MLM Bot Watch 23 - Powered by Twunk's Yazoo: Tragicomic cultic wampum flogging scamalangadingdongs like Forever Living, Ariix, Herbalife, Younique, Juiceplus, LifeTreeWorld.

[ForeverYazoonique]

Still going strong here at bot watch HQ on MN!

Previous thread here

Botwatch on Wordpress and on Facebook

Timeless Vie on Wordpress and on Facebook

Eyespeying's Blog aka #manhun, even if he's been banned by MNHQ

Hommetepreneur on Facebook

NEW Link to the Daily Mail article of 20 May 2016 regarding an ex-bot's treatment at the hands of her 'spline' at Forever Living UK

NEW Link to NastashaBarnbotShingles' refutation of the above.

We have our own regularly returning bots to tell us how bullying and hateful we are.

Glossary:

Bots: our affectionate name for victims of the MLM racket

MLM: Multi-level Marketing schemes - essentially pyramid schemes that are just legal because you sell a product. Reliant upon constant recruitment despite there not being enough people in the world to go beyond about 12 levels if everyone recruited 6.

Downline/Upline: the people you recruited and those who recruited you (going up and down the pyramid inverted funnel)

Timeless Vie: Parody of MLM schemes (though you might spot one in particular) that also carries out fearless investigative work

Hommetrepreneur: also excellent parody site focussing on the menz

BotWatch: Rather more serious, keeps an eye on what the Bots are claiming next, particularly in reference to health and income claims. Also fearless.

Inverted Funnel: Timeless Vie is NOT a pyramid - it's an inverted Funnel, OK?

Eyes: Our former member Eyespying who knows LOTS about MLM schemes. He's still our very own #manhun.

Twunk (AKA ForeverYazoonique) has a bottle of Banana Yazoo in her fridge. She's still too afraid to drink it. Yahoo is important as seems to be the primary retail product for Life Tree World.

Has anyone heard of a company called 'Purium'? It's a new one to me, but it has all the signs of being an MLM.

I just did some fast research. Oh Boy.

Oooh, googling stuff and found THIS article benefitfullcircle.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/racehorses/

Now does it really say that David Urch wrote that article? I couldn't access it from the link, needed a password, so looked at The September 2015 RVCS magazine...

OK I couldn't access the article from the above link so had a look at the online magazine from September 2015 where it is featured. It is on page 40 so you'll have to scroll down. Interestingly, our pal David isn't accredited with writing the article. Someone called Pete Wedderburn is however. Hmmm. So, who is Pete Wedderburn? This clinical trial is tiny (20 horses) and shows that aloe vera may have a role in helping maintain a race horses immune system. The author acknowledges that it is an extremely small sample however. Of course, if aloe vera is found to be beneficial to horses, it does not need to be vastly overpriced FL aloe vera, does it? ;)

The magazine link is here, page 40 www.veterinary-practice.com/issues/2015/09/vp_09_2015.pdf

Pete is a vet of 25 years, also a newspaper columnist www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/pete-wedderburn/

So I am confused, David's article has the same name as pet's and was published in the RVCS magazine in September 2015. I can't find David's article though, only Pete's. It is a mystery .

Wow, I hope Candice forwarded that last message straight to FL Head office. Shocking and very revealing

but but but.... Purium must be good, the same sounds like Pure and its a bit Latin-y so it's pure and clever?

and Purium resets your metabolism

RESETS YOUR METABOLISM, PEOPLE!!!!

Candice's story must have sent the FL bot's into a spin because she clearly worked very hard as she was earning money. Despite that fact some were calling her lazy, others deriding her for being too greedy.

The bullying culture was brought out for all to see with the bots all trying desperately to find some angle to be nasty about.

The MLM industry is so much worse than any of us ever originally realised isn't it. From having a laugh and joke on a thread last year to realising there are real people being bullied and brain washed and conned.

Great timeless vie post aloepocalypse now. U.K. Fl lower bots should really be worried.

Oh Yes - it's real people. And a lot of them, sadly.

Leverage is the key.....Sponge.

(And don't forget that 'infinite number of levels'. )

Purim resets my metabolism?!

To what? Factory settings? Not sure I want the metabolism of a newborn baby, though I would like to sleep 16 hours a day and not have to work or anything.

I'm sure Candice said she had income from FL but they pretty much totaled her outgoings? Mind you, if she ended up on zero she was lucky, though wasted a lot of time...

My bad it's Purium

I've started seeing that name with a double 'i'. I wonder if that's significant or just me?

No you're significant too Cozie

Or should I say Coziie?

Can I ask a question please?

Seeing as several friends have recently started their FL (or similar) 'businesses', I read up on it a bit (using the links on p1 of this thread) and formed myself an opinion. So far so good.

Now I came across an Usborne books vendor the other day. I asked her if she'd like to come to a playgroup I help run, she gave me her card so we could arrange. Then she also mentioned that she was 'looking for people to help her sell' and gave me an information pack.

I think of Usborne books as a respectable company (and love many of the books) but now I'm suddenly doubtful. There seem to be many of the elements of MLMs as discussed on this thread. E.g. you buy in your own stock (starter pack) and it is your loss if you don't sell it. And you can increase your earnings by recruiting new people into the scheme, which makes it a bit pyramid-like to my novice eyes.

And yet it sounds attractive to me on some level. I'd get my hands on cheap books!

Can anyone tell me if Usborne is just the same as other MLMs or if it is better/different in some way, and why?

Many thanks!

marking. Now going back to read the thread.

chamenager like any other mlm, it's unlikely that you'll make any money from it.

Yes there will be pressure to recruit and buy stock (even if you're not sure you can sell it). The bullying and pressure might not be at FLbot levels, but it'll be there.
As far as 'being able to get insert type of mlm wampum here cheap, then this is quite a common question. But it depends on the mlm, many will deactivate you (i.e. throw you out of their scheme), if you don't commit to buy a certain amount of stock. So even if you wanted to sign up to do this, I would read the small print carefully.

and just be aware, that mlm bots don't tend to publicise this minimum purchase. I've been in a Jamberry group for a while now (for research purposes cough).
Anyone new who gets added gets the same bullshit spiel, 'you get paid to have pretty nails' 'No minimum purchase' Which is bollocks, you have to spend £60 a month. So ask and ask and look for written evidence. Also the likes of Juice + from reading their Facebook, there is a minimum purchase, and bots seem to get tied into several months of direct debits. There are plenty of complaints that when you decide to leave the direct debit proves near impossible to cancel and the money keeps being taken. I would be asking if there is a direct debit scheme like this, is there a minimum sign up period and what is the get out clause. Its terms and conditions like this that can mean you lose money in an mlm.

and sympathies, you say you like Usborne, well, I love Neals Yard, I'm gutted they use the mlm method of direct selling (I buy mine when it's 30% off in Waitrose though). But I totally 'get' why they do it. In mlm the sales person is actually the customer, the mlm customer will spend a lot more than the average retail customer, way more. I don't recall ever seeing anyone in Waitrose spending £400 on Neals Yard. So it's lucrative for them, they can sell a lot.

Thanks smiinky. Bit upset at having to revise my opinion of them. I didn't really think I'd buy into it (realistically, due to not having a car, it never would make sense). But I wanted to believe they were better than others. Shame.