An Ex-IBO Testimonial

We received an email from an Ex-IBO recently who granted us permission to share it. We have posted it here on the blog rather than the website due to the technical problems we've encountered with the site.

Hi Guys

I am fascinated to have researched Amway on the internet and have read The Merchants of Deception. It brought back the many memories of the hours of effort I put into the program many years ago.

In fact I was an IBO in the eighties. It cost me a lot of money and nearly my marriage. My wife was regarded as a negative force and I was a total one eyed supporter of Amway.

I remembered when New Zealand started how a plane load of us went over there to start up our own international legs. It was at all our own individual expense. I did not make a dollar.

Every time a new product came to Australia e.g. the jewelry or the burglar alarms there would be a great deal of excitement with all true believers buying up big. I brought up big even though I was disappointed in the quality of the products such as the jewelry. It looked like cheap costume jewelry to me. But I was a good little ambot and did not say anything negative. Frankly when I look back on it, the whole thing was a joke. I thought that Amway must have dumped some of those so called new lines on the Australian market because they could not sell them in America .

I wanted financial security for myself and my family so I put up with the “love bombing” and the awful meetings. The tape of the week, book of the month program had just been introduced. I was constantly listening to tapes and looking forward to the day I could go fulltime. I must admit it did distract me from my JOB. But I genuinely believed I would make diamond. Talk about delusional. As I recall I think I made it to 15%.

Eventually after about three or four years I slowly gave it away, much to my wife’s relief. But the fact of the matter is that I blamed myself and to a degree her, for my lack of success. It always niggled at me. So in finally researching the internet I have been able to expunge the last vestiges of “could I have made it?” from me.

About ten years later very close friends of ours (he being an airline pilot, she been a registered nurse) joined again and immediately prospected us. It was like the return of a bad dream. Our children played together and we were very close. My wife and I discussed it in detail and decided that we would not take up there offer. In so doing we realized that we would be regarded as negative. All those bloody awful Amway one-liners came back to me. You know if your friends don’t want it then, “they cannot be your real friends can they.”

And that’s what happened. It pretty much ended the friendship. So shallow, so predicable so annoying.

Once again they had the dedication the credibility and the connections. Her brother laws were a CEO for a major engineering company and a medical specialist. None of them could make it work. All of them still defend the program.

We see them occasionally but it was never quite the same. Eventually they moved interstate.

My wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. I am extremely happy with my lot.

Best Regards

Bernie

Thank you Bernie for taking the time to share your story. Although your experience happened some years ago, unfortunately experiences like yours are still happening today. We are glad that your research has cleared those obvious lingering doubts/ "what if's?" you had from leaving the "business" and you've moved on to enjoy a happy life.

Care to share which AMO you were involved with?

DBERR vs Amway UK Case - Decision Imminent

As reported previously, the court case regarding DBERR's petition to shutdown Amway UK concluded on the 6th December and initially a judgement was expected around the end of that month.

We noted that our search keywords for the blog began to be dominated by terms referring to the UK case, representing hundreds of people looking for any updates or any type of news regarding the decision. There were no comminications from the Amway Corp, none whatsoever, not even something along the lines of an update saying "that they are still awaiting the decision and we'll make it known when we do"....until very recently.

A number of very rightly concerned and anxious IBO's began emailing Amway UK, complaining about the lack of communication regarding the case and wanting an update on it. Amway UK must have received plenty of them as within days an email was issued to the leaders of Amway UK. That email surfaced on the truth about amway forum and so for the benefit of those who may not be aware of it's existence, the email is quoted below:


"Dear Leaders,

In light of enquiries from some of our leaders requesting news on the court case, I would like to take a moment to let you know the up-to-date position.

In addition, we have a number of key business initiatives planned for 2008 to inform you about at this stage.

Please feel free to share the information in this letter with ABOs in your group if you think it's appropriate right now and if they've been asking about the outcome of the court case. It's our plan to send out a Business Bulletin on Friday to all ABOs with a similar update.

As you are aware, the court hearings in the case brought against us by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR, formerly the DTI) finished on 6 December and we were told to expect a written judgment some time in January.

We have not yet received a ruling from the court and although our lawyers check on a daily basis we have no indication as to when the ruling will be given. We are hopeful it will be announced before the end of this month.

This letter is to let you know about the arrangements we are making to ensure that you hear the result directly from Amway, and also to reassure you that we will do everything possible to ensure any disruption to the business is kept to an absolute minimum, once we know the outcome.

As soon as the ruling is announced in court, and we've informed our staff, we will telephone all UK Leaders (Business Consultants) to inform you of the result. The call will be brief, and will be followed up by a more in-depth email to you and a subsequent email to all registered ABOs later that day. We will try our very best to ensure that you hear the outcome first from Amway.

We are of course hopeful of a judgment in our favour, based on the evidence we gave in court and everything we have done to address the concerns that BERR (formerly the DTI) raised with us. Our legal team strongly disputed their case and the selective analysis of our figures they used to support it. We are nevertheless taking responsible steps to be fully prepared for any eventuality.

In the event of what we would call a negative judgment, let us reassure you that Amway is committed to staying in this market. Amway never left a market in the 20th century and it is not going to do so in the 21st.

Please note that throughout this period the changes to our business rules remain in place. The moratorium on sponsoring that was put in place on 4 May 2007 continues. Deciding to lift the moratorium will be a business decision based on our new retail, marketing and training programme being in place . This will be some months away and is not linked to the timing of the legal action being concluded. On this issue, we will of course take into account any comments the judge makes in his ruling.

With so much happening, it's our intention to meet with all Business Consultant leaders face-to-face in informal groups, ideally within 10 working days of the judgment, at our Milton Keynes offices, subject to your availability. The objective - to discuss key training, support and marketing strategies for the first half of 2008.

We will continue working on building this business, and improving the support we offer ABOs in training and retailing, starting with the announcement of extra 'Retail With Confidence' workshops to cope with demand - the initial 12 February workshops are fully booked. We're also bringing forward Retail Coaching and training for BCs, CRCs and RCs, on-line training on products and branding, and new Product Introduction Packs.

A note will be sent to you under separate cover soon with all the information you need about the face to face meetings. You are invited at our request, as our guests, and expenses will be covered by Amway UK. We will be in touch soon with more specific details.

I look forward to seeing you in person very soon.

With best regards,

Tom Denham Director and General Manager, Amway UK Limited"


The decision to date is yet to be known, but word around the net is that it is not far away, perhaps sometime this week. We'll continue to keep an eye out for any further news or developments and post them as soon as possible.

There is also some major happenings regarding Amway India also. Massive changes to the Amway business looks set to be made, as a result of the government investigation there too. We'll do a seperate blog post on that in the future.

Interview With An Ex-Amway IBO

We often read Amway/Quixtar related blogs, both pro and anti....it's a great way to learn about other people's experiences from all around the world...

One of the blogs we regularly read is Rocket's Rants...an ex Amway (come Quixtar and soon back to Amway) IBO from Canada. He's pretty blunt and to the point with what he says...something we like.... He's recently interviewed a former Amway IBO who has candidly answered his questions and elaborated on his Amway experience....Really interesting reading with plenty of food for thought being dished out...

Although this only one persons experience and a US one at that, we think this is worthwhile of mentioning and linking this interview on our blog. Whether it resonates truth with the typical Australian Amway experience also, we can't say for sure, in any case, it's very informative about what can and does happen in Amway in other parts of the world...

Part 1: http://rocketsrants.blogspot.com/2008/01/twenty-some-odd-questions.html

Part 2: http://rocketsrants.blogspot.com/2008/01/20-questions-continuing-on.html

We will add future segments in this post as they occur.

Part 3: http://rocketsrants.blogspot.com/2008/02/twenty-some-odd-questionsfinale.html