Amway Soap Box

Nutrilite Nutriscam Vitamins Used to Finance Amway Cult Closed Market Swindle

2009-09-02T11:19:00.007-04:00

Recently I've had a Amway Apologist leave a comment on another of my blogs whereby he (or she) made a enthusiastic assessment of Amway's Nutrilite vitamins (all as if to represent that they were somehow the best vitamins available). This obviously deluded Amway cult adherent then mentioned the name a foreign soccer sports star by the name of 'Ronaldo' who supposedly endorses Nutrilite. Obviously I must 'school' this anonymous commenter and describe to my reading audience exactly how Nutri-Scam/Nutrilite operates.

Nutrti-scam is actually much older than the 'American Way' itself; 'Amway' collectively is merely an extension of an earlier premeditated 'closed market swindle,' Nutrilite, began by Carl Rehnborg in association with Mytinger and Casselberry. The United States authorites sought to close down what they obviously deduced was a 'snake oil-like' huckster fraud, which in the final analysis put Rehnborg and his scheming business partners out of business. Regrettably, the authorities failed to prevent the cultic initiators (Devos-Van Andel) of the fledgling 'American Way' cult (now collectively known as 'Amway') from taking possession of 'Nutrilite.' Amway now carries on the same exact carefully disguised swindle first operated by Rehnborg. Nutri-Scam therefore was grandfather to that evil step-son: 'Amway.' Do you follow the logic? To more fully understand Nutrilite, Rehnborg and how the Amway cult began, read David Brear's article: Mother of Mercy, Could this be the end of Amway?

Nutrilite vitamins have only one market: primarily the cultic adherents of the Amway closed market swindle, the 'independent business owners,' prosperity believing adherents who contribute handsomely to the Amway cultic initiator's private wealth, ill gotten gain, much of it in exchange for a huckster-like, unremarkable health supplement known as Double X. Amway Cult initiates are taught to believe this Rehnborg 'concoction' has no peer, being associated with renown sports figures (like the former World's fastest man or a soccer star that most people in the United States have never heard of). The truth may be a hard 'pill' to swallow for the Amway 'true believers,' but there are any number of other vitamin supplements which exceed the potency of of these otherwise anemic snake oil compressions that are marketed as vitamins. These other products significantly do not sell for Amway's extortionate prices. When these 'Double Cross' beans are tossed on the ground, they do not grow a bean stalk up to the giant's golden egg laying goose at the top of the bean-stalk.

Amway operates a 'closed market swindle' whereby the buying 'distributors' exclude all 'negative' (normally marketed products) from their homes. 'Nutrilite' (Nutri-Scam) therefore plays a major part in how Amway carries their 'advanced fee swindle' forward. The cost to manufacture these truly unremarkable pellets is incredibly small, nearly nominal, allowing the Devos, Van Andel American Way cult initiators to extract an incredible amount of money from their own supposed salespeople, all who are in actuality the only 'market' for these extortionately priced ($50 - $70) items 'IBOs' are taught to buy in a veritable 'pay to play' game of greed.

I must bring to reader's minds the relatively small swindle of Bernie Madoff, which in the end falls short of the utter fleecing the Amway 'true believers' who are flim-flamed in huckster fashion into buying an overpriced, unremarkable health supplement, all while these duped 'winners' are then further fleeced in a secondary swindle known as the 'tool and function' business operated by criminogenic kingpins, 'mafia-like' families.

Have you been exposed to the Amway menace in some way, shape, fashion, or form? Has their been a 'business cult' meeting in the midst of your neighborhood? Have you received the infamous 'curiosity invite?' Have you been exposed to 'pro-sumer' psychobabble? Be forewarned therefore that these people are out to 'rape' (in the end) the finances of the unwary in what author David Brear describes as the financial holocaust, and sadly, many fall for the con represented as supposed legitimate business. Indeed there exist Amway apologists like David Steadson (IBOFB), Scott Johnson (Tex), and Bridgett Baron (Bridgett); all of whom commit the worst type of psychotic crime: knowing the truth of the Amway swindle and promoting it further in what becomes 'intent to defraud' others into joining. They are obviously narcisticly addled con men who conveniently disregard the historic Amway 'financial holocaust' already played out against former and now long gone Amway true believers.

Now you really know.

You can avoid making the mistake many former adherants--the taken--can attest is an insidious premeditated swindle, all now operating their American Way scam Worldwide. Word to the wise. For more information click here. qiac September 2009

Amway Global Cult Adherents Scammed by Prosumer Pseudo-Science

2009-06-17T06:36:00.007-04:00

Is Amway Global all it is cracked up to be? Do Amway recruiters lie? Do Amway 'true believers' follow insane 'pseudo-science' business training which encourages them to be their own best customers and actually believe this is a wise pursuit by the insane tools that the Amway 'kingpins' encourage them to also buy?

Alan Scherstuhl has written a article in the Village Voice titled Inspirational Business Writing Hits A New Low with Studies in Crap and Pro-Sumer Power! where he takes a comical 'pot shot' at Pro-Sumer Power! How to Create Wealth by Spending Smarter, Not Cheaper, a book written by Bill Quain, PhD. Supposedly, this Bill Quain has a doctorate in 'Educational Administration' and has also written a tome titled The Quixtar Price Is Right, another reality bending work by this supposed genius of education.

Amway believers have long been taught, encouraged, and audited by their upline mentors to be the #1 consumers of their own products, all while they are also taught that this makes good business sense. They are also taught to buy all the mind numbing crap--known as tools--from the Amway kingpins which support this insane logic. In Scherstuhl's article, he exposes the 'reality inverting' logic that Amway cultists are expected to believe. This insanity has been given a name: "pro-sumer"--a reality inverting 'neologism' which combines the words 'producer' and 'consumer'.

"In all of Pro-Sumer Power!, the first book I've ever wanted to punch in the crotch, there is but one flicker of genuine inspiration, and that's right there in the title. Apparently, we're now free to swap prefixes and root-words as we please. After pro-suming, who's up for a ride on a circum-cycle with an para-hobo?" ...Alan Scherstuhl

Being a 'prosumer' might be described as 'eating while making a deposit in the loo!' Shurstuhl describes Dr Quain's reality inverting tomes as being on par with L. Ron Hubbard's 'Dianetics' and 'Battleground Earth' which are also supposed pseudo-science 'crap books' which lead thousands of people down Scientology's path of deception. Amway and Scientology, Apart From the Labels, What's the Difference?

Dr. Quain's wonderful screw-ball books actually describe how Amway cult adherents are lead to believe that Amway's 'closed market swindle' can make all their 'prosperity dreams' come true. The same type of folks who believe in Dr. Quain's works might also enjoy L. Ron Hubbard's books as well. Both defy reality! Please give Inspirational Business Writing Hits A New Low with Studies in Crap and Pro-Sumer Power! a read. Find out how neologisms like Prosumer make little sense, and be sure to see the wonderful supportive graphics Dr. Quain uses to support his premises.

quixtarisacult

Amway Apologists Revealed as "Jack and Jill" After Having Dispute With Doug Wead for Joining Competitor Xango

2009-05-28T07:06:00.007-04:00

Amway apologists IBOFightBack and Bridgett Baron have had a public 'falling out' with a former Amway kingpin, Doug Wead, who has publicly announced that he has formed a 'consulting' relationship with an Amway competitor, Xango--another MLM competitor of Amway who market a pomegranate health drink, a near clone-like product similar to another of Amway's bitter MLM rivals, MonaVie, who markets an accai berry drink in a wine bottle. Readers might recall that many of Amway's ex-kingpins, like Orrin Woodward, left Amway in August of 2007 during the IBO Rebelion and are now selling their mixed bag of 'motivation' with MonaVie and the likes of Xango as well.

Seems Doug Wead, a former presidential advisor on the religious right wing and former Amway 'diamond' kingpin, has 'pulled the covers off' of this IBOFightback chap (David Steadson) and Bridgett Baron stating that "industry insiders" describe them as "Jack and Jill". Here is what Mr. Wead has said on his own blog about Steadson and Baron:

"BTW, for those of you listening in, Bridgett and IBO fightback are called “Jack and Jill” in the networking industry. It is presumed that they are freelance apologists for Amway assigned to live on the net and promote their employers." ...Doug Wead

Much speculation concerning IBOFightBack has been garnered on the web about what would seem to be obvious connections between him and Amway (headquartered in Ada, Michigan). It has precipitated much discussion on the (webraw) Quixtar Blog and within the Q-Blog Forum. Steadson has claimed that he acts independently of Amway, but incorporates a plethora of materials and videos on his 'The Truth About Amway' web pages obviously supplied to him by Amway which supports Steadson's supposedly 'unofficial' propaganda--all of which offers Amway up as a great opportunity.

Steadson does for Amway what it could not openly do for themselves because of the questionable tactics which Steadson is free to employ and for which Amway would want to officially distance themselves from. Amway of course offers up their own 'official' pages and fluffy 'Opportunity Zone' blogs which generally do not address all of the 'scam' and 'consumer fraud' allegations against Amway made by people from all walks of life and for which Steadson is always 'fighting back' against. Steadson feels free to openly take on all the Amway critics like Scott Larsen as well as anti-Amway blogger Joecool.

Bridgett, a propagandist, much like Steadson, offers up a rosy picture of the Amway business as well. Her views have been described as 'pink'. Both Steadson and Baron prowl the Internet 'dispelling the Amway myths'. They feel their 'job' is to follow the search engine results for pages critical of Amway and 'troll' blogs and pages they deem paint an 'unfair' picture of their beloved Amway. Author and Amway critic, David Brear, asks the question, "When does this fellow (Steadson) ever sleep?"

IBOfightback and Bridgett describe Amway as a multi-billion dollar business which operates world wide, as if these sales figures somehow make the Amway distributors somehow magically successful themselves. The sad truth is that the rolling failure rates for Amway distributors approaches 100%. Amway's cult adherents labor in the 'Biblical' Amway vineyard, many times for years without ever producing a quantifiable profit after expenses. Amway rank and file 'distributors' (heavy irony intended) spend countless time and money attending paid candle lit rallies and buying the motivational materials sold by 'kingpin monopolists'. Knowing the sad state of affairs, and of the Amway 'distributors' failure rates, Jack and Jill still promote Amway as the greatest of opportunities. This denial of the 'Amway Financial Holocaust' then makes these 'reality inverting' apologists, promoters of premeditated fraud: 'intent to defraud others' into joining the cultic Amway 'bidnez'.

These dunder heads, who now must deal with Amway critics calling them "Jack and Jill" have made a incredible error in questioning possibly the most prolific of all Amway propagandists, Doug Wead.

Wead, no longer needing to carry water for Amway has laid the cards out on the table, revealed the true purpose and nature of this delusional pair of 'fairy tale' misfits, now made all the more comical by someone whom they at one time professed admiration.

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, most likely it is a duck!

Doug Wead has recently admitted that he wrote many of the books attributed to King of the Kingpins, Dexter Yager, making him the real propagandist behind Dex's throne.

Jack and Jill Went Up A Hill To Carry A Pail of 'Amway' Water

Jack Fell Down and Broke His Crown

And Jill Came Tumbling After

How appropriate that theses 'Jack and Jill' scoundrels have been 'outed' for their "assigned" treachery by one of their own kindred. I am not a fan of Doug Wead, but his recent revelation about Jack and Jill is very interesting indeed. I have referred to Steadson as the Swedish Swindler (as he now operates out of Sweden) although he is originally an Australian national.

Amway's Perfect Water Scam

2009-03-05T08:03:00.005-05:00

Last year, prior to ever actually shipping any of its new Perfect Water Product to any of their distributors, certain upline distributors had possession of this supposedly magical oxygen infused water, and were using it as a prop in their recruitment scam. Amway, seemingly taken off guard issued orders that all videos showing Amway recruiters operating the Perfect Water Scam to take down videos that were appearing on YouTube or face the penalty of revoking the offender's business for a period of time.

Although I have since lost interest in the Perfect Water Scam, it seems that this 'flim flam con' on anyone willing to believe it still has legs. Not only are these videos still available on You Tube, one of the most viewed of these shows Amway Diamond David Shores himself performing the 'tip tests'. David and Debbie Shores at one point promoted their Amway success by describing their accquisiton and remoldling of Lake Front property in White Fish, Montana. They described how they planned to ride their wave runner in the summer and ski in the winter. They also bragged about having hired two teachers to home school their children, all promoting their Amway Business as a success for others to believe in and follow. Scott Larsen, amway critic, has an article up on his Amquix web site that describes how David and Debbie's Lake front dream has since fallen prey to bank foreclosure. Scott asks how someone making supposedly a million plus in their Amway diamond business could default on payments that Scott estimates to be in the $14,000 dollar range? Obviously, these wonderful winners on the Amway path to financial freedom have allowed their credit rating to go into the toilet. I suppose they will now be paying cash for most everything like any ordinary 'broke losers' whose credit rating is scuttled in foreclosure? Of course the Shores will not need to go in hock for new appliances because the new owners of the lake front estate report that all the appliances had been removed prior to abandoning it to a sheriff's sale.

Last year I did a couple blog posts on the perfect water scam, and since that time, one of these has been overall the most viewed and therefore most popular post on my Quixtar Cult Intervention Blog. Seems that seaches for Amway scam or Perfect Water Scam anything on the Google web search engine lists Perfect Water or Perfect Scam as my highest ranking page and garners a high percentage of new vistors through my blog. Had I known at the time how much traffic this post would generate, I might have spent a little more time in researching and writing it as it is rather short and by comparison to many of my posts, rather unremarkable.

Perfect water videos became such a popular recruitment ploy that thousands upon thousands were made after Amway, Ada made them verboten; they were made, not just by diamond-Jim distributors, but by even low level IBOs who had far less time in the then Quixtar biz. I have been told that many of these were made and are being used as unauthorized recruitment tools yet. Ironically, Amway lawyers filed legal suit against MonaVie who they claimed were making phony health claims for their Acai berry drink product at nearly the same exact time Amway tip test videos first appeared on You Tube making Amway the 'pot' calling the MovaVie 'kettle' black!

Amway Hook Line and Sinker

2009-02-26T10:37:00.008-05:00

The Amway Soap Box is intended for commentary on affairs going on in the World of Amway criticism and to provide commentary unlike any other. Some people might consider criticism to be the art of taking a very narrow viewpoint while discounting others. Actually, this is far from the truth.

Anyone exercising a thesis must also exercise investigative prudence, examine widely all the known factors and only after careful consideration, draw conclusions. Criticism becomes what a researcher, after careful consideration, arrives at. Conclusions are considered carefully by others--many times over a period of months or even decades--thus forming consensus and establishing the veracity of facts. The entire intellectual development of mankind,, and the rise of information/technology can be attributed to just this type of questioning thought. Closed mindedness keeps anyone from advancing intellectually, and significantly enough, this is what Amway leaders advocate to their cultic followers. They promote what British author David Brear describes as 'closed loop logic,' the kind of thinking that made people believe the World was flat.

How do cults operate then? Exactly, by ‘closing the loop’ around the mind of the oppressed, the pawns, using mind numbing pseudo-science and deceptive propaganda, many times using a mix of both truth and falsity; and then providing faux training. This is exactly the way Amway--the people's business--operates.

Amway adherents are schooled (taught, counseled) and advised in clasical cult indoctrination. They are the ‘underlings’-- the 'younglings' in a reality inverting strategy, which has been in existence much longer than Amway's closed market swindle, tracing its beginnings prior the 50 years anniversary that the American Way is heralding for itself.

Amway promotes the most incredibly wacko 'business principles' ever proposed, a repudiation of commonly accepted business and accounting principles taught at every legitimate business school, university and college throughout the World.

The concept--teachings of the Amway kingpins--of sustaining financial loss from year to year as normal and to be expected in the Amway 'business' makes duped suckers of those willing to believe such reality inverting hogwash! Amway's Cultic leaders encourage massive outlays of ‘out of pocket’ expenses, which only benefit the Amway initiators and the top of the pyramid tool kingpins, all while making losers out of those following their insane business strategy, a prolific bait and switch con job!

The history of Amway is known, one which Amway itself seeks to re-write as a reality inverting success, making it appear that the 'independent business owners' are also as successful as they are. Sadly, it is these same 'independents' who really pony up all the cash and sustain incredible loss all trying to grasp the golden ring on the Amway carousel of greed. How objective can Amway's assessment of Amway success be? That is why critical independent thinkers, the Amway critics, are necessary to accurately describe what Amway has been and currently is. Beginning with the year of change, Quixtar Cult Intervention has been providing a contrasting viewpoint accurately describing Amway's 'closed market swindle, a term coined by Amway critic, David Brear. People need to know the truth, not the one sided ‘lies’ taught by cultic MLM adherents and their kingpin leaders who usher them around in the Amway Labyrinth as if they have rings in their noses.

I wish to thank David Brear for stepping in and providing QCI readers with some of the best written criticism of Amway ever to placed in print, giving me a rest-bit from writing--a good thing as I have been feeling under the weather. I’ve actually been using my time to enjoy catching up on some reading. As a blog writer, of course I am a blog reader as well. Even blogs which promote Amway are interesting, especially in light of what they leave out, the little important things anyone considering their swindle should know about. Amway, the rest of the story is being told by Amway critics. If we don‘t tell it, who will? Certainly not the fellow who is trying to recruit you into their scheme? Just like fellow Amway critic, Joecool, has said in a recent blog post, critics fill this void and present the other side of the coin, hopefully making people ‘aware’ of the all the questionable deceits which exist in this stinker of an affair.

Occasionally I stumble upon a blogger promoting Amway who mixes a few dashes of truths about the Amway Scam with all the classical tape speak common from Amway proponents. It all goes with the old adage: mix in a little truth to make the big lie look palatable, one to be swallowed ‘hook line and sinker.’

Some things Amway pitchmen write I can agree with, but only in isolation. So readers, please be wary of those who use light to describe their darkness. Their truths may seem real, but it is the imperfections that make the whole affair a counterfeit.

I sometimes see someone write that Amway is not a get rich quick affair. This almost always is a pinch of truth which is cover for an elaborate lie about Amway success.

Information is the enemy of any cult who seek to control information in the minds of their own believers. What is a cult? Aren't cults totalitarian regimes? They teach their adherents to only listen to the party line and to the party leaders (isn’t that a defining element of all cults?) They expect the believers to use closed loop logic--to more or less act like puppets in the show the Amway kingpins operate. Amway operates a 'niche monopoly'--therefore their money extracting scheme masquerades as a business--outside of the traditional free markets with Amway goods only competing against other goods in the Amway catalog. Amway ‘the people’s business’ seeks to monopolize their control of ideas and information, burn critical thought--all much the way totalitarian regimes love to burn books, and extend their pernicious affairs. Significantly, their version of the totalitarian state seeks to extend their empire where it can find prospects unaware of the Amway financial holocaust. Amway plans to do for others what they have done for past North American believers, unleash the ‘financial holocaust‘ creating more people who are taught through 'tapespeak' to blame themselves when the inevitable reality of their situation arises. Isn’t it significant that Amway is taking their ‘closed market swindle’ (a form of advanced fee fraud) to other peoples much the way all totalitarian states seek to envelope others, while branding dissenters 'broke losers.'

‘In ‘the people’s business’ it is the believer who props up the ‘criminogenic’ swindlers who, not unlike Adolf Hitler, take charge of the real property and capital of their own people. Obviously Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel must have been avid students of National Socialistic designs and of totalitarian thought all arising from their World War II years. (I refer readers to George Orwells writings 1984 and Animal Farm for a deeper understanding of how totalitarian states work.) Amway co-founder Richard DeVos has been described as a dominionist. Most likely this is a cover for aspirations which are way more pernicious, the DeVos totalitarian state?

How Can Anyone Believe Amway: Worse Than Madoff

2009-02-18T10:41:00.003-05:00

Mad(e)off with their money? Hmmm? How could anyone then believe in Amway? Worse than Madoff? That can't be good news around the Amway distributor's coffee table?

Bill Berkowitz is the featured writer on today's Soap Box. His current article is Worse Than Madoff: Amway Launches Domestic Revival; a must read. (Cowabunga Berkowitz!)

So Amway is worse than Madoff! Isn't that just existential?

Amway, the poor man's Enron keeps on scheming? Scheme, Scheme, Scam, Scam. But, oh Bill, they've managed to keep their closed market swindle going on much longer. Just think, if Rich and Jay managed to become some of the richest wealthiest men in the World from their past swindle the financial holocaust, just think how potentially wealthy they will become when they get done swindling the Chinese and the rest of their expanding exploited?

Jounalistic Scrutiny of Amway Global/Quixtar Scam

2009-02-03T12:19:00.009-05:00

Recently I have discovered a treasure trove of thought expressed across cyberspace on Amway and their AmScam. Bloggers, not necessarily Amway critics, posting insightful opinion that reveals the truth, which further blows the covers off of the 'premeditated closed market swinde.' A friend brought an article to my attention, I thought it worthy of a broader audience on the Amway Soap Box:

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Recession by Philip Livingston

It's getting worse out there, according to the news. The layoffs are coming in droves now, and the only businesses hiring are the crummy ones - car dealerships, Amway, door to door sales and such. Those are the type jobs where you could work hard and wind up with nothing, or even go in the hole.

Speaking of Amway, there are lots of interesting sites on the web run by people who were burned by this company. One man did a cost analysis and totaled up all of the Amway costs - motivational tapes, books, seminars, product purchases, auto expenses and such. He compared that with the avarage income from an Amway distributorship and found that people were actually paying Amway to sell Amway products! Very few turned a profit - most people lost money, or just made pocketchange after many hours of hard work trying to sell soap powder and vitamins to friends and family. The man concluded that Amway's real business model is the sales of Amway training products to their own distributors, who in turn are supposed to sell them to a network of friends. The only real money a distributor sees is when others are brought into the scheme. The recruiting distributor then gets a cut of what his recruitee sells as well as what he himself may sell.

If sales were the key to Amway success then anyone could do the same by simply going down to Sams Club and buying in bulk, then re selling at a markup. But Amway apparently is not really about sales of product - it is about the sales of motivational tapes and books.

Amway acqired such a bad rep in America that it changed it's name to Quixtar. So the next time someone mentions a fantastic business opportunity he has discovered, ask if it is Quixtar. If it is, run!

I have never run into anybody who was happy selling cars. From all reports it is a miserable job, where a man can go weeks or more without pay. The industry has a tradition and reputation for dishonesty, both with it's customers and with it's employees. It is another job where people can actually lose money when all is said and done. Sure, there are people who make six figure incomes from car sales. But if that six figures is earned in an 80 hour a week job instead of a 40, then what is the real gain?

I have to admit some satisfaction at seeing the car companies sqeezed. They have milked consumers for years of every dime they could, yet when the well finally goes dry, what do they do? They ask those very people, the taxpayers, to bail them out.

Almost every Saturday we get visits from door to door salepeople. They are almost always teenagers selling magazine subscriptions or such. My heart goes out to them. A quick read on the internet is all it takes to discover what these kids have probably gotten themselves into. Most have answered ads that promise them travel and adventure, along with the opportunity to make big money. When they sign up, they quickly find themselves hundreds of miles from home, sleeping six to a room in some cheap hotel, spending six days a week canvassing neighborhoods on foot daylight to dark.

The people who run these organizations are almost always dirtbags. It should be illegal to do this sort of thing and exploit people in such a terrible way.

The day is long gone when a man could hire in at a company and work his whole life there. Most of my brothers did that, but those type jobs don't exist anymore. Nowadays, people work a few years at a job and then move on. That is a good thing, although a more difficult way to go. Most people in this era don't have their entire lives invested in one company, so they are much less vulnerable if the company fails. No longer tethered to one job in one company, they have developed an array of skills over a lifetime of jobs that they can apply in many different fields.

People are more adept at looking for jobs than the once were, and that is probably good for the long haul.

Phillip Livingston

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Cowabunga Dude!

All News Not Good For Amway

2009-01-29T09:40:00.009-05:00

Even more traditional news media outlets describe the Financial Holocaust that Amway has historically dealt their own flock of prosperity dreamers.

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POLITICS-US: Republican Benefactor Launches Comeback
By Bill Berkowitz*

OAKLAND, California, Jan 28 (IPS) - While the alleged Ponzi scheme of New York investment manager Bernie Madoff has claimed significant chunks of the fortunes of a number of well-known charities, celebrities and not-so familiar millionaires, over the years another outfit appears to have left a trail of a different sort - the broken dreams of thousands of wannabe entrepreneurs who were left with garages full of dust-gathering products, motivational tapes and how-to-get-rich-quick books.

Those who watched television over the winter holidays may have wondered why there seemed to be so many commercials for a company called Amway Global. Were these ads for the same company that has over the years been widely accused of running a pyramid scheme, had paid nearly 20 million dollars in fines in a Canadian criminal fraud case 25 years ago, and whose image with the public in recent years soured faster than a carton of cottage cheese left standing in the sun?

More recently, two former Amway/Quixtar distributors filed a class-action suit in federal court in California, charging Quixtar and several of its high-level distributors with fraud and racketeering.

Despite these controversies, Amway - which is temporarily being called Amway Global - appears to be heading back home. Can the company, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year, stage a successful comeback in the U.S., or are they throwing a very desperate Hail Mary?

Eric Scheibeler, author of "Merchants of Deception", a highly critical look at Amway, told IPS that the controversies stalking the company continue to this day.

Scheibeler said that he had "worked with local victims and initiated a UK government investigation in which the DTI/BERR (Department of Trade and Industry/Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform) took legal action against Amway and is waiting for an appeals court decision to potentially ban them from the country."

According to Scheibeler, a high level "Emerald" Amway member who uncovered fraud and deception within the company and was ostracised for it, "UK Justice Norris found in 2008 that out of an IBO [Independent Business Owners] population of 33,000, 'only about 90 made sufficient incomes to cover the costs of actively building their business.' That's a 99.7 percent loss rate for investors.

"The scheme appears to be falling apart in the U.S., UK and Australia hence the beefed up prime time ads in the U.S.," he said.

IPS spoke with an Amway Global public relations person who provided some corroborating background for this article. However, questions focusing on the British lawsuit and Amway's political activities - which the company required to be submitted via e-mail - were never answered.

Amway - an abbreviation of "American Way" - was founded in 1959 by two high school buddies from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Richard DeVos and the late Jay Van Andel. In 2000, it became part of an umbrella company called Alticor Inc., which does business as Quixtar in the U.S. and Canada and as Amway Corp. throughout the rest of the world.

In the intervening decades, Amway has become the second-largest direct-selling company in the world. In 2007, Amway Global and other companies under under Alticor umbrella reported sales of 7.2 billion dollars for the year ending Dec. 31, 2007, marking the company's sixth straight year of growth.

Van Andel and DeVos became major financiers of Republican Party candidates and Religious Right causes. According to Progress for America, Amway's founders contributed four million dollars to conservative groups in the 2004 election cycle.

In April 2005, Rolling Stone magazine reported that DeVos was connected with the dominionist political movement in the United States and that DeVos was had given more than five million dollars to the late D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries.

Despite the controversies and legal challenges the company continues to face, it never went out of business; instead, it shifted the bulk of its efforts to overseas markets. These days, its three current growth hotspots are Russia, China and India.

"In the late 1980s, about three-quarters of our business was here in the U.S.," Steve Van Andel, Alticor's chairman and co-chief executive and the son of one of Amway's founders, recently told the Associated Press. "Now about 80 percent of it is outside the country."

The privately owned company, which is called Amway Global - it intends to revert back to Amway in about a year - has several goals, including reacquainting the public with the company's extensive product line - which includes health and beauty items and homecare products, jewelry, water purifiers - and refurbishing its tarnished image.

While times may be tough economically for a sustained rebirth, company officials "hope to repeat in the United States the kind of growth they've seen abroad in the past - and to revive the mystique that helped the company spread throughout the Midwest and, by the mid-1960s, the rest of the U.S. Amway's hundreds of thousands of distributors dreamed of getting rich by selling cleaning products and by recruiting their acquaintances to join the fold," AP reported.

According to AP, the company is still "operating on that basic model, including prices that tend to be higher than those of their competitors".

While there is no question that the Amway story is a unique Horatio Alger-like U.S. success story, what makes it even more fascinating is that along the way, the company's founders - and their progeny - have become political kingmakers.

In October, former Amway Corp. chief Dick DeVos held a private fundraiser featuring President George W. Bush, to raise money for the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican National Committee.

For nearly 40 years, the DeVos family has been a major benefactor of both the religious right and the Republican Party. Shortly before the 1994 election, the Amway Corporation gave the Republicans 2.5 million dollars which, at the time, was "the largest political donation in recent American history," the Washington Post reported.

And in 1996, the company donated 1.3 million dollars to the San Diego Convention and Visitor's Bureau "to help fund a Republican cable TV show to be aired during the party's national convention," the Associated Press reported. The program featured "rising GOP stars as 'reporters,'" and aired on the Family Channel which was owned by Pat Robertson.

In 2006, former Amway President Dick DeVos ran for governor of Michigan, as a Republican against Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. DeVos, soundly defeated by 56 to 42 percent of the popular vote, recently announced that he would not run again in 2010. "Although Bernard Madoff allegedly swindled 50 billion dollars from about 8,000 victims, he seems to be an amateur in comparison to Amway," Eric Scheibeler noted.

"Amway has brought in far in excess of that amount from tens of millions of consumers who invested in 'their own Amway business' and it seems near all did so and continue to do so at a loss. The difference is that the Madoff pipeline is shut down, while you may be recruited to an Amway meeting tomorrow."

*Bill Berkowitz is a longtime observer of the conservative movement. His column "Conservative Watch" documents the strategies, players, institutions, victories and defeats of the U.S. Right.

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Obviously readers don't only have to take my word for it. Others are reporting the sad Amway facts as well. Thanks Bill Berkowitz! Now You Know: Amway Financial Holocaust! ...quixtarisacult

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In other news:

Amway survives final appeal in the United Kingdom. Well, too bad. The earlier decision last year all but closed down the Tool Scam in the United Kingdom, so news remains a mixed bag of good and bad for the AmScam executives operating out of Ada, Michigan. Scamway, much like the former Teflon Don, are slippery indeed!

Amway still remains a closed market swindle, one which has effectively made losers out of believers for all of its near half a century of money extracting activities.

Many other schemes--like organized gambling--remain legit, but still feed on the financial well being of those foolish enough to participate. The tool scam still operates unimpeded in the US and elsewhere and the American Scam keeps marching on, more victims to devour!

Quixtar/Amway Cult Initiate: 'Everyone Has a Story'

2009-01-11T09:59:00.006-05:00

-how to handle negative on the web ...

-amafight logic from the darkside ...

I have encountered a story that a 'business cult' insider spoke to me. I thought it significant enough to describe our conversation on The Soap Box. This woman says that she asked her IBO relative 'why' her upline's upline had been in Amway for a decade and a half and had not gone anything even approaching diamond glory? The answer she got from her cult addled relative was:

"... everyone has their own Amway story ..."

Upon hearing this, the words tape speak came to my mind. Wow, let me catch my breath; what a revelation! The five year plan to Amway riches is a titanic deception, one which is explained away in cult tape speak; or how to handle negative on the web for dummies. Subtitle: 'how to handle those annoying questions raised by a family or friend that hasn't gone completely former?

I guess anyone considering Amway as a potential business relationship should really stop and consider the lies that these business cult recruiters have likely spoken and will just as easily explain away at some future time. I don't know about you, but a good start to any business relationship SHOULD NOT begin with a lie of that magnitude!

If you are a first time reader of The Soap Box, there is a wealth of Quixtar/Amway information on Quixtar Cult Intervention and Amway Global Cult Intervention which I invite you to also visit. There has been a revolution of what renown Amway critic Rocket has described as 'dudes' debunking Amway as the Scamway it has always been, regardless of all the blarney!

Amway Cult Youth Initiate's Deaths Possibly Related to Sleep Deprivation

2009-01-03T10:45:00.014-05:00

Recently four aspiring Amway Global youthful initiates of the business cult were killed on a dangerous Indiana Toll Road. They had traveled to a convention for Amway cult members and were returning home. Tragically, they went left of center across the median and were struck head on by a large truck and tragically killed. For more background information on this tragedy, click here.

In speaking with Phil Ellenbecker, who lost his own daughter, Mallinda Lillian Turvey, in another accident that could have been avoided, the Janesville, Wisconsin Traveling Sales Crew Tragedy. Phil reminded me that other factors could have been involved in the Amway Youth's accident in addition to road conditions; he was of course referring to the possibility that some form of impairment made the accident more likely to have occurred. Being familiar with how Amway conventions (rallies) operate, the possibility that sleep deprivation (routinely practiced by the cult) could have contributed to the Indiana Toll Road Tragedy.

Since the 1999 Janesville Traveling Sales Crew Tragedy, which took seven lives and badly injured five others, there have been a significant number of other traveling initiates to one scheme or another killed on the road. Mr. Ellenbecker has taken it upon himself to document for all time the increasing death toll, not only of automobile accidents, but of folks who have been victimized in one form or another by door to door sales agents; murders are not uncommon.

At the heart of the issue is the fact that all of these youths, whether traveling sales crew agents or Amway Global cult initiates, are considered 'independents'. This becomes a very convenient circumstance for the corrupt companies that these youths claim to represent: Amway, and all the fly by night businesses that send college youths out onto the road selling magazine subscriptions, Bibles and any number of household goods.

Significantly, Amway Global/Quixtar misrepresents itself as another of these door to door direct sales businesses, although they actually operate somewhat differently than true door to door salesmen. They do, however log much time behind the wheel of a vehicle, not only attending conferences, but late night travels to or from recruitment meetings, open meetings, and 'nuts and bolts' gatherings. I have expounded upon how Amway cultists are basically victimized by the folk who they believe they are in business with. Not only do they go out on the road and represent their Amway/Quixtar affair and themselves as a success, they commit the crime of fraud.

The 'independent' relationship that the traveling sales crews and the Amway believers have formed with their companies have served to protect the executive scoundrels at the heart of the bad affair from legal responsibilities that an employee/employer relationship would entail. Companies like Southwestern Company, based in Nashville, Tennessee, Kirby, and Amway, benefit from the fact that if any of their 'independents' commit crime, they--the company--are insulated by the 'mind numbing' legalistic fine print in the contract absolving them of responsibility.

Malinda's Law, a proposed law in the state of Wisconsin (along with other similar proposed state legislation elsewhere) would seek to make it difficult for companies like Kirby, Southwestern, Amway, and the many other fly by night magazine sellers, to avoid responsibility for the actions of their non-employee salespeople. Door to door sellers--including Amway--would no longer be able to disavowal the tragedies and crimes wrought by their 'independent' representatives. After all, it is these corrupt companies that benefit monetarily by what amounts to the representative's scamming, all of which is done on a grand scale! The law would also seek to prevent many corrupt traveling sales crew practices--like the retention of pay to the end of the summer sales season, abandonment by the roadside of poor sellers, and even horrific situation where poor performers are forced to fight others for the right to sleep in a real bed after a hard day of knocking on doors.

Horrific stories abound in the traveling sales crew business. Please be a supporter of legislation that would stop corrupt companies, including Amway Global, from continuing to maintain their 'independent' farce and thereby exonerate themselves from the frauds that their cult initiates commit. I am reminded that the Green River killer was an Amway salesman. Amway and all these other fly by night magazine sellers would be required by new legislation to perform back ground checks on their representatives, and they no longer would be exempt from responsibility for the horrific crimes some of their present 'independents' commit against the dignity of citizens of these United States. Amway is a perversion of the American Way. They operate a World Cult. Their adherent's are victims of what British author David Brear describes as a 'closed market swindle'. At some point these victims become active participants in the Amway crime.

The Direct Selling Association, along with Southwestern company have actively sought to prevent Malinda's Law from being enacted. For this reason, I have to single out folks like Amy Robinson for their continued opposition of this important Wisconsin legislation. Phil Ellenbecker is continuing to add names to a tragic death toll that keeps rising.

The Janesville Tragedy didn't have to happen, and neither did the New Carlisle, Indiana Tragedy. The blood of these youthful initiates is laid at the feet of Amy Robinson and the Direct Selling Association, all to their significant shame!

For more information, please follow the following links:

Dedicated Memorial

Traveling Sales Crews

From Parent Watch:

Grim Tour on Magazine Crews

Mag Crew

What Other People Say About Amway Reveals that Dirty Little Secrets Aren’t All That Secret Anymore

2008-12-16T11:22:00.004-05:00

Ozzamwayvictims has part II of their ‘dudes’ series entitled What Other People Say About Amway up. I strongly recommend anyone interested in what regular people, 'dudes', think about Amway take a read. Readers are pointed to Skylines Airlines Forum where regular folks (dudes) are having a discussion about get rich schemes. Of course, these strings almost always center on the largest and most notorious of these schemes: Amway. Readers may notice that Ambots zealots David Steadson and Bridgett Barron show up to dispel the Amway 'myths' and promote the Amway lies which make them guilty of conspiracy to defraud consumers world wide. Denial of the Amway financial Holocaust make them proponents of a scheme that has extracted money from duped adherents for nearly half a century, a historic fact that they deny in exactly the same way Nazi apologist David Irving denies the horrific Nazi Holocaust.

Scooby Davis has reported another reason not to like Amway, John Tesh; I agree! I am glad to see Scooby back at his keyboard. Scooby has been on the forefront of describing Amway as a World cult along with the likes of other cults like Sun Yung Moon's Unification Church and the followers of deceased, L. Ron Hubbard, whose insane ideas have wrought Scientology, a cult which preys on its own children much the same way Amway does.

My friend in the sunshine state of Hawaii, Joecool is contemplating going on to writing on other topics. I am happy that Joecool has left a body of work that Amway prospects can read through. Just as online pundit of deceit, IBO Fight Back has correctly described, the Internet is static; meaning that Joecool’s views of the Amway opportunity will be available for all the read for some time. Witness the success of another Amway critic, Perceptive Infiltrator, whose blog still garners many hits from all over the world, although perceptive hasn’t updated his timeless work in nearly 5 years. Oh, by the way, perceptive is updating his Amway Global Article on Amway’s Partner Stores and will be publishing it on Quixtar Cult Intervention. I believe the truth about the Partner Stores Revealed deals a blow to Amway recruitment tactics which center on deceit to dupe prospects into signing up with this stinker of a company.

I hope people have enjoyed David Brear’s writing on QCI. David is very closely involved in the court room drama which is playing out in the United Kingdom. David reports that the Judge has heard arguments on the appeal. Rolling up Amway in the U.K. would be a good start to bringing an end to the American Scam World wide. Proponents of Amway have conspired to misrepresent their pyramid as a great opportunity while the history tells the real story. When other emerging nations of the World discover that the history of this affair is not one of success, but of dismal loss by its own adherents, hopefully they will also act to protect their citizens from Amway's money extracting schemes. A state in India is attempting to do this as well. I believe that as prosecutors discover the conspiracy to defraud that Amway is engaged in, more and more countries will seek to ban the scheme.

I want to welcome a new dude to the Anti-Amway community. Claude Boris Castille, a young dude, but one who shows good promise as a writer indeed. He has a current blog post up: On Amway, NFL Sundays, and the Cult of Free Enterprise. Claude describes the Dominionist nature of Rich Devos, something others including myself have described in the past. Devos has sought to further his Utopian ideas by funneling cash to politicians who he hopes will have his interests at heart--not necessarily those of the American people. The separation of church and state was instituted for just this type of influence crackpot religious peddling. Sadly, Devos succeeds to some degree in keeping his pyramid scheme alive and his dominionist fear mongering views going forward. Recently I reported how he got afoul of the proponents of gay marriage in Florida and elsewhere. Devos’s money has also been supportive of school vouchers which would fund exclusive, (narrow minded) education where his secular dominionistic views of the world can be instilled in youth at tax payer expense. Nearly all of secular education is based on creationistic myth and protestant Calvinism. Ironically, Devos’s entire Amway empire is founded on myth.

I am happy to reveal that my loved one is well, at home with me where she belongs. She has successfully repudiated the Amway cult which sought to envelope her into its pernicious affairs permanently. I never lost faith that she could be rescued from those who would enslave her into their schemes. (There have been doubters out there like 'my friend' Tex, but I am here today to say that truth will indeed set people free, and thank goodness there are people like Claude Castille, Joecool, Perceptive Infiltrator, David Brear, Cindy Coenen, Rocket, Scott Larsen, Eric Scheibler, and many, many others who make known the pernicious 'the business cult' and their historic financial holocaust. There indeed is hope for those lost in their Amway dreams made nightmare. Amway is indeed much the way David Brear describes it: Freedom is Slavery.

The magic of Google Blog search brought us the picture of ‘Amway Smokers’ outside one of their meetings. Click here to see it. You will notice that there is one lone person smoking that doesn't have a suit on. He is most likely the prospect that all the other scoundrels are trying to recruit. I was reminded that a nefarious character, Greg Fredricks, was caught on hidden video also smoking and making his outlandish income claims on the Dateline Expose on Quixtar corruption in 2004. I am sure this particular view of Amway criminals having a smoke isn’t something the Alticor executives wanted to see on page 1 of the Google Blog Search engine. For those readers who have never seen this crack dealer Greg Fredricks, the two dateline segments follow directly below.

Amway Global Scam

2008-12-06T21:42:00.004-05:00

Actually, Amway is like 'doublemint' chewing gum. Amway is two scams in one. First is the product based pyramid scheme, where Amway cult initiates basically are their own best customers, buying their own products in a self consumption relationship to the Ada, Michigan mother-ship. Secondly, there is the tool scam where all the Amway self-consumers are urged to purchase all the mundane training materials to include seminar and rally tickets. These purchases make a very, very small group of top of the pyramid distributors very wealthy. These folks are commonly referred to in court documents as 'kingpins'. Both Amway and the tool kingpins operate a money extracting scheme. Both hold a monopoly over the dream inspired believers which buy everything and sell very little.

I realized that this is a simplified version of what the Amway Global Scam is all about. Suffice it to say that any type of pyramid scam is bad news for those participating in it. Generally they are the bamboozled believers in the scam who are expected to buy all the badly overpriced products and the endless chain of propaganda which masquerades as training materials. The Amway sellers of products and the kingpin sellers of tools operate their scam in an unholy alliance which basically feeds upon their own children.

The nearly fifty year history of Amway can be described as the 'financial holocaust' because believers in the scam have a near 100% rolling failure rate. Those hoping to make money, end up generally losing theirs. Expenditures to sell the scam on others as well as buying the monthly quota of products in a the tool scammer's 'pay to play' game of deceit, generally make profit objectives merely a pipe dream. Folks believing in the Amway dream might as well try to chase down the Leprechaun at the end of a rainbow or waste their time and money buying Power Ball tickets. Most people strive senselessly in the scheme until they eventually re-enter reality, realize that success in the scam will always be just beyond their reach and quit. Oddly enough, many of those who quit seem to blame themselves for not working hard enough in the scheme which they were badly oversold on.

If you have found this blog while researching the Amway Global 'opportunity', you have come to the right place to find out what Amway Global really is; and, if you are wise, save your time and money from being extracted by this cult business which is designed from the top down to make you the loser in their plan. I recommend that you read Quixtar Cult Intervention and Amway Global Cult Intervention. There are countless articles of interest there which can help guide you through the treacherous Amway Global waters of deceit.

Amway Can't Really Fire You Once They've Sent You a Pallet of Household Detergent and Cosmetics

2008-11-27T08:03:00.004-05:00

The magic of Google brings me the syndicated column of a grinning grey haired pundit named John Rember. He asks the question: Where’s that heartbeat of America now? I think his observations are worthy of the Amway Soap Box.

By John Rember in the Idaho Mountain Express and Guide:

__________________________

By JOHN REMBER

I've been reading R.D. Laing again, mostly when I wake up at 4 a.m. and worry about the economy. One of the specifics I worry about is that financial pundits are talking about the capitulation level for the Dow. That's when people like me give up, pull their remaining 401(k) money out of stocks, use it to buy an assault rifle and a cookbook, and start researching how to field dress their neighbor's bichon frise.

I also worry that the largest employer in the country will be Amway Corp., which might not be all bad. Amway can't really fire you once they've sent you a pallet of household detergent and cosmetics. The unsold Amway products in your garage will form the nucleus of a new barter economy, which is how goods and services will be distributed in this country after laissez-faire capitalism finishes eating itself. One of the things you will get from your regional Amway dealer will be a semi full of unsold Chevy Silverados for your friends one tier down the pyramid.

It's thinking like this that wakes me up when it's dark outside and going to stay dark for another three hours.

So I turn on a reading lamp, and pick up R.D. Laing. Laing isn't a financial pundit. He's a British psychiatrist, a dead one, except at 4 a.m. on dark November mornings, when he comes back to life, sheeted and gibbering. One of his ideas is that we humans usually deal with the contradictions of civilization by creating false selves. A false self, and the story we tell about it, is how most of us face the world.

Laing says psychosis begins when we start to think our false self is our real self, and that the story we make up about it is true. We starve our authentic selves to feed the false ones. We seldom glimpse this process in ourselves, but we can see it happen to other people. For example, Ernest Hemingway spent his life constructing a writer's persona and a story about a wounded guy who never complained. When persona and story broke down, there was nothing left to sustain his real self, and no real self left to sustain. His shotgun merely provided punctuation for a sentence already complete.

Laing was concerned with the false selves of individuals, but the current economic and political crisis has made me realize that the concept of a false self and a false story to go with it apply well to the United States of America. For 30 years now, we've been telling ourselves that we're richer than we are, that we can borrow from unborn great-grandchildren, that we stand for the noble cause of human freedom, that our economic system is based on the laws of physics, and that we use our inexhaustible resources according to their highest and best use. For 30 years, we've maintained that this fiction is the story of our real self.

Our real real self is different. Our real real self spends more than it makes. It approves the torture of detainees. It investigates the geology of countries before it invades them, because it has wasted most of its oil. It tolerates the manipulation of markets and tax codes that result in the working poor, who aren't free, and the idle rich, who lack the kind of purpose in their lives that would allow them to do something constructive with their freedom.

R.D. Laing would say we're in the process of realizing that we're nuts. Hard facts are beginning to destroy the myths we've lived by. Our president has called our constitution just a piece of paper, and our Supreme Court has proven him right. Our military has done the same thing to the Geneva Conventions. A communist auto company is hoping to buy our capitalist icon, General Motors. We've recognized wealth as debt, and debt as wealth. We're talking about more tax cuts and higher spending, which is to say that we don't believe in our currency at all.

We've reached the capitulation level with our national story. We've stopped believing in things we cannot touch or see, and a kind of bleak, pragmatic survivalism has taken hold. R.D. Laing says this is a good thing, because it's the end of psychosis and the start of sanity. But sanity is an inhospitable environment for our new President Obama, with his narrative of hope and reconciliation, and his faith in an American future. --John Rember

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"It's thinking like this that wakes me up when it's dark outside and going to stay dark for another three hours."

This explains why I rarely sleep past 4 AM myself. I wake up with thoughts that I feel impelled to relay on this blog. Thoughts of warning to others not to go down the Amway Highway to Hell! Thank goodness I've got good friends like David Brear on Quixtar Cult Intervention to make the task somewhat lighter.

John's comment about the pallets of Amway goods remind me of my post about Doris and Joe Shaw who thought they could inventory stack pallets of Amway goods on their short cut to Amway wealth and fortune. These supposed postions in the Amway hierarchy are positions for suckers. I have really been a major critic of General Motors for years on quality issues. I have owned Oldsmobile and Chevrolets in my time that were mechanical nightmares; both of which I considered major lemons. The advent of Toyota and Honda convinced me that a automobile could indeed go 200 thousand miles with their major parts like alternators, fan motors, air conditioner pump, water pump, starter, and heater core still viable. All of which failed on the Calais I owned before it had 50,000 miles on it. The Chevy truck wasn't much better, requiring a transmission replacement and I never did manage to work out the problem with the four wheel drive not engaging or disengaging correctly. I can still remember how I would grumble driving down the super highway with the four wheel drive engaged. The dealership replaced several switches in the trans axle before I finally gave up and traded the truck in for a new Toyota. I gave GM the benefit of the doubt on quality, and finally decided the nightmare had to end.

I inherited my initial like for GM products from my father, but he was 'old school'. The thinking in the 50's was if you managed to get 100,000 miles out of a domestic vehicle it was most likely ready for the junk yard. You replaced the bolt on part up until that point and considered a new or nearly new used vehicle after that. Even into the 1990's father couldn't shake the idea that once a car got 100,000 miles it was time to dump it. I saw him trade in a several good vehicles at 100K for a new payment booklet. Part of the problem with his thinking is he insisted on buying GM and thought a service intensive vehicle was routine. He refused to even consider buying a foreign model--which is admirable--but GM seemed to rely on this buy American mindset way too long. My father died in the mid 90s and the the idea of accepting poor quality vehicles as common place has passed with him.

It is a sad state of affairs that GM could become the next Edsel. If building poor quality and gas guzzling vehicles were a virtue, then GM will go to automotive heaven. It is too bad that all the American jobs that these Detroit wizards have jeopardized might be lost sending ripples down the economic food chain.

Amway is no alternative for anyone believing their manufacturing job can be replaced by an obvious money extracting scheme. Amway Global is a parasite that must feed off of people who still work. Amway people are taught to believe that a regular J-O-B is to be viewed with disdain in the hope of Amway Diamond level success, which is mostly a pie in the sky dream for duped suckers that make up the nearly 100% rolling failure rate that the long history of Amway has exacted.

May we hope that GM can indeed be saved, if for the sake of the workers, the economy and the pride of the American industry. Throw away vehicles cannot be the American Way any longer and the 'American Way' is not really the 'Right Way' if it means inflicting believers with the financial holocaust this cult business has wrought.

Amway – Quixtar: Where Criminal Intent to Defraud Becomes "Caveat Emperor" to Alticor Employee!

2008-11-21T11:27:00.005-05:00

Recently, I published a post on Quixtar Cult Intervention which was a comment from a Reader named Marge. Marge told a horrific story of how her husband went through money he didn't have, ran up credit card bills and hid his Amway activities from her and basically left her another victim of the Amway financial holocaust!

An alticor employee (most likely)-- IP address 167.23.0.93 with this IP Path: Out69s.datetelecomm.net (Alticor Inc) Ada, Michigan—left the following comment in regards to Marge's plight:

_______________________________

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Amway/How It Works/Marge's Story":

sad story, but how is this amway's fault? poor decisions + low motivation + credit card + some bad advice sprinkled in does not equal a problem with the company or even the concept.

this could happen to anyone in any business, or hobby for that matter...money can be blown on lots of useless things.

amway doesn't require that owners buy any of that crap, and after $16k if this person is not wise enough to know that they have a problem then it was a matter of time before a "fool and his money are soon separated".

_______________________________

Besides having an obvious problem with capitalization, this person basically is making the husband the culprit behind Marge's plight. This anonymous person, obviously an Amway employee or executive says :

“poor decisions + low motivation + credit card + some bad advice sprinkled in does not equal a problem with the company or even the concept.”

I beg to differ with this 'anonymous' Alticor/Amway Global anonymous Amway apologist. I've added emphasis to “...some bad advice sprinkled in....” You mention this as if it were a very minor detail by your adding “sprinkled in”. Sure, you call all the dream selling hype and all the tool propaganda along with upline encouragement “bad advice”? I call it: CRIMINAL INTENT TO DEFRAUD! ...QIAC

Amway Global Censorship: Denial of Amway Financial Holocaust!

2008-11-18T10:51:00.016-05:00

Once again, Robin Luymes, PR Manager at Amway Global and Super Du Blogger has decided to exclude another of my comments from his pro-Amway blog; So once again I exercise my right to publish the comment here on my own blog.

(New readers can catch up on the controversy by reading the comments below these two blog posts by clicking here and here.)

Below is my submitted comment, and following that is the email Mr. Luymes sent to me in response. Dear readers, I'll let you be the judge of the whys of this censorship situation? Obviously 'de 'nile' is not just a river flowing past their pyramid scheming headquarters in Ada Michigan! I don't contend that comment moderation is censorship of free speech, but I do contend that the message was excluded because Amway denies that a financial holocaust has taken place which contradicts all their Public Relations efforts to foster the myth that Amway is a great opportunity.

MY COMMENT TO LUYMES:

"I keep hearing the "proven track record" spoken about Amway. This is a one of the Amway Myths, like "the check is in the mail." The proven track record of Amway is the FINANCIAL HOLOCAUST! All the Amway Apologists in the World aren't going to debunk this one certain FACT! There is no good track record here. Usain Bolt has a track record. Check Amway's track record and you realize that their event is so much more grueling than any marathon, where many start the race, most drop out from exhaustion, and very few ever reach the finish line. The financial holocaust for distributors is known. It is a fact. This is where the Amway discussion should begin.

Censoring words like 'kingpins', 'cult', 'Ambots' 'pyramid' is indeed a means to squash dissent. These terms are intended to point out exactly what is wrong with Amway. To censor the truth is to promote the myth! Robin, I am happy that you finally decided to post my last comment. I was beginning to think that you were going to exclude it as well, leaving me no voice to respond to those who personally attack me, make me the issue, and seek to avoid addressing the topic you began with your post. Rocket makes good points. Tex beats on his Tool Scam drum, IBOFB obfuscates with the truth and denies the Amway Financial Holocaust, Bridgett makes it her mission to make personal attacks and she has acted like a Internet Troll herself--See the fanhome link on my web page), Visioneer lives in a dream world,and rdknyvr is a typical Amway Apologist. These are simply observations not to be taken as a personal attack. I am simply responding.

Cult is as cult does. Amway, Scientology, and the Moonies: The Triumvirate of World Cults, period. What is there to misunderstand? Why keep going down the road to deception? Robin, you bring up matters in general that occur else where on the Internet. That is a very wide row to hoe. Indeed any conclusions can be drawn based on such an incredibly broad scenario. You obfuscate instead of concentrate on the real Amway issue of “What has Amway Wrought?” and the “Financial Holocaust” which historically is a FACT."

LUYMES EMAIL BACK TO ME:

"I am not posting your last comment. It is filled with sensational statements that are not proven with any facts. Just stating something is a fact doesn't work. Provide proof points. And provide them in a matter-of-fact way. I don't care if you rip on me or others at your site, but here at my blog you will have to change your tone. I give an inch and you seem to expect that I'll give a mile. Sorry, not going to happen."...Robin Luymes

I have reported that Robin Luymes has in the past tried to 'take me to school' about the use of the words he desires to censor out of existence on his blog: CULT, KINGPINS, AMBOTS, and PYRAMID. For more information related to today's post, follow these three links beginning with the first:

Courts Describe Amway Top Tool Distributors as Kingpins—So Why Oh Why Can't I?

Amway Kingpin Apologists and the Terminology of Deceit

Amway Global/Quixtar Censorship: UnAmerican Way

Robin Luymes is a Amway Apologist and denies that the Amway Financial Holocaust has taken place. Amway has had a nearly 100% Rolling Failure rate for its cult believers over the near half century of operations. Amway is part of the Triumvirate of World Cults taking its place along side of The Unification Church (the Moonies) and The Church of Scientology.

"Luymes and others of his ilk deny the Amway financial holocaust the same way David Irving denies the Nazi holocaust took place. Mr. Luymes, denying the Amway financial ruins makes you bunker mate to Mr Irving where you must breath Hitler's stale air! Perpetuating a lie as if it were the truth makes one guilty of fraud!"...QIAC

Michigan Bloggers Weighing in on Dick DeVos's Decision to Save His Amway Crime Family From Political Scorn

2008-11-14T08:03:00.019-05:00

Yesterday I posted my views on Dirty Dick DeVos's bailing out of making a run for the Governor's chair in Michigan. My take is that a new run will simply open up old wounds the Amway executives would like to keep scabbed over. More pictures of Dick's Head, one of the most effective campaign strategies ever unleashed against another candidate anywhere, would have been a public relations nightmare. A well known political Blogger picked up on my post and gave it a prominent post on his blog. I invite readers to take a look around Blogging for Michigan and also read the article featuring one of my posts on Amway Global Cult Intervention by clicking here.

While I am on the topic, I discovered another very good Michigan Blog which also expressed views on Dirty Dick DeVos's Saving Michigan saving decision. Click here, and if you like this article, why not go ahead and kick the tires on Skoop's Blog?

Blogging and bloggers do indeed make a difference. Obviously bloggers can fill in the gaps left by the traditional media channels who actually do a very bad job of reporting the news. Nothing highlights this more than the DeVos story which they have fumbled and misreport. They may be overly kind, fearing Billionaire business men in their midst, but we bloggers do not have to kowtow and obviously show the moxey of any good boxer by landing a few punches once in a while. Media outlets in and around Grand Rapids like MLive.com might as well be PR Hacks--and I am not totally convinced that they aren't? The way they spin Amway stories to include the recent political sabre rattling at the Amway Grand might make everyone believe that Dick and Rich DeVos are the Lords of the Rings, not the folks at the helm of a pernicious World Wide Cult.

We need blogs like Local Area Watch to report the rest of the story. I am left scratching my head why I haven't seen any more of the great posts LAW has produced in the past. Makes me wonder why?

Since this is the Soap Box, I want to also highlight a Amway critic's blog as well. Quixtar The Dream Or The Scheme is an excellent Blog. There is just something special about the prospective of an ex-Amway 'distributor' that gives voice that can easily be understood by those still being hoodwinked by the motivational cults which operate under the Amway mother-ship. The recent post on this blog is very well written and the Random observations should be taken to heart by those striving in a scheme.

Another example of a blogger who speaks his mind and pulls no punches, making really pointed observations of his own is Rocket's Rants. Rocket is a good man for one reason, he speaks his mind, and he isn't afraid of even setting me straight if I loose scope. This indeed is a complement of the highest order. Rocket I want to point out to all readers coined the term "dudes" and as friends of the dude's movement continue to chime in from all over the World--with Ozzamwayvictims.com independently operating their "dudes" honor roll type posts. I am so heartened that things are moving on well. Seems to me that Tex of Tool Scam infamy, has a cause that is gathering very little snowman as it doesn't really snowball down hill at all. I have been a reader of Tex's ToolS cam evidence, but not the conclusions Tex ask readers to make--love Amway, hate the Kingpins--are stupid; indeed, Tex debunks himself. Tex's Tool Scam views are in the end very embarrassing to Amway executives. It just makes the Amway Labyrinth a stinky tunnel full of rotting corpses. Actually, as critics go, Tex's Quixtar Blog should convince any prospect that Amway isn't a good thing to get involved with, regardless of all the flimsy arguments Tex makes about the products, the prices and the business. His strategy is rather flawed as Amway Critic extraordinaire Porkchopjim has debunked. Even Rocket has observed that Tex has had his ass handed to him in a recent string of comments on Quixtar Cult Intervention. I mostly agree, but I have a few observations to make with a critical insight about the effects of Tex's presence on the web. Tex is a very strong willed and persistent commenter; he continues to push forward his agenda, regardless how convoluted that is. Tex enjoys the freedom to spin the Tool Scam and Amway anyway he wants. Insiders like Joecool also are well versed in the nature of Amway deceit with an insider's keen eye. I believe that just like in a legal dispute, all the evidence is in. Scott Larsen provides the evidence in detail on his AmQuix pages, making him the top dog of Amway Criticism. By comparison, If Tex's mono-blog was a car, it would be a pounded up kia sitting on cemment blocks in a pasture field in Texas.

My friend Perceptive Infiltrator has returned from his wearied journeys into a foreign land of broken dreams, but the sun will always shine sooner or later, and this time of year, you have to smile and enjoy it while it lasts. Remember, in the next election, the Republicans can run of the platform of 'change'. The Infitrator is always going to be featured prominently as a link on my blogs because I admire his blog; and although he hasn't updated it for two years, I see his blog does well for Google Search rankings, and he hasn't had to tap a pinky on the keyboard to do it. IBOFB says the Internet is 'static', isn't it great! Admirable my friend, but it is your message which is of most important. I thank you my friend for saying that I am prolific but that honor is misplaced. That honor must go to another friend, David Brear. I know Tex doesn't even take the time to even read much of anything requiring any attentions span; but then again he is busy rubbing old Rich's flabby tummy. (Listen... I want to tell you all a secret, because, shssss, tex isn't listening.) He is in one of David Brear's 'closed logic' black holes. Sadly most of the duped flock of Amway distributors are in the same bad cult addled situation that I describe in detail on Quixtar Cult Intervention.

I can see the ambots being the people in the George Orwell classic '1984' famous picture with Big Brother.

Ambots worship with this Amway Rich Devos Big Brother pictured below:

What do you think, slap a mustache on old Rich? Amway's Big Brother!

I thought that both of the 1984 'Big Brother' and the Amway 'Big Brother' would make a great desktop or screen saver art. All the Ambots would get to see Big Brother when they open their laptops when they get to their JOBs.

I've gotten a lot of readers out of Michigan recently after another blogger, actually a high level Michigan office holder featured some of my writing on Amway Global Intervention on his Blogging For Michigan Blog.

Who said bloggers don't have a way to change the world by simply speaking theirs!...qiac

Listen Michigan, Dirty Dick may not be trying to put a bag of flaming dog pooh on your step, but that doesn't mean another will not be trying to pull the same trick.

Now, it being that I don't have to bite my critic's tongue, I want to say something. The voice of the public has spoken, and the voice of the voters in Michigan do not fall on the side of Amway corruption. These pyramid schemers amass filthy lucre on the carcasses of their financial holocaust victims which they have steam rolled over for nearly 50 years. How in the world can the traditional press not take notice and speak the truth about Amway's sordid affairs? They more or less keep a lid on the Amway can of stinky worms? Surely there must be a few Bob Woodward types willing to investigate and describe the kind of corruption Amway has dirtied their collective hands in. They allow kingpin cults to fleece the flock of believing dupes called 'Independent Business Owners' (who are anything but independent) while Amway corporate maintain a monopoly product pyramid scheme over the same sorry lot of 'distributors'.

Dick DeVos, The Amway 'Count', must now sleep in his sarcophagus and avoid the light of day! The darkness must always be repudiated by lighting at least one candle and I believe the Democrats have stoked up a good old fashion bonfire providing a beacon of hope for all the people; something the Republicans party seems to have lost sight of. I believe Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm is a better state Governor than the likes of one Sarah Palin. There is a major difference being governor of Michigan and being Governor over the vast wastelands of Alaska. Palin has been revealed to be an empty dress suit; while the other now is basking in the light of the Democratic sweep to power. Finally, the Democrats have seen the repudiation of the failed policies of the current Administration and outgoing Bush Administration. A strong indication that Michigan should firmly stay in the column of blue states.

I would love to see A proposed regulation be invoked mandating a waiting, cooling off period whereby all MLM recruits are mandated the time necessary to do proper background research on any MLM proposal. Any such mandate could also provide people encountering buyer's remorse to receive a 100% refund for enrollment fees.

Mr. Obama has smote the Republicans, smoked his cigarette, had his celebratory beverage and is now going to Washington! Dirty Dick DeVos has had to retire to his sarcophagus in the tomb room of the pyramid in protection of the Amway Treasure Room.

If Old Abe, had in a dream, been able to see what has happened to his party during the Bush years, he most likely would have pulled the trigger himself, he wouldn't have required the services of actor Wilkes

'REMEMBER, AFTER YOU GET DOWN OFF THE SOAP BOX, YOU THEN CAN USE THE SOAP TO WASH OUT THE MOUTHS OF THE AMWAY APOLOGITS.'
...SA8 Indeed

QIAC

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THE JOE SIX PACKS GUIDE TO MICHIGAN VOTING:

Take One Look At The Real News:

Amway Global Dirty Dick DeVos VERY UGLY:

VOTE DEMOCRATIC:

Amway Critics Making A Difference On The Soap Box

2008-11-12T12:38:00.001-05:00

I would like to introduce readers to the Soap Box Blog. A place where I invited Amway Critics to make a difference in their World. I invite as many who would like to be a guest blogger here.

I send out invitations to all well known critics to become a guest blogger here. Topics generally will revolved around Amway Global/Quixtar Criticisms but off topic posts are also welcome since this indeed is The Soap Box, a place where the Critics can decide what Interests them.

Of course, I will provide regular original content and assist anyone wanting to take part on the Soap Box. You don't necessarily have to be a well known critic to be a guest poster here; (are you listening Mike and Dave?) many of the commenter's on Quixtar Cult Intervention may not necessarily have a blog of their own to post their ideas but can now have a place to add their 2 cents. I will make myself available to assist anyone desiring to make their voice heard on top of the Soap Box.

There is a trend that critics like Rocket, Joecool, and myself have noticed as of late involving regular "dudes" who have been speaking out online about their perceptions of Amway, Amway Global, and the soon to be defunct Quixtar. Rocket of Rocket's Rants coined the term 'dudes' to describe these ragtag bunch of regular people who intuitively know what and how Amway rolls in their towns and make it a point to tell the world the truth. The Ozzamway Blog has also been high lighting others who have been adding their voices to the discussion with a unique Australian prospective. The Wall on Face Book is another area where regular people are expressing their views of Amway. I am heartened by the handling of Ambots recently by the regular sport dudes on their FanHome Forum. I have discovered numerous blog posts all expressing truthful assessments of the Amway and making their opinions known to the World. For a pernicious Amway Cult to succeed, they seek to control the information being disseminated about themselves. Blogger Scobbie Davis says that information is the enemy of these cults, and that is what Soap Box is all about. A round of applause is in order for the pioneers of Amway criticism, and a word of thanks goes out to Scott Larsen, the big dog of Amway criticism. Let's not forget what the fellows over at Q-Blog have accomplished with their web portal and forum. I also want to mention the efforts of Cindy Coenen on her Fraud Files Blog for exposing MLM Scams in general.

There also is another trend I have noticed from tracking online searches for information on Amway/Quixtar, and that is from dudes--both men and women--from the expanding nations of Asia and elsewhere who are looking for information about Amway most likely because they are being exposed to the Amway plan. I am thankful for other bloggers who provide these searchers with the sad truth about just how terrible a non-opportunity Amway really is.

Guest Blogger David Brear has provided many interesting articles for readers of Quixtar Cult Intervention. Guest bloggers now have a chance to also add their voices and make Soap Box a place where all things Amway Critic can find voice. The online advocates of Amway, the Ambots, troll the Internet seeking to set all the dudes straight. Amway apologists seek to 'invert reality' by denying the 'financial holocaust' that Amway has wrought. We critics can do more than anything to thwart these Merchants of Deception where we find these discriminators of lies and provide the antiseptic salve that keeps any wounds Amway opens up from becoming infected.

Folks desiring to take part in the Soap Box are welcome to simply comment and express their desire to take part. I will also entertain a one on one discussion with prospective contributors via email. Please feel free to email me: Quixtarisacult@gmail.com As always, Go Dudes!