To think that if you sell overpriced cosmetics in a pyramid selling sham you should just say so

[loveablether]

Instead of wasting people's time with your chat about being a 'self employed internet based networking manager' to which people obviously say 'what does that involve?' Which leads into a long pishy chat about arbon. No thank you. I do not want to buy a £15 roll on deodorant that smells of mint even though it lasts for a decade. My 99p sure roll on is just dandy and I don't think I've ever seen 'too much cotton fresh scented roll on applied to armpits' on a death certificate.

I really actually initially thought she was friendly & cool, and a potential new mum friend and now I think I'll avoid.

AIBU?

They prey on the desperate, it's true. But I think it's harsh to call the people who get caught by them 'not terribly intelligent'. Like all cults, MLM is quite seductive, and if you are someone who has always been interested in cosmetics (or jewellery, or 'wellness') and the products seem to be appealing, then it's going to look like a viable business model - selling stuff among friends and neighbours and getting a commission. If you had eg an auntie who was an Avon or Tupperware rep when you were growing up, you might think it's a similar sort of thing (Certainly in the past, I think they had stricter controls on the number of reps they would allow per area, and there really wasn't such an emphasis on recruitment; it was much more about shifting actual product and getting a commission on it.) Then it starts working in the same way that an abusive relationship might work - lots of praise mingled with lots of nagging and shaming and unwanted advice. And you start thinking that you've already sunk so much money into it you can't stop...

A friend of mine has started selling the Body Shop stuff on a MLM scheme. I'm torn between getting the banana shampoo and conditioner (it's cheaper going through her than buying in store) and not wanting to give money to a MLM! She's doing very out of character posts about "rocking" and "smashing" stuff (why must it be something so violent?! )

At least my friend has named what she's doing unlike another one who did what I can only assume was Forever Living but never actually said it out loud in the 14 posts a day she made.

I feel empathy for the people (mostly women) who’ve gotten mixed up in these set-ups.

Is Tropic MLM? I have to say I thinks it's actually good stuff, my skim is sensitive but dry and it's one of the only things I use on it which doesn't make it burn or tingle!

Don't forget doterra oils! They can cure ANYTHING

I'm surprised Temple Spa is one of these. Our local beauty salon uses their products and the owner sells it via parties but does not push it or recruit others to my knowledge

If you have Amazon Prime, watch episode 6 from the first season of Life in Pieces. I feel a lot of you would relate.

Chad: Now, I can sell this to you for retail, but... if you become a representative, I can get it to you wholesale price. How would you like to be your own boss, Matt?
Matt: Ohhh, so this is a pyramid scheme.
Chad: No. It's a legitimate business.
Matt: But it's actually called Ponzi.
Chad: It's pronounced "Pone-zee."
Matt: And the bottles are actually pyramids.
Chad: It's upside down. [Tries unsuccessfully to balance a pyramid-shaped bottle upside down.] Okay, you broke it, you got to buy it, so... I'll take it out of your first month's supply.
Matt:

I bought a small frying pan from pampered chef for £70 a few years ago. Lasted no longer than one from tesco for a tenner. Never again.

I also know Arbonne sellers, and I am no longer actively a part of their lives, despite knowing them my entire life and previously being good friends.

It's so inauthentic, and smacks of having approximately three brain cells.

I made the mistake of adding one on FB, not realising she was a pyramid seller and she keeps trying to recruit me!!!!!! ARGH!!!
For anyone in need of a laugh join the facebook group “Sounds Like MLM But OK”

Juice plus, herbal life, aloe drinks, nu skin... watch the movie betting on zero about herbal life, it's on netflix, but here's the wiki link

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betting_on_Zero

TBH body shop and avon are ok, only because i don't feel they are shams.

I know someone (not terribly well) into MLM and according to her she makes good money and is thinking about giving up her job. I assume she’s junior management, deffo a manager. She jetted off to the US last year and won an award, resulting in an all expense paid holiday. I’ve never bought anything off her. She tried to sell some weight loss stuff to me and I declined. She’s got the perfect personality for selling, which I assume why she’s successful.

I’m gobsmacked Temple Spa is an MLM. I’ve found this online. I don’t get it. The vast majority of sales are online, through retail outlets and beauty salons, surely? I use their eye cream and night cream. I have only ever bought it when on deals half price direct online. Think I may need to find alternatives. I was introduced to it via a party. But the person hosting isn’t into MLM, doesn’t sell it herself etc. She is into gimmicky stuff eg Cambridge diet etc, which she now sells. We were quite friendly at the time hence why I was invited.

Dd and I were outside the first woman’s house last night. We aren’t usually there but were buying something from the someone living opposite. And the second woman arrived at the first woman’s house. Something just clicked in my head. They’re both at it, aren’t they? I hadn’t worked it out before.

Some really interesting viewpoints on here and a link I'll watch for sure - i totally get that it can be seductive for some and really difficult to say no.

At my one and only arbon party I attended it kicked off with this dodgy sales Skype pitch to us all before we'd even had the chance to have a look at the products (or the food!) the girl that was hosting for the first time was clearly feeling uncomfortable with the desperate and pushy way the girl on the Skype pitch was acting, she was trying to make out like there was a 'massive' party with champagne going on downstairs when one of us said 'go on! Take the laptop down so we can have a virtual dance off' the lame excuses when she didn't want to admit it was just her boyfriend scratching his balls was cringetastic.

Avon reps tend to be different. They don’t Tend to wax lyrical about the products and leave it to you to decide. Also,,the products are supermarket prices, if not cheaper. It seems more honest, somehow.

My friend who used to sell Younuque now sells Doterra. I can understand falling into MLM once (maybe), but I don’t understand those who go from MLM to MLM. It must be so soul destroying as well.

cannonfodder her success is unlikely to be the true story tbh. She is probably paying for a lot of that stuff - it doesn't matter how good a salesperson you are, the only way to make any money is to recruit more ppl who go on to recruit more ppl.
I have a friend in one of these and if you looked at her social media you'd think she was doing amazingly. She's not pushy so I don't think sells much but blames herself for not working hard enough. I know she's also had to pay people to make orders to keep up her status level thingy.

Oooh Doterra...I had to block DH's friends wife who became involved in that one. Just got to much when she was claiming to have cured half of the people living in her town of various ailments and then started to photograph her kids to 'prove' various health benefits. Too much.

I hate MLM but Dottera annoys me most of all. I love aromatherapy and use oils a lot but theirs are massively overpriced ans make all sorts of wild and wonderful claims. The worst is that they are safe to ingest - no no no. Oils should not be ingested unless under the guidance of a qualified practitioner. This does NOT mean a hunbot. My friend who actually IS a qualified aromatherapist has recently been brainwashed by a Doterra bot and has been ingesting oils when previously she was strongly against it.

Shockingly, I know an actuary who jacked in her job to sell Arbonne.

I went to a selling party at a friends house recently for something like this.....might have been Tropic. Loads of face washes, shower gels, some make up......think the shower gel was about £15.

The two sellers (one was a trainee) was extolling the virtues of one of the face washes and had terrible skin herself so really wasn’t selling it to me. I ate cake and didn’t buy anything.

magnetiq
I do wonder that myself. She lives a very ordinary life from outward appearances. Wishing people do well is a double edged sword. You don’t want them to suffer. But equally you don’t want others to suffer.

Shadow666
I agree about going from mlm to mlm. The woman I referred to used to sell Valentus coffee maybe a year ago. More recently declared she wasn’t going to follow any faddy diets.

My sister does partylite but only to stop having to go to the job centre because of uc even though she has a multitude of health conditions and long term doctors note.
She doesn't push it but does benefit from doing it.

God, someone I was at school with posted this on FB alongside her photos from a Vegas Arbonne convention

I am filled up to the brim after a week away in Vegas, not just because it’s the first consecutive 7 nights of sleep I have had in 7 years 🙈😂, but because of the environment created when 16,000 Arbonne consultants get together in one hotel!!
^
3 years ago when I got involved with this company, I did not have a clue how far reaching the decision would be. In fact, i couldn’t have imagined anything I would rather do less than run a business like this! Now, I am just overjoyed that I get to do this every day, and proud to be aligned with this incredible company.

This business is about learning to love life, embracing the ups and finding the tools to cope with the downs. It’s about empowering, uplifting and inspiring women (mostly) creating a movement for social change. It’s about learning to be stronger, learning to love yourself and those around you, and taking responsibility for the life that you live. No being a victim, no complaining. It’s about finding solutions and enacting them with the help of a team of people who are cheering you on and wanting to help you succeed.

It is a truly unique environment, made up of people who know what they want and where they are going, and of people who want to be like that but aren’t quite there yet! It’s about people who want to make a change in their life and recognise that this is the vehicle to do it. It’s about giving back, making the world a better place, empowering social change and philanthropy and being a better person.

I can’t wait to be on that stage, training and inspiring people, in the next few years - watch this space!^

I have a juice plus bot who swore she was off to dubai last year..... haha ok!

Temple Spa definitely is MLM. My friend who has become a "lifestyle consultant" posts numerous times a day about Mercedes cars, Maldives holidays etc... all prizes given b the company. Lots of "doing what I love,join me" posts. And the products...£££ for creams and lotions that, when you read the labels are not as high end as the price suggests. Seriously worried about her.

I think the reality is worse than some people realise - eg the pp mentioning a friend who’s protecting the imagine of being really successful and about to give up their job.... that’s literally what they’re told to do. Project an image of success so that people are drawn to you and want to emulate it. Most sellers are told “fake it til you make it”, yet they don’t stop to question whether all the stories of success they’re being sold by their uplines are actually fake too (hint: they are).

The truth is, for most of the people who get involved (unless they’re extremely accomplished at —lying and manipulation— selling), the only commission they earn is on the products they buy personally. They buy the starter kit, but that’s not enough to do any demos, so they have to buy more stock just to be able to sell it in the first place. The companies don’t sell samples so many sellers break the rules and make up their own sample pots to sell for a pound or two. Then some big promotion will come along and they’re manipulated into buying it (because it’s cheap stock), then another, then another... by this point they’ve invested so much time and money and been so public about what they’re doing that they have to keep projecting an image of success. They’ll post photos of their commission transfers with the amounts starred out - because it’s about £3.50, and it’s only on things they’ve bought themselves and maybe the odd mascara they’ve managed to flog to an unsuspecting family member. They’re told to keep the empty boxes from products they buy so that they can add them to a photo next time they place an order, post telling people their orders have arrived and make it appear that they’re selling huge quantities.

If things aren’t going well, their “negative attitude” is blamed. Same thing when they ask questions about how things work. Same thing if they don’t plaster their social media accounts with shameful plugs. They’re actively encouraged to lie.

Don’t believe a single thing you read on the pages of these people, honestly, unless they’re at the top and absolutely raking it in.

Oh, and the Younique Foundation charity thing is dodgy as fuck.