Amway Scam? What Does It Really Mean?
If you do an online search for the “business opportunity” being offered by Amway, you will often find several “Amway scam” articles and videos. The immediate response would be shock and curiosity, so you click through these headlines, only to find out that the author was perhaps, just trying to get your attention and divert you to another networking scheme offered by another company. Pretty clever, don’t you think? But what about Amway itself?
According to the company, Amway was founded in 1959 by Jay Van Andel and Richar Devos. Since then it has become the biggest network marketing company in the world with sales of over 8 billion dollars in 2009 alone. It supplies a wide variety of personal products as diverse as dietary supplements to insurance. Amway is operating in more than 90 countries worldwide including not just it’s base in the US, but many other Western countries, and also elsewhere such as in China and India. As a multi-billion dollar company, and as the company that has lead the way in network marketing, it’s not surprising that it has had it’s share of legal issues and troubles over the years. Yet it is still around.
So based on this information alone, you can tell that the company has been in the business for many years, providing at least enough profits for their retailers worldwide to keep them active. Most ‘Amway is a scam‘ headlines are nothing more than hooks, to get your attention and persuade you to take the opportunity that the author is offering you. On the other hand, there will always be unhappy retailers who would write negative reviews about any company, including Amway, saying that the company is a scam. This is mainly because they did not see any financial gain after joining the company. If you do find a negative review about the company, read through it, and check the validity of its claims.
You Need To Be Pro-Active In Order To Succeed In Amway And Elsewhere
One has to remember that when it comes to networking, success is not just defined by the opportunity, the products and the compensation plan that Amway is offering. Anyone who wants to be a part of a networking team should plan carefully how to spend their resources – time, effort and money – if they want to succeed. The company wants to make sure that you remain committed to your financial goals. After all ultimately their success depends on your success too. If you really want to see profits surge upwards in your online network marketing business, you need to decide if you can really commit your resources to make it successful.
Amway refers to its sales people as “Independent Business Owners” or IBOs. Income comes from retail margin on personal sales of Amway products, from a percentage of the wholesale volume of sales, and from the sales of other people they introduce who become IBOs as well. This last way of earning money is the multi-level aspect of Amway.
Whatever amount of motivation you get from your upline or Amway itself, it will be wasted if you do not actually go out and try to sell the products yourself! You need to spend time talking to potential clients or prospective members for your team. You have to be pro-active and take the initiative to sell as often as you can.
After all is said and done, you are left with several questions – Do you have a marketing plan? Without it, you may have all the knowledge about the product, but will still not be able to sell, because you do not have the right marketing tools. Can you promote the networking site and start selling for Amway with confidence? Do you have a team recruitment plan in place? Can you motivate people to buy the company AND your networking team?
So pay no attention to all these “Amway scam” claims. Your success depends on your own initiative and resourcefulness, to reach out to new prospects daily. Most of the people you meet may not be interested with the product or the opportunity, but there will be those who are ready to buy or join your team.
The key is to find a cost effective way to promote your business consistently. This is a far better way to spend your time rather than worrying about “Amway scam” write ups, don’t you think?
Here’s the marketing plan I use, and recommend you take a look at too for generating MLM prospects that will actually buy from you.
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Filed under MLM Companies by on Dec 5th, 2010. Comment. 
Comments on Amway Scam? What Does It Really Mean?
Amway is ascam. There is no doubt about it. Anything with a pyramid scheme is a scam.
If it is direct marketing , the products should be available at reasonably low price but in amway it is just reverse.
Be careful with your cash. They are cheaters.
My personal experience:
I joined amway as ABO. But when I want to buy the products, they are telling you have to provide a shipable address. The same address was accepted when I register, but not accepted when I want to buy their product. That means their system interested only in recruiting people which is a pyramid scheme, where as buying product and selling is the marketting scheme which they are not interested.
A clear inbuilt scam
@Arumairaj:
Sorry to hear of your experience.
I have called things scams in my time, but i have to be very careful when I do so. Terms like ‘pyramid scheme’ have specific meanings, and something like ‘cheaters’ needs even more back-up. As for price, I personally don’t buy Swiss watches or salty fish eggs but I accept that there is a legitimate market for premium priced products.
However the core of your issue in your own story is important.
Anyone who is in an MLM, or thinking about joining ANY multi-level system, needs to understand what they are getting themselves into as I explain here: What Is MLM Really?
95% never get time and money and it will replace ,and 5% is still ran for money.
I had experienced Anway not just once but twice. I put there a lot of effort, time and yes money. I got discouraged by the hidden trues and manipulations. This is my own experience, and I know every one needs to experience things to get their conclusion.
Just I want to say.. if being in Anway is the way to get rich, then I rather die poor…!
AMWAY THE DEADLY VIRUS IN INDIA :- Amway distribution networks are deadly viruses that causes enormous damage to a family. This will be ridiculed or laughed at by active amway distributors. However….
[Editor: Sorry Dolly - your comment was over 1000 words long so it's been cut. Please set up your own blog and put it there. Come back and put a link to it here if you like.]
@Rob Aeron: Thanks for commenting.
Rob’s issue was with “hidden truths and manipulations” – did everyone get that? Don’t do it!
Tricks can get you sales, but delivering value and building relationships will give you a lasting business and income stream.
Amway works by a new seller recruiting 10 other sellers and then the 10 other sellers finding 10 sellers each and so on …. in theory.
The flaws in this that if taken to it’s conclusion then with in a relatively short space of time the whole country would be a seller.
What actually happens is that the products have to bought initially by seller A and he then has to sell these and they are expensive items that claim to be more efficient than readily available supermarket items. However this isn’t the case.
eg. Washing liquid from amway was £8 just for squeezy container (sort of thing you normally throw away) and the refills of liquid £5 . Now at the time safeway supermarket were selling 500ml bottles of a value cleaner for 15p about 100 times cheaper than amways before postage and packing.
Essentially for this reason your 10 are exceedingly hard to recruit and the “business person” the seller is in reality the customer of amway and he ends up flogging off the items to friends and family who feel sorry for them to help out.
Amway of course produce for pence and sell for many pounds.
And it’s like the emperors new clothes – no one dares questions and they all go round telling each other how well they’re doing never daring to tell the truth that they’re losing their money.
@don’tbesuckeredbyamway: Actually you’ve just explained how Amway DOESN’T work – in theory and in practice.
However, if what you said was a complete description then Amway wouldn’t be in existence today. It would have fallen apart many years ago like many other MLMs in the field have.
I DO dare question – and this is the (not always comfortable) answer I get… http://www.carefulcash.com/what-is-mlm-really/
@Dr Martin Russell:
You’re right that it isn’t the complete description and yes there are people that say they are living the dream from Amway.
But
The majority of Amway sellers come into the category I outlined earlier .. I didn’t spell it out but I meant that these are the bulk of the customers.. The sellers are the REAL customers..
Now it dawns on the newbie ML marketeers fairly quickly that maybe they’ve been conned and that the products are about as easy to shift as a set of ice skates to a double amputee.
Yet they see the flashy cars of their diamond rep and wonder how?
Now at this point many limp on selling to mum dad and family & friends or pack in and try to cut their losses by selling on ebay or the local papers cheaply their stock or give it away.
To be honest they’re more often than other not even able to do that, leaving the last option: throw it away.
However some have the moment when they see God as it were, the epiphany.
The epiphany being the realization that it is a con or scam and that like many such other “born again ministries” and indeed the modern art movement you have to act as if you are a winner and have sold all your products to suck in and con other people to succeed. You sell your soul and from there …
You become that super diamond seller, you buy your BMW or Mercedes (even if it’s on hire) and you to all intents and purposes appear that you are living the dream. Amway people (mugs and suckers) and especially new ones coming in will look in wonder at your success and ask “how do you do it” and then you go into the hypnotic pitch and patter of how ♫ I did it through ♪ Amway ♫ MLM.
There we are, that is the truth and the only way anyone succeeds in Amway and explains why it hasn’t completely fallen apart at the seams.
@don’tbesuckeredbyamway: Really important story you describe. It’s the story of many who have given up in MLM.
Let me make 2 points.
1. I only recommend and sell products I think offer honest value (including value for money.) That is just as true of my own MLM – which is in fact cheaper than the competition – and I recommend others do the same. There is too much good stuff in the world to bother selling crappy stuff. If Amway doesn’t seem like value, then drop it and find something else.
2. The “Epiphany” – an alternate version.
Most people do indeed have that crisis and hit that “Epiphany” moment. Most then quit. Many get cynical like you say – and often with some justification. No denying it.
But some figure it differently. They realize that if they want to earn that million dollars a year, they need to build an organisation that sells *100* million dollars a year based on the work of “excited amateurs”. No easy task.
They get that they can’t build that size of business on their family and friends. They realize they need to learn incredible marketing and leadership skills – ideally from those who have already build 7-figure businesses themselves.
This is what this site and this post is about. For people who are ready, here’s what you need to discover.
@ Dr martin .. ignorence of these people is not an offence,if they cant see the path, why we get worrying?!…sympothy on them!!
Bajaj – everyone starts somewhere, sure.
hi there I doing a research on ANWAY it look like it a great opportunity to make little extra money with ANWAY but it seem that couple people above having problem with ANWAY. For my point of view is that they are force on recruit not sale products on ANWAY. I believe that if u make sale things once u got that rolling that recruit should not be a problem
Yes, Amway works and they have great products. Sure, they are expensive but XS, Nutrilite, and Legacy of Clean products are all worth the cost. Now as far as “making good money on the side” not so much. I was in Amway for two years and did what i was told to succeed. Great money can be made in Amway, but only in the long term sense. My three upline mentors including 2 platinums have been working in the Amway system for 8 to 10 years and they build HARD! But they have hit platinum once and then their back to 2000-3000 pv. Amway is a great company when it comes to teaching leadership and giving people hope of having something one day, but if you are looking to make money quick, i suggest a different company. Be careful where you go though. Do your research. I myself left Amway bc i found another company with a quicker compensation plan. i made $600 my first month vs $7.12 in Amway. NO company can touch Amway when it comes to long term income, but i can be happy making 7 figures and having time freedom…afterall its not about he money, but the TIME freedom we create through residual income. In ANY case, if you plan to get into network marketing, its a GREAT way to supplement extra income, just be prepared to work HARD!! Plan your work, and work your plan! Hope this helped!
@fattylor: There are quite a few people who have built up nice retailing businesses, but never cracked the distributor/team building side. They are different, and if you want the financial freedom then you need the skills for leadership, not just sales. It is why sales people fail more often in MLM than they expect. They can sell, but they can’t duplicate their success.
@MLM-LIFE: Not sure whether you ended up succeeding in the other company, but I hope you’ve ended up where you want to be.
I’m sure that beside working HARD, you have also had a big focus on personal development and EDUCATING yourself in MLM, Marketing, entrepreneurship, relationship building, leadership etc etc. I’m sure the $600 in your first month with a new company wouldn’t have come without the learning you did in Amway first.