Tuesday, March 19, 2013

What's In A Name (Amway)?

Over the years, I believe that Amway has earned a bad reputation with the general public in the US. It is because IBOs have lied, IBOs had deceived and tricked people into attending recruitment meetings, and IBOs have done zany thing that have turned people off about the Amway opportunity. Factor in the bad experiences some people have had because of the "tools scam" and it's easy to understand why just mentioning the name "Amway" can result in funny looks from others.

While certainly, the blame is not entirely because of Amway the corporation. But certainly, I cannot give Amway the corporation a pass because I believe they have known about the tools "kingpins" and allowed them to operate without resistance. As a result, many IBOs suffered bad experiences such as bankruptcy, homes lost, and other financial devastation as uplines would advise downline to "do whatever it takes" to attend more functions and to buy more tools. While the tools are optional by the letter of the law, the uplines operate from a position of trust, or a position of a trusted friend or mentor. Thus bad self serving financial advice was disbursed by many uplines and they apparently helped fund their diamond lifestyles with the proceeds from tool sales (voicemail, websites, standing orders, functions, book of the month, open meetings).

I believe when I was a WWDB IBO in the later 1990's, the tool kingpins were in their heyday. The internet wasn't as readily available with information for prospects. IBOs didn't use the internet to place orders, thus the kingpins ran their unethical businesses unbridled and unchecked. I believe Amway's efforts (if any) to suppress these kingpin's efforts were ineffective, and I believe it is because the kingpins and indoctrinated IBOs were the ones recruiting new members for Amway, and taught them the 100 PV (defacto) quota, along with Amway product loyalty.

I remember a meeting in our group where our upline platinum told us that the key to Amway success was the ability to overcome the name "Amway". For the very reasons I have cited here, our group was taught to avoid mentioning the name Amway and to use the term private franchise and other catchy names to avoid detection from prospects. Some people in our group must have outright lied because I attended more than a handful of smaller meetings where guests walked out ticked off, muttering something about being tricked or wasting their time for the meeting.

When I finally quit Amway in 1998 or so, I went on with my life and things were great, having left Amway, which left me with more time and money than previously. It wasn't until I later discovered the blatant upline lies (such as there are ZERO profits from tools) and that IBOs were still subjected to such lies. Having learned that the same uplines were still teaching basically the same things with many of the same lies, I began my blogging career. While Amway apologists claim that my experience is old, I keep running into evidence that suggests that things are more the same than not, save for the internet ordering and automated issuance of downline bonuses.

Many of the leaders who deceived and lied, are still in leadership roles and teaching many of the same abusive advice. Why I keep blogging, is because these leaders continue to profit at downline's expense and they have never been held accountable for bad advice or for their lies. I hope this blog provides enough information so prospects and IBOs can make informed choices.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Joe, as far as I understand, there is no points PV or monies gained from the Network21 tools....books,cd's etc.etc. How does your model work in the States? Surely it is the same around the world....

Alex said...

Hi,
I ask which leadership orginisation (for lack of a better term)are you speaking of? As the only one i believe is worth mention is Network 21, as over 75% of Amways global volume is through IBOs which are connected with Network 21.

In which case i know personally, that a level of ~9% (at leaders club) will produce enough income to pay for all business material. Meetings, Seminars, cds and books.

Until that point you are out of pocket, which is why you want to NOT stay less than that for very long!


Now im unsure which orginisation you speak of, but i fail to see how anyone can make a profit from something they are not even selling.
In my example, all business material is provided by Network 21. They run the seminars, presentations and recordings / producing of cds.

This material is then sold directly by them, even when my upline (emerald) sells them at a "line of sponsorship meeting" Network 21 simply gives them the supplies which they sell on their behalf.

And honestly, how much money can someone make from 8 buck cds?



Your first paragraph rings true in your own experiences it seems and i truely feel regret that you felt forced to quit this business.

I regret any time someone tells me they "arent interested" or anytime someone quits, because i feel i havent done enough to give them the "big picture".
As i *know* without a doubt, that this business can provide a greater life than anything else out there. Ive seen it for myself, the problem is the people who havent seen what i have.

Regardless, im doing this for my own sake. What else is there to rely on? Work till im 65 and 'hope' my Superannuation is up to scratch? No thanks!

Theres Billions of people already doing the "normal thing". The results of that are pretty well known i think.
So why not do something different? The worst that can happen is you end up in the same place. Its a fool who believes they can do the same thing and achieve a different result after all.


And loosing their house because of the Amway business? Seriously? "Do whatever it takes" Was clearly taken too literally.
But then ive heard plenty of people who have lost their house because of failed investments, how is that ok either?

Joecool said...

Yes, you are right. No PV for Network 21 tools. I would guess that mist network 21 IBOs lose money like the rest of the Amway IBOs.

Joecool said...

Network 21 is no different that other groups. There is no evidence that Network 21 IBOs do any better than any other IBOs (or any worse for that matter.

Anonymous said...

Reply to alex. On a point of detail here is some idea of how much can be made on tools. Cd costs less than a dollar. So say 500000 tapes sold a week. Big function tickets are over 100 dollars. Say several thousand attends. Then you have books , small meetings etc. I rechon annual tools revenue is 1 billion. Say 500k ibo spending 150 a month. Second point. You right to say why not try amway. I suggest any opportunity is better than amway. But the reality is none makes money on this, its full time 7 days a week and as soon as you stop it crumbles. Look at the list of mlm earners. A handful from amway. All of them worked years and years to do it and they still have to work it. And probably 15 million tried over the years. All of these lost some money and quite a few a lot of money. So i dont see it.

Anonymous said...

amway sucks.

Anonymous said...

An IBO kept referring to it as URAssociation, and then told me to do my own research. She sent me some emails, and I did my research. I came across this website and am so glad I did. I've read all the posts now. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Amway outperforms itself year after year. It does great.
I have the feeling that *you* suck at building an amway business.
Or any other business, I guess.

Joecool said...

Amway outperforms? Haha, maybe Amway does, but IBO's are losing their asses and taking losses year after year. LOL

Anonymous said...

hey anon @4:19, suck THIS! *finger*

**proud Amway hater**