Do I support my friend?

Petra_70

Just googled FL Aloe vera, and found a 7 year old thread about this very subject!

So it was going on then too! Overpriced products promising miracles, and some worries about their selling tactics.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1191677

Person_one

Petra_70 wrote: »

Never heard of FL Aloe vera by the way.

Lucky you! The poor sods who are suckered into flogging this stuff seem to get absolutely brainwashed. Politely ignoring their messages just doesn't work, and two of my Facebook friends who are doing this sent nearly identically worded messages asking me to give them the names and contact details of my other friends who might be interested. I'm sure they wouldn't behave that way normally.

Petra_70

Person_one wrote: »

Lucky you! The poor sods who are suckered into flogging this stuff seem to get absolutely brainwashed. Politely ignoring their messages just doesn't work, and two of my Facebook friends who are doing this sent nearly identically worded messages asking me to give them the names and contact details of my other friends who might be interested. I'm sure they wouldn't behave that way normally.

OMG, :eek: it sounds like a flippin' cult! :eek:

barbiedoll

Yep, it's FL that my fb friend is pushing. She shared a post from one of the "directors" of the company, who has apparently made so much money that she's just bought a castle! That's an awful lot of [STRIKE]poor saps that she's ripped off[/STRIKE] aloe vera she must have sold. :whistle:

Petra_70

barbiedoll wrote: »

Yep, it's FL that my fb friend is pushing. She shared a post from one of the "directors" of the company, who has apparently made so much money that she's just bought a castle! That's an awful lot of [STRIKE]poor saps that she's ripped off[/STRIKE] aloe vera she must have sold. :whistle:

What sort of castle though?

A FROZEN one?



Or a BARBIE one?

DKLS

Avon can work quite well, an old colleague of mine used to distribute the brochures at work, not bad income levels when you have 700 women in the building.

One of my wife's friends gave me the full de-tox sales spiel when I mentioned I needed to lose a little timber, she prattled on until I told her that I could achieve the exact same effects for less than £3, she was gobsmacked and demanded how.

So I explained the raw chicken breast diet to her.
I swear for about 10 mins she was thinking she could package up a chicken breast and two plastic buckets into a business opportunity :rotfl:

smdabs

i didnt know there were so many people out there who felt the same way i do!

My friend who is in a slightly different position than OP's (working, very good salary for age, comfortable living etc) decided to jump on the FL bandwagon.

She posts 4-5 times a day where it turns nearly into begging people to buy things or join her 'business'.


She is well aware how i feel about all of it, i am a keen nutrition/health advocate and therefore i like to see the SCIENCE behind the benefits of certain things, not 'rave reviews' from her customers.
She came to stay with me once and tried to sell me one of the 'detox' programmes (:mad:) to which i replied, okay... tell me how this will benefit me any more than if i should detox naturally without all these 'special' ingredients. She had no response. This frustrated me even further because she doesn't know herself and yet she is selling a product.
What if someone was to ask about allergies?! you can't even tell them what's in the product so they can decide whether they can even safely use it?! Grrrrr.

But MORE to the point...

The actual guilt trips of 'if you were my friend', 'its only £... i know you can afford it' is SO selfish.

Why, friend or not, should i sacrifice my hard earned money (and same goes to the OP) on something i DO NOT WANT, to top up her pay?

Why, do these people think it's okay (or just not care) to make their 'friends' poorer... as long as it's benefitting them?

I think it's all very selfish if you ask me. And the next guilt trip I get from my friend.... she will be receiving this exact rant. :rotfl:

gayleygoo

I've been to one of those parties when my friend started selling them. I think it was more of a "practice" night so we weren't expected to buy anything, though I did buy a couple of sale items I was interested in. However, it's not a good idea to be constantly inviting only friends to these parties, the OP's friend will have to make an effort to set up parties with strangers in order to have any chance of making a profit and keeping her friends! Just like with any business.

I'd attend a party once to show support, or if I thought it would be a fun evening (for the likes of bodyshop or ann summers where it can be good craic as well), or if I needed to buy those things I'd place an order through her, but wouldn't sign up to any schemes or fall for the nonsense of detox programs etc. Hopefully your friend will understand that it's just not something you are interested in buying into.

Birdie85

These detox things make me laugh, the FL cult member on my FB clearly works out a lot as is very toned as well as slim (6 pack, defined arms etc) yet is always posting photos of her stomach claiming it's 100% down to the aloe vera cleanse... who falls for that?!

A woman in my office has recently done the detox thing and was quite enthusiastic about it at first as she lost 9lb in a week (all water weight) but then quickly grew quiet as I expect the weight came straight back on and she hasn't become skinny overnight, who'd have thunk it?!