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Let's hear your MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) horror story (1 Viewer)

Reaper said:
So these Juice pills are like $40.00 a month ARE YOU FREAKING ####### ME!!!!!!!!!!Let me guess, the neighbor makes 15 bucks a month the company gets $20 a month and the other 5 bucks goes into making this #### and marketing.There are few things I HATE more than a neighbor or "friend" inviting people over in order to guilt them into their latest Gimmick... UGGGGHHHHH.... All of a sudden this neighbor who we rarely see, is coming over to say hello??? And my wife, with a Master is Business and Finance can't see a MLM scam coming from a mile away :shrug:I need more ammo, I'm fighting this one till death. Almost $500 a year for pure ####!!!! #%*(@%!)
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Reaper have your wife do a little research on the history of the product like I did. She'll find the main guys behind this got busted trying to pass off a similar product years ago.
 
I was invited to one recently. It was a vitamin product that they sold to customers. Their plan was to set up kiosks in mall and scan folks that pass by. The scanner would tell the folks what types of vitamins they needed in order to remain at 100% health.

There was another one that I was asked to join. Something about selling furniture online for a special price.

 
Brother in law calls a few weeks ago and says he is having problems with a link and wants me to check it out. I check it and it links to his personal Amway page. Nice ploy :thumbup:

Me: "You are not getting involved with them, are you?"

Him: "Oh just looking at it."

Over the next few weeks here come the emails, the business statements about what he is trying to do with this "great busintess opportunity" despite everyone in my family being upfront about not being interested in this. Then he drags my sister to a conference in Kansas and earlier this week I get a text inviting me to some webcast that he thinks I will like. (which I ignore) My sister is now calling my mom trying to get her to convince me to get involved because she thinks I would really be perfect for this.

Just to humor him, I looked through the catalogs he brought out during our Easter lunch. A pack of 8 Fuji AA batteries was $9.00 and 24 rolls of Viva paper towels were $65.00, I asked him why would I buy this when I can go to Walmart and get 20 AA Duracels for the same price and I can't imagine how many rolls of paper towels I could get for $65.00. He didn't have an answer.

 
I've heard the quixtar pitch a few different time. I didn't recognize it at first, but now it is easy to see coming.

Coworker: "Hey do you have a few minutes later this week to talk about a side job I am doing? I'll stop by your place at 7pm on Wednesday."

Me: "Yeah sure. What is it you want to talk about?"

Coworker: "Well, I can't really go into details here, but I think there is money to be made."

 
Courtjester said:
Brother in law calls a few weeks ago and says he is having problems with a link and wants me to check it out. I check it and it links to his personal Amway page. Nice ploy :mellow:

Me: "You are not getting involved with them, are you?"

Him: "Oh just looking at it."

Over the next few weeks here come the emails, the business statements about what he is trying to do with this "great busintess opportunity" despite everyone in my family being upfront about not being interested in this. Then he drags my sister to a conference in Kansas and earlier this week I get a text inviting me to some webcast that he thinks I will like. (which I ignore) My sister is now calling my mom trying to get her to convince me to get involved because she thinks I would really be perfect for this.

Just to humor him, I looked through the catalogs he brought out during our Easter lunch. A pack of 8 Fuji AA batteries was $9.00 and 24 rolls of Viva paper towels were $65.00, I asked him why would I buy this when I can go to Walmart and get 20 AA Duracels for the same price and I can't imagine how many rolls of paper towels I could get for $65.00. He didn't have an answer.
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lol what a scumbag
 
My family got roped into this stupid ACN "business" Glad to see they are all super rich and make 5 figures per month now.

 
First time I had an old friend call me and I fell for it. I thought he just wanted to catch up on old times. Then the two guys show up in suits and start talking slick. But everything went to crap for them when I told them I was ok with where I was at financially.

That answer has always been honest for me and it always shuts them down.

I've nearly got sucked in a few times by family and friends but now I'm pretty leary. I'd say all told I've probably lost $300ish dollars to MLM stuff.

 
A few years ago I was job hunting. I mostly contacted companies with open positions or whatever but also decided to throw my resume up on Monster. Within a few weeks I got a call from some guy saying he saw my resume and had an opportunity for me. I was like hell yeah. He went on and gave me an address and time to come see him - probably a half hour away - a couple days later. I asked him what company this was and he said Primerica and mumbled something about being affiliated with Travelers. I took the bait.

I showed up at this building a few days later. I was in a suit and a few minutes early, like any good interviewee. I walked into the suite and lo and behold there are 30 people crammed into this conference room. There's a projector, and a couple of guys who looked like they were in charge. I was instantly pissed and realized I had walked into some damn scheme of some sort. Who does that to a guy looking for a job? In IT no less? If I'd have known which cars these guys drove I'd have wiped my own feces on each and every one of their door handles on my way out.

 
I have a friend and sister that sold Cutco knives when they were teenagers, they get *really* pissed to this day if I badmouth Cutco.

My sister did a bunch of legwork trying to sell to family and friends. She had to buy all the knives herself to start up; she might of only sold to my parents. Never made any money, and was out $700 for the set of knives. You have to sell an insane amount before you start making any money. She still uses the knives and loves them. I think they suck, all you really need is a good chef's and paring knife.

 
Jobber said:
A few years ago I was job hunting. I mostly contacted companies with open positions or whatever but also decided to throw my resume up on Monster. Within a few weeks I got a call from some guy saying he saw my resume and had an opportunity for me. I was like hell yeah. He went on and gave me an address and time to come see him - probably a half hour away - a couple days later. I asked him what company this was and he said Primerica and mumbled something about being affiliated with Travelers. I took the bait. I showed up at this building a few days later. I was in a suit and a few minutes early, like any good interviewee. I walked into the suite and lo and behold there are 30 people crammed into this conference room. There's a projector, and a couple of guys who looked like they were in charge. I was instantly pissed and realized I had walked into some damn scheme of some sort. Who does that to a guy looking for a job? In IT no less? If I'd have known which cars these guys drove I'd have wiped my own feces on each and every one of their door handles on my way out.
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I had a relative get me into Primerica. He was upfront about and I originally just signed up cuz it was a better policy than our current one. It was low pressure but since I wasn't working I signed up to go to some training thing in Cali. But I backed out. I wrote off the money but the guy did his best and got me some of it back.
 
gsmayes said:
I have a friend and sister that sold Cutco knives when they were teenagers, they get *really* pissed to this day if I badmouth Cutco.My sister did a bunch of legwork trying to sell to family and friends. She had to buy all the knives herself to start up; she might of only sold to my parents. Never made any money, and was out $700 for the set of knives. You have to sell an insane amount before you start making any money. She still uses the knives and loves them. I think they suck, all you really need is a good chef's and paring knife.
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I don't really think CutCo is the same kind of thing. I know a lot of college students who have sold it and made reasonable money. The Sales Managers work on the commission of the sales people, so it has a small MLM aspect to it, but the vast majority of the employees are just trying to sell the knives. As a whole, I would also say the quality of the CutCo knives is proportionally much higher than the quality of a lot of the BS they are selling in MLM stuff.
 
ZBTHorton said:
gsmayes said:
I have a friend and sister that sold Cutco knives when they were teenagers, they get *really* pissed to this day if I badmouth Cutco.My sister did a bunch of legwork trying to sell to family and friends. She had to buy all the knives herself to start up; she might of only sold to my parents. Never made any money, and was out $700 for the set of knives. You have to sell an insane amount before you start making any money. She still uses the knives and loves them. I think they suck, all you really need is a good chef's and paring knife.
Click to expand...
I don't really think CutCo is the same kind of thing. I know a lot of college students who have sold it and made reasonable money. The Sales Managers work on the commission of the sales people, so it has a small MLM aspect to it, but the vast majority of the employees are just trying to sell the knives. As a whole, I would also say the quality of the CutCo knives is proportionally much higher than the quality of a lot of the BS they are selling in MLM stuff.
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Looks like they got you good.
 
Back in the early 1990s I answered a newspaper add for a sports-minded individual who wanted to work for a fitness company. This was Equinox. They were enviromentally and fitness focused and had Kenny Loggins as a spokesman. I had just graduated college and fell for these idoits hook line and sinker. They had a beautiful lady close me for my investment of $5k so I could come in as a "manager". They had their own offices and sold their BS well. I hung around trying to make it for over a year, putting $25k on credit cards trying to make it work. While I tried to convince my friends and family how well I was doing. I'm glad that is all over. It took me about 12 years to clean up my credit. Bill Goulld the owner of Equinox had tens of millions seized to try to pay people back. Too bad there were too many victims to pay a lot of the money that was scammed back.

 
ZBTHorton said:
gsmayes said:
I have a friend and sister that sold Cutco knives when they were teenagers, they get *really* pissed to this day if I badmouth Cutco.My sister did a bunch of legwork trying to sell to family and friends. She had to buy all the knives herself to start up; she might of only sold to my parents. Never made any money, and was out $700 for the set of knives. You have to sell an insane amount before you start making any money. She still uses the knives and loves them. I think they suck, all you really need is a good chef's and paring knife.
Click to expand...
I don't really think CutCo is the same kind of thing. I know a lot of college students who have sold it and made reasonable money. The Sales Managers work on the commission of the sales people, so it has a small MLM aspect to it, but the vast majority of the employees are just trying to sell the knives. As a whole, I would also say the quality of the CutCo knives is proportionally much higher than the quality of a lot of the BS they are selling in MLM stuff.
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Yeah, CutCo actually makes a pretty good knife.
 
I really can't fathom why someone would do this to family and friends. Even for good coin.

 
anakin said:
Back in the early 1990s I answered a newspaper add for a sports-minded individual who wanted to work for a fitness company. This was Equinox. They were enviromentally and fitness focused and had Kenny Loggins as a spokesman. I had just graduated college and fell for these idoits hook line and sinker. They had a beautiful lady close me for my investment of $5k so I could come in as a "manager". They had their own offices and sold their BS well. I hung around trying to make it for over a year, putting $25k on credit cards trying to make it work. While I tried to convince my friends and family how well I was doing. I'm glad that is all over. It took me about 12 years to clean up my credit. Bill Goulld the owner of Equinox had tens of millions seized to try to pay people back. Too bad there were too many victims to pay a lot of the money that was scammed back.
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If you can't trust Kenny Loggins, who can you trust.
 
My next door neighbors have signed up for every single one of these things.

The wife and I get a kick out of how they try to tell us how this one is different from the last. They don't even bother with this is different from amway anymore. Even they recognize its the same business model but somehow they think this product is going to make them rich.

We mark the day they "invite" us for dinner on our calender so we can ask about it again in 3 months.

So far they are 0-6 and I have no idea how much they've dropped on this crap.

 
Courtjester said:
Brother in law calls a few weeks ago and says he is having problems with a link and wants me to check it out. I check it and it links to his personal Amway page. Nice ploy :rolleyes: Me: "You are not getting involved with them, are you?"Him: "Oh just looking at it."Over the next few weeks here come the emails, the business statements about what he is trying to do with this "great busintess opportunity" despite everyone in my family being upfront about not being interested in this. Then he drags my sister to a conference in Kansas and earlier this week I get a text inviting me to some webcast that he thinks I will like. (which I ignore) My sister is now calling my mom trying to get her to convince me to get involved because she thinks I would really be perfect for this.Just to humor him, I looked through the catalogs he brought out during our Easter lunch. A pack of 8 Fuji AA batteries was $9.00 and 24 rolls of Viva paper towels were $65.00, I asked him why would I buy this when I can go to Walmart and get 20 AA Duracels for the same price and I can't imagine how many rolls of paper towels I could get for $65.00. He didn't have an answer.
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My friend who dated the Amwitch, when asked why the toothpaste was $8 a tube, said "It's concentrated." :lmao:
 
About three or four sessions into marriage counseling, the counselor broke out his MLM spiel.

I'm left with a fond memory of citrus scented soap and a divorce.

 
Mister CIA said:
About three or four sessions into marriage counseling, the counselor broke out his MLM spiel. I'm left with a fond memory of citrus scented soap and a divorce.
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I would have been left with the fond memory of a full refund and a report to whoever administers his license. And a divorce.
 
Recently noticed some skin cream #### popping up on a few 'friends' Facebook non stop.

Then one of them who I am not friends with at all anymore messages me that I was his choice for his 'chicken pitch' or pitch to the person he thought would be the hard to sell. So he sent me links to stupid testimonials and success stories.

Man I hate #### like this.

 
Jobber said:
A few years ago I was job hunting. I mostly contacted companies with open positions or whatever but also decided to throw my resume up on Monster. Within a few weeks I got a call from some guy saying he saw my resume and had an opportunity for me. I was like hell yeah. He went on and gave me an address and time to come see him - probably a half hour away - a couple days later. I asked him what company this was and he said Primerica and mumbled something about being affiliated with Travelers. I took the bait. I showed up at this building a few days later. I was in a suit and a few minutes early, like any good interviewee. I walked into the suite and lo and behold there are 30 people crammed into this conference room. There's a projector, and a couple of guys who looked like they were in charge. I was instantly pissed and realized I had walked into some damn scheme of some sort. Who does that to a guy looking for a job? In IT no less? If I'd have known which cars these guys drove I'd have wiped my own feces on each and every one of their door handles on my way out.
Click to expand...
Same thing happened to me while job hunting. I tried it out for awhile but since I was young and single I wasnt really their target market so they didnt push me on the friends and family as much. Cost me $250 and didnt really make me anything. They got in a bit of trouble for the amount of cold calling they did to try and get people into these meetings.

To be fair I actually learned a lot about insurance, money, etc so I cant be all that bitter.

 
Actually MLM in and of itself isn't the problem. I mean at the end of the day it is direct sales. Avon has been good for a lot of people, so has Tupperware. Those are just the first two I thought of, I am sure there are more. The key is do they incentivize selling the product or recruiting people?

 
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