A reader shares her story.
I thought I was living my dream life. My husband and I got married six years ago. Right away we bought a house using a small inheritance I'd received as a down payment. Cute little house with three bedrooms. I loved it and thought I'd be happy here forever. Our son was born four years ago. My husband worked for a courier and I've been working the same cashier job since going back to work after maternity leave. Maybe not the greatest jobs in the world but we were happy and meeting our bills. We had some savings. My husband was happy and funny and a great dad. One of the nicest people I've ever met in my life.
One day he comes home and tells me he met this man on his route who has a home based business and is going to drop by in an hour to tell us more about it. I was interested because my husband was excited and I'd like to work at home and be there for our son. Right now we were lucky and our church offers a reasonable child care service but I'd love not to go to work every day. This couple shows up and they seem nice. They show us this plan but I'm kind of confused by it. All I get out of it is we eat an energy bar every day and drink an energy drink every day and we find others to do the same and we can make a thousand dollars a month working part time from our home. I ask them how long they've been doing this and how much they make. They both look really uncomfortable and all he says is business is going really great and then he changes the subject. He tells us there is someone he wants us to meet who can explain this business better and whips out his cell phone to call this guy. Before I can stop him or say we want to think about is he gets this guy to agree to meet us the next night at McDonalds of all places.
We meet this guy and right away I don't like him. He reminds me of a sleazy used car salesman. He tells us he's a Platinum and we hear the word Amway for the first time and he jumps all around that and tells us the company he's involved in only uses Amway to ship their products and that he would have us join a company called the World Wide Group, a leadership training company. This is also known as World Wide Dream Builders and WWDB. They put a lot of pressure on us and say now is the time to sign up to this great business opportunity because things are about to explode and we're coming in at the right time to make lots of money. They're over the top excited.
My husband wants to sign up and I agree. I guess it doesn't hurt to give it a try. Was I ever wrong! Amway became hell almost right away. This was two years ago and it's been hell ever since. We have to go to these meetings at 8 o'clock several nights a week. Sometimes they cost money but they all cost money because we have to hire a sitter every time we go. They say the same thing at all these meetings. Show the Amway business plan and everyone brags about how much money they're making or they're going o make and everyone is lying. We live in eastern Washington and we are close enough to drive to where all these big meetings are held in Portland, Spokane, and Boise. They want us to go to more than one sometimes when they're a week or two apart in different cities.
After one year our savings are gone. We have about $20,000 in credit card debt and we have boxes of Amway products in the garage that my husband was forced to buy because of the pressure from his upline who turned out to be the biggest bunch of shitheads I've ever met in my life!
The head honcho shithead counsels with us to use the equity in our home to pay off the debt. I hated doing this. The house is my security. We pay off the debt. My husband loses his job. I still don't know why but I suspect due to Amway because he is changed and has become a really nasty person and insults everyone who won't support our Amway business. He's on the phone all the time and I think he might have been meeting his upline instead of doing his route. He tells me this is a good thing because he can now concentrate full time on building our Amway business. Out comes the credit cards because we need to buy more Amway products but now we need cash advances to pay the mortgage and other bills because my pay doesn't come close to meeting our financial obligations. We have $30,000 in credit card debt in the last year.
In July we went to family reunion in Portland. My cousin lives there and we can stay at her house and she'll watch our son. My husband refuses. We must spend money to stay at a hotel so we can be close to the shitheads in our upline and go to late night meetings that they call night owls. I am pissed. We get in a big fight and I stay with my cousin anyway and he goes to the hotel. I didn't go to family function. I criedto my cousin all weekend about what a mess our lives are in because of Amway. By now we have long since alienated most of our family and friends because of my husbands attitude.
That weekend I decide for my own sanity to quit Amway. My husband refuses. He says success is right around the corner. Is he kidding? We signed up two people during two years and that was just after we started. One quit after a few weeks because the shitheads in our upline insulted him and the other couple were friends of ours who only signed up to get us off their backs. They didn't buy anything and didn't renew their membership at the end of the year.
We're now in the process of getting divorced. He has moved out and is staying with one of the shitheads. The house is up for sale. My parents are helping out with the mortgage until its sold and have got a lawyer for me. My husband is using some idiot in Amway to represent him who has no legal training. The only thing they're concerned about is that I don't get my hands on the Amway business. Half of nothing is still nothing shitheads! Besides I don't need half the debt! I guess I can forget about alimony or child support because he has nothing. I want custody of our son. He can keep custody of the Amway shitheads.
This is not how I thought my life would turn out. I'm 32 and on my own and have a young son to raise. My beautiful house won't be mine for much longer. I will have nothing when I get out of this marriage.
All I can say to anyone who gets approached by someone in Amway to sign up and sell their products and recruit others to sell Amway products is don't do it! Nobody wants to buy the products because they're too high priced. And no one wants to sign up. Its a waste of time and money.
Thank you Amway for destroying my life.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
73 comments:
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?
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That's such a sad story. A could of years inside this cult leads to life devastating results. I know this will take you years to recover from and I'm sorry this happened to you. It's hard starting over but it sounds like you have a good support system in place and I think you're still young enough to bounce back from what happened to you. Thank you for sharing your story! Very courageous of you.
ReplyDeleteI am 67 years old and I remember Amway being preached to me in the church. I can not say anything good about Amway. The Amway company is a pyramid scheme.
DeleteHi Anonymous - thanks for stopping by. It's not unusual for people to be prospected by others from their church because these are people they already know and trust. If the fellow church-goer is in Amway then it must be legit.
DeleteLOL!
Yup Amway is the granddaddy of pyramid schemes. The only ones who get rich are those sitting at the top of the pyramid.
Those Amway creeps will try to recruit you at a funeral, or while you're changing a flat tire, or when you're sitting down to eat.
DeleteThey have absolutely NO CLASS OR MANNERS.
Anonymous - when you're in Amway the Cult of Greed and the mission is to make a buck you have to be obnoxious because no one wants to buy your Amway shit.
DeleteThis is horrible. My boyfriend is in it right now but, knock wood, he seems to be cooling off. I'm so sorry about what happened to you. It's awful to watch them being sucked into this cult and to know there's nothing we can do.
ReplyDeleteCaleigh - glad to hear your boyfriend is cooling off. When they stop going to Amway meetings or not going to as many and not buying Amway products or slowing down buying Amway products that is usually a sign they're losing interest in this money and sanity losing business. Soon he'll ignore the upline's phone calls which will get progressively abusive and when he sees the upline for the assholes they are he'll stop completely.
DeleteAnna, thank you for letting me share my story. If just one person reads this and can understand the horrible experience Amway is and walks away it will help my pain. To people thinking of signing up with Amway don't do it. It will destroy your finances and your family. This is the worst experience I have ever had in my life. Amway destroyed my happiness and took away everything that was important to me. Except my son. Amway can't have him! I will never understand how someone I loved turned out this way. His new friends have more influence over him than his wife and family and old friends. His life has been consumed with buying Amway products. Our garage is full of cartons of water, energy drinks, vitamins and cleaning supplies that cost thousands of dollars. My lawyer told him to clear that out by the end of the month. Any Amway stuff in my house on October 1 is going to the dump!
ReplyDeleteL - I hope you start getting some control over your life once you have gotten rid of the cult and their followers.
DeleteIt'll be interesting if your husband can round up a group of ambots to clear the Amway shit out of your house or whether they'll abandon him when they realize he has no money to throw at the cult.
Like Anna, I thank you for sharing that heartbreaking story. And, sadly, it is so similar to soooo many other people who had happy lives until the Amway virus got in and destroyed it all.
ReplyDeleteUnlike your husband, you will be able to rebuild and move on. You are out of Amway and in control of your own life and personality. He, on the other hand, is still brainwashed into a cult of illusion that will continue to feed upon him and twist his thinking for as long as he is in their clutches.
Best of luck to you.
~Dave
read "Blackwater" by Jeremy Scahill eye opener -
ReplyDeletewhy is sodium laurylsuflate in shampoo
why is corn syrup in childrens vitamins
why are amway prices going up --- not at all wholesale period
Todd - thanks for stopping by with that eye opener!
DeleteHI All, this such a heartbreaker! I vow to keep writing my blog, to help at least fifty individuals to walk away from Amway or not to walk-in to Amway. Your story is far worse than what I could imagine from here in India. Hope god gives you courage and enough opportunities to succeed in your life. My hearty wished with you, meanwhile Anna Banana thank you for letting her share the story. It is not different than that of Eric Scheibeler
ReplyDeleteI must say I am extremely lucky to have found your site! I just arrived home from my first (and last) meeting and after hearing the speech something in my head just screamed SCAM! It all just sounded too good to be true and I'm glad I decided to do some investigation before falling into this trap! After reading this incredible story, I could not imagine going thru this with my wife. Thank you for sharing this and know that you maybe just saved my Family.
ReplyDelete-Brian From PDX
I am so sorry :( Thank you for sharing your story.
ReplyDeleteI shall remember you and your family in my prayers tonight.
I pray that God would restore all that's been taken from you and that He would remove the scales off your husband's eyes.
10 months ago a friend / colleague/ man that I love asked me to listen to a CD. Alarm bells immediately went off in my head. It was weird how hesitant I was to play the CD but I eventually did. It was about a group of people talking about how they had jobs that they hated but now they found a wonderful business opportunity and life was great blah blah blah. It sounded so phony. I noticed the words Network 21 on the CD so I Googled....Amway and some scary stuff came up...
I put together a whole pack of info for my friend because I thought he wanted my opinion. He didn't. He had already made up his mind and he wanted me to join him in this venture. He said he did this 10 years ago but he gave it up because he had a "very negative wife". He's now divorced and he's back with the system.
I told him that something didn't feel right and I wasn't keen.
A couple weeks later, he invited me to a "Business Seminar". I went because I thought he was finally making a move and it was sort of a date. I was so ticked off (to put it politely) when I got to the venue and saw the words "Network 21". I went to the Ladies Room and stayed there for about 10 minutes, just fuming! I specifically told him that I didn't want to get involved and I felt like he tricked me into coming.
Then the show began...it was bizarre. I didn't trust the people speaking - reptiles. I also hated the "class system"...no food or drinks for everyone, just for a few high achievers at the front. People would clap and give standing ovations like every 2 minutes. I felt very uncomfortable. As soon as it was over, I grabbed my bag and got the heck out of there.
The next day at the office, I confronted my friend. Asked him whether he was being sincere with me or whether this was only about recruiting me. He told me that he didn't want to put any pressure on me and then he tried to explain the business plan to me. Out of love and respect, I listened but I told him I can't go against my gut feel, so this "business opportunity" wasn't for me.
He has a very strong personality but to his credit, he has respected my decision not to join him. He did ask me try out some Artistry beauty products, which are quite OK - just too expensive.
I'm really worried about my friend, though :(
It's hard watching from the sidelines.
I want him to get out of this before wasting any more
of his money, time & talent!
- Nellie from South Africa
my friend agrees
ReplyDeleteHanish Hani
I don't have as much time as I need to write down my entire story, I'll just say that my mother joined Amway 14 years ago. She had phases of being very and just-a-bit-less interested in it. Amway was one of the main reasons my parents got divorced (my father's alcoholism caused by depression caused by Amway was another). Amway ruined her marriage, her relationship with me (I'm nearly 16 now) as well with my younger sister (weird relationship that I cannot quite explain), she lost her friends and alienated from her family. She believes that my grandma (her mother) and I are plotting against her and has close-to-nothing relationship with her brothers. She is brainwashed and has no common sense whatsoever. It's impossible to talk to her about it. I tried multiple times and it only led to both of us crying and wrecking our already broken relationship. She is a loving mother, I must say, and she takes great care of my sister and me. But her manipulative mind games and making me feel guilty about everything combined with her control freak personality make me almost lose my mind. I am keeping myself sane by talking to my friends (the close ones who know about it and understand it). I can't and won't explain here my entire story because it's too long, too complicated and frankly, too personal. I just want to say that Amway and Network 21 are scams and sometimes they even destroy lives. P.S. Sorry if my English is bad, I'm from Croatia. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous. First off your English is excellent. We only insult Amway employees who show up here with no comprehension of the English language because well that's just fun! You speak so much better than them!
DeleteSorry to hear about your mother. You have described very well how she acts which is no different than anyone else I have met in Amway. It is how they're brainwashed to act by their cult leaders. Parents of children who still live at home have no business being in Amway and destroying their children's lives. I've had children of other ambots show up here and say it was horrible growing up and having their parents put Amway first over them. But many of them have gone on to lead very good lives which I hope for you. I'm probably going to bring your comments to a new blog post very soon so others can read it. This post is older and many of my readers will miss this and many want to know what children of ambots are thinking.
You go out there and have a great life and stay away from cults because you already know how destructive they are. Thank you for sharing your story.
I'm very sorry. My ex girlfriend brought me into this. I hated it very quickly. She told me I was negative. I'm getting out now before I go CRAZY!!
ReplyDeleteWow, your story is so close to home. My husband is also a courier, we got married 6 years ago, bought a cute little house, and have a beautiful baby.(All accomplished WITHOUT mlm "success") Oh, and my husband is also being brainwashed by MLM which is ruining my marriage and we're on the verge of Divorce. He comes from a family of MLM'ers so it's like enmbedded in him. As much as I love him I feel hopeless and I'm just about to throw in the towel. I need help!
ReplyDeletePS Thanks for allowing me to curse in my response because it helps when your talking about Amway.
ReplyDeleteYup this is the place to be to curse out those Amway assholes.
DeleteHey Buddy got your messages. Blogger doesn't let us edit comments. You can either delete or ask us to do so. Sorry to hear about though. I'm able to partly help you finish.
ReplyDeleteHey.... before you do that you might want to check out this post....
ReplyDeletehttp://marriedtoanambot.blogspot.ca/2014/04/join-amway-and-turn-into-bitch.html
Hello. Just discovered your blog. Very timely for me, and so glad I found it! I have a question I hope you or one of your readers can answer for me: I know Amway prefers husbands and wives to join together, but is it possible to sign up your spouse without the spouse's consent? This is what happened to me, and needless to say, I am angry. How do I remove my name from this distributorship? Husband refuses to quit.
ReplyDeleteHi Mrs. American Wife. I'm glad you found us. I hope reading here helps you know you're not alone in the hell you're going through. Maybe one of the other readers knows the answer but this is an older post so not everyone will see it. I no longer have the IBO registration form. GARBAGE! Just like everything else Amway! I'm not positive but I think one of the things in the IBO agreement states that if one person signs up to Amway then the wife (or husband) is also part of the IBOship. Cult tactic. Get 2 for the price of one. Or there's some legal issue that husband and wife can't be separate IBO's. But maybe someone else knows the answer for sure. So yes your husband can sign up without your consent. Most husbands sneak around and do that because they know their wives aren't going to be interested in this good old boy's club, spending multiple late nights at Scamway meetings, and spending $300 plus a month on shitty overpriced Amway products, monthly membership into the cult sect they've signed up with like WWDB, monthly fees for Communikate, various expenses associated with Amway functions, etc, etc. The brainwashing has already begun on your husband. The next step the assholes in his Amway upline will do and have probably already started, is to destroy your relationship. Nothing makes those sick bastards more happy than destroying other peoples lives. You could always try phoning Amway's head office and demanding your name be removed from the IBO agreement. However that means you're dealing with Amway's I-don't-give-a-shit department. Otherwise known as the Unhelpful Desk. You could always try phoning the police department and pressing fraud charges against your husband's sponsor because this was done without your consent. That's probably your best plan. That might get those assholes in his upline to drop him like a hot potato. Good luck with that.
DeleteThank you so much for your response. I will keep in touch and let you know what happens. I am preparing myself for what I know will be a tough road out of this mess. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteHi Mrs. American Wife. The Internet is full of stories from women who are or were married to an Amway ambot. We all have the same story about how Amway and the assholes in our husband's upline destroyed our lives, maybe just told slightly differently. Amway brings financial and emotional distress, causes bankruptcy and divorce. Amway the cult of greed. Do whatever you have to to protect yourself from those lousy scamming bastards who are out to destroy your life.
DeleteGood luck, Mrs. AW. I hope your end result won't be the same as the woman in the above article. But, sadly, if your husband isn't able to break free of their evil spell, you may have no other choice other than to break free of him and save yourself and your own finances before they go down the Amway toilet and leave you homeless, in deep debt and emotionally a mess. I hope your husband wakes up in time before he's too far gone to reason with and see reality for what it is and not the "dreamy no-stinkin' thinkin' LaLa Land" that his upline will paint for him that will bear no resemblance to reality whatsoever.
DeleteIf it comes to choosing you or Amway and he refuses to cut them out, time to run.
I feel I am losing my girlfriend to This scam shes a Young,beautiful and smart chinese girl. She Is better then This and everytime i explain its a scam we fight. My family Is vert successful and explained how if It was So easy to get rich everyone would Be living large. The reality Is its all in thèse peoples heads. Its a SCAM!!!!!
ReplyDeleteFrank - sorry to hear about your girlfriend. And of course your family is right. If it was so easy to get rich in Amway everyone would be doing it. Instead it says right on Amway's own literature than .000000382% or whatever that tiny fraction of 1% of IBO's is who will make money. Flip it around and that's over 99% failure rate. Amway is all about sell the hope not the soap. Sell the hope that this ambot will be part of that tiny percent that make money. The Amway scam does not discriminate against race, age, looks, or brains. If you haven't already done so, download a copy of a free book called Merchants of Deception. You'll see a link further up the right side of this page under Amway links. Read it for a true horror story. Then see if you can get your girlfriend to read it too and see if it knocks some sense into that pretty smart head of hers. You can be pretty sure that the assholes in her upline are working hard on her to break up with you. Amway is all about destroying relationships. Good luck.
DeleteI can't believe they have such twisted and retarded people in This group. I saw thèse people at their convention they seem like such squares who Never had control in life or were Never accepted So they try to control the weak. Sorry but I am a leader with my own path in life managed to make tons of money. I have tried many things and tons of business ventures she won't Win with amway.
ReplyDeleteFrank - everyone about Amway is twisted. Its a religious cult but twists religion to their own purposes ie God wants you to be an Amway ambot. Amway cult leaders claim Amway is a leadership training program. LOL!!! Its all about brainwashing suckers into buying overpriced shitty products so those at the top of the pyramid can make money.
DeleteThank you for sharing this. I was in WWDB/Amway for about a year and lost a lot of money going to functions and trying to make PV. My husband (who was my fiance at the time) and I made a decision to stop. It was a lot of money with no hope for ROI, not to mention, a majority of our upline had been in this for close to a decade with nothing to show for. My parents are in this and the very last function I attended mentioned that it's ok to miss family and friends' functions all for the sake of the business. They have missed so many important moments they can never get back and the "diamond worship" was all too weird for me. Plus, the house meetings would go on so late when most of us had work the next day (because let's face it, we still have to work to pay for Amway, right?).
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear about your losses but I'm glad you are out of there.
Hi Anonymous, thanks for stopping by to share your story. Glad you got out of Amway before any more damage was done financially and emotionally. Isn't that always the thing, people in Amway have been in for many years and they convince you that in 2 to 5 years you'll be making gazillions of dollars in residual income rolling in from Amway every month, and yet there they are renting a house and driving a clunker car. Not too good advertising unless they think they're living the high life.
DeleteThis is the life I'm living now. I've been married going on 4 years in April and on pregnant with our second child. My husband has been in Amway before i met him (8 years). We argue everyday about this damn business that he doesn't make not one dime from. He says he's doing it for his family but he doesn't realize he's losing his family. I can't take this anymore. He is so brainwashed it's ridiculous. I never thought I would get a divorce because of Amway. But i have to prepare myself.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous. Wow! Sorry to hear you're going through the Amway hellhole right now. Like you need any more stress in your life. And no money. The bad news is someone who's been in Amway as long as him is a lifer. Most Ambots quit after a few months and 95% quit within 2 years. Its awful to say but statistically your husband is a lifer. I know you'd never think you'd get a divorce because of Amway but so many people do because Amway is all about destroying people's lives. So many people on this blog have talked about getting a divorce thanks to Amway. Yes, agree you need to prepare yourself. Talk to a lawyer and find out what your rights are and what you can expect. If you have family close by who will still speak to you after your husband has driven them away by hounding them about Amway, talk to them and get support.
DeleteIts not about divorce but if you haven't already done so look in the upper right of this page for links about Amway and you'll see a link for a free ebook called Merchants of Deception. Read that to understand more about the horror your husband is involved in. See if you can get him to read it too. Maybe it will be an eye opener for him that if someone with 1000 people in their downline is only making $2 - $3,000/month from Amway what hope does he have of making big bucks in this scam.
Good luck to you.
I'm late to this blog, but glad I found it. My best friend's husband became obsessed with Amway and at first, my friend was upset. But now, she's going along to get along. I'm worried about her, because I feel she was pressured into this. Now, she's asking me to buy stuff and recently told me she can't wear cosmetics that aren't made by Amway.....
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous. Glad you found us. Better late than never! Do NOT enable your friend. They make a few pity sales of their shitty overpriced Amway products and that just encourages them to think they can actually make lots of money in commission. Yeah the assholes in our Amway upline tried to tell me I couldn't wear cosmetics that weren't made by Amway and I told them well actually only one to fuck up. Then he went to our sack of shit Platinum and bitched that I was cursing him out. Then the sack of shit bitched out Ambot and he tried to tell me to support our business and buy Amway's shitty cosmetics. I told him if we priced "our" LOL products too high then we're a bunch of fucking morons for not selling good products at good prices.
DeleteThis amway thing is horrible! My best friend and her boyfriend got involved a few months ago. I went to the "grand opening"...I left with the worst feeling and fear for her. She is in her early 20's, has no kids,but worked very hard to become a successful nurse, also has/had a personality that was real! The upline couple I met at her opening were very strange. The woman seemed like a cunt, but was positive, and vague. She kept trying to small talk me and I shut her down each time. I research the crap out of cults vs. Amway and there is nothing good. I told my friend about it and she told me not to worry so I dropped it. Now some time has passed. She was a jammer, and now listens to these audio things that are ridiculous!! She calls off work for cult stuff. (She would've never done that for anything). The upline people just told her she has no social skills. Well that's just who she was. She told me she has to act like she genuinly cares about potential business prospects. Then suck them into it. She's spending soooo much on driving 600+ miles to bullshit confrence things where they don't eat and get close to no sleep. That's part of the brain washing!!! She's not real anymore. I miss my friend she was like my sister. And now she doesn't have time for me unless I "want" to learn about the cult. She's not been in too long. Does anyone know if there's a way to talk to the precult friend I had and let her see what's really going on? The upline cunt tells her I don't want her to be successful. I don't know how to approach this because upline controls her thoughts and opinions now. I feel like I need a funeral for her. Just so you know...her mom and feel the same about the cult. They're keeping her away from us.
ReplyDeleteYou are right on in comparing everything to a cult. The brainwashing is just the same as in the religious cults one always reads about where the "converts" become dazed, smiling drones who only are interested in getting more immersed into their cult and pleasing their cult masters. The cult masters warp their thinking and tell them they love them and anyone else who doesn't "support" their cult doesn't and will keep them from being successful (or getting to heaven for the religious cults).
DeleteOnce the brainwashing takes root (and they get the brainwashing hammered in by their smiling, phony upline, by the CD's and books, by the no-sleep long "rah-rah" conferences), it can be almost impossible to reason with them. The thinking person with a nice personality that you once knew is overtaken by an obsessed, drone-like being that has been taught that former loved ones like friends and family "don't understand" and will only try to bring them down.
Hopefully your friend is not so far gone that she won't, as many who get sucked into the cult, be able to see the light on her own as "success" doesn't present itself and instead finds her finances diminishing rapidly.
Hi Anonymous. Yes Amway is horrible. It's the worst evil that will ever infect your life. Good on you for shutting down some Amway asshole making small talk with you. She was probably trying to ask you what your dream is. Next time an ambot asks what your dream is tell them it's to make gay porno movies. Ambots are prudes and that will get rid of the bastard real fast! LOL! As you've realized your friend has been brainwashed. Look on the upper right side of this page under more links about Amway for a free ebook called Merchants of Deception. Read it. See if you can get your friend to read it too. Its an Amway horror story.
DeleteAs long as your friend is an ambot she's going to be a nasty bitch to you. The good thing is 95% of ambots quit in 2 years, most in a few months after they figure out they're losing money and not making any money and they got scammed. You can try to wait it out until she's not in Amway anymore or just drop any contact with her until she's out of the cult. Her Amway cult leaders will eventually order her to drop all contact with people who are not cult followers so she'll be cutting you off soon enough. Beat her to it.
Good points anonymous!
DeleteI'd like to add my experience here as well, there is a lot that can't be covered in this little blog space but amway did destroy my families life beginning in 1997 when an old associate rang us out of the blue and wanted to introduce us to a business opportunity so we agreed and she sent the "documents" which turned out to be the signup form and kit.
ReplyDeleteAt the time we had moved to a new state in Australia with a massive redundancy package and owned two houses with modest mortgages, I was an entrepreneurial type and had always done well with sideline businesses to bolster our income from regular jobs but was always honest in my dealings and had never heard of amway in my life (we are country folk)so thought it would work in theory.
I was wrong, fast forward 19 years and we are broke and friendless with most of the damage occurring in the first 2 years of the "opportunity" partly because I dedicated myself to it and lost sight of the real opportunities in life that were all around us (including house prices where we sold at the bottom)and partly because it is just a plain vanilla mlm scam and mostly because there was not much info available to warn me such as this blog so rapid due diligence was not possible in time to avert me.
At three years I had a moment of clarity and quit amway in all forms.
I am now 55 and my fight and spirit have taken a big hit over the years but while I have been at work struggling with high rent etc and raising three children I have been teaching myself to trade commodities which does give me real hope for the future because there is nothing else at my age and as a trader you are responsible for your own successes and failures as in any normal business.
This is the first time I have admitted to anyone what a scam it was because of the terrible shame it brought upon us and the last threads of any pride I had left did not want to admit I had made a massive mistake.
My poor Wife of 36 years is in poor health (depressed)and I feel just terrible for her and I have vowed to drag myself out of my own depressive state and power myself up to give her the comfort she deserves, she tried to tell me it stank but was trying to be a supportive Wife and I love her even more for that.
If you are reading this do not get involved with amway, chances are you could lose everything that is real and dear to you.
AMWAY IS FOR LOSERS!!
Wow! Anonymous - I'm so sorry for what Amway did to your life and to your family. And sadly you know the truth is you're not alone. Amway is all about destroying people's lives. The only thing people in Amway have to look forward to is bankruptcy, foreclosure, divorce, destroyed families, destroyed friendships, financial and emotional distress. NOT the bazillions of dollars in residual income rolling in every year as promised by the Amway cult leaders.
DeleteAnd yours is a tough story. Many people scammed by Amway are young, like early 20's. They're young enough to bounce back financially and emotionally. But its a lot harder when you're older because your timeline for making the money back and getting yourself to a financially stable place in life is dramatically reduced when you're towards the end of your working life. You don't have as many years left to work and save for retirement. Most people want to retire with a mortgage free home, no debt, and enough savings to let them enjoy the rest of their lives. Instead Amway destroys this and the struggle is on just to survive.
Very tragic. And no consolation to know you're not alone. There are stories on the Internet of seniors who sold their home and threw away their retirement savings at the Amway scam and now they're starting all over struggling to survive.
Amway takes everything you have and everything you don't have too.
And as you said back in the days before the Internet there wasn't that much information around with people getting the word out how they'd been scammed by Amway. These days anyone can do a little research and realize there are more people sharing stories of losing money than making money in Amway and figure out its a bad idea to get involved in a scam.
And like other people who've been scammed, its really embarrassing to admit that it happened to you. People like to think they're smart enough not to be scammed into a pyramid scheme but part of the way Amway operates is to brainwash their followers.
And its usually us wives who tell our husbands don't get involved in Amway but they go ahead anyway. I know my husband felt awful after he got out because of what I had to go through.
It sounds like you owe your wife a nice vacation somewhere!
And good luck with the trade commodities. I hope that works out well for you and helps bring your life back on track. And if you have any hot tips be sure to come back and let us know! There's a lot of people who'd love to make back that money they lost in Amway.
What a nightmarish story!
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of vicious, destructive, and evil institution the Amway Corporation is.
Anonymous - agreed. Another nightmare story thanks to the evil Amway. By sharing our stories we can only hope we prevent others from making the same mistake.
DeleteStay away from Amway! And as the above poster said AMWAY IS FOR LOSERS!
My boyfriend and his family just bought into Amway a couple weeks ago and are really pushing it onto my family. I plan on marrying him and am so scared of Amway and how it will affect our relationship. Everytime I mention something negative towards Away he accuses me of "not supporting him". I don't know what to do...after reading this story I fear for the worst.
ReplyDeleteHi Unknown - Yikes! That's is a very bad situation to be in. And you and your family are very smart to figure out that Amway is a scam. Amway's own literature shows that only a tiny fraction of 1% of IBO's will make money. Surely you can come up with a better business idea that has a better chance of succeeding than something with over 99% failure rate.
DeleteIf you haven't already done so, check out the more information about Amway links on the upper right side of this page and you'll see a free ebook you can download called Merchants of Deception. This will very valuable to you to figure out what your boyfriend has got himself involved in. If you can, get him to read it too. It's a real wake up call of the money you lose and being abused by the assholes in the Amway upline.
As for marrying him, hold off on that until he gets out of Scamway. Most people quit after a few months when they realize they're losing a lot of money and they're not making any money. According to Amway 95% of IBO's quit within 2 years. That's why recruitment is a huge thing in this scam. Sell the hope, not the soap.
You can be pretty sure the assholes in his Amway upline are working him over to break up with you. Nothing brings those Amway bastards more happiness than destroying other people's relationships. Right now he's only accusing you of "not supporting his business". He is going to get a whole lot angrier to you. And that anger is because he's losing lots of money and being abused by his Amway upline. And he'll take it out on you. Amway Ambots are really nasty and vicious in their verbal assaults on others.
So if you've got it in you to hang in there for awhile until he's got Amway out of his system and you feel that's the best thing, then wait him out. The law of averages is on your side. Remember 95% quit in 2 years, most of them within a few months. In the meantime do not get into any joint financial situations with him. Amway only brings financial and emotional distress to the lives it touches.
Good luck to you.
Dear Unknown of March 24 --
ReplyDeleteYour situation is indeed a very difficult one. You love this person, but he is becoming a cult victim.
You might be faced with an extremely difficult choice. Marriage to an Amway cultist is something horrible, as many persons have attested here at this website and scores of others dedicated to exposing the Amway fraud. Do you want to jump into a marriage of that sort?
You might have to tell your boyfriend "Choose... it's either me or Amway!"
If he chooses you, then you can probably count on having a good and loving husband. If he chooses Amway, you've escaped a terrible fate. It will be painful. But it will be a narrow escape for you.
Anonymous - pretty much good advice. As for the choose me or Amway, she'd have to be willing to accept the choice is going to be the Great Amway God before issuing that ultimatum.
DeleteBut as you said at least she'll have escaped a terrible fate.
Dear Anna --
ReplyDeleteI've bee reading this blog for many months now, and I think have learned something about your personality.
You are a fiercely energetic, no-nonsense woman of strong intelligence. In my opinion, you would NEVER have married a silly or weak or non-intelligent man. Therefore I believe your husband (whom you call here "Ambot") has to be someone just as powerfully intelligent as you are.
He CAN'T be stupid! So when he was sucked into Amway the reason had to be something psychological or emotional, not rational! People don't do things that are financially self-destructive if they are intelligent. But they WILL do them if there is some kind of emotional/psychological motive behind their self-destruction.
I think if we could learn exactly what kind of psychological or emotional power an Amway recruiter has over the people he dupes into signing up, we could give better advice to the desperate persons who show up here with horror stories about how their loved ones are being scammed and ripped off by Amway.
Hi Anonymous - Thanks for reading the blog! I guess people like us who have never been brainwashed into a cult will never understand exactly how our husbands could have got scammed into one.
DeleteAs for my personality well yeah I'm strong enough to speak out when I can see a bad financial decision is coming upon us. But even more so is the fucking asshole who sponsored us into Amway is the biggest lying scheming cocksucker around so whatever he's involved in it would be in a person's best interest to avoid it because he's a fucking loser.
Intelligent people have been brainwashed into various cults. They'd all think it could never happen to them but it does. The power these cult leaders have over controlling their victims is terrifying.
Having looked around your web site I was very surprised at your stance. I have been in Amway since 1991 and have been a Direct Distributor here in the India for the last 4 years. I expect to be in Emerald Qualification with the next 12 months, this will result in me not having to work for a boss for the remaining 34 years of my working life.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate book's, tapes, video's are useful to gain success oh and so are seminars. But as a result of the "System" I have also increased my JOB income by 120% as a result of building the Amway business.
Wasudeo - you're a lifer for 25 years and you're not Diamond yet as promised in 2 to 5 years? What's up with that?
DeleteAnd guess what. If someone else puts a price tag on products you sell and if someone else tells you to go to seminars and buy books and tapes, etc then that someone who's telling you what to do is your boss. In your case its some fucking asshole in your Amway upline.
And besides that you're a fucking liar same as every other lying scamming fucking Amway asshole out there. You have only been to this blog once - today. And this is the only post you looked at. So how can you claim you were looking around this web site when this was the only page you looked at? I get it that anyone who's been in the Amway cult for 25 years is a dumb fuck but showing up at a web site whose main purpose is to make fun of lying Amway losers to tell a lie just makes it easy for us.
Can't you find a legitimate job where you don't have to spend your life being a liar and a loser? Is being a commissioned sales rep for Amway as good as its ever going to get for you?
I guess Wasudeo Thavkar is "faking it till he makes it."
DeleteBut man, 25 years is a long time to fake it!
Anonymous - lifestyle of the broke and useless Amway losers: fake it till you make it. Except there'll be more faking than making in Scamway!
DeleteThis is so sad, I run a communications company. But there's all this talk about AMWAY it's a people business I looked into the plan. Stop knocking a great business and knock the dumb people you worked with. It's like saying Mcdonalds is a horrible company because you couldn't judge someone's character. You can return products but not stupidity.
ReplyDeleteSoftware Guru - if you truly believe Amway is a good business opportunity when it's a system designed for failure with over 99% failure rate then you are really fucked in the head.
DeleteNotice that this "Soft-headed Guru" isn't actually in Amway himself. He's just "looked into the plan" and decided that it's "a great business."
DeleteThat's like reading a propaganda brochure about North Korea, and deciding that "it's a great place to live."
This "Soft-headed Guru" is a real asshole.
Anonymous - guru is just another broke Amway loser who likes to show up at blogs like us with his snotty snobby Amway attitude and sneer at us. He's lucky I was in a good mood today! LOL!
DeleteMy wife started selling Plexus (not Amway, but a shady MLM nonetheless) and my marriage has been crap since. She truly thinks that the women on her "team" are genuinely her friends. She went to high school with the girl that coerced her in to it, but they weren't actually friends while in school. Girl popped up on her FB early last year. And then spent about 6-8 months messaging my wife until she finally decided to join. It started as only a $35 yearly sign-up and no inventory! Then it was, "You need to sell $100 worth of product before you recieve any commission, but you get an $X bonus for recruiting X amount of people!" Then came the, "You should buy the product for yourself each month so then anything else you sell is automatically commission!" Except none of our friends are willing to spend $100+ a month on unnecessary supplements. Then it was, "You should buy extra products to hand out as samples!" Meaning more sales for her uplines. Their Facebook pages are all obsessive and scary. 98% of their posts are Plexus-related and then all the comments on said posts are "testimonials" from other ambassadors on how awesome Plexus really is and how it "changed their lives." They practically worship the company and the other ambassadors. It's kind of scary. And my wife thinks I'm being an asshole for trying to divert her from it. We may even be on the verge of divorce because of this stupid company. MLMs are nothing but cults that people waste their money on and inevitably ruin all their relationships with friends and family.
ReplyDeleteHi cassiemg. Sorry to hear what's happening with your wife and your marriage. I'm not familiar with Plexus but it sounds like it operates just like the Amway scam.
DeleteOld friend reaches out. Gradually sucks the prospect into the scam. Same lines they use in Amway. Sell X amount to qualify for a commission each month. Then buy all the products and try them out yourself so you know what they're like. Then buy products for samples. And so on.
Stockpiling products is a sure sign of a pyramid scheme.
Everything about Amway is obsessive for the Ambot and scary for their loved ones to watch. And then you're getting accused of the same things that those of us who married to Ambots get accused of. Being unsupportive, being a dreamstealer. Being negative. And the assholes in the upline drill that into the Ambot and plant the seed to divorce. Nothing brings those Amway bastards more happiness than destroying other relationships.
Seeing as how Plexus is so similar to Amway in the abuse I wonder it that's where my former upline has ended up because it sounds like they'd sure fit in.
Nothing is more important to an Ambot than worshipping the Great Amway God.
Sounds like your wife is behaving the exact same way but its worshipping the Great Plexus God.
If its like Amway most Ambots quit after a few months when they realize they're not making any money. If its like that in Plexus the law of averages is on your side. Good luck to you.
No one is "approached" by Amway scammers, they are attacked. My first experience with Amway was when I hired a gun dealer to receive and transfer a gun I purchased over the internet. As soon as I walked into his pawn shop, he said stuff like "you seeM like you are smart"; "I can tell that you are an enterprising type", "Do you like money", "how would you like to make money without hardly doing a thing", on and on and on. He gave me tapes to listen to - I took them just to be nice; of course this obligated me to return them and he had a 2nd shot at me. When I came in to return the tapes, he had two younger Ambots attack me, lying and telling me how they make easy money, lots of money, rich rich rich, etc. I had absolutely no interest, and told them so. That didn't matter, they had my phone number and would take turns calling me. I finally asked a friend of mine, who I knew used to be in Amway how to shake these leaches. He said two things I never forgot: 1 "You really should try selling Amway, it would be good for you (to which I said "hell no"); and 2 "Ok, just tell him 3 times that you do not want to sell Amway - NO EXCUSES, no, NO and HELL NO! That's what I did, and that was the end of the Amway Blitzkrieg.
ReplyDeleteSince then, I've been approached by one other Amway guy and a friend who has been in and out of several other MLM pyramid schemes. Having been through this once, I can get rid of these nice-guys turned crooked rip-off artists within the first 30 seconds of "Let me show you a great opportunity....". I just cut them off mid sentence and ask "is this Amway or some other MLM bullshit?" to which they say "why, yes it is...." to which I reply "NOT INTERESTED - DROP IT, GO AWAY, I HATE THIS CRAP AND PEOPLE WHO PEDDLE THIS GARBAGE..."
Hi there. Thanks for stopping by with your story. Yup you got hit by standard Amway lines. The only thing I'm surprised is they admitted real fast this is Amway.
DeleteThe best way to get rid of Amway ambots is to remember they're prudes. Cursing the out usually gets rid of them or you can ask them if they'd like to invest in your new business venture - producing and starring in gay porno flicks.
IBOS deceive people telling them they buy from their own company, but they are just distributors buying from Amway, they don't have their own products.I know this is an old post but
ReplyDeleteI worked with them for several years and I want to share my experience, maybe can be of help for someone.
Everything you see at the functions is just show off, nothing is real, it's a very dark world inside with envy, blaming, nobody cares for you, except if they can make money from you. First, they are extremely friendly and love bombs you. A lady once told me that I'm really special and she loves me - it was the first time I meet her. They try to change your mindset - never question Upline (they are worshiped like gods), they often talk about the outside world who is trying to steal your dream (they ask you what is your dream- buying a house, a car, whatever) and then they blackmail you if you don't work enough to make your dream come true- recruting more and more people to expand your network and so your Upline can make money). If you don't make money and you're struggling with the business, they say you have to pay the price for success, you're poor now but spend money you don't have on products, books and fuctions you don't need and you'll have success in the future. They separate you from your family and friends (" a truly friend should support your business and buy from you, are they really your friends? They are envious because they don't want to see you successful - this is their speech. I've seen people talking on stage how Amway changed their life, they have a VIP life now - but many of them borrowed money to pay the ticket for the function.
I lived this because my relatives are in Amway and they blame us for having a conventional job and not willing to join them - I try to avoid them because they make us feel bad for not being successful and having "our own company".
It' really a cult, you lose your self esteem and self worth - you are important to them if they can make money from you, if not, you are lazy and they blame you for not following the system...think twice if someone is being extra nicely with you and say they want to help you make money to support your family. I've seen people who didn't attend their child wedding because the function was more important. How sick is this?
Hi From Inside. I'm glad you found us! Yeah it is an old post but what I'm going to do is copy it and bring it near the front in an upcoming post just to make sure nobody misses this.
DeleteEverything you've said it's just the way it is in Amway. We all have the same stores just some of the details might be slightly different.
All IBO's are brainwashed to believe they "own their own business" and that they should "buy from their own store". What a sneaky ass marketing strategy for a pyramid schemed to have. They take a bunch of dimwits who have no chance at ever owning a real business and tell them they're a bunch of winners who are better than the rest of the world because they're "business owners" Pretend is missing from that description. When all they are is a bunch of dumb fucks who pay too much money for overpriced shitty Amway products and get a few pennies back in commission everytime they buy something or convince someone they know to buy something through their portal.
I mean shit. You could put up a webpage that would cost way less money than WWDB $50 a month for a webpage like here on blogger its free. Become an affiiliate for Amazon or Walmart or other places that have good prices for products that people actually want to buy and make a few pennies commission on selling those things without outlaying hundreds of dollars a month not to mention all the wasted time at Amway cult meetings.
Amway is all about love bombing but all cults do that. They give love and take it away. The Amway cult leaders abuse and chastise you and then tell you they still love you. The Amway cult leaders tell you that they're you're real friends because the people who you thought were your friends obviously aren't because they don't support "your Amway business" and buy overpriced shitty Amway products from you.
Yup the fucking assholes in the Amway upline want to know your dreams like you said house, car, vacations, for the most part pretty normal stuff. And then they use it against you and blackmail you and insult you. I guess your dreams just weren't big enough.
Like fuck you Amway! And fuck all your fucking little Ambots.
Not only do people borrow money or go into credit card debt to buy tickets to functions, the Amway cult leaders "counsel" with the ambots to skip paying the rent or mortgage to buy tickets. I think I hear eviction and foreclosure in their future.
According to Amway cult leaders there is nothing more important than attending Amway brainwashing conferences. Family functions have to be missed. One woman left a comment here that while she's in the hospital giving birth her ambot husband is with the fucking assholes in his Amway upline at a meeting.
You got it. Amway is sick. Thanks for sharing your story.
Amway destroyed a strong relationship I had with my cousin and some friends back in the early 1970s. Before Amway entered the scene, we were an idyllic group of young people who shared a love of art, literature, music, the French language, and foreign travel. After Amway, everything in that relationship was poisoned irretrievably. It was totally destroyed. And for what? For a bunch of stupid, philistine, dimwitted soap-salesman screaming about PV and Direct Distributorships.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I HATE Amway with an undying passion, and why I am deeply loyal and committed to Anna Banana, Joe Cool, and all the other anti-MLM websites. As long as I breathe, I'll be here blasting Amway idiocy.
Hi Anonymous. That's what Amway the Cult of Greed is all about. Where you lose your money and lose your friends.
DeleteThe fact that you had a group that got together often must have been like a gold mine to your cousin thinking that this group would become his downline and buy Amway shit from him.
Everyone who's been affected financially and emotionally by Amway should hate Amway with a passion. We'll be here as long as it takes to shut this evil down for good. Just look at what's happened to Amway since bloggers have been getting the word out. Sales drop every year. Attendance is down at Amway major brainwashing functions. Last year Amway shut down warehouses where they make their overpriced soap. This year Amway announced major lay offs.
And Amway is arrogant enough to believe bloggers and others talking about their Amway experiences online has no effect.
Amway bòoms when economic times are bad.
ReplyDeleteAm surprised they still around last I heard they call them Quicstar.
U r on your way to a better life.
I think there are more ex Amway sales people then ex Realtors
Thanks for dropping by inspirer and reading the blog! Yes the reader who shared her story came back a couple of times with updates and getting her life back together without the Ambot husband. Amway brings financial and emotional distress to the lives it touches and destroys families, marriages and friendships. Amway is an evil cult and the more people share their stories, we hope that one day this pure shit evil will be wiped off the earth.
DeleteThere's no question about it. Amway NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED, totally. It must be wiped off the face of the earth.
ReplyDeleteYou're right Anonymous. Amway only brings misery to people's lives. Debt. Emotional distress. Broken marriages. Destroy Amway! Pure shit evil!
Delete