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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. Re: Looking For info on AOL Select Do you have any information about Online Select (formerly AOL Select)? Thanks Re: a letter about amway First off, let me say I am an Amway distributor as well as a long-time investigative business journlist and I disagree with many of the conclusions of the critics of Amway and the optional motivational system. I am not here, however, to refute point-by-point your facts, analysis and conclusions. I would like to simply make a few points of my own. 1. Does Amway offer good prices? In many cases, yes. For example--through Amway's main catalog I routinely purchase Geoffrey Beene-brand dress shirts. They cost me about $30.50 apiece, and that includes all sales taxes and shipping them to my door. (I also get anywhere from 29 cents to $2.49 back per shirt in the monthly bonus check from Amway based on total business volume generated during the month, but I am not even counting that.) The same shirt--identical brand--costs $36 at the department store at the mall where I previously shopped, and that does NOT include sales tax or the gasoline to get me to the store, or the value of the time to go to the store. I buy about 10-15 new dress shirts a year--thus, I will save from 80 to $120 this year on shirts alone. I have seen similar savings on other products bought through Amway's "Personal Shopper" catalog. 2. I purchase Amway's brand of laundry detergent. One 6.6-pound box lasts me a whole year (I put a date on the last box I bought when I opened it--1/27/98--and a year later, there is still a few loads' worth of soap in the box. That box of soap cost me about $20 including tax and shipping. My roommate, who uses Tide, has gone through about six boxes of Tide this year, at about $5 per box, not including tax. We do about the same amount of laundry each week. Once again, I have saved money. 3. The cost of renewing my Amway distributorship is about $40 a year. I save more than that just on the shirts. 4. Yes, I know I could find shirts on sale if I waited long enough, or drove all over town to check the various discount stores and outlet malls, but I don't like to wait to buy something--if I need new shirts, I want them right now. And I don't like spending my Saturdays driving all over town, burning a half a tank of gas, trying to save a few bucks. My time is more valuable than that. 5. When I give people information about Amway, I let them know there are two ways to approach it--from the savings side and from the income side. The first option is to merely sign up to take advantage of good products at good prices--and I tell them if they don't like a product or a price, don't buy it. Plus there is the money-back guarantee--and EVERY order I have ever placed has arrived with a postage-paid return form and address label inside. The second option, I tell people, is to become a business-builder as well as a customer. That, I tell them, costs money beyond the small annual fee to renew, and will iinvolve buying tapes to hand out to people, tapes to listen to to learn the business, meetings to attend, even conventions that will cost several hundred dollars, and if they are not serious about building the business, to wait until they are. As a result, I have some people who are in merely to shop and save and enjoy direct-to-home shipment of their purchases, and they love it. And I have some people who are building the business following the system. I encourage people to find out for themselves if the products, prices and service is good before they become business-builders and start referring Amway to other people. This has the potential of greatly reducing the drop-out rate, I believe, because people will not start spending money to build the business before they have confidence that what they are offering people is a good deal from the savings side. Finally, I have some people who are checking it out--for them, I provide learning/motivational tapes at NO cost to them, as well as supply them AT NO COST with tapes to hand to prospects and I spend my own money to drive or fly to their town, show the plan to their prospects, etc... I even have one distributor who is building the business but due to circumstances in her other career can not afford to attend the conventions. I paid for her last convention. In all, I've invested nearly $2,000 in supplying her Amway business with tools, convention tickets, etc... Why? Because her business is approaching the "Direct" level, at which point I will earn around $1,000 per month or more in bonuses from Amway from that part of my business. As is natural in any business, I am spending money now with the expectation of making a profit later. In closing, what I'm trying to say is, not all Amway distributors harass people or try to suck them in with promises of getting rich with no effort. I show people how they can just use Amway's catalogs to save money and save time and I discourage them from buying tools until they decide they want to build a business. As our "open meetings" are free to non-distributors, while the monthly seminars are less than $20, they can shop and save through Amway and spend almost nothing on the system side of the business while checking it out for themselves. Amway doesn't promise people riches and success, it merely offers an opportunity, one that I decided to pursue and treat as a business. I voluntarily spend money on the tapes and meetings, and I choose which parts of the speeches and tapes to agree with or to disregard. I have no problem with the upline diamonds and emeralds making some money off the tools and the meetings because I know I could not, for example, produce a high-quality audiocassette that explains the business. Yet those tapes, costing about $7, are a low-cost way to advertise the savings-side of the business and the income-side of the business to a prospect very easily. I give the tapes out, get them back, and rarely lose one, so the cost-per-advertising impression is very low. Yet if I lost 300 of the tapes, but gained 150 distributors who signed up merely to shop and didn't spend a dime on the tools system, I would happily do it--100 customers spending an average of just $100 per month thru Amway's catalogs instead of at the mall would generate an income for me of nearly $2,000 per month. At the same time, those customers would be getting good products at good prices. All of those customers would also have the option of referring people to the savings-side, or to the income-side of the Amway opportunity. I wouldn't mind if you posted this letter--however, if you do, do so only if you delete my email address. I do not wish to receive reams of spam mail and junk e-mail. I wrote more than I intended--thanks for reading it all. Good luck in whatever venture you pursue.

I NEED FOR YOU TO RESPOND QUICKLY. PLEASE! DOES AMWAY EXPECT ME TO BUY MONTHLY? DO I HAVE TO BUY MONTHLY? WHEN I JOINED, I JOINED JUST TO BUY THE PRODUCTS THAT I LIKE. I DO NOT WANT TO PRESSURE ANY ONE ELSE TO BUY OR JOIN. BUT THEY ARE PRESSURING ME. MOSTLY-AM I SUPPOSE TO SPEND A CERTIAN AMOUNT EVERY MONTH?????

I would like to say first that I have been glued to your site for hours. Very impressive. I got interested in AMWAY several years ago when I found that several people at my church are in *the business*. I was familiar with much of the information. I saw a statement that said on one web page, "Our Direct told us to live out of our dryer if we have to." I know many women who leave their kids with a baby-sitter every evening and do not have time to clean the house because they are at meetings.

My question is this: All of *them* say that the functions are just so spiritual, that hundreds of thousands of people get saved. That Amway is all Christian based, God truly blesses through *the business*........(Funny, my Bible does not say that Amway is the only way!!!!) These are the same folks who cannot come to church on Wednesday because they are showing the plan, or on Sunday because they are at a function.....go figure! I have seen some of my friends who could not pay their rent because they went to a function.

Anyway, how do they fit all this Christianity into the business and why? How do they put a Christian label on this business. I have never heard Yager mention God??

Hi there,

A friend of mine came upon your site by accident and referred me there. I thought you might be glad to know a positive story. So I'm sharing the good news that a single parent who had no way to spend time with her two children--happened upon the Amway business 11 years ago. My brother in law, a pharmaceutical rep, introduced me to a PhD from MIT--a professor of engineering who taught at a local college--and a surgeon, an MD who was one of his good friends. Both of them were Amway distributors.

The college professor is now a Diamond. The single parent is, of course, myself. I was a business broker. I had looked at many businesses from the inside out. If every one of them had people like you to expose them, they could each have a whole website of their own with horror stories on them. I saw people lose thousands and thousands of dollars trying to keep traditional businesses alive...only to lose them if the city simply tore up the road for a year...or a competitor with more capital moved in right down the street.

It was a sad state of affairs. If you've ever owned your own traditional business, you know what I'm talking about. It makes the investments people make in their Amway businesses look like toothpicks compared to a giant Sequoia! (Is that how you spell it??)

Anyway, after two years of watching and listening and asking questions--many tapes and numerous functions digested and pondered--I decided to take the plunge and actually do the business. Fourteen months later I never had to have a job again. I was free to raise my children and live the life my heart told me was right for me. I never had a boss again. Today I live my dreams--from the inside out.

I am so grateful that Amway came into my life. I have dear friends I never would have known. There are many, many people I could call at any time--day or night--and they would come to my aid without an explanation, no matter where I called from. That's not a common phenomenon in today's world.

I know it's out of synch with your negative campaign--but I thought a happy word or two might encourage you...that is unless you've reprogrammed your heart to where it thrives on the negative instead. I hope that is not the case.

You must be very careful with what you're doing here, I think. Unless you have something to offer that will truly help people to get free--you might be harming them by throwing mud at what actually can. I am living proof that a single parent--not particularly conservative in my theology or politics--and very much concerned with honesty and integrity---can be successful and find freedom through the free enterprise structure this company has created.

As a former business broker, I can tell you this for sure: If you compare it with any other traditional business--costwise, timewise, overhead, captial investment, employees, liabilities, financial risk--the Amway business wins, hands down. I don't care how much people spend on tapes or functions, it doesn't hold a candle to the cost of even one failure in a traditional Mom and Pop operation. Believe me, I've seen it.

And if you encourage people to stay in the employee circle, as if it's more secure than business ownership--that's an even worse disaster. Especially right now--as corporations lay off their most experienced (and expensive) employees after years of loyalty.

All I'm saying is this--please be careful not to hurt people with your attack methodologies. I'm sure your intention is to help them. But scaring them away from an opportunity that could save their financial lives (like it did mine) may not be the best way to help them.

We are all in this together. And we need to link our hearts together to help pull each other out of the ruts--and into the greener pastures that are available to usl. It takes courage and persistence and relentless faith to win at the Amway endeavor. But that is true in anything that has great rewards.

I just hope you'll think carefully about the purpose and the result of what you're spending your time and energies doing here.

May your mission be as our is--to give people a hand up--and not a slap in the face for trying. And when they fail--to lift them up--and love them--and encourage them to try again, until they win.

God bless you.

Cheap shot dude! You know they are in no way connected and the inference is a disgusting display of what some folk will do and say to discredit something they tried and couldn't do. Must be taking lesson from the Clinton folk.

No I'm not a member of either group. Just don't like unfair and irresponsible journalism.

[My site never suggests that Amway and Scientology are connected. Just that they have adopted each other's tactics in dealing with their critics. A few months ago, Scientology for the first time allowed its members to establish personal home pages on the internet. These home pages have to adhere to strict "guidelines," which are EXACTLY the guidelines that Amway insisted on for personal distributor home pages when they first allowed them. And Amway's recent spate of subpoenas (see Headlines) sure looks a lot like Scientology's "Fair Game" tactics to me!]

AMWAY WAS THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME.

ALTHOUGH I'M NOT IN AMWAY ANYMORE, THE BOOKS AND SELF HELP WERE GREAT. I LEARNED MORE OF WHAT I WONTED OUT OF LIFE AND AM DETERMINED TO GIVE SOMETHING OF MYSELF BACK TO MY FELLOW MAN. SAY WHAT YOU WILL... GRIPE IF YOU MUST AND FEEL SORRY FOR YOUR "SO CALLED" WASTED MONEY; BUT FOR ME........I"M GREATFUL TO THE GUY WHO SAW IN ME SOMETHING BESIDES $$$$$DOLLARS$$$$ HE IS A GOOOD FRIEND AND WILL ALWAYS BE.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SPACE AND TIME...........

I can't think of a better way for the Diamonds to make money than by doing that. The soap and toothpaste doesn't do that--but the tapes do. The functions do. So I guess it's only fair that what gives the most blessing to people also returns the most reward to the givers.

I don't see why that's not good. I never have understood why that's some sort of irritation to anybody. It certainly isn't a problem for me--and never has been. My diamond told me right up front how much money the bigger diamonds make from tool flow--I thought it was great. I've never felt like it needed to be a secret.

I only asked you your line of sponsorship because you asked me. I thought it must be relevant since you thought it was. But I guess it isn't. All I know is how grateful I am to be naieve enough to have believed in the leaders and followed them this far. If I had followed your advice I wouldn't have the life I do today--or the friends--or the dreams--or kids of the caliber and character I do. And I wouldn't be able to offer that to anybody else, either.

But because I was naieve and trusting--I have all that today.

Back to Patch Adams. I went walking with my Mom today. I had taken her to see "Patch." She loved it so much she told everyone she knew to go see it. It lifted her up. It inspired her. It inspired everybody. But my sister didn't go see it. My mom said, "Why didn't you go? It is such a wonderful movie." My sister said, "Because I saw the real Patch Adams on 20-20. He's just a con artist. He doesn't really have a clinic at all." My mom was crestfallen. "I wish I had never told anyone to see it," she told me. "I am so disappointed. It was such a good movie. And it said it was a true story! How can they have made a movie like that without even checking if it was a true story? "

I picked up the gauntlet. "Mom, I don't know the real Patch Adams. I didn't see 20/20 and I have no idea what they said about him. But one thing is true--that movie was a great movie. The Patch Adams in the movie is the Patch Adams that inspired me. I don't know what the real one is like. But I know I left the theater bigger and better, stronger and more committed to loving people than I was when I came in. And there's no 20/20 expose that can take that away from me--unless I let it go. "

She listened, but it didn't help her. She's not as strong inside as I am. She just sighed and shook her head. "I just wish I wouldn't have told anybody to see it," she said. "I'm afraid they'll think less of me if they saw that 20/20."

I shook my head. My sister and I look at life differently. Obviously, you and I do too. But I wouldn't trade places with anybody. I love my life. And I know it will always be good because it isn't good by accident. From all the system tapes, and from the Bible, and from my relationship with God himself--I've learned that the quality of my life depends on how I think. So I use Philippians 4:4-8 as my viewfinder and as I look at the world through that--life is good. I realize that if you look at it through another viewfinder--it's a different story.

The Bible says to share all good things with those who have taught you. The Diamonds have been some of my most valuable teachers. I wish for them all good things--and am happy to share the revenues from the teaching tools they give to us--with them. I just hope I can bless people as much as they do--and I trust that whatever is right and just will come my way. It always does.

Thanks for the site.....

My husband has been involved with the big A for a little over three years. He hasn't even made it to 1000 and our bnk account is looking really sad. He is now hitting our retirement money! I am at the end of my patience. How many marriages fail because of MLM? Having these sites to refer to is all that is saving my sanity! Thanks.

I think your site is great, and intend to use it as a reference tool to those I know personally who are thinking of joining ANY MLMs.....specifically one in particular that i had the unfortunate experience to have to sit through a preliminary meeting of theirs (friends and there inability to tell you why they are inviting you over) and am also thinking of starting an anti-mlm group. Was wondering if you'd like to mentor the group in asnwering any questions we may have or something along the lines.

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This page updated Mar-15-99