What’s the R number of MLM schemes?

[ReeseWitherfork]

Goodness me the MLMs are ramping up! Or is it just the people I associate with?!

So I don’t have a “am I being unreasonable” but rather “how do I reasonably tell people they’re being idiots?” Does no one do any research before joining one? Because I can’t imagine google is telling them it’s a good idea.

I’ve only ever replied to texts telling me people have joined with a “thanks! xx” Has anyone been braver?

Ooh, very clever question.

Just looked up tropic... so more random skincare then.

At least no one is inviting us to random parties. Is that the small silver lining to the social distancing rules? No MLM party invites! (Apart from 6079Smiths virtual parties of course.)

I’m seeing an alarming amount of “business coaching” from people I know have absolutely no business acumen or genuine, real life experience whatsoever. Weird.

I have Yoooooooooooooonique...Acti labs.....Usborne books....Party lite.....Ann Summers...Body Shop......its fucking relentless on my fb....fuck off !!!!

I've just snoozed someone. She's got form for aloe or juice crap. Now she's on to jewellery. She works and is back in the office so no obvious immediate financial issues.

If they message me I just reply that I don't agree with, nor are interested, in MLM's. And when they come back with their sales pitch, I repeat again.
IMO MLM's are criminal and prey on people.
And I'll happily say this.

I have someone on my Facebook who does ‘mindset transformation’ classes and resources and claims to be in control/happy/confident etc because of this, wanting to share her secrets with others too. She’s says she’s built the life she always wanted, and wants others to join her.

But amongst her inspirational quotes she posts updates about her life...and it seems to be very fraught. Problems with her children’s father and custody of their children, finding a suitable home for her which her kids could stay in, lots of teenage-esque declarations of love for her new boyfriend. I know she’s clearly struggling and going through a bad time, but it feels very disingenuous to try and sell the confidence/mindset of the life you dream of to people when your own isn’t exactly thriving.

Generally those sorts of classes feel dodgy to me anyway as they seem to be preying on vulnerable people who aren’t doing well, promising to solve their problems if they hand over the little cash they have.

I have Herbalife bots telling me that all the vitamins in their great products help boost your immune system which is great because with Covid around you can’t be too careful... lots of vitamin D 🤨 sorry but normal multivitamins are readily available and at a fraction of the price 🤬

I’ve got one friend (initially of my sister’s) who lives locally and drives me to distraction. She’s actually a genuinely nice person but has fallen deep. It’s some kind of “life coaching” thing but she constantly boasts about making six figures etc, all her followers are similar “entrepreneurs ” from America and she was recently pretending to buy a mansion, posting pictures of the houses she was apparently viewing but they all somehow “fell through”. I know from letters I’ve seen in her house that she is actually claiming housing benefit and I cannot abide the lying and have unfollowed her. It’s a shame as we have dc the same age and could have been friends.

@Handsnotwands

I’m seeing an alarming amount of “business coaching” from people I know have absolutely no business acumen or genuine, real life experience whatsoever. Weird.

I think that's the new thing. Coaching. Business/mind/life...

I thought the fundamental difference between an MLM and a pyramid scheme is the presence of a product. So if there’s no product, it’s a pyramid scheme. But I haven’t done a dramatic about of research so I may be very wrong.

But if that is the case, that business coaching / life coach bollocks sounds like it could actually be a pyramid scheme....?

Crap, just bought a FM perfume thing. Did think it sounded a bit MLM-ish. Had an Arbonne friend previously and it was relentless! She never did get to (lease her own) white Mercedes

I’ve that business coaching crap and was confused as it sounds like mlm patter.

It’s also fake but not fake perfume and usbourne books in our area. I find usbourne books odd because it is a good product but easily bought cheaper from Amazon. Why does usbourne need to do mlm? Is it a good form of free advertising?

The coaching one is mind boggling. How can you teach people to make ‘6 figure months’ when you clearly don’t have the track record. To me this is the biggest MLM con going and now anyone with a mobile phone can put themselves out as an expert and coach and sell ‘online courses’ and ‘masterclasses’

The most terrifying one I saw was one woman who claims to teach women how to align their menstrual cycle with the lunar moon cycle or such crap so they can be at peace, be confident blah blah blah... it is crazy though! Always aimed at women too. Makes me so angry 😡😡😡

I've a few people on Facebook always doing MLM stuff, intelligent professional women who jump from one MLM to another. I mute them now and leave the groups they add me to.

I did once buy some hand cream from a Forever Living person (she was a police officer, I'd have thought she'd have known better) but it was years ago before I even knew what an MLM was. I've not bought anything since from any of them.

Arbonne and Tropic here.
Probably the one I was most disappointed in was a fellow fitness instructor that’s bleating on about Herbalife. If anyone should know better selling such shite...
The Virtual Christmas markets are popping up everywhere. Fucking Merry MLM madness

@Againanothername

I have a Tropic epidemic on my hands. I keep getting invites to “Emma’s Tropic” in Facebook etc. Really intelligent friends, two of them have PhDs!! Is Tropic “better” than the others??

Tropic products are very good. Amazing on my eczemary hands and the only thing my sensitive skin on my face doesn't react to. I love them and think they sell themselves tbh. It's a real shame they sell via MLM. I've fed it back to them that being associated with MLM is not great for their brand.

I never understand how they are all suddenly ‘experts’ on the stuff they are selling.

My Younique fb friend has to have a full face of make up every day, it must be fucking exhausting. The body shop fb friend who is just reposting generic pictures. Why do they all try to recruit friends/family/neighbours? Who is going to buy the stuff if everyone you know is selling it?

My Facebook is starting to get overwhelmed with body shop MLMs. Really must mute them. I live near an outlet centre with a body shop so if I want to buy anything then it’s cheaper there anyway

@Lockdownseperation they do MLM because a) if they get in with someone connected to a school they can get a lot of sales and b) because mlm is a pyramid scheme so they make money from each new recruit who then goes on to market the start up pack to other people. Ones like ursborne, avon and bodyshop are the worst, they know the product is good enough to sell in a proper retail setting and they do, but they also run the mlm for the pyramid scheme income. Its disgusting.

I've just bought an FM perfume from a friend to try and tbh I quite like it marketing schemes may not be great but it doesn't automatically mean that all the products are crap.

MLM isn't a great strategy and not something I personally would but into but I can see the draw for some. My friend pulls in an average of £50 p/month profit which she's happy with and that's all that matters I suppose 🤷‍♀️

@MirandaWest apparently a lot of the Body Shops physical shops are franchises too, so they have mlm reps, franchises, but still also sell direct via their website and the physical shops they do own. I've been boycotting them a year now as I think its really shady behaviour.

@UsernameNotValid the bulk of reviews online seem to suggest FM fragrances smell good but have zero staying power. MLM schemes do generally have crap products because of their very nature. There has to be the potential to make more money from the product as opposed to the downline otherwise it becomes a pyramid scheme. So those profit margins on the products becomes very important.

I can see the draw for some. My friend pulls in an average of £50 p/month profit which she's happy with You can see the draw on £50 a month profit? When the stats suggest 99% of people lose money and some of the 1% are only making £50 a month... those odds are terrible!

A friend lost her mum last year quite suddenly. She's clearly been struggling. Didn't stop them recruiting her and she's now the perfect bot. Poor cow didn't stand a chance.

Friend’s sister started a month or so ago and confessed the only people who bought stuff from her so far are her parents (£150 worth) and nan. Mum lost her job in June due to Covid and dad is on reduced hours and has health issues. Oh and the nan received what she bought as a birthday present (!!!). But that’s OK, because she got promoted dontcha know.
She knows exactly what she is doing so no, I have absolutely no sympathy.