I want to ask, what exactly is Network Marketing/ MLM? Is
it
a) selling products, and if people are interested in joining, they
have to pay a small membership fee in order to gain commission from
the sales of those products to other users?
OR
b) selling of the compensation plan of this company to people, that
if interested, have to pay a substantial amount of money for the
stocks, and can be interpretated as a 'pay to play' scheme? In
order for you to recoup this initial amount, you are HIGHLY
ENCOURAGED to recruit, instead of directly sellin these products to
interested parties??
I should highlight the flaws of MLM in this company, Bel'
Air. One thing to note, I am really focusing on just Bel' Air. I
completely agree with Brochow that there are bad eggs and good eggs
in a basket, just a matter of how you find which ones are bad and
which are good. This thread that I started was just to share my
experience of Bel' Air with you guys.
I guess that the 0.1% of people that made it in MLM companies
(http://www.mlm-thetruth.com/STATISTICS.htm, http://pyramidschemealert.org/, http://www.falseprofits.com/) means that there is
that much percentage (i.e 0.1%) of you succeeding in buying a good
egg.
1) The entry free of $60 is ok by me, but what can you do??? You
have to invest in $1k for the Bel' Air experience in order to
qualify as a franchisee??
Why is there a need for you to pay up for this experience?? If you
have signed up for membership by paying $60, you should at least
have the rights to recommend
this product to your friends/ family/ relatives'. Granted, $60 is
not a sum that is high, but if you are to compare the products'
cost price, their selling price
are highly elevated!!!
In my opinion, a respectable MLM will just require you to sign up
under a reasonable amount, and purchase whatever quantity/ type of
stock that you are interested in using or selling.
2) What happens after you enter as a Franchisee??? You get highly
psycho'ed by your "friend' to "CUT COUNT". In fact, they stressed
that only with a count position can I really break into this
business. What does this imply???? That if you pay $12000, you can
buy up your position as a count. The products that are sold to you
are refundable if not used in 90 days, but some uplines are clever
in that they give you products that are non-refundable, what does
this tell you of their ethics???
3) If you leave this company, they will still keep pestering you,
for instance, asking you to come to their events. My friend is
still boasting that he has a 5-digit income, he is doing very well,
etc etc...
4) The people in this business, I feel, have alot that they hide
from the general public and would-be distributors.
Have you been to any of those seminars that Bel' Air
conducts?
Their people psycho you with them driving fancy cars, (in Bel' Air,
was a Alfa romeo and an RX-
, flash you pictures of sucessful MLMers, images of
beautiful houses, cars, boats and a care-free life. They hardly
ever focus on those products, and if they do, it was about things
like how the products can give you 'residual income' (that means,
people will still buy the oil from you after they used
theirs).
Heck, after I burn my $400/4l of oil, I think I'll just put the
lamp as a decor.
They also give you false sense of potential demand for this
product. When I went to their talk, they state that in the near
future, air will be so polluted that everyone will benefit from
using this aroma-therapy diffuser thingy. They even demo'ed how the
diffuser can remove smoke from a cigarette butt. It later struck me
that, even if these products can remove smoke, lower bacteria count
or cure bird flu, how many people will actually pay for this?
The seminars are, all-in-all, movtivational gatherings. I think of
them more as, trying to keep those distributors that might be
considering leaving, to stay pass the warranty period, especially
those that 'cut count'.
What's even worse, is that Bel' Air Marquis (A****) told me that
this company is doing 20% active retailing and 80% passive
usage!!!!! I will be surprised if even 2% of their stocks were sold
to people that are not in this business!!! I think this business is
doing 100% recruiting.
Some ex-Bel' Air people says that they pay for these seminars where
they bring prospects, training guides, and other sessions... Do
people consider the overall expenses that distributors have to fork
out??
Alot of these seminars are really just brainwashing, showing abit
of false commradery, that, after I am now glad that I leave this
disgusted joint. I do not know how the uplines treat their
downlines, but in my mind, I think they treat you completely
different once you signed above the dotted lines.
To the two posters above, do you know, according to Consumer Awareness Institute, there were close to
650 MLM companies that are shut down by law enforcement agencies? I
shudder thinking how many are still under investigations. What does
this tell you about them. If I buy a bag that 650 companies make
and is defect, what is the chances of me buying a non-defect
one?
Why we choose to look at those people who fail ?
How many people fail?
Why not we look at those who have suceeded ? How
many people succeed?
Does newspaper publish sucess story or failure story
? Success stories are published day-to-day, how many
failures want to let the media know????
By the way, do not compare MLMs with bags, we dun need MLM in our
daily survival. The MLM industry is not tarnished by a few rotten
apples; the MLM industry is tarnished by alot of rotten apples.
