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?

An old school friend is married to a Herballife bot.

I had to unfollow her in the end because it was too painful.

I did spit my coffee out when he posted a flyer saying something along the lines of Herballife enabled them to buy a new car, a house, a fridge and a holiday.

Great except the new car was actually a 9 year old run of the mill car, the house was rented, the fridge was, well, a fridge and the holiday was a short break to an AI resort.

He would post things like 'let me ask you, why WOULDN'T you use Herballifr' and the get slaughtered in the comments section

A fridge!!!

#livingthedream

I wish the government would tighten the regulations to squeeze these rip off 'companies' out of business.

My intelligent and professional friend needed another income was convinced by her professional workmates that joining their MLM was the way to earn money.

She spoke to a few of us before starting and I said straight off. Your friend at work is lying to you, there is no money to be made selling this stuff, it is a scam pyramid scheme. Save your money.

But she believed her friend at work and invested money and it all collapsed a few months later. :(

Mainly because my friend is not a con artist and was not willing to aggressively lie and push products on other people. She is a nice person who could ill afford to lose her investment.

I met one of the work friends at my friends launch party. I wasn't eating/drinking as I had a stomach issue at the time. Just tap water for me but I enjoyed meeting up for the social elements. She commented on my water. I mentioned why.

The work mate snapped into an instant selling mode trying to tell me that if I bought X I would be cured.

I explained that my hospital consultant had told me not to take any medication until I saw him again. So no thank you.

Then she tried to explain how this magic stuff was both not medicine AND would cure me.

I replied so either this stuff has medicinal qualities, so I can't take it OR it doesn't therefore no point in taking it and went off to get myself another glass of water. Idiot.

I never knew you could get a fridge....
I'm in haha

Oh gosh Oriflame, I haven't heard that name in years! My mother used to sell Oriflame in the early 90s when I was small. It was cosmetics then, face cream and the like.

Not sure if it was an MLM then, more like an old fashioned Avon or Tupperware type thing where you had a catalogue and could have parties. They didn't recruit others back then I don't think.

@Flexoset and @MissReginaPhilange I know.

The horrible thing is this is a guy who is really dedicated etc and spend loads of time doing Herballife. If he invested his time and energy into something different they could be doing really well for themselves.

@starbursts I'd never heard of it tbh. It doesn't looks like awful stuff really and it's reasonably priced unlike younique.

Perhaps the dynamics of it have changed since the 90's. Fb friend posted saying other fb friend has joined the team etc etc ..very much like they do when anyone joins younique or whatever else.

@rawhh its unreal isnt it. Imagine what they could do if they out that much energy into an actual job instead of a cult

Find it interesting when someone posts on fb saying 'oh is anyone an Avon/Ann summers/scentsy rep?' I'm sure it's just people involved in it trying to drum up business

Hate all the posts trying to recruit to 'an amazing opportunity '

Unnamed opportunity even

I like Tropic as well. The person I buy through doesn’t do any motivational crappy posts just the odd post once or twice a week when there is an offer on or new product. And it’s really decent if you have sensitive skin. Have several friends who’ve done Younique and given up fairly quickly once they realised how crap the format is. Thank goodness.

Yanbu but remember they are brainwashed and don’t know that they are in an mlm scheme.
I told a friend of mine it sounded like a pyramid scheme, she was an intelligent lady and promised me she was fine it was not pyramid. She’d only paid £35 for her start up kit and it was worth like a “million pounds” or something.
She continued to go on & on about all her younique products and how empowered she felt and how I’d be great at selling it. I declined thankfully... I also avoid her now too. Up to her in the end.
They make me laugh but they seem happy with theirselves so who am I to judge xx

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.

Sorry but this made me LOL!

Oh and YANBU. People who join pyramid schemes and try and coerce other people into it, are brainwashed bell-ends. I had a couple of people on facebook (I have blocked them now!) who were peddling their shitty wares, and I had enough.

@Rawhh

And I can't help thinking that the car, house, holiday, and FRIDGE, would have still been possible even without the AMAZING scheme they are promoting!!!

As Regina said, it's almost like a cult.

A woman messaged me on Instagram trying to get me to sign up to Argonne. If never heard of it. She sent me a couple of incredibly dull YouTube videos but kept asking for my number. Glad I found this thread...

A Facebook friend of mine has compleyely lost the plot with Juice plus. She has something term health conditions that shev regularly complains about of SM. Then, in the next post, claims Juice plus has pretty much cured them. She's lost weight and she keeps posting pictures of 'amazing good which is 'all of plan and consists of different colourful salad items and a tablespoonful of tuna. About 150calories so is it any wonder she's lost weight? Don't get me started on the milk shake meal replacements. The pictures she advertised them with are of ice cream shakes with chocolate brownie chunks in! Not the same at all. It's sad but but makes me angry too at how easily people are exploited.

I love those random messages. "Hey can I help you loose weight " I fire back im a size 8 love so they carry on..."oh have you any health issues " Erm feck off

There's something about the cult language that both annoys me and also makes it easy to spot when someone you know has been sucked in. All this #bossbabe, and #soblessed shit - no one I hang out with talks or posts like that, and it has a feel of being scripted by people who think women are vapid and stupid and therefore acting like an airhead pink-prosecco-luvUhun-motivational-bullshit sucker is the way to convince other women you are Just Like Them.

#bossbabe #girlboss makes me utterly cringe
Amongst many other ridiculous hashtags they use
#muppets

I had no idea that Cambridge was a MLM pyramid. I have a distant friend who is apparently the "area rep" for Cambridge nd she posts about it regularly but doesn't pressure people to join her team.

I had my suspicions about Utility Warehouse. A neighbour of mine drives around in a Utility Warehouse branded car, and has tried to sell it to me when we were waiting at a bus stop together once.

Some of these story's are crazy - if I remember rightly after I researched it a bit after the 'arbonne' party that I snuck away from the reps sign some sort of paperwork to say they can not publicly say anything bad about the company which may be why we don't hear too much from reps experience.

Thanks for a your stories - I watched the start of 'betting on zero' the Herbalife story and it's really interesting but so sad. Will finish watching when I have more time

Also about that party - what shocked me was that the rep was acting all loony about the price list brochure and how we had to remember to return them - that's cause the reps pay £8 for them each!

I just feel that these folks are being ridiculous - on one hand ploughing you with cheap prosecco and fattening buffet food and on the other saying that a vegan creme shall somehow cure all your toxins. What utter bullshit

Oh don’t. I have a friend who’s doing Aloe Vera shite selling, Forever Living?

I’ve so far managed to dodge the selling, but the fb posts about becoming a Supervisor, what a wonderful evening, work life balance bollocks... are cringeworthy.

I’ve had other friends do it, but they slowly stopped, probably as they lost money/didn’t make any. One friend is pretty intelligent, and I was surprised she fell for it.

Has anyone else had the DMs from strangers saying "hey babe would love to send you a plumping lip gloss"

Which translates to they'd love to SELL me a lipgloss at an imaginary discount price cos I'm such a babe.

YANBU. I had a friend at kids school who became an 'area manager' for Arbonne. I thought she was a genuine friend but then every time she I saw her or she text me it would start with something like 'Hi lovely how are you. Must get together for coffee and other pleasantries...oh by the way, while I see you did you know we have this offer on or you could become a 'special client' if you spend over £100 etc etc. I knew that receiving a text from her would always be arbonne related after she had been through the polite bullshit. It really disappointed me as it was so fake. She became obsessed with it. She's now moved away and still sends me messages about meeting up, followed by a sales pitch, and even samples through the post even though I've totally ignored her for the past year or so.

It's all a bunch of bullshit. Don't get me started on this #bossmum shite and their posts about their cult meetings glittering conventions #livingthedteam nonsense.