Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a safe New Year's Eve.

May 2011 bring prosperity to those who have escaped the Amway nightmare.

To my readers who are stuck watching their partners dig themselves deeper into the Amway cult, I hope your loved one sees the light soon and quits. Until then I wish you peace and hope.

Best wishes to everyone and Happy New Year!

This Is The Year!!!!

“This is the year when you’re going to go BIG!”

That is the upline’s battle cry at the beginning of the year and heard during Dream Night, a WWDB function that happens early January.

The reality as a new year approaches is Ambot has been in “the business” for several months. To recap Ambot’s track record:

1. one downline signed up who quit a couple of weeks later

2. thousands of dollars “invested” in “the business” purchasing Amway products and attending functions

3. got two friends to come to board plan meetings.

4. got one acquaintance to come to a meeting

5. Grand Opening of “our” Amway store - a few people showed up, no purchases

6. held an afternoon tea social which was a disguise to sell Artistry cosmetics and other Amway products. One friend made some purchases.

7. two friends made some small pity purchases to support Ambot’s business unrelated to attending any Amway events

8. hundreds of hours wasted studying Amway literature, dealing with phone calls, text messages, listening to Kate messages, attending meetings, listening to tapes - oops better make that CD’s before IBOFB shows up again to say tapes haven’t been produced since he was in diapers!  (OK Rocket or Tex here’s your chance to say he still wears them!)

9. alienating friends and relatives with obnoxious behavior (parroting upline IBO’s)

Ambot dutifully did everything his oh-so-wise-upline counselled him to do. Well not quite everything - the exception would be he didn’t leave me. So far he hasn’t found anyone who will duplicate what he does, though I doubt there are many people out there who want to drink a case of XS Energy Drinks daily and cram in multiple food bars.

So how the hell will the new year be any different?

It won’t.

It’ll be the same thing. Throwing away money on overpriced, mediocre products. Losing money attending functions. Wasting time. More obnoxious comments directed at anyone who doesn’t support his Amway business. All backed by the upline’s promise that this is the year he’ll be going BIG in “the business”. Gotta get him to hang on for a few more months so they can make more money off him!

Ambot’s story is the same as other struggling IBO’s. The upline feeds them hope with one hand while stealing their money with the other hand.

“This is the year you’re going to go BIG” is an ego booster to get IBO’s to hold on to Amway for a little longer just in case they were thinking about quitting and not renewing for the new year. IBO’s can’t quit now when success is just around the corner!

Translation: you can’t quit now when I need more of your money for my share of the tool scam and I need your PV so my dreams can come true.

I decided to make a BIG move to get Ambot out of Amway and away from the cult leaders. Success!

Probably not what the upline had in mind when they said this is the year when you’re going BIG.

This year we go BIG by not renewing the Amway “business license”.

This year we go BIG by not alienating friends and relatives.

This year we go BIGGEST by not putting up with the fucking upline.

Why Your Significant Other Can’t Stand Your Upline

I thought I’d cover some reasons why significant others can’t tolerate their upline and ultimately Amway based on my experiences but I see too many similar stories all over the Internet. I am not unique!

1. The sponsor is an asshole! Our sponsor, aka Captain Fuck Up aka the arrogant prick, is someone Ambot has known for years. He is the most useless piece of shit I’ve ever met. Besides being arrogant some of his other finer points are he’s unreliable, irresponsible, stomps off in temper tantrums, and is asshole ugly. From there it goes downhill! If the sponsor is someone that the significant other has nothing to do with then it is a really bad idea to let this fucker sign you up to Amway. Any existing problems with this jerk ass will only worsen. Bad bad idea getting involved in anything - whether it be Amway or anything else - with a person your significant other doesn’t want anything to do with. The resentment only grows.

2. Loss of money. We had already tried the Amway thing. I knew exactly what would happen again. We’d throw a lot of money away buying expensive products that I don’t like and don’t use. We’d throw away even more money on various tools to “grow your business” and all the various expenses that go along with travelling to out of state functions several times a year. If I was lucky our losses would be a few thousand dollars until Ambot ran out of money or became disenchanted again. My estimates show to budget at least $700/month for Amway related expenses. How many people have that kind of disposable cash lying around? If not, see number 3.

3. Going into debt. This could be credit card debt as in Ambot’s case. Other people take out second mortgages on their homes or lines of credit. Any way you look at it IBO’s are borrowing money to fund their upline’s dreams and many former IBO’s have lost their homes and declared bankruptcy when they can’t repay the money they borrowed for Amway.

4. Loss of time. Forget the often touted 10 to 15 hours a week - your spouse will waste way more time than that! They have to prospect every person they run into telling them about this kick ass home based opportunity where you can make $70,000/year in your spare time and beg them to come to a board plan meeting all the while denying it has anything to do with Amway. Hours spent on the phone and text messages with upline. Two or three board plans each week at various downline/crossline houses or it might be a larger function where a Diamond comes to town once or twice a month. Lowball estimate 5 hours a night for these meetings. Weekend rallies happen about once a month where a Diamond comes to town and new pins are awarded. Depends if its a one or 2 day event. Say at least 10 hours but that could be doubled. Family Reunion, Free Enterprise Days, and Spring Leadership always seem to be held hundreds of miles away. Several hours driving each way and then at least 30 hours tied up for weekend events. And that’s a conservative estimate. All that time spent with Amway related events takes the IBO out of the picture for birthdays, weddings, spending time with family and friends, outings, vacations, shopping, etc. How many pissed off spouses have sat alone home on their birthdays while their significant other rushed off to an Amway meeting? Not to mention not getting any support with household chores.

5. Can’t stand the upline. This is closely connected to the general dislike of the sponsor and people they associate with. Dislike of the upline might take awhile at least until it becomes obvious that the upline are monopolizing the spouse’s time. And money. But usually the Amway disinterested spouse just gets pissed off at all the bullshit spouting out of the upline’s mouths and then refuses to have anything to do with them.

6. Brainwashing. This is part of the upline’s strategy to separate the new IBO from “negative” forces in their life which includes any spouses not interested in Amway. The crazy thing is the upline themselves are the most negative bastards around spreading their predictions of doom and gloom and misery and the only way to escape this horrible existence is belonging to the Amway cult. Although some IBO’s say they’re not in a line of sponsorship that abuses IBO’s or uses cult-like brainwashing techniques, I was in a line that did. You’ll know its happening when the spouse stops thinking for himself and parrots everything the upline says. The spouse accepts everything the upline says as the truth until he becomes conditioned to think that there is no way in hell this information could be wrong. He denies what is happening to himself and his life, separating himself from reality.

7. Deception. Call it whatever you want - all IBO’s are guilty of lying. They lie about their affiliation with Amway, their success, and any abuses that might be happening in their group. The big lie is the tool scam and how the greedy upline leaders are obsessed with making money at the expense of their downline. Ambot wasn’t too good at prospecting because he’d break down quickly and tell prospects that this was Amway and then he’d lie and say everything’s going really good. All IBO’s are conditioned to say that even though none of them are making money at their Amway business. Its really annoying to listen to the spouse not being truthful when you know damn well they’re not making any money at the Amway scheme.

Add them up and this is why the spouse can’t stand the upline and/or Amway and why this causes trouble in a partnership. Brainwashed IBO’s will parrot their upline and claim “That’s because there is already something wrong with their marriage/relationship”. The standard answer whenever a spouse doesn’t want anything to do with Amway.

But not one of those fucking IBO’s can explain why there were no existing marital problems before Amway entered the picture.

My AWESOME, Delicious Amway Scam!!!

Ambot and I are staying home this Christmas, enjoying Christmas dinner with nearby relatives. Shopping pretty much done, so many cashiers so impressed that we use cash for our purchases. How many IBO's can say that??!! But we are busy. So many people WANT us, fortunately that list does not include anyone involved in Amway! We have a lot of visiting to do over the next few days so I'll be taking a break from writing new posts. I am around and will respond to comments as soon as I can.

I want to take this time to wish my readers Happy Holidays - Merry Christmas to everyone!

I will be enjoying an awesome, delicious Christmas dinner in a couple of days. And I'm very grateful that this year I'm not part of any awesome, delicious Amway scam! For now enjoy this little show on Youtube about launching a new IBO into "the business". Once you get past the fellow's annoying voice its actually pretty funny and some of the stuff I've already covered in past blogs such as a name list and sniping people in a grocery store is on here.

Social security won’t be there when you retire?

I’d say just about every Amway meeting we attended one of the scare tactics the speaker used to say was “Social security won’t be there when you retire”.

Well how do they know? I’m pretty sure it will be. But I suppose like any other guesses the speaker has a 50/50 shot of getting that prediction right. So do I!

Even though I think social security will be there when I retire I have other investments and savings and a combination of all are what I hope will sustain me for the rest of my life.

People need to make decisions during their working years and hopefully most start some sort of retirement savings plan in their 20’s and add other investments to it over the years. For example save up a down payment for house while in your 20’s. Buy that house in your 20’s or 30’s and by your 50’s or certainly by retirement age your house will be paid in full. Knock off that mortgage payment and that’s a big part of monthly expenses that goes away. Also get rid of any outstanding debt by retirement age and don’t incur any further debt and that will make retirement years less stressful.

Those are the big things. Reaching retirement age without debt and owning your own home are huge. I mean who wants to hit retirement age and still be a renter? That’s hundreds of dollars you pay each month to a landlord because of poor planning in younger years.

In a previous post I estimated average monthly expenses in Amway around $700. The unknown factor is if this is disposable income or if IBO’s are running up their credit card (probably the latter!). That monthly $700 could be redirected to a mortgage payment instead of being flushed down the Amway toilet.

Our upline's goal was to strike fear in people’s hearts to scare new prospects to sign up. For a bunch of bastards who extol the virtues of “don’t say negative” they’re the most negative people I’ve ever met. Full of doom and gloom about the future, businesses shutting down, recession, people losing jobs, social security won’t be there, and blah, blah, blah. Who needs to listen to the negative shit that goes on in Amway meetings?

The speakers scare the IBO’s into thinking that social security won’t be there when they retire so they need to find some other income. Any other plans IBO’s have the upline pokes fun at them and puts them down. According to the "wisdom" of our upline bastards Amway is the only choice and all you have to do is spend 2 to 5 years working part time 10 to 15 hours a week doing the work in order to live off residual income for the rest of your life. Freedom!

Yeah right. There are better options out there than throwing your money at Amway chasing futile dreams.

Don’t think negative like our upline. Think positive. Social security will be there when you retire. (I got a 50% chance of getting that prediction right!)

Forget social security. With luck Amway won’t be around when I retire! Ha ha ha! 50% chance of me getting that prediction right too!

What’s in your garage?

I saw a post on Amthrax about a lot of Xango boxes stacked in the garage. There was no room to park a car in there though the fellow still managed to cram his motorbike in - a quick shot of it while the camera pans the garage.

Where I live a lot of people have their garages packed full of storage items so there is no room to park a car in there. Absolutely crazy. Unless this is only a temporary residence -  downsize! Ask most people what the purpose of a garage is and they’ll say its a place to park the car. Not a storage unit.

Our Platinum had a regular sized house with a 2 car garage. His cars were parked in the driveway. I went inside their garage. There were a lot of Amway boxes in there but not so much that a car or two couldn’t be parked inside if they shoved those boxes against the wall and stacked them. I’m not sure if this was personal consumption or sales but I suspect most of it was given out as samples, and here I’m talking XS Energy Drinks and Perfect Water. Remember our Platinum was screwing over Amway by getting free sample cases because he’d call in to say his customer didn’t like the product and they’d send him a replacement. That kept him in drinks and to give out samples.

The real reason cars could not be parked in here were because of all the tables. You’d think this place was a boutique run by the Addams Family. Even in the dim light we could see very table held Amway products and practically one of everything that was sold in the catalogue. Every type of Artistry makeup on one table. Skin care on another table. Nutrilite on another table. Food bars and drinks on another table. Cleaning products on another table. And so on. A rough estimate is 12  to 15 card tables. It would be kind of fun driving a car in there and busting some of that damn Amway shit!

I’m not really sure why they had the garage set out this way. Its not like there were just exclusive Amway products on show. They had other things stored in the garage like sporting equipment, car products, and tools. We’re not talking ambience here. If this was supposed to be set up like a store where customers come in to look over the products and then place an order, the Platinum didn’t say anything to us about that. In fact they didn’t say much of anything. Just herded us all in there to take a look - had to be about 30 or 40 IBO’s there that day - and we had to squeeze inbetween people and laden tables. This is worse than hitting an electronics shop on Black Friday! Everyone just hung out talking because no one could move being packed in like sardines. And then after the Platinum decided we’d done enough oohing and ahhing and worshipping of his Amway store, we went back inside the house for the Amway meeting.

One time Ambot had to pick something up at the Emerald’s house. Or maybe he was dropping something off. Running an errand for the Platinum obviously. When Ambot got home he told me he’d seen the garage. He estimated there were over 100 boxes of Perfect Water in there. The Emerald told him those were his customer sales for the month. I just can't see a market for overpriced water. Maybe those customers were IBO’s in his downline. The Emerald couldn’t park his car in the garage either.

The big question is did he really have customers for all those boxes of water (unlikely) or was he stockpiling product and getting his PV up there?

We’ll never know. Fortunately Ambot didn’t stockpile products hoping for future sales. All the useless Amway products he bought were bad enough. I enjoyed tossing them in the trash after Ambot finally had enough of this scam.

Spending money on Amway = tossing it in the garbage. We might as well have burned twenty dollar bills. Would have been cheaper in the long run.

Is Amway the ONLY thing one can do to succeed in life?

When I attended Dream Night last year several couples were invited to come forward, take the microphone, and say something. I think they may have been eagles or double eagles. They’d reached some level but I’m sure it wasn’t Platinum or higher. I remember one couple who were extolling the virtues of an Amway business and the wife screamed out “What else is there?” Assuming she meant in the way of business opportunities or making money outside of a J.O.B.

Let me answer her question. Just about EVERYTHING else is out there! I know lots of people who have found success while successfully staying away from Amway.

“Amway is the ONLY thing you can do to succeed in life” is a message I’ve heard over and over again at meetings run by Platinum, Emerald, and Diamond speakers. Part of the brainwashing technique. Can’t let IBO’s think there are other things out there where they can succeed in life that might redirect their time, energy, or money away from the Amway scam. Ambot already has reasonable success but once he joined the Amway cult his business was constantly put down for one reason or another (what if he gets sick, what if there’s a slow down, etc) and he was brainwashed into thinking his business won’t last but Amway success is forever.

Everyone has different opinions on what defines success. I could list hundreds of items and still not be finished. For some people success could be determined by earning a desired income, reaching a scholastic level, owning a restaurant that is packed every night with patrons, getting picked for a local circuit baseball team, publishing a book, playing a musical instrument, losing weight, getting married, buying a New York City penthouse overlooking Central Park..... The possibilities are endless.

Suggesting that to most rational human beings - Amway is NOT the ONLY thing one can do to succeed in life.

“There is nothing else out there except Amway” is a similar phrase drilled into IBO’s as part of the brainwashing techniques. The cult leaders tell IBO’s they must discard anything else in their life that isn’t making them succeed at Amway.

I also heard enough times “What are you willing to give up to succeed in this business?”

The possibilities of what an IBO should discard are also an endless list: spouse, friends, church, job, TV, books, hobbies, car, house......

Who says you have to give up things or whatever makes you tick as part of your lifestyle in order to become successful?

How many apprentice mechanics are asked what things they are willing to give up so they can fix cars? Who would tell a mechanic in order to open up his own garage he must give up his wife, his TV, his friends and his hobbies, sell his house, get rid of his dog, etc or he will never succeed.

Ridiculous huh? Well maybe only to people who are not brainwashed IBO’s. People are capable of juggling other things in their lives while at the same time succeeding at their chosen goals. Apparently not Amway IBO's if you listen to the hallowed cult leaders.

Amway is NOT the ONLY thing one can do to succeed in life. Based on mine and Ambot’s experiences I’d say Amway is about the only thing we’ve ever failed at. In a system designed to set up failure. What else do you expect?

Walking Away from Ambots

Women can tolerate a lot when it comes to Amway thinking this is just a phase their husband is going through and as soon as he figures out its a scam or has run out of money or fights with his upline, he will get out.

The longer it takes the more pissed off the wife becomes and that’s when she hits the Internet looking for more information or support.

There’s a good post on the BWW/Amway Lies about Amway Women posted recently that gives some insight.

I found a couple of posts on the Internet from women who decided to leave their husbands. They have almost identical stories even though they’re written 7 years apart. Hell I nearly wrote an identical story last year. Things don’t change that much.

And before IBOFB shows up to suggest its not true I’ve supplied the links where these stories can be found. The second story has some huge typos in it. I have no idea if thats how the web page formatted it or if she was so pissed off she wasn’t typing so good. But I’ve left it as is instead of trying to clean it up. Wouldn’t want IBOFB to show up and accuse me of doing anything wrong.

http://www.culthelp.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=776&Itemid=9

I have left my husband of four years-- the man I love more than anything in this world.

I am positive my story is not a unique one, nor am I the only person suffering because of Amway. I found myself searching for someone who might understand.

My husband's boss came over one day about 2 years ago to "show us something". I didn't like what I saw then--and I hate the person it turned my husband into. I watched as we lost friends and our home. My family asked us less and less frequently to come visit. Then in utter horror [I watched] as he tried to "contact" [recruit for Amway] someone at my eleven-year-old sister's funeral.

I endured two years of being called "negative", "unsupportive", "non-Christian", and basically a bad wife--by both my husband and his "upline". I finally told him he had to choose [between Amway] and me--even if he only stopped for 6 months. I had already packed--because I knew which was more important to him.

Now I sit feeling sick at what my life has turned into-- wondering if I am wrong. I never doubted my decisions before. I went from being an outgoing person to practically a recluse. I have panic attacks--because of [this experience] and have withdrawn increasingly from the things I once enjoyed.

I do believe I started writing this with a point in mind. I was wondering if there were specific support groups for people in a situation similar to this? I can't seem to find one--though I have run into several other people whose stories are frighteningly identical to mine.

http://www.webraw.com/quixtar/archives/2005/10/fyi_amquix.php

Quixtar has ruined my family... My husband decided to joined this cult over 2 yrs ago, I went to a couple of meetings myself and I just couldn't believe how stupid all these IBO's are.. they worship all big guys, such as Larry Winters. My husband has turned into a robot, he sounds like his upline, he dresses like him, he no longer watches T.V, he no longer listens to music, he Breathes Quixtar all day and night ... 2 yrs in.. all he has in returned is DEBT.. He has to buy his own points to make to special meetings, "THE MEETING OF THE YEAR".. 1000 Points and above... so there goes my husband and buys everything he can buy to make the points.. Things that we don't need, things that we don't use. My husband has a full time job and does this "business" ( which I prefer to called "hobby") every afternoon, regardless of what we have going on.. B-days, anniversaries, emergencies... He just doesn't care and goes out and "contact" people. He has completely pushed the family to the side.. I asked him to make a decision….. I can't even buy regular COLGATE toothpaste without him going nuts about it and throwing it in the garbage... I don't need this kind of attitude around my children. He said he would keep on doing this business with or w/out me... He made his choice very clear.. I left him.. I took my children and left him.. it's been 4 weeks since then and I have not heard back from him... He has obviously decided to married Quixtar and forgot about his wife of 8 years and his two beautiful children of 6 and 3.
How can these people use Christianity as being part of these business?.. THIS IS NOT A CHRISTIAN BUSINESS… THEY ARE USING IT TO BRING PEOPLE IN AND WRAPP THEM IN ALL THEIR LIES AND PROMISES… SOMEONE HAS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT….

A Recession Proof Business

I can’t tell you how many times I heard the upline Platinum spout off that Amway is a recession proof business. He would follow that statement up by saying even in a recession people still need to eat, drink, and use toilet paper.

I have a recording by our sponsor where he says “people running around with their heads cut off about the recession and getting laid off.” He follows that by saying how he starts putting fear into people about their job and how he hopes they don’t have all their eggs in one basket because they’ll be finished. He continues with the scare tactics saying he hopes they have more than one way of making money because if its slow now before Christmas, what’s going to happen after Christmas.

Smarmy son of a bitch.

So what happens when families incomes are disrupted due to lay offs or hours getting cut? Do they look for ways to save money or do they go crazy buying expensive products?

I can’t remember the price of Amway’s toilet paper but it seems to me it was around $60 but I don’t know how many rolls, maybe 48. Whatever many rolls that’s still too high. Get 48 of a well known brand for $15, $20 at the grocery or drug store.

OK, glossed right over that. The Platinum sack of shit also mentioned eat and drink, everyone has to do that.

Sure but when I want food and drink I want it probably that same day not wait a few days for it to be shipped to me. I always shop at a local produce store that’s open year round for my fruits and vegetables. I find they’re fresher and much lower priced than grocery stores. My shopping list might vary with local produce that’s in season or a recipe I’m making but I can go to the produce store and buy a sack of potatoes, a bag of onions, tomatoes, carrots, celery, mushrooms, peppers, bananas, grapes, oranges, apples and get change from a $20 bill.

What kind of fresh vegetables and fruit does Amway sell? Would that be none? Oh wait some IBO is going to argue with me that who needs fresh produce when they can buy Nutrilite vitamins. Ah yes there’s a healthy choice. Not to mention an expensive one. When you’re hungry munching an apple might fill you up a bit. Pop a vitamin and you’ll still be hungry afterwards!

Does Amway sell eggs? Hmm, would that be another no? But my neighbor sells them for $1/dozen.

There’s a warehouse bakery that supplies all the grocery stores around here. They have a shop at their warehouse. I’ve been going there for years and buying bread for half price or less than what’s charged at the grocery stores. I can stock up my freezer for a month on less than $20 and that’s gourmet grain bread, garlic bread, bagels, and hamburger buns.

Who can tell me what kind of bread Amway sells? An IBO might argue Amway sells crackers and I should change my eating habits.

I bet those crackers cost a lot less at the grocery store than what Amway sells them for.

Then I hit the grocery store for the rest of my shopping. Now is when IBO’s will try to convince me that just about everything I want to buy at the grocery store is available from Amway. What about seafood - fresh or frozen? Does Amway sell that? Oh god some IBO is going to spout off about Nutrilite with Omega 3.

Drinks? Um I don’t drink energy drinks and XS is disgusting so I’d never buy that! Perfect Water at a per bottle price of $2 each. I can buy a case of bottled water at Wal-Mart for $2 or $3 depends if its on sale. I don’t normally buy bottled water anyway. Our tap water is good. I tried some chocolate flavored Amway drink once in a tetra pack. Tasted like chalk. Don’t know what it was. Ambot thought I liked it so he ordered more and when they arrived they’d already passed the expiry date so I wouldn’t drink them. Really good quality control there Amway!

Recession or not people like to get good deals and they’ll shop where they can get good prices and get their money’s worth. When money is tight some people will even forgo quality for price. I can fill my fridge, freezer, larder for a month with good healthy choices for under $300 the minimum amount that IBO's have to fork out each month to stay in qualification to get a less than $10 check. That $300 worth of PV isn't putting hot, tasty, healthy meals on my table. Not to mention the ice cream for dessert that Amway can't sell me.

Amway IBO's can claim all they want that Amway is a recession proof business but can you find customers or sign up new prospects when money is tight?

Whether or not Amway’s a recession proof business is debatable - depending on whether or not you’re an IBO! - but selling to customers who’ve been hit by the recession and are watching their pennies is a tough sell. Why  pressure these people? They’re already struggling financially why push them on a business with a 99% failure rate.

Ambot the Social Director

As if it wasn’t bad enough that Ambot wanted to belong to an expensive social club, he became the self appointed social director.

He purchased an XS Energy Drink cooler from the XS Gear website and stuffed it full of Amway drinks and food bars that he took the Amway meetings where he shovelled in as many as he could to prove to everyone around him what a devoted Ambot he was.

If that didn’t piss me off enough the self appointed social director handed out drinks and food bars to everyone else - whether they wanted one or not. If anyone has ever bought this shit you’ll know its EXPENSIVE. Depending on what you have when you break down the cost per unit it can be $2 to $5. I like to make expensive stuff last a long time. If someone gives me a box of Ghirardelli chocolate I can make it last for weeks maybe even a couple of months.

Ambot had no such inclination. He gobbled down a case of food bars and drank a case of XS energy drinks daily. Throw in another case of each that he passed out to every IBO that was sitting around me which really pissed me off. These bastards were all IBO’s who knew how expensive this stuff was. If they wanted to consume it let them buy it themselves and earn their own PV.

Not a single one of those cheap bastards ever shared any of their Amway products with us even though Ambot passed out free XS and food bars all the time.

Just to clarify I’m not this stingy with non-Amway products. If I have a sack of M&M’s I’ll share them. If I have a 12 pack of Dr Peppers I’ll hand them out. If I’ve baked a batch of cookies I’ll pass them around. If we invite people over for a BBQ I have a ton of food on hand. Help yourselves.

Ambot easily passed out $50 worth of consumables to others in our crossline or upline while at meetings. What about that budget we had to show the Platinum? Nowhere did I see an entertainment budget of $50/meeting to cover the costs of Amway products that Ambot was passing out. That same $50 could be a nice dinner out somewhere for the two of us.

The Platinum sack of shit stroked Ambot's ego by calling him a server. (What the fuck kind of compliment is that????) That's why Ambot's here on earth is to serve others. Ambot ate it all up. Literally when I think about all the Amway consumables he pigged out on. And also literally because he served the shit up to other IBO's at meetings.

And no matter how much the upline might try to plug in to everyone that these are healthy eating choices, no way do I see an XS and a food bar taking the place of a well balanced dinner. Or even a meal that might not be so well balanced.

Ambot might as well have passed out $10 bills to everyone who wanted one.

An Expensive Social Club

Joecool recently wrote something on his blog to the effect that if you aren’t earning money in your Amway business but are spending lots of money on Amway purchases and tools then its almost like you’ve joined an expensive social club.

I think that statement may apply to Ambot. The more money he spent on Amway products and tools, the more his new friends liked him.

People are busy spending time with friends and family. They’ve busy at their jobs or business owners may end up with some odd hours to accommodate clients. People with school age children are involved in their kids recreational activities or driving them to their activities. Add in grocery shopping, spending time at the gym, walking the dog, and other recreational pursuits. How about quiet time at home reading a book, on the computer, or watching TV. What about the not so fun stuff around the house like cleaning, laundry, mowing the lawn, and keeping the garden weeded. Most people have things to do that fill their days. We lead busy lives just like countless others.

If we weren’t already busy enough after Ambot wanted to do the Amway thing again we were constantly on the go, go, go. Often there would be 2 or 3 board plans in a week that we had to attend even though the same old bullshit we’d heard the night before we listened to again. This would tie us up from 7pm to midnight. Nothing like boring us to death so we’re ready to sleep. Not to mention any other seminars or rallies or other events the upline decided we should attend.

I remember being at a function and listening to a Diamond speaker who was showing the audience “lines” to use to pick up prospects. Say a prospect came up with the objection that “the business” wouldn’t work for them because they don’t have any friends. The Diamond says, then ask them: “How would you like to have some friends?”

The expensive social club reference triggered that memory.

Someone who doesn’t have friends may be interested in joining some sort of social group to meet people. But the purpose of being an Amway IBO is to find other prospects to join up and become IBO's too or to find customers to buy Amway products. So if the only friends you have are people already involved in Amway, there is no chance of getting any of them to sign up to be an IBO or to buy Amway products.

So even though we already lead busy lives Ambot decided we should be even busier. He had a whole new group of friends who were slyly influencing him to leave behind his old friends. He was full of self-importance whenever someone asked him to come over and he’d answer he was busy that night (Amway meeting). Not to mention the overload of text messages and phone calls that he immediately had to deal with from his upline.

I’m not here to suggest social clubs or how to meet new friends. All I want to say is if you are looking for a new group of people to hang out with there are many avenues to try. If one of your reasons to join Amway is to have a ready made group of friends that’s a bad decision. Amway is an expensive social club that will cause you financial and emotional distress. When you quit Amway that's the last you'll ever hear of these new friends fickle bastards that they are. These aren’t the kind of friends you need. This isn't the business venture you need.

Creating a budget

I was surprised when Ambot announced that the Platinum sack of shit wanted to see our budget.

“That’s really none of his fucking business,” I responded. “Its not like he works for a bank and we’re going for a loan.”

“But if we’re serious business builders then he says we have to show him a budget,” Ambot argued. Yep that was total Amway speak and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why the hell the Platinum wanted to see our budget other than Ambot’s loose explanation that the Platinum wanted to help us create a budget that we could follow and help us get financially on track. Let’s see - is he a financial planner? I was pretty sure he has a government job that’s not finance related? But then I forget that not minding their own business is a prerequisite for being a sack of shit Platinum.

I had created a budget sometime during the past couple of years after reading a book written by a financial advisor and one of the exercises was to create a budget. Then I started reading books by another financial advisor who didn’t recommend creating budgets because over 90% of people don’t follow them anyway which is totally true in our case. The budget I had saved on the computer was good enough for me without updating any changes and I printed it out for Ambot.

The Platinum was impressed and said we were in much better shape than most of his downline. Well there’s a reason for that particularly because other than our mortgage we had no debt. We owned our cars and had investments and savings. This is just part of life experience. People in their 20’s who are starting out still have to save up a down payment to buy their first house and they probably took out a loan to buy a car. And probably have credit card debt.

So the fucker wants to see our budget to guide us financially on track when we’re in better financial shape than him?

In hindsight I know the Platinum wanted to see our budget to see how much wiggle room we had to buy Amway products and invest in tools when he saw the difference between our income and expenses. The real reason he was impressed was that we had no debt on our credit cards with about 100K available. That’s a lot of Amway products we can charge not to mention we had nothing holding us back from attending out of state functions. “Just charge it!” We have equity in our house so again the Platinum must have seen $$$ signs that we could get a line of credit against that equity if we needed. Oh and he must have loved that we had a decent 401k available that we could cash in to donate to the cult.

I just looked at the revised budget I did after the Platinum meeting so he must have given me some Amway stuff to add in. Under PV there is $300 budgeted each month. (If you read my previous post you’ll see that Ambot purchased between $950 and $1050 each month for PV. What did I say about not following a budget????) This is under household where I have things like groceries, utilities, etc. Under business expenses are 3 items (HA!): web page $50 (that would have actually been the WWDB Premier membership), Communikate $34, and samples $60, totalling $144/month in business expenses. Plus $300 personal shopping for PV = $444. That’s approximately what I said in my Save First, Spend Later blog on a lowball monthly Amway investment. Add in functions and budget $700/month minimum. A little more than what the sack of shit had us put on the budget.

The budget was never referred to ever again. Kind of like the name list. Just produce one to show the Platinum that you have one and no need to bring it up again.

But did the Platinum give us any concrete advice on how much money to put into the Amway budget. During the first few months when he was “fired up” Ambot threw away close to $2000/month on various things having to do with Amway - buying products, buying tools, entertaining upline, etc. After he hit the limit on his credit card the spending was reduced to around $500/month.

So much for the budget. If I was actually keeping one I’d have to add in a new column for paying back credit card debt thanks to Amway.

Save First, Spend Later

I saw this advice on the news this morning while watching a story about Christmas spending, though this advice could certainly apply to Amway too.

So here's a rare blog where I don’t curse out my upline, a little off topic but seeing as how its the Christmas season sort of fits with this time of year.

I hate seeing stories about budgeting for Christmas especially when its 2 weeks away its pretty much a lost cause for most people. One financial expert that was interviewed said to budget 1.5% of your income for Christmas. That would include presents, baking extra meals, or any other spending that happens this time of year. He said if the annual income was $50,000 then that’s a budget of $750. He also said to save first, spend later and then totally glossed over that and moved on to saying spend only cash at Christmas. Like I said could be advice a little too late for some people who are whipping out the credit card and then regretting it when the January bill arrives in the mail.

Years ago I read something about figuring out how much money you spend for Christmas. Divide that amount by 12 and then put aside the cash every month. By the time Christmas shopping arrives you’ll have the cash on hand. Good advice. Every month Ambot and I put $80 into an envelope. By the time October or November rolls around we’ll top off the envelope for the rest of the year. So who’s good at math? By the time we start Christmas shopping we’ve got $960 sitting in an envelope. When we first started doing this we put in $60/month. Ambot suggested today that next year we should increase it to $100/month.

I’m a saver and Ambot is a spender which is what got him in trouble with the Amway cult and feeding into the scam. He pulled out his credit card for everything including buying his precious upline meals thinking that he’s tracking all his business expenses with a credit card not really comprehending that eventually he has to pay it back.

Using the same philosophy figure out how much you spend on Amway each month and set that cash aside, not use a credit card. Well actually most of the time you have to use a credit card cause its Internet purchases. So lets say cash that’s set aside to immediately pay back the credit card. Factor in at least $300/month on purchasing Amway products so you can earn a bonus check of just under $10. Ambot wanted to earn more money. The lowest amount he spent in a month was $468. Most months were between $950 and $1050 purchasing Amway products with the highest spending two months after joining - $1,358.

Here’s where I want to SCREAM! My food budget is $600 and that includes groceries and eating out, about half/half. What the fuck was he buying? OK, I’ve mentioned hyper consuming XS Energy Drinks before. How does this possibly come close to we buy from Amway products we normally buy when we’re grocery shopping? I’ve never come close when grocery shopping.

Saying you’re going el cheapo on buying CD’s so add another $20/month but the sky’s the limit. The most CD's Ambot purchased one month was $150 but most of the time it was closer to $40/month.

Gotta have your premier membership to WWDB $49.95. Don’t forget Communikate if you’re a “serious business builder” $36.95/month.

Various monthly seminars - tickets and parking - $70.

That’s $476.90 a month doing just the basics to earn a less than $10 bonus check from Amway and prove you’re a serious business owner. It goes up and up and up from there depending on how much room you have on your credit card and how much you want to impress your upline with your spending.

There are 4 major functions each year usually in another state. Transportation, meals, hotel, tickets - plan at least $500 and it could go higher depending on your circumstances (how far you’re travelling).

So lets do it like we’re putting cash aside for Christmas and dividing by 12. You need to set aside cash close to $700 (or more) each month!

Yikes!

Does anyone think that could be a mortgage payment? Does anyone think that could be invested in stocks or a 401k? How about a pretty big blow out for Christmas?

That’s a lot of cash to set aside each month for a business that has over a 99% failure rate.

I still like the advice from the financial expert today: “Save first, spend later.”

Apply that to your Amway business before you go nuts on your credit card to impress your upline.

Dream Night is a Financial Orgy

Yep you read that title right so go ahead and have a good laugh!

Someone asks the Platinum sack of shit what Dream Night is. Here’s the direct quote:

“It’s the boot to kick off the year to make financial resolutions for the group. It’s the financial orgy of the year.”

What the hell kind of answer is that? I can see the orgy thing capturing the attention of the mostly male audience in their twenties. Boy were they going to be disappointed when they showed up at the function!

It was held in a hotel’s banquet room and tickets cost $66 each. I heard that amount on the portion of the recording I listened to and then I heard the sack of shit requesting $75 each from the downline to cover their expenses at organizing and purchasing tickets for everyone. No one asked for clarification how come an extra $9 each went to the upline for typing a few more tickets into the WWDB website to order them and then all the trouble they had to go through to pass them out to the IBO’s. Scalpers!

The overpriced ticket gave the IBO a meal and forced them to listen to a couple of Diamond speakers and watch their videos. Mostly it was about the Diamond’s lifestyle or what they hoped to portray to IBO’s was their lifestyle, showing mansions, private airplanes, sports cars, exotic vacations, etc. And apparently they buy all these things with cash only - never incurring debt. Amway’s figures of an average Diamond’s annual income at $146,000 don’t seem to realistically conclude that mansions, luxury cars, exotic vacations, etc are sustainable on that income.

Smoke and mirrors. Lies and more lies. That’s doing the Amway shuffle.

The Platinum tells the cult followers his pitch to get people to come to Dream Night is:

“Are you currently with this economic crisis getting everything you can by what you’re currently doing or do you think you need to shift and do some more?”

If anyone said that to me I think I would go “Huh?” and then the IBO thinking he had a live one would repeat it and then I’d go “What the fuck are you trying to say?”

The Platinum said he was hosting a table for ten and then he asks around the room to see how many suckers the IBO’s have found to attend. What he finds out is that everyone’s guest lists consist mostly of family and not potential IBO’s which outrages the Platinum. He starts to ride the eagle’s ass to get after the people in his downline who don’t have the numbers of invited guests to buck up and do the work.

Ambot pipes up and says he’s bringing 8 guests. When Dream Night arrived there were no guests. Fortunately he didn’t buy extra tickets. Bottom line is everyone had lofty numbers but few, if any, brought new prospects.

For all the good the extra $9 per ticket the upline wanted for their trouble at purchasing tickets they fucked up anyway and the whole thing turned into a fiasco. There were people in our group who were vegetarians. When purchasing the tickets from the WWDB website there was a meal option for meat or vegetarian. The asshole scalper who was collecting the cash took everyone’s meal preferences at the time they forked over the money but didn’t necessarily tally the meal types when making his mass Dream Night tickets purchase. The tickets were handed out to the IBO’s when they arrived at the hotel all part of the control thing.

In case you haven’t figured it out by now just about everyone ended up with the opposite meal choice than what they wanted. Pissed off IBO’s stood in the hallway where there was a lot of ticket and table swapping going on while people tried to get a ticket and a table with their preferred food choice on it. This took a long time to sort out because the asshole allocating the tickets kept running off to find the platinum and get more tickets.

Big surprise these useless bastards couldn’t get their act together.

Our Platinum screws Amway!

This is a big shout out to my readers from Alticor in Ada and Grand Rapids, Michigan (including the one using a Blackberry in the evening), Buena Park, California, and Missouri City, Texas. Have no idea where the last city is. Perhaps Tex can give me a geography lesson!

I hope they like this post on how my upline Platinum instructed the IBO’s to fuck over Amway! And now any active IBO’s who read my blog will also have the secret! Ha ha!

So here’s the secret as given to us during an Amway meeting by the Platinum sack of shit. You order a case of XS Energy Drinks. This is the product used in his example though it could be any other Amway product. You consume the product and then you phone Amway and say “That case of Amway I put on my order last month I ended up selling to a customer who hated it. Said it tasted like piss so I gave him back his money. Can you send me another sample case?” And then just keep doing this over and over and over and you never have to buy another case of XS again because Amway will keep sending you free sample packs to replace the one that made the customer puke.

Gotta love listening to the dishonest and deceptive business practices at Amway meetings and while the Platinum is telling us this all of a sudden it jogs his memory and he calls to his wife who’s in the next room and tells her he gave out a case of XS as a sample and she needs to call Amway and get it replaced. Got to watch them in action! Whoo hoo!

Too bad Ambot didn’t use this scam to get free cases of XS. He bought case after case after case of that nasty piss water. It would have been easier on his credit card if he’d conned Amway into some freebies.

Anyway just thought I’d share this little secret. Its not too often that IBO’s get revenge against Amway! 

XS Gear

Ambot was so hyped with everything Amway that he went to the XS Gear website undoubtedly encouraged by his upline and purchased some items. Ambot never drank energy drinks prior to getting involved in Amway but during the Amway dark ages he purchased boxes of XS energy drinks weekly and consumed them with frighteningly urgency. It was only natural he would want to promote the product that his upline convinced him was going to pave his path to riches.

He purchased what could best be described as a nylon webbed cycling outfit - shirt and shorts. He also purchased an XS cooler to store all his XS energy drinks and carry them dutifully to all Amway meetings.

The problem with the shirt and shorts was that they arrived in a smaller size than Ambot ordered and they charged his credit card so they had his money. Thus began many phone calls back and forth between Ambot and XS Gear. After dicking Ambot around for several weeks XS Gear finally admits they don’t have his size and won’t be getting any more because its a discontinued product. After all IBO’s are so busy attending meetings and functions, dealing with multiple phone calls and texts from upline, showing the plan, and all the other time-consuming bullshit that goes on inside “the business” who’s got time to ride a bike.

Ambot tried to return the clothes but XS Gear refused to take them back. Remember they strung him along with telephone tag for a long time and checking the stockroom for other sizes? They have a refund policy only if the items are returned within 30 days. The time frame had expired.

Let’s see. Whose fault was it for charging the credit card and then shipping the wrong size?

Their suggestion to Ambot? “Keep taking the product and one day you’ll fit into the clothes.”

What a bunch of fucking idiots especially since they sent the wrong size in the first place instead of coming clean from the start and admitting to Ambot they were unable to fill the order. No wonder Amway partners with them. Always good to have a partner store on hand that shares similar philosophies in fucking over IBO’s.

I’m not sure what happened to those clothes. I haven’t seen them. Its possible Ambot chucked them out or put them in with other clothes we donate to charity. Maybe they’re stuck in the back of the closet and I’ll run into them again one day. He never wore them.

As for the XS cooler? We didn’t really need another cooler. We have 2 or 3 already. Ambot probably only bought it for bragging rights to impress his upline and crossline about how devoted he is. Ambot loaned it to one of his upline and they stole it. Never to grace our house again thank God!

That’s one of the best things about ending our Amway business - no longer dealing with lowlife lying, greed-consumed Amway IBO thieves.

Exciting changes!

At just about every Amway meeting we attended we were told that we’d come on board at just the right time. Now is the beginning of what is gearing up to be a huge increase in Internet sales of Amway products. Exciting changes are just about to happen in the Amway business. This is huge!

I could have sworn we heard the same pitch many years ago too!

We were shown charts of how this trend was supposed to occur over the next few years with sales going up. This chart was part of the business plan flip cards that were shown at every Amway meeting.

There might be some changes but whether or not they’re exciting is debatable. I’m not really here to discuss Amway policy and what changes are going on in their company. This blog exists to curse out my former upline and inform others what it was like living with an Ambot.

Here are the (not-exciting) changes I observed in Ambot:

1. he got into huge arguments with people he normally got along well with who didn’t want to come to Amway meetings

2. he sneered at people who had J.O.B.s and weren’t willing to consider an Amway career

3. he was very rude to friends who weren’t interested in supporting his business by buying overpriced Amway products

4. he dropped whatever he was doing to respond to phone calls or text messages from the upline who wanted him to haul his ass to where they were for whatever they deemed was more important

5. he quoted Amway speak constantly and parroted whatever his upline brainwashed him into repeating

6. he questioned everything I did and how that was making him money in his Amway business

7. he had the brainwashed delusion that his upline sponsor was some sort of god and therefore we must lick his asshole

8. he became a slob around the house littering his Amway garbage wherever he happened to be and refused to put the consumed items containers into the garbage or recycling bin

9. he used his previously debt free credit card for Amway related purchases including treating the entire upline out for meals and maxed it out

10. he became increasingly agitated, argumentative, rude, and snobbish

11. he accused everyone with different points of view (from his upline) of being negative

The changes since Ambot got out of the cult are a lot more positive. Becoming a nice person again is one. Despite the upline’s proclamations that being in Amway makes you a nicer person to distract the IBO’s from paying attention to the money they’re not making, I’m here to dispute that and say NO WAY does being an IBO make you a nicer person. As a group mentality they might all put on a fake nicey nice act at functions and seminars but in private they’re nasty, surly, unapproachable sorry excuses for human beings. Funny how losing money in Amway can change a person’s personality especially since the upline brainwashes them into thinking the reason they’re not succeeding is because they’re not trying hard enough or because they’re losers.

I’m here to say watching someone getting brainwashed by the Amway cult is not an exciting change.

IBO’s are Free Labor

The Platinum had a canopy gazebo in his backyard, you know one of those metal and canvas roofed numbers that can be picked up at a department store for $100. Though his might have cost a bit more than that because it had mosquito netting walls.

Here's a photo I found on the web of one that looked similar to the one in the Platinum's back yard.

Obviously they didn’t have it anchored or weighed down too well because one night we had a good wind storm and his canopy ended up a few houses down the street in various pieces. So he bought one of those wooden gazebo kits from Lowes or maybe somewhere else I don’t know where he bought it, just I think I’ve seen kits there. It cost around $2000 and I’m thinking holy shit can’t you get one already made for that price but I guess I don’t know much about construction and construction materials.

So now the sack of shit Platinum needs it assembled. You’d think he would phone a carpenter or someone with experience putting boards together. Instead he sends the call out to the IBO’s for anyone with a hammer to come over and help. Ambot grabbed my hammer out of the junk drawer and was all excited about going over to serve his Platinum. So a small team of eager-to-please-their-Platinum IBO’s showed up. And to give them credit it actually looked pretty decent once they had it assembled. Not bad for free labor.

Another time the Platinum decides he’d like to take a corner of their bedroom and turn it into a master bathroom. Ambot knows someone who does renovations and gets him to come over to give a quote. I’m not sure how much the quote was for. Materials would include a bathtub, sink and cupboard, toilet, 2x4’s and drywall to frame in a room, tile or linoleum for the floor, and then the electric and plumbing. Maybe two or three thousand for materials on the low end. I suppose the sky’s the limit depending if you want one of those toilets where the lid closes automatically or a Roman tub for two. Then there’s labor on top of that. So for the sake of argument let’s say about the same price for labor, so around $5000 or higher for a bathroom. I think the sack of shit had a second quote as well from a renovator. And he's not happy. Its too expensive and he hates spending money. But he really wants a bathroom in the bedroom. So now he gets a great idea. If he gets a team of IBO’s together they can build him his bathroom. Uh, yeah, there’s a wonderful idea. Having people who don’t know what they’re doing cutting into the house’s existing plumbing and electrical wires. Probably picked up some book from the library to learn how to do it. Very wisely Ambot stayed out of this one. He never saw the finished bathroom because we stopped our association with these people before it was built but he heard about it from another IBO later on. Apparently it was the shits. Really shoddily put together and you have to wonder about the wisdom of having people reading a manual while splicing electric wires together.

So these upper levels think they can order their IBO's around and get work done for free around their houses because they suck the IBO's into its an exchange "you'll be spending valuable time with me". In other words the privilege of their time equals what they would be getting paid in labor.

Ah, the old saying comes to mind - you get what you pay for.

Stick it!

We were told to stick pictures of new cars, dream homes, and other material possessions on the refrigerator.

First of all I don’t like stuff stuck on my fridge. I’ve chucked out my fair share of tacky fridge magnets over the years.

Second even if I did like shit stuck all over my fridge it would be photos of my family not pictures of things I covet.

It just stinks of greed to stick photos of sailboats, Ferraris, and Hearst Castle on the fridge. Do these photos really help IBO’s achieve these dreams or do they serve as a sad reminder that their bank accounts are diminishing while they grasp for the dreams their upline has brainwashed them into believing they’ll own one day?

I used to buy a day planner each year. At the front of the planner is a place to write down goals and a target date. Sometimes I’d have to carry them over from the previous year. Then I was supposed to slot time in my planner daily or weekly to spend time accomplishing these goals. Somewhere in my past I remember hearing that if people write their goals down they have a higher success rate of achieving them than those who don’t write them down and this is why I wrote down my goals. And sure enough as the year came to a close and I was switching off planners I’d see that I’d either accomplished my goals or was on the way to doing so.

Mostly the goals were bettering myself professionally or personally but one year I did have something on my list that was an object - a red car I wanted. It didn’t happen that year so I carried that goal over into the next year when I did buy the car. Different color - black - so I didn’t quite meet my goal. I changed my mind on the color I wanted when I was at the dealership. But I never had a picture of that car stuck on my fridge.

So why does the upline want you to play greedy Gretchen and stick photos on the fridge of the things you dream about owning?

In our case it was so we’d be reminded why we were spending all our money on tapes, (oops I better say CD’s before IBOFB shows up to say tapes haven’t been sold in years!), functions, seminars, overpriced products, etc. Maybe that was another excuse why I couldn’t stick any photos on my fridge. These were unattainable dreams that couldn’t be funded because we were throwing away our money on Amway.

We Are Robots: Bizbot (HD)

I found this on Youtube and although its been around for awhile I thought I'd share it even though some of you may have already seen it before. Love the sniping prospects. Everything in here is so true of Amway. Notice the robot is half a body with a flame beneath him. In the WWDB business plan they use half bodies and have a little cloud beneath them. I think this robot's flame is part of the Amway chant "Fired up!".

Invest your money with this Robot entrepreneur and watch it multiply... by zero.

It's not a pyramid scam. It's a pyramid money making system. Sign up with Bizbot's organization and everyday will feel like a rock concert on the moon. Bizbot may not be able to make you a billionaire overnight, but he seems to think he has the secret to success... if he can just get people to come to his meetings. He doesn't work in an office. He's out in the field, turning any setting into an opportunity for growth. Whether he's giving a motivational lecture to a captive audience in line at the bank, or turning your romantic dinner for two into a power lunch by inviting himself to join you, he is ready to achieve success by any means necessary. He's like Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey and Sean Diddy Combs all rolled into one. So put on the monkey suit, bet the bluetooth in your ear, drench yourself in cologne or perfume and get ready to be inspired. Don't be the last one to show up on this bus to cash town.

Selling Amway products for Christmas

Our upline booked a community hall and turned it into Amway Christmas shopping central and all IBO’s were told to invite friends and family to attend and purchase Amway products as Christmas presents.

Most of the products out on display were the edibles - nasty food bars, disgusting XS energy drinks, vitamins, Perfect Water. You know - the type of stuff every kid wants to find under the Christmas tree.

Each IBO had to pay $10 towards the rental of the community hall. There were about 40 IBO’s at this event. You guessed it. The IBO’s outnumbered the shoppers.

The old community hall is on a fairly quiet street about 2 blocks from a busier street. There was a sign on the door advertising to come in for Christmas shopping. Perhaps they would have got more buyers if they’d gone a couple of blocks away and put a sign on the corner of the more travelled road. Or maybe not. First Saturday in December is the biggest shopping day of the year at the malls. Let’s weigh this out. Mall with lots of shops. Lots of variety. Good selection of products. Decently priced. Compare to Amway shopping central at a small mice-infested community hall. Overpriced products. Limited selection.

Five friends of ours showed up. The IBO’s pounced on them thinking they’d get some good sales. One of our friends actually purchased a few products. The pity purchaser who only bought the items to help out Ambot. Decent sale too over $100. I don’t recall the actual amount. May have been closer to $200.

Now here’s the crazy part. Our friend was the only person who purchased anything that day. Out of all the IBO’s there Ambot had the only sale. At the meeting at the end of the day when we were packing up the Platinum berated the group on the lack of sales. Now here’s where you’d think the pompous sack of shit would have some kind words for Ambot because his friend made purchases. Nope. He tore into Ambot saying he had five friends show up and only one of them bought something. I mean really laid into him about how those weren’t real friends because they didn’t support his business and about his general lack of success even though he was the only IBO who made a sale that day. After the verbal lashing ended, like the good cult leader he is, he assured Ambot that they still loved him and they would always be his only true friends unlike the phoney friends who don’t support his business.

Despite all those proclaims of never-ending love and friendship, when Ambot stopped going to Amway meetings and buying products those phonies cut off their love and friendship. Boo hoo. I can’t tell you how much it breaks my heart that those liars don’t want anything to do with us anymore.