I believe that Amway has developed a negative reputation among the general people in the United States over the years. The reason for this is that independent business owners have misled, IBOs have deceived and tricked people into attending recruiting meetings, and IBOs have done wacky things to turn people off from the Amway offer, among other reasons. When you consider the negative experiences some people have had as a result of the "tools scam," it's easy to see why just uttering the name "Amway" might elicit a chuckle from those around you.
Even while Amway the corporation is partially to blame, the company is not fully to blame. But, without a doubt, I cannot give Amway the corporation a pass because I believe they were aware of the "kingpins" and enabled them to continue operating without opposition. Due to this, many independent business owners (IBOs) have had negative experiences such as bankruptcy, home foreclosure, and other financial disasters because their uplines have advised them to "spend whatever it takes" to attend more activities and purchase more tools. The use of tools is optional according to the text of the law; however, the uplines act from a position of trust, or from the position of a trustworthy friend or mentor. As a result, several uplines provided poor, self-serving financial advice, and the revenues from tool sales were reportedly used to maintain their diamond lifestyles, according to the company (voicemail, websites, standing orders, functions, book of the month, open meetings).
I believe that the tool kingpins were at the height of their power while I was a WWDB IBO in the late 1990s. Prospects didn't have as much access to information on the internet as they have today. Because independent company owners (IBOs) did not use the internet to place orders, the kingpins were able to operate their unethical operations unhindered and unregulated. As far as I know, Amway's efforts (if any) to suppress these kingpin's efforts were ineffective, and I believe this is due to the fact that the kingpins and indoctrinated IBOs were the ones who recruited new members for Amway and taught them about the 100 PV (de facto) quota, as well as product loyalty to the Amway brand.
At a meeting in our group, our upline platinum shared with us his belief that the secret to Amway success was the ability to go past the label "Amway." It was instructed to our group not to mention the word Amway, instead using the terms private franchise and other catchy names in order to avoid being detected by potential customers for the precise reasons I've outlined herein. There may have been some deliberate deception on the part of certain members of our group, because I attended more than a few of smaller sessions where attendees left dissatisfied, muttering something about being fooled or wasting their time at the meeting.
When I finally decided to leave Amway in 1998 or so, I was able to move on with my life and find success. Having left Amway had provided me with more time and money than I had previously. It wasn't until later that I learned the blatant upline lies (such as the claim that there are ZERO earnings from tools) and that IBOs were still being subjected to such lies that I became suspicious. After discovering that the same uplines were still teaching essentially the same things while also spreading many of the same lies, I decided to start my own site. While Amway apologists argue that my experience is outdated, I continue to come across data that implies that things are more or less the same as they were in the past, with the exception of online ordering and automatic distribution of downline bonuses.
Much of the leaders that deceived and lied are still in positions of authority, and they continue to give many of the same harmful recommendations. The reason I continue to blog is because these leaders continue to benefit at the expense of their downlines, and they have never been held accountable for terrible advise or for lying to their teams. I hope that this blog has provided enough information to allow prospects and IBOs to make informed decisions about their business.
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