### Amway: The Untold Story

## Your Comments, Part 51

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Here are some of the responses I've received to the information on this page. I've left them as is, except for a) removing the names to protect privacy, and b) reformatting them to fit the screen better.

This is a long file...I suggest downloading it to your computer and reading it off-line.

My thanks to everyone who took the time to contribute their opinions.

[NOTE: Some of these messages contain offensive language]

Just heard you're going back online. Is it true? Truly hope so. Thanks Sid for all you do to help people learn the truth behind the deceptions behind the big "A". If it were not for you, more and more people would be "mentally raped" and not even know till they are broke from the AMO'S and Amway. Bless you for the courage and fearless attitude you have to expose the abuses. Have over a decade of deprogramming to do. With the support online from you and others, finally I realize I am not alone. No negative downline and crossline still linger in my brain. Just have broken through the veil of deceit. Finally, finally, finally know what has been wrong with me. Blamed myself for so long. Could not understand why, till now. Again, my sincere gratitude and thankfulness to you and believe me I know and support your 'cause.'

What's the matter didn't work hard enough on your business, did you quit??

Amway is a great business, it has great morals, great ethics, and GREAT Christian people. Don't spread rumors or comments about this great opportunity when yourself failed at it. I strongly encourage you to take your web site off and stop spreading lies about Amway.

you have your opionions on Amway. our directs and upline tell us not to spend anymore money then we can afford. our bills and family come first then the business. Amway has been very good to us. not all amway people are bad. any company has people who misrepresent it.

Dear Mr. Schwartz

As an inactive Amway distributor who never made any money in that business I am amazed and amused by the bitterness and stupidity of those who tried the business and failed. Actually, they should kiss the hands of the Amway founders for providing the chance to "try out" for some financial success at such a cheap price! Aside from some of the deranged morons who slobber over their keyboards in blaming their upline etc., I think that every single person who hasn't achieved the rewards they wanted knows exactly why!! WE DIDN'T WANT TO! Period. End of story. It is a business that brings you face to face with yourself...there's nowhere to hide!

Those who quit aren't losers. Neither are those who stay in without making any money. The only pathetic people are the ones filling up your web page with their sniveling and ranting. They are truly losers!

As for those who spent money beyond good sense, well as Ted Turner has said, "America is full of dumb people". These are the same people who would screw up a "no-brainer" franchise business after investing hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Amway ones got off cheap!

Hello:

I thought I would express my feelings on this fantastic site. Everyone should have a chance to read the abundance of information about Amway before joining. I say these words to the reader: YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE RICH FOLLOWING THE SYSTEM! Some will, but the majority will not. Look around you...at the functions...at the nightowls...at the opens...THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL! I'll tell you what I saw:

I SAW:

1) An upline who was interested in me as long as I bought tapes, attended functions, and read books - LINING HIS POCKET WITH MY MONEY! BUILDING HIS BUSINESS WITH MY MONEY! WITH YOUR MONEY! 2) The same people - who were "plugged in" - NEVER REACHING ANYTHING HIGHER THAN 2500 PV, OR 1000 PV, OR 100 PV. The same people. Yes...some reached higher levels, but went back down the following month and never reached that level again. 3) Myself as a person who went out looking for people to show the plan to. Looking at them as a potential money-maker for me. Never looking at them as a potential friend.

I sent my upline a card thanking them for their time, but telling them I was no longer going to pursue Amway. Here's what happened:

1) My upline called me to find out if I was "quitting". Did he thank me for the card? YEAH RIGHT...Uplines are not required to say thanks or apologize FOR ANYTHING! 2) They have never called since I mailed the card. Amazing...He once said that our friendship could never be broken...no matter what. What a great line! What a pathetic lie!

I have yet to meet a millionaire from Amway even though " TWENTY PERCENT OF ALL MILLIONAIRES COME FROM THIS BUSINESS" Ask them to introduce you to a few. Ask them to give you a listing. I bet they can't.

I called Amway and I have to admit they were concerned about the techniques being used. That pathetic Profiles of Success "SHOULD NOT BE USED ON PROSPECTS", but yet they are used daily. IMAGINE THAT!

Look around.....

Just wanted you to here from one more person who has had a positve experience in amway both financially and personally.If you dedicated as much time "in" amway as you do to this site you would be wealthy. Also, most of the negative things you talk about on your site pertain not to what amway teaches but to information that a distributor may learn from his upline such as the use of tools etc. By the way, I retired when I was 26. When you want to learn how to do amway right dont call me!! Put this in "your comments"!! Signed Get A Life

S.S

somewhat of a strange web site yet at the sametime I do beleive it is needed. for both sides of the argument. I have and still do work in the production side of the ammway (for want of a bettter word) pyramid.All those big away weekends with the lighting and sound and hoopla...Ive seen and heard alot ,because im in the thick of it all I see and talk to the directors etc....of more downstreems upstreams and any otherstreams then any of the people of amway everwill or would have ..

The problem that I have is that ...sure you can make it ..but what are you after , to be like the next one or be succesfull...the people at the top ...sure they have it all ..the money the cars ...the friends ??? these people ...at times of no fault of there own ..are ..mere robots ..controled by a product of which they have become ....amway promotes freedom .. They are not free they have become traped and unable to get away once they are at there dream ....money is not everything ...amway is a product of which you are all becoming...something I have noticed is that ..after * years of concerts awayweekends .etc

you would hardly see the same people ...they were almost always new.... bar the directs etc ..

Im am basically saying ....if you set your mind to anything ... you dont need money to always do what you dream .. and if youve heard some of the comments backstage of what direc5ts really think of downstreams ...you have no friends in amway there only your friends ..becuase they use you to get what they want ..

sure if you want it and your in it and youve made it ...Ok good luck to you ...but remmember you yourself ..you are meirlly a product .. greed is an evil thing ..or want or what everyou call it.. .. you may say Im jealous ..well of what I ask .. Ive seen been to and meet ..more famous people and places ..then any of you will ..with freedom ...and with out the help of anyone or the need to copy or follow any kind of Direct etc ..Iam a product of my own imagination and effort .. do yourself a favour break into real freedom ..

Hello Mr. Schwartz, First I would like to say great job!!! Keep it up. I also have an amway story. My friend's wife went to a meeting and was hook on it right away. The next week she took my friend with her. This is went I play part in this. They page me from themeeting telling me that they hane found something that's gonna make us rich and powerful. Needless to say it got my attention. Well, the next day I went to their house to see what this thing is about. Amway is good.........at brainwashing that ismy friend of 5 years was acting and talking in a way that i have never seen before he was pump up on amway. Right away i had a bad feeling about this thing, but i agree to go to a meeting with them and their new friends. That night i told mygirlfriend about as soon as i said i was amway she went nuts. I turns out that most of her family had been in "the Business" and they found out the hard way what sca....amway is about. The next afternoon i went on the net to check my e-mail, that's wheni decide to do some research on this people that's when i found you guys. I knew that there was something fishy.....but goddamn. This people are bad. Right away i call my friend and his wife to tell them about this (the meeting was in1 hour i was suppose to be at their place long time ago) i spoke to his wife she said that all that stuff was bull**** and that they were still going. At this point my friend takes the phone and says that i'm close minded.

at this moment i realize that their was nothing changing their minds. Needless to say i didn't go to the meeting, as a matter of fact i didn't speak to my buddy for a couple of weeks. During that time i would try to find out more and more about amway and i did. Finnally me and friend started talking again (no hard fellings) at this point they had join amway, they seem to like it. They would ask me to join and i said no, they also ask my girl to join, you know her answer. Well one they ask me what i think of amway and their desicion to join. I told them everything i found out which most of it was bad. the wife defended the business and my bud say nothing. when i told them how the upline made a lot of $$$$ at seminars for just talking shit for a fewminutes the wife say that they need to get to that level so that they can really make money. HELLO you can't get to that level. this girl has been brainwash. this businees sucks. Well they still in it.they are never home, they have a beautyfulnew born that they don't really pay attention to (his mother told me this) because of amway she has no job, he's about to lost his job, their car is about to be repo and they are 10,000 in debt. they said that amway is gonna safe them. I wish i could help them but first they must help themselves.

Sydney,

Feel free to post this. Unlike many of your responders I have been in the Amway business 10+ years, 8 of those at the Emerald level and still in. I have made a serious six-figure income. However, in the last three years the light has come on for us. The most serious challenge to the Amway business is the "systems". Rich DeVos addressed these serious problems in a tape called "Directly Speaking". If people will do a little research (thanks to your site) and read the transcripts of these tapes, then refer to a lawsuit Rick Setzer filed against Amway in the 80's and read DeVos' own words about trying to take out the systems cost Amway $300 million dollars in lost revenue. They had the chance to do what was right then, but it threatened their survival as I am sure there were real and perceived threats from some of the larger "system" organizations.

Groups like Yager, Britt, Puryear, Wilson, etc. have taken on the personna and cultlike tendencies of the PTL. (Yes, Yager was one of the most devoted PTL & Jim Bakker groupies, and one of their largest financial backers). These people have wrapped themselves in non-denominational charismatic justification for their actions and have thousands following them, believing in their heart they ARE pursuing the American Dream and God's Will at the same time. Ever heard of a 'CULT'? It has taken me almost a year to be de-programmed...not kidding!

These systems abuse people, plain and simple. I know. I was on the inside. Listen, if the system is so great, then the proof would be in the statistics. If listening to tapes, reading books, and going to functions were going to get you Diamond, where's the proof? How many people make it? Keep believing you will, because that's what they want. An insatiable appetite for tools. That keeps fuel in the jet, houseboats on Lake Powell, 10,000 sq. ft. homes, and ridiculous jewelry all over middle age men. I could write a book Actually, I'm going to. The best reference for people who want to see past the hype, is your site, Jeff Probandts site, and to REALLY read the lawsuits. Especially the Morrison suit, the Pruitt suit, the Musgrove suit, the Hart suit, the Setzer suit among others. These people were in the inner circle of what you people are trying to get into. Educate yourselves. The Amway Corp. is just as guilty. They continue to ignore the abuses and refuse to censure or regulate the larger Diamonds, and profit handsomely. Amway has simply become the tail wagging the dog. The ADA Board is a joke. They are not separate from Amway, they are Amway. How can any board made up of multi-millionaires who achieved that status by a system (parasitic in nature) that put them in that position financially represent average Joe Six-Pack distributor? Their wealth has not been attained through the sale of Amway products....get real! Amway, with it's original leadership in Rich and Jay, is fading with their age, as the kids cannot sustain the leadership and continue to cave into the larger organization leaders like Yager, afraid to take them on. Amway's numbers are down. Especially

North America, and specifically the U.S. If it wasn't for foreign market openings, they could not post "new record revenue". Wait until the international markets run out.

Amway is like a ship who continues to load itself with gold, until it is so heavy, it will sink from it's own greed. If you don't believe this can happen, just watch how the Morrison suit unfolds. This, coupled with the Proctor & Gamble suit, is a very, very serious threat to Amway's existence. If your interested in passing your business on to future generations, you better hope and pray, and demand, that Amway takes over the tool and function businesses and makes it legal. Otherwise

your in a ship that keeps getting lower and lower and lower, with icebergs on the horizon, icebergs like the Morrison suit and the P & G suit, and more icebergs being added monthly. Do your research. Ask questions. Don't fall for the cliches and double-talk. Listen to your instincts. Stayed tuned on the internet. Read the lawsuits and take them to your upline and your distributor relations coordinators and demand an end to the "systems" as we know them!

Hi Schwartz,

I really appreciate the eyeopeners you have on your webpage about Amway. I would like you to add another one:

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/anand/amway.html

You have all these transcripts but no verdicts. Are these unresolved cases or are the results not beneficial to this page...

Spreading malicious lies about any person or group of people doesn't make you any better!

You have obviously put allot of time into your price comparison. I will agree that there are a fair number of products that cost more than you could buy them for at Wal-Mart or Sam's club ect.

Do you and your friends think that this is a business about products? If you do, you have obviously missed the big picture. The business is about giving hopes and dreams back to people who those dreams have been shattered by the typical J.O.B.

What I would do if I was you and your friends, check out what I.N.A. is doing and how they are turning this business into a huge money making experience.

Think about it! This is not a business about products, it is a business about people!

Mr. Schwartz:

I have recently been approached by a very good and long-time friend about joining his business. At a recent meeting, after two hours of extolling its virutes, he finally told me it was Amway. The next night he insisted that I come to an area meeting with him.

I found your web site in an effort to do independent resaerch on some of his claims. The information on your web site is consistent with some impressions I had already formed listening to these "too good to be true" claims.

As a CPA, I noted with some interest the detailed analysis on your site of the earnings and break-even periods of Amway distributors. It appears, however, that your analysis did not take into effect the tax consequences of generating income through Amway. By my calculations, the period of time to break-even and to realize income is much worse han stated when the tax factors are considered.

One thing I am interested in is finding out who is behind "Global Support Systems." This was the name on the promotional material my friend gave me. Have you heard of this company or whatever before?

Thank you for your help and your information. Obviously I will not be joining Amway. Now I just need to find a way to break this news to my friend.

Hello,

I am sending this message because in my search for information about Amway it is interesting all the information you can find in the Internet, but When I decide to find information about Amway I type "Amway" in the Yahoo search option and got several documents to pick from. After looking at several of them I notice one name "Amway: Fact or Fiction?". After reading it, I was amaze at all the stuff that is going on with this Amway business with actual documentation to support their finding. I just recommend to anyone how claims that this work or to anyone how was a distributor to look it up since I believe you will get a lot out of it.

Bravo! You have just done a brilliant job of trashing Amway and its distributors. I applaud your ability to be totally one-sided while coming across as "impartial." I've been an Amway distributor for almost three years now, and I would like to offer an "alternative" thought process. AMWAY IS NOT FOR EVERYBODY! If it's not for you, quit whining and get on with your life. The world would fall apart if everyone became a full-time Amway distributor. Who would design the roads? Build the cars? Treat the sick? These and many other occupations are very honorable and necessary to our way of life. Likewise, the Amway opportunity has a purpose as well. It provides people with a vehicle to gain control over time and money. It allows families to supplement their income if the need arises (laid off, retirement, new child, etc.) It gives entrepreneurial people the chance to own a business with minimal investment, low risk, and unlimited income potential. It is an opportunity for "average" people to do something great and be recognized as achievers. It provides the global marketplace with an alternative to conventional marketing and distribution. But most of all, the Amway opportunity gives people a CHANCE to live a better life. Will they make the most of it and succeed? That's up to them, but at least they have the choice. Isn't that what America and freedom are all about? Amway is not a guarantee or a promise. It is an opportunity. The reason people get so excited and "fanatical" about the Amway business is simple: they have been placed in an environment where the sky is the limit. There are no qualifications based on income, talent, personality, business experience or education. All you need is a desire for a better life. This desire, if strong enough, will cause you to develop the things necessary for success in ANY endeavor, such as: a strong work ethic, respect for your fellow man (or woman), unshakable determination, persistence, the ability to set goals properly, enthusiasm, belief in self, etc. Sounds like work, doesn't it? Bingo! That's the reason why everyone who gets in doesn't become a millionaire in the first five years. Some people are just plain lazy, and the best business opportunity in the world won't turn them into J. Paul Getty. When these people give up or quit, who do you think they are going to blame? Themselves? You know better than that. Not everyone is mature enough to admit that they were given a chance and blew it. It was their upline's fault! No, wait, it's because Amway is a cult! Yeah, that sounds good. Get a life, people, and stop criticizing what you probably don't understand.

You probably won't have the guts to post this, but I enjoyed giving the "other" side of the story. Go Diamond!

Thank you so much, I have family that is a part of amway, and I have been trying to get them out of it for 2 months. I see them on a daily basis, and they try to get me to go to meetings, and become part of their so called buisiness. I refuse, telling them it is a cult, and i am not weak. This whole amway thing has torn apart my family. I wish my family would go back to the way it was, but alsa reality has set it...my family will never be the same.

Last month I went on a day trip with my one aunt ( I am 17 by the way) our destination was 2 hours away. The whole way there I was forced to listen to tapes from amway. When we got there I opened her trunk to get something out, and I find over 200 tapes in there.

I just dont know what to say or do about it. I guess nothing. I really like your site, and it is helping me understand my psycho family.

I apologize for your experience and those of others who have been negatively impacted by Amway. Nevertheless, the business works. It truly feel sorry for those who are so psychologically vulnerable as to fall into a hypnotic spell under the tapes. Maybe if more people went to college... However, Amway is working for me. And I haven't hurt anyone, conduct my business ethically, and know who and who not to sponsor.

your'e back!!!!!!!!!!! Whatever the right and wrongs and youre right! its a blow for freedom congratulations.

Hi there, I am currently an Amway distributor in the Yager line of sponsership. At the time of joining I was told that the tools were a nesacerry part of my busibness building. I was tiold that no one had ever built the buisness without these tools and I was told that seminar and Rally were esential over the past three years I have been ripped off by upline, lied to, and used. I reached the direct level (Silver) and then when the Robbins fiasco occured had to start again. In all my time in the business I have heard from every stage at every function that we are here to help you be succesful but I can promise you that I have continually asked for help and gotten nowhere. Is seems to me that it is all hype and how much can we get from you. I asked on several occasions if money was made from tools and I was told NO. I now understand just how much money is being made and when I addressed that I was told the Internet Services (owned by Dexter) was in busioness to make a profit. That I understand but rape I do not. There is a huge amount of money nmade from the tools and functions and to be honest I never got that much out of any of them. I estimate that I have spent in access of$17000. in three years and have made around $5000. for the amount of time and energy I could have had a great conventional business making a profit. I am sure there are people out there who are honest but in this line of sponsership I have yet to mmet them. We are told what strong christians they are but I do not see it in their actions.I know amway works but I am concerned over the lack of commitmment on their part to take care of the little guys.

Hello,

I just happened upon your site while browsing around for Amway information, and I must say that it is the most comprehensive one out there, and comes across without the B.S. of a lot of other anti-Amway sites. The bottom line of this email is to say that I'm quitting Amway tomorrow. I've been in for quite some time (let's just say that I've been in long enough to nearly pour $500-$1000 into the tools, which 95% of them are sitting in a box collecting dust), and have been programmed and brainwashed like every other sucker out there. The worst part about this is that I feel I have to lie to my sponsors in order for them to take back a bunch of the unopened tapes and other Amway crap around my house. After reading the price comparisons and Consumer Reports' articles on your site, I knew my gut feelings weren't lying to me -- the products are more expensive and inferior in quality to the stuff I can buy in stores. My mom and dad tried to tell me this, but I persisted and even got -them- to believe that these items were a "better buy", because most of them were "concentrated" or because I was buying them at "wholesale". $16 for a box of 8 small, nasty foodbars isn't my idea of a good deal. I can buy a huge box of Powerbars, get WAY more bang for the buck, better flavor, better variety, and not get fat because of it (fat content on the foodbars vs. Powerbars? It might shock some people. And that BS about the foodbars having that 'fat' that closes the sphincter below your stomach is a load... I'm hungry an hour or so later).

At any rate, I've lost a lot of friends, but I've already begun calling them up to explain my situation. I couldn't believe what I was being told in Amway... "If your best friend won't support you in this, they aren't really your friend." And I believed that!!! Three of my best friends and I haven't spoken since I showed them the plan, and I miss them. I miss them so much that I cry every night that I go to sleep listening to a tape, which is supposed to motivate me and make me feel better about "doing what's right" in my life. Money doesn't bring happiness, and while that's what the people on the tapes will tell you, see if the million bucks they're bringing in for residuals doesn't "sway" their words. Do people honestly think that they'd speak -down- on Amway if they're bringing in a 6 or 7-figure income because of it? HELL NO.

Anyway, I'm returning all the stuff I bought, and I'm burning the rest. Thanks for your website... it's saved me years of pain. Now I can go back to the life I had before, and even though it doesn't include the vacation homes on the river, the jet planes, the S-class Mercedes, the Rodeo Drive suits, and spending time with the Diamonds, I'm happy, because I'm spending time with the people I love, not the people who are using me to get what they want. Thanks, take care, and keep up the great work with your site... and oh yeah, please keep my name confidential.

A wise man will not seek justice but will seek the truth. Once I understood this basic fact I was well on the way to deprogramming myself. So much of Amway and Business Support Group rhetoric contains no hard facts.

I hope your site will give current and prospective distributors a balanced insight to 'the business', enabling them to make a real value judgement on quite what they can achive.

5 years in the business gave my babysitter a new car; I missed 5 years of my kids growing up and I am trying to work my way out of £30,000.00 of debt. Oh yes, I nearly forgot. It cost me my marriage.

Keep up the good work, spread the truth.

As a new Amway distributor, I find your web page to be informative. I am glad there are resources such as this on the internet because it is good to find out the pros and cons before you start a business.

I have noticed some of the cult-like behavior your web page mentions. However, no one in my line of sponsorship has exhibited this behavior. they are a little more relaxed, I guess. The tapes and books aren't pushed, and I am not pushed to go to any functions. I have attended a couple of business plan presentations because I wanted more information--I was not asked or told to attend. Everyone has been very helpful and honest. So, I guess I am lucky I got into a good line of sponsorship.

As for the religious overtones, I just tune that bullshit out. It is a conscious choice. I knew when I became a distributor that many Amway distributors constantly reference god and church. I just choose not to listen, and focus on the business aspects.

I am an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist who enjoys studying performance managment techniques. While Amway is not flawless in this area, no organization is a perfect model. However, I think that Amway's pay for performance bonus schedule is a benchmark in incentive-based pay. Your pay is directly tied to your performance, with easily identified behaviors and accomplishments. (Unlike many corporate situations where you receive a paycheck no matter your specific accomplishments/behaviors are for the payperiod.) In the future, more companies will adopt a pay for performance incentive-based pay system because it will boost productivity, and weed out the non-producers.

Finally, comments about products. The products I have tried have been really good: Competitive in price and high in quality. I also conducted a price comparison study for my area prior to becoming a distibutor, and I only buy those things that are competitively priced. Some things are expensive, but things are also expensive in retail stores, and that's why you shop around before making a purchase! Again, it is a choice, and while there is encouragement to buy products from yourself, I have not experienced the pressure to becoming a fanatic.

Thanks for reading my e-mail!

P.S. The reasons I became a distributor: 1)I really need extra money to pay off my student loan from graduate school, and 2)I enjoy selling products and services.

Hi, I am from Indian and was involved with this AMWAY for a couple of months before deciding that I did not want to get involved with this CULT. But thats another story. My question and concern is a lot of Indians who come here to work on H1B visa are lured into this business. H1B visa is a work permit issued by INS and it is tied to the company which recurits him. Which means if wants to work for some other company also, he needs to get a seperate H1B visa. H1B visa allows him to invest money in share market, mutual funds etc.., The questions does this allow him to start his own business (which is what AMWAY claims). If this is not allowed then a considerable chunk of Indian community here in US are trouble. If you have any info. regarding this please e-mail me and I will distribute it to my friends.

Hi maybe you can help me our son and his wife is in and has been in amway for the past several years it has not prodused much in the way of financial help to them in fact they definitly spend more than they make from it trying to get it going they have not got their advancments as they hoped but keep looking to a better future. It is destroying their family values they are never home and their is problems beggining to surface in their relationship. Is their any way I can help them understand that amway is not a good way of making a living they seem to be infactuated by it sorta a cult memtality we have made some suggestions but we seem to be their enimy now so we have kept quit but as parents we are concerned and was hopping you or someone you could suggest please give us some info or direction to help them understand what they are doing with their lives. They think and exemplfy that amway is the only thing on the face of this earth they eat drink sleep and whatever amway it is controling their lives. Please help...

I love this website. Great job.

My husband & I have been married for over 8 years. In that time, we have been approached by approximately 20 couples about Amway. We must have "SUCKER" printed on our foreheads. Thank God we never fell for it. I attended one meeting & was freaked out. I've always said it reminded me too much of a cult. After reading your site, I now know why.

The really sad thing is that we are skeptical of any & all friendly strangers we meet now. But, nine times out of ten we are right. We get that inevitable phone call from them about 2-3 weeks later. What a shame.

As I sit here and read your site, my heart breaks and tears run down my face. I can't even remember the details of our BA (before Amway) life to tell you. I know that we had only been married a few years, 1991 and had just had our daughter. I wanted to quit my job and stay home. the american dream. My husband wasn't interested really, but let me join. After a few rejections and the inability to keep up the 100 pv a month buying, we quit going to our meetings. We are in the midwest and the Britt system was still small here. But about a year later, we started again, for the social aspect, the postive, Christian support group. At some point my husband got interested, our upline leaders really pumped him up, but at the same time as a wife, they put me down, I was to give him the checkbook, let him make the decisions, and our life would be wonderful. We bought into the system He was gone 5 nights a week, we never saw our children. We travelled from Iowa to North Carolina, TN, West Virginia, Louisiana, Phoenix to rallys and really built a "bond" with our new family. We went 1000 PV and thrived in the attention. But as ours and our meeting groups business grew, everything got more competive, you had to become a leader, leave your small distributers behind, even if they were friends and family. If something didn't work, it was because you didn't have enough self esteem, (which they announced at training to everyone). We averaged $5000 loss each year on our taxes (great write off). I can spout all the Amway answers to everyone. Finally one day my husband and I both "quit on the same day". We realized that we had done this for 6 years, and had less money than when we started. We had put off having children until I could "retire" and now our daughter is 8 years old, and I'm 32. We decided that if we took the money we spent on Amway support materials, meetings, and functions we could actually build a new house, buy a new car, and pay off our $10,000 credit card bill. We still are wholesale distributors, and try to keep in touch with some of our Amway friends we made, but I know that we are considered losers, that we settled- for, that we gave up our American dream. I know what I've said in the past about quitters. I guess when I realized that my self-esteem was at less than 0 because of the way Amway treats women who have been the leaders in their families, I realized they didn't have the right to judge me and determine how we ran our private lives. I know I'm babbling, but I have wanted to write our upline direct and tell them this forever. We are now living on our 20 acres, in our new 2000 square foot home, with a mortgage payment less than what we paid before, planning our Disney World trip, all with "Amway money" in a sense. Money we saved by not spending it on Amway support items! They baby is still questionable, we've probably waited too long in the Amway "fog". I hadn't even stopped to realize how much time had gone by and how much we missed. I am now looking into Pampered Chef, not as a career, but just to help get some of the credit card bills paid. Do you think it has the same "suck you in" power as Amway, or can I make money just by selling the products?

Thanks for letting me cry on your shoulder.

I am a public safety professional who works 40 hrs a week to protect a population of about 100,000 citizens.

24 hrs a day, I am an assistant fire chief, responsible for fire protection, and medical response to about 1,500 of those previously mentioned 100,000 citizens.

My wife accepted a scholarship to a local university many years ago, which must be paid off monetarily, or worked off in sweat equity as an educator. She is employed as a secretary/book keeper at her fathers business, because she could not gain employment in the field she studied for in college.

Together we make less than $40,000 dollars a year: This figure includes my salary as a full-time 911 operator, radio dispatcher, computer system operator, etc., and my paid per call fire/medical response; coupled with my wifes salary received from working at her father's welding shop as his secretary/book keeper/whatever else needs done.

My point being: The lies propogated by the society I live in, go way beyond whatever lies my Amway sponsor may have told me. Yes, we are still distributors of Amway products. No we are not as profitable a distributorship as others, but it is because I do not put in the effort it takes to be profitable. It is not because Amway is lying, or falsely mis-representing themselves to the public.

Maybe I just don't "get it". My efforts at building the business are not the same as other distributors efforts. I am no longer on SOT (I assume you know what that means), I do not go to many functions. I do not sell products to my downline distributors, they buy their own products direct from Amway now. I do sell about 70 - 80% of my monthly product volume as retail to non-Amway distributors.

My wife and I are broke, partly because we chose the professions we did, partly because we owe as much for her scholarship payments as we pay for housing each month. Nobody told me that I would work as a public safety professional, EVERY DAY SAVING LIVES, and not be able to pay my bills, support my family, let alone have a "lifestyle" of some sort. I don't see the harm in being an Amway distributor, when the work-a-day world, or whatever you want to call it, is just as full of lies and misleading information as you say Amway is.

Because of our debts, incurred by our desire to have and support a child, and the responsibility to pay back scholarship money, we are on the verge of moving in with my mother, not to have extra money, JUST TO SURVIVE. If I want to make extra money by selling products that happen to be made by Amway, and use those same products in my own home, does that make me evil, worthy of categorization?

The things you speak of on this web page seem so distant to me. I have experienced them before, because of public opinion regarding Amway. I am a person of average intelligence, I work hard, I have understanding through experience. Maybe I do not see the "evil" of Amway because I am not a direct or above, or because I have a different approach to the business than others do. Maybe I will never be highly successful as a distributor. I do have hope, however, and a will to make my own destiny. I can tell you that I will go much farther as an Amway distributor, if I choose to do so, than I ever will as a 911 operator, radio dispatcher, computer system operator/assistant fire chief. It is a sad state of affairs when positions of such importance to society are not held in as high a regard as "professional wrestlers" (just for example), which in my opinion, have no worth at all

Maybe I will post a site about the lies society is purporting. I wonder if it would be as popular as the site you maintain?

Much of your information is old, and limited to perhaps only a sample of the organization. You need to update. Amway has evolved and is not sales oriented anymore in most organizations. There are groups that are moral and valid and not all groups are having problems. As in any company or group, there are bad apples and it's a shame that you are only pointing out bad things, just like the rest of the media. To be fair, you should really address both sides of the situation.

Hello Mr. Swartz, A year ago, I met a man in a chat room, he was divource and me married but going through some difficult times in the marriage, we became friends, and he was a great person to know. In June of this year 98 he told me I could make money if I was interested in a buisness, he then mailed me a tape which told me nothing. He also said to call him...which I did, I was curious. I needed the money..was having money problems this went back and forth for 3 months..He would build my confidence and even ask me to fly internationally to help him in his buisness. I was skeptical. he is disabled , to some extent, then he started getting nasty towards me in email..saying when I got my head on straight he would talk to me, and that I wasnt going to bring him down with me...I had availed myself to this man emotionally, and let him say things that remind me of the love bombing. I am devestated at what Amway is doing to him..I cared if nothing else a great deal about this man...I think he was angry that I didnt bite, and the only way to make things right in my life was to join him in Amway.. I will never consider being brainwashed as I listen to what he told me and then read what was out here on your sight....I hope somehow we can warn other vulnerable human beings, that th ere are people who come into chat to see and hear how vulnerable a human being might be , and then pick up from there. I dont know if you will post this, but I would like to see some kind of warning out here on the net for women or men..so they can be spared the nonsense, and hurt that I was exposed to.

Thank you

I could spend a few hours telling you about my experience with Amway, but I won't. I quit after attending "YNMI" in Charlotte, NC last year and touring the Yeager's warehouses (including a new mammoth facility under construction) and homes ( including Yeager junior's new mammoth home under construction). The light bulb turned on after that exposition.

Anyway, I just discovered your site and read the letter from "an Emerald." It was quite good, but I am curious: why didn't the Emerald include his name?

I appreciate your effort to get the word out, and look forward to seeing your new updates in the future.

I have read some of your text on AMWAY. I'd like to tell you sad story. I'll keep it short.

A few years back I fell in love and married a beautiful red head named *. Shortly after we married she went to work for Ron Puryear and WorldWide Dream Builders in Spokane, Washington.

Over the years while she worked for WWDB she slowly became brain washed and was transformed into a cultist which destroyed our marriage. She has become a self centered individual whose only friends in life are those who have also become brain washed.

I keep this story short and just say that I hate AMWAY and all the people associated with that scheme to riches. This company uses people, lies and brain washes people into thinking that unless you are a member of AMWAY then there must be something wrong with you. The organization should be outlawed and closed down for all the harm they do to people. They stole my wife from me. And they claim to be doing God's will? How dare they claim that God approvals of their actions.

Its sad to see that so many people lack the ability to think for them selves and fall into the AMWAY trap. Very sad indeed.

BOOKS, TAPES, SEMINARS ALL TO MAKE THE UPLINE RICH. WHAT A SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sid, Thank you for posting this info. I was approached by a Amway rep. and went to dinner with him a few nights later with my wife. I was so excited after the meeting that I could not sleep well the next few nights before the "hotel meeting". I found your website after doing some research and was amazed at the negative comments. But I could not disregard the facts and some of the exact quotes that my "sponsor" had stated, that was stated in your site. I have since cancelled the hotel meeting, but am still wanting to get involved in a business of my own, backed by a larger corporation. Do you know of any that has some opportunity left?....and backs the opportunity with hard facts up front. Thanks again, John Boyett

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