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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be left broke and humiliated after an mlm

342 replies

Huniliated · 20/02/2019 19:39

I didn’t think I’d be rich but I am cringing at my Facebook ‘memories’ and pretty sure everyone was laughing at me behind my back.

OP posts:
JeezOhGeeWhizz · 21/02/2019 22:18

Is there a jewelry mlm going around? Someone in my home town was flogging jewelry a couple of years ago on facebook. She has stopped it now.

LuggsaysNotaWomen · 21/02/2019 22:30

I nearly got involved with Amway back in the day. I knew it sounded like a con but after an hour and a half presentation at my friends house and then two hours of brow beating by the rep at my home (friend made us write down contact details before it started - underhand), I handed a chèque over for £250 (which was almost a months rent for me then). Mercifully I came to my senses and cancelled the chèque the next day although the rep hassled me with phone calls for a couple of weeks until my dad offered to call her one day and that put a stop to it.

These things rely on pressure tactics, catching people who are reasonably desperate and ignorant to their tactics. I never judge others who get suckered in (although I do avoid). Say your sorrys and be thankful that it was three hundred and not three thousand that you lost.

Ali1cedowntherabbithole · 21/02/2019 22:34

A school Mum organises “charity events.” Coffee mornings for various MLM Mum bots to flog their wares.

I roll my eyes a lot.

travailtotravel · 21/02/2019 22:44

What have you learned from this that will help you move forward with the next stage of your life? What could you or would you do differently if presented with an opportunity like this again?

cheesemongery · 21/02/2019 22:58

Invited MLM friends daughter to my dd's birthday - no present, no card - I couldn't help but comment (on fb of course) oh she would have loved one of those bath bombs... reply was - I'm putting in an order at the end of the week.

Haha fuck off! She wouldn't have given a shit about a bath bomb, I just wanted to see what you would say. Also her daughter was the only child invited as we're supposedly close friends. Oh well.

wheresmymojo · 21/02/2019 23:14

Norwex seems to be doing the rounds here at the moment piggy backing on the 'go plastic free' movement by selling you reusable make up wipes and kitchen cloths for ££££

bullyingadvice2017 · 21/02/2019 23:15

Is utility warehouse a mlm

Dontsweatthelittlestuff · 21/02/2019 23:23

I have a friend who does the body shop at home. There is a couple of items that I have been using for years so to save me the trip to the shop I am happy to order them from her. Total cost to me around £25 every 3 months or so. I am a member of her closed group on face book which has a couple of hundred members and was at one stage quite busy with people joining in the word games, buying raffle tickets and liking all the various crap posted but now a few months down the like each post is lucky if it gets a couple of likes and the raffles are falling off and only a handful of friends buy a ticket.
She has bought the fancy case and masses of samples, goes to the conferences and training days so even though she does have some customers there can be no way she is making any money out of it.

Another friend did Ann summers for a while and I got roped in to going to a party. The sell was quite low key and most of us were more interested in the drink. Then I felt guilty that my friend had shelled out on wine and food and had hardly any orders. This is now I ended up with a 12 inch purple vibrator hidden in my underwear draw. I have no need for a 12 inch purple vibrator as I don’t think my lady parts want to make friends with it. But I don’t want to risk the bin men seeing it so hidden under my period pants it stays.

Mummyoflittledragon · 22/02/2019 06:20

@gkite0202
I know of a few people doing mlm. There is only one, who is anything that can be described as successful. She’s really lovely and generous and has helped me out in the past. She is also the most amazingly convincing sales person, charismatic and knows how to draw people to her. She used to work at head office in a relevant managerial role, where she has used this experience to assemble a team and gave up this job once she had established herself. She has her own website and simultaneously sells from several mlms and is very motivated. She is something of a rarity in mlm land and is successful due to a unique range of strengths that most people selling mlm do not have: Personality, charisma, relevant experience in a large company, and money.

Mlms are successful because they are started by people like her. Despite being lovely there also is a more sinister side to mlm selling and I think she’s so blinded and convinced by what she’s doing that she has no idea of the vibe she’s giving off. She have a very strong personality. Don’t for one moment think you can replicate this.

fruityb · 22/02/2019 07:25

Raffles are actually against the rules of facebook and I believe potentially illegal which is why you now see less and less of them. I started reporting them when I saw them. I also report them when I see them on Mush.

Dontsweatthelittlestuff · 22/02/2019 08:18

The raffles are a con 50 x £2 ticket to win a £10 item that no one wanted to buy in the first place. People are stupid and at first the tickets sell but it has quite a short shelf life and most wise up within a few months.

ralfeesmum · 22/02/2019 10:52

It actually could be worse, believe it not - what about those dire stories of middle-aged/elderly spinsters who link up with a twenty-something via online dating and fall for the "I have a good business idea but haven't got the money to start-up" routine?

Next thing "my mum/sister/auntie needs an operation but we can't afford it......"

And not forgetting "I really want to visit but the plane ticket costs money."

And within no time they've poured their life-savings into the scam-Romeo's bank account. Jaysus!

JosieJasper · 22/02/2019 16:13

I have a friend who does ‘Actilabs’ or something like that. I’ve had to hide her posts on FB as the lies about the capabilities of the stuff drive me crazy. For example...”lose inches in 45 mins with this wrap” actually claiming you lose fat forever. Apparently the makeup is all amazing too and is top quality and only cheap as it comes direct from the laboratory. I do worry about her but she claims to be doing ok from it. Good weekly paydays to buy treats, get hair done etc. Maybe she’s just lucky that people are desperate to lose weight/get rid of wrinkles which means she’s doing ok 🤷🏻‍♀️

irunlikeahipoo · 22/02/2019 18:22

I used to attended residential bootcamps twice a year and I’ve been doing them for several years
They weren’t cheap - min of a £1000 for a week it I treated it like a holiday as well

All of a sudden they sorted promoting fucking juice plus.
This was from the professional ex armed forces trainers who trained you and were all about healthy living and eating
This was in a boot camp where the majority of attendeee were woman who were generally trying to lose weight

I was so disappointed that a well established company would offer such shit and also to have fallen for such a crop of shit like JP I refused to do Any of their camps any more and I know quite a few others felt the same

Patroclus · 22/02/2019 18:30

www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b19fcfsc2n7jw6/Is-This-Company-a-Forex-Trading-Pyramid-Scheme

On the whole new 'trading' thing. Based around crypto currency and instagram faking mostly and interestingly seems to appeal to young men more.

helpamamaout · 23/02/2019 09:30

Anyone any experience of younique?

SileneOliveira · 23/02/2019 09:43

Read the Elle Beau blog - ellebeaublog.com/ - for everything you ever need to know about Younique.

TLDR : you will lose money.

sagradafamiliar · 23/02/2019 10:38

Help...have you read the thread?

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 23/02/2019 12:01

Anyone any experience of younique?

Jesus wept. Yes. Read the thread. It’s an MLM. It’s a cultish pyramid scheme that only serves to make the owners of the company wealthy and will use and abuse and rip everyone else off who gets involved with the scheme.

helpamamaout · 23/02/2019 14:02

I've been so surprised by what i've read on the thread on it. The person i know on fb flogging it is always posting about the charity side of it

fruityb · 23/02/2019 14:14

Bit of research into that charity shows it’s utter bull shit.

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 23/02/2019 15:08

Oh there is plenty online about that “charity”

Overpaid management team, strange approach, odd way of selecting people to attend their retreat, tiny proportion of sales etc etc

Dhalandchips · 23/02/2019 21:44

I did Tupperware as a student last century, in the days before internet and mobile phones. I made quite a bit of money to help see me through Poly. Not sure that's possible now. The sales meetings on a Sunday were nauseating though, all 'happy clappy' cult shit!!

DaisyDreaming · 23/02/2019 21:57

I know someone who is admittedly very over weight/obese but in the past has been hospitalised for anorexia and has severe ongoing mental health problems. A juice plus person leaped to sell her juice plus. They knew her history and saw her as an easy target rather than someone who they could trigger a relapse in

OrangeJuiceandArmchairs · 23/02/2019 22:20

The thing with Tupperware was that if it's time it was a good way to sell using this model. Lots of SAHMs getting together to have some fun they wouldn't normally have. No internet. Product high end and not available elsewhere.

My mum still has hers going strong from the 70s.

They didn't make bullshit claims about curing cancer or whatever either.