AMWAY NO LONGER SCAMWAY?

As regular readers of the Local Area Watch know, we are no fans of Amway.  As reported here, here, and here, we have a healthy disdain for the multi-level marketing company that has been suckering ordinary people to buy its soap-and-vitamins sales kits with the pitch that reselling the stuff to family and friends is the path to riches, when in fact they were nothing but marks to enrich Amway and its kingpin distributors.  For a long time now Amway (including its most recent incarnation as Quixtar) has had a dirty bargain with its kingpins:  Amway turns a buck selling sales kits to the new marks recruited by the kingpins while turning a blind eye to the kingpins pressuring the marks to buy pricey but useless training and motivational crap.  A match made in hell.

Well, it's not illegal, at least not here in the U.S. of A.  That's O.K.  The law shouldn't stop people from being suckers.  But it is a business that stinks, and apparently the top brass at Amway can no longer deny the stench.  And so Amway Chairman Steve Van Andel and President Doug DeVos announced that they want to redirect their kingpins to selling Amway products rather than the Amway "opportunity".  To that end, they are junking the Quixtar brand name over the next two years with the hope that the odor which has clung to their company will disappear along with it.  Once that is done, the plan is to have Amway brand name arise like phoenix to restore confidence in their multi-level marketing operations.

Perhaps.  The reason for re-branding Amway as Quixtar seven years ago was to disassociate the company's North American multi-marketing operations from the taint the Amway name had acquired over the years.  However, under the Quixtar name the merry tradition of kingpins fleecing new recruits continued, and so Quixtar became as soiled as Amway.  Meanwhile, there have been government crack-downs on these dubious practices in some of the company's overseas markets causing considerable financial trouble and embarrassment.  Consequently Van Andel and DeVos say they want to finally eliminate the negative perceptions associated with their company.

No doubt they do.  What businessman wants his company to be the object of scorn?  But will Van Andel and DeVos actually undertake the difficult task of cleaning out the Augean stables of the kingpins who have helped to make Amway and then Quixtar reviled names?  Or is their re-branding strategy just more flim-flam, a Quixtar redux, that polishes the turd instead of flushing it?  Stay tuned.

Comments

[ibofightback]

For the latest news and gossip on this, visit www.thetruthaboutamway.com
There's a lot happening in the world of Amway.

[Romeo#1]

Ibofightback,

Where do you guys come from? Without question, post an article on Scamway and you guys flock to the sticky strip like flies.

You still didn't answer Bill's question - is the turd getting polished or flushed? With your arrival, my guess is a shine is in order.

A fan of LAW not Scamway,

Rog

[The Executive Director]

Hello, IBO.

I am pleased you have posted your comment in a civil manner. By all means L.A.W. readers should visit the website you recommend. In particular they should check out the "Fact" and "Myth" sections. Our readers will find the pro-Amway spin in response to common complaints about Amway/Quixtar enlightening.

Regards, Bill

P.S. to Rog: Thanks for the thumb's up.

[Ames]

Scamway is not the only MLM scam operating here in GR.

Symmetry Direct also has it's nasty hands in pockets and in the area as well.

Both are nasty evil companies and should be shut down. I have a personal aversion to Scamway because my sister and her husband lost their home to the pyramid scam.

[The Executive Director]

Hi, Amy.

I'm sorry to hear about the misfortune of your sister and brother-in-law. I'm in accord with your sentiments.

Regards, Bill

[Ames]

Bill, to what level and to what degree will these things continue to be in operation? I mean, we live in a time where MLM just plain doesn't make sense. Why would you pay $10 for laundry detergent, when you can get it for $3.50 on another website? Most people are frugal. MLM does not encourage nor support frugality, and it just plain doesn't make sense. Buying from yourself to make a $2.00 check? Please. Use coupons. It certainly would save you more money over the long haul.

[Edge]

Ames,

On the surface, your question answers itself: All else being equal, most people would *not* spend $10.00 on Scamway detergent when they can get detergent of equal or greater quality for a third of the price somewhere else. However, as LAW has pointed out time and again, Scamway and its ilk are not, in the final analysis, selling laundry detergent. What they are selling -- by way of the motivational brainwashing crap they market -- is the illusion that we can all have a 20,000-square foot McMansion in Ada if only we follow the plan (the plan being ... buying all of that motivational brainwashing crap).

If you're the kind of person who can be conned into thinking that a cult-like motivational seminar in a 20,000-seat arena can turn you into a millionaire by next month, then you're probably the kind of person who can rationalize spending $10.00 on a three-dollar bottle of soap.

[Ames]

Good point!
I wasn't raised to "get rich quick" so I guess I was never foolish enough to fall for that fodder.

[Glenn]

Which is more frugal? Buying a concentrated $10 product that lasts 5 months; or buying a $2 product filled with "fillers" that lasts 3 weeks? If you are having trouble figuring that out, you are probably also having a hard time realizing that nobody has ever gotten rich shopping with coupons and putting the profit in someone else's pocket...like Sam Walton's family. I wonder how often Ray Kroc went to Burger King for a hamburger? If your sister and her husband lost their house, I would venture to say that their "money management" skills were more the cause than any MLM. Let's be real. Amway has been in business for over 50 years. They grew 15% in 2008; from $7 Billion to $8.2 Billion. Wasn't that supposed to be a recession year? During that year, Amway Global LOWERED their prices AND INCREASED their bonus program...sending millions of dollars back to IBOs. If you quit on yourself...keep it to yourself...don't try to steal other people's dreams. Here's an interesting motto... "He who does evil despises the light." Is that YOUR websites MOTTO? If it is...that is hilarious. Talk about self-incrimination. Let's see, I want to have a motto....hmmm...I'll start it with..."He who does evil"...yep, that's it, that fits...my motto! Too funny! A motto to live by.