View Full Version : Pyramid Selling
I joined a pyramid selling company called Amway about 15 years ago but packed it in after 6 months due to nobody wanted to join me!! :lol: The stuff that they were selling was allsorts of things from washing powder to sunglasses. The stuff was very good quality but...the whole thing was a bit cliquey for me and I'm not much of a salesman. I wasn't really stung by them, I paid about £40 for products which I used and £40 for the business plan setup. I could have made a go of it but to be honest, I was quite lazy and disorganised at the time.[smirk]
Has anybody else joined a pyramid selling company and what experiences have you had with them?
I joined Parfums du Monde some years ago but found I wasn't suited to it....I didn't like to keep on asking if folks wanted to buy the stuff. It was good stuff but a bit pricey. I think pyramids are only good if you get in at the beginning so that you have lots of folks under you earning money for you!!
Amway can take over your life....I have read a lot of sad stories about people who have had BIG problems with them in the USA.....don't know about here.
hhhmmmmm....What I know as a pyramid scheme is quite different! I was taken to a pyramid scheme meeting by a friend ( refrain: an aquaintance...a friend would not try to get you into it!). Anyway, there was alot of marketing hype, lots of noise and dynamics, not allowing for people to talk amongst themselves and keep things troting along as fast as possible explaining this "financial product". The "financial product" consisted of buying into the scheme for lets say 1500 pounds. The person buying in had to try get at least three other people in. If he did, 10% of what they payed in would go to him. This second generation would get another three in, and the second and thrid generation would once again recieve 10%. Many fell for it, but it was just cheating their friends and aquaintaces out of money. These pyramid schemes infected huge ammounts of people in a very short time and are, obviously, illegal.
hhhmmmmm....What I know as a pyramid scheme is quite different! I was taken to a pyramid scheme meeting by a friend ( refrain: an aquaintance...a friend would not try to get you into it!). Anyway, there was alot of marketing hype, lots of noise and dynamics, not allowing for people to talk amongst themselves and keep things troting along as fast as possible explaining this "financial product". The "financial product" consisted of buying into the scheme for lets say 1500 pounds. The person buying in had to try get at least three other people in. If he did, 10% of what they payed in would go to him. This second generation would get another three in, and the second and thrid generation would once again recieve 10%. Many fell for it, but it was just cheating their friends and aquaintaces out of money. These pyramid schemes infected huge ammounts of people in a very short time and are, obviously, illegal.
That`s what i thought pyramid was all about, didnt know it had anything to do with selling amway ect. what ive heard isnt good anyway.
When I lived down south alot of people I knew were into Amway. They all had the same patter, almost like a religious cult.I asked two people who didn't know each other if it was pyramid selling and they both used the same phrases and examples which shows that they were all told to say the same things.Another friend was asked to go along, so she did,just to see what it was all about and she said they were almost like a church talking about morals and the way to live (according to them).The next week she didn't go and had three people on her doorstep the next day demanding to know why.My advise to anyone thinking of it is to stay well clear - if something sounds too good to be true then it usually is.
Spurtle, that was exactly how it was for me.
I joined a pyramid selling company called Amway about 15 years ago but packed it in after 6 months due to nobody wanted to join me!! :lol: The stuff that they were selling was allsorts of things from washing powder to sunglasses. The stuff was very good quality but...the whole thing was a bit cliquey for me and I'm not much of a salesman. I wasn't really stung by them, I paid about £40 for products which I used and £40 for the business plan setup. I could have made a go of it but to be honest, I was quite lazy and disorganised at the time.[smirk]
Has anybody else joined a pyramid selling company and what experiences
have you had with them?
Oh Rheghead you didn't! I did it several years ago. The hype was amazing! Seemed we were all set to make a fortune! In reality the only people making money was those at the top of the pyramid. And looking back, I would say it was like a religious cult. One of the meetings showed an American video with People crying amd saying how they had never found true happiness until they began selling Amway! They had (believe it or not) finally found freedom! Before that their lives were the pits! That was when I thought - boy am I that gullable? Get me outa here! Even if the pyramid stuff worked, there is not enough people per head of population in Caithness for it to work for everyone. Kinds like chain letters - send a pound to the person at the top and in so many weeks you will recieve £1,000. OK. works in principle - but everyone has to play ball.
Get me outa here! Even if the pyramid stuff worked, there is not enough people per head of population in Caithness for it to work for everyone. Kinds like chain letters - send a pound to the person at the top and in so many weeks you will recieve £1,000. OK. works in principle - but everyone has to play ball.
No it doesn't, even if everyone did play ball. Only the first few people would be contemplated with any return. There simply aren't enough people...it's a bit like that conundrum, of putting a grain of rice on the first square of a chess board, 2 grains on the second, 4 on the third, 8 on the forth and so on. By the last square there isn't enough rice in the world and there are only 64 squares on a chess board.
Alice in Blunderland
26-Jan-06, 19:59
I have heard of Amway.A good few years ago a friend invited us to her house to discuss a good business opportunity not saying what, I went along and thats when the hype began.I guessed before he got to the punchline what it was all about as my mum and dad were involved with Amway years ago down south.I didnt like the secrecy and at first politely showed interst as my friend had invited me then went home.I had them on my doorstep within a week pressing me further it was like the mafia I firmly said no and they left me in peace but I thought it relied too heavily on you getting your friends to buy the stuff and this puts an eventual strain on friendships business and friendships are tricky... best kept well apart.
Has anybody else joined a pyramid selling company and what experiences have you had with them? Funny, I’ve been thinking about my own pyramidal experiences recently. What got you reminiscing? For me it was the thread about the guys coming around the doors selling deals for cheap meals in hotels (http://showthread.php?t=6158).
When I was looking for a job between first year and second year of Uni I went into the Job Centre (in Thurso) and saw an advert for a ‘marketing’ job in Glasgow. Since I was going to Uni in Glasgow and marketing was part of my degree I figured it was great experience and applied – one week later I was in an office in St. Enoch Square being taught how to sell A4 sheets of card for £20 a pop. At the same time I was being told all about the fantastic opportunities that would open up for me. Everybody was so positive and eager that it was hard not to fall for it… besides, I’d found the job through the Job Centre so it must have been legit, right? Wrong.
I was taken on as a ‘marketing executive’ (Yeah, right!) but was actually self-employed. Every morning I’d go to the office for a motivational exercise (yes, we ran around the office like idiots chanting mantras that were supposed to boost our selling-power) before collecting a stack of deal-cards and heading off to whichever area of Glasgow (and beyond) was being targeted that day. Being self-employed meant that I had already shelled out upwards of £10 on transport before knocking on a single door. The day was then spent walking from door to door to door to door, desperately trying to convince people that £20 for a piece of card wasn’t too high a price (not easy).
After walking the streets until 7pm it was then back to the office to settle up. I’d give back every card I hadn’t sold (most of them) and ‘buy’ the ones I had sold for £17.50… so I got to keep a massive £2.50 for each card sold. To break even (with transport and lunch) I’d have to have sold up to five cards – on an average day I might sell four.
Anyway, so far it’s just a rubbish job… but it was a pyramid scheme as well.
We were recruited by other ‘marketing executives’ and became a part of their ‘team’. You’d get a cut of every card sold by one of your recruits, a smaller cut of every card sold by one of their recruits and so on down the pyramid. Once you had four recruits and each of your four recruits had two of their own you could ‘buy’ a franchise (you never really owned it) for £6000 and take your team off to pastures new. Getting the team was hard enough, but getting the team and £6000? That was hard.
It took me two months to get over my belief that the Job Centre would never advertise a pyramid scheme. It took me a lot longer than that to pay off the debt I racked up in those two months (what with rent, food, transport, etc. and a take-home pay of about £5 a day) but I certainly came away from the whole thing wiser than I went in.
So, the next time somebody knocks on your door with an A4 piece of card for £20 offer them a cup of tea… but whatever you do, don’t agree to work for them.
Somebody might be able to put me right on this, but I don't think the Job Centres have a lot of choice over who places Job Adverts with them.
I know of a case of a "Security Firm" which, on the face of it, was Legitimate. The Job Centre were fully aware that there was a "sleeping partner" in the background who, amongst other things, was running what amounted to running a protection racket using "Doormen". You either had his "Doormen" or you had serious problems, take you pick!
The problem was that it was very difficult to prove there was a link so the Job Centre had no sound reason to refuse to advertise jobs for the apparently legitimate business.
Nobody who got involved was willing to complain officially because it was ever so slightly risky to do so. The last I heard of the "sleeping partner" was that he was out of the country avoiding arrest for attempted murder after a dispute about him pushing to the front of a Taxi Queue on a Saturday night.
Well, he did have his image to keep intact!
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