Bloody Younique!

[purplecurtaindog]

Okay, so recently my best friend has decided to join a multi level marketing group pyramid scheme called Younique. Her new 'business' is selling forcing friends to buy Younique and she's honestly doing my head in!

Don't want to make this too long, but these are the occurrences:

a) She made a Facebook group for her Younique profile. Added me into it. I left. She added me again. I left again. SHE ADDED ME AGAIN!!

b) She keeps posting things like "join my team and get paid every Friday!" "Are you a single mum who wants to spend more time with her kids? Well now you can be a better mum if you join my team!" Like she's targeting single mums to almost emotionally manipulate them into joining her team under her, to benefit herself

c) she messages asking if I want to buy stuff and then complains when I say no, saying I'm not supporting her. I have a LOT of makeup as I used to be a makeup consultant which I think is why she focussed on me so much but I have tried Younique and don't like the quality! It's overpriced!

So AIBU to think that my friend is doing something very wrong here, as well as finding her intensely annoying?!

[Notreallyarsed]

SIL did this, thankfully she’s in the US so I was able to flannel about shipping costs to get her to back off. She’s nearly bankrupted them with this nonsense, they’ve been “saving for a deposit” for 13 years while living in her parents’ basement and now they’ve got nothing. The fact the company use abused women and children to try and drum up business is sickening. Empowerment my ass.

[misskatamari]

I doubt she’d read it but this woman’s story is an eye opening account of what it’s like working for them ellebeaublog.com/poonique/

[purplecurtaindog]

Not really arsed- I forgot about the whole using abused women bit in my original post, that also disgusts me. My friend also uses that as a sales tactic- "buying makeup from me helps abused women" whilst she tries to guilt trip working single mums!

[DJBaggySmallpox]

Everything she says is from a script, you can wave goodbye to your friendship. From now on all you will hear is manipulative and pushy demands for your money.
Block her until she quits.

[mintich]

I have two friends selling Arbonne that I have had to block on social media because of this crap. The fact they call themselves entrepreneurs especially does my head in!

[Notreallyarsed]

Aye it’s the “empowerment of abused women and children” bit that really sticks in my craw. Especially since she knows fine that I escaped an abusive marriage before I met her BIL! The pressure on family and friends to part with cash is unfair too and the fact that even in their 40s they still live with her parents especially since none of us are high earners as such!

[mikado1]

I also have one who says things 'Please ladies, help me out and buy a mascara to help me reach my target. ' I find it v cringe tbh.

[ColinCreevey]

You should be able to leave the group and tick a box that prevents you from being added again I think. I did it when I kept getting added to a crap selling group.
As for her hassling you just keep with one broken record response and hopefully she'll give up. Younique and all the other similar things really piss me off. I have no tolerance for it whatsoever and I think it's despicable when people try to rope their friends and family in.

[specialsubject]

post on the group: 'just because you are stupid enough to fall for multilevel marketing of over-priced rubbish, doesn't mean the rest of us are. Please leave me alone until you reattach your head'.

[Topseyt]

If she keeps adding you when you have removed yourself then send her a blunt message.

Say that you removed yourself for a reason and don't wish to be added again.

[thegoodnameshadgone]

Misskatamari. I e lost two hours reading this women’s story.

[MissConductUS]

I have tried Younique and don't like the quality! It's overpriced!

This is true of all MLM products. It's the only way they can afford the all of the commissions that get paid to everyone in sight. It's all cheaply made crap priced like luxury goods.

I wish they'd just outlaw MLM for the fraud it is.

[pasturesgreen]

You have my sympathies, OP, i have one like that among my friends.

I've been added to not one but two groups I actually remained a member, just hid the groups from my feed. Cuts down on the aggro and having to explain why you don't want to waste your money on overpriced crap removed yourself from the group.

Have so far managed to not buy anything at all from her, but I know she moans about me being unsupportive of her 'business' to our mutual friends.

[Pebbles1989]

When a Facebook friend did this to me, I posted a very blunt message in the group itself and included some links to anti-MLM resources. When I removed myself from the group, she strangely did not re-add me

[Notreallyarsed]

Why isn’t MLM illegal already? Surely it counts as some kind of coercion/extortion?

[kuniloofdooksa]

No, sadly it is nor illegal to sell overpriced crap nor to use emotional manipulation to achieve sales.

Pyramid schemes are illegal. MLM schemes escape the definition of a pyramid scheme by tying the promotion up the pyramid to sales of overpriced crap.

[PastysPrincess]

YANBU

A relative of mine joined a similar scheme for slimming. It was an extortionate amount of money to buy the slimming resources and when I asked what was in them and how did it help you lose weight she couldn’t tell me.

[Shestolethewitchesredshoes]

I met a woman who was so keen for our children to become friends. I was a little dubious but thought why not? So let her add me to Facebook.

And then she bombarded me with adds for another similar type of product - she wanted me to buy from her and work for her. She was telling me that I'd earn so much more money then I do on my existing job. Yes she still worked nights stacking shelves at Asda. She got the point when I deleted and blocked her. I hear most other mums have too so I'm not sure how her kids are getting on as I imagine play dates have all dried up because of their mum. It's sad really.

[ProfessorBranestawm]

I hate this stuff. Thankfully the few people on my FB who are into this stuff (Ann Summers, some slimming squash/coffee thing, various others - they have all done more than one) aren't pushy at all, and posts are easily ignored e.g. Comment if you are interested, rather than endless event invites/PMs.

I LOVE the King of the Hill episode where Peggy joins a scheme. They totally nailed it IMO. At the end Peggy goes to her boss and places a big order, the boss runs to her supervisor and places the same order, etc :o

The only thing like this I buy from - I'm assuming it counts as an MLM because of the way it's structured with teams etc?! - is usborne books, as they are great quality and my friend does amazing sales so I pay way less than Amazon etc (but she is so popular that she still makes plenty of money from it, much more than the sellers who stick strictly to RRP) - and again she is not pushy at all. So very happy to support that.

But all the other make up, detox crap etc can do one. There was one lady who just wouldn't let up - thank goodness I never added her on FB, I met her at a baby group years ago and literally every time I bumped into her she would try and recruit me (and whoever I was with at the time even when they'd never met before) to this weird herbal wine company.

[MetalMidget]

I've got a Younique bot friend on Facebook (not seen her since she moved away), and the change in her postings has been quite frankly alarming. It's like bullshit bingo.

VALIDATING! EMPOWERING! ROCKING MY BUSINESS!

I don't have the heart (or energy) to point out that Younique's 'charity' isn't legally a charity in the UK, that her videos are embarrassing and that the mascara looks shit. At least she didn't keep on trying to add me, although I wasn't impressed by her little dig when she tried to recruit me, basically suggesting I'd be a better mother if I didn't work full-time. Nah, I've worked hard for my career which I love, I'm not going to abandon it to flog crap make-up!

I read the Elle Beau blog, it's scary how much of the stuff I recognize in my friend's post.

[mintich]

My friend was posting all this stuff about her being on a training trip to Vegas for a week with Arbonne. Turns out she paid for it herself. Somehow they attract thousands of people to this conference with them all paying for it themselves! It's crazy!

[Namechangetempissue]

I have a Younique bot on my facebook friends list. She is actually a lovely girl, very shy and quite naive and has obviously been coaxed into making short videos or "lives" showing off her make up/skincare. Thing is, she is absolutely awful at the make up bit. She previously wore very little, and is now shovelling on eyeshadows in revolting metallic shades, wobbly thick eyeliner, that horrendous spider eye mascara they do, dark lipstick -its awful and looks dreadful. I just want to message her and tell her to get out now before she loses money/friends but I feel like she would be devestated . She had somebody really nasty on one of her posts the other day saying how awful Younique are and how she looks shit and she was in tears. Fucking Younique!!!

[snash12]

I’ve hidden 5 or 6 “friends” because of this.

It’s gets so tedious and they have scripted come backs for every polite excuse you try.

They all share the same “motivational” images in FB and none of them have quit their day jobs as yet. Apparently they all will someday

[Uokbing]

I have a friend of a friend who is a Younique bot and I sometimes peek at her page as obviously it's all public. It's full of the usual bullshit, with hardly any actual 'likes' or following.

But

She is currently on a week long all expenses paid trip to Punta Cana with her DH (wherever that is, Mexico?) and it looks pretty amazing! Lovely room, hotel, everything. It would almost be enough to tempt me, but make up is just so shit and I couldn't face annoying my friends and family in that way! No thanks.

[Namechangetempissue]

I absolutely guarantee it isn't all expenses paid Uokbing. It's another method trotted out to encourage more pyramid members.