Is Herbalife a Pyramid Scheme?

[Blurock]

I have a friend that has joined Herbalife recently and basically contacts me every day asking me to go see him, as I can create more wealth for myself.

I've just started to ignore his calls

How not to influence people and lose friends...

[vieome]

Walker says that Net Income Solutions has the following message on its website: “If you make a purchase from Net Income Solutions you are purchasing our products or services. You are NOT making any form of ‘investment’. Affiliates who present our products to others in a misleading manner or in a way that leads the buyer to believe he or she is making an investment will be terminated and all commissions and awards will be forfeited.”

This is a new way to run a scheme. Sell a bogus product. So people have wrongly thought they were investing when in essence they have bought points to attend as many EFT workshops as they like for life. He is not liable to the investors as he was not taking investments but instead he was selling points.

[Didditmiself]

Blu, I couldn't have said it better.

[Dave A]

Walker says that Net Income Solutions has the following message on....

Posted in the wrong thread?
If so, let me know and I'll move it for you.

[vieome]

Posted in the wrong thread?
If so, let me know and I'll move it for you.

I guess you can move it, just thought it was revelant to both threads, meaning that in the past it was easier to spot a pyramid scheme, but now that they have evolved to selling some kind of bogus product they are finding away of being legal.

[Dave A]

Nah - In hindsight not paying close enough attention and forgetting your lateral thinking tendancies at the time threw me off.

Following your point then, I suggest there is a big difference between Herbalife's products and Walker's points that he was "selling". In Walker's case, those points are effectively a form of currency - no more and no less. The same challenge doesn't apply in the case of Herbalife.

You've got me thinking about timeshare now and the possible consequences of that observation
Focus, Dave

[vieome]

Nah - In hindsight not paying close enough attention and forgetting your lateral thinking tendancies at the time threw me off.

Following your point then, I suggest there is a big difference between Herbalife's products and Walker's points that he was "selling". In Walker's case, those points are effectively a form of currency - no more and no less. The same challenge doesn't apply in the case of Herbalife.

You've got me thinking about timeshare now and the possible consequences of that observation
Focus, Dave

Noted, there is a huge difference between the 2, but in essence they both point to the evolution of ponzi schemes, attaching themselves to some form of product. In walkers scheme his has winners essentially the first investors. In herbalife members pay for the privilage of selling over priced products with limited market potential. You pay joining fee and soon find you cant sell the product then lose joining fee. In walkers case what is interesting, can he pay his members back by running EFT workshops and forcing them to attend to use up the points they bought. Now that his investors are interesting in asking him questions I am sure they will attend any of his workshops, not knowing they paying for it with their so called investments.

[vieome]

Intersting read

[Sharron]

In Herbal Life the joining fee is stock..
R850 , you get a range of products with a Bag .
You can sell the products or use it.
Amay more hectic with conferences costs true
and yes very expensive but there you also get products and training material for your joining fee.

Membership fees is if you want to belong to the training programme.

I don’t belong to either ! And yes the Herbal Life and Amway recruiters unscrupulous and never ending on your tail if you show interest .
Amway is more into just recruiting
Herbal Life .. if you don’t sell products you won’t earn money because your discount level depends on your sales
Commission on team sales depends on how much they sell .. no sales no commission

Direct selling fundamentals Staff gets customers gives orders gives commission

[Blurock]

I am more and more convinced that 90% of the earth's population are a bunch of dumb asses. That is why we can elect incompetent, corrupt governments and then keep on voting for them. That is also why people believe in witch doctors and that rhino horn can give you an erection.

That is also the reason why we will believe people who sell "snake oil" and tap water and make us believe it is a wonder cure for fat bums, heart disease, cancer and whatever. What a gullible lot we are!

[Justloadit]

I am more and more convinced that 90% of the earth's population are a bunch of dumb asses. That is why we can elect incompetent, corrupt governments and then keep on voting for them. That is also why people believe in witch doctors and that rhino horn can give you an erection.

That is also the reason why we will believe people who sell "snake oil" and tap water and make us believe it is a wonder cure for fat bums, heart disease, cancer and whatever. What a gullible lot we are!

I'am with you on this one!

[Simimano]

Well, Someone in my family used to do Herbalife, You have to be really serious about it and entirely dedicated if you want to succeed with Herbalife at all, In my opinion. Like you should be with every job and/or business opportunity but aside from that their products are real, as I have tried a couple of them myself..I will not, however, decide for you whether they work or not..totally unrelated though. This person in my family had an up-line and had heard that their permits to sell and trade the products had been taken away and they could no longer do Herbalife because of it being speculated as a pyramid scheme.

Whether Herbalife is going down or not, I do not know.

I wouldn't really say it is for sure a pyramid scheme though..But the people that are higher up in the business make countless times more money than those who just started out in the business, which is this case in most businesses I'd say, You start off small and work your way up, but this person in my family just didn't seem to really be making money with it at all..Selling products nor signing people up to join, therefore they are no longer with Herbalife and hasn't been for months now. Just as well too because if it definitely is a pyramid scheme..Everyone with them would have to find a new form of income, if it was bringing in any for that matter. There are teams you succeed to when you move up in the business as I remember you then get a percentage off the stock you buy in and you sell it for the full price, that was how you make your main income with it. It is hard in the beginning though, which is why most people just walk away from it.

Though that's just my opinion. It'll probably appear somewhere in the newspapers or internet at some point.

[Blurock]

@Simimano, For every MLM success story there must be at least 10 failures. The higher up you are in the food chain, the better you are off. This is not for the meek, only the predators survive.

[Simimano]

This is not for the meek, only the predators survive.

I agree. That's pretty much how life is, If you don't keep pushing on and you give up as soon as things get tough, you will not survive.

Not everything is easy and who doesn't like a good challenge! Personally though, I wouldn't do Herbalife or any other similar business and there are lots of them, Just a personal preference I suppose.

[colinvan]

Hi all, very interesting tales & speculations. www.dsasa.co.za have at least 17 companies registered with them that are using the mlm system. There are stringent requirements that have to be met prior to gaining membership. Herbalife happens to be one of them.

Due to the level structure, you can earn more than the persom who introduced you (currently the case with you)

Although not affiliated with Amway, i use certain of their products which last incredibly long due to their concentrated nature.