AMWAY Partner Store Claims Embarrass Their IBOs

The Wall Street Journal, the largest and most influential newspaper of all time, is now partnering with UnhappyFranchisee.com, a web portal currently powered by a guy in a bathrobe speckled with English Muffin crumbs.

Founded in 1889, the Wall Street Journal has the largest circulation of any newspaper in America (2.1 million, including 400,000 paid online subscribers) and is revered as a journalistic bastion of truth and integrity.  In fact, the Wall Street Journal has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize 33 times!

Today we are happy to announce that the Wall Street Journal has entered a powerful partnership with franchise issues website UnhappyFranchisee.com!

Yes, the two titans of financial journalism, WSJ & UF, have joined forces and inextricably fused their reputations and allied their brand images for all to see!

UnhappyFranchisee.com has arrived! Also in the works are UnhappyFranchisee.com power partnerships with Forbes, Time, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, the Vatican and even FOXNews.  Our humble blog is commanding recognition and respect from the biggies, aye?  These major brands would not risk their reputation by partnering with just anyone, would they?

How to Use Affiliate Marketing to Fake Credibility

Is the Wall Street Journal really partnering with UnhappyFranchisee.com?  Why… sort of!

Many major companies have what’s called affiliate programs where they provide coded ads and offers to people with access to a potential customer base.  If someone clicks on one of these coded ads and and buys something, the “affiliate” receives a small referral fee.  There is no huge difficulty in getting accepted as an affiliate and most companies just make sure you’re not running a porn site.  Once I promised that UF was not engaged in cannibalism or ritual human sacrifice, I was accepted as a WSJ affiliate.

To characterize the affiliate relationship as a “partnership” is misrepresentation at best.  And when it comes to unashamed misrepresentation at its best, who can compete with AMWAY?

AMWAY Fights its Sleazedog Image… Again

Despite a 50 year history, 3 million distributors and annual sales exceeding $8 billion, AMWAY has an inferiority complex… and has a long history of unsuccessful attempts at trying to fight off its sleazedog image.  For years, AMWAY told its MLM distributors (called IBOs) to avoid using the AMWAY name when inviting prospects to sales presentations (which further reinforced AMWAY’s image as deceivers).  Then AMWAY tried changing its name to Quixtar, which didn’t work… and they changed it back.

One of the latest and most embarrassingly misguided AMWAY ploys is their attempt to promote simple affiliate relationships with mainstream retailers as “partnerships.”  Here’s how their press release touts their “Best Buy” relationship:

#1 Consumer Electronics Retailer Best Buy Joins Amway Global Partner Stores

A lot of top brand stores have partnered with Amway Global in the Partner Stores & Services area. In this technological era, none is more exciting than the recent addition of number 1 consumer electronics retailer in the U.S., Best Buy.

It seems that Best Buy is not “partnering” at all but merely extending a small referral fee to AMWAY and its distributors that refer them business.  But this gives AMWAY IBOs a chance to exaggerate the relationship in fending off those who say AMWAY is a scam.  IBO Shekhar added these comments on our lively AMWAY post ( IS AMWAY A SCAM?):

Credibility:
IBM, Microsoft, DELL, AT&T, Dish Network, Visa…..these are some of our partners.  Will such companies parter with a Company without checking its market standing ?

…Barnes and Noble, Tmobile, Dell, Dish, Ace Hardware, Sears, AA – have PARTNERED with Amway…..do you understand now ?????? Do you think these companies will “partner” with Ponzi schemes ? do you think they do not have lawyers to check a company out ? Do you think they will partner with a Scam ????

However, other AMWAY IBOs are frustrated by what they see as another thinly veiled deception that will – as always – backfire and cause the opposite of the intended effect.

Here are come comments from the pro-AMWAY comment board AMWAY Talk.  Michman wrote:

Personally, I wish the Partner Stores would go away.
In my experience, the Partner Stores only give the curiosity-approachers an excuse to decieve people into seeing the Amway business.
“I am working on an online marketing venture with Bass Pro and Office Depot.”
After the person gets into the business they finally realize that 99.9 percent of their products are going to come from Amway, not Bass Pro or Office Depot.

ibofightback wrote:

If Amway in this part of the world isn’t going to make the effort to do good deals, then they shouldn’t do them at all as all it does is give critics legitimate ammunition.

stickshark wrote:

Because partner stores (in this market) often have better deals when you don’t purchase though Amway… the Amway brand is tarnished due to the association with partner stores / non core items.

Bridgett wrote:

The argument is that these stores “give us credibility.” Really? I think the negatives (misrepresentation of the business, confusion, non-uniqueness of business model or products) far outweight the positives (supposed credibility).

Well, finally, the AMWAY detractors and supporters can agree on one thing:  AMWAY should stop trying to use blatant deception to build a reputation for honesty.  Both sides are embarrassed by it.

ALSO READ: IS AMWAY A SCAM?

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

EFUSJON: Is Efusjon Energy Club a Pyramid Scam?

According to the efusjon website:  “efusjon energy club products offer remarkable taste, pack tremendous energy and deliver health and vitality! …Made from 100% all-natural ingredients and with no preservatives or additives, efusjon’s energy drinks give you a rich, smooth flavor you can enjoy anytime – completely guilt-free.”

efusjon is more than a drink… it’s a business opportunity.  Says the efusjon website:  “Not only does efusjon energy club offer the healthiest energy drinks available anywhere, but we also provide you with a unique opportunity to make a serious income! When you become an efusjon energy club Associate, you become part of the most unique compensation structure in the network marketing industry. Our revolutionary new system rewards you not only for the efforts of you and your organization, but even for sales in other people’s organizations! It’s part of the efusjon energy club’s ‘share the wealth’ philosophy that’s a win-win for everyone!”

However, a class action lawsuit has another term for the efusjon energy club’s ‘share the wealth’ philosophy:  An illegal pyramid scheme.  According to the COMPLAINT AND DEMAND FOR JURY TRIAL of LAUREL COOK, on behalf of herself, those similarly situated, and the general public, Plaintiffs, v. EFUSJON, INC., a Nevada corporation; ROBERT TOWLES; R. S. EDWARDS; KEITH DILLON; AARON CALLAHAN; KATHY HUMPHREYS; KENNY GILMORE; MARC SHARPE; KEN VANDER KAMP; and DOES 1-300, inclusive, Defendants filed in the SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO, NORTH COUNTY DIVISION dated November 20, 2009:

Efusjon, Inc. (“efusjon”), a Nevada corporation, sells efusjon’s energy drinks to distributors through a pyramid scheme disguised as a multi-level marketing program. The efusjon pyramid scheme is fraudulent because it induces individuals to invest in products and to recruit new victims into the scheme with the false promise of enormous profits. Completely contrary to the law, efusjon forces its distributors to make purchases and then conveniently considers those purchases as “sales” to meet its legal obligations of accruing retail sales.

New entrants into the pyramid scheme are effectively required to invest approximately $170 per month to buy products from efusjon in order to stay qualified and be compensated under the scheme. Because efusjon distributors essentially do not sell products to consumers who are not also distributors, they obtain returns on their investment in the efusjon program only by recruiting new distributors who will then buy products (and recruit more distributors who will buy products), which purchases result in “bonuses” to the recruiting distributor. The efusjon pyramid scheme is a prototypical one, purportedly formed as a multilevel marketing (MLM) system, with rules and regulations which are drafted solely as a pretense, which are not enforced, and which have no substance in the operation of the business.

In the section of the complaint titled “Nature of Classic, Illegal Pyramid Schemes,” the Plaintiffs allege:

“An illegal pyramid scheme is characterized by the payment of money to a company in exchange for: a) the right to sell a product, and b) the right to receive rewards for recruiting others to join the scheme, independent from the sale of products to the ultimate users… Essentially, participants are duped into believing they are buying into a legitimate business opportunity to sell a product but, in reality, the profits are derived almost solely from money advanced by new recruits inducted into the scheme. In efusjon’s case, the new recruits are under exorbitant pressure to “get their three” and purchase the requisite amount of product for personal use, not for resale… Since the financial incentives require distributors to focus on enrolling new participants in the matrix, the sole way to make money is for the Executive Associates to continually recruit new distributors who are also willing to buy and self-consume, inventory load, discard, or give away the efusjon products. There is no incentive to make outside retail sales. This fact alone renders efusjon a classic recruitment pyramid scheme.”

DOCUMENT (PDF): 22852924-COOK-v-EFUSJON

ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE EFUSJON ENERGY CLUB MLM OPPORTUNITY? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

Image:  prlog

IS AMWAY A SCAM?

FranchisePick.Com asks:  Have you ever had a good friend or close relative join AMWAY (Mary Kay, Herbalife, Quixtar, Meleleuca, Shaklee, USANA, nuskin, or other mlm, multilevel or network marketing scheme) and suddenly become the annoying sales zombie from hell?

The question came from a comment left on the post IS AMWAY A GREAT BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY? thirstyfox claims that Amway/Quixtar is a cultlike scam that makes everyone annoyed with her deluded sister:

My sis was in it once, wasted all her time and in the end made little or nothing.

She got back into it recently against everyones advice.  It’s like a cult that turns you against your family so you don’t listen to them. Now she has no time for family, just scamming strangers and wasting her time away with unfullfilled dreams.

The constant meetings are to keep you brainwashed.   It’s all a scam and she knows it herself now as she tries to get others in “under her.”  Hard to see her as a Christian anymore when she does this, and it’s sad to see all the time she loses when she could be raising her kids.

I’ll never understand how she could be so stupid. I asked her why she got in it last time and she said of course money.  Then I asked her what she got out of it and she replied defensivly “I met a lot of very interesting people!”  I think that about says it all and if it didn’t work for my sis it won’t work for anyone.

All the BS they tell you about how well this that and the other person did or is doing is all lies so they can get your money.  98% of all Quixtar products are sold ONLY to stupid Quixtar members themselves, yet they go around saying they own a business???

Don’t give them a second of your time.

What do you think?  Does Multi-level “Network” Marketing consists of stupid, annoying members selling worthless stuff to other stupid, annoying members?  Share your MLM story below.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

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WEEKENDERS: Email from Lia to Coordinators / Managers

Here’s the longwinded email sent out to managers / coordinators of Weekenders regarding their abrupt closing. To some, it’s the smoking gun that indicates she knew darn well that they’d be closing, and things weren’t as sudden as she otherwise claimed:

Dear Managers,

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, I appreciate and value your time.
The purpose of our call today is to help you understand what happened at Weekenders and to tell you what I am up to, because as I have always said when I tell my story “When God closes a door closes, she opens a window.” And I am here today to tell you about what could be a huge window of opportunity for you. Before I get into the details, I want to tell you once again, what an honour and privilege it has been for me for the past 15 years to allow me to be your leader. You are an amazing group of women who I respect, admire and believe in.

So let’s start with what happened at Weekenders. As you know Weekenders has been struggling for some time and was on the brink of bankruptcy when Jan and Emilio took it over. Jan and Emilio invested millions of personal money and the money of investors to keep it going. Unfortunately, the sales just weren’t there and we fell further and further behind in paying our suppliers, everyone from the manufacturers, to the button people, to Canada post and our customs brokers. The load was so huge that on Monday June 9th they decided to cease operations as they prepare to declare bankruptcy in the next few weeks.

All of us have lost money all staff world wide, including myself, and the other heads of countries, our suppliers, the owners, the investors and of course you, our Coordinators and our Customers.

Due to the way I was told about the closure and since I was not in the office at the time the decision was made, the communication of the closure was done extremely poorly.

For example, I first understood we were bankrupt and then they changed the term to “cease operations”. I was under the understanding that all orders up to and including June 9 were picked and shipped, and in actual fact, this is true….what I was not told was that the boxes are in limbo with shipping companies they had not paid and with customs brokers they had not paid, the goods were stopped in transit.

I gave you the most accurate information I had at the time. I wanted to communicate to you quickly before my Weekenders e-mail was shut down, which it has been since Weekenders ceased operations.

All of us were treated poorly; I like to think not maliciously or with intent, but by lack of experience and lack of true understanding of our business. I am trying very hard and I encourage you also not to take what happened personally and to try to put this behind you.
treated
That is what I am doing, I am forever grateful for what Bob, George, Jan and Emilio have done for us as an organization and as individuals, we had some great times, made lots of money, spent lots of money and now it is time for new beginnings.

From June the 9 to June 13 I had my own little personal breakdown. (Yes I am human) Heartbroken does adequately describe how I felt, yes I was out of commission for 5 days and my darling husband whisked me away for a romantic de-stress weekend in PEI…lobster cures everything.

When I got back from PEI on Monday I had not one but two amazing world class companies wanting me to create a brand new direct sales company in fashion for them.

There is one opportunity that I am very excited about and I have been in negotiations with this company all week. We are well past the initial phase and the investors in this company want to proceed and a preliminary plan has been submitted to the board of Directors for approval.

The founding of this new company is very close to being final and here are some of the highlights of what this company will offer you. This company will have no association with any of the former Weekenders owners or founders; the opportunity is with totally different people who currently have a multi billion dollar high fashion manufacturing operation.

This is a multi billion dollar fashion manufacturer with the financial stability to make this new venture successful, with over 30 years in business. This company currently exports to the UK, Europe, Canada and Australia for major retailers.

They own 10 factories producing garments, for leading companies such as Anne Klein, Banana Republic, Polo, Anne Taylor and Talbot’s, just to name a few. They also produce jewelry, handbags and accessories. They now want to get into the direct sales business and have chosen us to do that.

While our marketing plan is in the approval process here is what I can tell you now and I look forward to presenting our final marketing plan in the next two weeks.

Highlights:

Here are just some of the highlights of what we will be offering our Fashion Consultants, subject to finalization and approval by the Board of Directors.:

The Fall/Winter collection is small only 15 garments in four colours, this is just the start up collection to get us up and running. The basic concept of mix and match wardrobing stays intact.

The sizes will range from extra small to extra large; easy to invest, easy to carry and easy to show.

The collection includes:

8 basic garments that mix and match in four colours of VS knit
4 high fashion garments that mix with the basics
3 “active wear” garments Jacket, top and pant

This offers a seamless transition of your existing customer base to the new company.

The fall shows that are already booked would hold.

Weekenders Sales Manager genealogy stays intact offering a seamless transition with your unit.

The marketing plan is still being approved however, I want to assure you we are very aware of what other companies are offering and we will be just as competitive.

We are also aware of the issues that de-motivated our former sales force and we want to address those issues as follows:

Company pays hostess credits.

No Visa/Master card merchant fees.

All orders will be direct ship to the customer via Canada Post (customer pays shipping fee) from our warehouse in Toronto.

No deliveries or exchanges handled by the Fashion Consultant

Fast Start includes free product for sales and sponsoring

Kits go on sale in July with a deep discount for former Weekenders Sales Managers. (upon sign up)

Our desire is to have Managers kits in your hands mid August.

Mini fashion previews in August in the major cities.

We understand how difficult it has been these past weeks not being able to honour your client’s orders. Our new company will offer any former Weekenders customer who did not get her order a 75% discount on her first item purchased from our new Fall/Winter collection.

I know you have lots of questions and I will be happy to call you directly over the next few days. Please e-mail me at liakeeping@live.com I will be returning your calls starting on Monday June 23.

I would love the opportunity to start something fresh and new and totally ground floor with you. I know the potential this company has and the opportunity we have ahead of us and I encourage you to wait a few weeks for us to get you the final details. This our opportunity to be pioneers all over again, because Canada is their first country of operation.

I am so excited!! This is just the beginning! We are already investigating the eco-basic kit concept with the organic cotton and bamboo knit fabric, which I know you love.

This company approached me directly because, ladies, they have watched our track record as a team and we are the best there is. The investors want our team to stay together as much as possible, and I know some will and some won’t and that’s ok too. I wish each and every one of you nothing but health, happiness and prosperity, no matter what it is you decide to do in the future.

I want to sincerely thank each and every one of you for your kindness, your love and support over the past 10 days and the past 15 years as your President.

I appreciate what you have gone through and are going through, we went through it together as always. I want to sincerely thank you for being on our call today and I will be forever grateful and appreciative of each and every one of you. I admire you, for your strength, your courage, your empathy and your belief in not only me but also the belief you have in yourselves and each other.
“Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.”

I always wanted to give you a future to live into and I believe this is it.
With love and respect,

WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT.

WEEKENDERS: Dumps Distributors Without Pay or Warning

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