In the years I have been blogging about Amway IBOs and the opportunity, I've seen a lot of deception. As an IBO, upline leaders flat out lied and claimed they made no money off tools. They gave a lot of bad business advice and have never been held accountable for their lies. From what I gather, not much has changed and IBOs are still fed some of the same BS about the business. Amway's biggest defender, IBOFightback AKA David Steadson is a shameless liar wen it comes to defending Amway and MLM in general. When cornered with irrefutable facts, he will resort to personal attacks against myself or other critics. Ironically, the biggest defenders of Amway never seem to have made much of the business themselves. Do you ever wonder why diamonds never "walk away" from Amway to collect the mythical resdiual income?
Amway folks often must spin and justify their ridiciulous prices. Amway's flagship vitamin double X retails for nearly $80 for a one month supply. You can get 3-6 months worth of multi vitamins at WalMart or Costco. Defenders will cite quality or phyto nutrients as their justification, but cannot cite any neutral scientific evidence that their vitamins are better than others. They'll say their products are concentrated as another way to justify the high prices. (I hope you don't spill any while you mix Amway potions) What's also funny is that I don't see the term "concentrated" on Amway's products, Is this claim about Amway's products true or just another lie?
Even the claim of people earning residual income is dicey. While in theory it might be possible for someone to earn residual income, the reality is that the attirtion rate would quickly wipe out any residuals you might earn in the beginning. Like a sand castle at the beach, your income will disppaear quickly. I believe it is for that reason that diamonds and crown ambassadors never retire, but work until their death. The Amway owners however, might be enjoying resdiual income, but that's another story.
So why is lying and deception a part of promoting Amway (for IBOs)? Because the real picture is not rosy. Because without some deception, people would likely not be interested in the business opportunity or the products.
I'm the same anonymous who just posted on your 9/10/14 article, "Amway just left my house." So, I bring up how I tried out Shaklee products (green, all natural, etc). I have my honest opinion: they suck! I say that this leads me to believe Amway products not better. The rep says exactly what you said: "They're concentrated . . . You'll save money!"
ReplyDeleteOk, giving benefit of doubt, I did the math. We're Walmart/Aldi shoppers. We buy Sun detergent. Cost per load with Amway? $0.30/load and $0.21/load with 30% member discount. Cost per load Sun detergent? $0.056.
I'm sorry, where Ami saving money. You see, the same poor sales techniques used also translat into poorly prepared sales knowledge--the rep has none. She just regurgitated what she was told and likely NEVER even did the math herself. I know if I point this out to her, I will get the "quality" speech, and I'll be told to compare the product with an "equal" brand. That's just it--I don't care. To me, Sun is equal because we're all good, no allergies, and it's over 75% less cost compared to Amway. No! I have created my own direct selling company--I own it and it just went live, but unfortunately, the impression of direct selling is all are liars. This is thanks to the progenitor of all MLM--the mothership of "lies to sell product:" AMWAY.
Yes, the IBOs will just "tapespeak" or say exactly what upline told them to say. They can argue quality but the fact is that Walmart carries comparable products (just as good or better) at often a fraction of Amway's prices. Amway cannot compete because they have the IBO bonuses built into their prices.
DeleteThe only winners are the diamonds and the Amway owners.
Can you give me examples of Walmart equivalents for Amway Laundry and Dishwasher soaps? I'm genuinely interested. The girl who set up the appointment (not the presenter) is in my sales class, and I want to help her see the fallacy of the presentation from A to Z (including fallacy is saving money on product).
ReplyDeleteI don't have any examples as we spake but I've done some price comparisons that are posted on this blog.Try googling joecool amway costco price comparison and that should be a good one.
ReplyDeleteI always thought ibofb/steadson is paid to defend Amway and kingpins. If he didn't do it someone would. Only thing about him or that crazy chick Bridget is they do a lousy ass job defending. Amway or iboia should go hire someone more capable of defending Amway.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Bridgett is sarcastic but she can't take it when someone dishes it back at her. IBOFB is narcisiistic and thinks he's God's gift to Amway. In reaity, both of them do more harm than good for Amway. Not sure if IBOFB gets paid to defend Amway but it wouldn't surprise me if he did. He is a shameless liar and will go to any lengths to defend Amway and MLM.
DeleteEither ibofb gets paid to defend amway. Or he has some screws loose.
DeleteOr he gets paid to defend Amway AND has some screws loose. LOL
DeleteWith ibfofb he seems to get off. When were off on a stat or number. He'd go say a well known critic says its this dollar amount. But he's off by so many dollars. So he's a clueless critic and has no clue what he's talking about. His entire site is dedicated to knit pick our numbers. But most of his visitors can see through his bullshit and lies.
DeleteIf you aren't a kool aid drinking Amwayer, you can easily see through IBOFB's BS. He will knit pick our numbers and cherry pick his own.
DeleteJoe, I have to ask you. When you where a ibo ....how many where under 18? These days I'm seeing on Instagram,Facebook,hotels,etc Ibo's who look underage. Few of the wwdb diamonds seem to have their young kids involved s Ibo's and they seem to be very good at recruiting. Cause I seldom see people in mid 20s and up signing up as Ibo's these days.
ReplyDeleteI was an IBO in 1997 and 1998 in WWDB. There were some young people but it looked like most people were in their 20's and early 30's when I was an IBO.
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