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The following posts have been reprinted in their entirety from posts e-mailed by readers of this website, except that headers, names and locations have been removed. These posts express the opinions and experiences of their authors, and this site publisher makes no representations about them in any way whatsoever.
Where do I go from here with Starlight? My mother was taking it, and she has severe heart problems. After I gave her a rundown from your email, she quit.

Now, how do I get this stuff off the market? I feel like my head still isn't right, and I took the last dosage on Sun.

Hello:

Have you heard about USANA and any problems with them. I am looking at getting envolved with them. They claim to be networking marketing

thanks

Hi! I am still a distributor, has been for the last 3 years, but will not be renewing. FREEDOM, WOOO!! WOOO!! I have not been CORE for the last 5 months, have not attended any functions or weekly meetings at all. I have cancelled my S.O.T. and my Voicemail (canadian amvox). I am associated with Britt Worldwide. It is just so funny how some of the responses you get ask what line of sponsorship you were in. If you are under Britt/Yager/WWBD/Net21 or whatever, they are all the same. The pro-amway responses are full of AMA-BABBLES, its like hearing anybody from my upline. These responses are what you would have received from me just 6 months ago. I would just like to share with you the cost of being CORE here in Toronto under the Britt Team. I'll give the cost including tax and 4% service charge. Standing Order tape is C$10.20 which some weeks will be a double tape, so average of 60 tapes per year. Voicetel is C$35 per month. We have a LEADERSHIP S.O.T. which could either be a double tape (C$20.40) or a video (C$19.50). So if you want to be a LEADER, SOT alone will be C$30/week. Weekly meetings are C$5 per distributor, so a couple could spend $25.00 per week including babysitter. There are weekly Product pick-ups and weekly phone team ( a bunch of guys making phone calls to set up next weeks schedule to show the plan to new victims, oh I mean prospects) That is 3 nights in a week outside of showing the plan. 3 nights that you could have played with your child. We have 4 major functions and a "Britt School" (one weekend of nothing but Bill Britt, Yipeee!!) We normally go to Virginia for these. Each function ticket is US$75, so for a couple, taking the exchange rate into account will be more than C$225.00 a meeting. Oh yes, I almost forgot about the bus to Virginia (10 hrs smelling stinking socks), and the hotel, and the food, and the books sold at the function, and the neckties from Diamond Clothier, and the "Soar Business program" computerizing your SA1, and the Britt pins mugs / paper-weight / banner /hat / golf shirt/ golf umbrella / etc. A weekend function will cost at least C$600 per couple 5 times a year. Oh, this is your vacation anyway and you get to spend it with 4 other couples in one room whom you love because we are one family with one dream, right. I computed that a "CORE" couple will spend about C$6500 per year. So to be at the DIRECT Level, YOU NEED ENOUGH GUTS KNOWING THAT HALF YOUR INCOME COMES FROM AT LEAST 50 DISTRIBUTORS WHO ARE IN FINANCIAL HARDSHIP, also knowing that only 1 or maybe 2 of these people will even come close to silver. To be DIAMOND, YOU WILL NEED MEGA GUTS, BECAUSE THERE WILL BE AT LEAST 400 DISTRIBUTORS SPENDING ALL THESE MONEY, and maybe, just maybe 1 will become a diamond, but everybody is told that success is just around the corner. We have peole in my line of sponsorship that have not changed pins in the 3 years I was involved, even when my volume should have pushed them at lease 4 brackets higher. Our direct has been direct for like 11 or 12 years. Well there you go, a lowdown on the Canadian side of things. Good luck and GOD bless!!!
Is there a real MLM that offers better products for a lesser cost.? which MLM would you recommend?

I am very interested in this area, but I have seen four companies, much hype and much expense. I am simply looking for a "REAl" company.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Hi there!

My wife and I have been in Amway in the Attalah/Duncan organization for nearly the last four years. Much of that time hasn't been very active, but of late it has been due to increasing questions, doubts, and skepticisms that have been arising, especially regarding the whole "tools" thing.

Your text on the Taylor lawsuit got my attention immediately. We knew Kathy (Anderson at the time) from a few encounters at functions, and we noticed how she seemed to change towards the end, then disappeared. About a year ago, I we ran into one of her downline at our health club. We hadn't seen her around for awhile, and after asking her if she was still in the business, she said no. To make a long story short, she said she was "tired of people fucking with someone else's life", and vaguely indicated she was reffering to the Attalahs and Duncans.

We have tried to keep believing and keep our heads up, but one thing just seemed to compound on another. We have never really got straight answers from our upline on some of these concerns we've had; unsuprisingly, those answers have been very similar to those mentioned by other people on Amway websites. The meaning behind all the things they say on tapes and at functions seems to make sense when you really think about it: "Worlwide is the key; Amway is just the vehicle"/"Tool flow and function attendance are the biggest indicators of growth"/"We talk about things at (pick one: Emerald Club, Diamond Club, Go Diamond Weekend, etc.) that you don't even know about". Like what, profits from "the system"? Sure, I want to be rich, but I really would feel pretty damn scummy for raking in the bucks off hundreds or thousands of unknowing distributors from their monies spent on "the system". And I wonder what Amway would think of Brad Duncan saying things in a meeting like "I don't look to Amway to build it, they don't know how to. I'm part of WorldWide!" (not verbatim, but pretty damn close).

Although we both like the Artistry skin care and cosmetic line (one of the few product lines that is competitive to some degree), I think the coffin is about nailed shut. I was hoping to find a copy of the text on the Taylor lawsuite, and I stumbled on your site by accident--glad I did! More than likely we will find another, more straightforward MLM. It amazes me how many times Attalah said, "This is a business of integrity..."

How about Forever Living Product ? Thanks.
Yes, I do mean IDN. And soon, maybe early 1999, Big Planet. Has this gotten off the ground in the US? They are promoting big planet as a single source for all your utilities plus telephone, cable and cellular. Once you buy into Big Planet you will basically have and opportunity to provide these services via the MLM format. Any news or thoughts on this?

Incidentally it was pointed ou to me today that if you only want to be distributer then the $35 sign up fee is all that is necessary. You only have to buy the six starter kits if you are on the executive track. Then you are expected to buy $100 worth of NuSkin, IDN goods per month.

Best Regards

Please tell me if you are familiar with "Jetstarr", aka "Traveknet, Inter national". I am in Northwest Ohio and it appears to be an unlawful pyram id backed by one Ron Delgado in Naples, FL. Its deal is "selling" disco unt travel coupons (and similar items with little intrinsic value) for about $400, plus $200 to get you into the "binary" which allows you to profit from the sales below you in the binary structure. It is growing quickly around here with all the traditional trappings of a classic pyram id. I'd really like to hear from anyone familiar with this.

Thanks.

Gee, a page of survivors.. I could write a real long winded stroy about how I got sucked into this "promise" of riches. I, like many, was eking out a living, making very low wages. I was approached "Are you open to making extra money" Sure, who wasn't. I wasn't going anywhere in the job I was doing. I was 25, had no car, and barely made the rent every month. he showed me this circle stuff and said that jobs, investments don't work, social security wouldn't be there when YOU got old.... This is, "The Way" was the impression I walked away with. Well, I took the bait, met the Emerald upline (couple: Norm and Marie Hall) and they were a piece of work the longer (and closer) I worked with them I started on the "Recommended tape" program... and I could barely afford that with the minimal wages I was making. "Just stay with it long enough... You'll make it" Well, I showed plans by getting around on bus systems. I met a lot of people and gave out a lot of "prospecting tapes' I was really dedicated... I didn't know any better. Heck, I made the goal to retire by 30 I hated my job situation so much. I bought into the Rally stuff about how if I missed one, it would cost me 90 days of getting to that direct level. (they [INA] really harped on the direct level so much it made me sick after awhile.). I sponsored a number of people but I had a lot of "help" (or was it more the upline dissing my *leadership skills* moreso than anything, got up to the 2500 level ( this is after all the people in the line of sponship had quit by then... Which really made Me believe in the "system"--- my interest was actually waning by then... It had started when Norm and Marie TOLD me not to build the business because, I was causing them too many problems. With having money problems, I had a few checks not clear (thanks partially to some of the downline that would bouce me checks too) So, I didn't. I just stopped activity. When it came time to renew, I didn't... I was late... I indicated that I wanted to renew and they (the Halls, norm and marie) said they'd renew me alright but devoid of my group... the people that I had recruited and worked with the past 4 or so years, all taken away that instant. Well, suffice to say, I didn't like that option too much and decided that I would not continue with these people, asses that they were. I had nothing in common with them and this action was just the last straw. I actually went to their "Diamond" to complain about them, namely not renewing me with my group (not that they were doing much at this point). i felt cheated.. Four years of hard work and youth and I GOT NOTHING OUT OF IT. I gave up EVERYTHING to do amway/INA. I gave up my life, my hobbies/interests.. Norm and Marie Hall literally stole 4 years of work from me. I'll never forgive them for that (like they could give a rats ass anyway) At the end, I was dealing directly with them. And I had their full support. yeah, right. Norm never wanted to talk with me and marie was an uptight little *#@#. After a couple of months sitting on the sidelines, I reupped with another organization within INA, under Grant Codiga-- another piece of work. He lived 30 miles away and I picked up products across a highway I was not comfortable driving over. But it was my decision to do it because I thought Grant was a above board guy and he was for about the first 2 months then I saw another side I didn't like at all. In fact, I interaced with him a little too closely and I saw sides of him I wished I didn't see. I was the victim of a number of mental cutdowns and putdowns. He always spoke down to me--- I don't know why-- maybe it was the fact that I was a low-ender and he had this nice house (he was a Ruby direct at the time) I liked him less and less. I think the last straw was when we were drving back from one of the many, money wasting (for me) "seminars" I went to. At least the upline groups were happy I was there being all the money I was "donating" to them. Well, on the way back, Grant began to have car problems.. He had had them on the way up and so he asked me to follow him home (I didn't follow him up). So, I did. Well, he encountered some serious problems with it in Stockton (Ca) and had to stop at a service station. I had a much more stable car (and still have it to this day) and didn't really notice that he was having real problems. (he later grilled me on that issue, almost blaming me for why his car was in a bad waY). Well, we get there and he has a blown head gasket. Oh, great, I think to myself since I have to be to work in a couple of hours. turns out I was late for work by 2 hours to help out my "gracious" upline.. Hell, Grant never thanked me for bailiing him out of that situation. I ended up driving him to Los Gatos (I worked 15 miles away from there) so that someone could pick him up. after that, I knew that I wasn't going to do anything with amway. I was still buying into the tape program and stopped about 10 months before I quit for good in 1994. And I was past 30... so I didn't reach my goal. I was never going to fulfill my dream with this scam, this vehicle I can't believe that I bought into the program for so long I wasted, like 5000 to 7000 per year "working" amway.. Consider the downline that didn't come for their tapes-- I ate them, the fact that I was part of the "tape" program for just about the entire 5+ years I was involved with it. yes, I attended *most* of their rah-rah rallies (which I never got in to to begin with) I thought it was all so hokey. Why were others getting so excited about it anyway. I just disliked the $120 I was spending on one of these things. and there were 4 of them per year. So, I got stupid 4 times a year. I can believe the notion that most of the money the higher level distributor make are from the sales of tapes, books and functions that brainwashed distributors go to It's been about 5 years since I escaped and I still have thought processes that go back to the days when I was being brainwashed by the whole INA system I still have some beliefs of what I heard back then. I can tell when I got out... I started pursuing my favorite hobby of music collecting. and in late 1993, i was recording and buying music again. all N all, amway sucks... I wouldn't get into it again if you paid me to. I lost too much dignity the first tiem and would not want to be played as a fool again. You would never get a positive response from me if MLM was mentioned or Network Marketing were mentioned. There are other ways to make mony... like working for a living. I am doing what I like doing and doing okay financially now. thanks for reading.. hope it helps you not to take the plunge into amway. It just ain't worth it. Save your hard earned money for other things.

The most I ever made in this was $550 in one month Life sucks but you make the best of it as you can. I'm disappointed that I wasn't financially free by 30. HA.

Hello there...

I just wanted to give you a little suggestion....

after reading through the posts on your site, I would suggest you change the name of your site to "AMWAY Survivors Homepage", as that seems to be the company of main focus in the posts...

Believe it or not, there are many very reputable MLM companies with integrable distributors who make their living off the sale of high quality products... not training tools...

to generalize and call your site "MLM Survivors Homepage" is very unfair to the rest of us running legit. Network Marketing businesses...

thanks for listening to my two cents... :)

Hi, I actually just came back from a Britt School Weekend and was very fired up. I visited Britt Worldwides internet site and signed the guestbook. A few days later, I received an e-mail from somebody in the states, somebody I do not know. He did not write anything on the e-mail but J.Probandts' site address. What I read in that site actually answered a lot of questions in the back of my mind and what I would call an eye-opener. The hardest thing is to actually tell my wife. First few times we did not go to the weekly meetings, I actually had to lie and tell her I had to work late. When I told her my decision not to pursue the business anymore, her reaction was " So, this means that I am not GOING HOME anymore !!" I had to explain to her that she never really had a chance of going home anyway, unless she can take it in her heart that a lot of people have to suffer to support the lifestyle that was being promised to distributors. Being of a good heart, she understood. We still have a dream, but now we are looking at conventional business rather than MLM. Keep in touch and God bless!!

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This page updated Nov-22-98