What are your thoughts on this particular Multi-Level-Marketing company?

As soon as I read the question, I thought ‘scam’, but I have no idea really.

It’s so strange… I found this article here

And the person is going on about how people look up the negatives about this company, but I personally can’t find a single one… So odd.

I work as call center support for a MLM company.

While there are many that are complete garbage, there are some that totally work, if you’re the type of person who is good at direct sales, and you believe in your product, and you know how to work the system.

What immediately stands out to me is that they don’t let you in on the compensation plan in any way before you hand over your credit card information. Even in the Terms of Service (where you sign your life away when you sign up) it only vaguely references commissions and bonuses, with no specific details.

It doesn’t look great, to be honest. These home-party type businesses are fine for bored housewives that have little else to do and lots of friends with disposable income, but not much else.

Waitaminit… this is what Home Interiors became?

Ok, now I know I have first-hand experience. Well, second hand, but close enough.

The Home Interiors craze swept my church about 10 years ago. Everyone went apeshit for fake ivy and cheap sconces.

No one made any money. The best any of them could say was that they got some free stuff, at the expense of their friends, who couldn’t afford to buy the stuff in the first place.

Eventually, everyone stopped going to everyone else’s Home Interiors parties. Then they moved on to PartyLite, and then Pampered Chef, and finally everyone was done with wasting their money for stuff they could get for half the price at Target.

It does give you the option of talking with a representative in your area before signing up. I would definitely make sure I knew every detail before signing anything. I think these places are scamish in the sense that no one really wants their products and you end-up not making any money.

I would also ask myself if I would be willing to buy that stuff for the price they suggest, and if not, I would pass. I had a roommate sign up for something similar and I can tell you that if I had brought that crap home and suggested we place it in a common area, she would have went ape-sh*t because it was so ugly. It sat in a box under bed until I moved out and probably until she moved out as well.

@Seek_Kolinahr – those parties were so horrible. I remembered when my parents came home from one such dinner party and had bought $1,000 worth of pots and pans. It broke my heart to see them be taken advantage of. The cookware was nice, but they could have got it for half that at a department store.

I found this from the Better Business Bureau and this from Rip-off Report. They look pretty clean to be honest.

Also.

This is an excellent interview about Multi-level marketing scams from one of my favorite podcasts.

I’m of the opinion that any MLM can be viable if it represents products you can consistently sell and you can walk away with a bit of profit.

Getting rich from it is another matter entirely. Seeking to earn a percentage of profit from people you bring into the business (the MLM aspect) is an exhausting, often heartbreaking endeavor.

I would say that if your Mom is just looking to make a little extra income…fine. Anything more than that I would worry a bit about. But I also think it’s unlikely anything you say or do will change your Mother’s mind. I’ve been involved in various MLM endeavors over the years; once I committed myself to the MLM mindset, nothing could turn me back. I only stopped when it became obvious I wouldn’t be able to find other people as committed as I was.

Maybe your Mom will have better luck.

@SABOTEUR why is it that 99% of people fail at Amway? It’s a pyramid scheme.

The idea of the product is discussed around 6 min into the interview I linked. Basically it’s using the product to launder the money within the system.

@gorillapaws Well, yeah…but it’s not fair to classify all MLMs under the same umbrella.

My wife and I sold Ringmaster Rubbing Oil years ago and made a nice little profit from it. The company we worked with never emphasized the MLM aspect at all. The only reason we stopped selling it was because the company began to place less emphasis on the rubbing oil; shifting interest into something called “long distance phone cards”.

I got similar results when I sold waterless car wash products. The emphasis, once again was on the product, not the business.

Then there were other companies I worked with I was less successful with. But then, the products they represented weren’t in great demand, while recruiting “everybody you know” was.

It’s like I said before…you have to know what you’re getting into. If your intent is making a few extra dollars and you have a good product you’ll really do quite well. If your intent is to earn “residual income”, you’re probably in for a rude awakening.