Amway in USA...Anyone has any ideas ??

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raksrules

raksrules

Oracle
So the story goes like this. I am currently in USA and for my travel needs i have to depend on this colleague of mine who has a car. He is a member of Amway here in USA and from the looks of it he is hunting for more members. In order to do that he had last week invited me to this seminar event and he had 'guest passes' for the same and offered me but i refused to go knowing what amway and other MLM schemes are all about.
But he seems to be hell bent on getting his way and today morning while coming to office he put his "Business audio CD" in the car which talks about stuff like "dont you want to ear money, dont you want to travel around the world, do you want to insulate yourself from recession, do you want to create wealth" and all such. He told he likes to listen to this CD while travelling. But i am sure that is not the case. He deliberately put it to force feed me the information.
So anyone has any idea about how this amway thing works ? I just know that they sell overpriced products through a private channel. I know people say the product quality is good and what not but still nothing convinces me.
 
^^I bet....but it has been only a week since i came and i don't have money to buy that. Will take at least 3 months :(

Used car prices are high now.
 
MLM people can be bit pushy...I had a similar case, and I politely but firmly refused saying that I have no faith in MLM schemes and would not appreciate any 'follow-ups'. My thoughts on MLM- it can earn you good money provided you have good salesman skills and join early in the scheme. IT IS NOT FOR EVERYONE, though.
 
Better avoid them.
My doc sis mentioned that they sell a product worth rupees 50 for 5000.
So that they can pay you those perks.
So if you can manage those targets then you could buy a new car earlier than you might think.
Else a cheaper solution will be to buy noise cancelling headphones and listen to music while driving :P
 
^^LOL My exact thought that from tomorrow i should plug in my earphones and travel. I admit i don't have any salesman skills and have no business sense and can never ever succeed in ay business. That is the primary reason i am in service industry doing a 8 to <god knows when i will go home> work.
 
This might sound a bit naive, but there used to be this neighbour of mine at my hometown who was a banker in SBT. He had joined Amway back in the late '90s. He had his wife enrolled and his children later. Ultimately, resigned from the bank and dedicated his time entirely to Amway. Got a bunch of folks from our neighbourhood enrolled under him. Now he has pretty much all the riches - owns few flats and villas, buildings leased out, a Merc, has been abroad to attend Amway's seminars and so forth.

So although this might be another Ponzi scheme, people are still being benefited.
 
^^But only if one has the skill to make others members and convince them to buy overpriced products right ?

Btw this guy's wife too is a member (isn't that obvious) and she is constantly trying to persuade my wife on this amway thing. She suggested some amway moisturizing cream to her costing an outrageous 20$. Something which is easily available for 1.5 to 3.5$ here in walmart from known brands. God knows why these people are so much pushy and want others to fall for this, only because they have already invested.

Btw from what my understanding is of amway is that if a member X makes another member Y then member X earns a part of commission on what purchases of amway products by member Y ??
 
raksrules said:
^^But only if one has the skill to make others members and convince them to buy overpriced products right ?
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Definitely, they should work. As such we cannot expect someone else to join under us and work for us. Their motivation is primarily from the higher-ups.

raksrules said:
Btw from what my understanding is of amway is that if a member X makes another member Y then member X earns a part of commission on what purchases of amway products by member Y ??
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Yeah but a small amount. When member Y starts a branch with a certain number of people who begins to work, X earns a huge profit. And so does Y.
 
In Gannu's example, the guy joined at the correct time. If Rakshit had joined infy in the 90's he would also have no need to work so it is all about when and where you do things.

Coming to your dilemma, you will become a member but then to whom will you sell the required stuff so as to recoup your investment? Do you know people in the US who will be willing to buy stuff from an "Indian" stranger? Dont think you can sell this stuff to your friends/relatives without losing respect. They might start avoiding you if they come to know that you are selling this stuff and might start running away from you whenever they see you assuming that you are only contacting them to sell your stuff.

To sum it up, if you had joined this thingy 5-6 years earlier then maybe you would have had a chance. This stuff is only for slightly shameless people who have a big social circle and have good persuasion skills. Do you have the same? Including a big social circle, in the US?
 
Which city are you in, that you cannot avail domestic travel to your work place..? If your friend is doing you a favor by daily taking you to and fro from office, then face the heat and listen to his crum (ya just 90 days -- start a calendar cross off) or diplomatically tell him you are not interested. But this will not deter him. Man, even if you join the MLM, it will be damn difficult to sell. American's hate to talk to strangers specially sales men who approach them personally. Privacy space is extremely tight there and respected and the laws are strong.

People from these types of set-ups are pushy and love to play psychological games. They know if your wife agrees so will you. You are alone in a alien country, hardly with friends and kin, so need a friendly shoulder. Be careful. Do what you were sent there for.
 
A - there is never a correct time for anything - imagine if an engineer got a job from google today and rejected the offer saying that it would have been the correct time to join google if he was offered the job back in the year 2000 or so.

B - each to his own ... had it been a ponzi scheme, the govt and the people are not that stupid that they would have let anything of that sort continue for this long especially in the US.

C - always ask the right people... if you ask a doctor how to be an engineer or a successful one that is ... he cant tell you... same goes for lawyers ... charted accountants etc etc etc... you are asking the wrong people... if you want to succeed at ANYTHING .... ask a person who is successful in that field. if you dont want to succeed at something ... dont waste their time :P.

Bottom line... business is not some course or some product that you can seek opinion about, its a way of life.. imagine if dheeru bhai ambani or even bill gates would have seeked the opinion of his fellow workers ... what kind of answers would they have got from people who dont have any idea about success in business ... they would have only told them how others have failed and how he would fail too.

Seek the information you want to seek from someone whose successful not from us who dont know the ins and outs of anything that you're talking about.
 
Gannu said:
So although this might be another Ponzi scheme, people are still being benefited.
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Amway is not a Ponzi Scheme. Ponzi schemes pay old members by getting money from new joinees. Amway pays members only from the products that they sell. They save up a lot on advertising for the products, distribution to retailers, wholesaler/retailer margin etc etc.

It is an MLM which means multi-level marketing. Whether their prices are good or not is an individual's choice. If you join them you become a salesperson and get a percentage of the sales back as a bonus/incentive. If you get others to join and in turn mentor them, then you get a percentage of their sales too and so on and so forth. As you go higher up, you will have ever increasing targets to meet. There is nothing like join early and enjoy for the rest of your life thing.

As mentioned by others, if you have a sales oriented mindset this is an alternative for extra income, just make sure you don't spend too much just to get started on this and then ignore it later due to lack of interest. Amway is not the only option for this kind of stuff too. A friend of mine is involved in another MLM who deal predominantly in health-care products and they have an established base in India too. Most of this rant is from my interaction with my friend and I have attended the first seminar/event thingy too. Did not join as sales is not my selling point :P

No point in naming alternatives as I don't want to advertise these. Many people join due to the hype that is created in the seminars and think of this as easy money.
 
pr0ing said:
Amway is not a Ponzi Scheme. Ponzi schemes pay old members by getting money from new joinees. Amway pays members only from the products that they sell. They save up a lot on advertising for the products, distribution to retailers, wholesaler/retailer margin etc etc.
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If that business model is so great how come none of the companies that sell products that people actually need have adopted them? There is a reason there is no Amway thread in out hot deals section :P

Plus the business model at its simplest is actually like wholesaler -> 'n' number of middle men in the various levels -> customer who gets persuaded to buy their useless overpriced merchandise. Of course the Amway people were smart enough to technically avoid the "commision for new joinees angle" and make it into "commision from products that new joinees force upon friends/family". I have no clue as to how that actually is a more efficient model than normal distribution where there are fewer levels which are essentially based on logistics aspect alone.
 
red dragon said:
Don`t you have the DART transport system in your area?Plano is in Collin County right?
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DART is available but nearest stop is like 15/20 minutes walk and the buses and trains go in opposite direction (Proper Dallas Downtown). My office is on opposite side to this at McKinney.
Selling stuff is not my forte too and i know i am very bad at this. Such people approach strangers with the mindset that these can be potential members under their binary tree and same is happening with my wife. That guy's wife had told couple of time to my wife that she will come to my home to explain stuff and all. So people want to meet for business purpose and not with the mindset of just doing some chit chat only.
All i know is that people who get sucked in such things have their mindset changed and become predators looking out for the next victim.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

Again suffered the torture speech in the car today. :@:@
 
Tell him your great-great-grand mother has cancer and you are sending all your money to India for her treatment. Any donations from Amway will be appreciated. Hopefully he won't bring up the issue again.

Also, Amway is definitely a Pyramid scheme. People who got in early will benefit. They use the products to safe guard from pyramid scheme laws.

Scheme 1 - Get 10 people to pay me RS 100, you will get a share of that - Govt. will shut that down.

Amway - Get 10 people to pay me Rs 110 (but "sell" them this product that costs Rs 10 to manufacture) - Govt. will have to deal with you like a legitimate business.
 
People getting into this (so called) business have to be thoroughly shameful as they never miss an opportunity to advertise.

Yesterday i asked him what credit card to get and his reply was "Main to mera yeh AMWAY ka use karta hoon as Bank Of America has tie up with Amway" :-[
 
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