Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Having Trouble Quitting Amway?

I’m amazed and a little concerned over the amount of people showing up at my blog after doing a Google search for “how to quit Amway”. Many hits daily using that search criteria. For me quitting seems simple enough. Stop buying Amway products. Stop buying tools. Stop going to meetings. Stop going to functions. Stop listening to tapes/CD’s. Do not renew your annual membership at year end. But apparently quitting Amway isn’t that easy for everyone because they search on the Internet for how to do it. And I really feel a lot of sympathy for these people who are trying to quit and get their lives back in order and need assistance to GET OUT.

Is the real question “how to quit Amway” or is it “how to quit the cult”?

Being an Amway Independent Business Owner is just a glorified way of titling a commissioned salesperson. Commissioned salespeople work for other people. If you work for someone else then you have a job. Quitting a job is easy enough. You either put in your two weeks notice or you say fuck you I’m outta here. And then you walk and don’t come back. What do you invest in a job? Time and effort. In return you get a paycheck. What do invest in a cult? Time, friendship, money, brain cells.... In return you get a depleted bank account, debt, destroyed relationships, and emotional distress to name a few.

Just shows what brainwashing does to a person involved in Amway.

The IBO has been conditioned by their upline to shut out people who are considered “negative”. These are family and friends who have researched the Amway cult and try to show the IBO the truth about what they’ve gotten themselves into.

Once the IBO figures out they’re not making any money at Amway and unlikely to ever do so, they know its time to quit. The IBO finds themselves in a position of fighting back against the mind control techniques that have been used on them to motivate them to stay with Amway. They might be reluctant to ask friends and family for assistance because they’ve already shut out these negative people and admitting Amway defeat might subject them to a bunch of “I told you so’s”.

The best thing for someone who wants to quit Amway is to get on the Internet and find blogs and articles written by former Amway cult members. They need to get information about Amway and the cult brainwashing techniques and the best place to understand is from someone who has already gone through this.

Depending on how deeply the IBO has been brainwashed, therapy might be a solution particularly if a therapist experienced at dealing with cults and deprogramming former cult members can be located. Not an easy task in Smalltown, USA which is why many turn to the Internet.

I remember reading Eric Scheibeler’s book Merchants of Deception when he’d figured out the truth about Amway and the tool scam and was trying to quit. He thought leaving Amway might be difficult for his wife because the two of them had devoted ten years of their lives to building their Amway business to the Emerald level not to mention tens of thousands of dollars invested in the scheme. He was surprised when his wife told him she hadn’t listened to an Amway motivational tape in months. She was deprogramming herself.

During the last 6 or 7 months my Ambot was clinging to Amway he stopped buying CD’s. I’m not so certain that he just wasn’t playing the old ones over and over but his name must have been shit with the upline when he stopped buying CD’s, though he attended one major function and paid up his WWDB Premier Membership ($49.95/month) and Communikate ($36.95/month) nearly to the end. During those last months Ambot bought Amway products totalling under $1000. Whew! What a relief when during the first few months of his involvement he would easily spend over $1000 in one month. In 2 of those last months he met the minimum 100PV to earn a check around $10. You can see how outraged his upline was because they weren’t making as much money off Ambot anymore.

Sometimes quitting Amway has to be a gradual process. Stop buying and listening to their brainwashing CD’s. Stop going to meetings or cut back. I mean how many times a week do you have to listen to the sack of shit Platinum say the same thing????  Eventually one of the leaders is going to ride the IBO’s ass about buying tools or products or attending functions so there might be some minor setbacks because the IBO is still indoctrinated enough not to disobey the cult leader’s wishes.

Amway is a trap. Getting into Amway is the easy part. Busting past the Amway exit barriers including unable to recover money invested and the psychological damage is easier said than done.

Like any other bad habit not everyone can quit cold turkey. Hang in there. Keep researching. Claw your way back to reality. Getting your life and finances back in order is the next hurdle. Been there done that. Good luck to anyone else on that journey.

11 comments:

  1. It is always such a huge relief to quit any mlm, especially one like amway.

    I remember the first time I didn't listen to a CASSETTE TAPE, and how strange that felt. After 15 minutes, I didn't care. Seriously.

    It was like pulling free from the Blob in a 1950's sci-fi.

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  2. Hi Anonymous. Yup sometimes its like a big weight has been lifted off your shoulders and you feel like you can breath again.

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  3. I was lucky I saw the light early enough to stop. I lost over $200 in registration fees and transport.
    I noticed the cult like characteristics after the first 3 meetings and stopped going. It was such a waste of time and energy and I was surprised no one else in the room did not feel staying for a meeting till almost midnight was not productive. Especially when you had a job to go to the next day!

    Guruool

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  4. Anonymous - you were lucky to see the light early. A $200 loss is minimal especially if you look at it as an education. Clearly you are not going to drink the kool aid because you recognized the cult characteristics right away. Most IBO's look at that as love and friendship and family and acceptance, etc, etc. Their argument to you leaving by midnight due to a job the next day would go something to the effect that the reason you're there is so one day you'll be financially free and won't have to go that job.

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  5. Anna: You are so hilarious, how to quit a job? "Fuck you, I'm outta here". I laughed so hard I almost snorted milk outta my nose!
    But seriously "fighting back against the mind control techniques" is difficult. I got a lot of help from this website:
    www.freedomofmind.com
    They have whole sections devoted just to Amway, how it takes control of you and how you can get free:
    http://freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/a/amway/amway-bite-analysis-behavior/

    So horrifying that deprogramming should be needed to recover from what is touted as an 'amazing business opportunity'!

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  6. Connie - glad you're enjoying the entertainment. Seriously I've never told an employer fuck you I'm outta here but I've just not shown up for work, quit without notice which is pretty much the same thing as saying fuck you. We're talking 1994 here!

    Amway is a cult. That is why deprogramming has to exist to help badly indoctrinated ambots find their way back to a normal life. My husband saw a counsellor and that really helped him.

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  7. i recently just got into amway after doing background checks with the better bus. bureau and some other sites, but like an idiot i didnt think of looking at the price of products. when i did i realized that it is impossible to have regular customers who arent ibo's. so the only 'logical' way to buy from there would be to become an ibo and then u would just purchase from urself. i feel like an idiot and realize i have to get out, but again being stupid i dont have a copy of the application so i am not sure what is required of me. so basically my question is "is it really as simple as just doing nothing to get out?"

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous - quitting Amway really is as simple as dropping out of sight. No different than Costo or any other company that you purchase a membership at to shop there. If you stop buying and don't renew your membership for the next year they get the hint.

      However you will face the wrath of your upline who badger you unrelentlessly with phone calls and text messages telling you that you can't quit now not when success is right around the corner. Or that they can feel it in their bones that your business is about to take off and you are going to go really big.

      You said you recently got into Amway. You may be eligible to get your membership refunded and ship back your products for a refund. Your upline will not help you with this information and I do not recall what the cut off time is if its one month or three months. You can try phoning Amway's head office but their customer service staff sucks. I refer to them as the I don't give a shit department or the unhelpful desk.

      You may just have to cut your losses and walk.

      However you brought up the BBB. Did anyone in your upline make false claims to you about Amway having a good reputation with the BBB? If so that is a violation of Amway's business rules of conduct that all IBO's have to adhere to. If you go to their web page and search around a bit or do a Google search you might be able to find it. Amway hides this and doesn't make it easy to find but it is there online under support or Business support.

      If you're getting the typical response from Amway's I don't give a shit department you can try telling them one of their IBO's is guilty of violating their rules of conduct regarding bragging about the BBB and you want to file a formal complaint and see where that gets you.

      I'm assuming if you're like most IBO's you got prospected by someone in your family or a friend or someone who you actually like so you might not want to take the next step of reporting that person to the BBB and the police for fraud. It doesn't hurt to cause some trouble in those lying bastard's lives!

      Everyone feels stupid when they realize they've been conned and fallen into a scam. Admitting this mistake to others can be embarrassing. Don't be so hard on yourself. Many others have been scammed by fast talking Amway salesmen. They are skilled in scamming and brainwashing.

      Congratulations for dumping Scamway and getting out before too much damage was done!

      Delete
    2. I don't understand how your blog is beneficial to anyone...period...besides allowing people to negatively vent about their own shortcomings or frustrations in life.

      Delete
    3. This blog is beneficial in warning people of the less than 1% success rate of a flawed business plan that teaches others to see all other humans as potential dollar signs only, to waste hundreds if not thousands of dollars on useless "feel good" mental placebos in the form of rah-rah CD's, meetings and seminars and to lose relationships right and left in the quest for an illusory "dream".

      I always laugh at the "blame the victim" logic of Ambots such as yourself towards the 99% who never make decent money with the flawed plan. It's like telling someone they can fly if they take two feathers, flap them and really, really believe hard enough. Then when they jump out the window to their death say that they were losers who didn't work hard enough and let negative thinking from friends and family begging them not to jump get in the way.

      ~Dave

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  8. Having been involved in a religious cult as a child & for several years as an adult I know what the characteristics of a cult are. Having been involved with Amway & World Wide Dream Builders for the last 7 years & for about 3 years in the 90's I can honestly say Amway is NOT a cult. YOU have the freedom to walk away at anytime, no one forces you to buy the products or the tools. If you wanted to open a McDonalds or Wendy's or any other franchise, you would have to go by their rules & trust me you'd invest a lot more than $200 to $1,000 before you could even open your business doors.
    Being a penny pinching, squeeze a buffalo nickle until it gives milk I find that bottom line, the products are a better value. I know, I've cost compared each & every item I buy. Yes, there are some items such as toothbrushes that I can get cheaper at a dollar store. I'm not looking for quality there.
    No I am not a diamond yet, but I will be only because of my hard work & effort & willingness to sow into people. I don't make money off my downline. I invest my time & resources to help them make hundreds to thousands of dollars & more in return I might make a few bucks in reward for helping them make $.
    I have many clients that I have developed over the years that enjoy & appreciate the quality products I service them with. They have a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee on any Amway product for 180-days. That's SIX months. If you don't LOVE the product, send back the empty container & I'll refund your money!
    There was a time when I had some personal & financial issues & I choose to go off "Premier" & "CommuniKate". I even missed some functions. NO ONE in my upline ever put me down or made me feel bad. They were very supportive. I've seen this business enough to know that it works IF YOU WORK IT! Amway is NOT a get rich quick overnight scheme. It requires work & effort.
    If nothing else I have made friends, become a better person & a better parent & a better wife from reading books & associating with positive people.
    Building an Amway business is an open option for everyone. However not everyone is willing to do what it takes to build a business serviced by the Amway Corporation. When I managed restaurants, I ordered supplies from Sysco. That did not mean that my business was a Sysco business.
    I am an independent business owner, associated with WWDB & my business is supplied by Amway, a 50+ year old, debt free, multi-billion dollar company & I'm proud to be affiliated in a small way with an opportunity that allowed a former welfare mom to get off welfare & begin building my dream for my family.
    S. E. L. Seattle, WA

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Comments are moderated but we publish just about everything. Even brainwashed ambots who show up here to accuse us of not trying hard enough and that we are lazy, quitters, negative, unchristian dreamstealers. Like we haven’t heard that Amspeak abuse from the assholes in our upline!

If your comment didn’t get published it could be one of these reasons:
1. Is it the weekend? We don’t moderate comments on weekends. Maybe not every day during the week either. Patience.
2. Racist/bigoted comments? Take that shit somewhere else.
3. Naming names? Public figures like politicians and actors and people known in Amway are probably OK – the owners, Diamonds with CDs or who speak at functions, people in Amway’s publicity department who write press releases and blogs. Its humiliating for people to admit their association with Amway so respect their privacy if they’re not out there telling everyone about the love of their life.
4. Gossip that serves no purpose. There are other places to dish about what Diamonds are having affairs or guessing why they’re getting divorced. If you absolutely must share that here – don’t name names. I get too many nosy ambots searching for this. Lets not help them find this shit.
5. Posting something creepy anonymously and we can’t track your location because you’re on a mobile device or using hide my ass or some other proxy. I attracted an obsessed fan and one of my blog administrators attracted a cyberstalker. Lets keep it safe for everyone. Anonymous is OK. Creepy anonymous and hiding – go fuck yourselves!
6. Posting something that serves no purpose other than to cause fighting.
7. Posting bullshit Amway propaganda. We might publish that comment to make fun of you. Otherwise take your agenda somewhere else. Not interested.
8. Notice how this blog is written in English? That's our language so keep your comments in English too. If you leave a comment written in another language then we either have to use Google translate to put it into English so everyone can understand what you wrote or we can hit the Delete button. Guess which one is easier for us to do?
9. We suspect you're a troublemaking Amway asshole.
10. Your comment got caught in the spam filter. Gets checked occasionally. We’ll get to you eventually and approve it as long as it really isn’t spam.