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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To delete friend who has joined an MLM

482 replies

lastqueenofscotland · 16/09/2019 13:35

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

OP posts:
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5
YouokHun · 17/09/2019 18:03

I thought you could take part in MLM under the age of 18 because under eighteens cannot sign the contract/sign up. So has your SiL signed up for her @DurhamDurham?

YouokHun · 17/09/2019 18:04

*I thought you couldn’t take part in mlm

IAmALazyArse · 17/09/2019 18:05

I am now really not sure whether this is a puppet theatre or hun alarm sounded somewhere.Hmm

Whoever defends these scams which are absolutely aimed at people in vulnerable position. You and mlm huns hunting down others are no better any other scammers. Same thing. Simple as that.

OtraCosaMariposa · 17/09/2019 18:05

My 17 year old niece has started selling Bodyshop products

How can they even justify entering into a contract with a minor??

All MLMs position themselves as "not like all the other MLMs" because they sell in Harrods, or have physical shops, or are based in the UK and not the US, or give money to charity, or call their sales reps Ambassadors and not Business Owners or whatever. It's that smoke and mirrors again. It's all fake.

Lucie I have a number of marketing qualifications and have worked in marketing. MLMs are the biggest scam going and incredibly unethical to boot.

yeah, me too. Honours degree in marketing and foreign languages, then a year later sat my CIM diploma, and passed. Worked in marketing for a large financial services organisation, and a retailer. That's why MLM pisses me off so much, it's peddling the myth that all you need to do is make your payment for £100 or whatever and hey presto - you're a business owner in the marketing industry!

It's really insulting to those of us who had to graft for our proper qualifications and are actually running our own businesses.

perfectstorm · 17/09/2019 18:06

@Lucie83 I attach a diagram that explains why it is literally impossible for any but the very first few levels to make any money at all. It's the actual, solid, undeniable maths. Please look at it. And then think.

If the head of the company - the CEO, in the States somewhere - is the first level, and they have six people below them, and they all in turn have six people below them, then by the time you have reached level 13, there are quite literally not enough people on the planet to provide enough reps. SO even if you had every man, woman and child signed up, from the UK and the USA to Outer Mongolia and Papua New Guinea, and even if every single one of them was a rep, and none of the reps had any actual customers... you STILL wouldn't have enough people to provide Level 12 with enough world population for a downline.

The maths doesn't work. By definition, for an MLM to be successful, most reps must lose money, because they're the main customers. Very few people who aren't reps buy much, or often, from MLM. It's an extraordinary sort of business, where instead of having to work for your customers'money, you get your customers to hand it over blindly while running around desperately trying to work for you.

If MLM weren't scams, they'd pay a wage. They can't because if they did that, they'd go bankrupt overnight; almost all their customers think they're reps.

To delete friend who has joined an MLM
brighteyeowl17 · 17/09/2019 18:06

Love the ‘weight loss’ products- as if you can lose a stone in a week. If these things worked the NHS would prescribe them and save them a fortune treating weight related diseases.

DreamTheMoors · 17/09/2019 18:11

@CoffeeQueenOfHerts

NOBODY on here knows what you look like NOR do they care. You must have a guilty conscience.
If you can’t take a little ribbing you’re definitely on the wrong site. Your first post invited people to tease a bit - be good natured about it!
Also - the first rule of good manners is that “don’t want no shit don’t start no shit.”
Be nice. Be kind. Don’t invite ridicule: THINK before you post something.
Or don’t post anything if you can’t take possible smart alec responses.
Smile.

ABoxersMum · 17/09/2019 18:13

I’ve been part of an MLM company for about 4 years and I love it. Had no expectations for earning £££’s when I started, no family in the local area to harass and cba to post on FB 80 times a day. Have around 50 regular customers so the product can’t be that bad and I have no interest in recruiting people. I just give folks a brochure with no pressure to buy

DurhamDurham · 17/09/2019 18:13

@Youokhun
Oh I don't know, I'll have to ask. I didn't know you had to be 18, maybe that's why her mother is pushing the sales Grin

Lucie83 · 17/09/2019 18:14

So many questions to answer, however I will answer the last one.

I have 2 degree’s actually and work full time.

I use products that I like from a few MLM company’s including Avon and Mary Kay.

Like I said use.

I am not disrespectful to the people who choose to earn their money this way and actually a few of my suppliers are disabled and work from home.

Not everyone who works from home is a sad gullible mother who wants to watch their kids grow.

Haters will always Hate and most of the negative comments seem to be coming from a bunch of haters and bullies questioning people’s intelligence.

Guys let the MLM distributors do what the f they like because if you don’t know the story drink water and mind your own business.

All businesses cost money, MLM is not a free business and like all business you get what you put in.

Anyway I must go now as I have a 5 year old to give love and attention to xxx

Booyahkasha · 17/09/2019 18:15

Loads of the school mums tried that bloody over priced aloe vera "It's so pure!" or that horrid poor quality jewellery and bags "Only £50 for a beach bag!" for about 2 years. None of them made any money and packed it in after less than a year. After annoying everyone 😂

Booyahkasha · 17/09/2019 18:16

You never see men getting involved in mlm, do you? 🙄

Benes · 17/09/2019 18:19

The amount of money you make from MLM is not linked to the effort you put in. That's one of the biggest myths. Simple maths will demonstrate that.

They are so unbelievably unethical and they exploit vulnerable people ( usually women) it makes me quite angry.

loz85 · 17/09/2019 18:20

Definitely delete her - you’re not a friend!

I am in mlm - we don’t all poach, spam & terrorise expecting people to buy our “crap” most of us are mums looking to earn a little extra around whatever else we do! You ought to try supporting her you don’t have to buy to support even a like on a post shows support

YouokHun · 17/09/2019 18:20

One bit of good news in all this is that the tide is turning against MLM and it’s now easier to find information about MLM written by people with no vested interest in hooking people. The ones with no vested interest are usually experts analysing MLM from the legal, economic or psychological perspective, and finding it wanting. The information that is pro-MLM isn’t information at all and has a vested interest, but there is much more information out there. The other thing that has really changed is the level of media interest and scrutiny - it’s no accident that the BBC document came out when it did and I know they could of made it 5 hours long with all the material they had. Media contact is almost daily these days. I hope it means real change is not that far off.

loz85 · 17/09/2019 18:21

For the comment above saying you never
See men getting involved - you do, you really do some of the highest earners in mlm are men!

Honestly people should educate themselves before making stupid statements

Benes · 17/09/2019 18:23

Loz the only men making money out of MLM are the one's exploiting women. I have done my research btw....they should be banned.

Rockhopper10 · 17/09/2019 18:24

This thread brings back sad memories of our rather depressed one-time childminder who got into selling overpriced aloe products. If you belived the hype (which she seemed to) they would solve the entire world's medical problems. Felt very sorry for her, because she really was looking for this MLM to be her saviour in life, but it clearly involved flogging the stuff to her network...who weren't interested. I think I did buy a few bottles out of guilt.

IAmBumblebee · 17/09/2019 18:25

It would be a fair guess to say that CoffeeQueenOfHerts is said friend of OP (username checks out) and that OP has realised this and perhaps done a runner.

YouokHun · 17/09/2019 18:26

@Lucie83 you didn’t answer my question. I expect you can’t. Instead you simply spouted the usual meaningless rhetoric. As for bullying; I’ve said nothing about people’s intelligence as I think it’s about vulnerability to the lies, not basic intelligence. Incidentally I work with a group helping people who have been caught out by the MLM scam - they come to us. There are a lot of them.

YouokHun · 17/09/2019 18:27

@loz85 what MLM are you signed up for?

WellButterMyArse · 17/09/2019 18:27

The huns who come on these threads to remonstrate really aren't very good at reading the room...

OtraCosaMariposa · 17/09/2019 18:30

some of the highest earners in mlm are men

Absolutely. The ones sitting right at the top of the pyramid. The founders of the company, and their inner circle.

It's fairly clear that the hunbots have been posting on their FB groups linking to this thread with a "OMG those nasty MN people are dissing our sistahs again and not supporting us!!! Go and tell them how amazeballs we all are, hun".

I have no issue in supporting people who are genuinely running their own businesses. Our local secondary does an amazing Christmas fair at the end of each November, genuinely talented small business people making and selling everything from cheeseboards to soap or jewellery. I do most of my gift shopping there.

I won't however support someone in the myth that they are going to make money from MLM. That's not support. Once the pity purchases dry up, the victim is in even more debt.

Woodlandwitch · 17/09/2019 18:32

I don’t know if the obvious members of MLM’s should be reported and banned from this website.

They are gaining money by deception. The lies they have to tell is unreal and it’s a shame they seem to have believed the lies themselves.

MLM’s and people in them need to be shut down.
It needs to be made against the law.
The people at the top need to be held accountable for all the people they have and are ripping off.
They are the female rogues of our modern day

vampirethriller · 17/09/2019 18:33

2 degrees. Not degree's.
What in?

I have friends who tried selling Younique. One looked like she was raking it in but failed to mention that her husband was paying for everything she was buying- the fancy clothes, new car, new house and HIS wages were the reason she could stay at home. She was spending hundreds on products that she couldn't sell.

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