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The Grate Pyramids

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Crown Royal, Dec 10, 2014.

  1. Crown Royal

    Crown Royal
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    Just call me Topher

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    With recent talk in the WDT about multi-level marketing, pyramid schemes and other sugar-coated scams of the sort, more than a few members have hinted that this should be a thread on its own which could make for some fun stories. I have always looked at them like Highlander: in the end, there can be only one winner.

    Focus: Your experiences, encounters or unpleasantries in the creepy world of MLM. Ever tried it? Or like us perhaps have a friend try to sucker you into their shady dealings? Are there MLM companies that you would actually buy from? Discuss.
     
  2. Juice

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    This guy I knew in college works for Power Home Remodeling Group and posts non-stop on Facebook about how successful he is, how great an opportunity is, and how they are looking for "motivated and hard working people." He goes door to door selling roofing to old ladies who dont know any better and has been investigated by consumer advocate groups and the BBB.

    Multiple girls I know got into something called Jamberry or something like that. Best I can tell, its gluing plastic nails to your fingers I think? It sounds like a pyramid scheme.

    Bump.
     
  3. Frebis

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    I'm currently having a house built. About once a week I post progress pictures of it on Facebook because that is the easiest way to share something exciting with the ones I love. A few days ago I got an email from a facebook friend asking for info about the house building process. Two messages later I was asked if I wanted to try a 24 day challenge. We are no longer facebook friends. I didn't even dignify it with a response. Every stupid person I went to high school with seems to sell some sort of pyramid scheme. Is that common, or is this just because I grew up in a rural area, without many jobs, full of stupid people?

    The current pyramid scheme du jour is essential oils. They can cure everything from Down Syndrome to the cancer. I got into a fight on facebook with someone explaining that they were going to kill someone by lying about what it cures. We are also no longer facebook friends. When you call someone out on their bull shit all of their distributor friends jump all over the post making you look like the crazy one. I'm not the one who spent my families savings account to start a "business" peddling snake oil.

    Advocare seems to come and go in waves. There will be months where half of the people I know talk about buying the shit. Apparently you can't just use it. You must also distribute it. Who in the fuck buys this stuff? And how stupid do you have to be to give them money? The sales pitch must be air tight.

    While typing this it made me realize everything is pyramid scheme. I have a facebook friend that homeschools her kids. Every weekend she has an informational session for other perspective parents peddling the program she uses. A quick internet search showed that Classical Conversations is a christian based homeschooling pyramid scheme. This led me down a rabbit hole where I learned that pyramid schemes run rampant in religious communities. People trust you because they go to church with you, and that makes you a good person, right? So of course I should pay you thousands of dollars to become a faith based healer.

    The only one I won't talk shit about is pampered chef. I have several of their stone cookware products and a few gadgets. They are awesome. I know, I'm a sheeple.
     
  4. Rush-O-Matic

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    That's because they separated themselves from "pyramid scheme" into "legit mult-level marketing," which is why Warren Buffett bought them years ago.
     
  5. Frebis

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    Multi-level marketing is just the politically correct term for pyramid scheme. Whether they are Warren Buffet owned or not. You should see my pizza stone.
     
  6. Flat_Rate

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    In addition to being nut job conspiracy theory right wing assholes, my cousins are steeped in the MLM bullshit as well.

    First it was Amway, running around talking about being retired at 30, didn't happen, mention it to them now and they don't acknowledge you.

    Then it was Advocare for awhile, then on to the latest which is Snake Oil DoTerra. The shit smells good, that's all it is, the worlds most expensive fucking air freshener. It does nothing, cures nothing and is one of the biggest scams I have ever seen. And they are all in on this shit too. Thousands of dollars.
     
  7. Dcc001

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    Women in particular get sucked into this. There isn't a female on this board who hasn't been to/hosted a:

    - Tupperware
    - Cooking spices
    - Sex toy

    Party, which are all essentially pyramid schemes.
     
  8. xrayvision

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    I know a couple of white trash chicks who sell essential oils and those body wraps on Facebook that help you "lose weight." I've never had less respect for anyone.
     
  9. TX.

    TX.
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    I've never been to any of that shit, but I've certainly been invited to a fair number of them.

    The essential oil fad irks me to no end. What a colossal waste of money. It's like throwing money in the trash. I've had Facebook friends who I haven't spoken to in YEARS message me about their parties. My sister-in-law, who has about $2 to her name, is on a $300/month essential oil budget. Are you shitting me? You're in CC debt to your eyeballs and you had to "limit" yourself to ONLY $300/month. Give me a break. She asked if I was interested in a sample pack. The sample packs are like $100+. The max I would spend on that is $10. Maybe $20 if it made my skin look better.
     
  10. Aetius

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    $10? These aren't optional oils
     
  11. shimmered

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    Nope. None of that.
    Makeup party when my mom sold BeautiControl?
    Yeah.

    It pisses me off to be talking squats and proteins with someone and then someone else chimes in "message me for the latest on our It WORKS! products!"

    No. Stop. We are talking about fitness and exercise not....that.
     
  12. dixiebandit69

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    What a timely thread; my ex-wife is getting into Tupperware right now. She just became a sales rep, although she's doing it with a predatory mindset, and she's trying to scam the company: When a sales rep warranties out broken products, they don't have to send the broken stuff back to the company unless they ask for it. She's hoping they don't ask.
    We'll see how well this plays out in the coming months...

    Like a few other board members, I tried selling Cutco Cutlery for a brief period after high school. I failed miserably.

    Right before my unscheduled "vacation" in late 2013, one of my female friends started sell some beauty cream called Nerium. I was invited to one of her Nerium Parties (I don't know why; there was only one other guy there.), and this shit was $80 a bottle. I instantly saw it for what it was, but I felt sorry for her, because she'd already paid for her inventory.
    I agreed to buy one bottle for a niece who had a birthday coming up, with the intention of lecturing my friend on the scam that she walked into later.
    I didn't have the money then, but she wrote in my order. A few days later I got arrested, so that got me off the hook.
     
  13. Crown Royal

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    Just call me Topher

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    I quite like Epicure as a product.
     
  14. Rush-O-Matic

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    No you misunderstood me. Warren saw the same value in it that you do. I have the pizza stone, the Bar-B- boss, and use those little nylon scraping things every time I do dishes.

    Juice waited two years to bump it because he just KNEW the time was right.
     
  15. Juice

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    You retards don't suggest anything anymore so I have to dig deep.
     
  16. dixiebandit69

    dixiebandit69
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    We don't suggest anything because they don't get picked up.
     
  17. shimmered

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    I don't suggest anything because I'm not funny. It's a curse.
     
  18. toddamus

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    I'd suggest things but my interests are pretty much limited to boobs hockey and beer, in that order.
     
  19. Crown Royal

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    Just call me Topher

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    The Rainbow Vaccuum cleaner!!!

    Truth be told these things do whoop a Dyson's ass as if it were an 80's dust buster, they also cost as much as a used car. So there's a $400 commission per unit sold, IF you annoy and guilt the homeowner for hours on end into buying one while your soul dies. It's a pyramid scheme company that masquerades as many things, usually as a legitimate sales firm or a company that manufactures air purifiers, which the Vaccuum double as.

    We had a friend try and end get us into the cliche of cliches: Amway. There's a huge warehouse for it near where my dad workers. Yes, why pay full price for a product when you can pay slightly less for thi shitty knockoff? Blow a friendship and bond it took years to create by using the people you care about to line your pockets via sleaze.

    When I lived in my first apartment it was with my best friend. A friend of ours, LaLoon, called us saying he had an amazing job offer for us. So we said come over, and without telling us brings HIS pyramid boss. This...this....FUCKING GUY. In a frizzy wool $60 suit, wearing $5 per gallon cologne that smelled like sweaty rhino testicles and for an hour he monopolized our sanity at our kitchen table trying to get us to sell their ripoff crap under LaLoon. We did nothing but rolled our eyes at each other and shot daggers at LaLoon. Four times in an hour this clown shoes salesman asked us "You guys want to be millionaires, don't you?" It took all my zen powers to keep from bursting into hysterics. We didn't speak to him for two or three years for that, that sort of move seems to be much more common than I thought.
     
  20. Juice

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    Whatever, you fags. If the suggestions have complete sentences and make sense, I'll usually bump them.