Friend and FRICKING MLM!

[thatselementary]

Hope to keep this as anon as possible.

Have a friend (close one) join a cosmetics MLM (you know the one). Every day, she's badgering me to buy things and tickets to play her games and I politely bought stuff to begin with but now I'm fed up, I don't want it but I don't want to hurt her feelings. She's a single mum just trying to get some money for her kids but used this to guilt me. What do I do, AIBU to be firm even though it will cause a rift?

@ilovepixie oh i had one of those too, from a different person to the one in my pp, I wouldn't mind but she was exdp's dw & the ow!

Believe the volume of lies but not the lies @southernbelles !

Lots of the “training” is very much fake it till you make it. I’ve seen loads of advice to do things like keep empty cardboard boxes that the product is shipped in so you can stack them up each month to look like you’re getting loads of orders. Also, take pictures of Louboutin shoes in the shop and just say “shopping for such and such event”, stand next to a smart club or restaurant and do a check in on FB. It’s all lies. I’ve seen loads of people sharing a shot of one person’s fairly big cheque; how many people have been sent exactly the same it of paper?!

The sad thing is the onlooker can see it for the bollocks it is (most people can anyway). It’s the people sucked in that start struggling with the distinction between truth and fiction. They keep trying, told success is just around the corner, caught by the sunk cost fallacy - they’ve got this far and everyone else is “killing it” so just a bit more investment, just another training course. Sad to watch.

I have a friend who sells Revital-u which is a weight loss coffee, they also do capsules and tea. All day it's "take these pills and drop a stone in a week, no diet needed!" Along with photoshopped pictures. Argh!

And she calls herself a businesswoman...

I had a mate who went into Younique. I politely ignored her pyramid scheme bullshit out of respect for our previous friendship, but when she suggested that I should ditch my career in a job I love to join her, and then tried to guilt trip me with my child, it was in the bin with her.

Apologies if this has already been linked but get her to read this

ellebeaublog.com/

It’s a blog by someone who did unique and it’s actually really interesting and shocking in terms of how it sucks you in and the pressure the up lines put on the down lines to sell more. She will
Probably recognise that everything they are saying to her is in this blog and how it just doesn’t work. I also think there may have been a documentary on mlms on bbc I player...... but I don’t have a link. Also very interesting if you can find it!

I also suggest the ellebeaublog! It’s really specific about all the tactics they use.

Genuinely though, for the prices they charge, I can get top of the line cosmetics where I can actually return items and/or get some kind of customer service if I’m not entirely happy. Unlike poonique where you’ll just be told you didn’t apply it correctly and you actually need to buy an entirely separate item to make the first item look good. (True story, thankfully not my own)

I’m so sorry OP.

One friend posts how her weight loss drink has cleared her skin it’s a great deal etc, but facetunes every picture. She tries to push it on me but I can use my allergies to say no!

Can't you just say you had a massive allergic reaction to the previous stuff you bought so you're not using anything from the range now. "Sorry, would love to support you but my skin is sooooo sensitive, I'm not risking trying anything new ever again! Good luck with it all!"

I've got one on my fb at the moment, wax melts, yoooonique, forever living or whatever they are called. If it's a mlm scam, shes in and by god shes going to try and drag the rest of us in too. All the classic posts, pictures of boxes of products, 'I'm posting all you ladies your orders right now!!!', rants about haters, inspo posts about being a working mom and managing her own business. Adding me randomly to groups, running 'exciting ' competitions. Its utter crap, and disappointing really, I thought she was smarter than that.

I just can’t understand how these companies have not had more stringent rules by now. They pray on the vulnerable - those short of money and desperate to earn something when they have young children very often. It’s all a complete farce of promises and you end up losing money and buying many unwanted products yourself.
I know they have been around donkeys years but there has been a big resurgence in the last 5 years. Why haven’t they been more looked into? I would love Louis Theroux to get in there. They need to be more widely exposed for the thinly veiled scams they are, makes my blood boil. Some of these are even cultish and encourage you to ditch family and friends if they don’t buy. They teach that everyone is a target - your mum, dad, best friend, everyone and no doesn’t mean no, it just means you need to work harder. Friends and family’s have been broken up by this crap. They even have a word for people who don’t agree to support or join you (can’t remember but something negative) I have had a few friends join these Over the years. I always set out my stall early and say that I think they are discusting companies, praying on vulnerable people and I am not or never will buy anything. I also say Politely that I don’t want to hear about it all the time when we are together as makes me so cross. Some friends have respected that and some friends have gone. If they go then they are not really a good friend IMO

I don't agree with lying about an allergy. She needs to be told that she is being manipulative to her friends and family. She needs to be warned that she will alienate people with these tactics. It does these bots no favors when people try to be "nice" and make up excuses why they can't buy the products. She needs to be told to brutal truth. You don't have to be ugly about it, but you can be firm and call her behavior out for what it is.

One of my friends has just started with Younique, she is honestly one of the nicest people I know and I hope she sees the light soon.
I won't buy any of that crap, as a)I don't use much makeup anyway and b) I have more than enough stuff already.

Someone on our local community Facebook group posted to say 'comment here if you're a key worker. I'd like to send you all a nice gift to say thank you'. Naturally a good couple of hundred people commented to say they were and wow what an amazing person you are etc. Me being super cynical checked out her page, yep. She's a MLM bot and the 'gift' is a tiny sachet sample of aloe Vera gel with info about her business and how they can make amazing money signing up with her or ordering more from her. I thought it was pretty disgusting behaviour.

Someone I went to school with went full hunbot a while ago, on weight loss tea I believe as she posted no end of ‘this is me now, you wait, this’ll be my before photos in six weeks’ only she never lost anything and on it went. Anyway, I deleted her cause it was boring as shit. This thread just prompted me to check her Instagram and see if she’s still at it.
She isn’t, but she is now an independent travel agent of some kind. Her latest insta post says she is now a GOLD LEVEL BOSSBABE and can earn up to £88,000 a month. Okay... but she still works in Tesco part time and lives with her mum at 27. Not judging her on that alone but surely if she was earning mega bucks, that would be different?

What about NU Skin? Is this one of those pyramid schemes?

@Whoknows11 yes NuSkin is an MLM (pyramid scheme hiding behind products). It featured on the BBC documentary called Ellie Investigates the Multilevel Millionaires. It’s still on iPlayer and well worth a watch.

All the posts they put up... Do they copy and paste them from somewhere. No offence to some people. But I have a couple of acquaintances who have started Younique and they have some nicely worded posts. But to be honest in real life would not be able to converse in this way...

I've noticed so many more of these since lockdown. We do need more stringent rules on. I worry that people on uc will have to apply and if they dont then theres a sanction. I dont see them going away anytime soon.

Yes, They were one of the companies featured in the BBC documentary mentioned earlier in this thread.
Two of their reps who were filmed undercover have since seen their Ltd companies dissolved for non filing of accounts. A simple Companies house website search exposes them for the scammers that they are.

It's all lies and bullshit to suck people in and get them chasing a pipe dream. 89% of reps earn zero in commissions, that is from Nu Skin's own income statement.

@youokhun thanks I'll try and find it.

A friend seeking nuskin products. Talks about her business and all the wonderful people supporting her. Making me feel like the awful friend and I can't afford the products.

Also the promotion and boasting about it on social media. I thought in my job (NHS nurse) I wouldn't brag about a promotion on social media! It's just not the thing you do!

I find it all very odd.

Also can people on insta buy followers? Someone I used to follow has 17.4k followers but gets under a 100 likes for her posts. Suspicious to me!

Here it is:
Secrets of the Multi-Level Millionaires: Ellie Undercover, Secrets of the Multi-Level Millionaires: Ellie Undercover: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p076n2hg via @bbciplayer

Reframe it in your mind. By supporting her you are feeding her delusion and prolonging the time she's stuck in the mlm cult trap. Be firm and say no.

I remember, though no idea of it's still here, a jaw dropping CF friend of an mlm obsessed 'friend' harassing the OP to buy makeup then tricking her dh! I always wondered if the CF would see sense...

I work for an online shopping website like argos. And I get discounts and deals and share them to friends to have a look as we always have a sale on. But I dont force them or hound them into buying stuff. I just say hey, they're having a half price on everything sale at the minute. Have a look etc when you get time hun etc.

What's annoying to me though. I met a really nice woman on the school run who's child attends my daughters class. We got on well and she's really friendly and bubbly. Until, I added her on social media. She hounds me to buy her health products stuff. I have said in the first instances oh what do you sell, what do you do, you know to be polite and take an interest in her work. But every bloodytime she would message me she would be hounding me about her products. Its something along the lines of one of those companies you join, like Avon or Herbalife. And if I cant or dont want to then she will blank me for weeks on end. I am really not interested in fancy sports flasks and vitamins to get better muscles. And if you say oh thanks for the offer but iit's not for me. And then I talk to her about my family and ask how her family is coping generally as well as during covid19. And hope everyone is ok. Asking about her life etc. She will ignore me for weeks. Until she needs to message me again about another new product or aFacebook live party. I told her I am not on Facebook (I really am not, hate Facebook tbh) and then again I ask her how her family is and the children and how life and then you will literally get ignored. Not really a friend tbh. I've decided not to even bother anymore and only chat politely on the school run.

I would just be polite and say thanks these all look amazing but atm I csnt afford to buy anymore.and am already enjoying the makeup I have bought previously. Have a lovely day.

@12stepCAKE yes they are given a 'script' to post, they have a set amount of posts they are supposed to do each day and are given the quotes etc to post. My SIL has as a 'reminder' pinned to the wall in her 'office' (which is the spare bedroom with a stand for her phone, a mirror, a kid of yoonique shit and some inspirational quotes taped to the walls. Sad really) you'll see they post things to engage people to, like asking for opinions on things then being OTT in replies, super cringe.

They are also hounded by uplines if they don't post the right things or enough of them.