So you have most likely heard of Amway, I mean who hasn’t? It is the largest MLM company worldwide and has probably had an impact on most people. Maybe you have tried to make money with them, or maybe you have had a distributor try and sell you some products?
Let’s find out what Amway is about in this Amway review before you try them out!
Amway Review
Overall Ranking: 15/100
Price: $62 registration fee (and this must be renewed annually), optional $99.99 product starter kit
Website: www.amway.com
Table of Contents
Introduction: What is Amway about?
Amway (which stands for American Way) is probably the most successful, longest standing and well known multi level marketing company in the world. Amway was founded in 1959 y Richard DeVos and Jay van Andel.
The Amway product range includes the following:
- Artistry make-up and skin care range
- Nutrilife health range
- Satinique hair care range
- Body Blends body care range
- Glister Oral Care Range
- eSpring water purifier system
- Legacy of Clean laundry, dish detergent and surface cleaner range
- Pursue disinfectant range
- Atmosphere air treatment range
- iCook cookware range
There are a few ways to make money with Amway, you can sell their products to the public and of course being an MLM company your biggest focus will be recruiting others under you!
Amway Pros and Cons
Pros
- They have been around for a long time
- The products they sell are needed by everyone
- Support and training is provided (although the focus is really only in one place, more about this in the cons)
- Available in over 100 countries
Cons
- Huge amount of complaints for this company, both for the opportunity to make money and also for the actual product quality
- The products they sell might be needed by everyone, BUT at those prices you really can’t expect to sell much. We’ll take a look at the products again a bit later in this review.
- Support and training is provided, however the focus is not on the products at all. The focus is on referring people into Amway.
- There is no training on internet marketing
- This is an MLM opportunity and it is very hard to make money. MLM is just not suitable for everyone, in fact I believe it is only suitable for a very select few. Add to this that Amway’s compensation plan is a very tough one to crack, you will need to work incredibly hard and really go all out.
- It is very hard to qualify for commissions. To qualify to be paid you need to bring 100 PV (points value) in a month. This is $300, not easy for a newcomer to do right?
- Amway has what is called a “stairstep breakaway”. This means that once one of your down-lines reaches 7500 points it “breaks away”. When this happens your 30% commissions are taken away and you start to earn 4% royalties instead. If this down-line then drops below 7500 points you lose the royalties. This is not very nice at all is it?
- Market saturation could be problematic, there are apparently 3 million Amway IBO’s worldwide! Research shows that their is a complete lack of growth in the United States.
- Lots of negativity surrounding Amway and it is not easy to change someone’s perception once they have made up their mind about something.
How much does Amway Cost?
It costs $62 to register and then you need to renew again every year at $62. This includes some training and marketing materials to help you on your way. There is a 90 day money back guarantee.
There is an optional product starter kit you can purchase for $99.99 which will give you products and samples to share, it will also include 10 mini catalogs, some sample bags and tips to help you introduce your business to potential customers.
So what about the Amway Products?
I feel it is really important to look at the actual products very closely when investigating a multi level marketing opportunity. Without the products this is just a pyramid scam isn’t it?
It is a characteristic of MLM’s to have bad quality products that are incredibly over priced, and that nobody really bothers trying to sell because that is truly not the point of MLM is it? The real product is YOU, yes recruiting people to the program is the ultimate goal.
So what I do like about these products is that most of them are things that I already buy regularly which should make them really easy to sell right?
Well no, wrong on that count. Let’s have a look why!
Let’s look at their laundry detergent. $47.30? That’s insane!
Just to give you an idea of the pricing for a few items, lets pretend we are doing out monthly shop and we need some basic items for the home right? Just for fun to see how these amounts add up.
How does this look to you:
- $47.30 for laundry detergent
- $13.95 for fabric softener
- $10.00 for shampoo
- $17.60 for a bar of soap
- $16.50 for deodorant
- $12.85 for a toothbrush
- $12.00 for toothpaste
So this really is just a few things you might need during the month right? That comes to a grand total of $130.20. That is a pretty hefty price tag for just a few toiletries and some cleaning goodies!
You can give me your marketing pitch about how these products are so insanely great, the fact is that I just don’t care. I am not spending that amount of money, it is just not going to happen.
Is Amway a scam?
Apparently not, but really look at this. Insanely overpriced products for nothing special, recruiting is the order of the day… well you decide for yourself if this looks like something you want to try.
By the way, Amway has earned themselves the nickname Scamway.
My Verdict for Amway
What I haven’t shared with you in this review yet is that I bought into Amway about 15 years ago, yes I got suckered in and my experience really showed me what this was about.
So I got home from work one day and my friendly neighbor catches me by my car and says we just must do coffee! I’m taken by surprise and I feel all warm and gooey that she is taking an interest in me and trying to make friends. I accept and she tells me to bring my friend, you know the one that is always with me on weekends. We set a time for the coming weekend, I invite my best friend and off we go.
Once we are happily settled with our coffee and biscuits ready for a chin wag out comes a flipchart. I mean like whaaat? My friend gives me this strange look and I shrug. We’re trapped, you know we can’t just politely excuse ourselves right now. Oh well the biscuits are really tasty so whatever.
The thing is that I had never been exposed to MLM before and this woman made everything sound so incredible and of course easy. And yes you guessed it, I am always keen to earn a little more money. I’m not scared of hard work, I’m scared of not being able to earn money. Hard work? No problem, throw it my way with pleasure.
So yes my friend and I both signed up, paid our money and we were ready to get started. The problem was that nothing happened like the pitch we were given. Once we were in nobody mentioned products, it was like a swear word! No we must draw up lists of anyone and everyone we know… or even don’t really know. Hell if I have seen your face before great lets just corner you somewhere and give you our pitch.
This already made me uncomfortable, and my first real understanding came from my mother. Yes the cup of coffee thing to hook her in didn’t go so well! She knew all about Amway and rolled her eyes, sighed and told me she was so sad I had been suckered.
I felt like a downright idiot. I brought up my concerns with my sponsor and she just went on about how great Amway was and didn’t seem to hear my worries or care much.
As soon as I mentioned Amway to anyone they would clam up and get nervous and try to run for the hills. It was not long before I decided to do the same, cut my losses and run for it.
So this was my first (and thankfully last) experience with multi level marketing. I will never again be suckered into something like that again.
The tactics used are really tacky. It is not for me and it never will be.
Once again I need to remind you that this is my personal experience and not what everyone will experience. There are a lot of people that just love MLM and think it is the best type of business model. Just because I don’t like it and I will never be able to make money doing this doesn’t mean that you will fail, just be careful.
Do I recommend this? Duh no way!
Here is a video I found on Youtube that really shows how it felt to me being in Amway, perhaps some may find this video offensive but for me it was just spot on!
Are you interested to find a better way to make money? Have a look at my #1 recommendation instead!
Have you had any experience with Amway? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
