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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To want my usually lovely friend to stop harrassing me about Forever Living

228 replies

Pestopastaagain · 14/07/2014 17:24

She has recently got involved with Forever Living. We used to be in touch every month or so via email, text or fb (We live opposite ends of the country) but since she has got involved with this it's every single day more or less. She sends chatty messages but always drops in 'Have you thought about it some more' 'They are really good products' etc. Another mutual friend told me she has also been emailing her the same thing, again and again and again. Mutual friend and I have both already told her we're not interested in becoming part of it but we wish her luck and hope it works out.

What has happened to our usually sane and lovely friend? It's impossible to have a conversation with her without Forever Living being mentioned repeatedly. It's like she has been taken over by a cult or something the way she keeps going on about it.

I looked into the company and it seems to be a MLM company. Some of the articles I have read make it seem like a very fine line between that and a pyramid scheme. A lot of people also saying they made no or very little money trying to sell inferior products at an inflated price.

She's not made any money yet but is playing a well off future down to them. Is she kidding herself, has anyone here been selling these products and made any money doing it?

OP posts:
mimishimmi · 18/07/2014 03:40

I use aloe vera regularly on my skin. It is a miracle product. It does leave me people unblelieving that I could not have been a teenaged mum and have a thirteen year old daughter now. DH drinks it alleviate digestive conditions. DD uses it on the few spots she gets togood effect. It also costs us nothing since I grow it in pots on my balcony and even the plant didn't cost me anything as it propagates very easily by taking an offshoot of someone elses (in my case my grandmother's). I do not understand conpanies that try to make money off selling aloe vera.

maggiethemagpie · 18/07/2014 17:55

mimishimmi - You're saying aloe vera does all these wonderful things but you cant understand how a company would try to make money out of selling it?

McBear · 18/07/2014 20:26

Maggie Grin exactly what I thoughtWink

MoCox · 20/08/2014 00:50

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

AbbieHoffmansAfro · 20/08/2014 15:26

Interesting article on Herbalife here.

Needasilverlining · 20/08/2014 17:25

All the evangelists boring on about the amazing products and lifestyle purely because you wuvs it so much - you know it's incredibly obvious why you're doing it, right?

atticusclaw · 20/08/2014 17:41

scary thread

MoCox · 20/08/2014 18:17

There has been a lot of bad press about them lately - court cases taken out by distributors etc. I think these things really need to be carefully researched we looked at a few before joining our company and took advice from impartial people too.

winnetheshrew · 09/11/2014 05:28

Aleksandra034, your extensive web-vangelism on this page is not really warming me to mlm companies. While you say you are not trying to recruit people to your line, you do kind of sound as if you've been brainwashed, and that naturally makes it sound as if you're trying to brainwash other people too.

Your posting of friendly smilies and saying that you're only posting again because it would be rude not to etc.. etc.. directly contrasts with the fervent manner in which you take care to address every criticism in so much detail, which just seems a little aggressive to me and well, not very friendly.

minifingers · 09/11/2014 07:43

I'd love FL, Kleeneze, Herbalife etc, to publish details of the median income made by their distributors. Maybe also the typical hourly rate for their labour - distribution, administration, attending sales talks etc.

The only person I know who has got involved in MLM (Kleeneze and FL) seemed to put in a colossal amount of time and effort over months and months but made very little money out of it.

gingerandcoffee · 09/11/2014 15:16

I agree minifingers. People turn to these distribution schemes because they want to earn money, but from what I've seen most people actually lose money from them.

I have a friend who invited us to a pampered chef party, and my friends and I all felt guilt-tripped into buying an item or two that we didn't need. We all felt a bit ripped-off, and were then completely put off from going to these evenings again. Another friend did an evening selling stuff for a gift card company, and she said it's an awful lot of work for the money you get for it.

From what I've seen it seems to be something that people try but then give up on after a short while. I know other peoples' experiences are different, but they seem to be in the minority.

gingerandcoffee · 09/11/2014 15:59

Reading some more of these posts, they made me laugh because I just came across a friend of a friend's FB page. She's clearly a seller for Arbornne, and every one of her posts and photos mention it. Like "Here we are at Daisy's Arbonne pampering hen party", and "Here's Josie's nan with her Arbonne manicure". With status update "Arbonne is the best job in the world".

If she was my friend it would just drive me crazy. Luckily all of her friends seem to sell it too, but then maybe all the others have just unfriended her..

Yackity · 09/11/2014 17:09

These companies are all very different, some are true MLMs, others are more similar to pyramid schemes.

I like pampered chef.

I've got a few of their products, and I really like them. They're not cheap, but the equivalent quality product costs pretty much the same in the Department stores like John Lewis.

I bought some alternative products for less elsewhere, and I have to say, I haven't been too impressed. They work, but not quite as well.

I don't sell it, though. I've been to 2 parties, and there are a few other things I'd like from the range so will buy a few bits and pieces every now and then.

But they seem more like a product company, so a true MLM, rather than a pyramid scheme.

Amway, from years ago, I was inflicted to loads of their sessions via family and friends, to become a distributor and earn squillions. But there weren't really sessions to tell me about the products - although they did make an attempt to get their make up out there, packaged not dissimilarly to avon's.

Usborne books, the books aren't bad. But I usually buy them direct from the website, sometimes from fairs.

I quite like Phoenix cards, have been tempted to hold a coffee morning with their cards because I quite like buying up a bulk amount of cards and using them as I need, and I have always liked their cards when I see them at craft fairs, and they're quite reasonably priced.

But the FL and Herbalife ones.... noooooo, far too much like pyramid schemes.

Anyone that tells me about it just to make me a seller, they've lost my interest.

If the product is good enough to stand on its own, and reasonably priced enough to make me want to buy it without being a distributor, then go ahead and talk to me, I am far more likely to be interested.

OTheHugeManatee · 09/11/2014 18:42

MLMs are in my view just another of zillions of ways that women (cos it is mostly women) who want part-time and flexible work that fits around family commitments are outrageously exploited. It's up there with the way PT jobs always pay loads less than the equivalent going rate pro rata for a FT position wanting the same experience and qualifications. Proper gives me the rage, it does: for every type A personality who bullies enough other people into joining the scheme to make money, there are countless others who at best break even and even lose money trying to sell shite to their friends.

JenniferGovernment · 09/11/2014 19:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

gingerandcoffee · 09/11/2014 22:14

Sounds very cultish to me. When someone's within the cult they can't see things from the point of view of those outside.

dingdongdonna · 11/11/2014 13:36

sick of seeing people push this on facebook. why would I want to starve myself and eat aloe vera gel for a week? WHY??

HaroldsBishop · 11/11/2014 14:03

It's undoubtedly a pyramid scheme, just like Herbalife.

These companies use "creative accounting" to overstate the retail sales so that they can get around the common definition of a pyramid scheme: Where your income in primarily derived from selling to fellow "distributors".

Here's a easily understood, if rather lengthy, analysis of how they operate:

factsaboutherbalife.com/media/2013/01/Who-wants-to-be-a-Millionaire.pdf

Scuttlemum14 · 05/02/2015 06:25

Just wanted to bump this thread as my sister joined it and she's gone freaking insane.

Scuttlemum14 · 05/02/2015 06:29

I was like a raging bull Tuesday when a friend text me telling me my sister had messaged her ( she only has her number because of my hen do 3.5 yrs ago) with a YouTube video? Like wtf? I watched it and not only does it insult my family, it spouts cr*p about making £500 a week. Worse still her normally ok husband seems to believe this bs and she keeps harassing my sister in law too...they hardly know each other..she ignored her friend request but my sister doesn't seem to get the point...

Sallygoroundthemoon · 05/02/2015 10:08

I think it is important to understand that pyramid schemes are illegal and these companies would be shut down if found to be operating as such. What they are is network marketing companies and that model is not for everyone and it depends on the products. Valid MLMs are based on good products. I tried FL stuff
and hated it, have been on the receiving end of an Arbonne presentation and have seen lots of other network marketing companies in action. They aren't for me. But it is a legal business model.

The issue comes with people becoming 'consultants' who have no business skills and do not understand either how to run a credible business or how to build relationships.They end up harassing friends and failing, whereas if they just sold the products like any retailer their success would live and die on the quality of the product.

If anyone tries to recruit me these days I politely decline and give them some serious business advice instead :).

Ifyourawizardwhydouwearglasses · 05/02/2015 10:59

Someone's trying to recruit me at the moment. I've been polite so far but I'm very close to just telling them to fuck. Off.

Letmeeatcakecakecake · 05/02/2015 11:37

I once worked somewhere in London, and they recruited a guy whose wife sold for FL.... His employment swiftly ended when he started spending all day writing long sales emails to all our colleagues... The boss... And even to the CLIENTS! He seemed utterly brain washed. It was bizarre. He had nothing to talk about other than FL products and trying to recruit people.

Does anyone know anyone that's now getting involved in the 'younique' make up range? I'm about to delete an old friend off FB if she tries to add me to her group one more time! She's constantly posting pics of her wearing the mascara and it looks horrendous... Extremely clumpy.

KindleFancy · 05/02/2015 11:46

There's a couple of people on my fb flogging younique shite.

Lots of pictures of one eye with, one without mascara to show the amazing difference - um, yep, the eyelashes that have mascara on do look darker love - same as my un-younique mascara does for mine Hmm

TidyDancer · 05/02/2015 11:57

I know someone who does FL. She's a bit of a fool anyway, but this has totally sucked her in. All her facebook posts are tagged with the #workfromhome #busymum #lovinglife shit. She buys so many products and I've never seen evidence of her making money from it. She leaves the DCs with unsuitable carers while she goes off on marketing conferences. If she ever raises the subject with me, I refuse to refer to it as FL or aloe vera products, I just call it "your pyramid scheme". Grin

Sadly, my friend is not what you'd call particularly 'with it' and is definitely the type to be hooked in by this shit. I have given up trying to get her to realise how it is. The FL crowd are crazy.