Pyramid Schemes - Melaleuca

doofdaddy

I have'nt seen this product but I do live where the tree grows that produces the oil. The aboriginal people who showed us newer capitalistic inhabitants this amazing plant don't receive a single cent in royaltys from anybody. Now that's a ripoff

JW83

Amway sux

Mulan

No, it isn't Herbalife. Is that one still around?

Mine is Unicity, formerly known as Enrich International.

I agree that the products should be sold in stores.

Preston

I have a friend that sells Maleluca for a living, however I told him that I would always have strong reservations about not getting involved in any multi-level marketing profession. It's my understanding that Maleluca does do a lot of a good as a product. For instance their substitute for laundry cleaner contains less silicate, thus stretching the life of the clothes...HOWEVER..they're not the only ones doing it and you can get the same thing at a lot of speciality stores without having to contribute a fee to joining ther venture. I think the rub of a lot of these ventures is that they make the means of making money so enticing that you're in on some big secret...but you're not.

- Preston (of the "almost sold Cutco Knives for a living" class)

talesin

Eyebrow

Oops.. mary kay is not the same as Avon. True, you buy your product direct from the company, but your director, who recruited you, gets a 'commission' (cut), and she drives the pink Caddy. No recruits, no Caddy.

been there, bought the tee shirt class

Odrade

NODenial... I'm with you. I HATE MLM stuff. I know not everyone involved does this, but I hate the recruiting meetings, and the "parties" for the most part, because at some point, the salesperson will begin on the speech that is basically just "if you don't get involved with this product right now, you are FOOLISH and missing the one great opportunity of your lifetime and you'll regret it for the rest of your life while all the SMART people will be whooping it up with their bags and bags of money, wearing clothes made out of $50 bills, and drinking Dom in glasses made from crushed diamonds on their yachts. So, are you going to be FOOLISH or SMART?"

I do NOT like anyone implying I am stupid for making a different choice-- extra sensitive to that.

Anyways, a couple of years ago my neighbor had a Pampered Chef party, I went and had a GREAT time, bought stuff too. But the sales lady ran it like a fun party, with a 5 minute presentation in the middle about the company that basically went like this: "If you like pampered chef and have a bunch of the stuff and attend parties, you might think about signing up to be a distributor. These are the benefits, this is how much it will cost you, and this is how much you will make at these sales marks. I don't make much money doing this because I do it as a hobby, but I have lots of fun, have made enough money to stock my kitchen with every item I ever wanted from Pampered Chef, and get enough to go do a spa day every month or so." Then we got to eat more cake.

That was the closest I ever came to getting involved in a legit MLM, and I thought it was a GREAT recruiting speech. No one said anyone would be "foolish" for passing it up, no one made grandiose promises, and it was so much fun that at least 2 people signed up for parties of their own.

cyber-sista

Yes,, melalueca was big in our congo and was the one multi level scheme I got sucked into. In order to be a rep or to get a good discount you had to keep up a quota of what you bought each month I believe it was 45 dollars worth of stuff. their whole spiel was that this was all stuff you used every month anyway, so it wouldn't be a problem. 8 years since I have bought any of the stuff and I still have some melaluca liquid hand soap on the shelf. You couln't use 45 dollars worth of their stuff each month and ended up buying backup. I quit using the stuff when I realized it wasn't anything that special and it was more expensive than things that were readily available at the heath food store ,etc.

A pioneer bro and sis from another area were selling the heck out of the stuff and were claiming that melalueca had blessed them and helped them to keep pioneering. They had the inside scoop that the leaders of this company were actually witnesses and that is why it was such a wonderful company (of course this was the inside scoop, which we weren't supposed to spread around.) The stories they told about the products were next to miraculous--how it cured burns in minutes, etc. all the people at the melalueca meeting were JWs--it was almost like being at a KH meeting. Anyway, like I said I eventually got out of the program, but I would bet that some of the faithful ones are still buying the stuff.

I recall a mulitilevel telephone scheme some of the brothers were into and bragging about how much money they had made off of it. There was also a cure all product called Colorad. Another was a company that sold some milk powder stuff that was expensive, but claimed to be better than milk. Some got involved in coral calcium. There were some JW alternative doctors in our area (not real doctors) 2 of them were claiming to be of the annointed and so got a lot of customers. There was a pioneer sister kinesiologist and another sister of the same sort who had a big JW following. Yes, I tried that one too for a while and have some crazy stories about quack cures there too. A few got involved in Amway( Amway was thought to be dark side in our congo since the ones who got involved with that company ended up leaving the WT.) There was even a multilevel vacation marketing scheme happening when I left. Oh yes, and one sister was a major tupperware salesperson--totally fanatical about plasticware. Oh, yes and the Home Interiors parties and the Pampered Chef company was another. and there were the crystal parties too (dishes not stones!)--And, there was another pyramid scheme expensive gift company too! And there was a candle company too. Mary Kaye and Avon made the rounds too (one pioneer sis who wore tons of jezebel looking makeup was a Avon rep)

I forgot their was something called something like paratex? It was a parasite killing herb--this was really big for a while--yes, we all had symtoms of parasite invasion!

Come to think of it besides going to the meetings the bros and sisters in the first congo I went to were majorly involved in the multilevel marketing thing--I didn't realize how much until I wrote this post--Wow--Could this have something to do with the JW personality? Gullible?...

cybs

William Penwell

They sure don't listen to the counsel at the meetings. I seem to recall some years ago there was an article in one of their rags about not getting involved with MLM schemes. Also I agree with your analyze on a persons motives when they get involved in that crap. When they come over all friendly and say hello you always have to question their motives. I don't agree on how much they make. I know so many of them will brag about how much money their making but in reality something like .01% actually only make enough money to live on. He maybe tells you about what he makes before he has to pay out all his overhead and down line people. He probably doesn't make as much as he says he does.

Will

freedom96

I fault any company that makes false claims, and / or is truely illegal.

That being said, there are some MLM type companies out there that do work, if the person involved actually does it. The problem with many of these companies is that with its low cost investment/ start, it attracts a lot of "job" mentality people, who do not know what it takes to run a business.

I have owned several businesses, and it is indeed hard work, regardless of the type of business. In order to make anything work, you must work at it. If I treated my business as serious as most MLM people work their company, I would go out of business.

Also, for those who hate "pyramid" type schemes, look at your own job. Depending on the amount of people that work there, you will have the lowest paid warehouse people, then work on up into sales, and then middle management, upper management, so on until the owner. Guess what? That is a pyramid people! What chance does the guy on the bottom, the warehouse guy, have on taking the owners spot? Or even upper or middle management? Come on, we all live in a pyramid type world when it comes to jobs. So why be so critical of a business where everyone has a chance, though it might be small?

My hat is off to anyone who tries something different to get ahead in life, regardless of company, or how they do it, as long as it is legal.

Eyebrow2

I love pampered chef....they have some great products, and the parties are usually fun. If anyone in the dallas area is in pampered chef and has a party, PLEASE invite me hahah.

Pyramid Schemes - Melaleuca - MLM