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?

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
Yes! This.

I have a friend who has recently started seeking Younique. Having read Ellebeau's blog I can see that everything she is doing is straight from the Younique textbook.

She take endless selfies but she does this thing to make her eyes look big but she just looks manic!!

Temple spa is an interesting example of MLM as it doesn't feel as predatory or exploitative.

My so called friend who was a bridesmaid at my wedding got into arbonne and now sends me messages every other week claiming how she used to be sad, never got to spend any time with family and over worked like me until she started her own business and that I should join her and drink cocktails in Vegas every year.

I'm pretty happy with my life and job and income actually.

Blaablaablaa, my Younique bot Facebook friend does the same manic look too.

Do you think that's part of the training?

It must be! It looks awful. And also uses some airbrush filter and passes her flawless skin off as a result of the fabulous make up! Funny how it only looks that good in pictures she's taken of her herself

I have a few Younique bits and I like it. No more expensive than some other stuff I have bought makeup wise. I buy it from a friend who doesn't ram it down your throat so-to-speak.

I also know a Black Status presenter who had a $10000 cheque recently and car bonuses and the like but I cannot work out how it all works TBH.

Can't decide if she is earn8ng loads or not

Imchlibob I had no idea that Utility Warehouse were part of an MLM, but they offer a good service and over the odds feed in tariff on our solar panels. I wouldn't hold the fact that they are part of an MLM against them because they are good at what they do, and are always highly rated by Which.

The latest tropic posts on Facebook say that sunscreen causes skin cancer

The depressing thing is that these schemes fill a huge untapped labour potential. There are many parents (mainly mums but not exclusively) who are prepared to work dammed hard at a buisness they have a partial stake in. They desperately need jobs that are flexible and can be done out of the standard 9-5 day.

It’s just such a crying shame that the only companies that have so far managed to exploit this are such monumental arses.

I bought some younique just before Christmas. I think it's rubbish, it's so not worth the money I paid for it. Wouldn't bother in future...I only got it coz my neighbour was selling it and I felt a bit backed into a corner.
Never again.
Tired of people trying to flog me stuff every time I log on to fb.

A friend has just started selling Forever Living aloe crap - someone who is intelligent (or so I thought) and articulate is now putting these dingbat posts on about feeling FAB 😍😍😍 I've known her for years and I've never known her to use an emoji, now it's emoji-central.

She also put a rather gruesome post up about a spot that burst this morning, but what ho, this AMAZING gel made it all better.
Another bot commented to say -
Have you tried this on your face as an overnight treatment for beautiful soft smooth skin???

WTF is going on?!

My ex friend who does utility warehouse messaged me a few weeks after the birth of my first child to see how we were getting on and tried to recruit me in the same text. She constantly posted on Facebook how she loves working part time - she works 4 days in her job then does evening and weekends and her 'day off' doing UW so actually works more hours than most full time people! My husband is self employed in a business that he created himself and it really riled him when she posts these things to the point he's blocked her. I've also had an arbonne rep try to sell me weight loss shakes last month - I'm seven months pregnant! When I told her I wouldn't take anything without the advice of my midwife I didn't hear from her again. My husband recently stopped going to a local networking group because it had become 50% MLM reps. I hate MLMs and agree they prey on vulnerable people.

Oh and yesterday I was in a shop with my children (aged 3 &1) the youngest was having a tantrum and an Avon rep came over and tried to give me a leaflet while I was trying to deal with my tantrumming toddler! It didn't go down too well!

I have to question how real the Utility Warehouse reviews in Which? are, because they are based on how their customers rate them. If you have to be part of Utility Warehouse in order to get the good prices, then isn't it in your interest to give good reviews to Which?

I'm not paart of UW, just a customer, and have been for the last 9 years. I can honestly say that we have had very few problems with them. We have occasionally had the odd broadband issue, but their help team have sorted them out, the problems mostly being BT's fault.

We have a massive financial incentive to stay with them because the Feed in Tariff from the electricity we generate from our solar panels comes off of all of our UW bills. This month our total bill for gas, electricity, telephone and broadband was £11.69.

I am not employed by them. Honestly.

I don't doubt that their service may be good but I personally would never use them because of the hard sell recruitment tactics and the insincere "my life is so great" waffle that the reps I know spout off constantly.

I think when we started with them it wasn't the hard sell MLM it is now. And at the prices we pay for our utilities we aren't switching. We keep comparing and no-one else can compete.

My sister is a chemo nurse and was telling me she was on her break the other day... sat with 2 other highly trained nurses who were banging on about Herbalife....she said she got up and walked out before she said something she would regret....
If nurses are falling for this bullshit god help us.

I’m a travel agent working from home (with a proper company) and there’s a lot of talk in the industry at the moment about the amount of Inteletravel reps popping up in local selling pages. Their ABTA membership has been ‘pending’ for over a year, they have no ATOL, some of the claims they’re making are impossible - still claiming in their copies and pasted posts that they sell Monarch Holidays . A small amount of research shows it’s an MLM but so many people are getting sucked in - who doesn’t want to sit sat home looking at holidays all day

Sensible people I know have commented asking for information, people who know me and how longs it’s taken me to build my business and the hours I put it to make it work. If you get offered a holiday by an inteletravel or traveltribe agent run like the wind!

I didn't realise that utility companies and travel agents were at it too!

EnglishGirl ABTA said a definitive NO to Inteletravel recently. Absolute pyramid scheme!

Do any of you follow the Botwatch threads on MN? Also have a look at MLMbotwatch blog and mlmtruth.org if you haven’t already - lots of sorry tales from the world of product/service based pyramid schemes ...

youokhun they’re still very much advertising as ABTA pending! Apparently they’ve found some dodgy loophole where they pay the tour op direct with the customers card then get their commission after travel. I can’t imagine there’s much of it going on though, it’s all about recruiting of course. Do you have a link showing that ABTA have refused them? I’d like to be able to share something definitive when I’m asked about them.
Not having ABTA membership is t of itself an issue, Travel Counsellors don’t after all. It’s more that advertising that it’s on it’s way being a blatant lie that I’d like to be able to disprove!

I think the MLM thing is so sad for the people who end up lured into it (often because they’re down on their luck and are sold the you can have it all business) and then end up shelling out tons of money they can’t afford and just get deeper in. My friend used to sell forever living - I’d never heard of mlm or pyramid selling before but what she was saying set off all kinds of alarm bells for me. It literally sounded way too good to be true. I bought a couple of products from her ‘to be supportive of her new business’ and they weren’t terrible but definitely not worth the price tag. She got quite short with me when I said I wouldn’t be buying anymore from her and voiced my concerns. I had to take a step back. Thank heavens she didn’t do it for long and now has a great position in the NHS! A friend of hers, however, is selling jam berry which just looks awful!

My friend got sucked into one and then another by the #mainbossbabe who was a classic example of fake it till you make it and apparently out sold all of the UK yawn
The thing that upset me was it started affecting the business my friend had built up as it put people off
What I don't understand is how they say on a Saturday 'just at x event or look at me working spending time with my babes' well you know what I work 9-5 and I'm spending time with my 'babes' and don't have to work on a Saturday!