Amway - how do you respond?

[F.I.R.E User]

If you can sign up few people. You will get residual income from your downlines.

 

[TheWizard]

OP here.

Wondering if anyone responded to the solicitor that they are being taken for a ride by Amway and then tell them not to drink the kool aid?.

I like this young couple and don't want them to waste time and money.....

Depending on how far they are into the Amway cult's Mind Control, it can take a WHILE to deprogram them...

 

[mystang52]

OP here.

Wondering if anyone responded to the solicitor that they are being taken for a ride by Amway and then tell them not to drink the kool aid?.

I like this young couple and don't want them to waste time and money.....

No experience with this. But in general, no one heeds unsolicited advice. So, probably a waste of time to do so .

 

[Gumby]

No experience with this. But in general, no one heeds unsolicited advice. So, probably a waste of time to do so .

Heck, many people ignore even solicited advice.

 

[Andre1969]

OP here.

Wondering if anyone responded to the solicitor that they are being taken for a ride by Amway and then tell them not to drink the kool aid?.

I like this young couple and don't want them to waste time and money.....

It wasn't Amway, but I did warn a friend about one of those pyramid scheme companies. My friend is a high school teacher, and a few years back wanted to get involved with financial advisement, or something like that. He signed up with some company called Primerica, I think. I told him that it was basically Amway for the banking crowd, but he was like OH NO, this is different. In fact, it was started by a teacher!

I warned him to be careful, because those kinds of outfits tend to make you lose friends, because they try to drill it in your head that if your friends won't join your network/buy from you, whatever, they don't want you to be successful and they're not really your friends.

I also warned him not to attempt peddling their stuff on me, and he replied something like "Oh, I'd never do that; you're too educated. This is more for people who aren't as knowledgeable as you, but want to get into investing."

Anyway, I think he got suckered into paying $200 for some seminar and a get-started kit, but then figured out it was basically a scam. You make your money by getting more people to join under you, and pay for those kits, various seminars, and so forth.

He got out of it, before it cost him too much money. He was under the misguided notion that this company was going to teach him the ins and outs of investing and financial planning and such, and that he would be able to use that knowledge to help the less informed. But when he figured out it was just a pyramid scheme, he bailed.

 

[mystang52]

It wasn't Amway, but I did warn a friend about one of those pyramid scheme companies. My friend is a high school teacher, and a few years back wanted to get involved with financial advisement, or something like that. He signed up with some company called Primerica, I think. I told him that it was basically Amway for the banking crowd, but he was like OH NO, this is different. In fact, it was started by a teacher!

I warned him to be careful, because those kinds of outfits tend to make you lose friends, because they try to drill it in your head that if your friends won't join your network/buy from you, whatever, they don't want you to be successful and they're not really your friends.

I also warned him not to attempt peddling their stuff on me, and he replied something like "Oh, I'd never do that; you're too educated. This is more for people who aren't as knowledgeable as you, but want to get into investing."

Anyway, I think he got suckered into paying $200 for some seminar and a get-started kit, but then figured out it was basically a scam. You make your money by getting more people to join under you, and pay for those kits, various seminars, and so forth.

He got out of it, before it cost him too much money. He was under the misguided notion that this company was going to teach him the ins and outs of investing and financial planning and such, and that he would be able to use that knowledge to help the less informed. But when he figured out it was just a pyramid scheme, he bailed.

Give your friend a lot of credit. He saw the warning signs, and got out quickly with only a small financial loss.

 

[MarieIG]

OP here.

Wondering if anyone responded to the solicitor that they are being taken for a ride by Amway and then tell them not to drink the kool aid?.

I like this young couple and don't want them to waste time and money.....

No, I never did that. If it were DH (yes) or one of my kiddos (probably) but not acquaintances.

 

[ERD50]

Amway and other MLM’s were not a scam. MLM cuts marketing costs.

I do remember listening to the cassettes in late 90s.

If you can sign up few people. You will get residual income from your downlines.

So you were/are in Amway? What was/is your experience?

-ERD50

 

[Badger]

I would at least thank them for the invitation but take the time to let them know that I am retired with a pension, SS, Medicare, and other sources of income that makes it unnecessary to go back to work even for an hour. But welcome to the neighborhood and drop by for a glass of wine or a beer next week.

Cheers!

 

[brett]

Do not understand why some people are so apprehensive about saying no thank you very politely. Nothing more is needed.

This is about someone trying to sell you something, get you signed up to sell MLM products by taking advantage of your friendliness/politeness.

Don't get sucked in. Don't make silly excuses. Don't fret over it for even two seconds. Just say NO and be done with it. It they are offended by a polite no then ask yourself if you really need or want these people in your life or as friends. Besides, you are doing them a favor. Less time spent with you means they can chase down some other unsuspecting prospect on their list.

 

[ncbill]

Edited to add: The people who make /made the most money from Amway were the people who put together the seminars and hype materials associated with, but not directly run by, Amway.

The guys with the large networks (Diamond Direct) produce all those.

At the "Dream Night" I attended there were tons of those things for sale.

And everyone in their down-line (or whatever they call it) was expected to buy it all.

All revenue went directly to the head dude, nada to Amway.

 

[TheWizard]

The guys with the large networks (Diamond Direct) produce all those.

At the "Dream Night" I attended there were tons of those things for sale.

And everyone in their down-line (or whatever they call it) was expected to buy it all.

All revenue went directly to the head dude, nada to Amway.

Dexter Yager, checko...

 

[jazz4cash]

If you can sign up few people. You will get residual income from your downlines.

That’s what red-flagged me on Amway….always talking about downlines snd residual income and not the value of the products. My last solicitation (many years ago) they seemed to emphasize buying everything from Amway, not just Amway products. That might’ve preceded affiliate fees we see now for online shopping.

 

[jazz4cash]

It wasn't Amway, but I did warn a friend about one of those pyramid scheme companies. My friend is a high school teacher, and a few years back wanted to get involved with financial advisement, or something like that. He signed up with some company called Primerica, I think. I told him that it was basically Amway for the banking crowd, but he was like OH NO, this is different. In fact, it was started by a teacher!



I warned him to be careful, because those kinds of outfits tend to make you lose friends, because they try to drill it in your head that if your friends won't join your network/buy from you, whatever, they don't want you to be successful and they're not really your friends.



I also warned him not to attempt peddling their stuff on me, and he replied something like "Oh, I'd never do that; you're too educated. This is more for people who aren't as knowledgeable as you, but want to get into investing."



Anyway, I think he got suckered into paying $200 for some seminar and a get-started kit, but then figured out it was basically a scam. You make your money by getting more people to join under you, and pay for those kits, various seminars, and so forth.



He got out of it, before it cost him too much money. He was under the misguided notion that this company was going to teach him the ins and outs of investing and financial planning and such, and that he would be able to use that knowledge to help the less informed. But when he figured out it was just a pyramid scheme, he bailed.

I went to a pitch by AL WILLIAMS which morphed into Primerica. Not a scam in my opinion but had all the same pitfalls as any MLM. Their tagline was “Buy term and invest the difference”. Actually a good idea. Replace whole life with term insurance and invest the savings in their proprietary front loaded mutual funds. I think they were accused of pressuring folks to cashout their whole life policies. The funds could be bought for as little as $25. This was at a time when Vanguard was successfully preaching the gospel of no-load mutual funds. I couldn’t possibly think of selling that scheme to a friend or relative.

 

[CDRE]

Here is syndicated comic strip WuMo from today's newspaper: https://www.gocomics.com/wumo/2023/08/21

 

[Tadpole]

I was in this situation in the 80s. I simply said no without speeches or grimaces. The seller was a friend and I don't recall it changing the friendship at all.

 

[Greenblue]

My DW's parents were made starry-eyed by Amway's siren call of self-reliance and "being a go-getter", which was already ingrained in them as an ideal by church.

Advice is a bad idea, and "no, thank you" is a valid response, but if you do want to help them, ask detached, calm questions and be upfront about them. Ask them upfront if they would be interested in exploring with you the idea that joining Amway is likely to be beneficial. "They sound like impressive claims," you could respond to their pitch. "I like to ask challenging but respectful questions about how you decided to join Amway."

If they're interested, continue with questions and listen intently to their responses. "What specific claims does Amway make to encourage people to be sellers?" "How did you decide those claims were true?" "If someone else were joining a different company that made the same claims, what might they do to find out if they should believe those claims?" "Would you be interested in exploring methods to see if it's worthwhile, like tracking your income and expenses for a time to make sure you're not losing more than you're making?"

It's draws factors of magnitude more brain effort than a perfectly fine "no, thank you." But by using respectful, challenging questions, you can help someone critically think in a way advice (which attacks their strongly held thoughts) won't.

 

[Aerides]

Op describes the offer, in this case, coming from a "New neighbor"
Not a dear friend, not an established known neighbor, not a family member.

If anything, I'd be annoyed. Here comes mr & mrs new to the neighborhood, and by way of introduction they invite you to a sales pitch disguised as a barbeque? I mean at least they should be smart and do a straight up welcome barbeque first, and then try the sales pitch in a later meet up.

Good enough reason to write them off as folks you don't wish to be friendly with, IMO. Polite, wave hello, but arms length.

As for unsolicited advice, never a good idea, always a waste of time at best. For all we know they've been working this way for years, and the OP doesn't even know them at this point. (at least, if I described someone as a new neighbor, that would mean I knew little about them.)

 

[troutnut1]

I used to ask them to provide me an IRS form 8821 which would release their income tax records to me proving all the high income they claimed to be making. Never had any takers. But sure got a lot of excuses.

 

[Koolau]

I don't recall the "pitch" but I do recall that the goal was to sell $100 of product yourself (can't recall if that was per day or per week) AND hook up X number of new "underlings" through Amway "parties."



The thought went through my head at the time. If everyone did that, in a couple of years, everyone would be selling Amway and there would be NO new suckers (er, I mean clients) to enroll in the Amway family. Apparently, not too many people have reached their Amway goals. YMMV

 

[Trailwalker]

Yes, be honest. At least you got a headś up from them. It could have been an ambush.

I was ambushed by a casual friend who drove two hours to go out to lunch with me. He was a respected fisheries guy for our Dept of Natural Resources, and I had no idea he had an Amway side business. I felt bad saying, no, not interested but I said no, not interested.

 

[Koolau]

I was ambushed by a casual friend who drove two hours to go out to lunch with me. He was a respected fisheries guy for our Dept of Natural Resources, and I had no idea he had an Amway side business. I felt bad saying, no, not interested but I said no, not interested.

Our longest distance traveled by "friends" trying to ambush us was 80 miles. DW kept her composure. I walked out and went to my man cave and watched TV.

The "set up" was that these "friends" wanted to come to our place of business and talk about said business - and how to make more money. Since they were even more experienced (and successful) in our "industry" we thought, "Yeah. That would be great." Then it turned out to be an Amway pitch. Rather than scream at them, I just left. Not sure how DW handled it. I never asked and we never met with our "friends" again, though we saw them occasionally at trade meetings. We would have "forgiven" them, but I think they were afraid to make the first move and we weren't going to let them off the hook for at least an apology. Sad.

 

[Breedlove]

When we were young we were invited to a dinner party with an older neighbor . They always seemed so upbeat and positive . When asked what they did they always said import export. When we went to the house ,they had no TV but beautiful pictures of famous places all over the world . Of course they told us soon they would be visiting those places. I got so hopped up import / export business . He pulled out an easel and started drawing a pyramid . My wife , she caught on quick . In front of everybody she asks , is this Amway? ..That sucked all the oxygen out and the neighbor kept saying this a new Amway. ..We told them we weren’t interested and left. …..They never talked to us again.

 

[Koolau]

When we were young we were invited to a dinner party with an older neighbor . They always seemed so upbeat and positive . When asked what they did they always said import export. When we went to the house ,they had no TV but beautiful pictures of famous places all over the world . Of course they told us soon they would be visiting those places. I got so hopped up import / export business . He pulled out an easel and started drawing a pyramid . My wife , she caught on quick . In front of everybody she asks , is this Amway? ..That sucked all the oxygen out and the neighbor kept saying this a new Amway. ..We told them we weren’t interested and left. …..They never talked to us again.

That borders on the bizarre! Heh, heh, run, don't walk.

 

[TheWizard]

I was ambushed by a casual friend who drove two hours to go out to lunch with me. He was a respected fisheries guy for our Dept of Natural Resources, and I had no idea he had an Amway side business. I felt bad saying, no, not interested but I said no, not interested.

You could've bought a box of Amway laundry detergent as a consolation...