Two years ago I was visiting a friend in Australia. A friend of his asked us to come over for BBQ and then a "presentation". He didn't disguise it was going to be for something, but we got over there early enough to play some pool, eat dinner, then sit down and chat before another friend of his and "Bob" showed up.
It was for some sort of phone service. I just sat there thinking "how the heck would this really work?" to get friends and family to sign up for it. You sign up your cell and landline and apparently make and save money, too. His friend bought into it, but my friend didn't. "Bob" asked me if I was interested and I just looked at him and opened my mouth for the first time - "I'm just here visiting from the States." "Bob" left me alone after that. But I did spend the presentation thinking longingly of the pool table.
I've had family members get sucked into the MLM stuff and some try to suck us in as well. While I was away at college, my brother bought into Amway. I came home for break one year and there was all this Amway stuff and people saying "Don't ask".
My aunt bought into Shaklee. My gma, otoh, bought into their philosophy. Yeah, I understand that their stuff breaks down easier and you do need certain vitamins and stuff. But I could not STOMACH taking 24 Alfalfa pills a day. I still bought the Multi-Vit from her though. When I was pregnant with DD my doc said that was just as good as any prenatal she could prescribe for me, and didn't have the added bonus of containing something that made my colon stress.
So a few years ago same Aunt invited us over to a friend's house for a party. My cousins watched DS while we went with her. It was... Quixtar. "No, this isn't Amway" we were told... We bought into it on the "trial" thing to see what it was like. Found a few things that weren't overpriced. [One of which died 16 months later after the warranty expired.] I didn't even bother to cash the $2 check that came in the mail.
Last year I went to New Zealand and stayed with a friend of mine. He was a seller for Usana. Let me try some of the stuff he had (they have a great citrus shower gel). Tried to sell me a bit more, but I wasn't going for it. I'm really picky in my personal products - I have scent allergies and sensitivities. He did send me home with a bottle of the shower gel (for free). After I got home he tried to convince me to sign up for a buyer's account so I could get that shower gel discounted ($30/bottle. yikes), but he suddenly stopped. He'd decided to cancel his own account.
Same friend, while we were driving back from Rotorua to Auckland stuck one of those promotional tapes. He apologized for putting it in as he put it in. It was about some pharmaceutical benefits from some herbs and stuff. Initially it made me think, had some interesting info, then my eyes glazed over. He noticed & turned it off. He never mentioned it again.
Same friend was going to some self-improvement seminars. I can't remember the name of the company (they do incorporate oriental warriors into their "thing") but he had to have spent about $10k US on the seminars. Not to mention lodging and transportation, as most were not in NZ (Surfer's Paradise, LA...) For awhile he really pushed them on me. "If you can't manage a weekend, go to their 3 hour seminar". Thing is, their seminars would go from 3 hrs, to 3 days, to 1 week...
It was during one of them he was relaying his experiences. My opinion was, that if you want to do "good work", you don't have to pay $2k for a seminar that takes you out to hand out lunches. There were apparently other sorts of things they did, mostly bonding stuff, and one instance where there wasn't a dry eye in the room, talking about personal things. Sorry, I cannot even conceive of going up in front of strangers and airing my skeletons. I'll go talk to my shrink for that...
I can't really say if it changed his life much, or me flying out to hang out with him for 2 weeks did. Shortly after I left he started looking into leaving his solitary man-life.
