In the original article, I asked, "How about the compensation plan? Nobody knows." This page was posted in April, remember. In June, a mailing was sent out to distributors stating: "All volume and revenue generated by Quixtar-affiliated IBOs will be credited through the proven, time-tested business plan that has been used successfully for 40 years in the Amway business." In other words, the Quixtar plan is the Amway plan.

Next, Larry called me on the fact that I "misquoted" McDonald on this portion of the page. I stated that

"In an Amvox message sent to distributors on March 26, 1999 and posted on Amway's ABN site, McDonald is very clear:

"So effective Monday, March 29 . . . that's three days from now . . . a zero-tolerance policy goes into effect. These violations will be cause for suspension from sponsoring for at least six months.
"What are the violations I'm talking about? There are three. The first one
is spamming. . .
"The second violation is making income representations. . . (emphasis is mine)

Larry pointed out that I took item number two out of context. He's right. I did. So, for the record, let me make that correction: The quote I should have used is this one, from a Letter to the Editor that McDonald wrote to the Washington Post on April 9, 1999:

"Amway has not authorized anyone to make any representations about the income potential of Quixtar. The Quixtar business opportunity remains under development and will not even be available until September. Even after Quixtar's launch, there will be no basis for anyone to guarantee any income within a particular time frame."

Now, how about that pesky question about sponsoring people now as Quixtar IBOs? According to McDonald:

"Violation number three is signing up anyone into the business today. Why? Well, because there is no business yet. It doesn't start until September 1, so to sign someone up or make them believe that they are now a independent business owner is not only wrong, it's unethical, because a person can't be part of something that doesn't exist. So prior to the launch date of - 9/1/99 - no one may sponsor, register, or preregister people into the business. This also means they can't stamp a red "" or "e-commerce" or "Internet" or something like that on an Amway app."

Maybe Larry can explain why I am still – as recently as today – receiving e-mails like these:

"My friends are all getting involved thinking they'll be millionaires by 2001. I even invested in it and then realized I'm just another Amway distributor till 9/1/99. Which was not disclosed to me till I signed the papers. I'm getting out of it NOW."

"It was promoted to me as a business started by Microsoft, IBM and the "Owners of the Orlando Magic". I feel like an idiot!!!"

"I recently bought into this Quixtar thing, but soon realized it was Amway that I had bought into and not Quixtar at all. Quixtar doesn't exist. The whole idea of "signing up ahead of time to get people under me" is ridiculous since NO ONE can sign up for Quixtar until September 1st, 1999."

Or how about this one, sent to me early in July, 1999:

"Being an active Amway Distributor and now a Quixtar Associate I can say that the marketing plan does in deed work" How can he be a Quixtar Associate when they don't exist???

"A customer of mine approached me and told me about a business opportunity, and talked me into going to a meeting. At the meeting they said it was World Wide something, or Quixtar and made it sound like this was the most ridiculously amazing thing ever to hit the Internet. Before I knew it, I had purchased a kit, then realized that their bait and switch had worked; it was Amway."

So, what is Amway doing about all these misrepesentations? McDonald claimed they would have a "zero tolerance policy," but I see no evidence of it.

According to distributor Steve Gulick, quoted in the Post article that McDonald’s letter responds to, "Existing Amway distributors and new ones who join Quixtar may have to make a choice: Go online or stay in the old distribution system and miss what Amway supporters say has become Internet ‘fever.' "

My buddy Larry disagreed with this, too. He claimed that "If you're an Amway distributor prior to launch, there's no additional fee to become a Quixtar distributor. As far as quitting Amway to start Quixtar, that's the BEST part about being in Amway now. Whatever network you already have in place on Sep 1 will roll over to Quixtar (you don't have to start from scratch)."

In June (two months after my previous page was posted), Amway sent out a Quixtar update to IBOs. On page 4, under the heading "Launch Date and Availability," the mailing states: "No registration or renewal fees have been finalized for Quixtar."

Then in July,
"You may renew your preferred business method as either Amway or Quixtar. The renewal fee is $45 for Amway and $25 for Quixtar."

And, since Amway REALLY wants IBOs to switch to Quixtar, they’re making Quixtar the less expensive alternative. They are also changing their minds about the IBOs’ having to actually make a choice:

"Once you renew in one business, you also have the option of adding access to the second business (renewing with Amway2000 and adding Quixtar, for example). The fee is $39 for adding Amway and $19 for adding Quixtar."

Quixtar and Microsoft

Many IBOs are claiming that Microsoft and Quixtar are "partners." I’ve received the following:

"the deboss [sic] and van andel families fronted the money for MICROSOFT to develop quixtar."

"And they say their technology partners are IBM, Cambell Ewald, Microsoft, and Fry Multi media, what is their involvement in this?"

"It was promoted to me as a business started by Microsoft, IBM and the 'Owners of the Orlando Magic.' "

"Do you think that Microsoft and FRye multimedia (Tada) and IBM are stupid. Do you think that they are partnering with us for nothing?"

"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'. "

What does Amway say? According to their Quixtar information web site,

"Also please disregard any rumors/reports that state specific well-known individuals (e.g., Bill Gates, Donald Trump) are involved in the QUIXTAR business, as those reports are untrue."

Quixnet and Site Blocking

Also, just to set the record straight: on the page "Amway Reinvents Itself on the Net as Quixtar.com" I state:

"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 sees fit to block."

According to one -- and only one -- e-mail I received, the writer had subscribed to Amway's ISP, Quixnet, and stated that in late July he had accessed my site using that ISP. "Just a note: I found your site through the quixnet.net server with the filtering option active." A very pleasant surprise!

Well, I don't suspect that this page will make Larry happy, either. He wants me to have a " a wait-and-see neutral posture about Quixtar." Why?

I get a fair number of e-mails from IBOs who say things like, "How can you assume that Quixtar is just like Amway? Toyota and Lexus are different cars, yet they started from the same company." The product is different. But how about the corporate culture? Will Quixtar be different from Amway? Sure, a little. But come on folks, they are using the same computers in the same facility and sharing the same corp. executives, the same marketing plan, and the same compensation structure. The IBO leaders are the same, they haven't suddenly changed since Quixtar came down the pike. So do I expect any significant changes in the kinds of abuses they've been perpetrating for years? Of course not.

This page updated Aug-04-99