Thursday, May 9, 2013

Returning Amway Products And Tools?

When I was recruited into Amway, one of the catch phrases was that you are now a business owner. It sounds cool to be a business owner, but in reality, it appears that IBOs are simply salesmen for Amway who are afforded no guaranteed wage or any fringe benefits. In fact, many Amway salesmen do Amway a favor and go out recruiting other salesmen for Amway without any compensation. It makes sense though, because to attain levels of significance, you need to have downline. While it is possible (but nearly impossible) to reach platinum and even ruby without downline, any levels higher will require you to have downline.

So as an Amway salesman, you have no minimum sales requirement. That may seem like a good thing but many uplines will impose a defacto 100 PV requirement for "serious" IBOs. If you are planning to sponsor someone, your upline will likely tell you that your downline will duplicate your efforts, therefore the 100 PV "requirement". 100 PV will cost about $300. While it is possible to sell some products, it would seem that most IBOs simply buy their own goods and do not sell to non IBOs. It's puzzling to me that so many IBOs argue about Amway's superior quality of products, yet so few former IBOs continue to use Amway products at all once they are not IBOs and even those that do, would rarely ever attain 100 PV. So much for that argument.

What many IBOs do not realize is that their upline diamonds are also salesmen. In addition to moving Amway volume, they will be selling you voicemail, standing orders, premiere club, functions, book of the month. All of these materials brings in a higher profit margin than Amway products. Thus it would only make sense that your upline salesmen would want to sell tools more than Amway products because it has more profit. Where this gets shady is when your upline tells you that they have your best interest at heart or that you virtually cannot succeed without these tools. Imagine your reaction if a vacuum cleaner salesman told you that he has your best interest at heart and that you cannot possibly clean your home without his vacuum. In an odd way, that is exactly what is happening when you purchase tools from upline. What's even worse is that the tools rarely ever work out for the IBOs who buy them. What if you bought a vacuum that didn't work? You would return it for a refund. What if the salesman said you can't return it because you used it?

I find it odd that IBOs accept this BS from upline. That you can only return unused tools. You should be able to return a product because it didn't work! Did that standing order actually help you to sponsor new people? Did you sell more products because you attended a function? Whether a tool is used or unused should not matter. You should be able to get a full refund if the tools didn't work. If not, IBOs who cannot return tools should complain to Amway and the better business bureau, and file formal complaints. Many IBOs simply quit and walk away, giving the tool sellers a break. If the tools don't work, you should return them on that basis and demand a refund. I challenge IBOs and former IBOs to do this.

5 comments:

jay said...

Uplines used to say your downline will duplicate only half your good deeds and twice your bad ones (talk about cult rhetoric). Incredibly I believed this (and parrot-preached it) just as many ambots did. So why stop at 100pv? 300pv was always the goal-Deadly serious IBO you know. You can be sure that will keep an ambots' mind so pre-occupied that they won't have time to think what is really going on - a cult goal.

Anonymous said...

Im not convinced ibos use 300 dollars of products monthly. I suspect the products are bought and pile up unused till the ibo quits.

Joecool said...

As an IBO, I was encouraged to "buy from myself" with little emphasis on selling products. Even as a single, my upline encouraged me to move 300 PV. You're right, how can anyone go through that much soap and household goods? The only way is to consume all of the vitamins and health supplements, which is overpriced and might have questionable nutritional value. Some experts think vitamins are merely "urine" supplements.

Steve said...

As Platinums in our line of sponsorship, it was our responsibility to personally reimburse downline IBO's for tool purchases for up to 180 days, however we could not turn around and get reimbursed by our upline Emerald, Diamond, or training organization.

In other words, we ate it so that the upline didn't have to.

Like many of the other hidden costs that eliminate virtually any profit in this business, it was a privilege of being in a leadership role :)



Anonymous said...

Point!
Yes, it is.
=
romeck