If I'm not mistaken, Amway was booming in the mid 90's. Their sales had hit a new high of around 7 billion at that time. Recruitment was up and there seemed to be new diamonds and emeralds popping up all over the US. I joined the Amway business around 1997-1998 and the wave was still going. I later quit, discovered the lies and fraud that was used to entice me to join and eventually became an advocate for the truth about the AMOs (AMO = Amway Motivational Organization such as WWDB, BWW, etc) and some of the AMO leaders.
One of the things used by Amway defenders is that the experience of people who are critical of Amway are invalid because the experience may be dated, or because some people who are critical of Amway have never actually been IBOs. I don't buy that argument because you can be quite knowledgeable about certain things without having done them. I know that I would not put my hand on a hot stove because my hand would get burned. Even if I have never burned my hand on a stove before, I know this. Or if I burned my hand on a stove 15 years ago, would my experience be different if I put my hand on a hot stove now? Unlikely. I also know that jumping off a 10 story building would not be good for my health, although I haven't done it myself.Yes, the Amway business has undergone some changes over the years. Most groups do not use the call in and pickup method of product movement anymore, although my understanding is that some groups still do this for standing orders and other tools. There is accreditation process for the tools which may have helped, but even with this, there is evidence of unethical practices going on, just that these issues are going on on small meetings rather than recorded functions. Many groups still focus on recruiting new IBOs and not on selling products for a profit. Many groups still focus on selling their downline tools and not ensuring profitability for new IBOs.
My former group, WWDB, apparently still has many of the leaders who were present when I was an IBO. There have been very few new diamonds in the last 15 years or so, relative to the number of IBOs that have come and gone. The lies and deception by the upline leaders were never accounted for. They have been exposed as basically frauds. Leaders who taught "pay by cash only" are found to have debts they cannot pay. leaders who swore that Amway saved marriages are getting divorced. Those who swore that tools were the key to success have little or no success to show for all the tools they sold. There is little "fruit on the tree", which was a common phrase back in my IBO day. The tree is close to barren.
What has changed in the Amway business in the last 20 to 30 years other than a name change to Quixtar and then back to Amway? Not much when you look at the big picture. The masses are still losing money today.
1 comment:
Amway has always been fraudulent to a certain extent. It has to be, since most persons would decline membership in the racket if they knew the actual way in which the whole thing operates. No one would buy $300 worth of products every month that they don't really want, and that they can't sell, just to get a tiny refund check. No one would attend expensive out-of-state "functions" if they knew that such meetings were nothing but hoopla and tedious speeches. No one would endlessly pester their friends and relatives to buy Amway products or join the scheme if they knew that this would alienate these people and make them lose their respect for you.
The biggest fraud that is pushed by Amway's AMO subsystems is the idea that you can make a lot of money in the racket just by signing up a down-line of IBOs, and not even attempting to make retail sales to the general public. Even the Amway Corporation has finally been compelled to admit this in its on-line sponsored posts that are designed to counteract websites critical of the business. They come right out and say that you cannot make real money in Amway without selling products.
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