Our last review featured one of the largest direct selling companies in the world. It seems only fitting to follow that up another famous direct selling company. Another guest reviewer turns the spotlight on Amway. Like Avon, Amway is a household name for many people. But Amway is also known for being controversial. Over it’s 50 year history thousands of people have claimed that Amway has been the answer to their dreams of owning a business. Can it be the answer to yours?
This review was compiled by guest reviewer G.M. Shu. If you would like to be a guest review please leave a comment and I will contact you
What They Say
Pitch
In a nutsell, Amway (parent company:Alticor) claims to give you the opportunity to make money by selling products and by sponsoring/mentoring/training others as Independent Business Owners. Like similar Multi Level Marketing (MLM) companies, you recieve a percentage of the revenue generated by any of the IBO’s you sponsor.
Products
Amway offers a various products that their IBO can sell. Product categories include Nutrition & Wellness, Beauty, Bath & Body, and Home. You may have heard of some of their brands: NUTRILITE®, ARTISTRY® Skin Care, L.O.C.® Multi-Purpose Cleaner.
Cost
According to Amway’s registration contract the cost for joining is $137.75. This fee covers "Business & Support, IBOAI Support, and Product Info Pack". Additionally, several sites have reported that Amway encourages new IBO’s to purchase several self improvement/ motivational books and CDs. The cost of these materials can push the inital investment much higher.
What Kind of Support Do They Offer
Amway offers several ways to support IBO’s:
- Your sponsor
- Training-online, video, and instructor-led trainingMarketing
- DVDs, online sites, magazines, brochures, and free websites
- ProductsCustomer support
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What Others Say
Ripoff Report: 28 reports filed against Amway. All of the reports were negative, here’s the most recent one
….My start up cost was 140 dollars. That money, I was told was to pay for my start up kit and for my 4 websites. Only maybe 2 close friends actually signed on the business with the full 140, the rest did 60 to mainly get the websites. Oh and remember my friend I mentioned earlier, the cousin of my upline and sponsor? Well, he also signed on with me as my upline since he signed up first. None of my friends including me have made any actual money since we’ve been in the business. Sure I’ve received checks: 1 for 6 dollars, another for 38 dollars and the last for 50 dollars, but that money still doesn’t exceed even my start up cost. Plus it was basically forced so that I would go on to the next bracket, I didn’t do anything my upline just bought a bunch of random crap. To be honest my friends also haven’t really done anything either except my one friend Neill who was occasionally selling some products to his mom. And basically not really seeing any money from that anyway, he was probably getting 10-20 dollars for selling like 200+ dollars worth of Amway garbage.
WAHM.com:
I was an IBO with Quixtarseveral years ago, some family members are still IBO’s… Good products, the comp plan is ok. Since I am in Calif.it is easier and cheaper to drive to the store for the bulk of the products they offer. I know it works well in areas that are not as populated, but a hard sell for many….
YouTube.com
Positive:
Negative: (note: This Dateline expose is from 2006)
Just Plain Funny:
Better Business Bureau
Amway is listed under 3 names in the Better Business Bureau. Amway, Quixtar, and Alticor. All have an A+ rating. Only Quixtar has any compliants, 28 to be exact, listed against them
Final Say
Overall Grade: No Grade
I was personally involved in the Amway “culture” and prefer to abstain from influencing your decision…Now that we got the disclosure out of the way. It should be noted that the culture of the company “called for” a lifestyle/mental change to narrow for my taste. Meetings, talks, reading materials, friends all related to the Amway …well way. This might appeal to some and not to others.
My name is Dakim, I am the creator of the Home Business Private-Eye.com. I want to help you discover your true passion and then, help you to turn that passion into profit! 
The main issue is the tool scam: http://texsquixtarblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/9-steps-of-truth.html
Hey Tex-
Thanks for the info. I’m working on a 2nd Amway post which contains links to much of the research I’ve done on Amway, I’ll include this link
I would like to mention something. The key thing to remember is that not everyone is successful. You don’t see everyone who enters into the real estate business make big bucks, but some do. You dont see people get jobs designing software and earning big bucks but some do. There are people in life that just do what it takes to be great, reguardless of what they do, and many others dont even try. Like the latest complaint about his friends not doing anything. Sure, those are your friends. Only 2% – 5% of the population can retire by retirement age, so if only 5% can save enough to retire, that would mean you need 20 friends for 1 of you to retire on time. I personally have been with amway, and none of my friends go in. That being said my business is still growing as I find other people. When you get a sales job at lets say Fred Meyers, you don’t ignore all customers unless they are your friend. You would be fired. Likewise, if you only try to sell to your friends and family, no wonder you don’t make money. I have seen an home depot and lowies build in the same parking lot. Now if one is always better, shouldn’t the other fail? It doesn’t because people experience and value different things, it is a matter of finding that person. Lowies doesn’t see one person go into home depot and decide to close shop.
Anyway, I thought that should be somehow worked into posts. Also, the guy who said he got a 6 dollar check, 36, and 50… those would be bonus checks, retail checks for those numbers would push him into the 250 dollars a month savings. Most people ignore this as income. Last time i went to costco, amway wholesale beat the prices on any store brand, not only in cost but also quality (judging on healthiness and taste). But ignoring the income of savings, that is 3 months he almost got bonus checks to pay for a 1 year subscription.
For example, take the 80′ish he earned in 3 months, spread that over 12 months, that is 320 dollars a year earnings on a 140 dollar investment. He could acutally not force the higher brackets and still come out ahead.
Thanks for taking the time to share your point of view. I agree with your main point, output equals input. Whatever success you have is a result of the effort you put in. I think the problem is the a lot folks feel that no matter how much effort they put in, they will never get the success that many in Amway hype up. This is a problem many MLM and network marketing companies face.
Since you work with Amway would you like to be interviewed for a future post? I like to offer reads a point of view from someone who has first hand knowledge of the company.