Has anyone else seen fundie types or MLMs using this fake Dave Ramsey quote?

[SoybeanQueen]

I don't understand how all of these people selling health and weight loss supplements can take themselves seriously when they say the products are responsible for any weight loss or health improvement. Every single one of them I've seen has also specified that you're to eat healthier, more veggies, cut out sweets, don't drink soda, etc.

Hmmmm. It's almost as if eating healthier and cutting out empty calorie sources might lead to weight loss or better health....

[Maggie Mae]

5 hours ago, Million Children For Jesus said:

Exactly. I hate being added to Lularoe FB parties. I purchased a few things for no real reason other than to support old friends. I was new to the whole online party/hostess concept and so I purchased in the same spirit that I did when I bought at real hostess parties in the past, (the kind in a living room with snacks and a thank you hug out the door). I didn't even receive a thank you text or email, let alone a thank you phone call. Not even an automated email. WTF? Do the hostesses even know who is buying from them? If so, and they can't even say thank you, count me out. 

Did you get your product? I've always received a hand written card with my lula. And it's been shipped quickly and wrapped in tissue or sealed in plastic bags. I have one consultant who is a friend of a friend and is making bank. I was worried that she would overinvest and be stuck with a ton of inventory when the bottom falls out, but she's pretty careful to just stick with certain popular pieces and kids wear. She holds sales weekly and is a SAHM with a husband who works out of town a lot. I think her lula money means she gets to do more things. My other consultants I don't know personally, but they've always sent thank yous with the products. I like Lularoe, not the leggings because they aren't worth $25 to me, but the dresses, skirts, and tops i've bought have been complimented and are comfy.

 

[Seahorse Wrangler]

7 hours ago, SoybeanQueen said:

I don't understand how all of these people selling health and weight loss supplements can take themselves seriously when they say the products are responsible for any weight loss or health improvement. Every single one of them I've seen has also specified that you're to eat healthier, more veggies, cut out sweets, don't drink soda, etc.

Hmmmm. It's almost as if eating healthier and cutting out empty calorie sources might lead to weight loss or better health....

Strange how that works...They sometimes also suggest something called ex-er-cise which apparently can help too..

[SilverBeach]

I never had an Avon rep ask me to sell, I don't think they wanted the competition. 

Mary Kay is one of the worst, check out the Pink Truth website. If you have a decent product, it can be marketed and sold without MLM nonsense attached to it. 

[louisa05]

A teacher at one of the schools I sub at is selling Thrive. If you are unfamiliar it is nutrition supplements including a skin patch you are to wear all day. All the vitamins will give you unlimited energy and health. 

They do give you unlimited energy according to everything I've found online. Because all of it, including the skin patches, is loaded with massive amounts of caffeine. 

Half the teachers in that building are wearing stupid vitamin stickers every day and if you sub for the woman, Thrive info is included at the end of the lesson plans. At least she isn't there which makes it very easy to ignore. 

[Million Children For Jesus]

8 hours ago, Maggie Mae said:

Did you get your product? I've always received a hand written card with my lula. And it's been shipped quickly and wrapped in tissue or sealed in plastic bags. I have one consultant who is a friend of a friend and is making bank.

I've ordered from four different consultants, and never received a thank you. Three were one-time party invites. One is the regular "town consultant." None of them sent a thank you card with my purchase. I like most of what I bought, but I can find stuff I like equally as well for less and have a better customer service experience.

The "town consultant" I usually/used to order from is a lady who is very popular in town. Everyone kisses her butt, and would order glazed petrified poop rocks if she sold them. I have no idea the percentage she keeps on each piece, but I'm pretty sure she's making bank because I've totaled the "sold" comments before and she is selling 80-120 pieces each week, just between the weekly live sale and weekly photo postings. She also does pop ups and private online parties.

She started with a very large social set, so I don't think a normal person could sign up and do as well. She had at least 400 people in her group on the first day. It shot to 800 pretty quickly. I just lurked and she has 1400 now. She has been doing this for about 7 months. 

11 minutes ago, louisa05 said:

if you sub for the woman, Thrive info is included at the end of the lesson plans. At least she isn't there which makes it very easy to ignore. 

That seems unprofessional. I can't believe that's allowed. I've never heard of Thrive, and I would never wear a caffeinated vitamin patch, but I did literally 'lol' typing "caffeinated vitamin patch"

[louisa05]

18 minutes ago, Million Children For Jesus said:

 

That seems unprofessional. I can't believe that's allowed. I've never heard of Thrive, and I would never wear a caffeinated vitamin patch, but I did literally 'lol' typing "caffeinated vitamin patch"

Substitute teachers are the lowest class of humans in most schools. Typically no one cares what they do to us. That school never tries to make me use my plan time to clean the lunch room as a couple of other buildings do, so I'm okay with this. 

Generally, I'm just excited to get good lesson plans. If they come with materials hocking MLM products, so be it. The person hawking it isn't there to harass me, so it gets shoved in the "done with this pile" first thing and that's that. 

[SoybeanQueen]

9 hours ago, SilverBeach said:

 If you have a decent product, it can be marketed and sold without MLM nonsense attached to it. 

I agree to an extent. Some products need to be demonstrated in order to get people to buy at first. Otherwise it's hard to get enough customers to get the business off the ground.

The latest effect of this is products in exchange for reviews. So many positive reviews on Amazon and similar online stores now are paid reviews or from people who received the item free in exchange for the review. The manufacturers or marketing people know they have to get people raving about the product one way or another, and just putting it in a store or buying ad space won't do it most of the time.

5 hours ago, louisa05 said:

Substitute teachers are the lowest class of humans in most schools. Typically no one cares what they do to us. That school never tries to make me use my plan time to clean the lunch room as a couple of other buildings do, so I'm okay with this.

Whoaaaaaa, you need to come sub in my district. They need subs so badly, they would never risk making the list even shorter by demanding we clean the cafeteria. That's horrible! The first week I was subbing, I asked the principal of one of the elementary schools if there was a soda machine in the building because I needed a caffeine fix. (Shoulda gotten that Thrive patch, huh??) She said no, but came to the classroom later with a bottle of soda that she had gone out to purchase. I was shocked. They're quite kind to subs around here.

I haven't been subbing as much lately because I've started teaching English classes online and can make more money that way, usually. I feel so guilty turning down the schools when they call me to sub, though, because I know they're so desperate.

[louisa05]

50 minutes ago, SoybeanQueen said:

I agree to an extent. Some products need to be demonstrated in order to get people to buy at first. Otherwise it's hard to get enough customers to get the business off the ground.

The latest effect of this is products in exchange for reviews. So many positive reviews on Amazon and similar online stores now are paid reviews or from people who received the item free in exchange for the review. The manufacturers or marketing people know they have to get people raving about the product one way or another, and just putting it in a store or buying ad space won't do it most of the time.

Whoaaaaaa, you need to come sub in my district. They need subs so badly, they would never risk making the list even shorter by demanding we clean the cafeteria. That's horrible! The first week I was subbing, I asked the principal of one of the elementary schools if there was a soda machine in the building because I needed a caffeine fix. (Shoulda gotten that Thrive patch, huh??) She said no, but came to the classroom later with a bottle of soda that she had gone out to purchase. I was shocked. They're quite kind to subs around here.

I haven't been subbing as much lately because I've started teaching English classes online and can make more money that way, usually. I feel so guilty turning down the schools when they call me to sub, though, because I know they're so desperate.

I sub in two districts. One is pretty good to subs. The other sucks. And the one that sucks and treats you like crap is short of subs all the time. They can't seem to see that the reason they are short is all the shit they pull like giving subs all the duties in elementary (last time I was in a primary center I had morning car line duty, both recess duties and afternoon car line duty. I know for a fact that no teacher has all four in one day), making us clean the cafeteria in middle and high school, making us babysit in school suspension kids in high school, making us come in 15 minutes before the teacher reporting time, making us do grunt work in the office or library during plan times, etc...

Of course, the one that sucks is the town where I live and pays more. I drive 23 miles to sub at a school where they at least leave you alone to do the job you are there for. Thrive marketing info and all. 

[jozina]

A friend of mine is deep into LulaRoe and it's such a crock.  Even if you only invest in the most popular styles you can still get left with butt ugly prints.  It's so expensive to buy into it and at any one time most of them have thousands of dollars of clothing which are going to be really hard to shift when the market for it drops out or they're sick of it or they can no longer fund it.  Pink Truth had some good take downs of it recently.  It's hard to find negative reviews because they have to be! positive! all! the! time! Look on Ebay at how many thousands of items are up there for super cheap. They do a brilliant job of making out there's exclusivity with everything they do, including the wait to be a consultant. If you look at the number of consultants they have now compared to a year ago there are going to be thousands of women with $5000 of unsold ugly print leggings, dresses and tops in a year or two.  

Another friend is heavy into Isagenix and keeps sending me messages about it (but yeah, can't mention the name!!).  1, I live in a different country. 2, I am about the opposite of someone who would go for that kind of thing.  She's desperate to tell everyone how it has changed her life and she's making so much money, but looking at the posts of her upline or her upline's top seller she just can't be making much.  She spends so much on various conferences and speeches all over the country to help her "reach her goals".

[SilverBeach]

There is a whole body of knowledge about legitimately bringing new products to market. MLM isn't in that knowledge base. Market research, not blind optimism, is key. And free samples, coupons and such have been around for a long time to build a customer base. MLM is an unsustainable "business" model that assumes an unlimited market and market cannibalization. Any business where sales to customers who are not distributors matters not to company profits is scamming the distributors with high prices unrelated to product quality or market forces. Garbage.

[Mercer]

I feel like half my coworkers have suddenly started doing MLM within the past, like, week or so. I wasn't conscious of it at all before, but now I'm getting invites for Lularoe, Norwex, Thrive, and various makeup ones (I don't even wear makeup) every time I turn around.

[Mrs. Bean]

13 hours ago, jozina said:

 She spends so much on various conferences and speeches all over the country to help her "reach her goals".

My poor sweet SIL got caught up in the freaking Amway (lured in by her overconfident and brash older brother) and they spend ton of money  on the "tools", conferences, seminars, etc. I've seen some of the videos of these conferences and it's usually some  upline nut job bloviating on how rich he ( it's usually a he), showing pictures of his cars, houses, watches and other crap. All this flaunting of the material wealth is done in such a manner and so cringe worthy that I felt embarrassed watching it. It's polar opposite of who my SIL is and I  don't know how to help her extricate herself. Btw, these uplines tell their underlinks to "fake it 'till you make it" and anytime I try to broach the subject I get shot down with "everything is going great" because saying otherwise  would mean she doesn't  believe in the business. Moreover, she got sucked into this shite just prior to applying to nursing school and now it's been about 6 years of this nonsense and precious time has been lost.   

My apologies for such long winded post, I dislike  MLMs and it seems I hate Amway with passion.

[melon]

 I have a friend,she has 4 boys,she unschools them.They are a sweet loving family.She brews elderberry syrup,makes bone broth,and other things that she sells.Now,she is selling Young Living Essential Oils.I'd love to get some....but it's close to $200.

I have another friend she sells Pure Romance.I have no interest in having a party.And really not much interest in "romance".I was amused and astonished by the catalogue...ridiculously over-priced.

Yes,I am a tightwad.

[FJismyheadship]

I do MK, but I don't like to be pushy. I occasionally post on Facebook (but not often, and I have a seperate page for it)

I've thought about trying to do it like Avon, where I just leave some books somewhere and let people call me if they want to order something but I don't know if that would work or not....

[Scribber]

 I have a friend,she has 4 boys,she unschools them.They are a sweet loving family.She brews elderberry syrup,makes bone broth,and other things that she sells.Now,she is selling Young Living Essential Oils.I'd love to get some....but it's close to $200.
I have another friend she sells Pure Romance.I have no interest in having a party.And really not much interest in "romance".I was amused and astonished by the catalogue...ridiculously over-priced.
Yes,I am a tightwad.

Plant Therapy is an amazing company for oils. Not MLM. I pay $6-$10/bottle (with free shipping through their Amazon storefront) and they are just as good quality. (I did a ton of research.)

[treehugger]

Please don't buy essential oils through MLM companies. They are not ethical and every essential oil rep I've ever met (and there have been way too many) is woefully misinformed and uneducated about the product they are shilling. 

I am not affiliated with Moubtain Rose Herbs in any way, shape, or form - but if you live in the USA (they stopped shipping EO's to Canada a couple years ago), I heartly recommend checking them out for essential oils if you are looking. They are fair trade, organic, environmentally responsible, won't make absured and unethical claims about their products, and employ educated and trained staff. Also, their oils are way more affordable than YL or DoTerra.

 

[FundieFarmer]

I took a look at Lularoe the other day on eBay. My gosh- how does that stuff sell? Truly, someone enlighten me. I didn't get past the plethora of listings for cupcake and sushi leggings with bids starting at $0.01 before I really had to know.

[Maggie Mae]

6 minutes ago, FundieFarmer said:

I took a look at Lularoe the other day on eBay. My gosh- how does that stuff sell? Truly, someone enlighten me. I didn't get past the plethora of listings for cupcake and sushi leggings with bids starting at $0.01 before I really had to know.

Some of us like it? 

[Mercer]

9 minutes ago, FundieFarmer said:

I took a look at Lularoe the other day on eBay. My gosh- how does that stuff sell? Truly, someone enlighten me. I didn't get past the plethora of listings for cupcake and sushi leggings with bids starting at $0.01 before I really had to know.

Lularoe stuff comes to the seller in batches, and from my understanding from my coworker that sells it, they don't get to pick what's in their batch, it's just luck of the draw. The more attractive stuff in popular patterns and common sizes sells quickly. What you'll see on Ebay is basically the dregs that didn't sell the normal way. Lularoe is definitely not everyone's style and that's fine, but what you saw was probably the bottom of the barrel.

[Maggie Mae]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

Lularoe stuff comes to the seller in batches, and from my understanding from my coworker that sells it, they don't get to pick what's in their batch, it's just luck of the draw. The more attractive stuff in popular patterns and common sizes sells quickly. What you'll see on Ebay is basically the dregs that didn't sell the normal way. Lularoe is definitely not everyone's style and that's fine, but what you saw was probably the bottom of the barrel.

This is true. When you sign on as a consultant, you get a starter pack. After that, I believe you can choose the style (say "Irma") and sizes (XXS to 3X or something, everything runs REALLY big and i'm not a consultant but they pride themselves on fitting almost everyone) but they choosee the patterns. The stuff on Ebay is either the super popular (unicorns) or the horrible taco bell print from the 90s. 

[SoybeanQueen]

I have a couple of LulaRoe items. The leggings are soft, and they're the least obnoxious pattern I could find that would match the tunic shirt I was buying at the time. I don't wear them out of the house, to be honest. They're part of my work-at-home clothes stash. The top feels kind of rough after a few washes, but the leggings are still very soft. However, I'll probably just order Viv Collection leggings on Amazon next time, because they're half the cost and just as soft, and I don't have to hunt for a solid color or pattern I like.

It would drive me nuts to have zero control over the colors and patterns I'd get as a consultant.

[Mercer]

I haven't bought any Lularoe even though my coworker would really like me to. I like the way the leggings look, but I've heard mixed things about the quality. Some people think they're great, but I've also heard several people say they tore along the seams or didn't wash well. It seems like maybe the company's quality control isn't quite where it needs to be. I also try not to buy fad clothing, and I think that the wildly patterned leggings thing may be more of a flash in the pan than an idea with staying power.

I wear leggings fairly often, but I typically get them from places like L.L. Bean or Land's End, which aren't cheap but they last forever, I know the quality is going to be good, and there's a satisfaction guarantee. 

[louisa05]

My neighbor/ landlady (duplex--we share a wall) is having a Norwex party next weekend.

 

We already have plans.

 

How do you have a party based on microfiber cloths? Pampered Chef has food to sample. MK has makeup to play with. But sitting around looking at cleaning cloths in different colors?

 

The event page says they are doing a "chicken demonstration". Paging Lori Alexander......

 

[December]

9 hours ago, louisa05 said:

How do you have a party based on microfiber cloths?

Well if they're all demo-based, I would assume you're supposed to spill food and drink all over and they will clean it up with the microfiber cloths  Also, is it really just for cleaning cloths? Cause that is hysterical.