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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. Hello I am from Romania and I was work in MLM, in a new one! Lost all money, all friends and allmost my family.They was wery unfairs and I call them in trial.Unfortunately the trial progress is too slow (1,5 years).I need encouragement to not give up.It is wery hard to me to formulate in english but I will write all my story anyhow in the future E-mails, if you are interested. Bye for now ! Re: Amway online www.countdown9199.com Hi guys, Thanks for the warning. I just signed up with Amway because its going online as of 9/1/99. Do you think this is a scam too? The customers just have to punch into the Amway home page and order off of my number. Article about this was in the USA Today paper dated 5/11/99 on the front page of the business section. I' m tired of all those late meetings at my house my sponsor wants me to have. Regards,

I have a bit of a problem and I was wondering if you could please inform me on what I am dealing with. I am not ignorant, I am not a stupid person in any way. Today I believe I was conned- (or so they thought) into a company or MLM called Equinox, a company which if they are truthful, claims to be growing in size in the Houston area. I was chased down by a lady today while job hunting who told me to go to a certain office building and sit through an "interview". She would not tell me what the job entailed but only to sit and wait, that it would be a "surprise". What I got was a wonderful salesman who bought a bunch of suckers into signing up with him. He showed us videos of sports cars as if waving candy in front of children as motivation. I asked several times, what is this company, please explain the company. They finish up by saying: "there will be three different people in here today, those that decide this is not for them, because they don't fully understand it, those who aren't sure and have some questions, and those who are all set and ready to make money!!"..I'm not that stupid, so I research..and I find some interesting things about this company. Could you please fill me in on what I don't know, so that I do not fall into a trap, nor miss a job opportunity at the same time. Thank you.

My fiancee and I were in Equinox for about 6 months makeing it to Supervisors then we realized it's all about lying to other people and makeing people make orders they can't afford on creditcards. This is not right but now we have over 2 thousand dollars of products sitting at home that we can't seem to sell and can't afford to keep and spend more than we ever made going to training seminars. I can't believe I actually followed Bill Gould.

Ever heard of these guys? been doing a little research on mlm-pyramid schemes, does this qualify? since a product is sold, is it illegal?

I would hope that in the future, if you're going to print negative junk about companies that you don't have all the facts about that you would at least have some positive things about these companies. Amway in particular is a very reputable company.The integrity of the Devos and VanAndel families has a proven track record. It shows they are very giving and take care of their distributors.I hope that you would have an open mind when it comes to printing this stuff on the internet.Thank you for your time and may God bless you in all your endeavors.

It is disheartening to read your negative opinion of what you think Amway is or what Quixtar is and be influencing so many people who could be like us that will miss out on the opportunity to succeed with Amway. Why don't you print positive information or at least non-opinionated? If we had seen this sight 6 years ago, we wouln'd of gotten in and we would have missed out on lots of money, great products and life changing friends. Why would you want anyone to be prevented from doing that? How can you sleep at night knowing that you are intentionally depriving your fellow man the opportunity to enhance their life and pocketbooks by printing this negative site? If Amway only helps 1% like you say, which is way off, what's wrong with that, that's better than no percentage. What percentage of the population are you helping?

I noticed on the mlm webring list you mention Excel in your description of the site. When I browse through the articles I am not finding anything about Excel. I have been approached about being a rep for Excel and am interested in finding out more about it. Obviously they have told me the "good" and that I have researched. Many, many things bother me about the idea and I would like to find some more facts about this end of the business. Any sites to point me to would be appreciated.

Thank you,

I find a lot of people talking about this concept here in India. Housewives, etc talking about how to make make fast money. I'm curious, what is MLM? Can I benefit?

Do explain the concept in laymans terms to me.

Thanks and regards,

Dear Sirs,

I have read your articles and other testimonies. I am not quite upset nor bothered by it. I do believe that people can succeed in this wonderful country. You see I was born in a poverty stricken country called the Philippines. I have seen starvation, murder, rape, and unforgetable things. I first came in this wonderful land knowing that I can make it. What I did not understand is why the people that are born here do not see the opportunity this country has. For some people Amway was a bad experience, for that I am sorry. What I saw in this business was hope and a chance to make a few dollars. You see I am not a lazy person. I want to work and work I got. Through the years I started asking is this it. Home to Work, Home to Work. This was not the freedom I read. Maybe I am asking too much. I hope for those who did not and are not going to build an amway business, to look at their purpose in this world. Why do you get up in the morning. Is it to give thanks that you are alive? Is it to teach someone to read? Is it to spend quality time with someone you love? I hope that you excercise the spirit of entrepreneurship. By the way Watching TV and asking for a cold one is not quality time. Maybe for you it is but not to a child. Keep dreaming folks if Amway is not the way, find another vehicle that will take you there. Remember sometimes we have to think outside the box.......

God Bless and Goodnight.......

Well first of all, I don't have a negative experience with Amway. With the tools (tapes, books etc.). I have worked for many organizations where it is necessary to have (purchase, acquire) motivational aids. Some of these organizations were Fortune 500 companies. Amway is most certainly not unique in this regard. As for persons in the upline making money from this which is why they encourage distributors to buy them. Well in all of the messages I read, in not one was there any proof (factual, quote from Amway representative) that this is the case. The people that I have met so far are all well educated (engineers, accountants, nurses, doctors, geologists, computer professionals, business managers, etc.) and were very successful (making very good incomes) in their chosen careers before they became involved in Amway. Most people seem to choose Amway because it is an avenue to personal and financial freedom and many have attained those goals. There is no business venture in life that will guarantee absolutely that you will achieve your goals. That fact depends largely on your attitude (problem with most of the people responding in this list who have negative attitudes) and the amount of work you are prepared to do to attain those goals. My gut feeling is that alot of people expected a get rich quick scheme and I am sorry to report, they just don't exist. Finally, I would like to say that I have encountered alot of very supportive people to help me get my business going. There has been absolutely no pressure and no expectations put upon me. I work in the computer field so am reasonably good at math. I can calculate what it will take me to succeed and attain my goals in this organization. The tools coming up in the future (Quixtar) will make that job much easier.

In closing, I am not an employee of Amway. I am just a distributor. I have my own business and Amway currently supplements my business income. Some day soon I hope to have it as the only source of business income.

[Actually, the only scholarly study of the way "positive thinking" influences success was done at Harvard University over a period of 20 years. It showed absolutely NO correlation between the two. . . ]

As far as I can tell, the only thing labled Amgard is the security system battery replacement

Stock No. E-9662

Sug. Retail $31.50 Dist. Cost. 27.64

There is a service that they offer though First Alert

I got the information from the distibutor wholesale pricelist

When I went to my fist couple of open meetings I only heard one or two things about Amway. And when I went to a seminar rally Amway was only mentioned once and that was by the diamond that was invited to speak. If these people made so much money through this buissness, (which they like to remind us of) then why aren't proud of the company that got them there.

Also the motivational tapes all seem to say the same thing.
I was poor
I joined Amway
I Got filthy rich
Now I'm rubbing it in your nose even though money doesn't matter,

I'll still tell you about my jet/yaght/huge masion/island/contenent/or whatever.

I wanted to signed up to get into quixtar. Only when I went to my sponsers house to sign the papers is when they told me I had to become an Amway distibutor first.

I was going to wait till Septembe 1st and see what the prices were like before I decided to get out or not. But now I don't Know. For some reason my upline told me not to go to pages like this one.

Have you had any thing in the past or comming up about them. I was one who did sign up and walked out on them. My neighbor asked me to go to a Quixtar meeting with him next tuesday. Can you send info on both companys. I can tell of some thing that would blow things up for enviro-tec. But first I have to check if what I want say is still going on, and if so I will send info soon. Is there a report of the distibituers in amway as to what there income is today and will there income be a wash with quixxtar. Is what I'm hearing true or false. Is the Goverment checking on this new company comming, and if so what parts of goverment will be checking on this operation. State and federal. Also is there any other scams about other mlm co. out there we should know about. I see many on tv that sure make you think twice. What is about Fran Tarkenton & Brad Richdale could also send info on him. Thank you

I have witnessed first hand just how low an Amway distributor will go. My sister in law, who has been in Amway for four years, never making a dime, has proven to her entire family that she will put her "business" first no matter what.

I had what was supposed to be an outpatient surgery go bad and ended up in the hospital for awhile, and on the same day I was admitted, my father in law, (her father) also ended up in the hospital very ill with the flu. This Ambot, went ahead, while my father in law and I were both being given life saving measures, and went to an AMWAY FUNCTION IN PORTLAND! Not only not seeing either of us for what could have easily been for the last time, but leaving her three children with her mother to babysit while she was trying to take care of her sick husband . I am still in shock that she could go so low and have so little consideration for her own parents. I wish someone could invent a medication to cure people of the Amway bug!

I see ya, I hear ya, and my conclusion is that you are a bunch of wacko nutheads. Havn't you got more important things to do with your time?????

I noticed that you mention Melaleuca in the beginning of your web page but I don't notice any other mention of this company anywhere else on the pages. I am doing research on this company and would appreciate any input you may have regarding Melaleuca, Inc. or it's customer base.

Thanks in advance,

Hi,

I just wanted to send an email of appreciation! Thank you so much for this site, I was offered to join Amway recently and I was seriously considering joining. I tried to do some background research on them but I didn't come up with much against them, however the bussiness still seemed very sketchy to me, but the problem that I was having was finding others who gave me good reason not to join them. This site helps. I should also say that I'm not on good terms with my family (we hardly ever talk) and I don't have a lot of friends, essentially I'm a loner (but not a loser!). Amway appeals a lot to individuals who're in my circumstances, and we need web sites like yours to counteract cultish megamillion dollar organizations like Amway's! From now on if anyone ever asks me about Amway now I can tell them to check out this web site before you decide to join, instead of "Oh yeah Amway sucks. Don't join it!" That way they'll be armed with a lot of good information which will hopefully give them good REASONS not to join.

Thanks Again!

By the way I wanted to mention that you guys should consider adding the following book to your "Book Corner" list, "Amway the Cult of Free Enterprise" by Stephen Butterfield. I haven't read the book yet but it seems like a very good book to me.

[It is!]

I live in Fresno and the group I'm associated with says that all I need is $100 and I'm in. What I'm to I'm not sure. They're contradicting to your website, so I'm glad I haven't forked over the dough yet. Every week something new or deferent is said. I feel that INA and it's IBO's have went running with bad information and are currently representing INA and Quixtar in a poor fashion. Are there any groups other than INA in Central California that will be representing Quixtar? We didn't appreciate the genre of training books, the quality of training tapes or the manner on how this media is handled or billed. Would it be feasible to set up a group of our own similar to INA, but with Quixtar only and not Amway?

I was contacted today by a representative of Amway following up on a report I submitted to the Better Business Bureau. Her main point in addressing my grievance was "The disclaimer has been modified so that all references to Bill Gates and Donald Trump have been modified so as not to establish a false relationship between Quixtar and those businesses belonging to the aforementioned". I thought this was cute and would like to share it with you.

By the way, this is the best site I have seen to date regarding the practices of Quixtar and Co. I would like to donate my time and knowledge to you in the hopes of getting this page to the top of the search engines. If you would like I will submit this URL to all 2000+ search engines on the web and will continue to do it until everyone knows.

Just in case you are wondering what they ever did to me to disserve such treatment. It took me about three weeks to beat their ideas of instant wealth out of 3 of my friends and my MOM.

Please contact me on this, I am excited about killing them before they get a foothold.

Thanks for standing up and telling it like it is,

Dear XAmway people,

a.. I am writting you this letter in deperation for my sister. Amway has ruined their life. Her huand got into Amway about a year and 6 months ago, its been nothing but hell ever since. He is never home and they have a brand new baby Amway lies and they mislead people. But my brother-in- law is brain washed and I am not kidding!! If any of you can give any advise or can show us in the right direction we would be very greatful. The products he buys behind my sisters back are outrageous in prise he buys granola bars for $12.00 for 8 of them!! But he says its the vitamins in them that make them so great!! I could go on about the $400.00 - 600.00 he spends in crap on top of the stupid AMVOX and tapes next it will be the internet scam that is coming next month from Amway!! Is their a TV show we could all call or somthing?? Please HELP!!!

I was first exposed to Amway in the mid 70s when I was in college. A friend was an Amway distributor. I had known him for several months before he mentioned Amway. He did not 'Show The Plan'. Rather, he talked about the quality of the products and the economy of concentration. He emphasized that the best way to sell to others was to use the products yourself. (Your dorm-mates are going to notice that you've been using the same tube of shampoo for three months.) I did not sign up as a distributor, but I did start using some Amway products. I do believe that Amway soap, personal care products, and cleaning products are quality products.

In the early 90s, I had occasion to call an aquaintance. After we concluded the purpose of my call, he said, "I'm involved with a business...we're having a meeting next week...I think you will be interested". Well, you know the drill. It was an open meeting and, according to the script, the word 'Amway' was not used until about an hour into the presentation. I felt a bit betrayed and used. But, in courtesy to my host/sponsor, I remained until the end of the presentation. Again, out of politeness (I can't think of another reason) I accepted his invitation to attend another meeting with one of the leaders of the company. That meeting turned out to be a rally where Paul Miller (an Amway bigshot) spent about an hour telling a ballroom full of frenzied Amwayities that they were only 6 people away from a six figure income and the southeast region is "going to bust more diamonds....". The rest of it was drowned out by the cheering crowd. As he was supposed to, my host/sponsor followed up to see if I was interested in this great opportunity. I politely declined. (I probably said something like, "I presently have too many other commitments to adequately devote enough time to a new project"). He graciously accepted my refusal and he did not pester me again. (I have never been approached by anyone else about Amway, even by people whom I knew were Amway distributors).

Well, a few weeks ago, my host/sponsor called me and invited me to lunch. He is still into Amway. This time he told me about Quixtar and this time I fell for it. He was upfront about the Amway connection and I still signed up. I paid $100 for the kit and I'm now a registered Amway distributor. However, I am doing this only for the purpose of converting over to a Quixtar distributor. So, why am I doing this? The internet is not another PacMan. This thing is not going away. A recent Time Magazine (4/19/99) article projects that e-commerce is going from $7.8 billion in 1998 to $108 billion in 2003. That's why I'm doing this. I am not subscribing to AmVox, I am not buying any motivational tapes, and I am not going to any functions. I will get customers into the the Quixtar mall. Will I get rich? I hope so. Will I make a single dollar? Maybe not. But I'm looking straight at an industry that will go to $108 billion in the next five years. This may be the only chance I will have to be on the leading edge of the next wave. And for $100 and a reasonable amount of my time, I'm taking this chance. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I am a new (less than 6 months) Amway distributor and I am trying to learn as much about the business as possible. I am part of the Britt-Gala team in the Washington, D.C. area, so my experiences so far may be influenced by the way our particular group does things. Anyway, I just thought I should mention a few things to help put the Amway business opportunity in perspective.

First of all, certainly many people have failed in this business and maybe I will too; that's no excuse for not trying it. In fact, the likely losses in this business are probably modest compared with those from many other businesses. Years ago, my parents purchased a retail shoe business that failed after about 7 years. Do you want to know how much money they lost? It depends on how you do the accounting, but my dad came up with a loss figure of about $102,000 (!). That was a lot of money in the early 1980s! Basically, they ran the business poorly due to lack of know-how about the business: too much rapid expansion, overpurchasing of inventory, poor marketing focus, poor financial management, etc. There's a lot to know just to run a few shoe stores! Furthermore, my parents had to invest tens of thousands of dollars just to get started.

With this business on the other hand, the startup cost is minimal; I paid only $230 (the kit plus some basic tapes) and the new Quixtar opportunity is only about $100 (refundable within the first 3 months). This is very attractive for people like me who don't have thousands of dollars to invest. As well, the business expenses are small; my total expenses to date are less than $1000. That includes two functions, tapes, books, meetings, etc. I have never purchased more products than I need personally. No employees, no inventory, no office space, no retail space, no warehouse house, none of that! As well, the know-how required for this business in fairly straightforward and my uplines have been more than happy to help; that's what they're there for! Yes, there is a lot of hard work involved to build this business and the money doesn't exactly come overnight; it takes years. This is not get rich quick folks. Many people who have been successful in business lost money for a long time before they became profitable. I've heard of businesses that typically aren't even profitable until their third or fourth year!

Another thing: many of these anti-Amway sites dwell on the issue of motivational tools. Let me state this as clearly and as emphatically as possible: The tools are OPTIONAL. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY THEM IF YOU DON'T WANT THEM! If you think your upline is pressuring you, just say NO. I have NEVER been forced to do anything against my will in this business. If I buy tapes, books, function tickets, etc., it is because I want to. Am I taking a risk by spending money I may never recover? Yes, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Just remember why you are purchasing the materials: They contain useful information for building and maintaining your business. Some materials will be more helpful than others; try to be accordingly selective. Also, don't forget that there is some expense involved in producing all those tapes in the first place; they can't exactly give them away for free!

Finally, I thought I should say something about the association. We support each other in building our respective businesses. We all follow the same business model, much like those in a franchise business do. We learn from each other's failures and successes so that we don't have to go it alone. As well, we are all friends with each other instead of just being business partners; with other businesses, we would all be competing with one another. The association is probably the best part of the business.

Maybe I'm new at this business, but I still thought I should put in my two cents.

This email will probably not get posted because of its nature. It's about a positive experience in the business. I read some of the emails sent to your site and two in particular cought my eye. One was about the purcgasing and refund policy on tools. The return policy for unopened/unused tools is 6 months from date of purchase you are entitled to a full refund. This is clearly explained in the Business Support Materials Agreement that "ALL" distributors should/must receive read and sign when they open their Business Opportunity Kit. The BSMA also explains that tool purchases are never mandatory. Sure, your upline might highly recommend it, but it's up to you. I don't know how people expect to be successful in any business without investing a little into it. You can't run a McDonald's without attending Hamburger University. You can't run a Dairy Quees franchise without attending a similar school and purchasing videos on how to make sunday's, run a drive-thru etc...! I know because I've done some research on it. These videos cost $150.00 a pop.

The second email was from a guy who said he dropped out of college and voted replublican because his upline diamond was good friends with one. If that isn't the biggest crock of $#@&!! I've ever heard. That right there tells me he is weak minded individual to be influenced to do something like that! Especially if he was as dead set against it as he claims. Give me a break. I really and truly beleive that alot of the people responding to your site are total loosers and need someone or something to blame for their failure in the business. People can only do to you what you let them do to you!

My wife and I have been in the business for a little over two years. We're not rich by any means. We're not Direct Distributors or anything like that either. Just distributors. We plug into the system as much as we can and can afford. Our upline recommends we attend "ALL" functions, be on Standing Order & Amvox, Show the Plan etc....for the most part we do. If we can't afford to go to a particular function we don't go, no matter how many long faces we encounter. The bottom line is this is your business. You can run your business however you want to.

In the end if it doesn't work out don't point fingers and place the blame on someone else. Look in the mirror, did YOU do everything that people who have made it in the business did for their success? The books, tapes, association, functions, Amvox, Showing the Plan 5-6 nights a week an so on? If not, you have no one to blame for you failure but Y O U!!!!!!!

You seem to be very strongly against Amway and now Quixtar. You make a couple of statements that are very inaccurate, in my opinion. One is you suggest that the top people in Amway make lots of money selling audiotapes. Since I buy the tapes at $6.00 a piece, that means those top people MUST sell millions of tapes to make the kind of money you suggest they make. In point of truth, selling tapes is NOT a money making effort. Your suggestion reveals you do not understand or have adequate knowledge of what Amway does and can do.

Secondly, you boldly state that Amway is a manufacturing company. As if that is all Amway is. You fail to mention that Amway is actually a manufacturing company that makes some 400 products but is also a distributing company that distributes over 6,000 products manufactured by many companies, such as Goodyear, Seiko, Adidas, Florsheim, Van Heusin, Awa, JVC, Sony, Phillips, Whirlpool, Panasonic, Oreck, Lipton, Kellogg's, A1 Steak Sauce, Jimmy Dean, Campbell's, Uncle Ben's, Pepperidge Farm, Nabisco, and Famous Amos, to name some of the companies. You also appear to not understand that the Wal-Mart company is so successful because it has excelled in distribution. I think Amway is seeking to become a leading distributor of the best products available.

Finally, Quixtar is an Internet-based company that will offer benefits to people who choose to benefit from such a company. If you choose to have nothing to do with it, why do you try to harm people who do want to benefit? Do I go to your workplace and tell everyone how evil you are because you tell falsehoods that I know to be false? I believe you should leave people alone who have a right to do with their lives what they choose--just as you have. It is a shame you waste your life on being so destructive.

With sincere best wishes,

It just reaffirms the old adage "If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I am definitely glad that there are sites like this one out on the web. I saw the plan about 12 years ago as a teen, about 5 years ago as a home owner, and about 2 months ago as a 2 married professionals. I was given a CD about Quixtar (which virtually says nothing) and then being my curious self, had to bite. I am in the computer field and know where e-commerce is heading, thus my interest. I was signed up with Amway a few days after I saw the plan on the last time on the basis that "this thing is going to explode so fast that you'll want to get in at the bottom floor now." I spent about $250 for the kit, and have been to two "functions" since then. My first and second impression of the functions was "Wow, what a bunch of nut cases" but by the end of the second function, already my thinking was starting to change to "Wow, is this ever positive, and the recognition is incredible." Upon coming home from that second function I started to wonder what all of that freedom would cost. I looked through the catalog again and started doing some cost comparisons in my head. I can't find any screaming deals in that catalog, and I guarantee you that I will NOT be equipping my home with over-priced stuff just so that the people that I sign up can see that I'm a believer. If I can find something that is a good deal and I know what it is, I will consider buying it. I have read the Probandt site and bless his heart. The thing is that the plan sounds sooo good that you would be a fool not to go all the way with it. But, since I have joined, I have generated almost no PV for my upline because I have dug in my heals ( I don't respond to pressure tactics all that well and neither does my wife ) because of the pressure to purchase all of the expensive stuff ( namely an air purification system) so I could show it off to people and say how good it is at a Product Education Clinic PEC next week. That would mean that I would get the stuff next Thursday, and be an authority on its benefits by Friday. It would also generate some good PV for my upline who is trying to get his 7500. I am an ethical person, and in light of all that has happened in a short time, can't see myself promoting something that is not totally up front and honest. The person that sponsored me is a professional person as well, and he assures me that be is building his business like crazy. The one time I asked him who else he has sponsored so that I don't waste my time contacting people that have already been signed or said NO, he told me that we don't question about our upline's affairs. BS. If they are making all of this money then show me the books. I have also noticed that my sponsor and his wife spend no time with their children, or at home for that matter. I am going to cool my heels and will not sign anyone until I SEE Quixtar for myself and can determine if the pricing structure is competitive with the real world and not just trying to get more money from the "believers". After all, thats what shopping is all about, finding the best value for your dollars. If it wasn't "shopping" it would just be called "buying". If it is legit, upfront, and honest, I will make some business cards and just pass them out to people. I won't spend all of my free time chasing and nagging prospects. If it is such a good thing, then why not shop there once in a while for a good bargain, direct people there that may also shop for a good bargain, and not let the greed factor take over of all of this money that you can make. If I don't like what I see, I will actively dissuade people from having anything to do with it Quixtar. I am already compiling the info on the web and passing it out to the AMO brainwashed and as far as the Amway plan goes, I have already made up my mind that it is very deceptive to say the least and will not try to sign anyone up in Amway. ( I just about signed up my brother. Whew ) I will not attend any more functions and listen to how much the Emerald loves you and wants to see you up on that stage because there is no reason that all of us can't be up there you know.

Aint it great?

My experience I have found is also the experience of literally hundreds of other, and maybe more. I wanted to see if you had anything within your data base on this subject?

Thanks,

Thank you for a job well done, I had a whole long message typed out for you, then I realized you are doing me a great service. Thank you. I am so proud of you, I appreciate all the help have given me. Keep up the good work, you must be rich because you have a lot of time. We distributors who love this business are looking for the sort of tough people who have a dream believe in America and love God. You are weeding out the bad ones, thanks. Keep saving us time and money.

Dear Sir

I have recently been approached to join up with Omegatrend in Australia, could you please give me any advice/information that you have on this MLM thank you.

Part I

Interesting slant on this. Inaccurate but interesting. I am glad you sit is here so that I am well aware of the misleading information being passed through the net by "Amway critics". I would share that the "family friendly net" is family friendly because there is a large portion of the population in Amway who have young children combined with a strong belief in God. I was literally amazed to see how far you could twist that ONE comment! In a sense, like most whiny Democrats whom I have had the great displeasure of meeting, you are guilty of that which you accuse your enemy of!

You are disseminating misinformation. You are exaggerating facts and twisting to meet your end goal. It is a shame.

I am well aware of the fact that Amway Diamonds make a huge amount of money off the system. I am not blind. However, there are many books in the motivational isles of book stores. Makers of motivational tapes charge monster prices for their motivational products. This is not a crime. The distributors are in business. Technically, the lowest level distributor could add a surcharge to their tape and tool distribution aspect of their business.

As you said, Quixtar will not get the same tape and tool response. I agree. There are factors that you are not considering. 1) How difficult is it to pass on a business card to a family member or friend which contains your IBO number along with the web site address? In fact, due to the presence of other stores at the mall, you are more likely to get "incidental" sales of Amway products. There will, in fact, be far more traffic than you are implying. There will be sales and there will be sales volumes which exceed IBOs personal purchases. I suggest you save that accusation for results obtained after 9-1-99. 2) The tapes were used to motivate distributors to stay in and to give them the confidence to share the business with others. From current success rates, they will not be needed as much as they were before.

Why are you so bitter? I think that it shows a huge lack of maturity to fail at a business opportunity and then dedicate so much energy being vindictive. Lets say you spent $100K in one year on tapes and tools and did not sponsor anyone and quit. You would say that you would do this to stop them from duping anyone else. I would think that you were irresponsible to spend that large amount of money without the requisite return! There are no guarantees in life. Just because you own a franchise, it does not guarantee your success. I have a personal friend who bought a franchise. It went belly up. He will pay off the HUGE amount of investment capital he had to have this year.....5 years after the store closed! Do you see him out on the net whining? No! He recognized that there was a risk and was willing to take it.

I will pray for the healing of your heart. A grudge only hurts the one who holds it; not the one whom it is held against. Best Wishes in you future endeavors!!

:-)

Part II

You didn't answer my questions. Why are you so bitter and What do you gain from this?

I am not purely convinced that any "proof" provided to you would be good enough for you to accept that it is true. When a person's mind is that dead set against it, words will always be introduced to change the meaning during the simple reading/thought process. It is like those who are atheistic, they will always misquote the scriptures to "substantiate <their> claim".

I did not see "facts" on your page. What I saw was simply accusations and innuedo. As the example, I use your own words:

I didn't twist a thing. If you knew this company and these wonderful > God-fearing leaders as well as I do ** How well DO you KNOW them? Have you spent time with them personally? Have you been involved with them at an "intimate level" to KNOW their motives? I think not.**, you would be equally suspicious of > their motives. It remains to be seen whether, after you pay your money > and sign up with Quixtar.net as your ISP, you will be able to access > sites like mine or whether they will suddenly disappear. ** This is EXACTLY my point. You have NO PROOF that this will be done, yet you have the chutzpah to spread malicious accusations without facts to substantiate your claim! You BELIEVE that they WILL BE FORCED ..... ** My statement is > "I have believed for several years that Amway would be forced to > establish its own ISP for two reasons: to establish another source of > "residual" income, and to -- surreptitiously or openly -- block sites > like this one from distributors' browsers. It will be interesting to see > which "bad guy" sites Big Brother Amway ** So what is so Big Brother about the Amway business? Did they come into your home and control you? Did you not Quit? Did they not allow you to leave when you desired to do so? ** sees fit to block." I will be > very interested to see it, and so should you if you value the First > Amendment. ** Personally, I feel that 'First Amendment freedom' is highly abused. Just because a person has a right to do something, that does not mean that they HAVE to or that it good for society. I do not advocate blocking their first amendment rights.... as it is said, "Better to remain silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt!" I allow them to appear either intelligent for the reaserch they have done or the fool for the reseach that they refused to do. ***

One serious point that I would like to make here is the issues that you are in contention with have nothing to do with the Amway Corporation. Your bone is with your upline, not Amway. Amway has always taken the position that you should not purchase tools or participate in the system to the point that it exceeds your fiscal responsibility. If you spent too much, that, ultimately, was your decision. You cannot move forward in life until you stop blaming your problems on others and begin taking responsibility for your own decisions.

In the current "kit", it is made abundantly clear that those in your upline are profiting from the books and tapes. Noone will get into purchasing these without foreknowledge of this. I have actually discussed this with my own upline and there is not one in our group that is not aware of the fact that part of the profitability is from the system.

[And you have site owners like me to thank for those disclosures. The profits from tools used to be a deep, dark secret. So secret that upline distributors would lie and mislead when their downline asked questions about it. Now, thanks to people like me, it is out in the open and you can benefit from that knowledge.]

So who "desperately needs" your "information"? I am very awake! I am well aware of where the money is being made and when I participate in the system, it will be of my own free choice and within my budget as it is currently set!

I felt that you had made other more "specific" statements that I could have discussed their legitimacy with your, or lack thereof, but I found that your page is no longer there. Why not?

Amway was not for you. That is fine. Bearing a grudge only hurts the holder of the grudge. Amway and a separate company known as Quixtar will go on and be successful much to your chagrin. I believe that it is time you packed up your trouble in your own kit bag and smile as you move on in your life.

Best of Luck.

Hi, I hope this will remain anonimous. I am afraid of some of the nutty people out there; especially the ones in the "scam" I am getting out of. So here goes:

I cannot believe nobody yet has posted about Market America, the lastest scam going. If somebody from this organization approaches you, don't walk away; RUN! They are really scary. They lie, lie, lie beyond comprehension about everything under the sun, from the $$$$ people are making (not making) to the "high quality and discount pricing" of the products. Funny, many of these exact products are marketed under different names and can be found at your neighborhood store at 1/4 the cost. You should see the rediculous rallys they hold. There's always some idiot up on the stage with tears in his eyes saying how the company has changed his life (translation: he is probably the only one making money out of hundreds of people in his group). They are a very slick and don't take "no" for an answer. The upline harassess the downline to make purchases, to go to endless "trainings", attend countless rallys and conventions. Thats so they can make sure you are good and programmed and will not listen to anyone with sense in their brain to see that you have been swindled. Not to mention he life changing cruise that costs a couple of thousand dollars that they claim will explode your business if you go on it. I wonder why I see the same jerks going on the cruise, yet they have gotten no where in the biz. God forbid you are found out talking negative about the company. The phone calls and scare tactics are awful. Its sickening and they are getting away with it. They have so many rules and little tricks to screw you out of commissions, but they are very wiley and have covered their butts so you have no recourse. Anyone who gets out of the biz (of course its thousands of lost $$$$$ later, and they have come out of the Market America induced trance) is labeled a "loser" and a "quitter" and bad-mouthed terribly by those still in the ranks. The company is full of lots of poor little sheep who are very trusting, and the people who they think are the "sheperds" leading them to the promised land are actually wolves in disguise. They seduce you into spending thousands of dollars with big promises of "residual income in 2-3 years following a proven business plan!" Can someone explain to me why there are people in this company who have been in 4-5 years and have followed the "proven plan" and still haven't gotten anywhere??? They will brag that "so-and-so" earned a $1,200 check this week! They leave out the part that the poor bastard has spent over $10,000 in the past few months to earn it!! BEWARE of these people; they are all brainwashed and very $$$$ driven. They want your money and are very convincing.

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This page updated Jul-06-99