOs do that.