Aibu to ask you to talk to me about younique!

[Pitterpatterpotter]

I have lots of friends on social media who try to sell stuff, eg tropic skincare and body shop, but I’ve noticed my 2 younique fb friends post all the time and have sent me message asking me to post their posts etc (which I haven’t done).

Anyway my lovely and usually sensible friend has now announced she is a younique presenter and I am worried about her. She has invested a lot of money already and seems to mostly be buying stuff herself. I have another friend who sells tropic who buys £200 a month of stuff off herself so I know this is common, but this particular friend doesn’t have any experience with makeup and doesn’t have much money. She’s changed completely and talks about younique all the bloody time. I’ve watched some anti mlm videos and read a good blog about younique and I’m genuinely worried about her. The company seems morally questionable with their charity work with vulnerable women apparently used to recruit new younique presenters. How can I help her? She’s investing money and time into this that she hasn’t got and every single time I speak to her she now tries to sell me something

You just have to wait it out really - tends to take a couple of months before they realise it's shite and the posting barrage stops.

Friend's got sucked into Herbalife at the moment and so she's on a facebook snooze - but is using group chats we have setup for a purpose trying to recruit which is really pissing me off.

It's the shitty perfumes doing the rounds locally at the moment - and it bloody ruins our school shopping fairs which are now a checklist of "consultants" from them all rather than the small crafters it was originally set up to be.

In the blog that’s been mentioned several times, she mentioned she was grateful her sister told her at the beginning to keep a real record of everything she spent and earned. So maybe suggest that to your friend, that she sets up a spreadsheet showing everything she pays out on “stock” etc and everything she actually gets paid. It might help bring clarity for her seeing real figures as opposed to “look how much commission you earned!” On stuff she’s bought herself

Feel really sorry for people who get caught up with MLM. I really wish the government would ban this sort of thing.

I loathe MLM with a passion and despair every time my friends get sucked in.

However I think it depends on the product and how the person selling it. I had a friend who has supplemented her income over the years with Ann Summers/ some nail sticker company, Herbalife, pampered chef, some herb kitchen thing and tropic. She puts up seemingly benign posts that I would show interest in before getting a DM going ‘great!! Let me sell you stuff’ she would only get in contact if there was something for her to sell me.

On the other hand I have another friend who signed up with Tropic purely to get the products for her and her daughter cheaper. She is never pushy, isn’t a blanket poster on her personal Facebook, doesn’t nag you to have parties. I reluctantly tried their hot cloth cleanser when Liz Earle changed their recipe and was disappointed to find it was brilliant 😂😂😂 alongside a lot of their other products. I have no interest to become a seller, have never been nagged to join her team but recommend it all the time.

I just wish it wasn’t an MLM and feel Alan Sugar should know better. It’s a shame as the products are brilliant and I think the owner is great too.

I've heard tropic isn't as bad but I haven't tried it myself. If she's buying stuff for gifts with happy side benefot of appearing to increase sales that's different to buying to keep numbers up. Younique sounds like one of the worst for brainwashing to me. I would just say you don't like mlm very much if she asks you to buy but I wouldn't have a go out of nowhere and woukd try.not to be too critical so she doesn't take it personally. I fell out with someone over a Younique selling tactic (they wanted to order me a mascara and said I could return it if I didn't like it. I hadn't said I was interested ordering anything and hadn't actually spoken to the girl in ages! I did get quite cross and say it was not a good selling tactic)

Younique products are renowned for being awful quality at high-end prices.
Mlms have been so predatory during this pandemic. Preying on vulnerable mainly women. Absolutely despicable business model.

they are ALL the same. If it is useless shit aimed at women, it is MLM.

Interesting point someone makes about craft fairs - I've a mind to suggest for our next village hall event (some time in the next ten years...) that we say 'no MLM'. We had 3 last year and although they were very pleasant, I am concerned that there could be a takeover. Staggered to find that two are still going!

@mencken

they are ALL the same. If it is useless shit aimed at women, it is MLM.

Interesting point someone makes about craft fairs - I've a mind to suggest for our next village hall event (some time in the next ten years...) that we say 'no MLM'. We had 3 last year and although they were very pleasant, I am concerned that there could be a takeover. Staggered to find that two are still going!

I'm a crafter, I handmake silver jewellery from metal clay. It drives me nuts when I go to a craft fair and find myself surrounded by MLM's. Especially because people start asking me which company I'm selling for or if it's Stella and Dot jewellery I'm selling! No, no it isn't!

There’s one born every minute! Send her a link to this fascinating documentary. Poonique is one of the MLMs under investigation.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p076n2hg

@meditrina

Unfortunately, you probably can't help her.

She's in the loved up phase, and is being groomed to write off any criticism as coming from jealous haterz

Do very little - sidestep the issue as far as possible. Do not buy anything, ever, or write, post/repost anything. Tell her you are simply not interested in the products (don't ever give a reason, or she may well pick at it, just be dull).

She may need/want friends when it all goes wrong (which it's 99% certain to do), so if you've been quietly in the wings you can help then.

Or, in between these two ends, if you ever detect the shine coming off you could perhaps help foster the disenchantment before she throws yet more good money after bad

This ^ in spades.

SO sorry to hear your friend has been taken advantage of my an MLM, particularly this one. It is all going to end in tears, they all do, Pitterpatterpotter.

I might say something like ‘I know you’re excited about younique but have you done plenty of reading up about it? I’ve found a blog which is a completely different side of the story ... You might think it’s rubbish but maybe just give it a quick read for balance as I really don’t want you to lose money’

A fine idea on the face of it, but you'll be instantly deemed "jealous", "a negative influence it's best to keep away from" or just one of the "haterz"

As everyone's said you can't help her with this; all the horror stories are out there, but she's convinced herself they're one of the above. Just try to be there for her when it all goes wrong (and don't waste money buying anything in the meantime)

@Sharkerr

You’re overthinking it.

Just send it with a ‘wow, did you know all of this!? Crazy!’

Excellent response!

It’s endless. I got 7 FB invites yesterday from a school mum wanting me to join her and her teenage daughter’s wax melts group. Someone I regarded pretty well has been posting 3/4 times a day about ‘the’ mascara, tagging a person I assume is her upline.

I've heard a few rumours that all is not well in Younique-land. They lost a partnership with a reputable brand, and some of the top people have quit. Maybe they will soon be out of business altogether.

I've a mind to suggest for our next village hall event ... that we say 'no MLM'

Save your breath; they've all got a script and will lie that theirs isn't MLM but something completely new and different

It's not as if they're hard to spot, so I'd just refuse anyone selling makeup, lotions and potions or whatever the latest "thing" is and save yourself a lot of angst

It won't matter, thetemptationofchocolate; when one business folds they all stampede off to start something else. The "face" might change but the model remains the same

Not sure either why people feel Younique is worse than the rest, when actually there's little difference apart from it being the one everyone's hearing about at the moment

botwatch.blog/2016/06/17/how-to-help-someone-in-an-mlm/

And try and get her to keep accounts as this is the best way to see just how much she’s spending versus earning.

mlmtruth.org/2019/07/16/tracking-your-mlm-finances/

I like the tropic products. They are good quality and reasonably priced. I buy from somebody who has been in it from the start and she doesn't bombard with messages. I now buy a couple of products regularly. Skincare products are particularly good.
I don't put it in the same league as yoonique.

I loathe these scams too...i've got a few on my fb that i cant block as they are family...its so frustrating to see them jump from one mlm to another...i just want to scream at them to get a proper bloody job.
It must also take someone with the hide of a rhino to keep hassling their own family and friends to buy overpriced tat they don't want or need...i cannot imagine ripping off my loved ones to make a living.

SiL got into Younique.

When she told me I said straight up that it was a cult.

I don't think it's helpful to sugar-coat stuff.

And if she really is your friend she wouldn't be trying to take £23 from you for a clumpy mascara. That's not how friendship works.

It's a pyramid scheme. Just try to be there for her and warn her of the risks. Be a friend, don't say "I told you so", when it all comes falling down

I don't put [Tropic] in the same league as yoonique

We need to dispense with the notion that there’s a hierarchy of badness when it comes to MLM. If a company uses the Multi-level marketing business model then it will be damaging people because the business model is flawed. Tropic and Arbonne have a slightly more “moneyed” feel, they look successful from the outside as they are often propped up by another income Which is what is paying for all the props featured on bots’ SM feeds. The losses are big (because participants can afford to buy more product as distributor and get financially tied in) and the shame and losses better hidden. But make no mistake, the damage is being done to people whatever the MLM and irrespective of whether the products are good or bad. It’s just a shame there is so much self blame and embarrassment that stops people speaking out, which makes it look like it’s all rosy. It’s this image of a cosy “direct selling hobby for the little lady in your life to give her a bit of pin money” that the DSA U.K. is so patronisingly pushing at the moment and people are falling for it. The DSA is particularly trying to position the home grown MLM or the ones recognisable from the high street like Neals Yard, Body Shop at Home, Tropic but the reality is they’re no different from the Arbonne’s and FLPs of this world in terms of losses for sign ups. It’s a scandal that they can operate they way they do.

Sorry, could have used so paragraphs! ^^

Totally agree with youokhun.
All mlms operate using the same flawed business model which allows 99% of 'reps' to lose money. There is no 'good' MLM

David Cassidy's ex wife was involved with Arbonne..think he had to keep doing concerts despite his alcoholism to keep it going.