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

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) 

Part 2 

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.