My mom bought the stuff for about a year while I was still at home (this was 10-15 years ago). She loved the cleaning products but all three of us in the house were horribly allergic to all the personal care products (shampoo, lip balm, deodorant, etc). She quit buying because the cleaning products were so concentrated and lasted so long that she couldn't come up with enough stuff to buy every month for the membership requirement or whatever they called it.

The only product I really remember as being outstanding was their hand cream. It was GREAT!!

I have been using Melaleuca's products for over 6 years and would NEVER switch back to store brands. I have used all the products and yes, they do work!


I have no problem meeting the base point requirements. I order 75-100 base points every month just for myself.

I have tried the products in the past and have been very happy with them. Lots of companies will try to get you to be a distributor. Not all bad. Lots of people HATE MLM'S ask them why and they have no idea. I am in an MLM and I LOVE IT!!!!!! I will not say the co. name. This is not my post. I know (yes, i really know them) people who make $300,000 a MONTH!!!!! I am new in the biz. These people tried to get me in the biz for years and I said what you said. "I HATE MLM'S!!!" My friends are doing the "I told you so dance" I just wanted to tel you that just because the product is sold through an MLM, it does not make it CRAP.

Do some SOUL SEARCHING!!!!!!!!!!


Aloha!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I am not in amway. Any co. that telss you to NOT say the co. you ae in is nuts. I do have a "real job" I also agree with someof the things you said. Melaleuca is a co. that has been around for a while. I have used the products and liked them. I will only give the info for my company if asked. No stockpiling product. The best part is we have only 1 product. We are not all bad

Aloha

Jattymay - I guess you figured out why I guessed Amway then?
If you can say you're genuinely doing well in your MLM business, I'm genuinely pleased for you.

Starfleet_Captain, I'm sorry you think that way. If you notice, I did not say MLM was illegal, I said it was one step away from illegal. It is also completely different to franchising.

I don't think my thinking is closed-minded, either. I don't object to Avon, I don't object to Ann Summers, and I've encountered several other product based MLM schemes that I don't object to. What I do object to are schemes I've personally seen people harmed by, such as Herballife and Melalucea.

I gave Melalucea a chance, and got burned, so if I happen to see someone considering joining, I present my experiances - which, incidentally, are far from unique - so the person can consider both sides.
Incidentally, I've also seen first hand several people burnt by Herballife. I personally had one Herballife distributor *beg* me to buy some of their shakes at lower than "retail" prices, just to get back some of the money they'd wasted on inventory.

"It is becuase of thinking that causes many distributors to tell their down line to not tell people they are Amway distrubutors. They got such negative connotation that they could not present a valid plan without people shutting them out."

I notice you said you'd been in Amway, well, did you ever consider that the negative connotation happened for a reason?

"Pyramid scheme. How silly. Look at the Government, the Church, any coroporation. Any of them are structrued as a pyramid"

Comparisons to the government, etc, are used very often by MLM companies to try to convince the public that there's nothing wrong with a pyramid scheme. Structure does not a pyramid scheme make - for instance, neither government nor church meet the (consumer association) 5 red flags for a pyramid.

"In Amway, and any decent MLM worth being a part of will let any individual have the ability to make more money than the person over them. If not then they are illegal."

I'm sorry, but I had to giggle here, because you've said above that MLM schemes are not illegal, then in this paragraph said yourself that they are.

I'd also like to know how, in schemes where the distributor/recruiter receives far less commission than the upline above them, an individual can make more money than the person above them?

heaven_draven...

In order to become a customer, you must sign a Customer Agreement and a Marketing Executive Agreement. Did you not read the terms and conditions? On the Customer Agreement you had to choose one of several choices of backup orders to be sent in the event that you forget to order one month. However, even though it is on the paperwork you signed, the rep was WRONG in not explaining and making sure you understood how this works!

Once you were enrolled, you had to cancel your account in writing (snail mail or fax) in order to stop any backup orders which kick in when you do not place an oder by the last day of the month.

BUT...the rep is at fault for not properly explaining this to you...not the company. Anyone who is improperly presenting the company, the comp plan, etc., should be reported to the company. It is not tolerated...they could lose their account.

As for product prices, you cannot compare bottle prices. Melaleuca cleaning products are VERY concentrated. You must compare cost PER USE. For example, here are a few cost comparisons taken from Albertsons in June, 2005.

Tide - 25 cents per use
Mela's MelaPower - 16 cents per use

Downy - 10 cents per use
Mela's MelaSoft - 8 cents per use

Lime-A-Way - 20 cents per use
Mela's Tub & Tile - 5 cents per use

Cascade - 33 cents per use
Mela's Diamond Brite - 27 cents per use

409 - 9 cents per use
Mela's Tough & Tender - 5 cents per use

Windex - 10 cents per use
Mela's Clear Power - 6 cents per use

As for the vitamins, Melaleuca's patented process of Fructose Compounding allows the body to more readily accept and absorb the nutrients. Do some research...you will most likely find that the vitamins you are taking are passing through your body unabsorbed. See debdewaltoff's post above.

As for the reference to Dr. Jon Taylor's Consumer Awareness Institute, oh please...

For those who do not know, Taylor joined Nu Skin with the intention of becoming a Blue Diamond making $750,000 a year...within 2 years. After one year, although he was in the top 1% of producers, he couldn't see meeting his goals, so he quit and formed what he calls a "nonprofit" and cleverly named it the Consumer Awareness Institute, most likely to make it appear to be an "official" organization. He uses this "nonprofit" to make baseless unsubstantiated claims against network marketing and MLM business models. Hmmm...I wonder whether he is making $750,000 per running his "nonprofit"!

Taylor is obsessed with discrediting all MLMs...with the exception of Avon and one other. He makes claims about Melaleuca (and others) that are just not true. Anyone interested in seeing how Taylor distorts the truth can read two of Leonard Clements' articles (broken into 2 parts each), where he addresses some of the claims made by Taylor.

http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=73340&postcount=182

http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=73344&postcount=184

http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=99663&postcount=201

http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=99668&postcount=202

Melaleuca is not a pyramid scheme. Have you bothered to research the company other than reading what skeptics have to say? Melaleuca and the CEO himself have more credentials than you will most likely find with any other.

You say you got burned. Well...you got burned by a dishonest rep...not Melaleuca. You will find them in every home business, and every traditional business, for that matter. Bottom line, however, you should read the terms and conditions before signing ANYTHING.

You said, "I'd also like to know how, in schemes where the distributor/recruiter receives far less commission than the upline above them, an individual can make more money than the person above them?"

Well...it happens every day in Melaleuca. Melaleuca is designed to reward those who work the business. I could enroll someone today, and then sit back and do nothing. If that person works her business, she could advance to higher levels while I am still at a lower level. Sure...I would receive commission on the purchases of those she brought in, but I would not be sharing in the profit-sharing pool that rewards those the workers with bonuses. This is where the big money is, and should be. It has nothing to do with who enrolled when, or who enrolled first. If I sat back and did nothing, I could be making a few hundred in commissions while she is advancing and making thousands or even tens of thousands per month.

Don't discredit a company until you have done the research. And by the way...if you read the links above and then decide to venture out into other parts of that forum, you will see the negativity. But you will also see the posts of those who try to explain and tell the truth about Melaleuca. You will see my posts there, but you will see no website or email address listed in my profile. I am not there to recruit...I am there to tell the truth about Melaleuca.

For the record...I have spent hundreds, or probably a couple thousand hours researching the ingredients in Melaleuca's products for an independent publisher. I have researched the company inside and out, and have been using the products myself for about 7 years. They are what they say they are.

The negativity you see is by people who were mislead by dishonest reps who should lose their account, by those who have never been with the company but are obsessed with discrediting it and other legitimate companies, by those who have preconceived notions about the company and don't bother to do in-depth research on CREDIBLE sites.

I'm gonna stick to the question at hand here. My neice visited over the summer and sells the stuff. She was enthusiastic and managed to get my mother-in-law, on a fixed income, to sign up. We hesitated. She had samples of stuff, but why would anyone sign up before falling in love with most of it. The gold soap that she raved about was nothing special. I DO like the liquid laundry spot remover, however. My mother-in-law is trying to get out of it now, having trouble meeting those points and all that, and is giving us the products she can't use. She gave us a candle in a pretty reusuable glass, but unless my nose was 2 inches from the flame, I couldn't smell a thing. I like candles I can smell, and lots of sellers here on ebay sell great ones. So yes, they have a few good products, but we're not "sold" on the company in general.

Deb, please don't feel like a sucker. The reps use very powerful and persuasive methods to try to get people to sign up, and people from all walks of life do get brought in.
"I will also have to keep my eyes peeled on my credit card bill, as I did NOT authorize any automatic charging and shipping of products."
If you don't want the things (which you won't have picked, either) sent to you automatically, please hurry and cancel now. I will give Brendack "points" for pointing out the best way to cancel, but personally, I'd also follow up a fax with a letter sent with DC.


Brendack "In order to become a customer, you must sign a Customer Agreement and a Marketing Executive Agreement. Did you not read the terms and conditions? On the Customer Agreement you had to choose one of several choices of backup orders to be sent in the event that you forget to order one month."

The customer agreement I was given was a photocopy. I requested a copy, and was told I'd be given one the next day, but it never materialised.
I did not sign a marketing executive agreement. I did read the terms and conditions given to me, and nowhere did they mention "backup orders". The minimum order cost of £70 a month was not mentioned either.

Whether or not the rep mentioned "backup orders" or not is rather irrelevant though, as I wrote to Melaleucea the day or day after I received the "business pack", categorically stating I did NOT want to receive anything else from them.

In other words, I tried to cancel, and was effectively not allowed to - so yes, I was burned by Melalucea.


"As for product prices, you cannot compare bottle prices. Melaleuca cleaning products are VERY concentrated. You must compare cost PER USE. For example, here are a few cost comparisons taken from Albertsons in June, 2005.

Tide - 25 cents per use
Mela's MelaPower - 16 cents per use (ect)"

I did not just compare bottle prices. I did compare per use, and many of the products available in Holland and Barrat, Asda and several other stores are concentrated.
Also, I notice that all the products you've listed are top-branded ones, and no averaging of price was done, because all products were purchased from the same store.

Now, I have this nifty little book and spreadsheet that allows me to compare not just products by bottle, but shop by shop, and do a direct comparison of usage amounts. Useage amounts is the interesting one, because it compares firstly the amount in "one use" as reccomended by the manufacturer, and also whether "one use" does the job (with some products you need more, others less).

Take the fabric softener, MelaSoft for instance. In the US, the price is $7.50. In the UK, the price is £7.50, both for a 946ml bottle. For an 8 cent/pence per use price, the MelaSoft bottle would have to contain (rounded up slightly here) roughly 100 uses, giving each "use" a size of slightly less than 10 ml.

Asda's smartprice fabric softener is 37pence for a 2 litre bottle. For an 8 pence per use price, the Asda bottle would only have to contain 4 and a half uses. As it stands though, the Asda bottle contains roughly 20-40 uses, giving a price of around ONE PENNY a use.

Now, please tell me how 8 pence is cheaper than a penny?

Now, let's try doing the math with the £1, 2 litre bottles of Comfort, Downy, Lenor, etc. Lets say they all contain 20-40 uses as well. Even at only 20 uses, the price per use comes out as FIVE pence, which again, is cheaper than Melalucea.

I could also do a comparison with vinegar, which for the record makes a wonderful antibacterial fabric softener, but it starts to get a little silly when you're comaparing fractions of a penny.

"As for the vitamins, Melaleuca's patented process of Fructose Compounding allows the body to more readily accept and absorb the nutrients. Do some research...you will most likely find that the vitamins you are taking are passing through your body unabsorbed. See debdewaltoff's post above."

So, in other words, Melalucea's vitamins are full of sugar?
And nope, my vitamins aren't passing through unabsorbed. I've never seen a "bedpan bullet". The only thing I've seen once is yellow wee, which is a result of either putting in more B vitamins in one go than the body can handle, or drinking too much water at the same time as taking the supplements. Easily remedied, and I've never seen yellow wee since.

"As for the reference to Dr. Jon Taylor's Consumer Awareness Institute, oh please..."
Actually, that happened to be the first US site in my bookmarks. I did have a UK article (about MLM) on the BBC Watchdog program website bookmarked, which gave very similar information, but as it is a dynamic site, the story has since been replaced with another.

Whether the gentleman who produces the site is "obsessed with discrediting MLMs" or not, a lot of the information is still valid. There are many, many other websites, paper publications and similar out there putting forward similar viewpoints.

"Anyone interested in seeing how Taylor distorts the truth can read two of Leonard Clements' articles (broken into 2 parts each), where he addresses some of the claims made by Taylor."
I've read both articles, and to respond to all the points raised would just turn this post into a ridiculous and unfeasibly long "he said, she said". (no doubt you'll have something to say about the fact that I won't go in depth when discussing these articles)

What I *will* say is that this Leonard Clements fellow is obviously involved in MLM, and therefore he *would* try to rebuff any information perceived as negatively directed towards MLM.

"Melaleuca is not a pyramid scheme. Have you bothered to research the company other than reading what skeptics have to say? Melaleuca and the CEO himself have more credentials than you will most likely find with any other."
Well, I beleive Direct Level Marketing was the term used by Melalucea, but that doesn't make it any less pyramid-shaped.
And yes, I did some quite considerable research on the company. I did see some fairly impressive claims of income, but when equated with the amount and type of work necessary to acheive said income, it became quite clear that MLM was obviously not all that some distributors paint it as being.

"You said, "I'd also like to know how, in schemes where the distributor/recruiter receives far less commission than the upline above them, an individual can make more money than the person above them?"

Well...it happens every day in Melaleuca. Melaleuca is designed to reward those who work the business. I could enroll someone today, and then sit back and do nothing. If that person works her business, she could advance to higher levels while I am still at a lower level. Sure...I would receive commission on the purchases of those she brought in, but I would not be sharing in the profit-sharing pool that rewards those the workers with bonuses. (ETC)"

The problem with Melalucea, is that "working the business" does not just involve selling products, it involves signing others up to sell products. If you use your example of signing someone up, of course she would advance if she signed up more people than you did.

"Deb...this thread is a prime example of misinformation by the uninformed being spread about Melaleuca. Do you see what just happened? You liked what you heard, but let an uninformed person make you feel like a sucker. Do yourself a favor and do the research. As for ingredients in the products themselves, you could start by reading the research reports here:"

I'm not uninformed, and I'm not spreading misinformation. Just because you (Brendack) doesn't like something, does not make it untrue.
Fact is, I was originally interested in purchasing some products, but my own reaserch showed that there were more effective products out there for much cheaper prices - plus, other products did not require a minimum spend every month.

"Don't let the uninformed and those who have been mislead steal your dreams"
Now THAT is cause for an "oh please". From the sounds of what Deb's said, she's not interested in starting a business, she just wants environmentally-friendly house cleaning products. I'm not "stealing dreams", I'm presenting an opinion.

Deb, there are boxes are the very top where you can choose to be a Preferred Customer and get the products at a discounted price. The other box is if you want to be a Direct Customer, with no monthly requirements for ordering, but you pay the retail price. If you chose Direct Customer, you should receive no backup order.

However, if you chose Preferred Customer, you then had to choose the "type" of backup order (left side of the page below the type of customer) you wanted shipped when you forget to order. There are 7 selections, two of them being convenience certificates. If those were chosen, you would be sent a certificate to be used as you wish instead of the backup order being sent. However...this is a replacement for the products actually being shipped, and you would still be billed.

Sooo...it would be best to contact Mela and find out exactly what you chose. Sorry you were contacted by what appears to be a dishonest rep. Most Mela reps do try to present the company properly. It seems that the dishonest ones are part of 2 or 3 specific teams.

Heaven...sorry if I offended you. It was not my intent. I have no intention of going back and forth with this either, but did want to point out a couple of things.

It appears that both you and Deb were contacted by a greedy rep. Although there are hundreds of support groups, I could take 3 guesses and most likely hit on the teams they are a part of. There are many good reps on those 3 teams, but the majority who present the company improperly are also on those teams. As I said before, it infuriates me. They are making it harder for the rest of us.

I do feel, that in a situation like this and it being the first shipment, that to show good faith, they should waive the restocking fee. And it is something I intend to suggest. I can understand charging a restocking fee when someone has been a customer for several months, but for whatever reason, returns the products. But I believe they should give a new customer the benefit of the doubt when it appears that a dishonest or greedy rep as misrepresented the company.

Regarding Fructose Compounding...no, this does not mean the nutritionals are full of sugar. The actual amount is equivalent to the amount of sugar in one grape, and is very safe even for diabetics.

Regarding cost per use...I am not familiar with pricing in the UK, so I am not qualified to comment on those. I just know how they compare here. I also have a cost comparison done at WalMart, but couldn't find it at the time of my post. Since I have no customers in the UK, I have not investigated those. Maybe it is not as lucrative there. I don't know.

Regarding your last statement...just as I hit the "Post" button I realized that she had mentioned she was interested in the products only and looked for the edit button, but there isn't one.

Putting Taylor and Clements both aside...below are links to Greg Stewart's article, "The History and Truth of Network Marketing", one of the best I've seen. There is no debate about one opinion vs. another, but tells the story of the evolution of Network Marketing, which both MLM and CDM are, and tells how and why network marketing has evolved from direct selling to the kind of business models we see today. It's good reading for anyone in network marketing. The article is split into 3 posts.

http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=100450&postcount=1

http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=100452&postcount=2

http://www.scam.com/showpost.php?p=100456&postcount=4

Well people, I misplaced my Melaluca paperwork, so I called the person who talked me into going to the presentation.

I explained to her that I really didn't want to be on the auto-ship plan, and she responded in a really testy manner, telling me that I obviously didn't understand the benefits from using the products, and that I hadn't been listening closely enough to the presentation. She then launched into a sales pitch about how wonderful the products are, yada, yada, yada. I said that the products may be great, but I really didn't want my charge card billed each month and products shipped that I don't really need... another sales pitch on her part telling me that the company has so many great products that if I don't need the cleaning supplies this month, there is the Nicole Miller line of beauty products, tooth paste, vitamins, on and on. Which led me to state that the products might be wonderful, but I'd rather order them on an as needed basis and pay the retail price if I liked them that much. So after another lecture, she told me to write a letter explaining to the company that I don't want to be a preferred customer, and want to buy retail instead. What a hassle!

Again, if these products are so *&^% good, why not either have people sell them and make the profit that way, or supply stores with them.... This experience is just another black mark against MLM in my opinion. I don't think that this person I'm dealing with is "greedy", but I think she is someone who has been brainwashed into thinking that these are the greatest products since the invention of the wheel, and that she is actually going to make a comfortable living by being part of this thing. And frankly, I was a little taken aback by her tone of voice and attitude when I told her that I'm backing out of "preferred customer status". And I've gotta laugh - when she was giving me the rap about the autoship being to my benefit as I'd not jepordize my "preferred customer status" if I had forgotten ot place an order, or was sick or in the hospital, I wanted to tell her that if I was in the hospital, the last thing I'd be thinking about was whether my bathroom cleaner was being shipped to me!