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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: Quixtar quixtar was sold to us on the basis that Eddie Bauer, Levis and other major retailers would be involved . Well gues what , all that is there is a bunch of Amway storefronts, and a few one of retailers. What a joke , e-commerce gets a black-eye from Amway

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Re: Equinox

Success...sort of.

I spent 3 1/2 years in the Equinox Family. The reason I'm writing you, for the most part is a feeling I've had in my gut for the last 3+ years....guilt...and I guess I would just like to think I could play my part in helping to stop others from falling into the same traps a lot of us did. Limited Success- I reached Director status ($20,000 in sales volume...purchases, really) in my first 6 weeks. I got my brother involved ($5000 order), his girlfriend involved($5000, too), her best friend and others, too. I ended up making just over $2600 and we thought we were on fire!! 6 months later I made over $11,000 by getting a friend of my fathers to buy in, with 3 of his friends and some others (by this time everyone I originally got in were all burnt and had distanced themselves from me-- but NOW I was rolling!!) I started being introduced to everyone as the "guy who was making $10,000/ mo...I liked it . The next few months I didn't make nearly that much, but they kept saying the same story, over and over..."he's making $10,000...show them the check!! Show them the check!!" Edification we called it. By the 10th month I needed to confide in my father...(one of the many I'd snidely told that "they'd be sorry" for not getting involved at first)...I needed to consolidate all the debt I'd collected, about $26,000. Luckily, he cosigned---unfortunately not the last time he'd have to do this for me...

The start of the second year I decided to accept an invitiation to go down and work in the South with one of my upline---one of the "founders" of the company (HUGE mistake) I found myself being told to place huge ads in the paper, (stating I was making more than I was), and spending money like water...trainings...office expenses...extra phone lines...and even worse, I was told to tell all "my people" the same..."Push yourself!!" Give yourself a "Have to!!"

After 3 1/3 years of: answering ad calls, attending (2) meetings everyday, Saturday Trainings, coaching 18 year-old kids on what to say to get a personal loan (for their product order), and eating cold chicken because I couldn't afford much of anything else...I ended up leaving Equinox, and with a long string of people in ruins, (some of whom I became good friends with)...$20,000, $35,000 in debt, or worse. (My direct upline declared backruptcy---$250,000 in debt!!! )

Looking back, not everything about the experience was negative- I did learn a lot of persuasive skills, personal awareness and confidence--even in the face of chaos! But now I see that there are other ways to be successful...even HAPPY!!! It doesn't have to be "either/ or" with Corporate America vs. MLM's...there realy are a lot of wonderful opportunities out there...you just have to look for them!! BE POSITIVE, AND KEEP THAT FAITH!!!

Wow. You are pretty venomous and condescending in your response. That wasn't necessary and it leads me to believe that you have a rather vindictive nature. I'm sorry you feel the need to react that way. I wasn't trying to pick an argument with you, just sharing some food for thought in what I thought to be a very non-attacking way. I had already read the MLM survivors web page, so I don't appreciate for the rude and assumptive "do us both a favor" response.

Yes, I do agree that information about the system side of their business needs to be as up front and as regulated as the requirements of the marketing and sales plan. I do think there are a lot of unethical things happening on the Amway Motivational Organization side of things. I wasn't disputing that. All I was saying was that I believe there are SOME ethical and moral people involved who do tell the truth about the business (both the good and the bad) and I do believe there are intellegent people who investigate the opportunity thoroughly before taking action. Obviously there is a success rate, obviously there is a failure rate and there are a lot of people in-between. True, not everyone knows what to look for and there can be a great deal of misrepresentation and failure....should the Amway corporation and/or Quixtar do a better job of reprimanding unethical practices of their distributor force? Absolutely. Is it feasible? I guess that is another story.

I don't believe that Amway and Quixtar are all warm fuzzy. There are serious issues there, but my point was that it isn't ALL smoke and mirrors and hopefully people who get involved are intellegent enough to use their common sense when getting some obviously not so logical advice from their lines of sponsorship. By the way, I found the information on the web site of the active "Emerald" to be the most fair and respectful presentation of the issues. It wasn't spiteful, skewed or dripping with hatred.

If I have misjudged your response, I do apologize, but it certainly appears that you are on a quest to shoot down any neutral opinion on the subject. I wish you the best as you continue your quest for exposing the truth....that is what you are trying to do isn't it?

I got into your sight for the first time today and found it a little confusing. There were so many negative comments about Quixtar that I would like to clarify a few things. My husband and I are Independent Business Owners that signed on just before the September 1 launch date. Personally we are not even trying to look at this as a get rich quick scheme. Quite the contrary. Just referring people to the internet sight will not in itself build a business. Building a business of any sort takes some time, effort, and dedication. If anyone is being led to believe that six months from now that they will wake up and be millionaires then they are being misled. If you have an upline that is willing to help you and help your business grow no matter the time involved then you will have the the opportunity for a better lifestyle. Nothing in life is free or easy. It is unfortunate if you believe otherwise. My main motivation for doing this is because of the job I currently hold. I have worked for a world wide distribution company for 16 years. I only had to look around at the management team in place to see that I was working with the largest group of Godless, ruthless, power hungry people it has ever been my displeasure to be associated with. Corporate America is not the answer either. As an employee of any major company in this day and age you are reduced to being nothing more than a warm body occupying space and doing a job that only serves to increase the bottom line for someone else. I don't know about you but I see a lot more wrong with that approach then I do with a home based opportunity.

A.C. Neilsen Co., the respected and independent polling and market research firm, did that survey. The compared prices of more than 250 frequently-purchased items in Amway's various catalogs to prices on identical items at JC Penney, Lands End, Fingerhut and Hudson's Department Stores.

The person with FACTS is never at the mercy of a person with a theory.

Thank you I will check out the website again. What was your opinion on the products though?

Do you have any information on the EXCEL investment group?

I have been going to meetings about quixtar. These meetings are about why you should join the quixtar family and make a six figure income. They have all the reasons why anyone should join and that it is a sure way to make money. They claim that the merchants that have joined the virtual mall will have the lowest prices of anybody that is selling things on the internet or at the malls. The people that are having these meetings are hard working people. I am a very conservative person and have never been taken in on something that sounds to good to be true. My husband and I have worked very hard for what we have and we feel that this is the only way to get the things you want and in an honest way. I have never trusted Amway. My brother and his wife tried to get rich with them about 30 years ago and realized it was not for them and that the people at the top were the ones who were getting rich. It's really not the money to join, but the people that you're making rich and them laughing at the poor gullable people. I would like to find out more about quixtar from people who are not trying to sell you on the idea and would give me honest information. Thanks

I just came across your webpage by accident but with no regrets. I went to a meeting 3 months ago with a lady i had met at my sons soccer game that told me about quixtar and how we could make alot of extra money.

I went to see the plan at a hotel and was real impressed and very excited. So, i joined that night. I also recieved my kit that night but didnt really look over it till i got home. Boy, i was really shocked. There was nothing in there about quixtar and everything about Amway.

When i e-mailed my direct she informed me that i got in as an amway distributer just till quixtar opens then we will switch over. That helped a little. I have gotten 3 legs in so far and they all have in 2 legs each.

But there is still alot that had not been explained to me. after the ordering of products and my down lines( i hate that saying) i made 75 pv points. all this time i was under the impression that i was gonna be getting a check. when i didnt recieve on for that month i asked my direct and she coldly told me that i would not get one because i had to make at least 100pv a month. why wasnt i told that from the beginning? I am still trying to figure that one out.

Well, i made it till sept. 1,99 and went to check out the website that i "partly owned" . What a joke, i spent 5 days just trying to get into the site and still am having problems with it. I am constantly getting pressure to get on standing order and to get amvox. Why do i need tapes for amway when i got into this business only for quixtar? I also get the same pressure to get amvox. I refuse to get it! I have two e-mail addresses, a cell phone and a answering machine, what do i need with amvox. I do not care anything about hearing a bunch of people gloat about how much money they are making and that i am dirt on the bottom of thier shoe because i am not a direct or a diamond I am really frustrated with all this amway crap. I signed up only because i thought i could make quick money by getting in with quixtar, not amway! I have never been lied too or decieved as much as i have these past few months by my direct!

Are you still in the business, if not, do you see yourself looking into the possibility of getting in with quixtar? Having three children and a wonderful husband i wanted to give more and do something that would make me feel like i were helping support a family and still be a stay at home mother. everything i put into this business has not done anything but break us. I almost need a "real" job just support this one. I have been a little unsure about things since the day that i signed up but now after seeing your website i know i have really been taken on a ride. What can we do to stop this from happening to someone else? These snooty directs have ruined my creditability with my friends, family and legs. I am getting out while i still have some money left and dignity! Thanks for letting me see what these people are truely all about.

I have been thinking about starting a business with a mlm company. I have read and reread many offers but am apprehensive...even more so after coming across your site! I know you can't reccomend any particular company, but have you heard anything bad about the following companies...Heritage, Sportron, Streamline, or Oxyfresh? Thankyou

I have just joined Quixtar on September 9. Reading this article I am confused. What is an MLM and why is this company a negative? Please respond soon. By the way, I only paid a fee of 95.99 +tax for my membership. THANKS,

But on their website they said they are still operating. Are they? I thought they hadsome phenomenol products though. I want to buy the shower filter sys., but maybe should look at the stores. They had a great demo that had me wondering...can I just sell their products, and not recruit. That was such a turnoff. But their water filter system looked really good. What's up with them?

But, gee, Ruth, you list IBM as a Quixtar partner - although you said for months that that was ABSOLUTELY not true! LOL on you! I looooooooove your site - great for a few laughs at the end of the day!

Hello, I'd like to know a similar MLM outfit called Omegatrends currently operating is Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia. Thank you very much.

Well some things you say on here are correct but unfortunately the one about cars is wrong becase if you join the auto network you can get a vehicle.You as well as I do know that there are overzealot idiots that get involved with anything, people who will say or do anything to get ahead in life and these losers 9 times out of 10 end up on the short end of the stick and blame others for their own shortcomings. I have been a distributor for many years and have run my business my way not necessarily the Britt/Yeager or anyone else way. ITS MY BUSINESS to do with what I want, I do maintain 8 daily custromers that have every catalog and call in orders for themselves except for amway core line products in which they call me. The funy thing about quixtar is that I am on AOL and go into the chat rooms and now have these quixtar idiots coming in the chatrooms leaving the computer on shutting off their mail and IM's and just sitting in the chat room hoping someeone goes to their site, what a waste and what a bunch of losers they are. I had a long chat with one of them and his diamond is don storm. Sure aggravte the regs in the room they just might visit the site and purchase, how stupid are they ???They sit therer and just advertise the quixtar site for free in the chat rooms now aol is going to have to put their foot down about that , I already reported this stuff to quixtar and told them I dont wana hear this crap about being their owqn business cause you have to regulate them and have rules of conduct to follow so now do your job. One day i hope and pray that you will get over your hurt from being involved with a bad amway experience, like I said before there are good and bad in all and one day i hopoe you can find the forgiveness in your heart and forgive those that hurt you, remember the last woreds of jesus before he passed on "Father forgive them for they not know what they do" This is my second go around and one day I will send to you a story to use here about a very bad organization..................take care

I was wondering if you have or could point me to any information on the Melaleuca company. I just joined, and I'm trying to get all the information I can, to I can decide if I want to stay in or send my stuff back for a refund and quit. I've visited a few sites like this one so far, and all I've found is one person warning not to buy vitamins through MLM when you can buy them cheaper at the store. This does not apply to me because I do not plan on using vitamins. Again, any information would be helpful.

I gather you have heard of USANA also along with all of the other systems.

I'm mostly happy with what you are saying and are achieving with your site because most of it is right on the nail for most of the MLM's around. However, I have recently become a distributor with USANA (nearly 2 months ago), and I have found that it has good morals and the benefits that it can provide to people's health are real.

I know you're probably thinking "What a crock", but what got me into this business was actually the health benefits, which I, and now many other people in my business have noticed.

I must say, I used to be in Amway about 4 years ago and couldn't do the business because there was too much smoke and mirrors, and hidden agendas and it seemed like you had to con everyone into seeing Amway. It just wasn't me, and I couldn't bring myself to do it.

I have found that USANA promotes true health, and truly believe that MLM was actually the best way that they should sell their products and teach the world about the human body and the benefits of nutrition. On the business side, they also have the fairest system that I have ever seen where people truly help other people build their business (not teach them how to con other people like they have). Also, each week the points that are achieved through your business, if not used for a commission cheque, is rolled over to the following week, not wiped out like Amway and some other systems that I've seen. So the work that you have done, stays done.

I would really be interested to find out any further information you have, preferably researched directly against USANA.

>From my way of looking at USANA (which is very open minded), is that it is an ethical business where you promote true health through nutritional products. I don't personally sell the items at retail price, infact I sell them at the same price that I receive them at. My business is building and I'm getting cheques based only on points. I have truly felt the benefits of these products myself and would love the world to be taking them, I'm not focusing on financial benefit. Even if I wasn't doing the business, I would still be taking the products, however, seeing as there are obvious financial gains to be made that could enable me to also provide the nutritional products to my entire family, I have joined. By the way, many of mine, and my girlfriends family are taking the product with good results. My girlfriends mom and sister have also become distributors.

Also, I don't think it is unobtainable to get to the stage where your nutritional products that you are taking are paid for. I have been distributing USANA products for nearly 2 months. I have received three cheques of $56 and my next will be $144 (Australian Dollars, commission payments made weekly). This is enough to pay for mine.

I'm not bias just because I am doing well, I truly believe that there are good health morals behind this business.

After reading the laws that you displayed, I now understand why USANA state in their policies that a distributor must not purchase any more product until 70% of their remaining product has been sold. I personally don't have a problem with selling it, as the product speaks for itself. Unfortunately, due to the benefit of the products and design of the USANA business, I find that most people don't want to become customers, but infact want to be distributors.

I would really like to hear about any information you have on the USANA business that I'm new in.

Many thanks,

Good evening,

This is a message in response to an email you sent me a little over a week ago. Unfortunately I do not have that message anymore so I cannot quote you directly, however, you mentioned that it is impossible to track statistics for a site that isn't up yet. That is not true. The load balancing system that Quixtar is using is a fairly sophisticated system that allows for the tracking of the number of requests for the homepage without the site itself actually being "turned on". It's kind of a "Outer Gate" / "Inner Gate" setup where the load balancing outer gate monitors the number of requests coming in and distributes them to all of the now 78+ servers running the "Inner Gates". With this kind of system, its very easy to monitor the traffic.

Additionally, I did some checking on my own (though I will not reveal my sources), but it is believed by several independent internet traffic stat monitors that the actual traffic trying to access the website was significantly higher than what was actually recorded by Quixtar.

On another topic, I checked your website for any new Quixtar updates and found some very laughable items. Your mentioning that Quixtar chose Microsoft because of the industry connection is laughable at best. The Microsoft Windows DNA application design architecture used by Fry Multimedia in designing the site has been proven to provide the best performance in a large ecommerce application by an independent test (you can find the details published on Microsoft's MSDN site - http://msdn.microsoft.com). From personal experience working with the Microsoft Technologies as well as the Unix Technologies, any ecommerce developer given the option one or the other would be an idiot (in my opinion) to go with Unix for more reasons than I have time to note. Granted, however, with IBM's recent release of several Unix based solutions, this could change fairly soon.

Additionally, I think knowing Fry Multimedia's history and success at building large scalable e-commerce web sites speaks for itself. Yes, you are entitled to your own opinion on the matter, as we all are, however, it is important to note that not all opinions are of equal value. I tend to favor those that are actually based on legitimate tried and true experience.

At last count the Quixtar site was receiving approximately 10 million hits per day. Processing approx. 2000 orders per day. Within the first four days of its existence, even with all its problems, the site ranked #22 in the list of most popular commerce sites, at 3/4 the number of page hits Amazon.com had that entire same week (sunday to saturday), and had visitor stay lengths longer than any other commerce site being monitored. Thats pretty darn good for a four day old broken web site. Imagine what it would have done had it been completely operational. (BTW, I'm not spouting these stats off based on what the corporation has told me... I got these stats from my own industry sources).

Question: If Quixtar is such a joke, why has IBM's Quixtar Partner site been so busy the past couple weeks? So busy in fact that even IBM's commerce site was shut down by the volume and nearly all of IBM's customer service phone department spent all last week dealing with calls relating to Quixtar's IBM purchasing program? I even purchased a nice ThinkPad laptop myself. No discount, but plenty of PV :-)

THANK YOU. your site waas the only place i have been able to get any info about quixtar. loved your title opening w/ a "thud". how true. also, thanks for the list of partner stores - interesting given then fact i was told & saw in print from an IBO that Lands End, GAP, and Eddie Bauer were partner stores. Your list didn't have them.

Hi, I was recently recruited into Quixtar by someone who bumped into me at a train station. We talked for about 5 min at the station, he suckered me into giving my phone # (gosh I was so stupid), and then called two weeks later asking me to attend an "e-Commerce Seminar" about an "Internet Business Opportunity". I thought it was a job opportunity (I was a senior at College, desperately searching for good jobs) so I rushed for it. Needless to say I was very bitter at the end of the seminar. The guy kept persisting for about 2 months, and I decided to join Quixtar just so I could shut him up. Now he wants me to go recruit other people, and has asked me to give him their phone numbers so he can talk to them directly because I refuse to tell them about Quixtar myself. Anyway, to summarize, I am very very angry at this whole system. Today I will confront him directly and tell him to stay away from my life. I am extremely grateful to you all for having put up your anti-Amway websites, for had your websites not been there I would have lost a lot of my hard earned income. My question to you all is that isn't there some way of legally combating this menace? I mean if there are so many people spreading so much misinformation regarding the entire business, and with all the problems in the business considering the quasi multi-level marketing system and the "illegal" distribution of tapes and other motivational equipment, we need to bring a stop to this now. Ultimately we will be saving thousands of people from ruining their lives if we can halt this system. I don't need to talk about the negative aspects of this Amway/Quixtar phenomenon since you are all much better acquainted with it all than I will ever be. I believe that if we can all somehow unite and perhaps find a lawyer, and legally approach this issue, there has got to be some way that we can save those thousands of innocent people who are just waiting to get baited. I know it might sound a little excessive at first, but I alone do not have a sufficient income to afford a lawyer or the resources to single-handedly do all the research required. I don't even have that much know-how to even approach this issue correctly. So if any of you people still feel strongly about this issue, and about whether or not a legal combat is possible, please respond to this e-mail. If we can get enough support, then perhaps we can together hire a lawyer (or perhaps one of you might already know a lawyer) and try to protect the world from this menace. To conclude, I will quote a paragraph from an e-mail I wrote to my upline trying to convince him that Quixtar is a danger to society. I know that some parts of the paragraph might be incorrect but it was written at a time when I had limited information. I still believe the jist of the paragraph however, and so here it is:

"For now I remain concerned that this economic model presented by Amway is in fact a danger to future societies. Consider the consequences if Amway and Quixtar successfully continue growing over the next few decades. If the company is successful, then say 50% of the United States is enrolled in Amway at some point in the future. That half of the U.S. will be controlled by only one company... Amway (because more and more people must have joined in for the company to grow). None of the IBO's at that point will have the choice to quit it, because of the large incomes they will be getting, and their dependency on that income. The entire concept of a free-market economy will be flushed down the drain. The consumer will have no choice in the products, because everything will be distributed through Amway, and they will be forced to purchase through Amway. How can people talk about achieving economic freedom from the business when in fact you are tying yourself down to one product-line, one company and refusing everything the competition has to offer, no matter how good it might be? That is sort-of like a communist Russia re-born. If I am a true Independent Business Owner, then I should have a choice in which brand of products I wish to offer my customers. With Amway I am giving up that choice. I am surprised at how such a system can even be legal in a free-market economy. And what happens to the huge down-line in the future when they run out of people to recruit? Or, if half the world has retired because of huge incomes through Amway, then who will work the factories, the businesses? If Amway is such a good opportunity, then why are employees at Amway just employees? Why are they not part of Amway and why haven't they all retired yet? Is the entire corporation composed of a volunteer task force of people who "just enjoy" doing warehousing and distribution? Or are all the employees just a bunch of losers that don't have the motivation to earn money?"

Thank you all again for maintaining your websites, for it truly saved me from this disaster.

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This page updated Oct-1-99