I've been sucked into forever living!! Why do I feel like the bad guy?

[KindergartenKop]

Recently an acquaintance emailed me to ask if I could 'help' her by trying a few products and giving her some feedback. Being the nice person I am I agreed. When the bag of samples turned up the penny dropped and i realised that she's trying to sell them to me (I'm naive I know!). I thought id just buy a little bubble bath. Its fucking 14 quid! No way. I'm sending the bag back and pleading eczema. Does this whole company operate by guilting friends and family into purchasing crap quality at ridic prices?

I spent some time reading the FL topics on netmums.

In amongst the 'excitement' - so much of of it that I am surprised there hasn't already been a mass combustion - there's some very sad posts that reflect the reality.

People who have been pressurised into joining up, parting with over £200 and are now struggling since they've now realised that nobody amongst their (often limited number of) family and friends are the remotest bit interested in the products. Sorry tales of cancelled promotional launches and hours and hours and hours of unpaid work abound. When the strugglers ask for help they are told that "success is out there" or not to lose their motivation. Yet no actual, realistic, help is forthcoming. Which is, of course the classic catch of these schemes. The money, such as there is, isn't earned by selling the products but by 'building your team'. Once you've signed people up and got their £250 off them you can move on to the next victims.

Summer, yes that just about sums it up.
The truth is, it's like any business. Those at the top are apparently doing well financially. They're not having to flog aloe vera any longer, they just rely on new recruits coming in.
Those at the bottom are just like any other workers at that level. Low paid, long hours. With the added bonus of alienating your friends and family with your constant FL brainwashing.

GinSoaked - its worse than "any business". At least with a normal job, even at the bottom, you receive pay dependent on the hours worked. MLMs are all "independent businesses" and those on the bottom actually lose money. Check out my links on Amway upthread. The poor "Ambots" are hooked too, and lie to themselves and others until they go broke...

I also not the FL hooks aimed at mums (I'm male). Foul targeting of mums who are under pressure and/or want to spend more time with dcs...

Absolutely xenu i am fed up of being harrassed in the local soft play centre by the Juice Plus crew, i can be playing with DC and they come up to me brandishing their pouches of powdered shite asking if i am interested, i almost reported them once. That particular soft play is v popular with mums on Mat leave, prime targets sadly.

Summer i think we read the same thread, was it started by someone who said she literally had no friends, why the hell was she signed up when it was clear that she wouldnt have any contacts! That thread made me so as there was that subsequent post by a nasty hun who said she wasnt trying hard enough.

It gets more and more depressing the more i read into it. I dont know what to do about my DSis, i really dont want her and DBIL to be dragged into it but she doesnt listen to me at the best of times!

xenu, I'll look at the Amway thread. I've noticed something about the car pics they post. They never show the full reg plate. I understand not showing the full plate, I wouldn't want my reg all over FB either, but my point is that they always manage to hide the first part. Where the year is shown. So I think a lot of these 'brand new' cars, often Range Rovers that they show on their FB profiles are actually a few years old. They get the car dealer to put a bow on the car and treat it like a brand new sale but I saw one that was clearly a second hand car, sold from the back of a workshop in Wales!

I'm kind of upset at my friend getting so far into this and taking all of her own friends for mugs.

This was the quote from my FB Younique friend today :-

Don't wait for people to be friendly .... show them how. ?#?friendship?

with fucking mascara...........?

I have one of these friends who I keep in touch with mainly on Facebook. she started posting about Forever Living earlier this year and it's driving me mad. She's can be a bit 'woo' but is generally an intelligent wife, mother and friend.
Posts this month have included:

• Health Benefits of Aloe Vera
• Feeling good with Forever Aloe Vera Gel
• Follow Your Dreams!
• Nutrient Rich Aloe Vera Juice is the new Coconut Water!
• Loving Forever Living Toothpaste
• Make your dreams come true!
• Aloe Vera Shield
• Think Big!
• We only regret the chances we didn't take
• Just a girl who decided to go for it

Drives me insane.

The forever living cars are leased by the reps. So they are paying Fly for them...

Ah, thank you for that Patricia. All the posts I'm seeing make it sound as if they're earning enough to go out and buy these cars brand new. That's the impression they want to give.
Do FL lease them for a fixed amount of time, like a normal lease agreement, or does it depend on them making so much money each month?

Omg! Loving this thread! Was beginning to think I was the only person left in the world who hadn't been sucked in! I have two FL's on my facebook as well as two JuicePlus people and another who's "business" is undisclosed but messages me about "health products" and asks me to meet for coffee (I barely know her!) Juice plus is worse in my opinion as they are actively pushing the products onto kids.

If it's a corporate lease it's a big discount.

Warning: my FL friend and husband (who hasn't blocked me ) are at a weekend FL event so the FL posts will be in full flow ... it's kicking off with a VIP party tonight

She's never at home! Either at expensive "appreciation" events, socialising with her team, on holiday with friends, at fairs or recruiting. So much for spending more time with the kids ...

her eye circles are awful ... should I try to sell her some Y concealer?!?

My FL friend led a stunning presentation of all the other FL miracle ladies over the web last night. The same woman who couldn't speak to a client in meetings they were that timid . It revolutionises your self confidence too.

My FL person has posted 15 fb status updates in the last 24 hours!!

She's been at some FL event, given a motivational speech,bonded with her team (who are "freaking awesome"), her office has been some stunning, plush hotel, she's had a pampering session (which according her team she deserves as she's an inspiration) and of course we've had a few selfies with carefully placed FL products nearby and endless hashtags.

It sounds exhausting (but of course she's not exhausted because of Bee Pollen and her C9 cleanse)

My newly recruited FL FB friend has not posted a thing of the last few days. I'm getting twitchy and worried. What if she has come to her senses and pulled out before buying the £200 kit ?

Norbert. The 'awesome' friends and 'well done' speeches make me heave. Throw in the selfies and each of them praising each other, I want to chop my arm off and throw it at them

I've had my FL friend today inform everyone of her 'huge bonus for May' now a full months wage and she's so proud of herself as she's hit a target she set herself 4 months early.

Fucking idiots. They're living a fucking lie, why can't they see that?

60 hour weeks of being online, doing launches, updating social media, working unsocial hours week in and week out without any benefits (compared to a normal company), no pension or stable income, no security and pissing off a good junk of your friends and family whilst doing it. High life? I don't think so.

Can do nothing but agree with recent posts and at the same time mourn for my friendship with one of the smartest, funniest, kindest women I've ever met.

Someone asked about real figures earlier. It seems as if £26-32k p.a. is about the norm for a Manager. Remember that's net, before NI contributions and accountant's fees, training courses, time spent managing your 'team' etc,and all the other things that MI5 mentions.

It seems that the JL Partnership is losing quite a few employees to this #sacktheboss thing. Some good retail opportunities at Waitrose and JL should be available for the rest of us.

My kids' school hosted a coffee morning which was actually a presentation by one of the aloe vera pressure sales people!

It was very obvious from the moment we sat down that it was dodgy. It ended with one of the mums who was off to Lanzarote or somewhere taking a list of orders for incredibly cheap aloe vera stuff to bring back The daft woman presenting didn't get any interest or sales

And thanks to Tread for the information about bee pollen. My friend hasn't started going on about that yet, but when she does I know where to send her.

I have got an evangelical FB friend who is selling First Utility bundles. Has anyone else experienced this one. She doesn't seem to need to recruit a team just get people to change their energy provider. she posts pictures of her at the motivational conferences and of her brand new car. Perhaps it is genuine but there is something cult like about her posts that make me cring.

The FL VIP party catering tonight is a burger van

Iirc, queen bee pollen was the new 'thing' when I was growing up in Australia, maybe about 30 or so years ago. It became very unpopular after it was linked to fatal asthma attacks. It's funny, I clearly remember the newes reports in it because my brother was a bad asthmatic.

My fl FB friend has apparently done super well on her c9 programme. Over the weekend she held a store somewhere at a stately home. She works 4 days a week in her 'real' job, which would pay well. And she spent the weekend away from her kids again

Interesting thread on money saving expert with comments from someone who "got out"!

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5186822&page=3#topofpage

One of my FL friends seemingly spends her evenings rushing round friends houses providing Pamper Packs to try for 24hrs! Crazy! You can see the Order Form in the Pamper Pack andddd the worst thing of it is that all sorts of people are saying- me I want it! Really??. Anyone got any of this shit stuff to see where it is made?