Anyone been approached with this one ??

[kenmyfam]

My neighbor across the street invites us over on a Friday evening a few weeks ago. Tells us a lot of our neighbors are going over for a bit of a "get together"
Well we get there and a lot of our neighbors are there already. Small talk for a few minutes and then we are all into a presentation for the "ACN" pyramid scheme !!! trying to sell us phone, internet, cellphone etc and also join up for $500 with the promise of "massive" income from us all doing the same thing. As he is a neighbor I bit my tongue but could see my other neighbors uneasiness. I reviewed all the blurb that we had by that time been given and did some quick mental math on the "compensation package"
Works out that until you get over 400 customers of your own you end up with 25 cents per $100 of sales. Bear in mind that if any of the 400 drop out at any time or default on payments you have to replace them.
I mentioned this to everyone at "question time" after the main sales pitch and got the answer of "you have to be prepared to work hard to make good money"
I asked a few more questions about how much money they were currently making and offered to do the math on a sheet of paper for everyone to see.

I have received nothing but thanks since then from the other neighbors that were there and the "host" neighbor has not spoken to me since.

Anyone else been to one of these things ???
If so what were your experiences ???

 

[Bart Sr.]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

Same old spiel---different product.

I have been asked several times to "invest" in this or that scheme.My answer of "No Thank You" usually sank in after the fifth or sixth time to each and every person that asked.

When they keep after you they are saying"I know you are stupid enough to believe me so hand over the cash."
Sorry but the bills come first and there is nothing left for that sort of thing.

I commend you for helping the others see the truth.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

I am afraid we will see many of these ugly schemes rising from the ashes in the near future.

Google anyone of them and they show their true color. Funny on when you get invited to these "seminars" how they hold back the product name.

Makes 3G internet access look good...... you can browse iboats instead of listening to the dribble

 

[tallcanadian]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

it's like anything, there is always one that falls for such things. the worst thing is i've seen friendships fail because of these things. i've not known anyone has made their 'fortune' from such schemes.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

About 15 years ago I lost a friendship over a similar scam. I too pretty much asked questions that couldn't be honestly answered. He asked me to leave. 3 years later, he apologized and said he should have asked me first before losing a substantial amount of cash and the hours put forth. Again, if it sounds to good to be true, it is probably not..........SS

 

[Limited-Time]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

Had a cousin try and dupe me into the "soap seller way" many, many moons ago. Claimed he was going to retire at 50. He was in his mid 30's at the time. After a short stint with the soap people he threw in the towel. And like a good relative I ribbed him about whenever I we got together and we had a good laugh. On his 50th I sent him a Congrats on your Retirement card, after that I kind of let it go.

 

[cornercanyon]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

I agree with you all: if you are trying to get rich, best not to invite your friends.

My wife sold a scrap book product line for years. She didn't go into to it with a get rich idea, she loved to scrap book and needed to purchase supplies wholesale. The line she choose was a pyramid deal where you were encouraged to have your "down" levels etcetera. She is not a sales person and was never comfortable encouraging others to join. While she never made any money at it she did easily support her addiction while introducing many others into the joys of that hobby with good quality products.

She no longer does that, but has many friends she made through the system and still gets invited to some casual annual get togethers they all started.

I think it is really just like finding the right career: if you find something you truly love to do, want to use and it works at a high level of quality it is great to encourage others to join you. If you find a way to get rich, well...

Get rich schemes always hurt someone.

 

[thefairlaneman]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

My neighbor across the street invites us over on a Friday evening a few weeks ago. Tells us a lot of our neighbors are going over for a bit of a "get together"
Well we get there and a lot of our neighbors are there already. Small talk for a few minutes and then we are all into a presentation for the "ACN" pyramid scheme !!! trying to sell us phone, internet, cellphone etc and also join up for $500 with the promise of "massive" income from us all doing the same thing. As he is a neighbor I bit my tongue but could see my other neighbors uneasiness. I reviewed all the blurb that we had by that time been given and did some quick mental math on the "compensation package"
Works out that until you get over 400 customers of your own you end up with 25 cents per $100 of sales. Bear in mind that if any of the 400 drop out at any time or default on payments you have to replace them.
I mentioned this to everyone at "question time" after the main sales pitch and got the answer of "you have to be prepared to work hard to make good money"
I asked a few more questions about how much money they were currently making and offered to do the math on a sheet of paper for everyone to see.

I have received nothing but thanks since then from the other neighbors that were there and the "host" neighbor has not spoken to me since.

Anyone else been to one of these things ???
If so what were your experiences ???

What you should have done was suck up all the free food and adult beverages and smile and agree with everything said.....When it came to time to make a promise to buy or sign a contract just keep smiling and say "oh yes it sure sounds great, Let me reveiw it at home and if I still want it I will get back to you later" tell them how wonderful it sounds and smile.....JUST dont commit I tried this on a high pressure time share salesman once. After his free hotel stay and my listening to him for 2 hours I said "it sounds great, But all money matters over a couple of thousand require me to take extra time to reveiw and consider so even though I WONT SIGN TODAY ,I WILL HIGHLY CONSIDER IT,AND BY THE WAY IT DOES SOUND GREAT! teehee He became upset when he knew he was up against a brick wall he couldnt take down

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

...... i've seen friendships fail because of these things. i've not known anyone has made their 'fortune' from such schemes.

I actually do know a few who have- one couple was "emerald" when we met and were "diamond" when I stopped contact. The other couple was "direct" when we met and "pearl" when I quit. They were nice people- not so sure about all the ethics exercised. Well actually, I am sure about the ethics, and that was why I quit.

 

[lowkee]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

People do get rich from these schemes, the people who start them. I once did web work (some of my best work, IMO) for a fairly obvious pyramid scheme investment company. It was certainly interesting to see what went on behind the doors. I was kept in the dark as to the logistics of the money and the subject ALWAYS quickly changed when I brought up the math of it all, but having admin access to all of the data, I was able to see quite a few people getting VERY rich (checks to some people for $100K+ per WEEK from a $3K investment) and the only people who lost out were the last onces to get in (when it came crashing down). Textbook pyramid scheme which both hurt and helped my resume greatly.

Not many web developers can say they single handedly designed and coded a site which moved $2-3MM per day and never once got hacked.

Some ask me if I feel guilty for working there and I say "Sometimes". I made a web site that allowed a scheme to continue into the hundreds of thousands of people, but then again, I was hired to do web work, and did it to the best of my ability. The only money I pocketed was my paycheck (which was modest for the work I did). Some of my fellow coworkers lost several thousand at the end. I know they knew better, but greed is easy to be blinded by. I almost invested at various times, but never did, knowing there is never a way to predict the end.

The owner of it.. she walked away with millions. The SEC came in and paid her $10K month salary while they investigated. Just that part made me consider ousting my morals and starting my own.

If anyone is interested, PM and I'll share the scheme name. I'd rather not in public, as a LOT of money was lost.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

This has happened to be 3 friggin' times! First was a friend and his dad trying to get me into MarketAmerica. Second was an ex-coworker trying to get me into Quixtar (Amway), and the latest was another ex-coworker who was trying to get me into one that was so convoluted I couldn't even figure out what the hell he was talking about. This last time I just said to the guy: "Look, I know what this is and I know how it works. I'm sure you can probably make some money doing it, but what you have to do is spend your evenings and weekends doing just what we're doing here. And I'm not interested in spending my free time this way."

 

[salty87]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

i've been invited to one of those ACN parties. the food wasn't great but at least someone brought a bottle of booze...the hosts didn't. i don't know if that was smart or not, had i known there was almost no booze i never would have gone. even with a few under my belt, i wasn't about to write a check.

it's creepy lining up your friends and family like that. but, ACN really needs to work that way to build their network. a video phone is worthless if the person on the other end doesn't have one too. so they're trying to get their foot in the door with as many families and groups as they can.

reminds me of an insurance job i interviewed for many years ago...hancock i think. the first 20 questions on the application had to deal with selling to your family, your friends, their families....yuck.

 

[JH3]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

What suprises me about these things is that it is usually people that I thought were smart enough not to be sucked into something like that. When someone starts in on me with one of thoes things I quickly, as nice as I can, stop them short and tell them no thanks.

 

[avenger79]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

Glad I live in the sticks. I'm not as polite as you. I would have vocally left and thanked them for wasting my time.

We did a bon fire the other night and one of the guys pops up with "hey this is a good time for me to bring out my raffle tickets" It was also a good time to review the invitee list. He won't be asked back.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

I was invited to one ... told them I was busy but would do some research before giving them an answer. Got back to them and told them I was so disappointed in ACN's website there was no way I would waste one second on listening to them. There is a problem with a company that is selling a lifestyle rather than a product. Go to there website and there is almost no mention of the phone, internet, calling card packages. It is all about the bigger home, newer, bigger, better car, etc. It is a ponzi scheme, just a bit fancier than some to avoid the illegalities of the ponzi. If asked to buy in ... Run, Forest, run!

 

[levittownnick]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

i've been invited to one of those ACN parties. the food wasn't great but at least someone brought a bottle of booze...the hosts didn't. i don't know if that was smart or not, had i known there was almost no booze i never would have gone. even with a few under my belt, i wasn't about to write a check.

it's creepy lining up your friends and family like that. but, ACN really needs to work that way to build their network. a video phone is worthless if the person on the other end doesn't have one too. so they're trying to get their foot in the door with as many families and groups as they can.

reminds me of an insurance job i interviewed for many years ago...hancock i think. the first 20 questions on the application had to deal with selling to your family, your friends, their families....yuck.

Funny, I had a similar interview with Prudential 15 years ago. I declined for the same reasons you did.

 

[thefairlaneman]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

The insurance companys want ONE THING and that is to get policies on their books. I too went to work for an insurance company and was pushed to sell to friends and family and did sell several policies. Too bad when I left because I was making next to nothing that I couldnt have taken the policies with me, but this is all part of the plan...

 

[SuzukiChopper]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

Melaleuca is another one. Friends dragged me for a 'business opportunity' that they were considering and thought I should check it out. Apparently the products are very good and I know of people who like them a lot. I'm not a salesman though so if I was going to get in to something like that, the products better be WELL known and sell themselves.

Turns out that a restaurant owner friend of mine is also involved. He said that he had a few business ideas that he'd like to discuss with me to help me out through my difficult time. Melaleuca again. He showed me his checks that he's been getting which weren't overly exciting and also showed me his customer list which was pushing 15 pages. Easy for a restaurant owner with connections in the city to take advantage of something like that. No thank you.

 

[CheapboatKev]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

Anybody hear of Pre Paid Legal????
Oh man.....An aquaintance..Friend of an old girlfriend was involved and begged..I mean begged me to sign up...Told me how I can bring people in as well and after X amount of people I could move up to whatever..
I joined the 12 bux a month just to help the guy out..but cancelling turned into a NIGHTMARE....yikes..I think I should have used my Pre Paid Legal account to SUE THEM!!

Oh that would be hilarious!

 

[ne7800]

Re: Anyone been approached with this one ??

I have people try to become friends with me just to make these kinda sales, their first mistake was to push their sales pitch on to soon (not that i would ever fall for it)