What follows is one person's experience from the "MLM Survivors" page re: Market America See Link
It would take me hours to convey to you what a bunch of crap Market America is. To put it in the most simplistic terms; everything I have read about Amway sounds like Market America. Except the "tools" (marketing) we bought are strictly marketed by the company, so there is no tools scam here. But there are plenty of other things wrong.
For instance heres a perfect example of what I mean; they have a "wonderful" (look out, I'm going to be sick) new cosmetics line they introduced called Motives. The 1 day training costs $250 (that doesn't include the $850 you have to spend to get the makeup kit plus the additional $64 for shipping and handling) The trainings are run by the "certified Motives trainers". The majority of these "trainers" have no prior training or experience in makeup, and were selected due to a "who-knows-who" type of thing. Its such a joke. They put a lot of pressure on the men to get involved too. These consultants run around calling themselves experts and they basically know as much about putting on makeup as a caveman.
Also the whole line itself was promoted to the distributors as a "high quality" top of the line cosmetic. There have been rumors circulating (more than likely, rumors started by the company to brainwash the consultants into believing its good stuff) that the line is made by the same company as M.A.C. and Bobbie Brown. Well, it didn't take long for the distributors who DID have a background in cosmetics to find out that the whole line was sooooo overpriced. The "wholesale, special-to-distributors, can't be bought in stores- makeup is made by a cheap, drug store brand that retails its lipsticks for $3.95 RETAIL. Market America charges is distributors $10.75 after S&H.
Oh, and the huge bottles of foundation they sell for the custom blended foundation is a bigger joke. It comes from a company that sells it to salons for $20. Market America's price to distributors- $184!!!!!!! Some of these nit-wit consultants were going into salons trying to market their cosmetics line (poor things; some of them dropped $2,000-$3,000 to get started) only to be laughed out of the salons by the owners who were already familiar with the product, knowing they could get it for $20. The same makeup is also available at Sears, and some of the consultants found out the hard way when their customers discovered this, and returned entire purchases.
Its not fair to these poor saps who have plunked down their hard earned money, get "training" that is a total joke (nobody seems to know how to do this custom blend thing even after the training). The people in the upline (the few making money, and of course its at the expense of their downline) put a lot of pressure on everybody to get involved with the makeup line as it provides them with a lot of BV's to earn their checks. Of course these jerks don't even use the crap. Even the Head Trainer for the company shops at Chanel. Whats wrong with this picture????
Lets see, although they don't sell tools through the distributors to make money, the company has started offering discounts to the higher pin levels if they buy large quantities of tapes, so they can distibute them to their downlines. So, I guess this will result in them eventually making a buck off the tapes, especially if the upline is buying the tape for $1, and selling it for $5. So, now that I think about it, yeah, I guess they are making money off tools. They also are really big on filling the "trainings" and "seminars".
One "seminar" where they flew in some A-hole from across the country was an 8 hour snoozer where this jerk basically went through the steps of an "interview process". We already all have this "interview process" in booklets we recieved at another seminar! And during the breaks they turned on music and made this room full of about 250 people get up and dance.They looked like complete jerks, doing the "party train" and all. I was embarrassed to be there. If you didn't get up, people gave you dirty looks. Oh, in Market America, we don't "sign" people up, we put them through an "interview" to see if they are right for the biz. OH PUUUULLLLEEEEEZZZE.
Yeah, get them through the ""interview" and then let them know its about $1,000 to get started (products you have to buy; "you can't sell something you don't have"!!!) a $250 ticket to the awsome, blockbuster, kick-butt International Convention (if you don't go, you are obviously not serious about success and the upline will basically ignore you, so screw your financial obligations, your kids, your family, yourself, and GET YOUR BUTT THERE) then, plan on setting aside about $100 per month for the voicemail which is soooo important to get your daily testimonials and trainings, oh, and don't forget, about $50 a month for the trainings, cause you are a dummy and need to hear it seven times before it sticks, and also you really, really SHOULD be on transfer-buying to the tune of $60-$250 per month; simply transfer the $$ you are spending at the store and buy it from yourself!!! Oh you mean like on shampoo ($1 for Sauve, or $12 from myself!!), cosmetics (we already covered that), coffee ($4 per lb. at store, $14 per lb. from myself!) cheesecake sampler ($12 from Sam's Club, $52 from myself!!), etc... I think you get the picture.There are so many half truths going on.
This company was founded by a guy who claims to have been very successful with Amway. No wonder this company is the way it is. I can write more stories for you later if you are interested. I will also send you a couple of links to check out. The problem with Market America is the same problem as all the other MLM's out there; very few people make money and its mostly an illusion created by the few who are making money. They want to get you in to keep their gravy train running at full speed. Let me know if you want any further info from me.
