IS AMWAY A SCAM?

1,020 thoughts on “IS AMWAY A SCAM?”

• Guest,

  The “personal issues” are directly related to who is telling the truth and who is lying, so I wouldn’t be so quick to push this issue aside.

  However, you are right about your overall conclusions.

• Guest, you may understand the discussion correctly but that doesn’t mean your conclusion is correct – primarily because of the all too common misinformation posted on threads like this.

  There is nothing inherent in the Amway business model that means every single person who has registered with Amway can’t be “successful”.**

  The vast majority of people who join gyms to get fit do not get fit. That doesn’t mean exercise isn’t a good way to get fit.

  (**at least not that isn’t inherent in other businesses as well)

• I have yet to see a consistent profit produced by any IBO. I’ve heard of thousand dollar checks and commissions, but I’m looking for consistency and sustainability.

  ibofb, since you are not in Amway for profit, this does not regard you. But any IBO out there, take a good look at your finances. It should be easy, look at your tax forms. No tax forms? Then you are either evading taxes (a felony) or you are running a hobby, not a business. Which is perfectly fine, but do not go around claiming otherwise.

• And ibofb, Guest’s conclusion is his to make. You may perceive his interpretation to be wrong, but it does not mean so. You mean to say his conclusion doesn’t match what you want it to be. Boo hoo.

• Mi nombre es – his interpretation doesn’t gel with reality, that’s what makes it wrong.

  As for “consistency and sustainability”, I personally think the estates of dead people that are still earning 5 and 6 figure incomes from their Amway businesses is pretty consistent and sustainable, but I suppose that doesn’t count for you either, huh?

  Mi nombre es – out of interest, how many books about Amway, written by independent authors and published by reputable publishers, have you read?

• ibofb is AGAIN using his common tactic of finding a couple of rare exceptions to the massively large majority of examples and pretending they are common. THAT is what “doesn’t gel with reality.” LOL

  ibofb also wants to define “independent” and “reputable,” another common tactic of his. I would suggest you look at independent and reputable court documents, such as the Wisconsin AG and UK 2008 decision, as well as the actual Amway rules in India, all of which can be found on my website by clicking on my name. LOL

• I stand by my conclusion. While someone can certainly join Amway and make a lot of money, that would be the rare exception and certainly not the experience of most people. Even if some deceased people’s Amway business is still making money, how many have achieved this? How many people wanted it and didn’t get it? My conclusion is there are simply too many better opprtunities out there to seriously consider Amway as a viable way to earn consistent money. IBOFB himself says he is on;y involved to but products. If Amway was such a golden opportunity, IBOFB should have built it so his grandhildren and beyond can live off the 5 and 6 figure incomes.

• Oh well, ibofb. Some will, some won’t, so what, somewhere, 6 will, so WOW!!! LOL

• People get truly addicted to MLM, and some have to be deprogrammed like a cult member. They are told to distance themselves from people who don’t believe, often called “losers” in Amway circles. Other cults like Scientology tell members to shun non-believers (they have their own word for them, but can’t find it ATM), even family members. I’ve read other Amway sites from ex-members talking about how they were encouraged to separate themselves from family who were “holding them back”. When a person finally figures out that they aren’t making any money, and most likely will never make money, they often go into another MLM scheme because they are addicted to the idea. They’ll dress up in their knock off Rolex watches and shiny shoes with the sole falling off, and say, “Fake it till you make it!”.

  My brother has talked for years about a guy he works with that is addicted to MLM, and scams. He’s done the Amway thing. He was selling some gas pill thing for a while (that got shut down by the government). You name it, he’s done it. And, all these years later all he has to show for all these scams is being dead broke. And, he has a good paying normal job. Had he just stayed away from these things he would be so much better off today. How many times do you have to be burned before you get out? He got co-workers into some mine scam…some people lost so much money they’ve had to postpone their retirements for many years. That’s pretty sad.

  There are so many scams out there…Amway is just one of them. Just watch early morning BET and see all these so-called preachers using their miracle springs waters, oils, stones, one guy even has towels to suck people in then ask for money. How about those Q-ray bracelets they sold for years and years? How about that Extenze that claims to give you a larger penis…without actually saying it outright. Ever seen the ingredients of Extenze? One of many of the ingredients is dear antler velvet. REALLY?!? All these “all natural” cures… arsenic is all natural too. These things go on for years and years with little to no scrutiny from the government. Guess that’s one of the draw backs of living in a free country…people are free to scam and get scammed. I think they finally cracked down on Q-ray for making claims it couldn’t back up…and within months they had another version with a different name on late night TV commercials.

  Just look at all the internet scams out there. I’m laid off right now and looking for a job till I get called back to my normal job. Already I’ve been hit by two scams trying to get my personal info claiming they were part of job hiring. Luckily, after dealing with MLMers, I know how to spot a scam quickly. The first one said they needed my info to run a credit check on me to get the job. Red flags went up…did a quick google search, and sure enough…SCAM! And, I just got another one (literally ten minutes ago as I write this). I can spot them within moments now…but for some reason other people can’t…they just don’t seem to have the tools or they wouldn’t fall for them and these scams would go away because they wouldn’t be profitable.

  My first experience with a MLM person came when I was about 18. He gave me this tape (I assume one of the “tools”) to listen to that was suppose to explain the business. It didn’t explain anything. All it was was a motivational tape. It never even once mentioned the companies name. Red flags started going up. To this day I’m not 100% sure if it was Amway because he never said the name of it. So, he came to my house and started pulling out these pamphlet showing all these mansions and yachts and cars (saying they belonged to diamonds and whatnot, which is why I assume it was Amway). More red flags. When you go for an interview, they don’t pull out a picture of a big house and tell you this could be yours. I finally said no, and he went about his life. I told my dad about it, and he did the math and figured that if you got 9 people (he said 9), and they got 9 people and so on…it would only take about 10 levels before you had the whole world involved. Even if it’s just 2 people. It only takes about 32 levels to get the whole world involved. And, if it takes you a whole year (a year seems pretty generous to get 2 people) to get those two, and they take a whole year, ext, after 32 or so years there were be no one left to join. I explained this to an Amway guy later, and he had some pre-made excuse ready for me. They always have some excuse. That must be part of the training.

  Later this guy I worked with who did tell me who he was with (Amway) tried to get me in. He must have been in other MLM’s also. On break once he was telling me how doctors had the cure for cancer and AIDS, but they didn’t want to tell the public because they made so much money off of drugs and treatments from cancer and AIDS patients. He said that some group he was with had a cure made from the extract of the Aloe Vera plant. ALOE VERA!!! I knew a woman who had cancer and was taking shark cartilage. A woman I worked with father had cancer, and she was talking about this “special water” she was giving him. And, there has been magnetic therapies over the years…lately I’ve seen some goofy light therapy on TV. These kind of things have been going on for centuries. This is nothing new. They use to expose people to radiation as a cure all therapy…lol

  I’ve had to run interference for my mom a few times on these schemes. Her husband was in some MLM long distance phone scam. Later my mom got into Mary Kay. I didn’t think much of it. I went to visit her in NC…she had a Mary Kay meeting a few towns away, then we were going to go eat dinner. I went in and sat in on the meeting rather than sit in the car. All they talked about was bringing in new recruits. I think they only mentioned make-up twice in the whole meeting. And the woman was talking about her new Mary Kay car sitting out in the parking lot (Again, when has a real job ever used their car or house as in incentive to you? Red Flag much?). When we walked out I told her it sounded like a pyramid scheme. She agreed. Just because they sell products to make it legal doesn’t mean it isn’t a pyramid.

  It’s sad that people seem to fall for these types of things so easily. I remember learning about advertising in middle school. They taught us about advertising so that we could spot the tricks used and the psychology of advertising. But, no one ever taught us about how to spot a scam and avoid them.

  I work at the IRS, and I’ve seen tens of thousands of tax returns, literally. I’ve seen MLMers trying to write off losses on their schedule C..and only once had they made more than they spent. And, that was only a few hundred dollars.

  I use to work at the Post Office. We met for breakfast one morning at a local casino. A co-worker showed up with a couple of strangers and sat at the end of the table. After we got done eating they started their pitch to try to get us into their MLM scheme. They told one woman about how she could have this or that one day. She said, “I have a Lincoln Navigator outside in the parking lot right now. The Post Office got me that, why would I need you?” So, our co-worker managed to make everyone feel awkward, and made himself look foolish. I avoided him after that. But, I guess he got the hint as I never heard anyone talk about him trying to sucker them again after that. I know we never invited him anymore to things like that.

  My most recent MLM experience was a guy that went to church with my dad. I was laid off at the time and he told my dad to have me give him a call. So, I did. Right off the bat he said he needed someone on his management team. Red flags instantly went up. Why would I go straight into his management team? I only have a high school education, no management experience…it just didn’t pass the smell test. So, he wanted to meet me, and I was concerned because I didn’t have anything nice to wear, only jeans and T-shirts. But, he wanted to meet at a local restaurant. Again, red flags went up. Why not at the office? So, I finally asked him if he was with a real company. Sure enough, he was with Primerica. I told him I wasn’t interested in a pyramid, that I wanted a real job. He started saying how long they’ve been in business and how Citi Bank bought them a few years ago…blah blah blah. Sounded a lot like the posters on here defending Amway. He had all these excuses and did some name dropping to make it sound like it was all on the up and up.

• Anything else?

• I just attended a friends seminar on my one free evening of the week. I thought it was going to be an industrial engineering seminar, as both him and I are graduate students. Turns out that I just wasted three hours of my life on Amway.
  Poor bastard didn’t even tell me it was an Amway cult meeting. He had to lead me on in order to get me to attend.
  Don’t become one of these heartless Amway IBOs.

  To all you IBOs…. Stop wasting other peoples time.

  GUESS WHAT PEOPLE… IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE….. IT IS.

• LOL Be sure to forward my website link to your friend: http://texsquixtarblog.blogspot.com

• Has ibofb achieved some level of success? He speaks as if he is profiicent and profitable in the Amway business. Is that the case?

• No.

  He is an IBO from Australia who credits N21 with saving him from putting a bullet through his head, and now lives in Sweden (ironically in/near Stockholm – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome) and will support the LCKs no matter what contrary evidence is presented.

  I met him in person when Amway invited several of us to Prague, Czech Republic in 2008, he’s a total jerk.

• My husband and I were involved in the Amway/Quixtar business for 13 years. We worked very hard, attended all the meetings, reached the direct level, and made very little money. Thank God for Dateline. We were convinced that this was a reputable business,the people were great….so we thought. Then we found out the truth. The majority of the money that was told to us was suppose to be on the products and sponsoring /helping others,l was actually made on the books,tapes and seminars. You know they tell you that the speakers take the time from their families to give back to the business. Totally false ! The speakers are paid to perform. That is how they make money. Please believe me when I say that you are not being stupid just convinced by people you trust that you will make money. We went to our sponsors and told them we know how they are making money. We watched Dateline , years ago and still could not believe how we were tricked. It is sad that people will continue to believe this opportunity will produce millionaires. Most of the people in our upline were sued by other people and eventually went on to another scam. I know you will find this hard to believe. I did too. I am now reading all this information and at one time felt the same way. Again you are not stupid… just misinformed. We worked long hours, left our children with sitters, argued with our family , and listened to our upline to not believe the internet. If you make money at this business it will be on the books, tapes, seminars and speaking. We could not comprehend how our upline could have lied to us… they were good people that also got caught up in the lies. It is really difficult to listen to someone speak highly of this business, I know I would defend the products and the system too. I also thought I knew what was going on but I did not know the truth. Find another way to make money you, will be glad you found out now.

• Mary (or anyone else who would like to help others),

  Would you be willing to give a deposition regarding your experiences, so we can stop this scam from ripping off others?

• IBOFightback must have some psychological comfort from Amway and N21 if they actually helped save his life. It is understandable that he would defend them since they have helped him. However, in doing so, IBOFightback disregards plain facts that Amway and their systems sentence people to failure because that is how the system is designed. Anyone capable of doing a proper business evaluation can see this.

• You’re ducking the issue. Stop it.

• Ducking what? I can understand why IBOfightback defends Amway. Because in some time of need in his life, someone helped him. Of course this attribute is common when someone has been saved of rescued from some tragedy in life. In the case of IBOfightback, he was at a low point in his life and someone in Amway/N21 helped him. The savior in this case, likely had ulterior motives, such as getting someone into the business. Kind of sad when you stop and think about it.

• hence the name, just want to say a quick thing:

  Amway may or may not be a scam. Regardless of that fact, it is not profitable unless you were one of the first to join. The business is not based on selling products but rather residual income that comes from bonuses for hiring other IBO’s under you. But what is the likely hood of people actually recruiting? and those recruiting also recruiting? People are fickle, the only person you can rely on is yourself. That is why getting paid for honest, hard work is the best way to go as opposed to relying on your friends and family to join your cause. An Amway rep tried to explain to me that with a normal job you follow the time X rate = salary formula and that we are limited by the number of hours in a day. The flaw with the Amway residual income formula, which he neglected to mention, is that you are limited by the number of people you know. You can only have as many clients ( costumers or IBOs) under you as you have friends and acquaintances. And even then, when you create IBO’s you essentially create more competition because these IBO’s share relatively the same circle of friends that you do so you can forget about making money through selling products.

  Furthermore, to address a statement made way earlier (like 2009) on in this thread by Shekhar and others:

  The products sold by Amway, as far as I am concerned are a rip off. However, I only checked out their sports nutrition section. Currently…they are selling twelve 11.5 oz bottles of protein shakes for approximately $45…each shake has 25 grams of protein. That is as much of a rip off as Muscle Milk. I get tubs of protein that contain 22+ servings of 30 grams of great quality protein for the same price if not cheaper. Therefore, the statement of how their products are of superior quality is false. That just proves Amway’s business does not revolve around its products but rather networking and expanding its workforce (which are essentially their costumers).

• Ibofbk, when I said that Amway was to decline in one to a few years, I meant 1 to 5 years max.

  But let me ask a question regarding a point presented by an IBO (not sure if I understood it correctly, since I heard it from someone who in turn heard it from the IBO) on why it is better to shop at Amway rather than in other stores, even if Amway’s prices are higher. This question is for everyone who can give an unbiased answer.
  According to an IBO, it is all about managing the points. Comparing the price of an item from Amway to the price of that same item of another store, you may end up saving money at the other store, but for that one time purchase. In the long run however, after repeated purchase, or one time volume purchase, you will be better at Amway because the item carry points, and the more you buy from Amway the more you save.
  What truth is there in being better off financially, in the long run and/or with volume purchase, at Amway rather than in other major stores.?

• @ exploder

  I haven’t read any of the comments in a while, and today that I oppened my mail I decided to read it……
  To answer your question, about why products from amway are better to buy than the ones at other stores.
  Well first for the quality and the actual savings.
  the cost of Tide at the store for a box that claimes it has 100 loads is $20.98, a box of SA8 from anway has 150 loads for $34.43. Amway product is about $14 more than Tieds price, but in the box of tied that says there is 100 loads there is actualy only around 40 full cups of powder detergent, because of the Tieds cup being so big. In the SA8 detergent there is actualy 150 full cups of powder detergant in the box… soooo you would have to actualy buy 3 boxes of tied for $20 to make up for one SA8 from amway. And since home products from amway are 100% concentrated it cleans better and good for the environment, but that’s just a plus. You can make your own testings and see the differences on your own. You actualy save more money on the long run, and since you get 180 days to return the product if you don’t like it or have get what the box said you get refund in full so there is nothing to lose, if you decide to test the product.

• @raverding

  Let’s stay on topic in regards to my question. My question has to do with saving money at Amway even if a product is at a higher price in Amway due to the points that you can earn in the long run or via volume purchase. Remember, it is important that the answer be UNBIASED

• Okay I answered your question, the product saves you money in the long run, the points have nothing to do with the price of the product. Like the excample I gave you, you would actualy save money buying amway product in the long run. The points are just for your extra pay. The points have nothing to do with the money you are already saving even if at first the product looks more expencive at first

• @reverdin

  Re-read my question many times until you understand it. You are citing your previous example, which if off topic. I am not asking for a product price comparison, we can talk about that later ( and I think you are being biased on that, although I am not sure–I will have to check). I simply want to know if you will be better off financially in the long run through repeated purchased or via volume purchase of an Amway specific higher price product due to points earned

• Ok reverdin, may be you are correct in the sense that we need to pick a product to make my question more meaningful, so I’ll be cheking Amway prices vs others

• sorry, been off the thread for a while, my apologies if I’ve missed in specific questions to me, please repost them!

  Explorer, with regards your question on shopping/prices, well … it depends! For arguments sake I’ll ignore issues of comparability/concentration etc etc and assume we’re talking about truly comparable products. I’d note though that nearly every time I’ve done price comparisons based on a “critics” claims of overpricing, Amway has proven to be cheaper when the price comparison is done sensibly.

  But ignoring that and assuming a fair comparison ….

  One thing it depends on is whether you’re evaluating as a shopper or a business person. Even as a shopper it may be worth buying it at the more expensive price, because when the volume rebates come in to play at the end of the month, it may end up being cheaper. That’s pretty straightforward. Some products may be very price competitive for a platinum, but not competitive for a new IBO or customer.

  As a business owner things become more complex, because you have to evaluate the products value to you not only as a product you use yourself, but one you sell for profit. That gives it additional value to you. Check any store or company and I don’t think you’ll find any that are “cheapest” over all their range, or even within categories. People buy them anyway. Let’s say you were really in to marketing Nutrilite, and you were trying to sell a health “package”. The package as a whole might be price competitive, but some individual part of it (say energy bars, or omega-3) was more expensive than competitors. You can’t offer a complete package to a customer without it, so you have to include it in the package you’re marketing. It’s not an ideal situation to be in, but this type of thing comes up in all businesses, all the time. If you try to be cheapest across the board against all competitors, you’ll find yourself going broke quickly.

  So, n that situation then it absolutely makes sense to buy it for personal use yourself, even if you can get a better deal elsewhere. It’s very difficult to promote it to others if you won’t use it yourself! The product has additional value to you as you’re marketing it and profiting from it. And that value is not only in the present, but also in long-term business projections.

  Having said that, you have to be very careful in your decision making here, and in communication with Amway. In the past, hopefully it’s decreased now, some Amway groups very very heavily promoted the concept of product loyalty across the whole Amway catalogue. Excessive loyalty is damaging both to the individual IBOs, and Amway as a whole in the long term. Why? Well, like any company the primary method a company has for understanding if they’ve got a product priced well is how well it’s selling. A company (and commission earning reps) want to sell a product to the market at the highest profit margin they can. The only reason you drop prices is because you hope an increase in sales will overcome the loss of margin. If a large proportion of your sales is for personal use to registered reps, which is a common scenario in network marketing, then excessive product loyalty removes that metric from legitimate evaluation. Let’s say Amway has some product that is overpriced, but Amway IBOs are buying it anyway out of loyalty. They can’t sell it because it’s too expensive for the mainstream market, so they’re losing out on profit. Amway has no incentive to evaluate pricing, or even an indication they need to, since the product is moving just fine off their shelves.

  So that factor has to be incorporated in to decision making as well. Sometimes the smart business decision is to buy the product even if you can get it cheaper elsewhere. Sometimes the smart business decision is to not buy it.

  I’ve made both decisions, not only when I was building an Amway business, but other non-MLM businesses as well.

• …So here itis— Kirkland detergent 110 loads, Price: $18.79. =$0.17 per load….
  Amway SA8 150 loads. Price $34.43 = 0.239 per load.

  Making an equal container for both (let’s say the average of 110 and 150 loads=130 loads), we will have:

  Amway 130 loads @ 0.239/load = $31
  KirkLand 130 loads @ 0.17/load = $22
  Total savings at Kirkland =$9

  Now my question again, given the above, will you be better off financially buying Amway SA8 in the long run through repeated purchase or via volume purchase due to the points attributed to SA8?

• Can you give links to those products please? I can’t find the SA8 version at that price, and the Kirkland seems to be the liquid version on Amazon?

  Can you also please confirm the usage instructions for both. In the past when comparing detergent I’ve learned that Amway advertises “# of loads” based on average size loads of average dirtiness with average pH water, whereas other brands I’ve checked promote “# of loads” based on the maximum number (ie smaller loads, soft water, low dirtiness). In other words you can’t just take the number from the front of the package.

• With Kirkland/Costco, they have their markup and sell it cheap to the public. Amway must pay IBO bonuses so they add that to the cost of their product, thus the cost will often make it uncompetetive with big retailers. Not saying there aren;t any good deals in Amway, but overall, I think Costco will win probably 90% of the time if not more frequently. Factor in Amway’s shipping costs and there’s no challenge at all. I saw a price comparison between Amway and other products somewhere and Amway got smoked in just about all categories.

• (1) all companies have expenses incorporated in their markup they “must pay”. IBO bonuses are one that Amway has that CostCo doesn’t have. Store employees is one that CostCo has that Amway doesn’t. Just because Amway has one that CostCo doesn’t have doesn’t automatically make Amway have worse pricing. Indeed you could argue otherwise – since Amway doesn’t pay that cost unless the product is actually sold, whereas CostCo has to pay staff even if nothing is sold.

  (2) CostCo and Amway aren’t really in competition, they’re targeting different market segments, so not really appropriate comparisons. SA8 for example is targeted more towards people who don’t only want clean clothes, but also care about their health, the environment, and care of their washing machines.

  (3) If you’re an Amway customer then chances are you aren’t paying shipping fees, so that’s a red herring.

• Googling around it appears that CostCo introduced an environmentally friendly Kirkland range a few years ago, but it seems to have disappeared as I can’t find any recent reference to it.

  This site indicates that Kirkland detergents include chlorine, which means it’s really not a “competitor” to SA8, which is specifically marketed as “planet positive” and EPA “designed for the environment” approved.

  So might be better to find another EPA approved detergent for a comparison?

• ibofightback, re-read your statement. How can Costco and Amway be targeting different markets? They both sell similar products in the same categories (household, nutrition, fitness) and they sell in bulk. Sounds like the same market to me.

  And I have yet to meet someone who only wants clean clothes but does not care about their health, the environment, and care of their washing machine.

  So yes, Costco and Amwyay ARE in direct competition. But of course, when you factor the convenience of going to a Costco vs. calling your local IBO and being hassled to join or attend meetings, there really is no competition.

• If you think that CostCo and Amway are targeting the same market segments, then I suggest you go and do some reading on sales & marketing, they are not. Ferrari and Kia both sell in the “car” category, do you consider them to be targeting the same markets?

  I agree most people care about their health etc, I worded that badly. The reality is though that the importance it plays in people’s purchasing decisions varies enormously, both because of the priority people place on it, as well as simple financial realities – some people can afford to pay for “better” products, some cannot.

  BTW, the idea that Amway is primarily targeting the “bulk buying” market is at least a decade out of date, probably two, and even then was really only a strategy for those groups focused on marketing Amway primarily as a home shopping solution. Most of the “bulk” items even then were non-Amway products of low profitability. The company and most groups have I think these days seen the obvious folly of that approach in today’s marketplace.

• oh – and if you want Amway products and are instead getting hassled by an IBO to join instead, find another IBO to supply you.

• Hmmmm … reading the comments on this site I think I can guess why the Kirkland “environmentally friendly” products disappeared ….. :-O

• Once again, the point about my question was missed. I provided an example of a product to make my question more meaningful. I am not looking for a debate on quality– that will be a very long road, and at the end we probably will arrive where we started: with many opinions. What I am trying to find out is if there is any truth to the point supposedly made by an IBO, that even when a product has a higher price tag in Amway (e.g SA8) vs. another product (e.g Kirkland), you will still come out ahead financially in the long run after repeated purchase; or via one time volume purchase of an Amway product vs. one time high volume purchase of a like product, all because of points. How much more expensive can SA8 be ($3, $9, etc) in comparison to other detergents in the market in order for SA8 to monetarily compete in the long run or through volume purchase with the competing product?

• I already answered that question as best I could earlier. It’s a decision that depends on a lot of factors, factors which will be different for every person.

  If you want a simple one time example, if an Amway product costs 10% more than a competitor product, yet your points get you a further 12% discount, then the Amway product is cheaper, is it not? IBOs can get up 29% further discounting than the base IBO price remember, plus of course the retail margin knocked off.

  All of which is pretty irrelevant anyway. Amway products need to be price competitive *at their full retail price* with other similar products competing for the same market segment (and SA8 and Kirkland do not).

  IBO pricing and volume rebates etc can and do sensibly influence any individuals purchasing decisions, but from an overall business model perspective arguing as this other IBO apparently does is dangerous territory.

• Ibofbk,

  Do you know how many points I will get in bying SA8, if i was an IBO who joined just to consume? And being that I would be at a low commission, how much money would those point translate into?

• @rverdin

  rverdin, I apologize to you, and forgive me for saying that you should “Re-read my question many times until you understand it”. I realize I was rude, and you did have a point about including an item to make my question more meaningful. The reason why I ask questions about Amway is because I know many people who are in it. I myself was considering joining Amway at one time, being partially motivated by the feeling of ‘ if almost every-one you know is doing it, why not you?’, along with the motivation to make money. But after looking into what I really wanted, I realized that inside of me, for some reason or the other, I don’t really like Amway. I do suspect that Amway’s motivational organization do use cult like techniques to hold on to their members, and am not sure how damaging such techniques can be to those members in the long run (perhaps later on I could share a weird situation I experienced while holding a conversation with an IBO holding a significant pin level).

• @rverdin, For most people, they would be better off buying tide at walgreens. You don’t get any rebate from Amway unless you have at least 100 points. Buying a few boxes of Amway detergent won’t get you enough points to earn any rebate. You need to spend around $350 in order to get enough points to qualify for any Amway bonus. Or you can shop at Costco, buy the Kirkland brand (and save $$$) and then use your Amex card which gives you a 1% cashback or 3% if you purchase discounted Costco fuel.

• Guest,

  So you don’t even get the points attributed to a product unless you spend a certain amount of money?…hmmm. And even than how much is 100 points money-wise to an average IBO?

• @Explorer, you need to hit 100 points in a month to qualify for a 3% rebate/bonus. If you have 99 points or less, you get nothing and your points go back to zero the next month. 100 points will cost you between $300 to $350 or so. It could be more or less depending on what kinds of goods you purchase or sell. If you qualify at the 100 point level, you will get about $10 as a rebate/bonus.

• Sorry, but this whole discussion is a bit silly. Accumulating points (and you get them no matter how much you spend) is ultimately all about *business* volume, not personal shopping. Whatever points (and rebates) you accumulate from personal use is always going to be relatively minor.

  If all you’re wanting to do is buy an occasional box of SA8 then why would you be an IBO? It makes no sense. Explorer, it sounds to me like you think Amway is primarily some kind of shopping club? As I mentioned, some groups have tried to run it that way, but it’s not a particularly profitable business model and is discouraged by Amway. While many people who register with Amway ultimately maintain membership primarily as shoppers, they’re not doing so to make money. IBOs actually running businesses are not operating shopping clubs.

• Read Your Amway contract Thoroughly, back side, small print included!
  If you do not read it thoroughly, then you deserve Amway’s BS, and possibly be sued!! Besides Amway has saturated the market, the only people making money are the people at the top of the pole! And Yes, My wife and I did take a look at Amway, We had to , a use to be friend wouldn’t leave us alone about it. IT was a joke then, and it’s a joke now, plus I lost a friend because of their sales training brainwashing!! This my expierence with Amway.

• ibfbk says:”is ultimately all about *business* volume, not personal shopping”

  Appearantly, 99% of IBOs are generating that business volume

• ibfbk says:”is ultimately all about *business* volume, not personal shopping”

  apparently, 99% of IBOs are NOT generating that business volume

• To Administrator:

  delete this comment and the first one about “business volume” (4:42pm) the second one is the correct one

• @Frank claims the market is saturated, yet the company grew double digits the past year and even the US has experienced something like 20 consecutive months of growth. There were <a href="http://www.thetruthaboutamway.com/1222-new-founder-platinums-and-above-for-amway-north-america/"&lt; more than a thousand new platinums and above last year in north america alone.

  @Explorer – always nice to prepend “apparently” to made up statistics, but it looks a bit silly when actual real statistics are available. posted them all before here, either directly or via supplied links. I’m not going to again, since you apparently don’t care much for using real data.

• If there were a thousand new platinums, wouldn’t Amway’s growth skyrocket? When I looked as the article on the Amway website, it looked like the foreign legs of the company were experiencing the most growth, I also read somewhere (sorry cannot remember where) that the growth was simply due to Amway raising prices so the existing Amway distributors spent more to get the same products they were previously purchasing.