The Amway "housewarming" party (FauxPasofYear1114-06)

[nancyhf]

Reading about this reminded me of a time back before my husband and I were married (early 90's) and my mom had a guy come over and do some carpentry work in her house. This guy was the son of a friend/colleague that she taught with. My husband has a great personality and had chatted with this guy while he was working on my mom's house. He and his wife invited us for coffee, saying that he had a business opportunity that he thought would suit my husband perfectly. We met them and, long story short, it was an Amway hard sell. When we first sat down and he started talking, my first impulse was to ask "Is this Amway?", since I had encountered quite a few of these people when I was unfortunate enough to work in a restaurant that would oblige these people by staying open after hours so they could come in after their convention, pack the place way over the fire code limit, eat only pie and coffee, and not tip any of the servers. I didn't ask, it took about two hours to find out it was, in fact, an Amway pitch, and they didn't even offer to pay for our coffee, even though they had issued the invitation. By the way, now that I've got everyone's attention with my riveting story  , what does MLM stand for?

[SFCRetired]

One of my favorite writers, Robert Heinlein, said it best, "The hardest man to cheat is an honest man."  As long as folks are looking to make huge amounts of 'quick' money, we will have these mlm schemes.  My late wife and I got sucked into Shaklee before I learned better and taught her better.  There's a fellow named Rick Ross who has a website exposing all the various cults and Amway is listed right up there at the top along with some others I won't name. 

I've really enjoyed reading these stories and even got a good laugh or two out of them.  A laugh I badly needed, by the way.  I thank all of you for that.

[Shoo]

There's a fellow named Rick Ross who has a website exposing all the various cults and Amway is listed right up there at the top along with some others I won't name. 

Aw, c'mon.  We won't tell. 

I'd like to have the URL to that website, too.

[Lady Snowdon]

I googled and came up with www.rickross.com

[Scritzy]

My late wife and I got sucked into Shaklee before I learned better and taught her better. 

Oh, heavens, Shaklee! I'd forgotten about that one!

We used to turn down their ads all the time when I was in newspaper, along with all the Herbalife ads.

[sunflower]

Ah yes, good old Amway...

Back in high school I had a really close guy friend named Rich (no, I'm not changing his name to protect the innocent).  I had it bad for him for a long time, it was a kind of messed-up relationship.  We drifted apart after graduation, mostly because he realized I'd stopped pining for him and was no longer willing to be his stand-by date when he couldn't get anyone else to spend time with him.  I did see him briefly when we both attended the same community college and had a biology class together, but other than that we were kind of out of each other's lives.  He wasn't a bad person, just a little manipulative and self-absorbed.

A few years down the road, I was living with my DH, to whom I was then only engaged.  I happened to stay home from work one night and the phone rang; it was Rich!  I was floored.  He'd called my mom's house to talk to me, and she gave him my new number.  I was really happy to hear from him, thinking maybe we could catch up, possibly double-date with his fiancee and my fiance.  Instead, he started talking to me about "Wouldn't it be great if you could make money just by buying things you need anyway?"

I let him go on for a few minutes, confused; then I commented, politely, "It sounds like Amway."

"Well...yeah, it is."

"No."  I explained that I knew someone who had been involved in Amway for a time and had needed to resort to rather drastic measures (changing phone numbers, etc.) in order to get out of the mess, and I preferred to keep my distance.  Besides, I liked my job.  We chatted a bit longer, I told him I hoped we could hang out sometime, and he said we'd keep in touch.

That was spring of 2000.  I haven't heard from him since.

[Sahaira]

This is my first post!

Anyway, when I was about 19 I worked at a hospital, in the kitchen. One of my duties was delivering trays to patients. Now, I'm a very curvy, non-makeup-wearing, plain-faced and friendly looking lady, and apparently that's what attracted this person to me (though I'm not quite sure why!). I ran into her in the elevator while on my way back down to the kitchen. She kinda stared at me, then asked me my name. I just told her my first name, but apparently she saw my last name on my employee namebadge. Eek! My last name ("McLaine") isn't common, but there are a few different "McLaines" in the phone book, and my family's number is last. Apparently, she called EVERY "McLaine" in the phone book just looking for me! I wasn't living at home, but she pressured my mom (Mom resisted as much as she could, but the lady would not leave her alone! I've forgiven my mom, though  ) into giving her my phone number. She called me, informed me that she had spent days just trying to find me, because I "looked so cherubic and nice and wonderful!", and that she just HAD to have me! I asked her what she meant, and she said that she was a "High-up" Mary Kay consultant and that she wanted to visit me at home to give me a free facial and a gift! I tried to decline, but I've never been able to say no to people    I committed my own breach of etiquette when I left with my roommate when she was due to arrive, but I just couldn't bring myself to face her! That was three years ago and I'm glad I didn't get suckered into anything. I wonder how many other "impressionable" looking girls she's tried to exploit! The whole thing was just bizarre, how she stared at me and generally acted like I was her long-lost love until she got to the sales pitch. But seeing the rest of the stories, here, I'm not surprised!

Thanks for letting me rant!

~Sahaira

[LadyDyani]

Welcome, Sahaira!

That is pretty bad.  I had my boss trying to get me to sell Mary Kay once.  And I very rarely wear make-up either.

Did she really think that I would want to go from ten minutes in the morning drying my hair to an hour trying to get my face right?  I need mah butey sleep.  Of course, getting up an hour earlier would probably make me need the make-up.  It's a vicious circle.

[theofficefan]

I absolutely REFUSE to attend Pampered Chef, Tupperware, Avon, Partylite parties since my friend invited me and several other prople to her place to "hang out".  When I got there, there was great snacks on the coffee table (dip, pitas, etc.) and suddenly a Pampered Chef sales lady comes into the room and starts her spiel.  I was dying to get out of there, and got the evil eye for declining to order anything.  Thank God I didn't because the saleslady quit the next day, and my friend never did receive the $200 order she paid for.

[MarieX]

Are there ANY direct-selling companies that aren't evil cult-like MLM monsters?  My roommate hosted a couple of Creative Memories parties are our place (she wasn't the consultant, but the woman who was didn't have room at her house and was a friend of hers) and that's always seemed pretty innocuous.  Everyone there was a scrapbooker, needed the stuff, no one got pressured to buy or become a consultant, etc.

[goblue2539]

Are there ANY direct-selling companies that aren't evil cult-like MLM monsters? 

Funny you asked this today.  I just experienced a jewelry party that wasn't actually bad at all.  Any pressure I felt came from my friends, not from the presenter.    Anyway, I did ask some nosy questions, enough to find out that the pressure to pyramid isn't there with this particular one.  I thought that was cool. 

[Harriet Jones]

Are there ANY direct-selling companies that aren't evil cult-like MLM monsters?  

I think it depends on the particular salesperson and their chain of command (upline), too.   I've actually known quite a few low-pressure MLM salespeople  (even Amway!) 

[MarieX]

It was started by Werner Herzog , who did the EST thing in the 70's and is now into scientology.

I read this and thought...wait a minute!  Werner Herzog?  Seriously?

Quick Google.

EST and Landmark were started by Werner Erhard, and it's not his real name.  Werner Herzog is an Oscar-nominated film director!   

[Shoo]

This gal I know who sells Mary Kay has sold so much stuff and has recruited so many people, she's thisclose to getting the Cadillac.

Yet she is still in the red and hasn't actually made any money. Her dh told me they're getting closer to having all of her "inventory" paid off.

Yeah, so she wins the Cadillac but she can't afford to put gas in it because she's not making any money.  Sounds like a REAL good job, doesn't it?

[/sarcasm]

[Evil Duckie]

My middle son received in the mail a letter that sounded like a job recruitment letter. He was getting a bit desperate for a job and set up an "interview". I found out they sent the letter to all new grads in the area.

Well I did some checking on the company and it was a MLM that sold knives. the poor guy at the bottom had to pay out $$$ for the demo knives and their own sale contacts all for $15 a sale. Oh, the knives had to be returned when they quit or they would be charged $$$$ more.

We had him cancel the "interview". They kept calling and calling him after he told them that he wasn't interested. They quit calling when I answered the phone and told them that if they continued to call I would call the police.

He has since found a summer job with a landscape company.