Amway. Conway?

#16 kulharee

I miss those nigerian scams.. ever since i switched to gmail.. spams are a thing of the past. No longer can I fantasize ever so briefly

the reason these pyramid scams exist is because they do manage to suck people in. Once in, hard to get out. Scientology, what have you.

I`ll plaster the ``go for diamond`` on my bedroom ceiling... maybe a mirror would be better

It is not only Amway, there are a lot of these scams, Worldbook, Herbalife, So-and-so holidays, just to name a few, always looking to rope in one more bakra
The way they introduce you to the racket is just weird. I remember once receiving a call from an over excited female( it was almost as if she was having an orgasm) saying `` Sir, Sir, congratulations Sir, you have just been selected by so-and-so holidays, Congrats Sir, you have been selected and you win a free lunch coupon for INR 250 for lunch at so-and-so hotel!`` She goes on profusely congratulating me as if I have won a lotto for a million dollars and then tells me about how this holidays scheme works and how I can enjoy holidays in more than 1345 locations worldwide as soon as I become a member. She pleads me to attend the meeting in so-and-so hotel where their executives would be most happy to give me more details, asking me to remember to carry my cheque book.
I attend the meeting, for effect they have these four or five tables spread across a largish room, all manned by the sales staff, but that is where the effect ends, because the staff are mostly bad English ispeaking people who try to sell the idea. After the initial sales talk which offers to lighten my wallet by a couple of lacs for seven days holiday time in a year in some nondescript hill stations, I have a senior sales manager take over. He is a scrawny little fellow in shirt and dirty tie ispeaking a little better Angrezi. He sits in the chair opposite me not in the more conventional manner, but chooses to park himself on the arm for more effect ( as if he were Peter Drucker himself) and leans over, at the same time worried that he might just topple over, and waxes eloquent about the golden opportunity of investment.
I say goodbye, go to the so-and-so hotel with the coupon, eat a lousy lunch and forget about it.
I was not so lucky when I was later confronted by a World Book selling guy. He was so persistent about visiting my house to tell me more about the book that I gave in. He came at a most ungodly hour when I was enjoying my siesta. Out of decency I let the guy in and I had it. He treated me to a never ending monotonous discourse on advantages of the Worldbook for my children, I slept through it, as soon as he was through, he produced an order book with a flourish, filled out the form and held it for me to sign. I told him that I did not want to buy the book. But he was not the giving up type. Before leaving he managed to extract a commitment that I would attend a seminar which would motivate me to become a Worldbook seller like him.

God save us all from this tribe!

re urstruly #15:

That`s because you don`t get out much with your wrist being your best and probably only friend.

In NYC Pakistanis are deep into this scam. There is an online version of Amway called Quixtar which is the rage amongst Pakistanis in Queens and Brooklyn. I would say maybe 20% of families in these neighborhoods are involved. I was told that more than 20 buses last month were hired to transport these crazies from one neighborhood in Queens to Richmond(VA) which is their Mecca.

later
-sac

I think Amway should just start investing in those Nigerian banks, that way it would consolidate all the junkmail.

Well this is not as hard a decision to make as receiving e-mail (3 in the past two days) from the following 3 individuals:

- Adbulrazak Momodu
- Mustapha Waziri
- Sam Kaboor

All of them wanting to give me 18 million dollars that they have deposited with some security company in the Netherlands, they all inherited the money from their father who was king of Mobabamakazoka.

My problem is that I can’t possible handle that much money. Which one should I go with? I am leaning towards Mustapha Waziri.

The one thing I found most interesting is that it is mostly (and supposedly) the money savvy baniyas that fall for this scam more than any one else. I have hardly seen a Pakistani getting involved in this. Why?

A relative of mine in the US was in Amway, and she was so obsessed with Amway it was scary. Messages like `Thank you God for making us part of this wonderful family` were everywhere; the most frightening bit was seeing `we will go to diamond, we can do it` and `God, take us to diamond` on the bathroom mirror and even on the ceiling so that they could see it when they were in bed. Her whole personality seemed to have changed, she had become money-hungry. We thought living in the US had done that to her,but now I realise it was Amway and her own greed.

Scamway would be a nice term for these crooks. For those who part with their hard earned money to get into this kind of crap, the old adage about a fool and their money being soon parted is very apt!

It`s amazing how perfectly normal, levelheaded people get all starry eyed and part with cheques for 1 lac (seriously) to sign up with these network marketers. I would say you gto off easy. Actually, Amway isn`t the worst of them, they have pretty nice products and I know at least one person who made a killing out of an Amway distributorship. Typical successful profile is middle aged, affluent, unemployed female with large circle of friends and social contacts.

The people participating in this scam are victims of a sort and deserve to be rescued

I went through the same thing and even took some promotional material and then returned it.

They use classic social influence tricks which was fun to observe

They pretend to speak to folks on the phone (higher ups) etc. etc.

But this scam deserves to be thoroughly exposed for what it is

I had a similar experience in Chandigarh. My friend`s sister called me and said we should meet for coffee. when I asked what it was about, she said she would tell me when we meet, the same way as Sumana had told the author. I think they are trained this way. I have found a way of getting out of these situations. I say I am already a member and if its a salesman I say already have the product. Now in Australia if someone approaches me in markets, trains etc I say I am just visiting, nice country. For a salesman at the door or on the phone I say `` oh, I am a guest, the owner is away.

On a humid Sunday afternoon, we got a call from one of our friends inviting us for a ‘chaat-Pakora’ session. The offer was surely very lifting, especially when you consider it against the backdrop of hangover, and the anxiety caused in many-a-gentle-souls by the excessive demands of Monday, but not everyone was upbeat. The fears were stoked by the refusal of our friend to explain the occasion for this get-together. Neways, to cut the long story short: the entire bunch of unshaven no-gooders headed for our friend`s house on their noisy bikes, carrying their doubts and bad attitude along with them.

We were greeted in the hall by a neatly dressed gentleman, a rarity of sorts in the age of coalition governments, torn jeans and Bollywood slang. The presence of a whiteboard and marker-case did nothing to allay the apprehensions of those who had suffered the torture of Amway pitches before. Out of sheer desperation, someone threatened, ``I`ll beat the crap out of Sudhir, if this turns out to be an Amway con-job``. The dandy was unfazed. He got up, slowly screwed the tripod, rested the whiteboard on it and started his presentation.

For 15 minutes, he talked about the unpredictability of our jobs, lack of security cover in our society, problem of insufficient time for our personal lives due to the gruelling schedules etc. He also touched upon the lifestyle issues in cosmopolitan cities like absence of social circle outside office, injuries due to long hours etc. Then, he moved to income types - direct and indirect, and tried to impress upon the futility of trying to make it big by following the conventional models. It was very elementary stuff, but he was a good presenter and made his points succinctly.

Finally, he talked about personal marketing. He rambled on and on about the difference it has created to people`s lives by recounting instances of people thronging to railway station to receive their Amway agent, kids in remote villages of Andhra going to school - thanks to extra income of their parents (courtesy Amway), bonding of Amway volunteers etc. He was not very forthcoming with their business model, said something about reduced product costs because of money saved on direct marketing, distribution costs etc. He evaded the question of unreasonable costs of Amway products by saying something that they were shipped in more concentrated form and last much longer than their off-the-shelf counterparts. Overall, He took the criticism and impolite remarks very sportingly and pretty much stood his ground. The pitch went on for about an hour and a half, by the end of which people were baying for Sudhir`s blood.

While devouring the post-presentation snacks, I chatted with him. He was from IIT-D (trical), had quit his cushy job with a sought-after MNC and was stuck with a mediocre company, doing an unrewarding job. Off course, he tried to sell that as `balancing personal and official` crap, and that he was due to retire in a couple of years. He claimed that he makes 40-50K per month by investing 6-12 hours per week, in what he referred as `business`.

I came back from Sudhir’s house with a bad headache and bitterness. Not only are these charlatans robbing unsuspecting people of their money by selling run-of-the-mill stuff at exorbitant prices, but also brain-washing people into believing that they are better off being salespersons of soaps and toothpastes than being execs of profitable companies. What a shame that people get duped even after such grooming and education!

Hi all
For a change all of you agree with the content of the article and I am happy for that. Yes, Amway is a cult that is so secretive that one gets the suspicion that they are into other things too... Well, save it for another day...

Hi Sunil

AMWAY is a culr. Just like The Wacko Texas or like Jihadi groups or just like Rajneeshees. They operate in the same way. They have no life outside their cult. That is why their behaviour is so funny and strange.

The real fun starts when you tell them that, OK, I will use your soaps and toothpastes and shampoos and what have you (but stay off the health foods . . .) but I will not join Amway. I mean, like I will just be a simple customer.

For some reason the Amway brigade doesn`t like it.

Sunil,

These are highly realistic accounts!

Here are true accounts of a FEW of this interactor’s encounters with Amway mercenaries:

No.	Location	Opening Line	Parting Line
1.	In a metro train	“Hi, are you from India?”	“Think it over. I’ll call you this evening.”
2.	At a wholesaler food market	“Hi, are you from India?”	“What’s the matter? You don’t want to make a cool $5k on the side? With hardly any work!”
3.	Phone call from a sister-in-law	“You had once enquired about opening your own business!”	“It was for your own good! (slam!)”
4.	At a McDonalds	(while eyeing a beat-up Honda Accord) “that’s a nice car you got!”	“You could be driving a brand new car with that money, you know!”
5.	At work, from a senior colleague	“Beej, can you see me in my office?”	“What do you mean it’s a pyramid scheme – isn’t LIFE a pyramid scheme? The one on top does the least work and makes the most money!”

Sincerely,
BeeJay.(currently in dog-house)