Our Story

You are probably wondering who we are and what our motivation is in establishing this website? Well in short, we are just your average aussie working class couple. We are not IBO's and never have been, but we have family members that are current IBO's and thus our experience of Amway is from that perspective. We have set up this site with the hope of gaining more insight, knowledge and understanding of what the Australian Amway experience is. Our story below elaborates further.

(In the interest of our privacy and those of our family members, names in our story have been changed. Any resemblance to an actual IBO couple of the same names is purely coincidental and unintentional).

One day, our family members Tom & Jane presented the opportunity by asking us if we were interested at looking to earn some extra income by joining a "new booming internet based business" that also had Harvey Norman, Rebel Sports and some other large companies involved. All we had to do was purchase our groceries and other household goods through this new business and we would get up to 30% discount on our purchases. No selling was involved, we only had to buy from our own business and recruit others to do the same thing. By doing so, we had the potential to earn $50,000+ per year within 2-5 years by working 10-12 hours per week. We were then invited to a meeting where we could learn more about it.

Sounding a bit too good to be true, we asked some questions in which we didn't get any straight answers to but rather, Tom and Jane went on to talk about dreams and goals, that this was the best opportunity out there to achieve them and that we really should come to the meeting to find out more. Having already been familiar with Amway and the MLM concept, we asked them "Is this Amway? Tom replied "No". After a bit more probing though, it was revealed that the business was called IDA and that "Amway was just the supplier". We expressed our opinions about Amway and MLM's in general and told them our other reasons why we weren't interested in it.

We thought nothing more of it until a few days later when they called us to pitch the opportunity again and tried to persuade us into coming to the meeting. Again, we gave them our reasons and declined. After that phonecall though, we felt a little unnerved by some of the comments that Tom and Jane had made and yet we also found ourselves somewhat intrigued. Although still sceptical about it we wondered if we were indeed passing up a really good opportunity. It had been a long long time since we were last exposed to Amway or any other MLM business, (in fact, we thought that had Amway died off years ago!) so we thought well, we'll at least do a bit of research on IDA and suss out what they were all about and their connection with Amway.

Like most people do when they want to research information, we jumped on the internet and did a Google search. We didn't find anything about "IDA", so we googled "Amway". We checked out a few of the sites and did not like what we saw. The information we found was pretty much all negative and a lot of it concerned Quixtar (which we soon learn't was basically the name the Amway business was now known as in the USA). We found a little bit of info related to IDA and about Amway from the Australian perspective but it seemed quite dated. We didn't know if all this negative stuff was still happening, let alone if it was happening here in Australia. It really didn't matter whether it wasn't anyway. Those few pages we read were enough to turn us right off the whole thing and conclude that we wanted nothing to do with it.

Again we didn't think any more of it and assumed that Tom and Jane would do their own similar research, reach the same conclusion as us and that would be the end of it. It wasn't until a week or so later that we learn't that they had already signed up as IBO's and that we were actually one of the first few people that they had prospected. Surprised at this, we called and asked them if they had indeed really looked into the business thoroughly. At first, they assured us that they had checked it all out and knew what they were doing. We advised them to be careful anyway and pointed out some of the stuff we had read about. They got offended by that and we were quite stunned at how defensive, dismissive and snappy they were being towards us. It was quite out of their character. They didn't want to listen to anything else we had to say. Realising that we weren't getting anywhere with them and before the conversation got really heated, we ended it by just wishing them luck with it.

They were adults after all, who are more than capable of making their own decisions and free to live life how they pleased and we respected that. But still, we were a bit hurt that our concerns were brushed aside like they were and by some of the things they had said and the manner they said it. So we decided to forget about it and just trust that they knew what they were doing. In the interests of avoiding another possible unpleasant confrontation, we made a mental note to not say anything "bad" about the business whenever we got together in the future. We figured too, that if they didn't do well with it then they'd quit soon enough anyway.

After that exchange though, we noticed that we rarely saw or heard from them as often as we used to. Other family members and friends were saying the same thing. On the rare occasion when we did see them, they'd seem really happy and would say how fantastic the business was going. Of course, we were happy (and relieved even more so) to hear that but we all felt a little bit hurt and disappointed that they were missing family, social and sporting events and simply just weren't around much anymore. We couldn't understand it as we thought that the business was mean't to be a 10-12 hour a week thing and yet it seemed that all of their spare time was being spent on it.

Over the following months we would hear on the grapevine about what Tom and Jane were doing and everyone was noticing that they had changed. They weren't the same, yes they were happy and seemed closer as a couple, but their attitude and some of things they were saying and doing began to concern us. The more we heard the more concerned we became as it all began to sound a bit familiar. Familiar to some of the stuff we had read about on the internet a month or so prior. We felt compelled to go back and research the business in more depth.

We wanted to find out more about the business, how it worked exactly and gain a better understanding of what Tom & Jane were doing (since they never went into any great details about the business). We were wanting to find out why they were saying some of the things they did and what had caused their general attitude and persona to change. We wanted to get a good idea of what the typical IBO experience was and see how it related to Tom and Jane. We wanted to verify some statisical information and to see whether what they were doing and required to do in the future could actually bring them the success they had talked about.

So we spent many hours on the net searching for the information we wanted. We learn't about Amway's history, how it works, about the AMO's and their relationship with Amway, we read statistical articles and hundreds of testimonials from IBO's, ex-IBO's and from people like us, the loved ones of IBO's. Although the great majority of stuff we read about was from an overseas perspective, it was still all very eye-opening, in some cases very disturbing and we found too many similiarites to what we had heard, seen or experienced ourselves to dismiss them as irrelevant. Based on what we had researched, we concluded that the typical Amway/AMO experience was a universal thing.....and universally, a bad one.

We were that concerned and shocked, we printed off a dozen or so pages and gave them to Tom and Jane. We honestly thought that once they read them, they'd really take notice and realise that the business probably wasn't all that they believed it to be, much less give them the success that they wanted. Jane read the first page and angrily threw all the pages back at us. We were told in no uncertain terms that it was all garbage, we had no idea of what we talking about and that we should mind our own business. And so ever since then we have.

To this day, we have virtually no contact with Tom and Jane. What was once a close relationship between us has diminished to uncomfortable brief encounters void of warmth and sincerity. We've seen other relationships and friendships strained and tested. It is now an "us" and "them" situation. It seems that time with them is afforded according to where you stand about their business. Those who support/ed them (by being in their downline or buying the odd product through them) have close and constant contact, those who are neutral still have some contact and those who have been/are vocal with their concerns and do not support the business, well, they don't get much time of day at all.

As much as it is our opinion that Tom and Jane are the real victims in this, albeit unknowingly, we believe that we are victims too (hence the name of the site). We and other family members and friends feel ostracized simply because we have opinions that challenges and/or is contrary to Tom and Janes beliefs and way of thinking. We feel hurt, perplexed and yes angry that this business has impacted on us the way it has.

Despite all the research we have done and continue to do, we are trying to keep an open mind and still hold a faint glimmer of hope that we may have got it wrong. You see, we have based our opinions on our own experience and as stated earlier, on the information and experiences of others, the majority of which is not from the Australian perspective. There is still so little information on the net that is from the Australian perspective and we felt that there was a need for a site like this which is dedicated to the Australian Amway/AMO experience. So we took it upon ourselves to establish one.

We hope that by inviting the public to share their stories and opinions, we can obtain a greater understanding and knowledge of the Australian Amway experience. In doing so, we believe that a more accurate picture of what's happened in the past and more importantly, what is happening now will be revealed. We hope that over time, this site will become a valuable resource for anyone interested in researching Amway, whether it be as a current IBO, a potential IBO, an ex-IBO or the family and friends of IBO's.

We therefore invite you to share your Amway experience, whether it is or was a positive one, a negative one or anything in-between, it doesn't matter, all we're simply after is the truth.....your truth.

To share your story, write to us at ozamwayvictims@yahoo.com