Forever living products...is it legit?

[LifeInJeneral]

Hi, I know it's not really an AIBU thread but I'm posting here because there is lots of traffic and I am trying to decide if this is legit. A friend of a friend has approached me about become a member of a company called forever living. They sell various products based on aloe Vera. She has tried to get my to join as a "business owner". It's marketing / sales but you seem to only really make money by getting more people on board as sales reps. It's not a pyramid scheme, it is legit in that respect buy what I wanted to know is has anyone been involved in this in the past who can let me know there experience or what they thought of the products? To get started it costs about £200 for a starter box of products (but you do get a lot) plus a sales website. They insist I wpuld easily make it back in a month but I am not sure I am convinced. I guess it is AIBU to be dubious or can people give me any positive stories?

You do get your money back, but don't make anymore if you are near the bottom and the market saturated with reps

It's not possible to get your money back at the bottom of the pyramid. The mathematic formulae show that. There aren't enough people in the world for the bottom of the pyramid to get their money back.

It is completely a scam, and one that really causes financial and emotional hardship.

Yes yes yes to the crunchie bars

NewLife this is a good description
www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud_protection/pyramid_schemes

www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/jobs-investment/pyramid-schemes

money.howstuffworks.com/pyramid-scheme1.htm

Legitimate companies (LCs) use salespeople to sell their products. LCs pay
their salespeople basic plus commission on sales. LCs fund training, meetings, and kick-off events. LCs supply sales materials and tools free of charge. LCs incur, therefore, some costs per salesperson. LCs do not make money on salespeople purchasing their products. LCs make sure that each salesperson has a designated area such that salespeople don't saturate the marketplace. And of course, LCs don't allow salespeople to recruit other salespeople without OK from the company!.

Multi-Level-Marketing companies (MLMs) pay no basic to Independent Business Owners (IBOs) who, purportedly, sell their products. MLMs charge IBOs for joining. MLMs then charge IBOs for - and make money from - all training, meetings, kick-off events, sales materials, demo kit and tools. Therefore rather than incur costs per salesperson, MLMs make money off each IBO. MLMs encourage IBOs to purchase their products and MLMs profit off these; MLMs use jargon to blur the distinction between IBO personal purchase and "sales". MLMs are happy that IBOs recruit new IBOs below them (as MLMs make money off each salesperson, whether they sell anything or not); due to this, there are no restrictions on IBO-saturation of an area.

Bottom line: MLMs make money buy exploiting the salesforce(IBOs). And I hav'nt even mentioned the cult-like mind control hooks that MLMs use! Beware!

Trust me OP, if you are feeling postnatal, stressed and low, then it is NOT a good idea to sign up to this scam. You will feel under pressure, stressed, overworked and a failure by the time you are done.

Totally agree IcyTea. Glad I didn't take it any further.
eats 3 remaining crunchie bars and pours a gin and tonic

As a frequent contributor to the Bot Watch threads can I say this thread has made me so very very happy

Good decision re the Crunchie bars OP. Now I want one.

A colleague of mine does this. I occasionally see stuff on my fb feed as almost all my other colleagues have liked her page. Anyway, last week she posted a photo of a mum and a baby stating that they were friends and were in the local children's ward for whatever reason. For every £3 lipstick people bought she would donate £1 to the ward. She ended it with something along the lines of ' come on, start giving to this great cause'.

Just when i thought FL couldn't get any more annoying.

OP a friend of mine is doing Younique. Shes married with a kid but i remember her telling me 6 years ago that her boyfriend (now her DH) was telling her how she should have a part time job even when she was caring full time for a relative who was in a wheelchair on a breathing tube. So i reckon he has been pressuring her. She set up a fb group , added me to it. I stayed in it for a few days and then saw a post from someone saying "i dont want to be in this group. Please stop adding me" so she had obviously left and then she added her again. I left when i saw the meme that said "When you buy from a beauty counter no lives change" inferring that they are the only ones who give money to a charity for women, Well some of us have longer memories than that .

Benefit San Francisco did something in conjunction with Refuge.

Avon did something in conjunction with Womens Aid.

Shes not re added me to the group.........yet!

She does still post the odd advert on the main fb feed and her husband shares it.

Including the corporate speak memes.

They aren't ever sold as being a ft job for life, are they?

No, they never mention residual income, royalty income, passing on their company to their children...

So yes, actually, they are sold as ft jobs for life. And FLP are the worst.

When I saw the title I thought Mumsnet would explode

OP - hope things pick up for you soon.

Off to get a crunchie.

Well if I have achieved nothing else with my day at least I can sleep well tonight knowing I have single handedly started the crunchie revival

OP, so glad you are not getting involved in this MLM. This woman is taking advantage of your current vulnerability, this is what MLM reps do. They find your weakness and exploit it. Check out our BotWatchBlog and Timeless Vie.

It's not a pyramid scheme. It's an inverse funnel!

^That made me smirk.

Extremely tiresome Juice Plus drivel has started creeping over my Facebook feed and although it's all outrageously positive success stories and people loving life while working from deckchairs, it all has clammily desperate air to it. Fake it before you make it, I think - and with the number of Juice Plus sellers in my small circle I just don't see how they can all make it with what is a rather expensive niche product.

LifeInGeneral I don't know if this helps but if you want a way to earn money from home, you could try something like PeoplePerHour. This website lets you buy or sell services to individuals across the world - you dictate the job, the cost and the timeline.

As an example, I've used it to get people to proofread long documents, delete fake comments and followers from Facebook, and to rename loads of image files. Although there are loads of skilled people on there, there's also loads of admin and I jump at the chance to work with someone in the same timezone and with no language barrier!

Your friend is no friend. You were perceived as vulnerable, and duly targeted.

If you get involved with this nonsense you'll lose other friends because they'll find you tiresome.

If someone did that to me i would end the friendship.

It someone from FL is 'after you' this means that somewhere in their home is a list of all the people they know who they think they can make money from, and your name is on it. They are told to do this, make a dream board, pictures of the car they want and the holidays they want, and the names of all their friends and associates who are going to pay for it for them. I have virtually broken contact with my FL friend, and she was a good friend of mine, because she looked at me when I was most vulnerable and saw pound signs which I cannot forgive.

Run for the hills, from the scheme and from this person.

And as an aside, OP, I hope you;re getting some support. It sounds like life is tough at the moment

Thenewav That is really upsetting!

newav that would be unforgivable in my book too.

Looks like my friend has now changed the group setting from closed to public.

It's strange, a year ago I didn't even know multi level marketing existed (except a couple of body shop parties I went to where we were made to feel obligated to buy stuff so our friend could get free stuff :/) it's very well hidden, the darker side of it, but if you read Botwatch blog and Timeless How it all unfolds like a fascinating horror story. Remember, every excited (eeek !) new 'business owner' who pays out £200 for their box of products is paying almost directly to the top of the pyramid, and the only real customers of MLMs are the business owners who purchase the products themselves to make up the required amounts of retail to stay in the game, working 20 hours a day missing off everyone they know. Their friends and family might make the off Pitt purchase which gets them all excited and keeps them ploughing their money in, as well as paying for expenses. All false expectation of future reward.

Actually I think it's less well hidden now and it's all starting to unravel. Car crash viewing.