Greetings all,
First of all, a very happy new year.
I realized that my very first posting on the subject was rather
vehement, and could possibly seem as an overly emotional flaming of
NTI Paris. I now clarify, however, that I am not tarring all MLM
companies in a single brush stroke. I will concede that there are
MLM companies which concerns as much about the products that they
are selling as the customers they recruit, and that perhaps many of
the posters on these message boards do belong to such
companies.
That said, I am still very much against the marketing policies of
NTI Paris (if they even deal with "marketing" in the first place).
The spate of articles in the Straits Times forum page should be
sufficient to prove my point. I would like to draw attention to the
interesting fact that among the 4 letters, only 2 were accusatory.
And both pointed to NTI Paris.
I disagree that Mr. Leow's Dec 30 article was a result of "lack of
knowledge" in the plan. Many of his accusations are exactly the
ones that my friend and I experienced in NTI Paris. It would also
be naive to attribute such hard-sell tactics to a few rogue agents
because it takes considerable effort from the ENTIRE company staff
to organize and present the seminar. If NTI Paris started in July
last year, and they still do not have the sales kits for their
members six months later, can you blame me for being suspicious of
their motives? If they follow the binary scheme, would they not
experience an exponential growth in members? And there are no plans
made for such an outcome? I don't think you can only point the
finger at the "greedy agents." Quite simply, the way in which the
employees conduct their businesses is a true reflection of the
company strategy itself, the strategy formulated by
oh-bow-down-to-cult-leader James Phang himself. I would also like
to add that simply because a plan is legal in no way absolves the
company of any crime if the methods of recruitment and product
distribution are pyramidal in nature.
timandra has noted that ".. given such a painful lesson they (NTI
Paris) learned for this few days, I'm sure they'll change their
approach." Judging from the current behaviour of the company's
agents, this may not be happening. My friend who invested an
equally large sum of money tried to retract his investment, only to
be told that he could not do so. (No surprises there) Furthermore,
he was asked to continue with the hard-sell tactics used by NTI
Paris agents on him to recruit more members into the fold and
recoup his "losses." Nothing was mentioned about the advertisement
and sale of aromatherapy products. Well, somebody please convince
me that the aromatherapy products are not a front, albeit a rather
exotic one, that hides the true nature of the company's dealings. I
am not amused. Neither are the teenagers who have thrown in
thousands of their/their parents' hard-earned money into the
venture.
I would also like to point out that hellodoggy's earlier claim
"time and especially his paycheck will show all" is not exactly
correct. It is not how much you earn that counts, but how you earn
that much that counts more. If a fat paycheck is indeed the
overriding motive, then we might as well go into the drug industry.
Similarly, I am furious with NTI Paris because when the entire
scheme collapses around them (especially for the members who joined
late), the people who fleeced the most wealth are the founders of
the company, and not the ones who have been conned into investing
later (such as our friends).
To laurence and tibrig, don't worry I won't sit by and watch the
ship sink with my friends on it. I will be talking to a police
officer friend tomorrow regarding the legality of the recruitment
methods/scheme. I urge you not to sit and wait for things to happen
too. I shall attempt not to be cliched, but only by our combined
efforts will we bring down the scourge that is NTI Paris. And get
your friends out of their mire.
