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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 01/07/2009 : 07:43:00
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well, it's been a while since we heard a lot about these grifters. American Dreams ‘R' US: Amway returns to the Motherland
Some have called it a pyramid scheme, a pioneer of multilevel marketing, a cult. Over the years, its founders became a major funding source of the conservative movement. Now, after nearly a decade of concentrating on its overseas operations—including Russia, China, and India—which have become the backbone of its bottom line, Amway (now operating as Amway Global) is spending millions of dollars on television commercials, and on print ads in newspapers, magazines, and online, laying the groundwork for a return to the Motherland. |
Only a little way down the article, we find: The company's most important product has always been selling its version of the American Dream: the notion that any person with a fair amount of desire, spunk, and initiative with a get-up-and-go persona and a little bit of up-front money, could shape their futures. They can get rich, and their futures would include a fair amount of well-deserved wealth.
The truth has always been vastly different: The overwhelming majority of those recruited into Amway/Quixtar motivational organizations lose money. Instead of promised wealth, they wind up with garages full of products, motivational tapes, and sales booklets, for which they paid a handsome price.
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Which pretty much sums the scam up.
Years back, I had a neighbor who sold Amway. She started losing her ass and quit. Amway didn't like that and bombarded her with bullshit mail that was only a little short of threatening. This woman was not one to trifle with, nor was her husband, and they retaliated with legal proceedings that were, if little else, embarrassing. I don't recall if she got any money out of the scumbags, but she was certainly and rightfully smug when it was over.
So now we can expect the suckers to cue up, just like always.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 01/07/2009 : 08:46:28 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
well, it's been a while since we heard a lot about these grifters. American Dreams ‘R' US: Amway returns to the Motherland
Some have called it a pyramid scheme, a pioneer of multilevel marketing, a cult. Over the years, its founders became a major funding source of the conservative movement. Now, after nearly a decade of concentrating on its overseas operations—including Russia, China, and India—which have become the backbone of its bottom line, Amway (now operating as Amway Global) is spending millions of dollars on television commercials, and on print ads in newspapers, magazines, and online, laying the groundwork for a return to the Motherland. |
Only a little way down the article, we find: The company's most important product has always been selling its version of the American Dream: the notion that any person with a fair amount of desire, spunk, and initiative with a get-up-and-go persona and a little bit of up-front money, could shape their futures. They can get rich, and their futures would include a fair amount of well-deserved wealth.
The truth has always been vastly different: The overwhelming majority of those recruited into Amway/Quixtar motivational organizations lose money. Instead of promised wealth, they wind up with garages full of products, motivational tapes, and sales booklets, for which they paid a handsome price.
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Which pretty much sums the scam up.
Years back, I had a neighbor who sold Amway. She started losing her ass and quit. Amway didn't like that and bombarded her with bullshit mail that was only a little short of threatening. This woman was not one to trifle with, nor was her husband, and they retaliated with legal proceedings that were, if little else, embarrassing. I don't recall if she got any money out of the scumbags, but she was certainly and rightfully smug when it was over.
So now we can expect the suckers to cue up, just like always.
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A decade or so ago a good friend of mine got hooked. His handler had him call up all his buddies for a meeting and told him not to tell us what it was about. I had a 45minute drive to attend and I worked it out of him. Then he said his handler remarked this was how he'd find out who his true friends were. Talk about exploitation. True friendship = willingness to attend an Amway sales pitch. Nice. I didn't attend. |
-Chaloobi
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/07/2009 : 08:50:57 [Permalink]
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Sounds like you were his "true fiend," Chaloobi. By refusing to be his enabler in his addiction.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 01/07/2009 : 10:36:21 [Permalink]
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Funny thing is some of Amways products are pretty good. Only no one really tries to sell them. The "distributors" are looking for recruits, not consumers. So the upshot is, most of the product is purchased by the suckers who fall for the pitch.
You would be lucky if you could find an Amway sales person willing to just sell you the freaking soap.
It seems to me that Tupperware had a similar way of distributing their product. That is, by recruiting sales people into a pyramid. But those people would actually go out and have Tupperware parties to sell product. My sister made some extra money doing that. In fact, the Tupperware brand has gained a certain amount of respect so much so that other brands of plastic food storage containers are often compared to Tupperware's quality. Hell, the brand is a household name. Go figure...
Pyramid business structures are not equal. I was never pressured to become a Tupperware salesperson when I bought the stuff.
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Hittman
Skeptic Friend
134 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2009 : 08:52:30 [Permalink]
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| Funny thing is some of Amways products are pretty good. Only no one really tries to sell them. The "distributors" are looking for recruits, not consumers. |
In the mid-ninties I ran a multi-line BBS. An Amway clown showed up, and a friend of mine deflated him beautifully with a very simple request: He asked to buy a tube of toothpaste. "I've heard that Amway toothpaste is excellent, and would like to buy one tube to try it out. I'm not interested in selling Amway, I just want to buy a tube of your toothpaste. Please tell he where I can buy one from you."
He got the sales pitch, of course, on how he could buy stuff and pay himself the commission, how he could become wealthy by building his downline, blah blah blah. He persisted, insisting that he just wanted to buy one tube of toothpaste. The Amway drone insisted he should sign up. The conversation went on for weeks, and it really exposed Amway for the scam it was.
And he never got his toothpaste. |
When a vampire Jehovah's Witness knocks on your door, don't invite him in. Blood Witness: http://bloodwitness.com
Get Smartenized® with the Quick Hitts blog: http://www.davehitt.com/blog2/index.phpBlog |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 01/10/2009 : 13:58:44 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Hittman
| Funny thing is some of Amways products are pretty good. Only no one really tries to sell them. The "distributors" are looking for recruits, not consumers. |
In the mid-ninties I ran a multi-line BBS. An Amway clown showed up, and a friend of mine deflated him beautifully with a very simple request: He asked to buy a tube of toothpaste. "I've heard that Amway toothpaste is excellent, and would like to buy one tube to try it out. I'm not interested in selling Amway, I just want to buy a tube of your toothpaste. Please tell he where I can buy one from you."
He got the sales pitch, of course, on how he could buy stuff and pay himself the commission, how he could become wealthy by building his downline, blah blah blah. He persisted, insisting that he just wanted to buy one tube of toothpaste. The Amway drone insisted he should sign up. The conversation went on for weeks, and it really exposed Amway for the scam it was.
And he never got his toothpaste.
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Such is life in the pyramid game; you never get your tooth paste. Only those at the top of the pile get tooth paste.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2009 : 16:56:04 [Permalink]
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From somewhere on the web....
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"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Amway, Religious Right Pyramid Scheme, Returns
