Over the years I have been debating with Amway supporters, I cannot see what is so great about the Amway opportunity. Are some of these Amway defenders that stupid or dense that they truly believe that a business where one out of a few hundred people might make a profit and most of the remaining IBOs will lose money is a good opportunity? I'm not talking about people who sign up and "do nothing". Many IBOs sign up and put in a great deal of time, effort and money, only to find out that the system simply does not work (especially in the US) and they make a business decision to quit and/or to do something else.
Of course there are some people who make money in Amway. If nobody made money, then the opportunity would cease to exist. But it is basically exploitation of the downline that accounts for upline success. Amway's admission that sales to non IBOs are low, confirms this. Thus certain upline make their income from their downline's PV volume, and on tool purchases. I mean even a lottery has winners. Even ponzi schemes and other questionable opportunties have some winners. This is not to suggest that Amway in not legal. Amway is perfectly legal, but the way the opportunity is set up, those who profit, primarily do so at the expense of their trusted downline.
There are no groups that I know of where all the IBOs can win and earn a profit. I would guess that there might be a few rogue groups who only focus on retail sales, and while these groups can be profitable as a group, they are few and far between. This is because most IBOs fall under an LOS such as WWDB, BWW, LTD or N21, and these groups all seemingly focus on recruiting of new IBOs. Yes, they may sprinkle in some suggeestions about selling goods, but generally speaking, their "training" materials consist of motivation speeches, feel good stories (whether true or not), and the theme of never quitting while continuing to purchase more tools.
Some upline have the nerve to start teaching downline that their Amway business is not about making money, but to save your marriage, make you a nicer person, or some other diversion to make you forget that you are losing money month after month after month. Some groups even mix in religion and politics into their functions and meetings. As far as I can see, the typical business buildiing IBO signs up, gets some of the tools and attends a few functions, and finds that the products are hard to sell because they are not priced competetively with other retailers, and that a damaged reputation is nearly impossible to overcome. These IBOs realize they are not going anywhere, and they walk away, chalking up the losses as a life lesson. But apparently, many uplines who lied and deceived in the past are continuing to do so today, often just revising history for their benefit (i.e. lying about making any profit on tools).
Many IBOs, prospects, information seekers and critics read this blog. My question is very simple. What is so great about the Amway opportunity? For most, it is just a bad use of time and money. While some may exist, I don't know of a single person who "did the work once" and sat back collecting barrels of Amway money while sipping Mai Tais on the beaches of Jamaica. I see crown ambassadors working as hard today as they did many years ago. Diamonds losing homes to forclosures, a prominent diamond in bankruptcy proceedings, and a hoard of WWDB diamonds apparently selling off mansions that they allegedly paid for in cash. (It os quite possible that their lifestyles are simply not sustainable).
Where is the benefit in the business for the typical IBO? Just as there are some diamonds, there are lottery winners. Displaying a lottery winner doesn't make it prudent to spend your money on lottery tickets. Displaying a diamond's lifestyle doesn't make Amway a good opportunity. While Amway is a business and not a game of chance, the results of either, sadly are eerily similar - that is a few winners and millions of non winners.
What is so great about the Amway opportunity? I don't see it.
The way Amway is taught and operated today is illegal. Amway is a pyramid and pyramids are illegal. Amway was not designed to be operated as a pyramid. Originally, a distributor bought products at wholesale and sold them at retail to customers at a 30% markup thus making a profit. Perfectly legal. However, in the 70's that changed when The Amway "Black Hats" realized that much more $$$ could be made by selling the tools, functions, etc. Moreover, most people don't like to sell, so the "Black Hats" and the Amway Corporation stopped requiring retail sales to at least 10 customers per month. Amway became a "wholesale buying club". Just buy from your self and find 6 other people who buy from themselves, etc. This is by definition a classic pyramid or ponzi scheme and is illegal.
ReplyDeleteThe way Amway is taught and operated today is illegal. Amway is a pyramid and pyramids are illegal. Amway was not designed to be operated as a pyramid. Originally, a distributor bought products at wholesale and sold them at retail to customers at a 30% markup thus making a profit. Perfectly legal. However, in the 70's that changed when The Amway "Black Hats" realized that much more $$$ could be made by selling the tools, functions, etc. Moreover, most people don't like to sell, so the "Black Hats" and the Amway Corporation stopped requiring retail sales to at least 10 customers per month. Amway became a "wholesale buying club". Just buy from your self and find 6 other people who buy from themselves, etc. This is by definition a classic pyramid or ponzi scheme and is illegal.
ReplyDeleteNot sure where you got this information but pyramids are not illegal. A pyramid is basically your typical job, when the person at the top is always going to mak more money than the ones below him/her. ItWorks is a pyramid. Younique is a pyramid. Amway is doing the exact same thing as they were in the beginning. They get products at wholesale, they get a kickback from it, hence, they profit from the products they buy and if they sell the product they get more money. Nothing is illegal about it. Otherwise, thousands of people would be in jail. All WWDB does is relocate their source of purchase. Instead of buying from adida, they buy from Nike. Nike and Apple and other big corrporations are associated with Amway and WWDB. So you must be the smartest person to have "figured out" its a scam, even if all the fancy lawyers with nike and apple didnt. So good job.
ReplyDeleteYour job is not a pyramid. You boss doesn't get paid from his/her employees paychecks. But in Amway, the upline certainly do get much of their pay from the pockets of their downline in the form of PV purchases and then tools such as voicemail, standing order and functions.
ReplyDeleteYou do not make a profit from buying your own products. That is false and another piece of bad business advice given by upline leaders.
Nike, Apple and other big companies don't mind partnering with Amway because it's a one way street. Nike and Apple don't sell Amway stuff. They simply pay bonuses based on actual sales while the Amwya IBOs take all the time effort and risk at their own expense.
Did Amway have fancy lawyers when they partnered with Enron and Worldcom?