Australian Amway Diamonds jumping ship to MonaVie MLM

Some very interesting articles from IBOfightback who runs the "Truth about Amway" site appeared a few days ago, which we'll repost here, with belated permission (note also that the highlighted links in the articles may not work correctly, so the original link to the articles themselves are provided also for anyone wishing to check them out):

Amway clean out moves Down Under

http://www.thetruthaboutamway.com/index.php/content/view/9335/76

Written by IBOFightBack
Thursday, 29 May 2008

"It may be autumn downunder, but Amway's spring cleanout of Diamonds continues. Last week a source told me that qualifiers for Amway Australia & New Zealand's Emerald Plus cruise of the Mediterranean were asked to sign statutory declarations that neither they, nor their spouses, nor children, were to join any other MLM companies.

Three Diamonds reportedly refused to sign the declaration and will thus not be on the cruise. Amway apparently made the move after learning that several Diamond's already had family members involved in a competitor, namely Mona Vie, the juice MLM that attracted former Quixtar Executive Diamond Orrin Woodward and his TEAM associates.

Some days afterwards another contact informed me that a Mona Vie Black Diamond had told them that a number of Amway Australia Diamond's, have being angered by Amway's request, had earlier this week joined the Mona Vie team of former Amway Double Diamond Brig Hart.

The Mona Vie Black Diamond apparently gave the impression that they had left Amway due to anger at Amway's request to sign the declaration. Now, I personally find it a little farfetched to believe that these Diamonds, having been "angered" by Amway, could have investigated and evaluated all the opportunities out there and decided in the space of only a few days to join Mona Vie. Clearly Amway Australia had legitimate reasons to be concerned.

The Diamonds involved are very well known in Australia and this may cause some shockwaves through their Amway groups. However, another source tells me that while some Australian groups were breaking new Emerald's and Diamonds regularly these Diamonds groups had shrunk considerably over the past decade, so they may have had little to lose."

And then this two days later:

Letter from Amway Australia to Platinums

http://www.thetruthaboutamway.com/index.php/content/blogsection/0/90/

Written by IBOFightBack
Friday, 30 May 2008

"The following letter was reportedly sent this week to Amway Australia Platinums who are part of organizations that had reportedly been targeted by Mona Vie."

Hello Platinums,

As Emeralds and Diamonds across our Region do the last minute things they must to pack and prepare for their journey from Istanbul to Venice on the fabulous Seabourn Spirit I'm reflecting on some of the fantastic things I'll be able to share with them as we cruise the Agean and Mediterranean seas. It will be a great forum for sharing exciting business news and our plans for the future with your leaders. Normally, this would occur simply as a matter of course but recent events in the UK and the US have created a sense of uncertainty amongst some.

Also, competitive organisations, and sadly some IBOs associated with them, are building on that uncertainty to encourage IBOs to give up their place in their line of sponsorship and to leave Amway. Fortunately for all of us this activity is confined to a limited number of organisations.

I'd like to take this opportunity to make sure you have the facts at your disposal and not simply misinformation and untrue statements traceable back to a small group of leaders. Here are answers to some of the questions that have been asked of me in the last couple of weeks:

Q: Will Amway be introducing the English business model in Australia?

A: We have no intention of implementing 'UK like' decisions on the business in Australia. We are keen to see what the consumer marketplace is demanding of us in Australia and then meet those needs. Of course the fact that a government anywhere in the world would threaten to close Amway's operations, which is what happened in the UK prior to the favourable High Court outcome in May this year, is of huge concern to all of us and something that we need to protect against ever happening again. We can do this by promoting transparency in the business, and by ensuring a market presence where IBOs have an opportunity to earn a reasonable income through both their performance bonus and retail commissions.

Q: Is Amway opening Business Centres as 'shops' to bypass IBOs

A: We are and will remain a business opportunity company. Our Business Centre strategy is NOT about opening "shops" and bypassing you, it's about improving Amway's image and reputation with a bricks and mortar presence and building a sense of local community across all lines of sponsorship.

Q: I've been told Amway is going to ban all tools. Is this true?

A: No, this is not true. BSMs have a role in the business but they must be aligned with the direction of the company, supporting the overall business and transparent to the marketplace. We recognise the value of tools and meetings as contributors to the growth and well-being of the business.

Q: What is Amway's plan for the future?

A: This is one of the most exciting times ever to be part of this fabulous business opportunity. We've been challenged by Doug DeVos and Steve Van Andel to transform the business, not into something different, but to transform it from the US$7 billion business it is today to a US$12 billion business in the future. We're incredibly excited to be a part of bold plans to grow the business and already we see the fruits of their vision.

• Major sponsorships to reinforce key Amway brands including Asafa Powell, the World's Fastest Man, Ronaldinho, the No. 1 Footballer in the World, Liu Xiang, China's No. 1 hurdler AND watch this space for a major announcement about local sponsorship of an incredibly popular sporting celebrity whose name is well known to all of you.

• Exciting new product developments like Artistry Essentials and Simply Nutrilite. These launches have proven incredibly exciting in Amway North America and we're working hard, now, to bring them down-under.

• At a local level we have some really exciting things to share with your leadership on the Seabourn Spirit. Those plans include the introduction of a new product with exciting celebrity endorsement, the sponsorship I've already mentioned, changes to some of our product pricing that you will be excited about, and a whole raft of other initiatives for the short, medium and long terms. We are conscious of the need to constructively consult on any change, and your leadership will be instrumental in developing our joint plans for the future so that together we can ensure the things we do will help take this business to even greater heights.

The future is exciting as the Amway Business Opportunity approaches its 50th Anniversary; its size, it's history and values combine with the many millions of people around the world who are IBOs to ensure that while other businesses come and go Amway will still be around to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2059.

Best wishes,

Michial Coldwell"

Interesting stuff indeed. Whether these Diamonds suddenly jumped onto the MonaVie ship out of supposed anger at Amway's demand for the Stat Dec or because they were already involved in Mona Vie at some level, is not really the issue. From our point of view, the issue here is that these Australian Amway Diamonds have left Amway, "the best business opportunity in the world" and for many of the new IBOs that join Amway, reaching Diamond is the ultimate goal. So it begs the question, if life is so wonderful once you hit Diamond and you become financially free (as we were told) then why would you want to give up your lifetime "residual income" that you can "will to your children" to join another MLM selling fruit juice? Hmmm.

Now onto the letter to the Platinums...

Very very disappointing to see that Amway has "no intention of implementing 'UK like' decisions" here. From our perspective, the Amway business in Australia is being operated virtually exactly the same as the UK business, pre-government investigation. It is clear from reading the High Courts judgement (http://www.amquix.info/pdfs/UK/UK_Amway_Judgment.pdf ) that had Amway UK not implement the changes to the business they did, the Court would have closed them down. We like the changes that were made to the UK model, and in particular these two undertakings that Amway UK made to the Court during the trial, which were:

- banning the sale and promotion of all Business Support Materials (Tools) not authorised and distributed by Amway

- not to allow sponsoring of any new IBO's until it publishes earnings data with a stated income disclosure policy. This income disclosure policy requires annual disclosure of average earnings, average earnings of the highest and lowest levels of each category of IBO, and the number of persons qualified at each level.

But alas, as you can see by Amway Australia's response to banning BSM's here is that they say nothing at all. We agree that there is no reason to ban all tools, but far out, it is the Tools business run by the AMO's and the deceptive practices used that causes the greatest criticism of the Amway business, in our opinion. So where is the transparency to the marketplace regarding tools and where how do they support the overall business? We certainly don't see it.

Now to the income disclosure. Amway Australia still only states (though it's nowhere to be seen on their website) in their literature that in 2001 the average "active" IBO earned $115(USD) per month (Gross). Umm, hello, it is mid 2008 now, why are they are using figures that are 7yrs old? and why do they not state what the average Australian distributor grossed per month in say 2006 or 2007? Why also do they not release data stating exactly how many distributors they have at each pin level and the actual average incomes earn't from those? Probably simply because they don't have to, fortunate for them as they may be a wee bit embarrassed if they did.

But no, instead of disclosing some cold hard up to date statistics from Amway as to what IBO's are actually achieving in Australia, you (un)lucky prospects out there get to hear the 2-5yrs and you'll be Diamond spiel with absolutely no proof to back these type of claims up and are met with "it's none of your business" type responses should you have the audacity (we say common sense more like it) to ask for it. Pity. It appears that the global transformation that Amway Global is talking about does not extend as far as here, well not yet anyway, if ever?

Ok, back on topic. So obviously it ain't all smooth sailing here for Amway Australia and like the

Quixtar/Team/MonaVie hoo-haa that's been happening in the states, it'll be interesting to see what unfolds over the upcoming weeks regarding the Australian Diamonds who have left Amway and joined MonaVie Australia and any "shockwaves" that may result.

We'll keep you updated as info comes to hand.

PS. Sorry about the unsightly text format, must figure out how to fix it!