Multi level marketing?

[Zoe]

First let me clarify one thing:

I do not work, deal or have anything to do with any multilevel marketing company. This is NOT an advertisement

Thus said, I ask of you guys:

1. Anyone here ever participated in this? Or know anybody who did?

2. Are the products of those companies so over expensive (when compared to other companies' similar products) in your own country ? Cause here in Brazil they are so expensive that it really is not worth it. (e.g.: a toothpast that one can buy at about R$ 2,00 costs around R$ 10, 05 in those companies)

 

[Flake]

Imnot quite sure what you are talking about, mind elaborating and or explaining what "multi level marketing" are and do?

 

[Murdoch]

I think she's talking about Amway and the like. Amway is a pseudo-pyramid scheme where you purchase many/most of your daily needs, everything from toothpaste to tools, and the person who sold it to you gets a share of the profits. Then the person who enrolled the person who sold you the goods gets a share of the profit and so on and so forth.

Zoe, I can't say I ever really compared price lists, I was always working too hard to convincing people to leave me the hell alone with their incessant sales pitches, sorry!

 

[Zoe]

Oh well

Thanks, guys.
Even the number of replies has helped me made a point

 

[toresica]

Even the number of replies has helped me made a point

I would have replied if I'd known what you were talking about.

I don't think I've ever heard about these before.

 

[Wooz]

Yup, me neither.Is it what Murdoch said? Yes? No? More or less?

 

[c0ldst33ltrs4u]

Ok, I know this topic has been asleep/dead for a while, but I'd like to throw my two cents in anyway...
I know of these multi level marketing "organizations"
The thing is this:
Step 1: Find a product that you want to sell (usually it is either total crap or a very common product that can be otherwise purchased in most stores)
Step 2: Start looking for people to buy these products from you in great quantities, offering them a part of the profit as well as some "price cuts" (when you offer that product at an insanely expensive price such discounts are meant to attract the fools)
Step 3: encourage all those who are buying the shit from you to form "distribution networks" of their own (reading between the lines: you have to be as close to the top of the pyramid, and the pyramid has to be huge)
Step 4: Draw in as much suckers as possible, the whole point is to convince them to buy a consistent stock of "the product"
and convince them of the fact that they are going to be able to sell that stock to other people outside the network. If the pyramid is big enough, as in has enough suckers at the base, then you might just turn a hansom profit. Only the top part of the pyramid is going to get some money out of this, the rest are at best, going to manage to minimize losses and give up.
This delicious dish is served hot with a side order of bull and carefully decorated with deceit. Eat up!

 

[Big T]

Try reading this. It's an expose on a MLM company called Herbalife.
http://www.cockeyed.com/workfromhome/workfromhome_s.html

There's some other good stuff on his site, though he is a wee bit of a geek.
I especially like the "How much is inside"

 

[Zoe]

Thanks Cold and Big T.
Cold resumed it very well, and I am reading the link T snet me right now.

 

[Ugly John]

I'm a purchasing agent, you can't even start to guess how many times i get approached to get into one of those.

 

[Zoe]

poor Ugly John!

 

[c0ldst33ltrs4u]

I HATE HERBALIFE!
Unfortunately my mother was one of the gullable victims of that scheme. She invested about 600 $ and barely managed to get back about 200-300, so you could say she got the shit end of the stick, but then again she brought it upon herself. The thing is that when she got involved Herbalife was relatively new in Romania, the market was already saturated, but most people didn't know exactly what was really going on. I recognized many of the things I read about in the link Big_T_UK provided, thanks mate, great info source. We don't have the plastic signs around here but the fliers and the badges, the success stories are all here. This thing should be outlawed somehow... And if that doesn't works, there should be some campaigns to inform the public.
These people thrive on the misery of others (kind of like lawyers but totally useless ) and IMO that is one of the worst things one can do. Good thing there are organizations who are fighting them and trying to stop them.