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[Elle:] The Anti-MLM Coalition have been contacted by a USA-based reader by the name of Reina (not her real name), who wishes to share her own personal experience of a “job interview” that became an attempt to recruit her into Quixtar (more commonly known as Amway).
Before reading Reina’s story, please remind yourself that all views presented in this blog are as told to us by the authors, and simply reflect their own opinions. Your own personal experiences with multi-level marketing companies may differ, negatively or positively. All names and identifying details have been changed at the author’s request.
Over to you, Reina.
[Reina:] Hello all. Here’s my story of a close encounter with a predatory MLM company, Quixtar/Amway.
Growing up, my Dad had always been really critical of multi-level marketing schemes, so I thought I was well-prepared to not fall for them. He hated on Tupperware, Avon, Mary Kay, and shut down my Mom whenever she was ever interested in repping for them.
He would vacate the house and fall silent when she would host a Pampered Chef party. I thought these parties were just a normal part of life when I was younger, but as I got older he made sure to educate me on how these companies are “scams in disguise.“
When I was an Underemployed, Aimless College Grad
When I graduated college a few years ago, I found myself living in a new city, working at a big bank, deep into a quarter-life crisis and hating life. A customer came into the bank one day and we got into a great conversation about how I had just graduated and wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do with my life.
He must have seen my dead eyes and known I was the perfect target.
After a few days of him coming in regularly (which frightens me now that I think about it, like he was casing me as a target), he said he thought I “should work with him” and he “had a place for me at his company“. He said I was “better than my current job“, and that I should interview with him the following day.
I was so excited! So I met him the next day at a Starbucks (which was right next to my job, so it didn’t strike me as odd; I thought it was considerate), résumé in hand, and prepared to be asked a series of questions about my job experience and career potential. This is when it got weird.
It Starts to Get Sketchy…
When I handed him my résumé, he handed it back and started talking about “his business“. He said he had found a way to “revolutionize the buying process for customers who bought household staples like cleaning supplies and paper towels.” He stressed that a group has a stronger buying power than an individual, and “everyone should get on a subscription-based model for buying these items“.
He was acting really shady and steered away from mentioning the name of the company, but it was Quixtar (in my head that day, I heard ‘Quick-Star’). At one point, it felt more like a date than a job interview, and I got really uncomfortable.
The Pyramid Emerges
He asked me what I thought of the idea. I was really just confused about the ‘interview’, so cautiously, I agreed that it was a good idea. He was overjoyed, and said that I “definitely should be part of it“. He then started drawing designs and figures (and I’m pretty sure one of them was an actual pyramid) and then told me that he wanted me to come to a big event at his house that weekend, and “it would be amazing.”
He (very briefly) mentioned that there would be “a nominal fee“, so I pumped the brakes. He said it was “no big deal compared to our amazing earning potential” and that “it would all be explained at the big event,” which he said was a black-tie affair. He said he wanted my husband to be there at the party too, “to support me.” He gave me his address and Google-mapped his ‘house’ which was a huge mansion.
As if that would convince me.
I told him I wasn’t comfortable with paying to get a job, and he said that was OK, but he really wanted to speak to me again. He said he wanted me to do some reading of “a book that changed his life” before we spoke again, and promptly handed me some copy of a get-rich-quick type of book (not quite Rich Dad Poor Dad, but similar), and told me to read specific chapters. I left the meeting feeling very strange.
Thanks, But No Thanks
I opened the book that night and was horrified at how stupid and condescending it was. It didn’t focus on any real business principles and instead focusing on the “create your own life” kind of woo-woo, à la The Secret (my mom is a fan of that stuff, but I am not, especially in a business sense).
The guy called me that night to “follow up” and I told him I wasn’t interested, and that he should come get his book at the bank the next day. He didn’t show up for a week, but kept calling me every few days! When he finally came back to the bank, I gave the book to my co-worker to give to him and hid in the back. Best decision I ever made!
Thinking back on this, I feel dirty, targeted and used. He recognized that I was at a low point in my life and tried to take advantage of me. I never saw him again after the recruitment attempt, so I know he wasn’t a regular banking customer. I am just grateful I didn’t fall for it.
[Elle:] Thank you, Reina, for kindly sharing your MLM recruitment attempt experience. If you have any questions for her, please add them below and we will ensure they reach her.
Further Reading & Support
- Our Amway/Quixtar category.
- If you find yourself in Reina’s position with an MLM recruitment pitch, take a look at this selection from our General Advice category:
Would you like to share your MLM story or opinion with the Anti-MLM movement? Be our guest, check our submission guidelines and get in touch.
I thwarted a recruitment attempt as well. In college my friend and apartment roomie said she was going to have some new friends come over to hang out one night, I didn’t think anything of it because we always checked with each other when we were going to have visitors and even though we were best friends we still had social circles apart from each other. I heard them arrive and could hear all of them laughing and chatting and again, thought nothing of it because when guests come over we usually gave space unless asked to join and I would’ve probably wandered in to say hi at some point eventually. But after about a half hour or so she knocked on the door to my room and asked if I wanted to come meet them so I did. There was a man and woman dressed in business suits standing next to a flipchart and there were products artfully arranged in displays around our living room. I didn’t even sit down, I remember immediately getting a “warning! warning!” in my head as I heard cheerful “I’m so-and-so and we’d like to tell you about an opportunity” and I said “NOPE!” and left.
My friend didn’t speak to me for a while but she eventually got over it. She invited a bunch of other people but they wisely didn’t show, I was the fool that lived there. She was more upset with me because she had a hard time getting rid of them and that I left her alone to fend them off. I did feel a little bad for that but I was like wait a minute, you ambushed ME! We’re still friends but I’ll never forget that. Thankfully she didn’t join either.
While this story and the above comment are probably true and accurate, they don’t get to the basic problems, namely: 1. Lack of retail sales make Amway and most other MLMs illegal pyramids; and 2. The tool scams are the major source of income for the top scum layer. We should all work together to educate as many people as possible about these issues. This will cause them to not join and these scams will collapse. Contact me at StopTheAmwayToolScam@yahoo.com if interested in helping others not get scammed.
I was an Amway distributor for 20 years. Tried to build a business for about 8 years. During that time emphasis shifted from product sales to MLM Promotion sales. Amway integrity of tanked. Not a good life experience.
I’m glad to see pyramid schemes are increasingly under pressure in a way they simply were not only 20 years ago. I was in Amway for about 15 months, but did virtually nothing with this “business”, if you can call it that. Back in 2006, and having graduated university, there was not much of a plan as to what I was going to do with my life, and this weird pyramid scheme that “isn’t a pyramid scheme!” appeared and provided a framework that I felt I needed at that time.
Typical story for students where Amway is concerned!
The whole idea my uplines were pushing was that we could sell energy drinks to local bars and clubs, and that we could get students to purchase this stuff. Truthfully, no one wanted it or even really liked it. Vodka and XS? Sounds nice in theory, but forcing products on to people for which there’s no demand is ridiculous.
I was barely active in “the business” but I did go to seminars and read books. I showed the plan maybe three times but it felt forced and weird. There was, oddly, actual value in some of this educational stuff though, which is why I think people get into cults in the first place. There has to be a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.
One of the best books was “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason, which was, ironically, about the need to spend money wisely. The book is written as a fictional account of a successful merchant who skilfully builds wealth while avoiding temptations and time-wasting capers that could only lead to ruin. How bizarre that this book was actually a warning about Amway itself, but that I was reading it with a totally different perspective because of brainwashing.
The dynamics are such in Amway (and all cults) that they only show the good, attractive parts to get you in, but then the real control over your behaviour, information, thoughts and emotions (BITE) set in.
Eventually, the whole thing became boring to me, but the motivational stuff was what kept me intrigued the whole time. I’m a studious person and continue to be so now, but just with a different set of priorities. People who are hard workers with an interest in improving themselves are the types that get sucked in to MLMs rather than those who are deemed lazy or unable to put forth effort in any domain of their life.
However, the prospect of having to hound and harrass people into buying soap powder and energy drinks was of zero interest. I tried retailing this stuff but there was simply no market for it.
In MLMs, uplines are hoping to sponsor someone who magically turns out to be “the one” who catapults their own organisation to success. That’s why they put in backbreaking work at the expense of their health and relationships. These organisations are all about “motivation”, and as a student, I was clearly a hard worker and motivated, and so I was targeted. Seeing all these supposedly successful people on stage added fuel to the fire and it never honestly occurred to me that they would be lying. My upline sponsors were two very kind retired and semi-retired school teachers, and my trust was in them – not the greedy people at the higher levels who knew exactly what was REALLY happening.
Of course, when the words of some guy on stage eventually wear off – and wear off they do – you’re faced with the reality of trying to sell products and propositions to people who don’t care. Selling the dream about a financially free future only really works if you can continue to persuade people day in, day out, which I imagine is exhausting. There’s just no reward. Any money you make is because other people lost it.
I wrote my whole story in detail and actually talked about what happened to Amway in the UK in 2007. It’s hard to fathom how extraordinary this was because the Diamonds always told us this business was totally secure and the number one opportunity for wealth creation in the world today.
Well, the UK’s DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) took a very different view at the behest of several complainants and one in particular by the name of David Brear.