So I get this call Sunday from some random guy claiming he's an entrepreneur and he has this business opportunity I might be interested in. He said that one of my friends had already heard about it and thinks that I would be very interested. He goes on to invite me to a business seminar on the following night. Seeing that I was somewhat interested I agreed to attend with my gf. After he hung up I called my friend to see what it was all about. He explained that it's some company called Quixtar and I'll be basically selling products to make extra cash in my spare time. Here's the wikipedia article explaining how it works. So anyway, I go to the seminar the next night and the guest speaker was a guy who supposedly is "financially free" from using the system. He talks for about an hour and a half and although he spoke alot of sense (letting your money work for you, invest in different ventures etc. etc.) some things stood out in a negative way. - He didnt explain much of how the business works, the hierarchy system, what type of products you'll be selling, their cost etc. He just basically hyped up the crowd on the prospect of making money. And let me tell you they were not the smartest bunch. - He was extremely charismatic. Most con men are. - He basically suggested that education is a waste of time. - And this one was the doozy........He emphatically stated not to take advice from anyone who hasn't been to one of the meetings claiming that they may only try to hold you down even family and friends. Needless to say I was skeptical. I mean they made it seem like there was nothing wrong with the system and they were basically giving away money. So I come home and do a little research and found this website. It basically states that it is scam, that the products aren't that good and its a pyramid with the higher ups preying on those lower in the chain. It even goes as far as to suggest that they use emotional, behavioural and thought control much like a cult, through their help books, cds and tapes. So any of you ever tried the system or know anyone who did? Any horror stories about Amway/Quixtar or is the website just thrashing a perfectly good way to earn extra cash?
This is the first time I've ever responded without reading a single word of the OP's post. DON'T DO IT. Don't get sucked in. Just Google them up and see the number of people that think this is a scam. It's pretty much a pyramid scheme, where only the people at the top benefit. Hell, just read the wikipedia page for them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quixtar and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amway). One guy even introduced me into his house for a meeting. I knew it was a scam, but my friend forced me to go with him. What a waste of an hour of my life. Remember, if it ever sounds too good to be true...
Edit: Ha, now that I read it I think you already know that this thing won't work. Good job on researching it. Hopefully, the guy won't keep calling you. But do tell your friend not to give away your number like that. On a side note, was the guy Indian?
My gf tried to sell that **** to me and i told her to go away. I explained to her it's a pyramid scheme and that it's a r****ded way to earn extra income.
Code: Orlando Magic Total: $58,107,045 Rashard Lewis ............... $14,880,000 Hedo Turkoglu ............... $6,373,900 Dwight Howard ............... $6,061,274 Tony Battie ................. $5,200,000 Carlos Arroyo ............... $4,100,000 Pat Garrity ................. $3,818,750 Keyon Dooling ............... $3,596,000 Brian Cook .................. $3,500,000 Keith Bogans ................ $2,440,000 J.J. Redick ................. $2,000,160 Jameer Nelson ............... $1,961,609 Maurice Evans ............... $1,740,000 Adonal Foyle ................ $1,219,590 James Augustine ............. $687,456 Marcin Gortat ............... $427,163 Bo Outlaw ................... $160,071 This Orlando Magic team is owned by one of the founders of Amway, Rich DeVos. Every time I see them play, every time I see their arena, I think of them as the NBA's version of a palatial Vegas casino. What I mean by that is that all that wealth and all that extravagance was paid for by fools blinded by the false promise of a quick fortune. DeVos built his wealth on the backs of suckers. So see, if you can manage to establish your own pyramid, and con people into building it up under your feet, on their dime, then you, too, can be independently wealthy.
Anytime someone cold calls you out of the blue with a business opportunity you should jump on the deal.
Lot's of cons here from people who don't know how to look at this. I don't use quixar/amway but I know what they're about. It is not a pyramid scheme. It is a real business opportunity. Amway has produced more millionaires than any other company. Look it up. It is a business, just like any other business, where you have to recruit your customers. That's the tough part and most businesses fail due to the marketing implementation. See, that guy was charasmatic and probably could sell. Most of the people think they're getting in and just going to make money without realizing you have to be good to sell to have your own business. BTW, for those that claim it is a pyramid, do you understand the hierarchy of business? ceo---->gets paid big bucks because everyone works for him vp vp vp vp mid mgt mid mgt mid mgt dep a dep b dep c dep d dep e dep f I wouldn't do it but not for the reasons listed above. Can you honestly tell me that people are going to be interested in listening about soap and laundry detergent? It is a really tough sell with too much preconceived skepticism. However, for some, it could be a great opportunity.
My first wife's sister and brother-in-law were Amway distributors and recruited us. We ended up joining, but we didn't try very hard to do anything with it. We essentially just bought stuff for ourselves and even that didn't last long because the products weren't really price competitive at the time (this was nearly 20 years ago). I have no idea what the products are like now. My wife's sister never made any money off of it, either, despite trying relatively hard. It's an odd business in that the whole aim of the business is to sell the business to other people who, in turn, have to sell the business to other people. The products are secondary and, it seems, very rarely sold to outsiders. You buy stuff for yourself and recruit a whole bunch of people who also buy stuff for themselves. Recruit enough people buying stuff for themselves, and you make some money. Certainly a person could make money, but most people who try it don't. And at the time my wife and I were doing it, you had to get a whole lot of people to make any kind of decent money (and by "decent money", I'm not talking millions). The fact that people in higher positions in business tend to make more money and are smaller in number as you go up the chain is not analogous. Amway is most certainly a pyramid (they even used to draw a pyramid when describing how the business worked. I don't know if they still do that), it's just not an illegal pyramid scheme. The CEO of Wal-Mart doesn't make more money based on the people under him hiring a new person. And the people at the bottom can't better themselves by hiring people under them.
It is possible to make very good money in Amway, but it's just like Mary Kay, or any other pyramid business. You have to work VERY hard for a long time to start getting a payoff. It is essentially a full time business. If you're not willing to make it your primary job, and treat it like a primary job, don't bother.
The products being sold through Amway are completely incidental. Your "real" job is recruiting people. You're literally selling Amway, the company, to your friends, family, and acquaintances... not Amway-brand toilet paper.
People get lured in all the time by the promises like "be your own boss" and "be independently wealthy" its a damn shame, because people want to believe that they can do it, but you have to apply simple logic... If it was simple... everybody would be doing it.
Have you ever done multilevel marketing? It's one of the evilest business models out there. While not a true pyramid scheme, the only people that make any money are the ones at the top in Amway. The motivation techniques they use to keep it all going are highly unethical. They target working class people who are desperate for extra income, selling them a load of crap that they can become millionaires by working a few extra hours a week. I got suckered into doing Quixtar briefly in college, along with my parents, by a friend of the family. We no longer speak to this person. Their sales meetings are LITERALLY like church revivals. I thought I was going to get baptized. They basically whip you up into a frenzy to buy all your household products (which are not cheap) from their website, and then go out and get every person you know to do the same. The type of people who do well at this are either natural salespeople, who would do well at anything sales, or people who are downright crazy and willing to terrorize every person they know to make a dime. I've never felt more hustled for cash than I did in my short time with Quixtar. It makes buying a car look like a dream vacation.
That's the thing, they make it seem as though they are doing you your friends a favour by introducing them to this great business opportunity. The business is based on recruitment so they get your guard down by getting referrals from people you know. The funny thing is it turned out that I knew the guy from secondary school. He was a year below me. And no, he wasn't Indian. But the majority of the "uplines" were.
I agree with that. I wouldn't say that amway is a pyramid scheme as I understand a pyramid scheme. I always thought in a pyramid scheme you have to buy things up front in bulk and then turn around and sell it. With amway as it is now, I thought you just sign people up to buy whatever it is that they want to buy and you don't have to carry inventory. I don't see Quixar, for what I understand it to be now (friend's roomate bought a business kit from them but hasn't done anything with it), as a pyramid 'scheme'. Of course, your business organization is set up as a pyramid and yah, it is multi-level marketing. Personally, I wouldn't waste my time trying to build it as a business. The only people that are ever going to make money doing this are the people that already have.
It's not a scam in the sense that you give them money and never hear from them again or that the products are faulty or anything like that. It is a legitimate business. It's just that they use a lot of manipulation and some things question their ethics. As some have said, they only way to truly make money is to get people under you, your downline. Why? Because the products they buy for resale or use for themselves gets credited to you. It's impossible to make the monthly point quotas from self consumption and retail sales. Therefore, somewhere down the line at the bottom are people not making the quota and probably having to buy extra stock just to make it so they end up with a lot of extra stuff they don't need. The second thing is, if it's so great why lean so heavily on referrals? Because it gets your guard down. Trust me, it happened to me. If I didn't hear that he got a number from a friend, I wouldn't have even considered it. In fact, I agreed to attend without even having much of an idea what it was about (I think that was done deliberately) all because it was recommended by someone I knew and trusted. All they care about is recruitment, dragging as much people below them so that they can prop themselves up. I went to the follow up meeting to get my questions answered which he did. But he was far more interested in the list of names I was supposed to provide him with. When I said I didn't have it and that I needed to understand what its about first, he even suggested that I go into my phone and just pull out about 15-20 names. Also they rely heavily on these "motivational" tapes, cds and books that you have to buy every month. It's supposedly to give you guidance and all that jazz, but to me it just seems to brainwash you and give the IBO's an explanation for every possible criticism that's out there. I tried all how to trap the guy but he had an explanation for everything some of which sounded very rehearsed. You can make money from the business, just not in a very ethical way. It's basically conning people into getting involved knowing that their sales and efforts are helping you. The people they target are the working class who seem as though there is no way out of the rut they're in. They prey on them with promises of "financial freedom". Remember, if it's too good to be true, it probably is.
It's a pyramid scheme. Although legally, it has products to sell, they are overpriced and avg distributors make little money (while putting in their time): If more than half do not make money and some at the top make millions, I am staying away. If you want to be a distributor/ retailer, there are better opportunities where your time and hard work gives you a better chance of earning a living.
Can we all at least agree it's a pyramid scheme...c'mon... I had a friend at work many years ago try to have me do this...He got suckered into it by our boss..I wanted no part of it and declined...Definitely a weird industry...
One last thing, I notice Chris Hansen of Dateline NBC did a purported expose of Amway and the like. And then he started going after pedophiles. Coincidence? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4375477/
OP run like the wind... I've had like two people to trying to recruit me for Amway. One was a fake job interview.... Pyramid schemes and MLM suck, like a rotting Armadillo's a-hole getting stuck to your car. It's like smartest get rich scheme for top level execs...first you don't have to pay the workers with a direct salary. Next, you are fooling them into thinking they are running their own business and making their own money. The average business owner only makes, like $150 a year, or something r****ded like that in gross profit. Biggest thing is the execs don't have to do any work. Your profit returns on item is like $3-$5 per $75 dollar sale. And, I don't even know if that is right, because last time I check it was based on a points system. Where some items you actually don't get the same rate as others, for example, if you sell $75 dollars of energy drink, it may not be equal to a $75 dollar cooking pan, according to the points scale. Now, everyone knows why I hate the Orlando Magic, above its roster. Amway or pedophiles....can I ask for the Apocalypse, instead?
