To expect a new friendship to not turn into a sales pitch?

[Sprite21]

I recently met a new friend through our local mum network who has a daughter my age. She seemed very nice and we would meet up for coffee, song sessions at the library, etc. Most of my mummy friends have gone back to work now so I was hoping to build our friendship.

After a few meet ups she invited the three of us (DP, DD and me) over to their place for what I assumed was a friendly visit. She called it 'getting to know them better.'
DP wasn't that interested but obliged for my sake. I had assumed it would just be her, her partner and their daughter there, but there were five other people I didn't know and in talking to them no one seemed to know each other very well. Suddenly my friend's husband announced that they were really excited to share something with us and they sat us down and put on a video about this travel club they belong to. It seemed really rehearsed and they kept asking us loaded questions like " you enjoy travelling and meeting people don't you? " we looked it up later and it's basically some 'multi-level marketing' scheme around holidays.
I was growing increasingly uncomfortable as I thought we were just going for a friendly visit. It also transpired that we were the only ones there not already part of this 'club'
When I interrupted the sales pitch to express my discomfort, this woman replied " well you said you wanted to get to know us better and this is what we do"
I felt bad for making DP sit through the whole spiel so I told them we wanted to leave, picked up DD and went.

The woman seemed really surprised at my reaction, like I was the one being socially inappropriate and they couldn't understand the problem. She still wants to be friends and has sinced called, messages me On fb and waved whilst out and about. But I feel betrayed and hurt about the whole thing like this was the only reason she wanted to be friends.
So, my question is, AIBU to not want to be her friend anymore and should I have just sat through the sales pitch smiling and nodding then politely declined? I can't stop thinking about it.

WTF that sounds very odd! I get annoyed when friends invite me to their card making parties and Ann Summers parties but that's way beyond that, even a little creepy with the five back up members. I wonder how many people sign up due to intimidation.

No yaNBu !!! Run run run!!!

Well done for walking out. No need to continue this friendship if you don't want to.

Yanbu that's just weird

Yanbu to have left don't have anything to do with her again , the woman I work with has a sideline and is always harping on about it and im sure she employed a somebody because she is a beautician and would enhance the womans 'sideline' as she has no experience of what she is employed to do ,

Ok, the holiday club sales pitch thing was a bit of a nightmare, but it would seem that you made your feelings about that very clear, and she is still waving and smiling, and looking you up on Facebook - so I would assume from that she wants to still pursue the friendship, even though you're not interested in her business.
Maybe you could build on this, most of my friends don't discuss their jobs that much - but we manage to spend hours chatting about other things!
My point is....you liked her before this, maybe you could give her another chance?

Worra I'm interested how you got on day to day looking after a baby and just having your old and dear friends for support?

Genuine question - it's just that I tried so hard to maintain friendships with my old friends after I had DD, but my old childless friends had jobs to go to during the day, so I'm glad I had 'mummy friends' to lean on during what could be quite long days.

Agree you should avoid her but maintain civility. I do understand why you felt betrayed - I would have too - and as for the pyramid selling thing, ( or MLM), - defintiely avoid. It is easy to get pulled in and then your only way of recovering your money is essentially to pull more people in. These companies particularly target sociable, outgoing people who are have potentially large networks, (mothers, teachers, members of gyms etc). I know because I almost got involved in one thinking it was a genuine business training opportunity but luckily realised what it was in time and got out, and that's what they told me.

Busyoldfool is your username from the John Donne poem??

YANBU, it sounds absolutely awful, especially with you having taken DH along too.

But like other posters have said, in time it will make a great anecdote!

However, if you can't stop thinking about it, maybe you should go out for a coffee with this lady and see what she has to say about it? If she still doesn't understand why it upset you, and is unrepentant, then you should run as you're obviously not on the same wavelength.

These things are like a cult and she is waving and tracking you down on Facebook as she believes she can still 'convert you'.

I was invited on a day out by a 'friend' and ended up stuck in a huge conference room in a 5 star hotel in London where they did the hard sell - lots of yee-hawing and cheering etc. (I believe it's called positive conditioning).

I came away and made a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading and had to give a statement which was used in court (along with other evidence) to prosecute the guy at the top of the pyramid (who had made £17mill out of the scheme).

Run for the hills!!

This happened to me. My neighbours wanted to be our friends. Really friendly, inviting us over.

Then they introduced us to the Cult Of The Overpriced Household Products

When it became obvious we weren't interested (this took a few tries on their behalf, so don't think that because you've said an initial no, that she still wants to be mates and isn't going to give it another shot!) then all friendliness stopped and we were demoted to 'polite wave and good morning'.

Then we watched from the outside as they selected and went after subsequent marks.

Worra

I didn't read scheherezade's post angry at all. She was just responding to you boak post.

I don't really like the term 'mummy friends' but I think as others have said if there's common ground why not become friends just like any other common ground.

Then we watched from the outside as they selected and went after subsequent marks

Hecate yes, my uni friend was of the school of pointless Household Products too. I just couldn't understand why I ought to buy washing-up liquid from him instead of the supermarket.

Besides being an evangelical soap-seller wasn't enough for him - he was also a rabid New-Labourite; in later years I waited to see if he'd get selected for some safe seat, but he never did, and in (what I imagine was) a fit of pique, became a Tory.

So there's your lesson. Never trust these people...they turn out to be Tories all along.