4/20/97
Subject: sounds familiar
Hi,
I't too true. I was involved for a little over a year
with little gain.
Yes I did it all and heard the same things. I worked
hard at it with all
profit going into *THE
SYSTEM* tapes books and functions.
They are great friends when they are making money
off you, aren't they?
And now
nothing....hummm?. No calls just to make sure we are
ok. My real friends
and family always
called while i was in and still do.
My wife was the smartest she never got involved, though
she did go to a
few rallies upon my
request, but nothing else. Thank God we didn't divorce,
she is the best.
Your Truly
4/21/97
Subject: Great Page!
Hi! Like you I was a distributor for a little over
one year. Throughout
that time my wife and I grew
apart and spent money we did not have so I could....
Build the Business!
Thank God she did not give up on me before I gave
up the business.
I sponsored a sister and a brother (as well as others).
My sister
sponsored our other sister. This
other sister is the only one that has remained in
the business. Once I
left the others quickly
followed. the sisiter that stayed is the most broke
(always has been)
and is now completely
immersed in the business. Function after function.
Borrowing $ from her
401K to fund it. She
has now also seperated herself from our family as
much as possible to
spend time with her
upline family. It is a shame and its scary!
Keep up the good work. I wish I had looked before
I leapt!
(I was in the Yeager Organization) "u gotta have a
dream!!!!!!!!"
YECH!!!!
4/21/97
Subject: none
I just read your Amway page and thought it was very
well written. I hope
a lot of people see this
and it does some good (i.e. gives people the courage
to get out of it if
they are already involved;
or warns them not to get started in the first place).
Thanks for taking the time to write this. I'm sure
it will make a
difference to a lot of people.
4/22/97
Subject: Your website
Interesting web site, Kelly, if that's your real name.
Before I blast a friend of mine for being in WWDB,
how long were you and
your husband in the
business before you quit? How many people had you
shared the opportunity
with? Who was
your upline diamond?
Finally, some of the things you mentioned in the first
five or six pages
of your site are information
that can be found in most inspirational or self-help
books that are on
sale anywhere. The
priciples taught in those books must work for bankers,
real estate
agents, insurance salesmen,
religious people, etc. How come they don't work for
Amway or WWDB
distributors?
Thanks for responding
(Same guy)
4/23/97
Subject: Your Reply
Thanks for responding so quickly.
One thing I have noticed about all the negative things
that people post
about Amway on the
internet, in CompuServe, AOL and on other bulletin
boards is that the
people who have had bad
experiences want to remain anonymous and don't want
to identify anyone
who passed on illegal
or unethical information to other distributors.
The only exeception to this is that guy named Schwartz
who, as I
understand it, has never been a
distributor, doesn't even hold a job, but has dedicated
his life to
spreading false, old and negative
information about Amway to the world.
I've given this guy I know who is in WWDB some of
Schwartz' stuff in
hopes that he will wake up.
But, he often laughs at the material and turns the
wording around to
show how if the complaining
distributor was in another business he wouldn't have
succeeded in that
business either.
To make my case worse, most of the things I find are
anonymous. Whenever
I mention this
anonymous stuff to the guy in WWDB, he simply replies
that if the
information ws accurate, the
person who is spreading it would be willing to identify
himself or
herself as well as their upline so
that the problem can be verified and stopped.
He also said he attended a big leadership conference
or something like
that in which the people
conducting the meeting talked about material on the
internet and hinted
that they have already
hired attorneys and investigators who will be filing
suit against the
site managers for libel because
they broadcast anonymous and untrue information. This
guy said the
negative stuff on the
internet is no different than someone publishing a
newspaper about a
company and delivering it
to peoples homes.
Be careful in maintaining your site.
( Veiled threat, or friendly warning?)
4/27/97
Subject: Question
I was first pitched amway when I was young (16) and
since then a few
more times. Never got me
excited, I'll stand on my own two feet, thank you
I thought. Lucky me;),
after reviewing your
coments (thanks).
I'm now 34 and have a sucessful product/company of
my own. However, I
recently met a small
company that is taking a unique, and what appears
very useful product to
the market, see them
at **************. I think they may be very successful.
Should I get
involved?
So, can you give me your opinion of "network marketing",
I've read about
them in the past and
been pitched a few times. Are they okay or are they
all just another
amway scheme.
Thanks for your time and advice in advance.
4/29/97
Subject: Amway Business
Hi Kelly,
I've just visited your pages regarding the Amway Business.
It looks
great! My wife and I used
to be very active Amway distributors but decided to
quit a year and a
half ago. Everything you
mentioned in your pages are so true and I want to
let you know that the
organization we were
associated to is called NETWORK 21. Even though it's
a different
organization, their practice is
exactly the same as WWDB. It's good for you to lay
out the facts to warn
people before it's too
late.
Regards,
4/30/97
Subject: amway
I just browsed through your page regarding AMWAY.
Like most web pages
against WWDB
& AMWAY, yours is a terrible story. I am glad
you finally got out from
under the debt-making
machinery. My interest with AMWAY is because I see
a friend running down
the same path you
took (although he does not admit it). It appears that
he is "gung-ho"
with his "business", yet his
wife and two teenaged kids are not. they tell me it
is "his" business,
and his alone! He has also
converted to become a Christian to be like his upline.
My suggestion for your web page is a sample of just
what 100PV per month
entails. Maybe if
you could jot down some product groupings into 100PV
bundles, the
curious AMWAY prospcts
will be able to see just how much volume of products
must be maintained
(consumed or retailed)
on a monthly basis in order to survive in the AMWAY
business. IT WILL
ALSO BE
EDUCATIONAL IF YOU COULD SHOW EXACTLY WHAT 100PV PER
MONTH ACTUALLY
COSTS.
5/3/97
Subject: Ex WWDB member
Kelly, thought your site was great. My husband and I
recently left
worldwide after the worst year
of our life. Our sponsors wife tried to commit suicide,
our ruby directs
got a divorce after he was
cheating on her. (What about that 5% divorce thing) So
much for the
vertical alignment. It is
really sad how they use your dreams against you. We were
quite depressed
for awhile and felt
like loser eventhough we have successful careers. We
spent about 18,000
and figure we are
8,000 in debt. We have good jobs so we will be able to
pay it off. The
expense is what always
bothered me. They tell you the way to deal with it is
to sponsor people,
but then they also have
the problem of it being so expensive. I didn't feel right
about that. I
guess we weren't cutthroat
enough. Some crossline told us that our sponsors is telling
his downline
that we quit because we
are having marriage problems. My husband went through
the roof over that
one. He called our
exsponsor and told him that he was wrong for telling
people that. He
informed him that when we
finally got both oars in the water, and got together
together....we
quit. We now joke that our
dream was just too "BIG" for Amway. I will be glad when
this whole
experience is behind us. It
helps that there are web sites out there. I just wish
that we would have
seen it a year ago. I am
coppying your ifo and sending it out to all of our crossline
that are
still friends because I know
deep down they feel the same way I do. I hope that I
can save them some
time and money.
Yes, can you believe it, our upline sponsored people
that were close
friends of ours when they
hardly knew them. How is that for a smart business decision.
Talk about
tense moments. They
showed us the plan and then showed them the plan three
weeks after we
got in when they knew
we were going to. I guess we should have known then.
Thanks for
listening.........*********.
5/8/97
Subject: Amway/WWDB page
I just finished reading your page on WWDB. I have been
following the
various anti-Amway sites
since I joined Amway/WWDB in September of 95. Gosh, hard
to believe it's
been that long.
Your's is only the second one that referenced WWDB directly.
I'm not entirely sure where I'm at right now. I'm either
about to quit
or about to really try and do it
for a while. I certainly haven't done much in the time
I've already been
in. I've showed maybe
10-15 plans in the last 1 1/2 years, and have sponsored
2 couples, one
of them being my
parents. I've been at college for most of the time, and
I have only been
working for about a
week.
I have been almost mercilessly thorough in my examination
of Amway and
WWDB. With all the
things outlining what's wrong with it all that I have
read, my continued
membership would puzzle
anyone. Knowing my personality as I do, I am quite sure
the reason for
my inaction in WWDB
has been the doubts raised by the things I have come
across. And I would
say that some are
valid doubts.
So, you ask, why are you writing me? Just one more step
in the process.
One more person to compare notes with and see what we
agree and disagree
on. You seem a
bit less of a
"fire-breathing-hatred-spewing-foul-mouthed-amway-distributors-will-burn
-in-hell-
antiambot" than a lot of people. Seriously, you should
see some of these
people. You probably
have.
First I have a few questions, then a few comments. It
would be good to
hear from you.
!. Whose line of sponsorship were you in? If you could
outline it pretty
specifically I would
much appreciate it. the other anti-WWDB site that I noted
was from the
Dougherty organization,
which, broke off from WWDB before I ever got in. I have
definitely
noticed different approaches
to a lot of things in different lines of sponsorship.
2. When were you in?
3. Did you personally ever have customers? What did you
do when you
showed the plan and
they said no to a "Big Business"? Did you use the In
Home Shopping
Service?
4. What kind of activity level were you at? How long
did you stay at it?
I have heard negative
stuff from people who showed no plans all the way to
ones who claimed to
have showed 5 plans
a week for 6 months. I'm not sure what a good indicator
of anything it
is, but I am curious.
5. Did you find all of the products to be overpriced
or ineffective?
Most? Some?
6. Did you sign a Tool Agreement Form when you signed
up? I did, and it
talked
strongly about tools being optional and refundable, but
more important,
it stated plainly that
upline directs and above profited from tapes and functions.
This was at
the sign-up. I have also
once heard it mentioned at an open (Jimmy Head).
7. Exactly how did your immediate upline pressure you
to buy tapes, go
to functions etc? I
mean your immediate upline. The tapes are obvious and
and there for
anyone to examine, but
my own upline has never pressured me to do anything crazy
or even
slightly self-destructive to
buy tools. the only thing I heard when I said I was a
little tight
financially have been some tips on
retailing.
8. Exactly how seriously was retailing taken in your
line?
Those are just a few general questions. I don't want
to give you the
third degree here, but I need
to make some sort of decision (get out, kill my upline,
go diamond,
etc.) or I will go crazy.
Now a few comments
The products: I would be inclined to disagree with you
on the quality
and affordability of them.
The cleaning products I have always thought to be a fairly
good deal, as
has my frugal mother
even before she got in. As for the higher priced make-up
and nutritional
supplements, I admit to
being a bit put-off by the price. I would say that although
Double-X is
a completely unique
product (I have looked long and hard for ANY mulitviamin
that comes
close in quality by anyones
standards) it is still quite a lot to pay $50 a month
for vitamins of
any kind. Still, I have had over
the last year and a half mor PV from Double-X(most from
customers,
believe it or not) than any
other product. Since I don't wear make-up, I have simply
have simply
taken the word of female
family and aquaintences that it is good stuff, but only
if you generally
spend money on good
makeup.
I have some more comments, but I really have got to run
now. If you
could respond to my
questions and somments so far I would be thrilled. I
have a lot of
information I'm sure you would
be interested to hear, and I hope we can chat some.