Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Amway's Hidden Costs?

One of the things upline leaders do is to disparage people with jobs. Oh, they would say we needed people to wait on our tables and clean our toilets, but in general, jobs were put down and basically the group was told that Amway is their best chance at achieving financial freedom, giving them the ability to flush their jobs. Some upline might even show a video of someone who walked off their job because they made it big in Amway. Ironically, IBO's jobs are what funds their Amway businesses. Most IBOs would be out of business within weeks if not for their job income funding their Amway businesses.

The key selling point appears to be the 2-5 years of part time work rather than working a job for 30 - 40 years and then retiring on social security which may or may not be there when you retire. This plants a fear in people about the future and then the Amway opportunity is presented in a positive light because the Amway opportunity comes with a low start up cost. What uplines do not mention is how the opportunity can become a money pit as the monthly defacto 100 PV quota starts to add up. It is my guess that if people only bought items they truly needed, these IBOs would likely move 100 PV every three months, unless they are actively selling goods to non IBO customers, which also appears to be uncommon.

When an IBO finally agrees to register, it is then that the hidden costs begin to be revealed. Many uplines will introduce standing orders and functions and present these tools as vital to IBO success. Some upline may give you some free cds at first, but eventually you'll be told that a "serious business owner" buys their own. You will also be expected to do the same for your own prospects. Most new IBOs don't know better and feel subtle pressure to conform and give it a try. Some upline may loan some tools to downline in the beginning but evemtually, the IBO will be encouraged to be a "serious" business owner who should be purchasing their own tools to loan to their downline and the cycle goes on.

If you examine some version of the Amway recruitment plan, you will see that most IBOs are at the 100 PV level, which will reward you with a monthly bonus of about $10 or so. If that same IBO subscribes to the tools system, than IBO will likely be losing over $100 a month not including the product purchases. And because many IBOs have been convinced that working a job is so horrible, that they can be convinced that this condition of losing money is temporary and that untold wealth is right around the corner. Sadly, for most, this condition is the norm and even the sponsorship of a few downline, the losses continue to mount. Yet many are convinced that this is better than a job.

Ironically, a job allows people to pay their monthly bills, feed their families and many people enjoy their work and co workers. While upline leaders may convince you otherwise, it is this very same excuse upline leaders use when asked why they are still working instead of walking the beaches of the world collecting massive amounts of residual income. I would encourage IBOs to truly analyze their efforts in Amway and determine if it is beneficial to your finances. In most cases, your Amway efforts ONLY benefits your upline's finances. For most who get involved, the Amway opportunity is not better than a job.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

My husband and I have been victimized. Thank goodness we both woke up. Our church friends introduce us to this so called business end of Dec 2016. They told us to read a book called Business of the 21st century. We went to our first board meeting and it was very enticing the speaker claims he retired in Jan 2017 at the age of 34 at that time he talked about how job sucks, he even said college sucks, he said debts are a bad idea which I do agree. We were invited to go to another board plan at a hotel we heard a speaker who claims he retired at 23 he pretty much said the same thing what the first speaker said on our first board plan. We decided to join in MARCH 2017 NOT TOO LONG AGO. We paid our first fees, paid wwdb fees and standing order and the KATE .. My husband started doubting after the 2nd phase when the our upline couple suggested for us to sign up for a credit card not debit but a credit card. I also noticed that our sponsor would police us on what to put on social media and what was so odd that when we were at spring leadership our sponsor aka church friend had to walk all the way to the back of the line to make sure we were there at the function as if he and his wife did not trust us. We already paid the tickets and they still did not trust us. We had to wait for several hours in line, my husband and I were sleep deprived, we were told to go on a budget and eat bars and ramen noodles, even suggested that we should break our lease and find a room to rent .. My husband started doubting even more but we just ignored it. When they did our budget plan we are actually above water. We had minimal debt and still had enough for savings and spending money. They still wanted what was left over to go on ditto. They suggested that ditto was more important than rent. Again we ignored the tell tell signs. We went to another house board meeting and the speaker said that reunion is coming up and it will cost $175 per person and another board meeting is coming up at a convention for $20.00 I mean what the heck? We were told to listen to kate every day and leave bs messages each day. Last sunday a friend of mind wanted to know what I was using for skin care because she noticed my skin was glowing. I posted a photo of Artisty Serum and Nutrilite. 20 minutes later my sponsor demanded for me to take it down. I was so upset to the point I asked her that why do I need permission to advertise on my business. I thought by signing up we would have our own little store online and pay a small fee. But now nothing adds up. I went ahead and researched further and I found out a relative of mine was victim of quixtar a part of amway corp and n0w is called the wwdb. I found out they had to settle 150 million to the IBOS for false promises and scamming them. A relative of mine was one of the victims. I ask my sponsor about the connection of Quixtar , WWDB, and Amway and she said that I should talk to my upline about it. I had indicated that I did leave my upline an urgent message requesting for her and her husband to meet with me and my husband in person because we had some concerning questions but yet they refused and wanted us to ask them on KATE which was bizzare. My husband and I immediately canceled our monthly wwdb fees and standing order, cancelled our kate,and each time I see amway product I feel nauseated. They are a scam and the worse part of all our church friend lied to us ..

Joecool said...

Thank you for your comments. This is why Amway and WWDB can be insidious. They pretend to be your friends and mentors but teach contradictory things like getting out of debt, but advising you to charge your tools and functions on a credit card.

What they do, if you don't notice, is to analyze your family budget to clear up money so they can tell you to buy KATE, standing orders, and WWDB premiere club as well as function tickets.

They call you an "IBO" or independent business owner, but you can't advertise your business without permission from Amway and a hoard of other business inhibiting restrictions. What you really are, is a commission only sales person for Amway who assumed all the risks and costs of selling products for Amway.

Anonymous said...

Showing the details of your family budget to strangers is a BIG MISTAKE! They then know what spare cash you have, and they can pressure you into spending it to enrich themselves.

WWDB ("World-Wide Douche Bags") is the most corrupt and vicious of the Amway LOS rackets. They literally suck cash out of you till you are bankrupt.

Anonymous said...

Please continue blogging you make me feel a little bit better because I have been crying all day . My husband and I feel violated and betrayed from what they did to us. It is unfortunate that they had to lie to us. Thank God we woke up from this nightmare. We lost over $1,000 of our hard earned money and got back $15.00 for some bs scam. It makes me sick thinking about that maybe if we didn't wake up we would have lost even more perhaps over 20k or more over the course of 2-5 years. I found out that our upline is not even doing well financially but claims he retired jan 2017 .. What a lie.. My husband and I are well more above water than they are and still have over $700 to spare each month after paying all our bills and fixed expenses after setting aside emergency funds and savings as well. I could just imagine that extra money gone to waste for them to use. I hate everything about them ,,,

Joecool said...

Anonymous, try to ask for a refund for all your Amway products and tools. If they refuse to refund your tools expenses, file a formal complaint with the better business bureau. These folks bank on people quietly leaving the business and not filing complaints. Tell them that the tools were sold under the guise of a "mentor" and the tools were ineffective. See what happens. Even if nothing happens, the complaint will be a record of past wrongs that WWDB committed.

Unknown said...

Thank you very much. I will no longer hide who I am. I will file a complaint against them.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I agree. File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Let them know that WWDB and Amway are total rip-offs.

Unknown said...

What is pv you need to earn per month?

Anonymous said...

You usually need to spend $300 per month on Amway products for yourself in order to qualify for the 100 PV that allows you to receive a refund check. It might vary in the different Amway AMOs.