AUS: Your Comments 43

Here are some of the responses I've received to the information on this page. I've left them as is, except for a) removing the names to protect privacy, and b) reformatting them to fit the screen better.

This is a long file…I suggest downloading it to your computer and reading it off-line.

I ws phoned a few days ago by an "amway" cultist. I asked whether it was associated with amway. He said this was a "new" pilot program set up with help from UPS. I I later found out it was indeed "amway." Was it illegal soliciting? Thanks.

In response to your sad comments on Amway. I am second generation in the Amway Business I have seen it help lots of people. It is not a cult or pryamid. A pryamid is a job the boss is the one that makes the big bucks not you. If you are not the boss then you get less. You need to get a life & worry about something else than just going around a bad mouthing things you are not even involved in. GET A LIFE!!!!!

Signed, 2nd Generation

I have seen what you are saying first hand. I have to work with 2 directs everyday one is so deep into this cult he is a real pain to be around and has aleinated everyone around him. To bad he can't see the forest for the trees. Keep up the good work it is needed to prevent others from following this deadend road.

Best of luck to you

thankyou for this website i agree 100%
had family in it they're out now
saw personality changes etc..very cultlike
any questioning or disagreement was termed
NEGATIVE-always thought i was NEGATIVE for
being skeptical almost ruined relationship

thankyou and also if u haven't already talk
about all that crap they chant on those tapes.

A few years ago I had lunch with an ILD diamond who had been trying to get me to attend Family Reunion here in Portland. He also wanted me to begin building the business and assured me he could help me earn $300,000 per year as an Emerald,easily achievable "within 2 years" [even though it took him 6 years of very diligent effort].

I told this fellow that I had studied the sales plan and that the numbers did not add up to anything near $300,000. He quickly looked around to make sure no one could hear and proceeded to tell me that half of the income came from ILD tools and functions.

I asked him why this income source was never discussed with new people and non-directs , especially as an incentive to work the business he replied that until one goes direct,they just aren't ready to handle this information.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your material and commend you on your efforts to share with the public the truth about Amway's deceptive distributorship "leaders" .

What a weekend! I've spent years hoping that someone would be interested in buying all of our useless Worldwide Dreambuilders tapes and materials, but I finally got it through my head that no Amway distributor would dare touch my "tainted" goods, since I'm not in their group. This is true, I assure you, even though many of the tapes have not been opened!

Anyway, I am in the process of moving to New York, and thus had to begin cleaning out my closets. When I realized that many of the boxes were full of WWDB tapes (many more boxes than I originally thought), I was sick to my stomach. There were literally hundreds, if not one or two thousand, tapes. Where did they come from? How could I go month to month and dole out $5 a piece, and not even realize how they were piling up? I haven't heard half of them, yet for years I listened to tapes non-stop -- in the house, in the car, etc.

Well, I decided that even though I'd make some money selling them at 10 cents on the dollar, it was a good time to get rid of them. It took several trips to the trash chute, but man, until you've dumped all of your Amway crap, you don't know what FREEDOM is! No diamond has anything on me!

Hi there,

I wasn't clear from your page if you had ever been a distributor or not and if so, how successful in Amway terms?

My husband and I built this thing for 5 long years, invested thousands, and got to the ruby level. We had the fastest growing Amway business in *. We were totally sucked in. We even were on the national speaking programme and spoke to audiences of 1000's, before we realised so many 'truths' about this thing and the systems groups that run it.

One important fact you seem to overlook on your page, is that Amway is not actually the demon here, it is the system groups that have overtaken and bastardized the original Amway philosophy. It is greedy individuals that run these systems (which very few know about - you need to be high up the ranks to know this), that have spoiled the Amway concept.

I am privvy to so much 'stuff' that your mind would be in a state of shock to know what I know. Mine still is.

If you want some facts… and not just gripes, email me.

To whom it may concern:

Hello, my name is Jennifer and I am 19 years old. ( I would first like to apologize for the blank e-mail I just sent you, but the last time I sent something to you, it never went through and I had a lot typed up for you. So, now that I know that it works, here goes:)

I am a Sophomore at Rutgers University. Last year my "best friend" introduced me to Amway. Being the gullible person that I am, I started to look into this and found a plethora of opportunities. His friend, (we will call him Joe), decided that it was time for me to get into the program and buy my starter kit. As every college student knows, it is virtually impossible to be wasting your money away ($157 to be exact) on things like a starter kit. So I hesitated and tried to drag it out for as long as I could making up stories like:

1. I had to know the whole plan before I got the kit.

2. I had to understand exactly what this business was about because I had a funny feeling they weren't telling me the whole truth.

So, I dawdled for about three or four months. It got to the point where they were basically telling me that if I didn't get into the program, they weren't going to help me.

Now, the entire point of this program is to have others help you so that you can make a six to seven digit income in 12 months! So what gave them the right to convince me that I had to buy my kit? It was the Amway right. They are all sharks, you know? Each and every Amway distributor is a shark swimming around in the ocean to gobble up little guppies like you and me. Their incentive - the more people you get to join, the more money you make.

After a while, I learned the entire plan - like the back of my hand. One day, I was looking at it and saw that the way that the diagram worked looked exactly like a pyramid. (Mind you, Amway is "NOT SUPPOSED" to be a pyramid scheme… ha-ha-ha.) So, I went to Joe and asked him if there was any other way to show this plan so that it WOULDN'T look like a pyramid. He said I could try to do something about it but it would always look like that because you are building a business and the more people you get, the more width and depth you get.

At that point, I realized that it was a pyramid scheme. I never darted out of someone's house so fast like that in my entire life. So, April 12th of 1997 was my last day with Amway. And you know what? I don't miss it at all. If anything I feel more gullible and stupid than ever. I was a perfect target for this business scheme and my "best friend" had to get me involved because he knew I was a kind-hearted, open-minded soul.

Well, in conclusion, I would just like to warn any guppies swimming around ( you probably already know this though,) to look out for those sharks. And the head-honcho shark, Dexter Yeager, would like to thank all of the new people who just joined Amway, because you're just giving him a bigger check to look forward to at the end of every month.

p.s.- I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I've always wanted to vent to somebody about this. It's time that people become more aware of what Amway is REALLY trying to do - suck their pockets dry. It's good to know that there are some people (like yourself) who are trying to educate others on this matter. Keep up the great job!

I went direct in 3 months. I'm sure glad that I didn't pay much attention to the schwartzdrivel. Your stuff almost cost me and my "friends" a small fortune. I guess that anybody that would believe your stuff could be talked into joining Amway too. It appears to be the case by the looks of the responses. Expect a class action suit soon and be prepared pal.

[Interesting how this person "went Direct" in three months, when it takes six months to qualify.]

Amway is the best thing that has happened to me to everyone out there follow your dreams. WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU LISTEN TO A BROKE UNHAPPY PERSON.Think for once people!!!!!!!!

Hi!

Just wanted to let you know I skimmed through your web page today and was pleased to see that someone has taken the time to collate and organize the experiences of Amway people.

Although I personally have never gotten involved with them (got suckered into a meeting or two and my BS detector went nuts… :=) I have seen them and their practices break up friends, relationships, even split an entire church down the middle. Yes, I saw it firsthand, and I fail to see how Amway is in any way representative of Christianity -- in fact, one of the first things that comes to mind is, "You cannot serve both God and mammon".

I am truly sorry that so many otherwise good people would be led into such a thing, and hope that sooner or later it will be outlawed… maybe then I can go to the grocery store without being accosted. :=) In the meantime, keep up the good work!

Have a good one!

about one year ago , my father in law introduced me to destiny telecommunications. i said no, my husband felt sorry for him, and said yes. why? because he was a 56 year old that had lost his job at a hospital that decided to pay half the money to a man half his age. they conjured up something, and boom he lost his job. well this man still hasn't recovered from that. i finally tried to take off with the destiny program and,what a big surprise, the business had closed. i was the embarrassed because i had more than 8 people ready to sign up to mci. so i typed in the bad word "amway" on the internet. i thought they only sold soap. they have mci too? my tires were stolen. the guy at firestone tried to charge me 459.00 for a set of tires. he knocked about 10% off that because i had my distributor card. that blew profir for him. i purchased a jacket from ralph lauren from macy's, it started to fall apart, do you think macy's cared? nope. if i had been a distributor then, and purchased for half the price, i would have gotten an exchange. i had used polmolive ultra that states use one teaspoon to clean a sink full of dishes. "scrub a sink full of dishes" is actually what it should say. the loc based dish drops helped the food slide right off, with in one minute. i purchased these items with my kit. cost me about 160.00. i took the zoom to my husbands resturant and it only took half the bottle to clean the entire 865 capacity seating place. please tell me another cleaner that will do that? i don't believe that we have ever been so astonished by a product that cleans. so while you are knocking amway, look at the fortune 500 company again, for the first time. i don't expect to make a lot of money off this. i really don't care anything about the sponsoring. but the products work. there are some frenge benefits. if you don't like amway it's because it wasn't for you. just like your proffession wasn't for me. i believe i would suck at it. so i didn't do it. someone stated that in 5.5 years they were in amway they spent a lot of money. what the heck did they buy? i get checks from bonus points of certain percentages I spend. did you get that when you purchased your tv? when did sanyo ever send money back? they don't. does wal mart send you a check for shopping for your toilet paper there? nope. you can sit there and make someone else rich, or you can purchase concentrated products, two times the price, of a non concentrated product. since the products work, i spend less time with cleaning, and more with my husband. i dare you in fact to take a permanent black majic marker, to your white counter top, draw your name on it, then spray your all purpose cleaner on it. it doesn't come out. spray the stain remover for your clothes on it. i know for a fact it doesn't come out. then spray the can of amway pre- leave it on for about 30 seconds, and watch it wipe off. then on top of that it is biodegradable. my husband was furious when i did it to him, and furious that he had never used the products. sorry, there is no way you can compete with the products. every amway distributor is different. some are embarrassed of amway. they are only in it to get rich quick. there is no way, unless you are only in the mci side, which i didn't do that to myself, that you can bust a million in one year. it takes time. a lot of no's and maybe one yes. but if you have a desire, and you know people, and willing to take the good with the bad, than your dreams can come true. this is not a people screwing people out of something business. just because you sponsor someone doesn't mean you make money. i have seen those people, and that is the amway i ran from. but i do however see people that are tired of an inflation world, and the downsizing of america corporations. and those of you who have been cut, or are afraid they will get cut, start putting your resume's out. termination is enivitable. my husband knows that also. if he gives 24/7 to his job he will not raise to the top in six months. if i give 24/7 to my amway, i could make 2100 a month. then sponsor 6 people and work with them on thier 24/7 to 6 months, i will almost accomplish $100,000.00 a year. it is not easy, it is not fun, it is hard to go into communties to sign them up on mci, and worry over my special edition honda accord being vandelized. but that is the cheapiest car i will ever own. i have a drive to retire my husband, before his mandatory retirement comes. at the same time i am saving money on the items i purchase from myself. i threw my coupons away. .25 here and there doesn't make any sense to me anymore. one bottle of windex lasts me a month. my bottle has and will last me over 6 months. i paid 2.97 for the windex. i paid 5.97 for this bottle. which makes sense, on top of getting bonus points? you need to look at the britt system, you need to contact john merris, you need to contact gib and carol fox, or angela Dunehew, all in texas and let them show you Amway done the right way. we tell people up front that it is amway. because angela did that, she now has sponsored someone about to leave for greece. i am not a afraid to tell anyone that i am a distributor for a fortune 500 company that has no debt. yes there are the bad things in the company, but i can't find them. heaven forbid i don't pay h.e.b. price anylonger. i pay my own distributor price, which is generally cheaper than most. so when you see your wife or yourself, clipping coupons think about this. i don't do that anymore and my house misc cost has dropped. amway started out a bad word in our house. why? i still use toilet paper. brush my teeth, clean my own toilets, wash my car, have my oil changed at quality places that accepts my discount card. i stilleat. doesn't it make sense to do it from yourself? every company has it's problems, and i know that there are some. i know that i may not get rich off amway. i am fine with that. that's not my goal, i really want to save money. so the one's that have been in amway that have had previous problems can e-mail me. i don't care to sign anyone up, because that is not my specialty. i converted my house, saved money, signed up with the visa vard, i am about to leave the junk internet that my father in law set me up with for service that is 9.95 a month for three months, and 19.95 after for unlimited. it is the best internet i have found. we have health insurance, we have over 7000 products and 1000 brand name products that people use everyday. stop knocking us because i don't have a boss telling me that i have to do this or i will loose my job. finally i have some security. i can slowly pay off my bills, get another house or two, allowing people to put equity in them, sell, then build my dream home. i don't have to stay in amway forever. if i am still receiving a check when i am 60 years old, that is fine. but until then my profits can be flushed into cd's etc. again i don't expect to get rich, i do however just like yourself expect to help my friends by converting their own house. yes, i will make a profit, but it will not be out of thier pocket. who cares then? not myself. i have always been spooked by those people that didn't say they were amway. but i recommend people look at it, see if it is something they think they could do, then go with it. i hold all my sponsored hands. it is probably not for you. and 20 years from now it may not be for me. right now it is saving us a lot of money. i got my $160.00 back already. sorry. keep smiling though, cause the moonies have something that you want. whether it is to get your stain out of you favorite shirt, or a Ralph lauren jacket, or lancome quality makeup, for half the price. kinda scarry isn't it. i used to pay 37.50 for base from lancome. the same thing is about 17.00 cheaper from amway. cry and weap. i am projected to do really well at this. only because i am doing it exactly how my sponsor tells me to. he said he would do it all over again this way. everyone sayd for me to listen to him. they don't tell me i have to listen to him. i don't have to do anything i don't want to. so tomorrow when you have to do something pertaining to someone telling you to. think about me, not being told what to do. i really dare you to tell them no. i do it all the time. no thanks, your not what i am looking for to help expand this company, is a common phrase that i say. bye for now.

Mr. Schwartz:

I have been told that Amway is the standard re MLM business: Even the IRS has respect for their busines protocol.

Over and over the members stress "integrity". My limited experience dictates that they do have integrity. However, having read the story of Joe and his wife, I was saddened, alerted and somewhat confused. The first five years of their marriage in conjunction with their relationship with company was disastrous. I was saddened by their experience; alerted to the future, and confused because this is not my experience. However, I must add that I am very inactive due to my circumstances.

If you select to answer my E, I thank you in advance for your additional comments.

Dear Sidney - great page! We were "in the business" for 2 years and didn't make a dime. Six months after we quit buying amway tools, tapes, function tickets, and over priced products - we were able to save enough money for a 7 day trip for four to Disney World. We had a great vacation. I heard an ex- amway person say one time that quitting amway is like hitting the lottery - all of sudden you have money again!! The bottom line is that the big money is in the system - not in the products. Why else would they push it so hard - of course the amway corp knows this - that's why they don't stop it. Plus - the deception tactics are a real joke - you're suppose to call your "friends" tell them about a great business BUT you can't tell them what it is !!! Yeh right....

I am not sure how to say this without it sounding like a blatant plug, but here goes. I have had a lot of contact with Amway people over the past few years, and have learnt a lot about the company. It is a very successful company. As well, it is also apparent that there is a lot of money to be made through MLM, but only a few will make it big. But, the enthusiasm that I have seen in many Amway distributors has overshadowed their ignorance that they are not doing things right. But the main problem that I see with Amway, and many other MLM companies is their method of recruitment. Things are stretched, twisted and blown out of proportion. I have been told be one person that within 6 months I will be earning over $4000 per month, with only a few hours a week. Things are just not done right. There is one couple that I have been involved with, and they are a truly delightful couple, but this is rare.

Well, I have joined a MLM company, but it is not a normal one, such as Amway or Herbalife. Our method of recruitment is this: space, time, sharing and respect. The company, while being like all other companies and wanting to make a successful business, was created initially to help others, equally with making a profit. Now that it is working, I know that owners are no longer concerned with the money aspect of the business, but helping others around them, for the company is based around health products. The way that we recruit is that if an opportunity arises, initiated by someone else, then I'll bring it up. If they say no, then that is the end of that. No meetings at home to tell them how much money they can make, but just a simple suggestion from one to another. That is all, and nothing further is pushed. This leaves everything comfortable. It is their own decision to join, they are not tricked or pushed into it.

This is what I believe to be missing from other companies, caring. I know it sounds corny, but it is true.

The company that I am joined to is in Australia, as I am, and is just starting to expand over seas, slowly, and most importantly, voluntarily. Thanks for your time,

I heard a vicious rumor that Proctor & Gamble was funding this site. Does that have any merit?

Sir,

Thank you for making use of your First Amendment right of free speech. Alas, I agree with nothing found on your site.

I would like to ask you why you keep VERY outdated information about AMWAY on your site? A.C. Neilson has just finished a survey for the Amway Corp. that found if a family bought their purchases from Amway's catalogs they could save approx $6,000.00/year. I and others in my group have done local price comparisons that find Amway's products averaging 30% off retail prices.

Also, in the last few months a new program, Home Shopping Delivered, has been introduced. This program has allowed everyone who uses it to grow their businesses to the Direct level in three months or less. [Here's someone else claiming that distributors are going Direct in three months when Amway says it takes six months to qualify.]

Again, I would like to thank you for making use of your Constitutional rights. But, Please update the information contained within your site so that it is current and correct.

[I asked this person to provide me with 1) a copy of this alleged A.C. Neilson data; 2) a detailed price comparison showing a 30% savings; and 3) documented proof of his claim regarding Home Shopping Delivered.]

Please make a good faith effort to ensure that your information is accurate and current and applicable. Then your site might be a worthwhile source of information. By the way, what, if any is your relationship of P& G?

Thanks so much for the time and effort that you put into telling the other side of the Amway story. I attended a "Britt International" recruiting meeting tonight…the link to Amway was downplayed, but I can tell by the terminology (BV, PV, etc…) that Britt is Amway in disguise. I hope that you will maintain this page and save people like me from a certain nightmare.

Great info, very helpful. Saved me lots of time and money. So, what is a good MLM?

I want to thank you for providing this web site for all to peruse. I was recently approached about joining Amway. I have been in Amway once before and though I really enjoyed it, I lost a lot of money. It was because of the pressure. I have always felt that Amway was doing something that works, but before I decided whether I was going to get in or not, I wanted to see what I could find on the web. I think you were extremely fair in your inclusion of e-mail of Amway supporters. I was quite impressed that you did this. I saw this as truly an attempt to inform the potential distributor of what they can expect if they choose to join. Your site really helped me weigh both sides of the issue.

I have decided that I am going to rejoin Amway. I just want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to see the "real" Amway. I feel that the group I am joining is extremely professional and clean in their approach to Amway business. I feel that I can better inform the people I ask to join me. I may even encourage them to visit your site just so they can see both sides.

I believe that web sites like yours will help keep Amway and other multi-level marketing companies honest.

Good Day: I really enjoy your site,as I'm sure many others do too. Have you seen the new form that's been mailed along with Intent to Continue document? Like the "directly speaking" tapes of years gone by, Amway again recognizes it has a problem with "tools", and now seems to be taking the necessary steps to avoid "bad publicity" by having distributors agree not to persue legal action in the event of a dispute concerning BSM's, but rather to have it heard out of the public's view.

You are to be commended for your efforts,Mr. Swartz, in exposing this thinly-veiled pyramid scheme for what it really is. Small children from around the world,happy to have their mommy and daddy back,thank you.I look forward to seeing new material on your page. Keep us posted.

I just spent the last 2 hours surfing your web page. What a bunch of bull****. You are a sick puppy and obviously a man with way too much free time on your hands. I pray for you.

Hey Scwartz,

Its me, the guy who has "potential sucker" tattooed on my forehead!

I think that the Amway big-wigs have had secret meetings and shown covert pictures of me in slide shows. I swear I am the principal target for Amway distributors! I've been approached in stores while Christmas shopping, approached twice by the guy sitting next to me on a plane, and hit-up around 3 times from friends to join this god-damned thing.

The other night I got a call from an older alumni member of my college fraternity. It seems that my name has been published in a book by the national fraternity which can be purchased for $20.

Anyhow, the guy starts up on the usual bullshit of "are you happy with the money you're making" and "would you like to be your own boss", yada, yada, yada. I couldn't f--king believe it.

Remember, I've bounced people out of my house, moved to different airplane seats, and all but threatened to kill people trying to get me into this thing. They are like cockroaches, they just keep coming and coming and coming....

I'm going to fight back however. This is my game plan.

First, I'm going to record "AC/DC's Back in Black" over all of the tapes they give me starting 2 minutes in so the next sucker that gets this crap will at least be able to listen to a little Angus Young!

Second, I'm going to invite people over and when they arrive, not answer the door. Then call them back and yell at them for not coming over.

Third, for my final encore, two friends and I are going to go to the next local meeting and rally. Halfway through the rally, I'm going to start into a seizure and make a huge scene. While my friends escort me out, I'm going to yell obscenities at the speaker and how "they've broken me".

I'm still young and have some time on my hands. I guess this kind of stuff entertains me. It's kind of like taking some of my college-day pranks and adapting them to my adult life.

As for you distributors or whatever you call yourself, beware. You people are the biggest bunch of suckers I've ever met. You watch too much "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and rely on people like Tony Robins to tell you how to live your life. This doesn't bother me.....unless you try to interfere with my life. That's when you will regret ever getting into the business, because I will go out of my way to make your meetings with me an experience you will never forget!

I think Amway has definitely changed my life for the better. I've got a whole new attitude towards the business. So come and get it guys, start that cold calling and work the system. But remember, the person on the other end might have other intentions than listening to your stupid tapes or going to one of your little pep rallies!

It is inconcievable that a whole website is devoted to bashing one of the greatest business in the world. Yes, I am in the business and am definitely biased, but I don't think that you quite understand what you're talking about. It is a BUSINESS just like any other. The best thing about Amway is anybody can get in. The worst thing about Amway is anybody can get in. Capiche? It is extremely difficult and the odds are against the AVERAGE person to do well. The fact that so many AVERAGE people have been in is why it has drawn so much criticism. You mention "tape-spouting"…but every other top-businessman exposes himself to positive-thinking books and it is a proven business technique that helps. Amway tapes are very inspirational-you should try it.

Hi Schwartz,

I live about 12 miles away from the Amway plant in Ada Michigan. As an employer Amway is great, I have a few friends that work for the company as * and one as a *. The benifits to the employee's and the culture the company promotes is stellar. Since I am looking for a long term job currently, I am watching Amway as an employment opportunity for me.

I know I am sounding positive about the company, but KEEP READING!!! I am positive to them as an employer but, not positive to their marketing approach.

I am a bit puzzled with their approch to marketing their products. I was introduced to the Amway buisiness in 1992 in the Yager downline. I was shown the "plan" by an aquantince that picked up parts at my workplace every week. He was a very family orientated guy, with a stong religious background.....someone one could trust. I signed up in Sept. '92 and was gung-ho for a succesfull future in the business. My sponser told me that there was a major function in Asheville, NC a few weeks later. I was geeked, so I went. I could not really afford this trip but went anyway. It really was a lot of fun. I seen people that made this business really work for them. I attended 2 more fuctions after that, one in Denver Colorado and one in Winston Salem North Carolina. All trips were done as a group thing so the costs were fairly low.

What really teeded me off was the fact of all the hidden expenses involved in the buisiness. My pick-up time from my sponsers house was 11:30 at night on Wednesdays. I started work at 6 at the time. This was kinda rough to deal with. I had a downline 1 wide and 4 deep so pickup times ran late at night. Reagarding the hidden costs: It really pissed me off that I had to pay sales tax on the retail price of the products when I should only pay tax on the distributer price. There was also a 4% charge for shipping and handling, and I had to drive 20 mile to my sponser's house to get my stuff. Also the PV and BV that I was told I would earn on product purchases, whether by me or my downline, were not true except if the purchases were from a select group of products.

Tape of the week, another rip-off. I was convinced that I had to purchase 2 tapes every week for encouragement. I forked out 11 dollars a week at that time to get my weekly plug-in of positive influence. Some tapes were very motivational but, save your dough and get yourself a six pack instead.

I don't know.....I am convinced that this business is saturated. Everybody knows about it, or knows someone in it. Millionares were made but it seems they were in it when the business was "fresh". I seen Yager, Britt, Wilson, Lewis, Gooch, Grabill and many others speaking and attempting to motivate their people at major fucntions and here in Grand Rapids at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, but keep in mind, they were in it when it was a fresh opportunity. In my neighborhood, it is a very saturated business and is very hard to make a go of it unless you are a very good liar and a person that can motivate and encourage folks to miss lead their family and freinds. It is just too saturated.

Please let me know if you use any part of this letter in your web page.

I saw your website and was amazed at all of the negative information you were able to gather about Amway. I have a few questions for you if you will be so kind to answer them for me.

Have you personally had a bad experience with Amway before you created your website? What happened?

Why would P&G have a law suit against Amway if they weren't threatened by their loss in sales? At best, they might have a slander suit, in my opinion.

Why do you and others call it a pyramid scheme? It's not. In Amway, EVERYONE who starts, starts out exactly at the same level. In a pyramid scheme, if I started before someone I recruited, I would ALWAYS make more money than they would. In Amway, if I started before someone I recruited, THEY could make more money than me. Therefore, it can't be a pyramid scheme.

Why does everyone call Amway a cult? I've attended two meetings. I have never met such a warm and friendly group of people in one room in all of my life. If you want to consider friendliness a characteristic of cultism, well, I guess we were raised a lot differently, huh?

I also have a few other comments:

Amway is one of only two companies ever to receive an award for enviromentally safe products.

The started kit is about $150. What other company do you know will let you start without paying the money for the kit?

I will agree with you on the point that the non soap products are high. My guess is because they are selling them for other merchants, not for themselves. The soap products are fairly priced and work great.

Did you know you can purchase American made cars for only $50 over the dealer cost?

I haven't seen anthing mentioned about World Wide Dream Builders. Do you know about them?

Let me know what you think about my comments. I'm very open minded, but just confused about all of the negativity. I'm not a distributor yet, but I like what I see with Amway.

Thank you for reading this.

Sidney,

Well, it's about time I got around to writing you! I first read your material (if memory serves me) almost 2 years ago. A former downline, who quit before me but, (miracle of miracles) is still my friend, sent me 50+ pages of printouts from your website. This was about 6 months after my wife and I went "inactive". We sat down and read it all one Saturday afternoon, and it was an eye opener. Thanks in great measure to your website, I still have not returned to Amway.

A brief summary of my (our) story: We got into Amway in July 1991. By January of 1995, we were solid 2500's. Fairly successful, according to the ambabble we were subjected to. We had personally sponsored 21 legs, and had about 40 people attending functions. That January, we sponsored a young (25 year old), single guy with lots of charisma and enthusiasm. His addition to our "team" electrified our local open meeting. He was infectious. At first I thought this was a great sign of things to come; of how fast and large his group would grow. Since he worked nights, we arranged to have him do his "product pickup" during the afternoon - which made him the only person at my home with my wife during his product pickup. (Typically, there are a few distributors waiting in queue for evening pickups.) It didn't take long for my wife to fall for this guy. Especially since all my nights away from home, showing the Plan and counseling my downline, had basically made me an absentee father/husband.

Even when I did find out, I sought to find some "Christian" way to handle the situation. Even after he (my supposed new best friend) and my wife fell into bed together!! The things I did in an attempt to maintain peace, to be forgiving, were unbelieveable. I lived, breathed, ate, drank, and slept Amway - just like the System had told be to do - and it led me to react this way, "for the sake of the group". In the end, I almost lost my wife and kids to this guy, because of my actions (or inaction). There were lots of Bible quotes thrown around, lots of talk about compassion and understanding, and making sure that we didn't let it cause "strife" in our group.

Thankfully, this crisis led me to quickly "unplug" from the Britt system (again, so as not to cause "strife" and "confusion" in the group by exposing them to our "negative" situation.) I vowed to get my marriage back on track before going back to Amway. Well, my wife and I are back together (very happily married, at that) and Amway is no longer a part of our lives. I still renew, and that's all - just to keep getting the PV checks. It has taken almost two-and-a-half years to clear all the programming out of my head, and from time to time, I still find myself questioning my decisions because I'm not sure if I'm basing them on what I really believe, or on the unfounded beliefs that I internalized while in Amway.

Interestingly, most of the non-direct "leaders" that I knew when I was active have since quit (for their own reasons). These were the people who were "on their way to the top". People who I thought for sure would have at least changed pins by now.

You have my permission to post this, if you think it may help someone else who's so brainwashed that they might actually walk away from their marriage for the sake of "the mission" - namely to save our country, save other marriages, and save souls. That's what was on my mind when I was deciding whether or not to get divorced. Oh, and for anyone who reads this and wonders if I went on to become a huge failure in life ("he hauled off and did nothing"), I'd also like to report that I have nearly tripled my income since leaving Amway. And since I no longer spend thousands each year on "tools", I'm keeping more of it. I've also doubled our living space. We had one, beatup, compact car with 175,000 miles on it (mainly Amway miles) when we left. Now we have two new sedans. My son is in an expensive private school. I work half the hours I used to (that's not counting Amway hours). And although I have a J.O.B., I set my own hours and only see my boss about once a quarter. I swear, it's almost an Emerald lifestyle, but I had to quit Amway to get it!!

On to the other reason for this e-mail. Sidney, do you happen to have the 1997 sales figures for Amway? Their fiscal year ended August 31st, and they haven't updated their website yet. I have a feeling sales dropped off this year (heh-heh). You can bet if they did,, that Amway won't promote that fact. It will be skillfully omitted from the Diamonds' talks. I still receive the Amagram, and noticed that for the last two months, they haven't had anyone on the cover. The cover is reserved for new EDC's and above. And, if you count the Dexter & Birdie Yager cover, which they got for receiving a new, just created pin level, that they were already qualified for, that makes 3 covers this year with no new pin winners on them. In fact, the September issue doesn't even have any new Diamonds in it! It seems to me that Amway didn't have a very good year. Maybe you are having a greater effect than you realize.

Please let me know when you get the new sales figures, or post them on your site.

YIPES!!!

The cult was at my house last night, and my roommate signed the paper and wrote a $150 check for the "kit!" This morning she has seen the light, but we need to know our rights to back out and get her money back. I was hoping your site would help.

Just a note to say thank you! A so-called friend recently contacted me regarding this Amway stuff. Cautious and skeptical, I wanted more information, and not from those whatevers. Your site is exactly what I was looking for to give them the 100% "No $%#@# way!"

Thanks again and keep up the good work.

Have you seen a copy of the documents that are now included in the renewals. If not, send me your fax number and I will fax it to you. Basically what it is an agreement Amway is sending out for all distributors to sign. Our diamond mentioned it on the ambox very non schlantly (SP?) that this was basically no big deal. Well ours came in the mail yesterday and though I am no attorney, I interpreted it to read that all new disputes over the the sale of bsm's are to be decided by an arbitration board. Further, the decisions by this board would remain secret. It does admit that Upline does make money on the tools. It contains other information that I would rather let you read. I think this would be a good thing to put on your page and either comment on or let others. Please e-mail me back soon.

Thanks

I applaud your web sight for spouting facts and truths about a dishonest and deceptive organization. Like many, I too have had my experiences with Amway. As a born again Christian, I am appalled at the way they are now using God to manipulate and pressure people into joining. Most recently, yesterday as a matter of fact, Dr. James Dobson had the president of Amway on his Focus on the Family radio program promoting his new book. The same Dobson who is calling for a boycott of Disney will now experience a boycott from the Christian community as a result of his endorsing Amway. Glad to see you put the effort into getting out the facts!

Hello Sidney:

Let me first thank you for this page and I will tell you in a second why I am so grateful.

Until recently, I had no clue what Amway was until one faithful night. My field is in computers so time to time I go to the computer section in the local huge bookstore Barnes & Nobels (sp?) in North Jersey. One evening a guy, innocently enough, asked me about a computer question. I, wanting to be helpful told him everything he wanted to know. To make a short story even shorter, He told his name and he owns several "businesses". He implied I could help him with some MS-Office stuff (Excel/Access) for a fee of course. After he threw me that bone, he said I should meet him on Wednesday night for a nightly meeting that his "company" has. I have been to other night meetings and just thought this guy worked very hard. So, I said yes, like a dumbass. I meet him and lo and behold it was AMWAY. Just like in the articles, he beguiled me into coming to a meeting quite some miles away that was a rally for AMWAY. I didn't know what Amway was so I decided to see what it was about. Point for point, these people behaved just like in your page. Right down to the Sweet Breathe stuff that had apparantly everyone addicted! So I went home that night (4.5 hrs later) and went right to the net to find info on them and then I saw your page. Thanks for eveything. I called Dan later the next week and started shooting questions at him about on everything from your page. He was a slimey, smart, and evasive salesman, never coming to a direct answer and he even said "I know this is a confusing time for you. You might have heard some things from someone but you should listen to how you feel and not your friends who will be in their jobs while you make some real money. This time is what separates the men from the boys…" You believe that SHIT! He called me a boy to my face. This infuriated me and I want to strike back.

I want to make a page or help someone make a page that will offer people a chance to post exactly where, how, when and who approached them (with complete descriptions and names if possible).

Also, since they are a pyramid (shadow or not) they need the bottom to vacuum the money up the funnel so I thought of a way to stop them from the bottom up and maybe you can tell me what you think. I want to start a very real multi-level marketing structure in which people who read the page are encouraged to tell everyone they know of the evils of Amway but not for money but for possibly points on the page or even levels of achievement (emerald, diamond, whatever) for how many people they have in their downline. Possibly in regions where people don't know jack about them, they will be prepared for the onslought of greed that is Amway. All I want is for Amway to perish for its wrong doings. Is that so wrong?

Just a thought.

I just read with interest your new page on the Brig Hart Lawsuit and the tool scam. This explains why Amway sent me at renewal time a "convention" on Commercial Support Material which, were I interested in renewing, I would have to sign. This "convention" states that "buying services and commercial support material is absolutely voluntary. Nobody can demand or exert whatever pressure on anybody to buy or use this material". It also states that there is "no guarantee regarding results."

I don't know if that "convention" is a new procedure for Amway - if it is, then it is clearly an attempt to protect their hide against further lawsuits.

Unfortunately the document I received is in French only.

Best regards, I continue to visit your site weekly,

By the way - I probably will not renew my distributorship.

I was in my parking lot driving my remote control car around practicing for an upcoming race when a gentlemen approached me impressed with my little toy (it goes about 40MPH and attacts a lot of attention at times).

We chatted for a bit and he asked a question: "Would you like to be making $150,000 a year in just 2-5 years from now?"

Of course I prepare myself for the whammy, but decide to go along with this and I reply "Sure." Well I was fortunate enough because he was starting a franchise locally for an "at home shopping network" and needed people to help branch out his business so we could all make a fortune!!

Wasn't I lucky.

Anyway (or should I say Amway), we headed back to my apartment so he could "write down some impressive figures" and that it would only take 30 minutes. Since he was a neighbor of mine I agreed to the little charade and on the way back asked a few vague questions of him:

Q: "Is there an initial start-up fee?"

A: "Yes, but it's remarkably small for the amount of money you'll be making in a year from now"

(Uh oh, big red flag going up now)

Q: "Well what exactly is involved with this?"

A: "It's a business opportunity that's totally legal and has been upheld by the Supreme Court and the FTC....."

(Ok this is now looking pretty bad, anyone who has to pre-amble the words "business opportunity" in the same sentence as "totally legal" and "Supreme Court" is obviously up to no good).

We finally arrive at my apartment and we begin to chat. He goes into a long speech about wealth, women, success, blah blah and starts drawing out his charts on "PV's" and "Distribution Pods." I of course watch in interest as he basically describes to me a classical pyramid scheme.

He finishes his presentation finally revealing he's with Amway (why did he wait so long? Something to hide?) and how I can reach the "Diamond" level and never have to work again. Wow, impressive, so I can give up my low-paying job as an Internet Security Consultant and sell crappy shampoo to all my friends. Boy have I struck gold!

I reached for my calculator and started doing some stats. Mr. Amway was looking kind of nervous at this point and was taken aback when I basically proved that his financial model cannot sustain itself in the way presented. Simply, the people at the bottom of the pyramid will get crushed and cannot pull out of the hole except for a fraction of a percent of the time, even then I would suspect the best they could do is break even (assuming that you don't count wasted effort which I value greatly).

At this point I was going to get a little more assertive and recommend that we sit down at my computer so I can type in the word "Amway" into a search engine to see what comes back. I spared him this, but sent him away knowing that I was not interested.

It was after he left that I did the search to turn up exactly as I had suspected, one website with positive comments (www.amway.com) and all the rest slamming the scheme as a fraud.

The crux of this is just that I loved reading your site, especially after I successfully defended myself from becoming an Amway drone. Mr. Amway dropped off some catalogues for me in case I feel like wasting some money and buying over-priced department store items instead of just driving two miles to get it myself. Perhaps when he returns I'll try to pull him out of the Amway deal before he loses any (more) money. He is my neighbor and while not obligated, I do think he should be informed.

Thanks for the site it is very informative.

thanks for your very professionally managed and informative website. my husband and i were approached recently by someone trying to get us into the britt line of amway (actually, i think this couple did mean well. i don't think they knew what they'd gotten into). anyway, i immediately did a web search and found your site as well as a couple of others with pretty hilarious "personal testimonies" (they helped seal our decision too). your info. about the pending lawsuits and everything else on your site clinched it. we'll have no part of this. i sort of picked up on its cultish aspects after our first major meeting with those people, and was relieved to see it corroborated on your site. especially when these amway people treated us as if we were crazy when we declined their not-so-generous offer to join their ranks.

I am an Amway distributor in Sydney, Australia, with the Network21 organization under the Glenda & Norman Leonard line of (d-diamond) sponsorship.

I also manage a successful telecommunications brokerage, with a small, but dynamic team of consultants. Basically what we do it try to get customers to switch long distance telephone carriers to our preferred vendor, which is * (famous American company) who provides switched telephone services here in Australia. For this we are paid a residual commission, of the reps working with me, I take an over-ride of 1% or 2% of air-time their customers bring in (they thus make most of the money, which is just as well, since they do all the leg-work, getting customers.

What really concerns me about the Amway opportunity is that I cannot get straight answers as to why I am not sponsoring people into the business "you must be doing something wrong" is a common response from my sponsor, as well as her upline directs. My sponsor tells me that the best places to go prospecting is in shopping centres and places like that, but every time we went on a "team call", half-a-days' prospecting brings me one or two business cards, and my sponsor does a little better with 3-4 cards with contacts to follow up and try to drag along to the "Open Plan". This is despite the fact that my sponsor claims to be getting lots of prospects, this is certainly not the case when I am nearby, watching her success rate ("it's a quiet day today, let's do Darling Harbour next week".).

I am very professional in everything I do, and I firmly believe that the Amway Sales and Marketing Plan WORKS - if you can find people who want to run with the idea and follow your footsteps. Two prospects for half- a-days' prospecting, and no guarantee that they will even consider joining the business, let alone come along to the open plan. I can spend half a day prospecting in long distance telecoms, and usually I end up signing up two or three customers on the spot, each earning a residual income of anything upwards of $10 to $15 per month, more if they are a business and spend substantial bucks on international and national calls. I get rid of some 50-100 info packs which I photocopy on my copier as needed, at around 8c/info pack, and down the line another two or three, maybe more sign up.

All you got to do is dress up as to look professional, a suit being preferable, and having professional posture, and people will listen to you and read the information.

I think there is far too much Smoke and Mirrors with the Amway business, and as far as the tools "scam" is concerned, the books are fantastic, especially Shad Helmstetters "American Victory", and many others. But the cassette tapes are a rip-off (at $AUS 6.50 each).

Food for thought: If the tools were such a key part in building your Amway business, why aren't they dirt cheap and sold at cost? The cost of running off cassette tapes couln't be more than a dollar each, and books sold at cost price, with author royalties paid directly to the Author, since most of these books are directed specifically towards people in the Amway business. Hmmmm. Building an Amway business means building BV and PV, otherwise you don't move up the pin-levels, so for the Crown Ambassadors and Diamonds to produce material at low cost would be of benefit to them, but you make a valid point on your site (Brig Hart) that the tools are a great source of profits! No wonder!

9 months and around $2000 invested to make $47 at the 6% pin level. I do long distance, have invested about $1000 in marketing and other business expenses over a three month period to earn a residual income of just over $1000 each month, this almost doubling every month. Which is the better business? My accountant favours the latter.

I too have to sheepishly admit that I was taken in by the Amway people.

It's funny - I had read this board before - when I was still in. But I guess I didn't want to believe what you had written. But it's true - all the comments I have read so far from ex-distributors - they're all true.

Here's how I got suckered. I had lunch with an old colleague with whom I had worked several years ago. At the end of the lunch, he asked me, "Mary (not my real name) - are you ever interested in getting into business opportunities?" Since I knew him ( or at least I thought I did) and he seemed level-headed, the last thing I thought he was referring to was a multi-level marketing business. I thought he was starting a regular business and wanted to know if I was interested. I asked him what it was about, and he replied, "It's distribution technology - electronic marketing." I asked him what I would be selling, and he replied, "It's about 10,000 different products - stereos, TV's cars, etc. You can now sell them with the latest technology." I had visions in my head of using the Internet to sell goods - being a bonafide distributor - and having an organization back me up and show me how to do it. It sounded just like what I had been thinking about doing for quite some time - finding a way to market products the high-tech way. He handed me a CD and told me to go home and listen to it. Note - no word of Amway was ever mentioned.

I went home and listened to the tape. On it there was a gentleman talking about how these days one has to have his own business, about downsizing, layoffs, etc. We all know the familiar story. He was quite an eloquent speaker and what he was saying was true, but there was no explanation as to how one would sell products.

I called my friend again and told him I was interested and that the CD hadn't explained much. He said that it was deliberately vague because they wanted to explain more in depth later. Note that the CD had no Amway name on it at all. It was manufactured and produced under the label, "I.N.A.," and the title of the CD was soemthing like, "Your Key to Financial Success." At that time my friend said that in order to learn more about it there were some information sessions which I could attend. He indicated that he would call me back when he had days and times.

He took me to a meeting, at which there was a man standing at the front talking about how to enter this business. After a few minutes I thought I heard him mention Amway, but I wasn't sure. "What did Amway have to do with starting a business in distribution technology?" I wondered. I must have heard him wrong. He continued talking and again mentioned the main distributor as Amway. I leaned over and asked my friend what Amway had to do with it. He said that the Amway products totaled only 400 - but that there were 10,000 total products. I let him know that I was definitely NOT interested in selling soap products, and was not interested in multi-level selling. He said not to worry about that - that there were many different ways to do this business.

Note here that my friend has only been in for a short while. I don't want to malign my friend - I don’t' think he was deliberately trying to mislead me. I think he was just doing as he had been told to do by his sponsor, whom after I met, turned out to be a real sleaze ball. My friend's worst sin was that he was naive.

After the meeting, his sponsor, he, and I stood outside in the parking lot, along with his sponsor's wife. I again explained that my interest was in retail: I was not comfortable finding people to sign up, and I was not interested in selling soap products. There is nothing inherently wrong with these two activities - it's just that they didn't interest me. First of all, I don't know a lot of people to ask, because I currently work out of my home and don't come into contact with many people. Also, I know that none of my friends would be interested in a multi-level selling plan. And if I tried to get them interested in one they would think I was a laughing stock. My friend's sponsor and his wife continued to assure me that there were many different ways you could do this business - that many people did it with just retail so I didn't have to worry. Even prior to our conversation in the parking lto, during the meeting, another person had had the same question - he said he didn't want to sell the Amway products. The speaker replied that no one was forcing you to sell the Amway products - there were 10,000 products and Amway's products totaled only 400.

Later that week my friend took me to another meeting during which it was announced how many people had sold what, and who had reached what goal, etc., with rounds of applause. it was like a pep rally. I really didn't understand specifically what was going on, but I knew in a general way what they were talking about. Later that day I went to my friend's house, again still believing that I would sell 10,000 varied products - Coca Cola, Panasonic, etc. with Amway as the intermediate distributor. That seemed OK to me. Already I was thinking of how I would get customers: I would leaflet - advertise, - be a real distributor, like they told me I could.

I gave my friend a check for $163.00. He gave me a box of products - ALL AMWAY. "That's odd," I thought. "Why are there no products from any of the other 10,000 distributors to use as samples.” I reasoned to myself that perhaps these were just the ones that they had samples for because it was truly Amway corporation.

My friend gave me a kit - a huge box of papers. I was so excited. I felt sure that I would get home, read through it and there would be explanations as to how to be a distributor of products - (the 10,000 that everyone had been telling me was the crux of getting into this business.)

I got home and emptied the boxes, and read every sheet of paper. EVERY SINGLE SHEET IN THE BOX, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, WAS ABOUT NOTHING BUT AMWAY, except for a thick catalog which had a variety of products in it. It was stuck in the back. This catalog contained the 10,000 products, but there was NO explanation of how to sell the items, NO clear pricing sheet, NO pamphlets that went along with it NO description of any kind. It was simply a catalog stuck back there - much like a Speigel catalog, that one would come across and order from. The Amway products, on the other had, had tons of accompanying literature - how to sell the products, the upcoming specials, the product bonus value (which was way higher for the Amway products than for the non-Amway products) and all kinds of other information - about 2-3 hours of reading material - all about Amway products and how to sell them. Moreover, much of the literature was about how to sponsor people. You have to get 6 people, who get 4 people, who get 2 people, and this is how you make the bug bucks.

As I wrote above - I had told them I don't know how many times I was not interested in that. They assured me that I could just "do retail." Yet when I got the kit home, EVERY sample was an Amway product, and EVERY BIT OF LITERATURE was about how to sell Amway and how to sponsor people. ALL of the information made much of the fact that sponsoring was the ONLY way to make money and the way to do the business.

By this time I was getting angry. I called my friend and again told him that I was interested in retail - NOT in finding people to sponsor and NOT in selling Amway. He assured me that he had been told this was possible. Note here at this point that at no time before I gave them my $163.00 check had anyone mentioned Amway much. They kept stressing that I would be involved in "distribution technology" of "10,000 products." Then, as soon as I am in, suddenly ALL the talk is about sponsoring people and selling Amway soap products. So this was exactly like any other run of the mill multi-level marketing setup. I met not one person in the organization who seemed to be robustly involved in selling the "10,000 products', and the catalog was simply stuck in the back of the kit they gave me, with no information with it on how to sell these items and no other information of any kind, in stark contrast to the Amway products.

At that point my friend knew I was angry, so he suggested to me that since I was interested in a high-tech product that I try the MCI. They had mentioned before that Amway had a joint venture with MCI and that there were people who had made a lot of money just selling the MCI. I did have interest in selling this product - especially since it would also involve selling their Internet provider. I think also I was in denial - trying to "grab at straws" - hoping to find SOMETHING that I could do with this program so that my investment wouldn't be a total loss.

Let me digress just a moment and discuss the kit they gave me. Everything that you wanted to do in terms of selling involved buying very expensive items - like $6.00 tapes. I asked my friend's sponsor if distributors could have copying rights of the tapes - for even a reduced amount. No. Could we make up our own leaflets, to avoid paying the $10.00 to $70.00 for the catalog and pamphlets? No. Was there a way to share materials? You could, but it was much better to have your own.. I stood there wondering how I was going to afford all these items.

I then thought back to the pamphlet in the kit which told about how Amway the corporation had had such phenomenal success in terms of profit and growth in sales. I have a business background, and it became apparent to me right then and there that the reason that Amway corporation was making so much money was that the distributors were paying so much for the materials to sell the goods. Whether or not the distributors actually turned this investment into sales was irrelevant to Amway corporation. It was profit for the corporation - and sheer expense for the distributors.

A few days later my friend called me and told me there was a meeting. This meeting was called "Football." During the meeting, each successive person would announce the things they had done for their business and they would get yards on a toy football field. The more things they had done, the more yardage. Different things got different yardage - for example, if you purchased a tape, you got 10 yards. If you showed the plan, you got 50 yards, etc. Scanning the list, I noticed that the items which gave you the most yardage were those which involved you, the distributor, making a purchase. The heftier the purchase, the more yardage you got. The person giving the meeting was the, I guess the Diamond. What really struck me was that YOUR GRAND PRIZE FOR GETTING A LOT OF "YARDAGE" WAS A ROUND OF APPLAUSE. You got no monetary prize of any sort - not even a mug. "So this is the trick." I thought. "The Diamond invites people over to his house to applaud them for spending money which makes the Amway corporation rich." But it gets better. I didn't know at that time, but I know now that a portion of the money that distributors spend on materials goes into the Diamond's pocket. so this guy is inviting people to his house so that he could applaud them for lining HIS POCKETS! AND THEY WERE ALL FALLING FOR IT! I don't know about you, but I will invite anyone to my house and applaud them if they want to spend money that makes me wealthier. I will give you all the applause you want. What a con game!

So this was the scam: Sell these people on the dream of Amway: Make them believe that they have to buy these products.

By the end of the evening of the "Football" pep rally, as it were, I came full circle and it all came clear. First, I saw my friend's sponsor. I asked him about the MCI. I told him that, as I had said before, I was NOT interested in sponsoring people - I was interested in a distributorship, like they told me it was. I was also interested in a high-tech type product - NOT in the Amway. Remember, they had assured me all the way that the Amway products were only 400 of the 10,000 products. When I asked my friend's sponsor about selling MCI, which appeared to be the only last ditch effort I had at selling a product that I really wanted to sell, he replied, "Oh, you can't make a lot of money selling that. The only way to do it is to have sponsorees. How about next Wednesday night at your place, you invite as many friends as you can and we will have a house party to sign up some sponsorees."

At that moment I knew what had happened. It was a bait and switch. They knew all along that this was a typical, multi-level selling set-up, in which you sell Amway products. The "catalog of 10,000 products" was just stuck in the back of the kit they gave me as a decoy so that they could get away with calling it a distributorship. When you got in, all anyone ever tried to get you to do was sell Amway and recruit sponsorees.

I called my friend and told him I wanted out. I told him that no one ever had said it was Amway until I got in, and that that was dishonest. He replied that that was because "there was a lot of misinformation floating around." Yeah, right. I think my friend is an honest person, but terribly gullible and misguided. But his sponsor is obviously extremely dishonest. And his sponsor after that.

But it gets better. Shortly after that, some packages came in the mail from Amway. When I received them, I thought to myself, "Well, I am glad I'm out, but at least they were good enough to provide distributors with these items free of charge to help them sell. Perhaps they weren't all bad." I sent them back, however, since I was no longer interested. Lo and behold, I get my bank statement that month, and there were three charges on there that I did not recognize - all for a "GCA International." I called the bank and they said they did not recognize the company, and that they had to put a trace on it. Moreover, when I spoke to them that day, they informed me that, that same day, several more charges had gone through for the same vendor. All total the charges came to close to $100.00 Well, you guessed it. These were charges from Amway. THEY SENT ME MATERIALS TO SELL WITH WHICH I DID NOT SOLICIT AND DEBITED MY CHECKING ACCOUNT WITHOUT INFORMING ME OR ANYTHING. Granted, when you sign up, you sign that they can debit your account FOR MATERIALS THAT YOU REQUEST. I did NOT even request these materials - they simply decided to send them to me and debited my account.

No wonder the Amway corporation as a whole is doing so well. All they have to do is sign you up as a distributor, and then send you mountains of selling material, and then automatically debit your account. Meanwhile you run around like a crazy person trying to sell the product and get sponsorees. Whether you get any one or not, and whether you sell anything or not, Amway corporation has made BIG bucks off of you as a distributor - in effect they have sold the DISTRIBUTORS a product, “The Amway Dream." This is what Amway is really selling: - Its real money making product and the reason for the company's financial success is NOT because it sells products - it's because it sells the "Amway Dream" to its distributors.

Mary (not my real name)

Amway: The Untold Story

Your Comments, Part 43