To delete friend who has joined an MLM

[lastqueenofscotland]

A lady I know from work has joined an MLM selling some sort of laxative coffee.
Her FB and instagram are covered in posts for it and about her promotions/trying to get a car etc etc.
She very much fits the profile of people they poach, she’s a SAHM and it’s been a squeeze of late for her.

I think MLMs are poisonous and I hate seeing her posts flogging this nonsense.
AIBU to remove her from my friend list

I’m not sure “cruelty free” is false in the uk. China have their own rules.

Again, I’m no cheerleader and I agree the behaviour you talk about should not happen. In mitigation, it can be hard to “control” 100,000 self employed independent reps, but maybe we could/should do more to prevent things that other MLMs deem as acceptable (or even desirable)

I’m not sure “cruelty free” is false in the uk. China have their own rules.

It's not about the legality, it's about the ethics. How can you be so blindsided?

@ThatCurlyGirl that video made me so angry! Until the end... the end is pretty funny 😂

If a beauty company sells in China, it's not cruelty free.

Well done pp for calling out the second "hun" on its hypocrisy (as well as transparent non-relevance to a Mumsnet thread). I tend to judge people for what they do (eg sell dodgy products and lie about their success, they should be in government) rather than what they are. I had a child bullied at school for the crime of having ginger hair. That's his fault for not dyeing it, apparently? Yeah. Lovely. True colours (ahaha) shown there all right.

That said, I'm grateful to Utility Warehouse for giving me the push to leave my previous, overpriced energy supplier. The lady was very nice and explained how easy it was to switch, and how much I could save per month. I was inspired to Google thoroughly and eventually did change suppliers, saving a decent whack per month. Not to UW though. I explained politely to the nice lady when she followed up that I was not happy with the business model so I would not be going with them. (There were also rather too many negative comments floating about, whereas the one I eventually went with had almost universal approval. Happy with them so far, fingers crossed.)

So sick of the “cruelty free” thing... younique are awful at that too. If you haven’t got a cruelty free status, you’re not bloody cruelty free!

So if a famous person, whom u admire, bring out a drink of orange, u wouldnt try it?

I'm trying to imagine a world in which my mind would work like that, hahaha!

Oh good, it's been deleted

I’m going to duck out now as I don’t want to come across as a spokesperson or able to speak for Avon. I’ve expressed a personal view based on what I’ve seem of the business and it’s ethics and thought it was a useful addition to the MLM conversation.

That’s one of the advantage of the MLM model for businesses, you can cite the “independent” status of distributors whenever they do anything off key. It’s also the get out clause of MLM like FLP when their distributors are caught yet again trying to sell Aloe to terminal patients in a hospice as “cancer support” for example.

@BillMasen thanks for your contribution - always interesting to find out how those working for Avon in a proper job (that’s the best way to make a living from Avon) are kidding themselves ;)

@milveycrohn Avon is nowadays more or less an MLM. it changed about 10 yrs ago, e.g. see pyramidschemealert.org/has-mlm-corrupted-avon/

To the huns saying Avon is no different - Avon is very, very different! Everything is relatively cheap and does what it's supposed to do. I've bought very little from MLMs but I've had a few friends pressure sell me. One successfully sold me a 'miracle' overpriced mascara that was horrible to use. Really fibrous and itchy.

One (who was unsuccessful btw!) tried to pressure sell me a £50 lipstick by a brand I'd never heard of in the bathroom at work. She said that the lipstick would stay on all day but for the first week of use, I'd probably have sore lips while my lips got used to it. For another £20 I could buy a soothing balm to mitigate that!

I can't imagine that scenario, or others I've had like it, with Avon. I buy what I want to buy, when I want to buy it. It's reasonably priced, won't make my lips fall off and I'm not pressured into becoming a hun.

I see that I cross-posted with Rattus, I'll take a look at that now. It's a real shame if Avon has gone down the MLM route. Bloody MLMs!

ah yes the spider lashes Younique product and the acid bath for lips Lipsense product. The thing is Literally the behaviour of the Huns is one thing but the gentleness of their approach doesn’t actually make the structure of the scheme they’re signed up to better for them. Avon, in structure, is now no different to Younique or Lipsense and the chances of damaging one’s financial, social and emotional life are just as likely with any MLM.

@LiterallyCantBelieveIt TBH i think that link i post maybe over-eggs how bad the situation is. Or, it's a decade ago, maybe they dabbled in pure pyramid but then rowed back? I just went to the Avon website, it does still overwhelmingly seem to be selling cosmetics rather than an 'income opportunity'. Avon is or at least was a perfectly decent company in many ways, e.g. back in the day [80s] it had some overpriced tat but was also IIRC the only place in the UK where 'women of colour' could reliably source decent makeup, it also IIRC had a range of sun cream that was very good for the price.

This thread has prompted a memory.

Years ago I went to a local Crohn's/Ulcerative Colitis support group meeting. We were given a presentation by a 'consultant' from Forever Living, complete with a massive professionally made display/backboard and array of products at a 'special price, exclusive to this group, today only'

All we had to do to be cured was stop taking all our medication, drink aloe vera and tough out the 'healing crisis'.

MLM's are immoral, exploitative and dangerous.

@weezol yes FLP loves to try and get inside patient groups and support groups. Not just their reps, the corporate office is happy to let the Lies flow. I remember their fiction that Great Ormond St Hospital was using their aloe product to treat burns. In the end GOSH had to issue a denial because it was absolute fiction.

I was in contact with Marykay as I actually like the products very much. But wasn't taken in to become saleswoman, they called it something else I can't remember. I knew the Spanish (where I live) inland revenue had their eye on this income, so no way.

ah yes the spider lashes Younique product and the acid bath for lips Lipsense product.

You got literally both of those right!! I feel like you should get a prize for that

I've never heard of LipSense before or after, I'd quite forgotten the name. I just remember thinking 'so we are talking £70 for a lipstick that's going to make the skin fall of my lips?' She was so evangelical too. Think she called it 'the skin shedding process'. Terrifying. I wonder how many she sold? She told me her mum had bought some

Professional woman as well - in a senior role in work. But huge mortgage, struggling to make ends meet I suspect. Sad.

ellebeaublog.com/poonique/

One of the funniest, slightly sad, very insightful blogs on MLM's & leaving.

A friend tried to get me into her MLM, I was crushed as she had hyped it up beforehand as an 'exciting project' she thought I could be perfect for. I was recently unemployed and struggling with my MH at the time, and thought she might have something amazing to offer - nah, it was an Amway pitch. Heartbroken. Crock of shit.

What's an mlm?!

@Mummyoflittledragon there is nothing much any of us can do about it. She is the only one back home with her. The rest if us live abroad. I can't afford to visit right now.

My mum has quite a bit of property which brings in a lot of incomr( which she was mis managing due to her dementia). For you to see how much she is tako g for herself, 2 last summer I had to borrow her £100 (to pay for her juice plus , which she only paid £40 back)Shortly after that she took over my mum and since then she has gone on holiday with my mum and her 2 kids to America and she shopped so much that they came back with 4 extra suitcases.

I call it the “cash shedding process” Literally

Lipsense is known as the Lipstick Cult. Terrible for people front loading product they then can’t sell. She was probably panicking. I expect her employers would take a dim view of her moonlighting. I know a teacher who lost their job due to using school data to trawl for Arbonne recruits.

@OrangeSlices998

https://ellebeaublog.com/pooniquee*<a class="break-all" href="http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=ellebeaublog.com/poonique/" target="_blank">//* One of the funniest, slightly sad, very insightful blogs on MLM's & leaving.

I remember losing about a day of my life reading every single post on the Poonique blog!

As an aside, you should upload pictures of you enjoying 998 orange slices to Instagram so people will invest in them...

And for the "you should support women" line someone else spouted - that's like saying if a friend is in an abusive relationship but they say they love their partner then you're not supporting them if you tell them the guy is a nasty fucker.

No, true friendship is telling the truth to people you love and wanting them to be happy in the long run.