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MLM bot watch - Discussion of the network marketing companies Forever Living, Herbal Life, Juice Plus etc as a pyramid scheme or scam

982 replies

CheekySmile · 11/11/2015 19:19

Continuing the discussion of the various network marketing schemes or multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs) that people we know are involved in.

If you have a bot of your own then join us and share what they are saying!

Or if you are researching a company before signing up to be a network marketer please take a look at the previous bot watch thread and also this thread which delves deeper into the workings of MLMs.

And don't forget our very own MN MLM Timeless Vie!
www.facebook.com/timelessvie
www.twitter.com/timelessvie

OP posts:
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shirleyknotanotherbot · 25/11/2015 15:04

Met one of my FLbots today for a catch up. She was full of horror stories and seemed to find talking about it therapeutic - kept returning to the subject. She said that they seduced her in with the whole 'work round your kids' idea, but it was awful! She was bombarded on FB everyday from 6am by uplines telling her what to post. She was encouraged to lie, for example to take a photo of her feet in sand and post that she was on an exotic holiday. She pointed out that she couldn't do that as everyone would know - was she supposed to hide in her house for a week? What about the school run?? They were also told to find photos on the Internet and imply that they were of them (eg, my view today), to make claims about products and pester, pester, pester. She said that the women she met were completely obsessed with the FL business and seemed to be 'brainwashed. Like they're in a cult'. She said that she can't lie to people (I know she can't, and she wouldn't want to - she is very lovely) and is now selling the odd thing at cost to friends and family. She sold over £800 of goods the first month and was paid £41, after expenses that's pretty much zero. She was told to go to a 'success day' in London and bought the ticket (£25, nothing else included, just entrance) but she bailed as she couldn't justify the expense of childcare, petrol, etc. Plus she wanted to spend time with her young children. She said she really had no market as none of her friends would spend £20 on a bottle of shampoo. She was told to replace all the products in their home with FL products and to do 1cc per month of personal purchasing - she said this would be very difficult to do as a bar of soap was 0.01cc and would last 3 weeks.

I'm so glad she saw the light so quickly, she was very hurt by her sponsor as she thought they were close but things she has done have made her realise that it's all about building her business now and not about building relationships.

All very much as we have already heard 100s of times but sad to see it close up. Sad

ambler21 · 25/11/2015 15:44

A forever living WordPress site for potentials... Of interest, in the Q and A section Cora McKeown tells us that

You recently received a Chairman’s Bonus cheque for over $7,000. Congratulations! What advice would you give to Distributors hoping to pick up a cheque for the first time next year?

What I didn’t understand at the beginning of my business was that I would have to be continuously recruiting. I just thought I’d get a core group of people in my team and that would be it. But, if you want leaders in your team, you have to be continuously recruiting. Once I understood that, I never looked back. You can’t get Chairman’s Bonus without recruiting new people. Any incentive that the company has ever put forward has always been about new business. You need to be recruiting between two and five new people a month to pull it off.

And you can’t keep looking back at the people in your team who aren’t doing anything; you’ve got to move forward with the next wave, the next group. I learned something called the 80:20 rule. This states that 20% of the people that you work with are going to do 80% of the work, and 20% of the people you recruit are going to earn 80% of the money. You soon come to realise that you are part of the 20%; you’re different from the rest because you are prepared to do the work. This is a tough business and it doesn’t work for people who fall down at the first hurdle.
benefitsofforever.wordpress.com/q-a/

ambler21 · 25/11/2015 15:48

Glad she saw the light as well shirley. Good to have stuff confirmed from within again.

lastuseraccount123 · 25/11/2015 16:28

that is awesome Ambler!

stopfaffing · 25/11/2015 16:56

Well today in the staffroom I had confirmation that the aloe vera seller at our fayre will be from fl Hmm.

She left a booklet, leaflets, order forms and a letter of introduction on a table. She's a parent.

Question is, what shall I ask her on Friday should I have time to go and look at her stall? (I will be very busy with other stuff though, may only have a few minutes).

Shirley your friend's story is fascinating. Tell her thanks for being honest about what it's like. We always knew that some photos were lies my new car bought with fl! but its actually horrible to read about the deceptions being practiced.

ambler well done for finding this nugget of information. Recruitment is the beginning, middle and end of the story

Christmaspanties · 25/11/2015 18:05

stopfaffing you might find she doesn't try to hard sell you as the flbots are expected to show they are attending fayres so simply being there ticks a box.

I'm sure we could all come up with some good questions you could ask her Grin

I've been helping sort the stalls at our school christmas fayre for years and we always have a FL rep, funnily enough its a new one each year with the old one no longer interested. Not a lot of longevity in this business is there?

Christmaspanties · 25/11/2015 18:10

OK fellow timelessviers we might need to get the lawyers involved mamabee.com/woman-lost-11-pounds-in-2-days/ how dare they try to steal our secret ingredient!

Christmaspanties · 25/11/2015 18:11

Try and spot the fabulous typo in the quote bit in the middle too!

CheekySmile · 25/11/2015 19:16

Pic from a bot yesterday.

Surely the very definition of network marketing is doing the same thing over and over?! My days in my boring old 9-5 job can vary quite a lot!

And another bot posted a pic of her inanely grinning face showing how she'd just noticed that in her old job she'd have been at work for 3 hrs already. Yep, 3 paid hours. An MLM pays no mind to the value of your time does it, just the amount of crap you manage to palm off onto others and the number of mates you ensnare into the scheme...

MLM bot watch - Discussion of the network marketing companies Forever Living, Herbal Life, Juice Plus etc as a pyramid scheme or scam
OP posts:
stopfaffing · 25/11/2015 19:46

Christmaspanties if parsley helps improve my orgasms I'm off to Tesco's now to get some to try.... Wink

Will report back if I'm not too exhausted

IAmNotDarling · 26/11/2015 07:03

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat/2516495-juice-plus-consultant?msgid=57793228#57793228

Excitable juice plus cult member looking to see here.

stopfaffing · 26/11/2015 07:29

Just had a look. These people all sound somewhat hysterically excited, don't they? That's what all the exclamation marks are all about lol. I have a feeling that thread will disappear very soon.

Ememem84 · 26/11/2015 11:23

I'm a convert. By posing with my aloe plant yesterday I felt instantly better.

I might post more pics today or me and aloe. Might take it to work tomorrow. And put it on my desk. Ironic hashtag #hardatworkwithaloe

I know she'll be back to haunt try to convert me. But I am enjoying a lot of the posts. A lot of really positive stuff - be the best you etc it's nice to see.

I don't like the aloe juice posts though or the selling side of it. Or the taking advantage of people thing.

A friend has just got out of a mlm scheme. Apparently getting out is insanely difficult.

sminkypink · 26/11/2015 12:35

So, last night, I reported several of the 'memes' that FL bots share on social media, (from one of FL's own accounts, well it looks like it, to me) to the advertising standards authority, lets see what they say. One of them had so many batshit claims about aloe juice. Supposed to help asthma, arthritis, diabetes, chrohns, stomach disorders, headaches etc. Improve circulation. (WTF?) , one bullshit one about how fat protects the body from toxins (WTAF?) and only the cellular cleansing of aloe can remove the fat and toxins. (oh yeah?) And the third one that claims the snakeoil aloe gel balances the immune system. (Amongst other lies claims)
They've already been in trouble for this in Hungary (prays) .
The lies are a real bone of contention to me as an arthritis sufferer. I want them stopped. I've done my research. I take omega 3 fish oil (Tesco own brand), do yoga every day, keep my joints warm, walk for other exercise and that's it.
These fake claims from the bots do my nut!

Ememem84 · 26/11/2015 12:41

smirky totally get what you're saying. I've got no problem with the "make your life better/more chill/ be a better you" memes. But the "aloe will cure cancer" type ones. No. Surely if it could do that Drs would be prescribing?

sminkypink · 26/11/2015 13:13

After reading some of the stuff online, the very last thing I'd do is drink it. No wonder the clean 9 makes some people really ill!

I mean, this is a bit contradictory isn't it? :/

www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/aloe/safety/hrb-20058665

1gorgeousson · 26/11/2015 13:45

I've been reading this thread for a while. I have a couple of bits of my own. One video posted recently I knew you'd just love. A group of fl bots "training" by singing along to shake it off. Haters gonna hate hate hate. Pure gold entertainment.
I do wish they'd stop quoting the £20k a month you could earn. It's just ridiculous Hmm

1gorgeousson · 26/11/2015 13:45

Bits should be bots Angry

Fbcu · 26/11/2015 13:58

I am starting to suffer from paranoia that I have not been recruited by anyone. I was once invited to an Ann Summers party.

Fbcu · 26/11/2015 14:16

But I just had an amail from that Dave entitled 'test', which I imagine was a mistake.

knickernicker · 26/11/2015 15:02

From a juice plus bot. Do they write these themselves or are there scripts they pass around?

MLM bot watch - Discussion of the network marketing companies Forever Living, Herbal Life, Juice Plus etc as a pyramid scheme or scam
CheekySmile · 26/11/2015 15:04

Me too Fbcu, exciting news from Dave! A ticket to his next event in January for just £32. At the National Motorcycle Museum (not far from me actually) which can hold up to 1200 people. That's a potential £38k in ticket sales alone...

OP posts:
CheekySmile · 26/11/2015 15:07

Yes knickernicker we've seen that one before (Timeless Vie had their own version on 3rd November too!) so either they've copied it or it was set out for them somewhere. Ridiculous.

OP posts:
Fbcu · 26/11/2015 15:09

It's a racket to fill arenas.

knickernicker · 26/11/2015 15:11

I really find it disingenuous of people to invite you to parties/to be Facebook friends solely y to sell to you, and often nice people too. What gets into them?