I Won’t Work With You If You Don’t Buy The Amway Tools

Amway’s literature glosses over how some of their line of sponsorship groups sell motivational items. As a disclosure the Amway literature states - and here I’m paraphrasing - that purchasing these motivational tools is optional and that your upline is still required to help you build an Amway business whether or not you purchase the motivational tools.

Its kind of Amway’s bullshit way of distancing themselves from the tool scam.

Bottom line is none of those groups and here I’ll just pick on our line WWDB - World Wide Destructive Bastards - are able to sell any of the items on their tool scam list without running it past some head honchos at Amway’s head office for their approval of the item first. Really can you imagine if some Diamond says something on a CD to the effect of “I recommend you don’t buy XS Energy Drinks because they taste like cat piss!” Amway would fire the bastard and a Diamond CD like that would never get approved. Or if there’s a video that shows a Diamond doing a load of laundry comparing Tide with SA8 and the clothes washed in Tide come out cleaner! Yup. There’s a reason why Amway’s head office approves anything sold to the masses in the lines of sponsorship. They are very much aware of the tool scam but put in this little bullshit disclaimer on their literature.

Our Platinum didn’t give a flying fuck about violating Amway’s rules. He said at every Amway meeting “If you don’t buy the tools I won’t work with you.”

Of course that meant the ambots would buy tools at a feverish pace to stay in the good graces of their cult leader. They worshipped him and coveted his affection and if he wanted them to blow all their money buying useless Amway motivational CDs and books, their only question was how many?

Once I noticed that disclaimer in Amway’s literature - and this took me a few months - I phoned the head office to file a complaint against our sack of shit Platinum who was forcing IBO’s in his downline to purchase tools holding a threat over their heads about refusing to help them build an Amway business. As usual I was dealing with Amway’s help desk, better known as the unhelpful desk or the I-don’t-give-a-shit department. Their standard response went to the effect that they weren’t responsible for what is said at Amway meetings.

I mean what the fuck! Then WHO is responsible for what is said at Amway meetings? Excuse us for thinking Amway’s head office would give a flying fuck about one of their Platinums breaking the rules. Well you know when ALL the Amway Platinums are breaking the rules - because there’s no doubt in my mind that other Platinums use the same threat - Amway’s best course of action is not to take any action. Amway’s head office ain’t going to make waves with someone who might be running $25,000 worth of Amway products through his downline every month.

So even though Amway’s literature states that IBO’s are not required to purchase tools and the upline is still required to help the IBO build an Amway business whether or not the motivational tools are purchased, Amway refuses to enforce their own policy or take action against offenders.

Turn a blind eye to the tool scam!

Well I’m not turning a blind eye. I’m here blogging about the abuse we took from our Platinum. Not everyone loves Platinums as much as the people who work at Amway’s head office. People at Amway’s head office think Platinums should be worshipped and spoken about in glowing terms. They must find it really hard to turn a blind eye when they read my blog that tells it like it is when it comes to describing a fucked up Amway Platinum. For some oddball reason Amway’s preference is to let former IBO’s post all over the Internet about their experiences with Amway and their upline instead of making things right when they receive complaints. Amway prefers not to take action when they get complaints and would rather read on the Internet about a scamming lying sack of shit Amway Platinum. So one more time I send out a big old FUCK YOU to our Platinum!

And I continue to warn people about the dangers of getting involved in Amway and having to put up with an evil, lying, scamming, sack of shit Platinum.

Better Ways to Make Money Than MLM

Amway’s literature shows that the average IBO earns $115/month gross. Those statistics are 10 years old. My guess is that Amway hasn’t updated them because that $115 has taken a nosedive but we’ll never know for sure because too many things about Amway are hush hush and very secretive. Amway’s literature spells out that less than a quarter of 1% of IBO’s reach Platinum level or above.

A system designed for failure.

The Internet is full of stories of former IBO’s who’ve lost thousands of dollars. Some of these people have also lost their homes and their families and their sanity. The Amway business opportunity sucks in IBO’s with dreams and hope and spits them out financially and emotionally devastated.

Every now and then a story emerges of an IBO who actually makes money in Amway.

Well we all know how they make money - by walking over their victims and scamming them into spending a lot of money buying Amway products and tools. I do recognize that occasionally someone in Amway earns a few hundred dollars a month. I don’t even want to think of the amount of money they had to fork out to make a few hundred a month or the countless hours spent bullying others to sign up with Amway or buy their products, attending meetings, and wasted time spent with their upline.

And then I get to thinking if you have what it takes to make hundreds of dollars a month in Amway, can you imagine what kind of money you’d be making as a legitimate business owner where you don’t have to scam and lie to people. There are all kinds of business opportunities out there some with little start up costs and others that are huge investments in purchasing a business and buying inventory and marketing.

Recently I visited a friend and she told me her sister had someone on a bicycle roll up and offer to clean up her yard or do her gardening I’m  not sure which. I can tell you that I’ve been to the sister’s house a few times and house and garden are neat as a pin so its more likely Mr. Man-on-the-bike was offering gardening services rather than clean up. Its not like she has abandoned vehicles and appliances stacking up in the back yard! He came with a letter of reference and charged $250. Seems a little high to me but sister was agreeable to the price and set him to work. I say $250 is not bad for a few hours work especially since he’s on a bike and not carrying his own tools so he must use the homeowner’s tools. His overhead is real low. Oddly enough the town he lives in is about a 20 minute drive from the sister’s house, so that’s some bike ride. Anyway he did a good job and sister was very happy and thought the $250 was a good deal. She even drove him home.

So in one day this guy on a bike makes more money than the average IBO grosses in two months. He has no overhead costs. Not even vehicle gas and insurance. He works less hours for more money than an IBO does.

That’s just one example of going into business for yourself. Surely if an IBO is driven enough to earn more than the Amway $115/month average they’d be able to figure out a business where they don’t have to lie and peddle shitty overpriced products.

Here’s an article that visitor Connie directed me to called 1,357 Ways to Make More Money than in MLM! http://mlm-thetruth.com/tools/ways-to-make-more-money-than-in-mlm

The article also states what us former IBO’s know to be the truth particularly with Amway - 99.9% of participants in an MLM lose money. So for the tiny percentage who actually make money at MLM take the author’s advice on one of those other business opportunities and you’ll be making good money at a legitimate business opportunity, setting your own hours and your own prices. No scamming or lying required. And best of all you’re no longer associated with a company that has a scummy reputation.

The Slight Edge

There was a book that was a must read for all ambots called The Slight Edge. One of those expensive Amway tools that all good little ambots must buy. I don’t recall what Ambot paid for it maybe $20 because he had to buy it from the upline bastards at their inflated price instead of finding it cheaper on Amazon or Ebay. You’d think one copy would be enough but Ambot bought at least 5 copies of this book. Had to put something on those tools orders to get his upline richer! We’ve long since given them away. I think we sold one on Craigslist for a buck. Typical return on your Amway dollars spent!

I remember going to an Amway function, don’t recall which one either Family Reunion or FED but it was definitely one of those two, and just about every Diamond couple that marched across the stage was holding a copy of The Slight Edge. They’d wave it around and encourage all their cult followers to buy it. They neglected to say that they’d probably bought a container load for a stinking deal of a dollar each and they were selling them for $20 each on the tools orders and what a profit they’re making!

I’m pretty sure The Slight Edge was the book that had a story about a man on his deathbed and he called his sons over and gave them a choice of a million dollars or a purse with a penny in it and every day for the next 30 days the penny would be doubled. One son took the million dollars and went out and had a good time spending it on stuff that I’ve long since forgotten about. The other son took the purse with the penny. His brother predictably taunted him because after a week the penny brother has 64 cents in his purse and the million dollar brother has a new house and new car and whatever. By 30 days the double your penny brother has over $5 million. Who gets the last laugh?

I was reminded of the story when I came across this page on the False Profits website where the article discusses why so many people lose money in MLM’s and why many keep trying. http://www.falseprofits.com/Lessons%20from%20the%20Pyramids.html

This article uses the penny doubled theory with a chart but this article also uses it as the people doubled theory and why most pyramids collapse sometime between one and thirty.

This article also answers the question why our upline wants everyone to read The Slight Edge - other than the obvious profit they make from selling it - and why they tell the penny doubled story from the stage to convince every ambot recruit how they too can succeed at Amway. But the upline liars conveniently forget to mention that this pattern will not work because of the high number of drop outs at the lower levels. IBO’s leave when they realize they’re not making any money at Amway. 

One last thing. If anyone approaches you with a reading suggestion on a great book they’ve just read and loans it to you and its called The Slight Edge - RUN! Its an ambot!

IBOs Not Minding Their Own Business

One of the things I hated about being in Amway were the horrible people we had to associate with - our upline.

To be more precise our interfering upline.

These phony ass lying bastards who pretended to be your friends as long as you were spending your money on Amway products and tools. The same people who told you that because they were your upline you had to do everything they told you and you had to ask permission before doing anything or buying anything. Cult! Cult! Cult!

Yeah fuck that idea. I’ve been making my own decisions since I moved out after I graduated from high school. I’ve been figuring out where to live, what to buy, what to eat, where to vacation since I was a teenager. I’ve always been responsible with money, it took me a few years to save up a down payment and buy my first home and I learned how to invest my money along the way. Making responsible decisions is all part of being an adult.

Once you’re in Amway the upline tells you they will make your decisions for you. That’s one of the reasons I hated being in the Amway cult. Here’s a newsflash for you lousy miserable ambot bastards. I already know how to make my own decisions. I will resist everything you fucking cult leaders tell me to do. To piss you fuckers off even more I will do the exact opposite of what you order me to do. Just my little way of telling you to fuck off. My little way of telling you I can’t stand you. Whatever I can do to piss off you fucking interfering bastards I’ll do it. In fact I’ll go out of my way to piss off you fucking cult leaders to make sure there is no doubt in your mind that you have no control over me and exactly how I feel about you. That’s what happens when somebody doesn’t like you. You have no influence over them. After the fucking Platinum son of a bitch stuck his nose into our lives one time too many I refused to have anything more to do with the bastard. I told Ambot I refused to go anywhere if there was a chance that sack of shit might show up in the same place. It was Ambot’s job to keep us apart. If he failed and I ran into that bastard I was going to give that fucking Platinum shit supreme like he’s never heard before. I’m sure there is no doubt in Ambot’s mind that I will make good on my cursefest if I run into that Platinum cult leader and that will embarrass him in front of his beloved upline.

Seeing as how the only times Ambot only went out was to go to Amway meetings and functions to do Amway things and the sack of shit Platinum would likely be there since he led most of those cult meetings, Ambot wisely went alone. This led to his upline telling him that I was uncoachable. Translation - those upline Amway bastards were unable to brainwash me. That meant they had no control over me and my life and it meant the money flowing to Amway was in danger of being stopped when I put pressure on Ambot to get out of the cult. That was when the fucking Platinum began putting pressure on Ambot to leave me and when that didn’t work he told Ambot he was praying that I would find another man and leave him.

That fucking sack of shit Platinum is the most fucking evil person I have met in my life! Fucking cult leader gets his jollies out of controlling other people’s lives and sticking his nose into places it doesn’t belong.

Amway IBO’s have that not minding their own business routine down pretty good. Qualifications to become an Amway IBO - the ability not to mind your own business and to interfere in other people’s lives.

Get a clue you fucking Amway assholes. Most wives do not like other people sticking their nose into their marriage and families. So if you’re an Amway IBO -  fuck off! What’s going on in other people’s lives is none of your fucking business!

Like I need any further proof that Amway IBO’s can’t mind their own fucking business every day my blog gets dozens of hits from people looking for information about Ganesh and Neha Shenoy. I’d never even heard of them until I started getting all these hits but a few commentators on my blog have since filled me in a bit. Apparently the Shenoys have either split or divorced or in the process of doing so. I do not know them and I do not know why they didn’t want to be married any longer. Its none of my fucking business. You don’t see me going around the Internet looking for information about them. Amway IBOs who have no concept of “none of your business” are frantically searching the Internet for information about Ganesh and Neha Shenoy and landing on my blog because I’ve put in enough keywords to misdirect them here. Here’s my take on things. If Ganesh and Neha decide its any of your fucking business why they split up, they’ll tell you themselves. If they don’t tell you why they don’t want to be married anymore then that should be a huge clue for you. They’ve decided they don’t want you to know. Its none of your business! From every corner of the world Amway IBO’s who can’t mind their own business are searching for information on Ganesh and Neha Shenoy’s divorce. Even Joecool’s stalker from Scarborough Canada was at my blog a few days ago searching for information on Ganesh and Neha Shenoy divorce. I think that most of us who read Joecool’s blog already know that stalker from Scarborough can’t mind his own business. One of the prerequisites for being an Amway IBO.

There are many reasons that I hated being an Amway IBO. The money loss buying shitty overpriced Amway products and spending hundreds of dollars on Amway tools and attending Amway functions is only part of it. Putting up with the fucking interfering upline who can’t mind their own damned business was the worst part of being involved in Amway.

Quitting Amway During Family Function

The top searches on my blog right now are:

1. Family Reunion and various ways of saying that - Puryear Family Reunion, Duncan Family Reunion, Amway Family Reunion, WWDB Family Reunion, Family Reunion Portland, etc
2. the Ganesh and Neha Shenoy split or divorce
3. how to quit Amway.

Oddly enough during the last Amway function - Spring Leadership - I got a lot of hits from people wanting to know how to quit Amway. http://marriedtoanambot.blogspot.com/2011/03/quitting-amway-during-spring-leadership.html

Here’s a blog I wrote How To Quit Amway.

And then a follow up called Having Trouble Quitting Amway?

I guess Amway functions naturally bring out the “how do I quit Amway” crowd. Or perhaps its better stated as the “I’m fed up and don’t want to take this bullshit anymore!” crowd.

I won’t repeat most of what I’ve already covered in the other blogs. This time I’m getting a lot of searchers trying to find out if they’ll get a refund when they quit Amway.

Yeah well good luck with that!

You’d think Amway’s web site would have a section where information about quitting would be readily available to IBO’s who need their questions answered. For all I know this might be somewhere on their website. It took me a long time to find the information about annual membership fees when I wrote that topic a few months ago. Suffice it to say it is very difficult to find what you’re looking for on Amway’s website. I can understand why. When you’re in the business of scamming people out of their money you don’t want people to quit. You want them to keep throwing their money at you. It makes better business sense not to have information about quitting readily available to IBO’s.

It seems logical that a phone call to Amway’s head office should be able to answer that question. Unfortunately when you get through to Amway you’re stuck talking to a department that should be called the “I-don’t-give-a-shit-department”. Their standard response: “Ask your upline Platinum.”

Fuck you Amway employees for your ever so helpful response!

So now the IBO is faced with the prospect of asking their upline and probably the Platinum. Depending on how long they’ve been involved in Amway this can be a frightening prospect. An IBO who has only been in a few weeks probably is not brainwashed and dealing with the love and punishment and basic fear of the Platinum so they might go ahead and ask the bastard. Here is where the Platinum does their best to convince them not to quit. “You can’t quit now not when success is right around the corner.” Well what else are they going to say? “You can’t quit now not when I’m not finished swindling you and making money off you.”

An IBO who has been in for longer will have more difficulty quitting. They have been brainwashed to accept everything their upline says as the truth. They have been brainwashed to believe that if they quit they will broke losers for the rest of their life. They have been brainwashed to believe that Amway’s products are the best out there and they will never be able to adapt to other brand names on the marketplace. The abuse has been so bad that the IBO fears retribution from their upline if they quit. NOBODY dares disobey the Platinum!

From what I know IBO’s do have a period of time from when they signed up to being able to quit and get a refund. I don’t know the time frame. I do know that the only downline Ambot signed up quit Amway within a month and he got a refund. Ambot saw the refund go through when he was looking at his Amway or WWDB account.

What you get refunded on is sketchy. When we signed up it cost around $150 and that was the annual Amway membership plus a starter kit of some shitty Amway products. Always on the lookout for ripping people off Amway charges around $60/year membership and they do not prorate it so if you sign up mid year you are charged the full $60 and on January 1 you better pay your $60 again or your upline Platinum will give you a shit kicking.

I am not sure what happens if someone quits shortly after signing up if Amway refunds the whole $60 membership or if they prorate it!

I am also not sure what happens to the approximately $100 worth of shitty Amway products in the starter kit if the quitting IBO sends them back for a refund, if Amway refunds and says keep the shit, or if Amway tells them to fuck off no refund and the IBO is shit out of luck.

What about tools the IBO purchased? As soon as the IBO signs up their upline will ride their asses about purchasing tools because that’s the secret to Amway success and riches. For the upline Diamond that is!

Amway’s literature says when an IBO quits their upline must buy back the tools if the IBO requests them to. No time limit on that. Its in Amway’s terms and conditions as part of their phoney bullshit act to distance themselves from the scheming groups like WWDB, BWW, etc. Our experience when we quit is that Ambot went to his sponsor Captain Fuck Up and brought some of the CDs and books back to him. He only brought the unopened ones still in their original packaging - about 20 CDs and maybe 5 books. Captain Fuck Up refused to refund stating he had no money. Um, well who’s fucking problem is that? Like we need any further proof of the Amway tool scam! Amway’s terms say you’re supposed to give a refund when an IBO quits and wants to return the tools.

Just another lie.

Ambot kept going further upline trying to unload the tools. The sack of shit Platinum offered to buy them for ten cents each.

Like fuck you!

Typically most IBO’s will have bought a shitload of useless Amway products that they don’t want or need. Just get that old PV up there so your upline can meet their goals! There is a phoney guarantee that Amway gives a refund in 180 days. Its in the catalogue and every IBO out there brags about it. Then they say Amway’s products are the best out there and such high quality that no one would ever want to return their fine products. Yeah right. Yet another lie. Contact Amway’s I-don’t-give-a-shit department and ask for a refund and you have to jump through hoops. They will come up with every excuse under the sun why they don't want to give you a refund. Its easier for most IBO’s to eat their losses. Literally because they undoubtedly stocked up on Nutrilite vitamins and food bars.

The sad reality is for most IBO’s you will not get any refund for quitting Amway.  

Quixtar Amway tools video

To pay homage to the Amway warriors currently get sore asses at the Puryear Family Reunion here is the real reason why your upline wants you to attend all Amway WWDB functions.

Keep buying those tools! Make your upline Diamonds richer!

Amway WWDB Family Reunion and Ganesh and Neha Shenoy

So what does the Amway WWDB Family Reunion and Ganesh and Neha Shenoy have in common?

They are the top two searches for Anna Banana’s Married to an Ambot blog.

First of all I want to say that until about 6 weeks ago I’ve never even heard of Ganesh and Neha Shenoy. Those names means nothing to me. I never heard of them when we were in Amway, don’t know nothing about them, never met, and I have no idea why they have split up or getting a divorce or what their situation is.

I know nothing!

Most of the searchers are ending up at this topic http://marriedtoanambot.blogspot.com/2011/05/satirical-slideshow-showing-some-of.html where I posted a video on Youtube. One of the people who posted a comment mentioned Ganesh and Neha Shenoy are divorced and another commenter says s/he knew them but has no idea why they split up.

I have been getting tons of hits and I’m not really all that high on the Google search engine depending on what the searchers types in for their search criteria.

For “Ganesh and Neha Shenoy split” I am the number one hit on Google.

For “Ganesh and Neha Shenoy divorce” I am #36. That tells me somebody is obsessively going through all the links to find information about the Shenoys.

Though I think after I post this I will drastically climb on the search engine!

The only thing I have to say is that apparently Ganesh and Neha Shenoy were (are?) Diamonds. That tells me they stomped all over a bunch of IBO’s to get there. If they reached Diamond that tells me they are good cult leaders. They bullied their downline to buy Amway products and buy Amway tools. They likely left a path of destruction in their wake: IBO’s destroyed financially, IBO’s destroyed emotionally, divorces, bankruptcy, debt, destroyed families, destroyed relationships.....

All I can say is KARMA!

As for the tons of Family Reunion hits, that’s about par for the course whenever any Amway function is coming up. I write about it to misdirect IBO’s to my blog because they find more information from me than they do from Amway or World Wide Dream Builders because I’m higher up the search engine. Same thing happened with Free Enterprise Days, Dream Night, and Spring Leadership. I picked up many strays who were horrified to discover the truth.

I get hits on all kinds of search criteria:

Amway Family Reunion

WWDB Family Reunion

World Wide Dream Builders Family Reunion

Puryear Family Reunion

Puryear Amway Family Reunion

Duncan Family Reunion

Boise Amway Family Reunion

Portland Amway Family Reunion

Amway Portland July 23

Duncan Family Reunion website

Amway Convention Portland

I’m sure you get the picture. You name it I’ve probably seen the search criteria as a hit to my blog. I forgot to mention 2011 and July may or may not be part of the search.

There’s one searcher not getting the picture: “2011 wwdb spring conference”. Hmmm, some poor sucker not aware its summer? Time warp?

I hate to think that if we were still in Amway and WWDB we’d be two more warriors making our pilgrimage to Puryear Family Reunion 2011 in Boise. There are probably a huge army of cult followers enroute right now as I type this desperate to be in town for tonight’s trade show.

Let the brainwashing begin!

You Get What You Pay For?

Anyone can sign up with blogger.com and get a free account to write a blog. This month has seen some service issues. Blogger was down for a few hours here and there early in May for maintenance and then on May 12 for about 24 hours. It was on read only status so we could not post new blogs nor could any readers post comments. I had a few comments in moderation and they went missing but showed up a week later so I could approve them.

This week has been more issues with blogger. Seems to have something to do with interacting between Google and Blogger. I could sign in and out of Google OK and in the past that would also sign in/out of Blogger. However I was unable to sign out of Blogger. In their help forums bloggers are complaining they can not sign out of their blog. Others are saying they can not log in to post comments to blogs. It defaults to Anonymous, then when they try to sign in, it takes them back to the Blogger page where they’re already signed in and its a never ending circle.

Some people can post comments to some blogs but not to others.

Doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason. Everyone uses different web browser programs. Some say clearing the cache and cookies work, others say it doesn’t.

We get Blogger accounts for free so some might say we’re getting what we paid for. If I was paying money for this blog I’d be pissed off.

So then I started thinking about the comparisons to Amway and do we get what we pay for.

I paid around $20 for a box of Amway’s dishwasher soap pucks. After I finished doing a load of dishes I would have to check them over before putting them away. Sometimes up to half the load would be what I refer to as dishwasher rejects. This meant extra work for me because I know had to wash them by hand using Amway’s Dish Drops which I didn’t like because the suds didn’t last very long. Today I buy a bag of Wal-Mart’s dishwasher packs for less than $10 and the load comes out clean. I maybe get one or two items in a month that the dishwasher doesn’t get clean enough with the Wal-Mart soap and I have to redo by hand. Huge savings! And better results. So that would be a big NO I don’t get what I pay for when it comes to Amway’s dishwasher soap.

What about Amway’s Perfect Water? A case of 24 bottles costs around $50. I was in Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago and they had 24 packs of water on sale for just over $3. I bought 2. I should have bought more. I went back a few days ago and they’re nearly $5 now! Even at $5 its a much better deal than Amway’s water. So once again that would be a big NO I don’t get what I pay for at Amway.

I can go on and on about every Amway product out there and the answer would be the same - NO I don’t get what I pay for.

What about Amway tools? The upline makes you buy books and CD’s from them. Some of these books are not distributed anywhere else but through Amway but there are others that can be purchased from Amazon, Ebay, or Craigslist. Same with the CD’s and tapes. I checked Ebay and someone has a lot of over 60 CD’s and actually has one bid of $100. Other sellers have various CDs for $5 each. Like get real! That's what they cost to buy them from your upline! A Google search will find sellers of Amway CD’s for various prices. There are a lot of former IBO’s out there who want to unload that shit. The trash works too but perhaps they want to try to recoup some of their losses.

What about Amway functions? Are they worth it? Now that’s a laugh! Although I enjoy road trips, staying in hotels, and eating out, it kind of wrecks the vacation when you have to add anything Amway into the equation! Functions are only held to earn the Diamond speakers money. The real money they make as Diamonds comes from tools particularly speaking at functions. They don't call it the tool scam for nothing! The Diamonds yap about their lives - wife was usually a waitress and the husband did menial labor and now look at them - and try to motivate the audience not to quit Amway. Another waste of money. One of the best motivational speakers I ever heard travelled to us - we didn’t travel to him - and he spoke for free! Though he did ask for donations to help cover the cost of lunch that was catered in, sandwiches, cookies, and juice sort of thing. Fair enough. So I would say for that motivational speaker I really got my money’s worth! Add up all the Amway speakers and they collectively didn’t do a fraction of the goodwill that he did. So that would be another big NO for getting my money’s worth at Amway functions.

So hang in there everyone who is having problems with Blogger and logging on. They’re working on it. We’re getting our money’s worth!

Professional Liars

If someone is a good liar then they have the potential to be part of the 1% of IBO’s who make money at Amway. This is because you have to lie all the time when recruiting prospects or finding customers to buy overpriced shit.

Some of the lies that IBO’s are expected to tell:

“No, this isn’t Amway. We just use Amway to move our products.”

“Where else can you work a business 10 hours a week and earn $100,000/year.”

“After a few months you will be making thousands of dollars.”

“Business is going great!”

“You will save money by buying from your own store.”

“Everything to do with the business is tax deductible.”

“We’re debt free. We pay for everything in cash.”

“Amway owns the Amway Stadium in Orlando Florida.”

“Amway saves marriages. There’s a low divorce rate in Amway.”

“People who don’t succeed in Amway are either lazy or they didn’t try hard enough.”

“Now is the time to get on board because exciting changes are about to happen.”

“People who are not involved with Amway are broke losers.”

“Tools are optional.”

“We will buy back your tools if you leave the business.”

“We sell high quality products and they’re reasonably priced for their high quality.”

“You will collect residual income for the rest of your lives.”

“I work with a team of millionaires developing online businesses.”

Of course the biggest lie is denying the business has anything to do with Amway. That goes with tricking prospects into coming to a meeting. Even when the prospect specifically asks if this business opportunity has anything to do with Amway the IBO denies and lies.

Its really amazing that IBO’s spout off lies and then claim they run an ethical business. I love the bullshit about how every IBO out there thinks they offer outstanding customer service. Almost every non-Amway entrepreneur out there says the same thing about how they offer the best possible customer service and how their excellent customer service sets them apart from everyone else.

I’d say the majority of people who sign up as IBO’s are probably honest people. After they’ve been with Amway for a few months their conscience takes over and they become uncomfortable lying to people about how great business is going and how Amway is so wonderful. They’re not making any money and they’re spending a fortune buying Amway products and tools. They cut their losses and quit. Amway is a poor business choice for anyone because it has less than a  1% chance of success but Amway has a zero percent chance of success for honest people. It is difficult to fight with your conscience over the lies you constantly have to tell about Amway. Its the good old “don’t speak negative” bullshit aka “telling the truth”. Amway IBO’s refuse to acknowledge any truth that might be negative. When someone asks how business is going the IBO who is losing money has to lie and brag about how good business is and how its growing. I mean you tell someone the truth about how much money you spend each month and you get a check for $10 from Amway how desirable does that sound to a prospect. When someone asks how the products taste the IBO has to lie and say they taste great even though those food bars are nasty tasting shit. They have to brag about Perfect Water and lie about how it cures every ailment known to man.

All the lies are uncomfortable for honest people and they take their toll on a person having to lie all the time about Amway.

Not everyone is honest. Some people have no trouble telling lies. There are IBO’s who have been in Amway for many years. Maybe they’re making money or breaking even. Maybe not. Either way they’ll still lie about how good business is and how fast its growing. The IBO’s who are the best liars are the ones who stick with the Amway business for years and have a shot of being part of the 1% who make money.

Over the years they’ve perfected the art of telling lies. Our upline were professional liars and what I've observed is that its easier for a liar to become an Amway IBO than an honest conscientious person.

Professional liars only need apply.

All others - RUN as fast as you can.

Quitting Amway during Spring Leadership?

Although quitting Amway anytime of the year is a good idea I wonder if it happens a lot around Spring Leadership time. People who signed up with Amway during the previous year and made zippo money were undoubtedly pressured by their upline to renew their membership prior to year end and were forced to go to Dream Night in January. But its been a few more months with no income but plenty of money going out purchasing Amway products and tools. The upline pressures the disenchanted IBO to purchase tickets to Spring Leadership. Don’t give in! Buying the tickets is the cheapest part. There’s transportation, hotel, and meals on top of that. Not to mention your time. More time wasted at an Amway function. Time you will never get back.

I think spring is probably the time of year when most IBO’s quit but I have no statistics to back this up one way or the other. Spring cleaning. Get rid of the shit that is cluttering your life or not bringing you happiness. Amway is probably at the top of that list!

Anyway my blog lets me look at stats showing what people type in search engines to end up at the Married To An Ambot blog. I get some interesting search phrases such as how to say fuck in igbo which I’ll see several times a week!

Right now I get tons of hits every day from people looking for information about Spring Leadership. It would be logical to think most of these searchers are IBO’s and once the poor suckers end up here they don’t stick around to hear about how we were abused by our upline. Sometimes a city will be typed into the Spring Leadership search criteria though at the moment I don’t recall which cities. Sometimes the searcher puts in a year, usually 2011 though one searcher was recently looking for information on Spring Leadership 2010.

Just for the record I have no idea when the Amway World Wide Dream Builders Spring Leadership will be held. I also have no idea what city or cities it will be held in. I don’t know who will be speaking. I don’t know the agenda. I don’t know nothing. And I ain’t doing a Google search to learn about Spring Leadership! I’m guessing there are several locations across the states and on different dates but I have no proof one way or the other. It doesn’t interest me enough to do a search. Also apparently that information is difficult to search for otherwise I wouldn’t have so many horrified searchers ending up here. I’ve noticed that in the past. You’d think Amway and WWDB would have this information readily available near the top of the search engines for IBO’s trying to learn about Spring Leadership.

All I know is that Married To An Ambot is the top hit on Google for people looking for information about Spring Leadership! Gotta love it! More astonishing is that doesn’t seem to be a concern to WWDB or Amway. If it was they’d be in negotiations with me how much money to shut down my blog and go away.

I also get a lot of searchers every day using search criteria on how to quit Amway. Right now I’d say I get more searchers for Spring Leadership than quitting Amway but that’s only because its coming up in April. But its still alarming the number of searchers looking for information on how to quit Amway. I have some previous posts about that here and here.

Its simple. If you quit Amway then you don’t need to waste any more money going to shitty functions like Spring Leadership. Bottom line is these are motivational seminars and very little, if any, business advice is given. The IRS has already determined that Amway functions do not increase most IBO’s sales or increase their recruitment. If you think going to Spring Leadership will be a good tax write off, think again. Expect to be audited if you try to write off anything about Amway. It might not happen this year or next year. But if you piss off the wrong person they might call the cheaters hotline and suggest they look a little closer at your files.

Save your money and stay home.

Spring Leadership sucks! All Amway functions suck!

You Can’t Quit Now!

“You can’t quit now. Not when success is just around the corner. You’re about to go really big.”

We’ve all heard that phrase from our upline. Or something similar enough.

They do whatever they can to motivate their downline IBO’s to stay with Amway. Keep buying products and buying more tools so the upline can benefit and get rich.

What about something else they say that goes to the effect: “You haven’t been in Amway long enough to make any money from it.”

Its kind of like you’re in Las Vegas and playing a slot machine for an hour. You’ve invested a couple of hundred dollars into this machine and you know at any minute this machine is due for a huge jackpot win. You don’t want to walk away after investing a fair amount of money but on the other hand there are other things you have to do like those tickets to the Celine Dion show cost $500 and you better get your ass in your gear before you miss the show and have a pissed off spouse.

Its kind of like being in Amway and pissing off your spouse by throwing away your money chasing useless dreams!

The guy playing the slots is going to get a coins dropping into the bin every now and then, enough to entice him to keep playing that machine.

Kind of like Amway. In a one month period to qualify for a bonus check you have to spend about $300 buying shitty, useless products and Amway corporation issues a check for $10 to entice the IBO to hang in a little longer. The net loss is going to be way over $290 because of the cost of tools depending on whether or not there’s a major function that month could be a net loss of well over $500.

I’d rather take my chances in Las Vegas. Even with the cost of getting there and hotel and meals it’s still cheaper than an Amway function. And more fun. Better food, better enteraitnment, better tourist attractions. Better odds than 1% of actually making some money too!

I’m sure Amway IBO’s will argue that Ambot and I weren’t in Amway long enough to make any money. That’s why we quit and we’re a bunch of losers, etc, etc. So how long does someone have to be in Amway to figure out that they’re not making any money and they’re losing too much money and its better just to cut the losses and quit now. A couple of months? 6 months? A year? Two years? Longer? How many years does it take just to sign up ONE downline? If you can’t sign up anyone in a year that’s a pretty big clue that maybe its time to jump off this sinking ship.

Nope, you can’t quit now, not when success is right around the corner!

I read a book called Merchants of Deception written by a former Emerald. His experience was eerily similar to ours even though we didn’t have any where near the downline he had. We had zero downline. No customers other than a couple of friends/family who took pity and bought a couple of small things. The original website is gone. I’m not sure why the author decided to close down shop about a year ago but a mirror website exists and a free copy of the book is available. I highly recommend reading this book. It spells out why the system is stacked against IBO’s and why it is nearly impossible to reach the income levels the Diamonds taunt will be yours one day as long as you don’t quit when success is so close you can reach out and touch it.

Driving all over Town and Outlying Areas

During Round 1 of Amway and WWDB our upline Platinum was a nasty bitch. I didn’t like her at all. Back then - 2000 or 2001 - we had to phone in or drop off our orders both for products and tools and then show up once a week at her house - about ten or fifteen minute drive away - to pick them up. She usually had her act together. If nothing else the shrewd bitch was organized. Not organized enough to stop herself from falling out of Platinum qualification but she’s still in Amway after all these years.

In Round 2 of Amway and WWDB orders were placed on the Internet and delivered to our house. Our sack of shit Platinum would rant at us during Amway meetings that we had it lucky. When he started in Amway he had to drive a couple of towns away to pick up the Amway order from his upline and then he spent hours delivering it all over the place. He said when his car broke down he had to take the bus - and undoubtedly a few helpers - to carry all the boxes. So the sack of shit would go on and on and on about the shit he went through in Amway to get him where he was. Uh, lets see. Was he under the false impression that I actually cared?

Every week we had to order tools - CDs and books - the more the better of course. I have no idea how the Platinum sack of shit received them. All I know is the upline Eagle picked them up from Platinum’s house rather late at night when he got off work and then we met him at Dunkin Donuts around 10pm or 10:30 to pick up our order. The donut shop was about halfway between our house and the Platinum’s house, about a 10 minute or so drive. It was a central location for the Eagle’s downline to show up and pick up their tools because most of them lived within a 15 minute drive and the Eagle lived way out in the boonies.

This went on for maybe a month. Then the Platinum heard about it. The fucking asshole went nutso! He screamed and shrieked and carried on as if someone had just committed murder! Holy shit it was amazing!

The Platinum ordered the Eagle to stop meeting downline at Dunkin Donuts. Who knows why? Maybe the fucker had shares in Krispy Kreme? He ordered all tools to be picked up at the Eagle’s house about an hour’s drive each way.

I was really pissed off. But then anytime that meddling sack of shit sticks his ass into anyone’s business it pisses me off. I pointed out to Ambot that this was really dumb. The Platinum sack of shit lives about a twenty minute drive from our house. The fucking Eagle is about an hour away. It would be quicker for us to go to the Platinum’s house and pick up those shitty tools that I didn’t want in the first place. Because I knew Ambot was going to plug one of those damned CD’s into the car’s stereo and crank up the volume so it would be like listening to one of those fire and brimstone sermons from a tent church the whole drive home. Add to the fact that the Eagle didn’t get home - and here its important to point out that he still lived with mommy and daddy even though he’s in his mid 20’s - until at least 10:30 at night. So we’re driving all over the countryside for a couple of hours late at night when I’d rather be getting ready for bed. We’ve got customers to deal with in the morning. What the fuck is Ambot thinking? I told him to cancel any further orders for tools. If we all stuck together and cancelled tool orders and refused to drive to the Eagle’s house to pick them up maybe we’d "get permission" to pick them up at a central location again. Like I had any chance of the other downline doing anything to disobey the Platinum.

Ambot had to be CORE and feed into the tool scam so his upline could get rich. He had to bust ass driving out of town late at night to pick up $10 worth of CD’s every week. It cost about that much in gas for a round trip drive. Not to mention our time. Why the hell didn’t he just wait another day to pick up the damned tools at the next night’s Amway meeting? After a few weeks Ambot had enough of the late night drives and he did pick up his CD’s and books from the Eagle the next time he saw him. They had to be sneaky about it though. You know - hiding them under their shirts!

And the point of this whole exercise? To teach us discipline. What? We’re in the armed forces maybe and that’s why we need discipline? We became responsible adults understanding discipline. Why the fuck do we need to keep learning about discipline because we’re in Amway?

Oh I forgot. The discipline thing is because we're in a cult. Its all about brainwashing the IBO’s and ordering them around to make sure they’re good little cult followers. Loyalty and obedience to the cult leader is the most important thing.

Like I really needed another reason to dislike the Platinum. Once again I send a big old fuck you out to that sack of shit.

Another Wife's Amway Horror Story

Here’s a post I found on the Internet from a few years ago and the wife refers to the cost of tapes ten years before, so lets say they were in Amway through the mid-90s. Just in case anyone is wondering I didn’t edit the story just copied and pasted. Even though they used a bunch of  **** to avoid saying bastards, I have no problem saying it like it is!

Its so spooky even 15 years apart how so many of us have similar stories:

When I realized my husband would never be able to bring himself to do the things they asked in order to "build the business", I asked, and then begged that he stop spending the money on books and tapes, seminars and major rallies.

He just kept going on with it, and the longer it went the more I realized that the primary reason we could not get any real help from our upline was that they were already making plenty of money from us off of their share of the tapes, books, seminars, and rallies. Just one example; it costs pennies each to mass duplicate a tape of one of these "upline" talking at a rally, and our price for the two tapes of the week ten years ago was over $7.00 each!

Finally I asked our oh-so-caring sponsors to talk to him and get him to drop the business since he was obviously not going to work it. Instead, they encouraged him to continue having contact with them behind my back, he got a credit card that I did not know about and put $6,000 on it while pulling the bills out of the mail so that I never saw them.

This was because I was working a second job to try and pay off the other two credit cards, 80+% of which were charged up with Amway crap. I was giving him $400 a month that he was supposed to be directly applying to charge cards. Instead, he was making the minimum payments and spending the cash on more motivational crap. They told him he was doing the right thing because once he became successful it would all be made up to me, in spades.

$16,000 spent in four years. One marriage nearly ruined. Bankruptcy. And to this day he will not throw out the pictures of himself with those Diamonds and Emeralds. He's not the same person and never will be, thanks to the brainwashing techniques they use, which strongly resemble those used by religious cults.

The only time in my life that I would refuse to urinate on one of those rat-faced Amway ba****** would be if he or she were on fire.

To read the original post and the ensuing comments

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/amwaycom-quixtar-c3441.html

It has the usual typical following with people sharing their Amway horror stories but it doesn’t take long for the first ambot to show up and say there was something wrong with their marriage to begin with. A few brainwashed ambots show up to praise the glories of their hallowed cult with the typical Amway speak. Like we’ve all heard it hundreds of times before.

They’re lucky only $16,000 was spent in four years. These days that would not be an unreasonable amount to spend in only one year. There are more tools related expenses these days, cost of functions has gone up, as well as travel, food, and accommodations for the functions.

Let’s compare this wife’s story against mine using this check list:

1. Wife asks/begs husband to quit. Check.
2. Upline making money off the downline victim. Check.
3. Sponsor doesn’t give a flying fuck about the wife. Check.
4. Husband racking up the credit card bill. Check.
5. Husband sneaking around behind the wife’s back to associate with the Amway cult. Check.
6. Husband only making minimum payment on credit card bills so he still has money to buy more Amway shit and motivational products. Check.
7. Bullshit propaganda from the upline about how one day the husband will be successful. Check.
8. Thousands of dollars spent on Amway. Check.
9. Marriage nearly ruined. Check.
10. Husband has been brainwashed by the cult. Check.
11. Wife calls the upline “rat-faced Amway bastards”. Check.

OK. OK. I know on point # 11 I call those upline bastards a lot worse than she does but close enough so you get the point.

I did not write that story but I could have just as thousands of other Amway widows could have written it. Its my story, their story, our story. The story never changes. Just the players.

Why wives want their husbands to quit Amway

Separate and divide!

That’s the upline’s motto when a husband is more interested in being an Amway IBO than the wife is. When word is out that the wife wants her husband to quit Amway the upline kicks up their campaign to bust up their relationship. Can’t let her get in the way of their income, can they?

In many cases its the husband who has been prospected into the Amway business by a relative or friend. Sometimes the husband and wife are prospected together and shown the business plan. Usually the husband is eager to join Amway because the sponsor or upline has put the screws to him saying stuff like “Don’t you want your wife to be free from her job and be at home for your children?” Or “Don’t you want to provide for your family?” Or “If you don't do the business you’re risking your family's future and don't you love your family and want the best for them?”

The women tend to look at the numbers - dollars and the amount of people needed to make them - and might say it looks good on paper but in reality how likely is it that we can actually find enough people to sponsor as IBO’s and buy Amway products to actually make this business work.

If the wife isn’t all that interested in attending Amway meetings and buying products the cult leader brainwashes the husband to believe his wife is “negative to his business” and then starts the process of separating him from his wife.

Its a tough spot for a wife to be in. She wants to support her husband but she doesn’t want anything to do with those brainwashed cult followers who are hell bent on destroying their marriage.

The wife is likely negative to the business because the husband is spending hundreds of dollars a month on expensive Amway products, CDs, books, meetings and functions, monthly membership into whatever line of sponsorship he’s in, and any other miscellaneous tools that the upline decides he must throw his money at. The husband no longer has time for her, the family, outings, and events that may conflict with “the business” that the upline pressures him into making the number one priority in his life. The wife is not happy with the ugly personality change that is happening to her husband.

For all his efforts and money spent trying to build a business the husband is likely coming up zippo trying to convince people to come to board plan meetings, let alone sign up any new IBO’s. Its also hard to find retail customers. Once people know its Amway they’re usually not interested due to the high prices and Amway’s bad reputation as a scam. The husband becomes more aggressive hounding friends and family to buy those shitty Amway products and it doesn’t take long for people to start avoiding him. The husband undergoes a complete personality change basically turning from a sweet loving man into a nasty snarling ugly Ambot who becomes increasingly angry as he faces reality that his hard work is not bringing results.

The wife just wants her husband back. She wants those Amway cult followers out of their lives. She wants her husband to stop blowing their money on Amway tools and products.

She’s tired of being accused of being non-supportive, non-Christian, a people hater, holding him back, etc.

Enough is enough.

The breaking point is near. If it hasn’t already been reached.

Something has to give.

Will it be Amway? Or will it be the marriage?

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.

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.

A Diamond comes to Town

Once or twice a month a Diamond would come to town to show the plan. Usually an auditorium at a school was booked for this event that was scheduled to begin at 8pm. IBO’s got ripped off $10 each to listen to these cult leaders.

Good IBO’s who are “serious business builders” must show up at least an hour in advance so my husband was usually in a panic to get there by 7pm.

Ambot enjoyed mingling beforehand with the other cult followers. I did not so I’d bring a book (fiction, not on the required reading list) choose a seat and sit down and read while the room filled with IBO’s excited to hear the Diamond say the same old same old.

It pissed off the Platinum sack of shit that I didn’t mingle beforehand. He’d get after Ambot and criticize him because I wasn’t hanging out with his wife and doing what she was doing, sticking close to her if I wanted to be like her.

Um, no, I never said I wanted to be like her or hang out with her. She was an OK person and I’d usually say hi to her at some point in the evening like when we were leaving.

The mingling lasted until 8:30 or so because the Diamond was always delayed somewhere so the Amway meeting never started on time at 8. The Diamond would finally show up and the cult followers would jump to their feet cheering and clapping. I was one of the few who remained seated and silent.

Usually these meetings would last over 2 hours. Each Diamond’s speech was a bit different but most of them spent the first half hour to an hour talking about themselves, pretending to be a comedian, or talking about news events. Then they’d spend an hour to an hour and a half giving the business plan presentation on a Powerpoint presentation on a white screen.

Some of these Diamonds never mentioned Amway. Other times the A word came up towards the end of their presentation. They’d all talk about the training system and the tools must be purchased and to bring people to the functions. They’d all do a bunch of real fast talk when it came to the compensation.

I remember one Diamond said if the IBO finds 6 people, and they find 6 people, and so on and so on, that in 6 to 9 months you’d earn $78,000 a year working only 10 hours a week. Two minutes later he’d upped the ante to $250,000 a year. By now he’s got the cult followers whipped into a frenzy so then he goes for it a couple of minutes later. $750,000 a year in 2 to 5 years working 10 hours a week! The cult followers are shrieking with this good news totally lapping it up.

When the Diamond finally finished, the IBO’s would rush the stage wanting to meet him and he’d have a group of admirers hanging around for 20 or 30 minutes.

Occasionally the Diamond stayed for some worthless “teaching”. You know the kind that involves telling all the IBO’s in attendance to sign up for Communikate, buy a premier monthly membership to World Wide Destructive Bastards, buy CD’s, buy books on the reading list, attend major functions. Buy tools and when you’re done buy even more tools so you can give them away to prospects. That’s the only way to become successful is buying the tools needed to succeed at an Amway business.

Oh wait, they got that wrong. The only way to succeed at making your upline Diamond rich is to buy tools. 

If we were lucky we’d get out of there by 11pm. If not so lucky, midnight. Usually the Diamond couldn’t rattle on into the wee hours because the school was only booked for a set period of time. Probably the janitor was off shift around midnight and had to lock up.

Upline violating Amway's rules?

I can't tell you how many times we heard from our upline:

"If you don't buy the tools, I'm not going to work with you!"

Upline defined as the arrogant prick who sponsored my Ambot, his sponsor, and so and so on through to the pompous sack of shit Platinum and Emerald. I have tape recorded most of them saying this.

Tools = WWDB premier membership, Communikate, CD's, books, functions, seminars. They are referred to by Amway as Business Support Materials.

To paraphrase Amway, these tools are optional and IBO's should be guided by their own good judgement in deciding what's best and that their sponsoring upline is obligated to provide training and support whether or not the tools are purchased.

BULLSHIT!!!!

To paraphrase the pompous sack of shit, if you don't buy the tools and attend Amway meetings, then I'll know you're not a serious business builder and I won't work with you.

Being a devoted Amway cult follower, my Ambot religiously purchased not one, but many CD's and books every week and went to every Amway meeting, regional, major function, etc, etc. pouring thousands of dollars into the Amway nightmare.

Perhaps some of the recordings of the pompous sack of shit declaring his refusal to work with non-compliant downline should be forwarded to Amway.