Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Joecool's Amway Business?

I wanted to give people a glimpse into what it was like for me at the 4000 PV level and what my experience was. Although Amway and WWDB apologists will claim this doesn't happen, or that it doesn't happen anymore, I have reasons to believe that very little has changed in WWDB since I was an IBO. The only major difference was that we did weekly call in and product pick up back then as there was no direct shipping to individual IBOs. Imagine having to drive and pick up stuff from your sponsor each week instead of going to a nearby store? My sponsor lived about 20 miles from my house and our pick up time required us driving in rush hour traffic.

How many hours per week did I work? I would say up to 30 hours a week was spent on business related issues. Granted, product pick up consumed an entire afternoon and evening, generally on Wednesdays. I would have to call in my order to the platinum and then pick up the stuff on Thursday afternoon. Then I had to rush home and distribute the stuff to my downline. My upline platinum was not good at filling orders so it was a real pain. I'd say pick up and associated paperwork costed me maybe 8 hours a week. One good benefit today is that Amway ships direct issues the bonuses. In the old days, you as an upline had to do so. (This is an area where I agree that Amway made good progress) I did hear though, that WWDB still has call in and pick up for standing orders and such. If this is true, then they undid the progress that Amway had made. Also, as a up and coming leader, my platinum expected me to absorb some of the cost of returned tools, such as absorbing losses if someone on standing order quit. (Brad Duncan cut a true north tape at the time that basically said IBOs absorb the cost of standing orders for downlines who quit because it was too much trouble to contact upline to cancel any standing orders.)

As a 4000 pin, I had to show the plan or attend plans for my frontline. If the platinum was showing the plan. I'd say 4 nights per week we showed the plan for a downline or a downline in depth. Of course after the plan, we might "hang out" with downline and have some night owl teaching. Some people call this association or whatever. Depending on the length of the drive, this might take 3-4 hours 4 nights per week. Sometimes it was shorter when you had no shows.

We counseled with downline and upline. I spent some individual time with my upline and also with downline who wanted one on one time to get ideas on how to improve their Amway business. We looked over their group parameters and of course, tools flow. There was a WWDB counseling sheet for this purpose. Looking back, I"m not sure what this really accomplished except for the big pins to know which leaders are selling the most tools.

Then we had open meetings and functions. One local function each month and generally one or two open meetings where a diamond or emerald would show the plan. Of course, my sponsor (platinum) did not feel right unless he augmented our function with his own night owl meetings. We also had three long distance functions on the mainland (March, July and October). These functions were (at the time) called Leadership, Family Reunion and Free Enterprise Day. Being from Hawaii, these functions costed me, as a single, at least $1,000 or more for each trip because it was airfare during peak travel times, hotel, rental cars and the function ticket. I hate to think what couples paid.

Because of my status as up and coming leader, I had the privilege of attending special meetings where our diamond would teach or show house plans. I even had the honor or driving the diamond to a house plan. Damn, how can anyone live without such an honor?

For my troubles, I had a business at 4000 PV, with eagle parameters. I was considered a "mover and shaker". Lots of people knew me and my sponsor wanted so badly to break a downline platinum. He sat down with me one afternoon and told me I could really push to platinum and ruby easily if I would only ditch my girlfriend (fiancee' at the time). He told me that he would ditch his wife if the upline diamond told him to do so. He said a single (ruby or higher) could easily attract a lot of eligible women. It was after that meeting when I decided to quit.

I had reached 4000 PV. I was making very little or losing some money because of the tools and functions. I did not see prospects of making money even at platinum and now my upline wanted control of my life. I told my group the truth and all of them quit except 1 or 2 of them who were brainwashed enough to stay involved. That was my story and I have no regrets about my decision to quit. I truly hope this story helps a prospect or a current IBO.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like your experience was not great, with having to pick up your product and obviously quitting your business. Do you have current insights into either group though?
I mean, reading your story is enlightening, but it sounds like your experience was several years ago and companies like these ones are constantly changing and growing.

Joecool said...

Other than direct shipping now, nothing has really changed in Amway since my days as an IBO except that the prices in Amway are even higher today.

Jerry D. said...

Thank you, Joecool, for that very helpful story.

Unknown said...

Anonymous said, "I mean, reading your story is enlightening, but it sounds like your experience was several years ago and companies like these ones [sic] are constantly changing and growing."

Can you elaborate on how these companies are changing? WWDB in particular, or any of the AMO's (Amway Motivational Organization)? This new one that Joecool's blogger friend brought up called UR Association seems to have nothing original, and has completely ripped off WWDB and BWW. The terminology is exactly the same, the amount of yearly major functions is the same, the tools racket is the same, the diamonds are even interchangeable among these organizations...

Can you also elaborate on where you got your growth data? Simply stating that they are growing, because that is what you are told, is not sufficient in this situation. All current information reflects a steep decline in these organizations, and particularly in the United States.

Joecool said...

You're welcome and that's the reason I'm still here.

URASucker said...

Horrifying man. I read stories like this and was thankful that I got out when I did. I would've hit the SOB for saying something like that.

Lance Roberts said...

Pretty sad that you would say bad things about a business concept because you were working with one man without integrity. For the rest of your post, success takes work, whatever else you find in life will also take work to succeed.

Joecool said...

It wasn't one man without integrity. It was WWDB diamonds. A hoard of people without integrity. Amway seems to be full of them. Amway success is not all about the work, otherwise many people would succeed. It's about lying and deception. The better you are at it, the better your chances of success because honesty in Amway doesn't work.

Lance, how much money have you lost in Amway so far?

Anonymous said...

I'm glad Lance Roberts said "business concept." That's what Amway essentially is. It certainly isn't a genuine business.

Joecool said...

On paper, Amway might seem reasonable or even possible but once you are in reality and that bad reputation seeps in, you are practically doomed. Then you factor in the overpriced Amway products and a bad reputation and you have an impossible task. Only those who can lie and hide the defects in the Amway business can succeed.

Anonymous said...

I notice Lance Roberts isn't coming back to tell us how much he's losing in Amway. Maybe his up-line told him to shut up.

Joecool said...

Many Amway supporters are of the "drive by shooter" mentality.

Anonymous said...

Just curious how much gross money per month is 4000 PV?

Joecool said...

It depends on your business parameters but I made as much as $1200 gross.

Anonymous said...

Joe, I am sorry to hear that your experience in Amway (I guess in the US?) was nothing more than terrible.

I don't understand what is causing the disparity, but my girlfriend is doing Amway here in our country, and it is nothing more than a Walmart retailing business. Amway here has an outlet that allows the public to walk in, join as member (almost free), and buy whatever they want on the shelf. People are not forced to keep inventory, no coaxed into buying CDs (there are no such CDs here anyway), etc.

If you happen to drop by Singapore one day, I ll be more than happy to show you around (free of charge of cause!).

Joecool said...

Thanks for your offer but I don't think I'll be in Singapore anytime soon.

The problem with that comparison is that Amway has not chance to compete with WalMart. Amway has layers of upline and downline, which is why Amway issues 30+% of their sales a IBO bonuses. Those bonuses must be built into the cost of an Amway product so there's no way to compete with WalMart.