Friend taking the piss with home business

[Magicnumbers]

A good friend is supported financially by DH and has recently decided to go into one of these multi level marketing beauty businesses. It's set her back quite a lot to buy all the products.

Suddenly her Facebook account is full of adverts and I have had the sales patter for these products every time we've met.

Keen to support her, I bought a couple of things. They were okay, but really expensive. I have politely declined to buy more but I still keep getting messages from her asking if I want anything more. She's done this will loads of friends in the area and she's so lovely but at least one person I know has shut off contact after a hard sell to recruit her too.

Now there are posts on Facebook with photos of her with her young DS on all these walks and out at clubs with hashtags and captions like "do what you love" "work from home" "would never miss this time with my boy" etc, right next to posts saying "who can help me reach my target this month? Just need two more sales of x product?". This goes to working parents who don't get to take their children to the same things she goes to with her boy because they are working- but she wants them to use their earnings to keep her in business, then posts (slightly smug) stuff like that.

To stop myself from getting more annoyed I have hidden her feed on Facebook, but (a) is she being unreasonable/insensitive and (b) should I try to say anything to her? Am I being crap in not supporting her more? She's my mate, I want her to do well, but this feels like the wrong way of going about keeping friends.

I can see both sides.
I am actually part of one of these networks. I sell skincare (for a company I will not name but it isn't forever living) and I do well out of it. I have a full-time job, and I do this is a secondary income. However, I am not pushy. I have certain friends that buy my products, and some friends that buy none at all. If people ask me about the products, I tell them. The only time I post stuff on Facebook, is if there is a flash sale, or when I am putting orders on some of my Facebook friends like to put onto my order so they get free delivery. I don't bring it up when I am in groups of friends and I don't try and recruit. I have told my manager (Who is actually really quite pushy) that I only do it as a secondary income and I'm not looking to make a business out of it.
So when I see people on Facebook and in real life, being really pushy and posting those kinds of things that you're on about, "precious time with my kids, love what you do" it really irritates me. Whilst it makes me a nice secondary income, it's incredibly hard to build these businesses.

I was in poundland, they sell aloe drinks 2 for £1 I think. Was going to try it but there is pulp floating in itboak. Isn't aloe a mlm? Because it looks awful

I've not long joined a local mums group, I go to meet ups and sometimes someone else adds me on Facebook, I don't have a lot of friends so I get a little excited until I realise some of them are jp bots😔

Amway! Oh god, there's a blast from the past. DB tried to recruit me into that.

On the plus side, I suspect he's never needed to buy any more cleaning products for the past ten years -- still using up the stockpile.

(Maybe I'm your SIL, SuperSop? Eek...)

It's horrible to be put on the spot like this. You feel that you're no longer a friend - just a sales opportunity. If you buy nothing would they break all ties with you just because you're not 'useful' anymore?

I would back away from this and I'm sure a lot of other people will too which is a bit sad - it's a lost friendship.

Should be illegal!

I'll never forget the time a friend/colleague of mine from work told me she'd won a free pamper party and wanted me to come along to her flat. I thought "fab, an evening out away from the kids, bit of pampering and I get to socialise with a new friend"... When I arrived my heart sank as I walked in and saw a demented woman standing there in a bright pink FL t-shirt, in front of a table laden with FL products on an FL tablecloth. The friend from work looked at me grimly - she knew she'd tricked me, but was guilted into throwing the "party" by her bot friend! She even apologised afterwards so I knew she was fully aware of the setup! Only one other person came and we both sat sceptically through an hour long sales pitch followed by one crappy foot bath and a really disgusting aloe drink in a shotglass. She even tried to recruit us all as bots too. She kept saying how brilliant this new "career" is and how it's her "ticket" to being able to quit her rubbish job and spending more time with her kids. Really sad. No-one purchased a single thing and it was so totally cringey.

I felt pretty sorry for the woman going home empty handed but I didn't want to give any money to these shitty scams, and besides, the cheapest product must have been at least £30! Ironically she entirely wasted an evening she could have spent with her kids, on top of her day job she hadn't quit yet, so this scam business was actually taking her away from her family.

Grimdamn, thank you- will take a look. Also been looking at Timeless VIE and some of the scams highlighted there. Just noticed that friend's business Facebook page has 5* reviews from...DH and her DM. Photos of DS have product placement and motivational quotes which are just utter bollocks.

I won't spend much more time being horrified by all this. I am spending my evening with my kids. Might even post a cute family photo on Facebook without a hashtag.

Thanks everyone, been good to hear your thoughts on this situation.

I would just hide and unfollow her.

Goodness, was it really 7 hours ago that I followed the link to the notquitefairytales blog . Just finished it. Goodbye Friday...

I had to do a big message on my fb telling all of my friends not to invite me to their MLM pages after the 4th friend in a week added me.

It seems to have worked

Enjoyed reading the not quite fairytales blog.

A friend of mine had a tough time going back from mat leave and left her job to be a SAHM and started selling Forever Living. Her aim was to take her children on a holiday abroad with her earnings so she clearly had been led to believe she could earn at least s few £100 per month.

It didn't go well when I mildly observed that if these products were so good I'd be able to buy them in John Lewis. In the end I did big something to be supportive but I kicked myself for that afterwards.

It was awful to watch a bright and intelligent woman get sucked in when she was vulnerable.

Thankfully she's woken up and stopped now.

Italiangreyhound I don't know why it is closing! I saw a FB post about it. Of all the MLM's to close, why did it have to be one that had good products I could actually like and use

I'm going to set up a business.

"Are you tempted to join JuicePlus/Yonique/any other rubbish? Are you looking at how much money you could make while working at home. Well, for just £10 I can save you ££££. Send me the money and I will send you my little secret which will stop you in your tracks with amazement!"

When they've sent the money I'll email them:
"Do not do it..."

Any takers?

I met a woman at a toddler group who'd been tragically widowed and she was plugging Pampered Chef at us all. Personally I thought it was wicked to exploit her anxiety about finances and her grief.

I'm surprised that she isn't ashamed. At least she's trying to support herself.

The number of times someone with an ill child has posted on a local parenting FB page, only for the bot locusts to descend. The worst was over heat rash, where the very worst thing you can do is slather with lotion - it traps the water against the skin, when you want the reverse to happen. I politely explained this, together with links to NHS Direct and the Mayo Clinic advice page to show it was medically accurate... and then several more MLM bots posted suggesting their heinously expensive lotions and potions. I just... have they no pride or morals at all? A mother with a kid in serious discomfort wants advice, and they are trying to flog her stuff that will actually make her baby worse.

I know most are vulnerable. I know about 7 or 8 women doing this, and all are mothers who hate being in the childcare costs trap and want to work. They're good people and would never post as the rest did on that page. But the fact they are lovely and being exploited in this way makes me even angrier.

I think pyramid schemes like this should be banned.

I used to be in an MLM but was one of the worst sellers in their eyes. I couldn't bring myself to lie to customers so I told them which products were crap and which were better but would tell them to wait as they'd be on sale, and I would even tell them if the website was cheaper. I didn't care about my own sales as I just didn't want people to spend more than necessary. I finally got sick of buying something to demonstrate and then the product would be changed so they could market it as "all new" or whatever so I told the "managers" what a crock of shit it was when they did that, and then I left. But then I wasn't into any of their tactics like adding random people on social media and I couldn't be bothered trying to sign anyone up either. I did do pretty well with money but the stress of being told what to do wasn't worth it in the end.

I have a few friends in different MLMs and most of them aren't pushy so I just leave them to it. One friend seems to flit from one to another all the time and she's one of the crazy hashtaggers, that's when I start to unfollow people. If it's kept in a private group, that's fine, but I don't want my newsfeed full of all the #omg #livingthedream #myuplinetoldmetoaddallthesecrazyhashtagstogetattention shit.

The worst one is a family member of DH. It's always about where they're travelling to or how they've had 3 promotions in 5 hours or whatever, but they never actually say which company or what products they sell. All that's posted is how it's an amazing opportunity and they sell a variety of products. Obviously fishing for curious people to enquire but it's infuriating.

I had an experience with Amway many years ago and found it most interesting to read the fairytales blog, as the scripts have not changed AT ALL! There's a smartarse answer to every question in MLMs and this makes me feel very sad.

Maybe I should elaborate as reading back my last post makes me realise it could be ambiguous.
I mean the uplines have the smartarse answers, and they learn those form their uplines. And so it goes on, and on, and on. Meanwhile in the background someone is raking in loads of cash from all those sucked in to these schemes.

YANBU. Is your friend legally allowed to run a business from home. A lot of property including rented have restrictions on this. Just ask casually who she applied to for permission if you know of any restrictions on her property. If newish build there probably will be. Like others, think her business will be short lived anyhow.

A distant relative of mine put a huge fb status announcing to us all that she was now a 'younique presenter'...it was so cringeworthy, i was embarrassed for her....a few weeks later and it all seemed to have died a death thankfully.
On another note i rarely see herbalife, jp or fl posts on my feed anymore.....maybe people are realising its a load of shite.

I always post this in response to MLM posts. It's a bit long but well worth a watch.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI

What really irritates me is that I quite like FL products but I've stopped buying them because of the harassment!! I have a perfectly good job, I don't want another one and I'm not naive enough to believe I could replicate my current salary by becoming an MLMBot! I just want to buy some nice body cream!! Or suncream (fyi - their suncream is fab - best tan I've ever had and no prickly heat!)

Also, do the bots not realise that not everyone can become a seller? At some point they need just buyers to make their businesses viable?!

@SantasLittleMonkeyButler
Yes, Thrive/Le Vel is another pyramid scheme masquerading as an "amazing business opportunity" aka MLM.

@alisonyawn you're either lying to yourself or to us. It's not possible to make a decent second income from these things. We've done the maths. They are all designed to suck the money up the pyramid.

Yes, I buy FL but just 2 things, think the rest isnt really worth it, fortunately I know someone who sells it without any pressure and is quite happy for me to do one order every year or so.

I have tried cheaper alternatives but they are not half as good, if they just stuck with a decent product without all the rest of the shit I think far more people would be inclined to buy it. They have such a reputation for hard sales people run a mile, I tried it 15years ago before they were really known, wouldnt go to a party now because of the way they push sales