So a friend of mine is debating whether to confront his good lifetime friend about this QUIXTAR (a daughter company of AMWAY) thing online. SHe called luring him into going to a meeting tonight. She has a friend in there, and they're both hosting the "party." His debate is whether to tell her or not that this is a SCAM, because it has SCAM written all over it (although QUIXTAR doesn't have any S, C, or M in it). He's shown me and I have read the "NBC Dateline" exposé of this and it seems like it's a scam. He asked me what I would do, so I did a quick search and WikiPedia had some stuff on it, and "pyramid schemes" was even referenced. Is this good? Has anyone had any "great" experiences with these companies?? p.s. His good lifetime friend is HOT. Married, but HOT. My friend's married, but he's NOT hot. Definitely NOT hot.
If you read the wikipedia article , you will see that they will reccomend Quixtar if the rep is indeed HOT!
Don't support the Orlando Magic! That Quixtar thing is a scam. Plus their rivival-style meetings freak me out.
Quiztar is more than a scam it is a f*cking CULT!!! I lost a friend of over 10 yrs behind it . . .well not just that but it was the straw He has totally DISCONNECTED from all his friends He lost his BEST FRIEND FROM HIGH SCHOOL BEHIND IT I'm talking over 15 yrs of friendship because the friend REFUSED to join [he felt the friend was being supportive and etc] I mean the guy talked about the crap 24/7 with the glaze of a ZEALOT in his eyes and I know for a fact that almost none of his former friends are in contact with him . . . . it is a sick sad peice of crap I would say . .try to expose it as a scam but I don't expect much . . . they seem to trap them in tight Rocket River HATE QUIXTAR!!!
Maybe 9 years ago, I was dating this girl with a friend who was in the AMWAY thing. She asked us all to go as a favor, and we went to a talk where some dude full of jewelry said he was making thousands of dollars, and such. Well, he kept on blabbering and we heard about you join this, you get so many people to do this and that, to sell stuff, but I never saw the products. After that, I wasn't convinced, but the girl kept on calling me and the other people from the same circle. We grew tired of it and I had to finally ask my good friend to tell her to stop it. Sure enough, she stopped calling us, and my friend said that she was glad, for this wasn't a long time friend whom she had never trusted anyway, so she just cut her other friend off (the one from AMWAY). I forget what happened to the other girl. Ummm... no, it's not my wife I am talking about. Yeah, I think it's a scam... I am wondering if my friend answered anything to that other girl. Yeah, she's attractive, so he says.
It's called Multi-Level Marketing and like others have said, it's more insidious than a cult. It's the cult of money that changes its converts to betray their own families with crap. Most awaken from their ordeal when every usefullness (liquid capital and social capital) has been sucked from them. Amway has been semi-legit, as it has grown into a billion dollar empire with lobbying privledges. While it's products aren't entirely crap, they probably wrote the book on conversion. Avoid at all costs... or join earliest and push the hardest.
They need to disappear. I hate those clowns always trying to recruit people in bookstores and computer stores.
It's not a scam. It's not a pyramid. It's an unremarkable business that is overly demanding. I was in it for about three years fifteen years ago. The problem is with the people in the business, not Amway/Quixtar itself. It is cultish, but if you turn away from it you are not hounded like you would be in a traditional "cult." They work hard-- overtime even -- to keep your focus on your and their business. That's understandable because it is just so easy to quit something that is hard and takes extra time, money and energy. My main gripe about the business was "the business in front of the business." Their whole educational system is a money-maker for the big-whigs. The Amway/Quixtar money on the backside is a fraction of the money made on the frontside through their "developmental" system. That is what is under investigation by the powers that be. Amway/Quixtar lost control of that long ago to the distributors in the field and they have had a hard time getting it under control.
I was loosely involved in a "multi-level marketing" company for a few months once. It was interesting. On some level, it's no different from sales, and it doesn't have to be sleazy if the product is legit. The foundation, however, is the product. If the product is crap, the whole thing is crap. If the product is okay, it might not be terrible. In the end though, you just have to ask yourself what's important to you and whether the demands, goals, and culture of the job is consistent with your values and the values of the people you would likely involve. It's certainly true that a lot of the people who become successful are sleazy. However, it's also true that a lot of the people who become successful genuinely believe in the mission, organization, and culture and are able to build networks off sharing that genuine belief. The thing is, many of these companies represent points on a spectrum of sleaziness. An argument could be made that many "legitimate" jobs also fall on the spectrum of sleaziness. I mean, think about Andy Fastow, and some of those crooks at Enron. "Oh, but that's different. That's business; that's the real world." Well, so is this. It just happens not to fall within the cultural mainstream. In the end, it really comes down to what your values are. "Scam" may not be too harsh for some of these companies, but neither is "sellout" for someone who works at a big corporate behemoth implementing or defending sketchy business practices, depending on your perspective.
That's a great assessment <b>Relativist</b>. I was more than willing to invest some of my time and money into something that would allow me to leverage my efforts. The guy I was associated with was making McGrady Money in 1989 but he had gotten in more than a decade earlier and as a young married without children. He and his wife were ready and able to plow into the opportunity with great commitment and determination. By the time I saw the business opportunity, I as a dozen years older than he had been when he got started and had a mortgage, a wife in grad school, and two pre-schoolers under my roof. I was shown the business by a professional client of mine. It was intriguing. I had never heard of Amway, so I had no preconceived notions about it. I just thought it made sense. I had to learn about all the rigamarole as it came up and I quickly learned the most other people did have the pre-conceived notions that I was without. It got discouraging very fast.
I was just about to say the same the same about your post. Your compliment is appreciated. I'm actually pretty young (read single and no kids), and I was intrigued by the possibility of creating a supplemental income, and putting less pressure on the financial return of my primary "career." It's possible that if I had put the type of energy into "building the business" that giddyup points out is needed that I'd be in a good position financially, but in the end, I was just never comfortable with the culture and the "sales" aspect of the job. The product was solid, but I was encouraged to spend more time recruiting than learning the product, and that just wasn't my bag. I don't think I have any regrets. Maybe I'm young and naive, but if I'm going to invest so much of my time and identity in any job/career, it can't just be for money.
A guy I met and a female neighbor that got him involved tried to recruit me into Quixtar a few weeks ago. I went to the meeting and heard the whole "you'll get rich and independant" in 2-5 years bull****. I took their "literature" threw it on the table, then 2 days later told them I was not interested.
