MLM Bot Watch 21 - chat about Utah based tragicomic cultastic racketeering scamalangadingdongs like Forever Living, Ariix, Herbalife, Younique, Juiceplus etc etc etc

[Twunk]

Links etc to follow!

Welcome all to the new thread

Is anyone here a dietitian or has expertise in food labelling? I need a hand with a blog post and I want to do it properly. I have some questions. I'll put the questions here and you can PM me with your credentials if you like. Or answer anonymously here. I think it would sound better if I could say 'according to a dietitian/ food scientist/ whatever'.

My questions-

1. If a product is supposed to have loads of vitamins and other good stuff in it, but it is not on the nutritional info label, what does this mean?
2. Is there a database anywhere or rules governing what a food substance is, or what is considered to be edible? I know this sounds silly, but it is relevant.

It would be great if I could have links to the relevant info. Thanks.

I just realised how odd that last post sounds. I am researching how good Aloe vera drinking gel is for you.

I have a feeling that you're swimming in very deep and rather murky waters, there, Toobusy. (There's 'some' gov.uk guidance in the area of food supplements.)

This may be one to go very carefully indeed if you decide to proceed.

Good luck.

too food standards agency would be a good place to start as would EU rules on food standards.

I'm no expert (going from memory d what I've read/studied) but I think if a food has added vitamins it needs to be listed that it has added vitamins. Like fortified breakfast cereals. This is because many medications or health conditions can be problematic with vitamin supplements (I wonder if fortified cereals are supplement?) Whereas if a food is in its unadulterated state and naturally contains those vitamins it doesn't have to be listed on the label. Regular oranges for example. Orange juice being processed can contain the RDA of vitamin C on the label but I'm not 100% on the rules of this. Whether it's beacuse the OJ has quality control to guarantee Vit C content is around the level stated or not.

The problem is, with vit content, they can vary wildly between the same fruits due to when it was picked, the variety, how long it was grown for. There was a study into tomatoes and the anti oxidants they contain. I think the conclusion was tomatoes grown as nature intended - during the summer, natural sunlight - had more antioxidant than the non seasonally/ forced grown tomatoes. I'll have to dig about to find the article.

Food/herbs that have traditionally been used as a herbal remedy with list of evidence it has been used as one can be labelled as a herbal remedy. Eg chamomile for its apparent calming properties or hops to help sleep. But I think that has been mentioned on previous threads.

As to supplements it does seem one hell of a grey area to me as to how a supplement gets to be called a supplement.

Maybe that's why the aloe gloop can't advertise any actual health benefits Too. Because it simply doesn't have any

I didn't want to be too rude so I said I'll think about it, I know it's not strictly a MLM , but it has some of the same elements. It's annoying because it was through a " recruiter" who I was wary of due to many tiny details. But they said it was salaried at a certain amount +'bonuses and it was meant to be for their parent company.

Sorry to go back. It really infuriates me that bots come on and post about not mentioning names.

I'm sorry but no. Do any of them sit back and think before they post pictures of people's profiles, in groups with thousands of members posting lies about them and demanding everyone block them?
So why on earth do you think you deserve any form of respect when you can't be decent?

So it started off being 'salary plus bonuses', eeyores, and turned out to be 'commission' only?

Yes, I asked what the salary was and I'll be honest and they said £30k which I thought was high, considering my qualifications and issues that have kept me out of work, I'd be expecting 20-25k and I even made a thread saying how much would it take for you to change job and I said for what I want to do it could be counter conducive long term to my career, but they were offering 25-50% more than others

...and then when I got there was told it was commission based, I'm in marketing told the recruiter I'm only interested in a marketing job and it was only the day before she said it's got a "sales element". She said she didn't know the details and I thought she worked as a Third party, but as far as I can tell it's the same office/building.

I also thought it was a 1-2-1 interview I got there and there was an older gentleman who had been told to come earlier the very same morning I believe from a woman who stopped him at the job centre, there was no type of interview and they don't care about CVs it was just a presentation and then indicating if you were interested and then he would ring by Monday

There you go. What does all of this tell you about them?

Well to me it seems extremely dodgy. But I must admit it is tempting to accept for a few weeks for other aspects, a weeks free (supposedly) training and costs in a city I spent a few years. And for four weeks the only part that isn't commission based is you get £100 a week for the first 4 weeks.

Which reminded me you also aren't registered as an employee for them, but you register as self employed, and he was kinda boasting that because the way things worked out he paid 6% tax last year and basically everything was tax deductible if you wanted a new car, clothes, even your groceries.

It doesn't sound precisely like an MLM to me, I have to admit, so you might be as well to start a separate thread. I have no doubt whatsoever that you'll get some very seasoned advice.

There is one point though - which some people of my acquaintance have never seemed to quite grasp. You have to be in a position to pay taxes for 'tax-deductibility' to matter!

Oh of course I only posted as it seemed MLMesque in some vain, I don't know if they will, but I could report the messages and see if MN will delete them as it doesn't add anything to the thread?

Zenith windows is not an mlm, I worked for them many years ago (when they were bowater zenith, they poached me from another company) I had a reasonable basic with OTE based on my individual performance and the performance of my team (all paye employees of the company), one of the reasons I left though (and bear in mind this was many years ago so things may have changed) Is the sales training practices and pressure techniques that were actively encouraged in the team at that time and this did not sit well with me at all. I was always paid, on time and for the correct amount though.

Quite Delurker

Pot, kettle, black.

Agree twunk delurker you are quite right... They have a fucking cheek frankly! Ridiculously Public when it suits, but suddenly private when it doesnt. Naming and shaming/bullying individuals behind closed doors, but all smiles and bff's/poor little victims on the outside. The hypocrisy makes me want to vomit.

Well they weren't offering any basic and you had to be registered self employed. I've got the whole thing audio recorded, but I don't wish to derail the thread. But you're right as Cozytoes says it's not strictly a MLM company, although I feel it has similarities

I think you're right eeyore and it sounds like a very shoddy way to treat people. The thing is if it looks like an employee and acts like an employee it's an employee - you can't weasel yourself of employment laws like that (unless of course you are an MLM...)

Exactly Delurker. If I say something about a FL bot in here, I don't have any actual relationship with them. I never pretended to be their friend. I didn't sign any contracts with them. I'm not the one who is tightly regulated in what I say. THEY are

I can say that in my opinion that Basil leaves have cured my galloping trots. But I don't sell Basil leaves. I'm not in business to rip off people saying Basil leaves are a miracle cure

There's definitely something going on with my FL bots- they are all doing the 7 day challenge starting next Monday - breakfast and lunch replaced with a shake. The posts are word for word identical, apart from a brief personal anecdote at the front, like "I had too much wine last week" or "it was my birthday and I ate a lot of cake".

One has also just written a post about how the market isn't saturated. This is interesting as I think it's been discussed on here in the last few days. She's also posted that her baby daughter is drinking an aloe shot every day. The child isn't a year old yet.

I wouldn't seek to report your own posts, eeyores. (There are many organisations that are going to be 'borrowing' some language or ideas from MLMs these days so staying alert is always good. )

PITA for you. The prospect of new employment is always something to look forward to one way or another and to find out that an organisation might not be all it's cracked up to be is desperately disappointing.

As I said Eeyore, it was many years ago so things may have (and would appear to have) changed. would you be a self employed sub contractor then? Is that what they are saying? Or are they asking you to fund your all of your own business expenses and or recruit others to do the same?

Oh there are some wildly varying standards right enough, Do.

eeyores it sounds like you've had a lucky escape! We dealt with them briefly last year- asked them to quote for new windows, along with 2 other companies. The zenith rep never turned up, so DH called zenith and they said the rep had forgotten and asked us to rearrange- we did for the next day.

We actually decided to go with another company so didn't want to waste their time- DH called them again to cancel the appointment. The woman who took the call said ''well I will have to phone the rep to check that it's ok with him that you cancel!''

Delurker you've got it spot on there!