Is Amway A Scam?

The Atheist said:
Maybe people who stick with Amway are under the same delusion as Gambler's Fallacy?
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I don't have a good explanation, but I'm not getting the impression that they're treating it as accumulating luck.

I think they genuinely believe they will be rewarded in proportion to their efforts, but just haven't figured out how to turn the corner.

I'm thinking it's probably a combination of these instead;

1. sunken cost fallacy. Like when a person joins a gym but never works out, and keeps making new years resolutions to use that membership instead of cancel. Forget the cash cost of the kits - the real cost for AMWAY salesreps is lost years of life and soured friendships.

2. cognitive dissonance. The rallies are very emphatic about the fact that anybody can succeed if they try hard enough. For those who have internalized this as true, failure means they're lazy OR it means AMWAY lied and they got duped. Neither outcome is great for self image. Technically, if they haven't given up, they haven't failed yet, so dragging it out year after year postpones the inevitable moment of truth.
 
I mentioned this in another thread as a potential X factor in all this.

MLMs are a goddamn epidemic in the military spouse community. Back when I was active duty my wife complained shouldn't couldn't even be around other military wives in the most casual of circumstances without getting heavy handed pushes for Scentsy or whatever.

She said that after a while she got the impression for a lot of the (mostly) women MLMs were a way for them to fell like they had a job, so they didn't feel bored or useless. The fact that they weren't actually making any money was beside the point.

They were, in essence, services that you paid a fee to so you could say you had a job without technically lying.

In fact she was shocked and rather put off by the hate and vitriol that many of the MLM wives had against wives that were unemployed/not working. The fact that they weren't actually making any money, and were often time costing their family money was beside the point. The fact that their "job" for the most part consisted of nothing but hounding people online or at whatever social gathering they found themselves was beside the point. They had "a job" and could look down on those who did not.
 
Strolling the beaches

I guess the previous Amway IBO's who posted to this thread are now too busy strolling the beaches of the world to post. Too busy to respond to the losers and dream stealers.
 
JoeMorgue said:
I mentioned this in another thread as a potential X factor in all this.

MLMs are a goddamn epidemic in the military spouse community. Back when I was active duty my wife complained shouldn't couldn't even be around other military wives in the most casual of circumstances without getting heavy handed pushes for Scentsy or whatever.

She said that after a while she got the impression for a lot of the (mostly) women MLMs were a way for them to fell like they had a job, so they didn't feel bored or useless. The fact that they weren't actually making any money was beside the point.

They were, in essence, services that you paid a fee to so you could say you had a job without technically lying.

In fact she was shocked and rather put off by the hate and vitriol that many of the MLM wives had against wives that were unemployed/not working. The fact that they weren't actually making any money, and were often time costing their family money was beside the point. The fact that their "job" for the most part consisted of nothing but hounding people online or at whatever social gathering they found themselves was beside the point. They had "a job" and could look down on those who did not.
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To be fair, I don't think I met anyone with Amway. However I've met people selling just about every other MLM out there. I get it, it's hard when you move around so much to find employment so they get sucked into a MLM.

If you have to buy your way into employment and to keep that employment you not only have to sell it but also get other people to buy it and sell it then it's pretty scammy in my opinion.
 
Originally Posted by nothanks
I guess the previous Amway IBO's who posted to this thread are now too busy strolling the beaches of the world to post. Too busy to respond to the losers and dream stealers.
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psionl0 said:
One of them owns this forum.
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If he makes any money off this forum, it's probably a lot more than he made in Amway.

:D
 
applecorped said:
If this is bait to get icerat out of hiding I doubt he is going to take it
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Icerat/insider/insider201283/ibofightback has been absent from any Amway-related websites that I've seen.

I think he's finally come to terms with his position on Amway. I think he's pursuing other interests.
 
JoeMorgue said:
I mentioned this in another thread as a potential X factor in all this.

MLMs are a goddamn epidemic in the military spouse community. Back when I was active duty my wife complained shouldn't couldn't even be around other military wives in the most casual of circumstances without getting heavy handed pushes for Scentsy or whatever.

She said that after a while she got the impression for a lot of the (mostly) women MLMs were a way for them to fell like they had a job, so they didn't feel bored or useless. The fact that they weren't actually making any money was beside the point.

They were, in essence, services that you paid a fee to so you could say you had a job without technically lying.

In fact she was shocked and rather put off by the hate and vitriol that many of the MLM wives had against wives that were unemployed/not working. The fact that they weren't actually making any money, and were often time costing their family money was beside the point. The fact that their "job" for the most part consisted of nothing but hounding people online or at whatever social gathering they found themselves was beside the point. They had "a job" and could look down on those who did not.
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I can definitely see that happening with military wives by virtue of the fact that they have such difficulty keeping a career if they have to move often. There's a lot of financial risk that goes along with being a military wife if the relationship goes sour. The incentive to do anything to exist in denial of the risk would be massive.
 
kellyb said:
I can definitely see that happening with military wives by virtue of the fact that they have such difficulty keeping a career if they have to move often. There's a lot of financial risk that goes along with being a military wife if the relationship goes sour. The incentive to do anything to exist in denial of the risk would be massive.
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I think it's also particular to AmWay... the brand is hyper-patriotic (AMWAY stands for "The American Way"), hyper-Christian, and hyper-Republican at this point. It's not just an income stream, it's virtue signalling.

Versus taking on any other portable business, such as website design, software development, or ghost writing autobiographies. Or portable professions, such as nursing or physiotherapy.
 
blutoski said:
I think it's also particular to AmWay... the brand is hyper-patriotic (AMWAY stands for "The American Way"), hyper-Christian, and hyper-Republican at this point. It's not just an income stream, it's virtue signalling.

Versus taking on any other portable business, such as website design, software development, or ghost writing autobiographies. Or portable professions, such as nursing or physiotherapy.
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I'm pretty sure website design is mostly a thing of the past for Americans now when it comes to being a "real job" because of competition with people in India.

Nursing might be really hard to constantly move around, too, depending on the nature of the dude's job in the military, if they have kids, etc.

Finding a portable career sounds like a PITA. Definitely more pleasant to "sell" Amway. LOL
 
kellyb said:
I'm pretty sure website design is mostly a thing of the past for Americans now when it comes to being a "real job" because of competition with people in India.
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Yes, I was being kind of high level. I still have peers who are doing well with it, it's just that it's not called webdesign anymore. Development? "Online Presence Solutions" maybe. Marketing lingo moves faster than my attention span with this stuff.



kellyb said:
Nursing might be really hard to constantly move around, too, depending on the nature of the dude's job in the military, if they have kids, etc.
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Well, that's different, though. If a person is a primary childcare provider - male or female - AFAIC, they already have a fulltime job, so what's the motive for hanging their hat on Amway?



kellyb said:
Finding a portable career sounds like a PITA. Definitely more pleasant to "sell" Amway. LOL
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Meaning, outside of the virtue signalling maybe? What I was getting at was that Amway is particularly patriotic versus other options, fill in the blank. Tupperware parties, for example, if we want to go in that direction. Mary Kay.
 
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blutoski said:
Well, that's different, though. If a person is a primary childcare provider - male or female - AFAIC, they already have a fulltime job, so what's the motive for hanging their hat on Amway?
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Not having a career is financially risky. It turns out terribly in the long run sometimes, especially for military wives.

Meaning, outside of the virtue signalling maybe? What I was getting at was that Amway is particularly patriotic versus other options, fill in the blank. Tupperware parties, for example, if we want to go in that direction. Mary Kay.
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Being in denial about the financial risk and being able to tell yourself you won't turn out like Divorced Wife X (most military wives know of the horror stories), because you have a job/career. That sounds comparatively easier than just accepting the fact that you're in what could be called "grave financial danger", or having to figure out a portable career.
 
kellyb said:
Not having a career is financially risky. It turns out terribly in the long run sometimes, especially for military wives.
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Understood... I'm one of those guys who was very comfortable as a stay at home dad for my kids' early years - my wife is the primary earner in our family. I understood the career impact.

But I'm comparing that versus what these women are doing, which seems to be going through the motions. The only thing IMO worse than being unemployed is wasting time on a non-career like Amway.


kellyb said:
Being in denial about the financial risk and being able to tell yourself you won't turn out like Divorced Wife X (most military wives know of the horror stories), because you have a job/career. That sounds comparatively easier than just accepting the fact that you're in what could be called "grave financial danger", or having to figure out a portable career.
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So why Amway then, is what I don't get.
 
In my early 20s I moved in with a roommate and we both had a full set of Cutco knives, having bought the same $150 demonstration kit. I felt it was a legit operation even though a lot of the revenue came from selling demonstration kits. If either of us had any sales talent, we could have made money. They were excellent knives. Lasted forever. I gave/traded most of the kit away eventually.
 
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