Taking legal action against Amway or IBS

ravenk

I have had Three attempts to recruit me into Amway/IBS in the last 20 years. I even visited the Amway head office warehouse in the uk.
I was only 18 on the first occasion. However even then , I could not see how this could work. The products were good quality and expensive.
On all occasions the model was not selling ...but getting people to get other people to get other people to sell. Then the profit would flow up the chain.
At the end of the day however someone had to sell the product and lots of it.
It just never added up. I listened to one or two tapes and attended a conference in the 90's at the NEC.
I got the feeling that the people I met at the conference were at their weakest and wanted a solution to making money and a way out of their jobs and poverty. They were easy to sell the idea to.
Myself ...I have always had a well paying career and I just did not need this as an outlet.

One of the things I did learn was it was a good way to get rid of friends.
I had a mate who tried to recruit me ...and in the end I just used to avoid him.

phingers

This is a fascinating thread!

Why does it suddenly stop in April?

What is the latest on the legal action?

UPDATES PLEASE!!!!

Incisor

DpsAmway1993 wrote: »

I would just like to say well said to what Chippie said and the positive views of people like djbd1973. I signed up to Amway back in the June of 1993 and i must say that i have never looked back since. I got to the dizzy heights of 6% i had my regular customers and still am a user of the fantastic Amway products in which i save a small fortune each month copmared to the local supermarkets. I tried to build the buisness but it wasnt successful and i stayed at 6% but that was my choice Like it was my choice to go onto Continuing Education Tape Of The Week Book Of The Month Monthly Seminars and Major Functions.

Even though my buisness didnt grow like i wanted it to I GREW as a person and thanks to the tapes books functions i am the person i am today. And YES i would do it all over again and pay again (regardless of who was pocketing the money) as what i learnt about myself and the way i am now is PRICELESS I still have the books and tapes and the memories of the fantastic functions i had the privilage of attending. To this day nothing comes near to what i expierienced in those days and the one function that will always stick in my mind was Bill O'Brien (Bless his soul) back in 1994 For those of you who rmember The Folder On The Head lol

If i hadnt have been contacted for this fantastic busines opportunity i prob wouldnt to this day have heard of Amway and its sad that whats gone on has happened but thats life. I dont believe for one moment Tpaoy that you have spent £20 000 on books taped etc etc Its obvious to me you are the sort of person who buys the tools but never bother to read or listen because if you did you wouldnt be whinging like you are now. Look in your books and READ The Magic Of Thinking Big then maybe youll get a better perspective on life and your poor self esteem.

Its people like you who give Amway a bad name and they dont deserve it. Go and research their history and see where they started from and what vision they have for the future. Go and see what they have done for the worlds envoirment and what they have done for poor countries etc. Although i dont condone whats happened with IBS and all whats gone on i will be for ever in Amways and IBS debt for what i have learnt and the person it has made me today. It was money well spent.

I am also still in contact with my upline directs as we are more like family than business associates i have known them since 1993 15 years When i joined back in 1993 it was booming and everything was great but like everything in life all good things come to an end but even then it was exciting and it will be like that again in the future with Amway that i am sure about. I could write a book about all the positives since i have been in this fantastic Amway business but i wont.

All you people with closed minds open them up and go out and grab your opportunity in life whatever that may be but dont become like Tpaoy all bitter and twisted be positive move on and become the person you want to be. Tpaoy what i would do is this! Instead of whinging about how much money you have lost you must have a few thousand books and tapes read them and listen to them and put the principles into practice there is no reason why you cant be come successful in anything you put your hand to.
God Bless You all May Amway continue for the next 50 years and more

There is a true Amway believer born every minute.

Actually, for all the claimed benefits of "the fantastic Amway business", you might as well get a video of "The Wizard of Oz" or read the book and see how Dorothy sorts the problems of her travelling companions.

Personally, I have never felt so used as when I was treated to the Amway recruitment pitch. I would rather not treat my friends an family in this way.

BFG_2

Scamway is such a discredited 'business opportunity' that you should feel comfortable reporting any pro-Scamway postings as 'spam'.

The board mods seem to agree!!

denissnowy

I read a lot of this thread with interest. I worked for the organisation for a while. I never listened to any of the tapes though I did read bits of one or two of the books.

MLM marketing was not for me,you have to be a certain type of person - either a good sales man or perhaps desperate. The guy who spent £20,000 - would you have to wait until your house burned down before calling 999?

MLM may work if you get in early and the products are good. Your chances of success decrease the later on you get in on the act. There are alot of people advertinsing schemes out there - don't be bitter, educate others if you want to feel better about your experience. The best revenge is success not whinging.

Surely if something sounds too good to be true there is a distinct possibility that it is.

My views are my own, I havent been pput up to this by Amway, Pat & Jerry or anyone else - but nor did I buy any of the training materials.

cusry21

My husband and I did what djbd did: went to all the meetings, spent several K p.a. on tools, drove all around the country. What a waste of our time and money. But we learnt a lot on the way, got job promotions and evolved as people. The system helped us but we would not trust the same people again. Those of you who still have 'Rich Dad Poor Dad,' remember OPM (other people's money)? Well that was IBS. OPT (other people's time )was Amway.
We met some very nice people whom we wouldn't have got to know otherwise but we're not brainwashed anymore- enough soap powder!- and we know how to decide for ourselves now.

And don't a lot of financial institutions do the same thing? Just look what's happening in the world today?

Happy New Year to all MSErs!

Bellinger

I was also in Amway, I also spent a lot of money of the training tapes, books and attended endless seminars.

I didn't build my Amway business past 9%....because I didn't apply what I was being taught.

I did however use the same knowledge to change my life and build my own succesfull group of businesses....

....so, if you have spent the money on the books my friends.......maybe you could open them, read them and apply the knowledge.

because I know that you haven't....or you wouldn't be where you are

billington_2

So the weasels of IBS, Salways etc., are trying to sue the Sharks (Scrivens/Gregory)?

The best way to break up a fight between street mongrels is to hose down the lot.
Billington

TheTruth73

Ah, good old Amway & IBS!
I was first shown the plan in late '95 when asked if I was interested in a 'business opportunity' by the husband of a woman I knew from work. At the time I was a 21 yr old working in a supermarket after drifting out of higher education and just beginning to work out what I didn't want to be in the absence of any major ambition. I met the guy at a meeting half a mile from my house, listened to a presentation by one of his upline and was introduced (sorry, NETWORKED!) to a nice mix of people. His upline came round to my house a week or two later and did a presentation for my dad and some friends and associates - mostly people with no ambition whatsoever, and was met with the usual abject negativity, and I passed on the opportunity... for now! A year later and my dad told one of his colleagues was 'in Amway' and doing alright, and with very little persuasion I was signed up... cue lots of pressure to find prospects! I managed to find an associate (who became a friend) to sponser in and set about buying their rather expensive but very high quality products and set about attending functions & meetings 'etc' as you do, buying tapes, reading books (some great, some not so great) and within 3 months I hit '3%'... it carried on for a while, I attended every function for a year or two, went to team building meets with upline. Then, surely but surely, the upline seemed to dwindle as those above realised they'd to all intents and purposes hit a glass ceiling. My immediate upline was first, then a year or so later their upline... no one ever 'quit', they simply were had personal issues etc. By the time I was having to deal with my upline's upline's upline, I was still 'in the business' but basically just buying the carwash, dish drops, LOC etc
At such a young age I considered my time in Amway/IBS to be somewhat character-building and a 'baptism of fire' of sorts... There's no doubt the IBS business-plan was flawed, and that they were certainly guilty of over-selling the 'tools', but it helped Amway make inroads on the UK market, without which it would have remained 'that pyramid thing from years ago' but I consider Amway themselves to be at fault as it was their rigid pricing structure that left very little profit margin for those selling their products - what were distributors supposed to do other than network? I found their neglectful attitude to the UK market almost criminal showing very little respect to their hard-working distributors. I set about building a neat sideline selling their fantastic Fuel Additive, marketing it to local businesses and doing pretty well out of it... next thing I knew, Amway pulled it from the UK market as the government were asking for all fuel additives to be tested for some kind of type approval... Amway couldn't be bothered with that so they simply withdrew it from the UK market without fanfare - thanks a lot! It's still available in the US. Similarly their fantastic 'super-concentrate cleaning system' (something many distributors spent a lot of effort promoting) was just dis-continued. When the company itself seemed to be undermining the distributor like this is it any wonder people started giving up?
The functions themselves were ok, certainly no worse than a lot of 'motivational presentations' companies sign up to enrol their staff on at crazy money, and I could certainly see the benefits of attending, but to me - like the tapes - if you 'got them' you 'got them' and if you didn't you never would. Some of the books were excellent and most lent themselves to more than just building an Amway business, but for me the problem was not the IBS training system, it was Amway - their fees, their indifference to the UK and the reputation the name had. I subsequently dabbled in a couple more MLM opportunities, both of which were a lot more workable than Amway. Telecom Plus (!!! Utility Warehouse) have genuinely made a handful of UK networkers very rich and a fair few others a full-time profitable business. Neways offer products superior to Amway all made from natural ingrediants with a decent profit margin for the distributor, networking opportunies without the overkill, and both of which if you set about with the kind of intensity shown in the IBS group really would make people wealthy in a relatively short space of time. Also, note both of which do not come with the tiresome stigma attached like Amway did... Again, note: The stigma was with the Amway brand and not the IBS system.
In the end, it didn't work for me - partly cos I got sick of selling products only for Amway to withdraw them and partly cos the 'Amway' was not my way. The trouble with the IBS was the fervour with which you were meant to promote the 'system', and once it grew to the level it was at in the mid-90's most people 'networking' did not know WHY, they were just doing as they were told/trained. People were signing up who weren't strong enough to fight the perceived stigma, and clueless people did nothing to promote the business nor the products with any credibility. I was all for upsurping the sheep-like 'jobjobjob' mindset folk had, but it was only being replaced by another sheep-mantra, somebody elses dream, somebody elses words. Real success comes with real ambition, not a borrowed ideology.... the IBS 'big hitters' were doing as they were told, it wasn't really them.
I don't regret sticking my neck out and doing, as it's created part of what I am today. The valuable lessons were realising just how unambitious and negative most people were - from then on I really began to focus on what I really wanted and saw most people for what they are, the books really expanded my mindset and the realisation that, however good IBS was, I would only get to where I wanted to be by working out what I really wanted. IBS started all that for me, and it's something I am greatful for. Without IBS I wouldn't have gone on to read Stuart Goldsmith, Ayn Rand & Tony Robbins or had the investment opportunites.
As far as the handbags between Amway & IBS, I think it's a bloody cheek on Amways part to distance itself from the one system that generated, promoted and revitalized their UK market. IBS were more than a little over-zealous in the pushing of their materials but given the miniscule profit margins with the products that was the only way the business was ever going to pay.

draconian_2

Blimey
I have read this thread with interest!

I was speaking to a friend who told me what had happened to the IBS Org and Amway - couldn't believe Amway could drop a huge distributor organisation "just because of two small issues"! Its like my boss saying - You didnt speak to that ustomer or support another in the way WE want so your fired!
I was involved in this for 7 years reaching the dizzy heights of Direct unfortunately (or fortunately for me) my Upline was a prize to$$er got far too big for his shoes and blew me out! He was always piling on the pressure to do things and achieve things - it got very bad. He consistently screwed up treated me and my downline like school children and realy slagged my job off which incidently got the benefit of my IBS training program and allowed me to achieve promotion and a very good salary.

Being able to speak at Wembley in front of 4000 people is not many people's cup of tea - but as a result of the IBS training system I did that and am where I am, winning in the walk of life, working in a good job and making a decent lifestyle for myself.
They always used to say "some people watch it happen some people make it happen and the rest wonder what the heck happened".

The business used to attract the losers in life though and from some of the comments on here clearly they are sore about spending money! To put it into perspective if you want to become a plumber right now it will cost you £10000 for a 15 month course - no pay during this time either!
Like anything - its hard to do and start - but I still even now after the way I was treated by my Upline for "quitting" feel bad that it came to this. On the other hand I walked away with skills that I paid for and created a good profession for myself as a result of this - so its not all bad.

As for the future and Amway - what goes around comes around - I hope the UK OP goes under as a result of their back stabbing!

As for J&M Scriven - good luck you guys and some of the lower organisations within IBS made me what I am today and I must give some credit to them for what I have been able to achieve!

I have read the page that the Scrivens have made and I am still staggered!

Having spent 7 years of my life in it in hindsight I am dissapointed how it ended up - but glad I didnt spend 15-20 years to end up with being kicked out!

There were many good things about the business but a big big bad things - all in all I look back and learned. If someone was to ask me about getting involved in MLM now- I would say "look at your job, your prospects and your ABILITY" redress the balance through self help books and conssider what you feel you can achieve vs what you want and work on it - if you aim at nothing you'll hit it!

As far as legal action goes - I suppose Amway had it coming! Thank goodness I don't rely on an income from it anymore...

Always happy to discuss further if someone wants to banter!

D