What happened to MLM's?

We had internet with them until last year and I don't remember being ripped off by them when we changed provider. UW pay more FIT per unit than any other energy provider, which is why we stayed with them.

I was thinking this recently. Juice Plus, Forever Living, Younique, Ann Summers, Valentus.. what's happened?

A friend recently tried to interest me in inteletravel (think that’s the name).

It actually made me feel really sad that a) he’d fallen for such an obvious MLM scam and b) that he thought I’d be interested.

He has no training or interest in travel beyond his own family holidays.

I did try to gently question the model but we’re not close enough for me to be completely frank with him (and I know from experience that in the first month or two people really do not like to hear anything against their amazing MLM).

Someone tried to interest me in Monet years ago. I was honest with her and told her it was an utter scam, sent articles, explained how she wouldn’t make much money and also told her how I was deeply uncomfortable with her trying to recruit her friends who were new mothers (including me). She was absolutely furious. Obviously after a few months Monat was never mentioned again. What really annoys me though is that these people never come back and say “I’m so sorry I tried to drag you in. I realise it was a scam. Sorry.”

Anyone involved in MLM stuff makes me think they’re not that bright. Anyone who tries to engage me in it makes me think that they don’t know me well and see me as a potential cash cow. I hate it.

My brother tried to get me to sign up for one selling shampoo. Needless to say i reused.

Arbonne
Herbalife
Neals Yard
Scentsy
Younique
Kleeneze
Omnilife

All 'living their best life' posing with cars and becoming millionnaires. Really sad because the people who joined up, couldn't really afford the joining fee. The products were SO expensive due to the commissions going to the greedy shites at the top of the pile

My favourite this country episode is the MLM one where Kerry does ‘eternal vitality’ 😄

They throughly ripped us off.

We inherited the company with the house yet they charged us a small fortune to escape from the internet "deal" that we had never signed up for. It was £35 a month for non fibre back in 2015. Absolute rip off - and good luck trying to speak to anyone.

Friend does the travel thing, I'm not sure she's made a penny out of it but keen to boast about her 'team' 🫠

Utility Warehouse, Tropic, Neals Yard and the life coaches abound around here.

While Utility Warehouse might be an MLM they are a Which? recommended provider and they pay us a lot of money in Feed in Tariff from our solar panels.

Last year we paid out £469 in utility bills and Utility Warehouse paid £1081 into our bank account, so we ended the year profiting by £612.

So don't let the fact that they are an MLM put you off.

@TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOnethat’s not one I’ve come across but if she is selling courses on how to get clients etc that is almost always a sign of a con. Some of them are big American organisation with professors advertising their courses and they look incredible but there is simply no way they can deliver the things they ‘guarantee’ such as getting three high paying coaching clients and making £100,000

Travel consultancy seems to be a thing, Vicki pattison was in on it and she has quite a big influencer following.
See lots of tiktoks as well with I was a struggling single mum and now I'm living my dream life, ask me HOW? And I'll DM you 🤣
Digital marketing is also quite a buzzword but no idea what it actually consists of. Selling courses to each other ?
Also lots of people offering one on one consultant services online, I've seen some that have some good advice on their videos as a general thing but think sometimes people can be a bit vulnerable when they pay money for someone they think has all the answers.

Herbalife is still out there. I am also seeing lots of post on Instagram about digital earnings (basically affiliate marketing) and they are selling training courses for that.

There’s still a few pretending they are boss babe travel consultants with the perfect work/life balance allowing them to be around for their little ones/never miss a moment/they got this mama.

Good riddance to the rest, these won’t be far behind

“Intuitive Psychology Coach” is the new one I have seen. With some podcasting/ influencing thrown in while the MLM runs in the background. The top one near me must have seen a dip though; she has diversified into a “Social Mums” franchise too. More sitting ducks for the grift.

I know it can be a real job. Just seen quite a few recently that seem off

Hmm someone from uni who didn't finish the course was going on about something like that to me. I was not interested and he was not pleased. Kept saying he couldn't understand why I didn't want to do it. Why would I randomly want to be a bloody travel consultant? I work in AI!

There was a great MLM plot in Orange is the New Black. Aleida gets out of prison and gets sucked in to a Herbalife type scheme. Quickly realises it’s a con (also pointed out by the child of an Arbonne rep) and ends up using the packaging to smuggle drugs again instead as at least that makes money.

Is Lisa Johnson a con?
I've always thought she was.
There was a long thread about her on here a couple of years ago, and Lisa Johnson found it and threatened to sue MN and she also wanted them to tell her all the posters' real names and addresses.

It was wild. I'm sure she's a con artist.

So many people have abandoned social media, it must be much more difficult for MLM people to be seen. Socials are full of AI-generated BS and random accounts we didn’t ask to see, so actual content gets missed.

They don't, do they?
That's the idiotic thing about MLMs.
Nobody makes any money.

Someone I vaguely know is trying to sell people an MLM course/ training in ‘affiliate marketing’ despite having no apparent interest or skill in the area herself 🙄

@Cheesegrapeschutney Tropic’s owner claims that she has to use “social selling” as her products are so fresh they don’t have the shelf life to go into the retail chain. I think this is bullshit. I think she chose MLM because it taps into a cheap as chips workforce. I don’t buy the female empowerment and women supporting women manipulation. Tropic’s owner also claims that they don’t allow reps to over-buy product they can’t sell but one look at eBay at the thousands of listings, often for multiples of the same product tells me that there are plenty of Tropic bots who are their own best customer and are finding it an expensive exercise. You’re absolutely right, no one is talking about these very expensive products from MLM like Temple Spa or Tropic outside the MLM world.

I think it has shifted to content creators. At least the ones I know have. One I know did announce a move into “travel consultancy” but I haven’t seen much from her on this since.

It's mostly Tropic and Temple Spa around here still. Good friend is still very much sucked in. They are supposedly the finest skin care products ever produced and the only ones not to contain toxins, although strangely I never see them recommended in independent reviews/articles, despite reading beauty pages reasonably regularly.