Problems With Amway?

The reason(s) why I feel that Amway is a poor business opportunity is for various reasons. While upline leaders and recruiters give recruits the pie in the sky view, the reality for most is not so pretty.

The products in general are priced uncompetitively. That isn't to say that there is no value in any Amway products, but overall, with the internet and big box retailers, you can almost guarantee that you can find products of equal value at a better price somewhere. It is why Amwayers end up talking about product concentration or "quality", which is subjective. I find it ironic that the quality and concentration doesn't seem to be enough to keep former IBOs as faithful customers.

The compensation plan is unfair to those who do the work. An IBO who moves 100 PV, roughly $300 in sales, usually gets the smallest cut of the bonus. $300 in sales generates about $90 to $100 in bonus money. Approxinately 90% of that bonus goes to layers and layers of upline (middlemen) and the IBO who did all the work might get $10 or so. Some of the upline who enjoy the bonus may have done nothing and may not even know the IBO who did the work. Most IBOs would be better off just selling some other products without being in an MLM and they could then keep all of the business and not have a minimum (100 PV) in order to qualify for a bonus.

The system consisting of voicemail, website fees, cds, books and functions do not work. Sure, some people may learn some techniques and gain some self improvement benefits. But a business exists to earn a profit and the system fails miserably in that regard. The system may churn out a diamond here and there, but these few successes amount to a tiny fraction of 1% of IBOs. Even IBOs who put in tremendous effort often find out that their hard work doesn't pay off. Instead, the system slowly drains IBO resources which is why most system IBOs end up with a net loss at the end of the month. IBOs who stay on the system for several years can be out tens of thousands of dollars, one cd and one function at a time, with no profit to speak of. This is despite uplines claiming that the system is so vital to your success. Recruits need to carefully analyze their progress or they can wake up a few months later and be out thousands of dollars.

I also wonder whether or not Amway actually takes any action against IBO rule breakers. I have, and seen others report obvious violations with no results. In some cases, the Amway folks would not even acknowledge or publish my comments when I have exposed rule violations. The accreditation process was a joke and there's plenty of evidence that nothing has changed, save for some cosmetic changes. The real issue was identified by Amway owner Rich DeVos in 1983 (Directly speaking) but it looks like doing the right thing hurt Amway sales so the violators were left alone and the result has been millions of people being adversely affected by the non action.  

It is why I have had the resolve to keep blogging all of these years. to get the word out. That if you join Amway and the tools system, you are nearly assured of a net loss. Do the math and it is an easy conclusion to make. Good luck to all.