Is Market America (Amway) a scam or are they involved in deceptive marketing?
It appears like Herbalife saying that they are the Online Home Business System?

Can anyone out there tell us if this is a business worth investing?

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Hi Scrub-

Amway or Market America is not a scam but I can tell you that they are involved in deceptive marketing. Like Herbalife, both of these companies have been around for the longest and is part of the America Way. However, they both have had their share of legal problems.

I would go so far as to call it a scam, out in the real world (that is not the mlm fantasy world) I've had 2 personal experiences with them that definately convinced me they're not legit. My first experience came in my childhood. some friends and family convinced my parents to get into amway, took up tons of time for their garbage worthy soaps, over priced promotional meetings, high priced "training" consisting of nothing more than infomercial hype in a backroom of a 1 star hotel. Over 9 years they were involved the only ones who made any money out of it were my parents who got one single $8 commission cheque. Yes thats really a measly $8 in 9 years! Anyone want to figure out their hourly income after literally thousands of hours of work and just as many dollars spent on their worthless products? Never mind that the products are junk and overpriced cause of their commision based pyramid structure.

My second experience came in early 2000, as I was working and finishing college part time. I got a call out of nowhere from a guy I'd known a few years earlier from college. he said there was a company he worked in that had job openings and would I be interested. He wouldnt tell me the company or what they did. That should've been a red flag to me but I ignored it figuring it cant be bad since I knew this guy previously. Well he agreed to meet me and give me a ride out to their "office" on saturday. I thought saturday was unusual for an interview with a large company. As fate would have it he didnt show up until 6pm and that had me wonderidng what was going on. But I decided I wouldnt commit until I found out some solid facts. He started driving north into brampton, to a subdivision on the far northerly reaches of brampton (for those not in toronto, thats pretty far out there). well we didnt get there until nearly 8pm, and this was a subdivision full of small but new houses. This definately got my suspicions going full steam. I started asking some very direct questions, like "what company is this?" "why are we in front of some strangers house instead of at a company office?" to which I only heard some muttered vague non answers. Well this "interview" was nothing of the sort, when we got in the door I was greeted by the site of a group of 50 to 60 people, all dressed in cheap mal wart suits crammed into this not so large house. I got stuck there for 2 hours, had I driven myself I'd have left immediately, listening to 3rd rate infomercial sales hype about a new ecommerce website coming up in september (this was still in the late january early february time frame). For the whole time the identity of this company was never revealed. It was not until the end when I had a chance to ask the host of this "business meeting" what company it really was, only then did I find out it was amway. Needless to say I refused to commit there and then despite the heavy handed pressure tactics. A few days later I called the old college acquaintance back and told him if he wanted to get together or call me it was ok, but he was to never again try to involve me in amway. After 6 & 3/4 years later he's never bothered to call me back once. Gives me little doubt about his character, that he wont talk to me for not buying into this scheme, and that he tried to get me into it without me knowing what it was. On one final note, this e commerce website they promised, and tried to get investors for, it never materialized, good thing I said no, what little money I had at the time would've been gone for good.

In response to James...I've been an Amway (now Quixtar) distributor for 26 years and I would just like to clarify a couple of things you mentioned. First, I'm appalled that you think the products are junk. I do agree that they are more expensive than those you can buy in the store if you look at their overall price. However, because most of them are concentrated, if you look at their cost per use, you will find that most of them are more economical that those bought in a regular retail establishment.

As for deception in recruiting distributors, I would also have to agree that those practices have been carried out by a some distributors, but I would also say that if you check the policies, rules and regulations of the corporation they have made every conceivable effort to eliminate that kind of conduct to the extent of revoking distributorships when nothing else would stop the conduct. The corporation itself has an impeccable reputation and the questionable behavior remains within the distributor organization itself, not in total, but with some individual distributor organizations or individual distributors.

Even the Federal Trade Commission has given it's blessing to the corporation. Several years ago the FTC investigated the company when it was called Amway. Years of investigation were involved and only one very minor recommendation was made by the FTC, to which the corporation immediately complied. You can read the full transcript of the FTC decision on their website, which I would suggest you do before branding us all crooks. (Smile)

Lastly, you are definitely mistaken about the corporation not developing an online business. Shortly after your second experience, the corporation began their website, Quixtar.com, and subsequently virtually deleted the Amway name in North America and Canada. In most other countries the corporation still operates under the name of Amway. The umbrella company for both local and international business is called Access Business Groups.

This is the first time I find myself responding to these kinds of comments, but after 26 years of people writing or talking about this corporation without checking their facts first, I've just had enough.

So until you actually know what you're talking about, please desist from trashing a perfectly legitimate business opportunity which many, many people enjoy and from which they produce income...some small and some very sizeable.

It is too bad that your parents had such a negative experience and I will guarantee you that they just got caught up in one of those distributor organizations that were not conducting the business according to the rules and regulations of the corporation.

Thank you for reading and considering my comments. Dotty3733

First off, where are the site administrators? what I'm replying too is definately *SPAM* and has no business being here. How on gods green earth do you expect me or anyone to believe such utter rubbish after seeing FACT for years, yes YEARS. My family was ripped off constantly long before you joined that "company", as were THOUSANDS of others!!! You cannot lie your way out of that and think of it as "a one time incident", nothing is further from the truth. SCamway has a decades long track record of fraudulent behaviour and in a great many cases ruined peoples lives. Your moronic lies cannot change this.

Dotty, what you've posted is nothing more than flagrant lies to cover up for years worth of flagrant lies. Try as you might you cannot cover up the blatant scams that amway has been pullint for YEARS. You see, your bit of ad copy you've posted here cannot conceal the FACTS that I and others have revealed here and elsewhere. You should have read what scamfraudalert.org is before you posted. It is a site to expose scams such as your beloved amway not for you to shamelessly spam people with yet more foolishness.

In short you're nothing other than an ignorant spammer who stops at no lengths to lie and cheat people out of their money. You are deserving of nothing but contempt due to your own actions. You are nothing but the scum of the earth.

James, thanks for your very pleasant and complimentary reply. You needn't reply to this. I've said my piece and you've said yours. Happy New Year Dotty

Market America is definitely NOT AmWay!!

I am a Market America distributor and no, we are not involved with, nor do we condone any sort of desceptive marketing. Market America distributors can specialize in anything from advanced nutraceuticals, to high-end makeup to selling websites with a whole slew of things in between.

THIS PAGE will give you quite a bit of information too.

www.marketamericafacts.com
Market America Web Centers – Development, hosting and design
www.marketamericascience.com
www.transitionslifestyle.com
www.genesnphealth.com
www.nutrametrix.com

Distributors are also given their own personal portals which their customers can shop on. For example, mine is here: www.MarketAmerica.com/InHealthNow

The above websites offer a just a few of the areas where Market America distributors can earn income. Yes, it is Network Marketing in the sense that you're suppose to talk to your people in your circle of influence. What I have come to learn is that your circle influence is more than just your friends and family--its anyone you come into contact with over the course of the day (including online or elsewhere).

Market America offers a truly fantastic compensation plan unlike anything I've seen before -- and belive me, I've looked at a lot of them. In fact, its the only one where I could actually calculate EXACTY when a check would arrive and exactly how much it would be. I haven't come across any other network marketing companies where I could do that. I recommend you take a good look at the compensation plan as it is truly the thing that sets Market America apart from all the other network marketing companies out there.

One must carefully research any MLM type company. Most are scams, but Market America (which again is NOT AmWay or Quixtar or whatever its called) is most definitely NOT.

Amy Brachthauser
Market America UnFranchise Owner
InHealthNow.com

I do know that the average distributor for market america only makes 300.00 a month. When attending one of their meetings this was stated by one of their speakers. Think of the millions of people who enter this partnership and become a distributor in comparison to the average earnings of 300.00 a month.

I know one fact about Market America, they do not manufacture their own products. They OUTSOURCE!

I think its important to clarify that there are only ~160,000 distributors world wide (USA, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong & Taiwan). Not millions. And while $300/mo doesn't sound like much, in order to earn that off an investment, you'd need to have $90,000 invested at 4% to earn $300 in interest. I don't know too many people who have that. The truly sad truth is that an extra $300/mo makes a big difference in a lot of people's lives.

But what is really cool is that Market America actually has an independently audited program called the UnFranchise Owners program. An independent auditing firm looked at this program and reported back that for distributors who follow the program for 3 years, the average income is ~ $140,000 per year. If the program is followed for 5 years, the average income is ~ $170,000 per year. No other company has an audited program like this. No traditional business that I know of gives any employee who wants to work for it the opportunity to earn an extra $140,000 per year working an extra 10 hours per week.

One of the most important ways that Market America differs is because there are no percentage levels of payment and instead of a pyramid of people, a distributor only has two legs. You only need two personally sponsored individuals to start earning $300 checks.

As for the comment about out sourcing, you're right! Market America doesn't manufacture anything. Therefore, they have no overhead, manufacturing or R&D expenses. They are able to broker prices for only the items that are HOT -- that consumers are buying. If something is no longer popular, that product is discontinued and the newer, more popular products replace it. It ensures the survival of the company over time. There is no way that could be done if Market America manufactured the things they sold. MANY network marketing companies are bound to just one product because they manufacture it. However, when those products are no longer popular, those companies are in big trouble. That will never happen to Market America because they can easily drop a failing product and pick up whatever is popular. Plus, Market America only offers products sold in BILLION dollar industries. For example, distributors can work in whatever field they prefer: i.e. Web Site sales/design, VOIP technology (voice over internet), cosmetics, anti-aging skin care, nutraceuticals, pet care, etc. There are 14 different billion dollar markets that distributors can do business in. I'll take 1% of a billion every day of the week!

I encourage everyone to look at the compensation plans of different companies. The proof is in the payment plan. After having looked at a number of other network marketing compensation plans, I can see how the industry got a bad rap and where the MLM could stand for Make Less Money. However, Market America truly is a different type of network marketing company. For anyone looking for something to do to create more income for yourself, Market America provides a realistic opportunity.

Best of luck to you all!

Amy Brachthauser
Market America Distributor
www.MarketAmerica.com/InHealthNow