MLM Bot Watch 27 - The Yazoo iis past iits use by date, but we have a massive #lardon: Tragiicomic cultiic wampum floggiing scamalangadiingdongs liike Forever Living, Ariix, Herbalife, Younique, Juice

[acatcalledjohn]

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
www.lazymanandmoney.com/is-every-mlm-a-scam
We have our own regularly returning bots.

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. Flogging the amazing skinny lard and now carbonated lard. The arsenic is not the evil Victorian stuff. #TeamDannii #gettingalardon

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.

Do bots think the fibre lash mascara is a source of dietary fibre?

Younique and their bots obviously are too stupid to understand the basic workings of the human body.

Not all are acatcalledjohn - most are just sheep who will follow the crowd and post something without doing their research first. Some have plenty of brain-cells and just like the makeup (ex Y here ;) )

There are a few who are actually genuinely lovely, intelligent people. It's not necessarily the company who are at fault - they do issue statements about what claims can and can't be made but many reps ignore to just get the sales. Same as J+ and FL reps claiming their miracles. It's one of the things I didn't like about being part of it but it's not the actually company to blame.

It's the company that sets their rules, though, Chammy.

My goodness I've investigated this defend innocence thing from younique. No profits go there from what I can see it's all separate donations: for a retreat in Utah with no transport to provided. I am seriously of the opinion these women are infected by the shite they are slapping on. I'm actually incensed that they call themselves a charity yet nothing from the products goes there. Vile.

It is cozietoesie but it is down to the individual to follow them. The company clearly states no raffles yet there are many Presenter's who still do them in the privacy of their own VIP groups. They do punish offenders - I've reported reps, mainly one who was bullying another rep who is now a good friend after she reached out to me for help, and she received a suspension. They're not allowed to sell on eBay but still do etc.

It's like any company, the rules are there but people don't always follow them. I worked at McDonald's where a rule was "no giving away food" (obviously unless warranted) and many staff were sacked for giving their mates an extra double cheeseburger. The rule was there but they didn't follow it.

The only problem with online sales is that it's much harder to catch offenders in the act. Ultimately it's the honest reps who suffer - like my friend who ended up leaving because she was alienated, removed from the team chat and made to feel like a terrible person because she decided to follow the rules. My team, both above and below me, followed the rules as we were good people who were honest ;)

Chammy, you've fallen for the BS hook line and sinker!

The people who are non-compliant aren't being non-compliant because they're dishonest "Bad - egg" sorts!

They do so because the company sets it up that way, some set it up so that you have to put through a certain amount of sales to stay active, others so that you get free product, others so that you can maintain your "bonus" etc… overlay that on the "self development" training that's telling them all that sucess is just round the corner if they just keep BELIEVING…. and what you get is people inflating their volume out of their own money because they believe the company's bullshit.. often these are people who cannot afford to do so (basically MLMs target audience).. so they have to claw back a bit of cash on ebay or with raffels and sometimes get desperate to do so which is what happens to people when a sure thing turns out to have been a horrible gamble.

Are raffles not allowed? My bot does them all the time!

Facebook itself has quite strict rules on raffles, and I'm guessing some kinds come under gambling so need to comply with all that too

"Chammy, you've fallen for the BS hook line and sinker!

The people who are non-compliant aren't being non-compliant because they're dishonest "Bad - egg" sorts!"

Raffles for personal gain are illegal. End of. For any and everything. If you're doing a raffle for charity where 100% of the money goes to charity then that's fine. In the case of MLM reps doing raffles they're covering the cost of the product on offer which then gives them their commission and whatever points they gain for doing so. With Younique that was PRS. Yes, that is 9 times out of 10 for them to try and claw enough points to remain active. At the end of the day people would rather throw a quid onto a raffle in the hopes they'll win a foundation/mascara/lipgloss but at the end of the day it is still illegal.

The one I mentioned in my last post KNEW THIS! She then proceeded to tell her team to continue being deceitful and to kick out any Y presenter in their VIP groups in case they "grassed on them". Not dishonest/bad-egg? She was a high level rank too. The one who basically pushed others away because they wanted to follow the rules - they were outed as negative, not motivated enough and then removed from the team. No, not a bad-egg at all!

There was another, a "friend" of mine who got a warning and temporary suspension who decided to blast it all over Facebook that she'd been caught out but admitted that she would continue to do it because "others were doing it" even though it had been pointed out to her a) it is against her contract and b) it is illegal.

There are reps who genuinely don't know this and are encouraged by their upline to do them, they are then caught out. You can be successful without breaking the law - I have friends who are. Ok, not top of the chain successful but in their own mind it's all they want.

They wouldn't be feeling the need to resort to illegal raffles if MLMs weren't set up so that the distributer is actually the customer - so people stuck having sunk money into MLMs have to find other ways to claw some money back.

The TARGET people who don't have much in the first place, so they don't always have the luxury of affording to take the moral high ground (and the financial hit) if the books aren't balancing.

This is caused by the MLM system itself, not some "bad eggs" who don't "comply"

Oh Chammy have you learnt nothing from these threads

My Vida bot just posted about how the tea works best when used alongside a weight loss plan like SW or WW.
I wonder do they believe their own b.s.

Remind me of the view on Usbourne books please? Google is not being my friend and only taking me to info and reviews written by reps.

People only do public raffles if they can't hit their sales targets by just retailing. It is massively frowned upon. There are gambling laws and it is illegal to make money for your own personal gain. If you choose to give away products for local fundraising events that's different but fb is a definite no. So if you're seeing raffles on any social media it's because the bot is struggling to make sales.

My bot has raffles weekly. She just did one where she had prizes worth quite a bit and then listed over a hundred numbers for it at a pound each. I didn't make any connections at all but it would explain why she always talks about "smashing her business". I got in a row with them about the charity work that younique apparently does - so long as you can get yourself to Utah. I don't think any of them actually realise where Utah is.

DailyMail

The way to use Google on these matters is usually to put the company's name in search and add on MLM. Try that.

Yeah can work that out for myself Cozie not least because that what you always tell people and I've been here since thread 1. I did say I'd googled already. I'm not finding much about Usbourne and negative experiences it's almost as if it's not a bad mlm which I can't believe.

Let's say you're a firm with a 'good' product, a 'wholesome' product, a product that people can feel 'good' about buying, especially if they're eg parents/grannies/aunties etc and there are birthdays or Xmases coming up. Let's say you're in a (massively) declining market sector but 'somehow' you manage to buck that trend and start ramping up financial performance. People might very well look hard at how you managed it.

MLMs come in all shapes and sizes on the spectrum. Indeed, some have - what you might call - 'mixed models' where you can go in under one guise but be exposed to other streams when you're inside the firm.

Usbourne is just a bit of a lie
I've never met any Usbourne rep who has actually managed t make it in to any sort of a business, they all say "I just do it because I love the books", and think the odd freebee is worth 2 hours at a time of their time standing around at school fayres - that's £16 if you pay yourself minimum wage for your time, you could just buy yourself a book for that!

Usbourne books are FANTASTIC! Pretty much every santa stash of books I've bought for DDs have included at least one Usbourne book. But I buy them from the WHSmith sale - I get far better value than the reps.

Its not a business.

Are you spelling it Usbourne in your googling DailyMail?
Not being pedantic but as it's spelt Usborne your computer may not recognise what you are searching for.
Not that I've ever been caught out this way, oh no ... :)

Now that is a very good point chocolate I will go and check. Thank you

Reporting back chocolate no sadly I did spell it correctly, there is clearly not much info on the MLM side of Usborne out there. Gap in the market for Timeless Vie perhaps?

Just read on Facebook that Pink Papaya has now shut down as well but not seen any reasons why yet

trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/betting-on-zero/

Word on AIBU is there's a new kid in town. Something about pearl necklaces......