Wednesday, October 19, 2011

USANA lost “Major Customers” to ARIIX, which may adversely affect 3rd quarter earnings

USANA states in their own words the following in many of their 10-K SEC filings: My Emphasis in BOLD Red

Major Customers
 
Sales are made to independent Associates and Preferred Customers.  No single customer has ever accounted for 10% or more of net sales in any fiscal year.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, the nature of our business model results in a significant amount of sales to several different Associate leaders and their downline sales organizations.  Although no single Associate has ever accounted for 10% or more of our net sales, the loss of a key Associate leader or that Associate’s downline sales organization would adversely affect our net sales and our overall operating results.

That is exactly what has and is happening!


Back on May 9, 2011 I reported that four of USANA's top executives (Fred Cooper, Jeff Yates, Mark Wilson, and Riley Timmer ) resigned from their position. However, USANA released this information publicly on May 10, 2011. How did I know 1 day ahead of time? USANA sent out a private memo to all of their Gold director distributors and up. They were privy to insider information before shareholders. However, stock analysts completely dismissed this fact. So when USANA stated in a press release that these executives resigned May 10th, that is not the case according to the May 9th private memo.

Now I'm here to give shareholders heads up on the fact that USANA has lost many of their top distributors who quit their distributorship with USANA to join ARIIX, the multilevel marketing company founded by Fred Cooper and operated by the other three ex-USANA executives who resigned in May. USANA is falling apart and stock analysts covering USANA don't seem to have the shareholders in their best interests.

After some research, I have compiled a list of USANA distributors that have decided to join ARIIX (bottom of this posting). The list is incomplete since neither company publishes who their distributors are (so secretive). Most of the USANA distributor ranking I show below are as of October of 2010. I do not have any recent information of their rankings and USANA has taken great strides at keeping the information a secret.

2 - 5 Star Diamond Director
1 – 4 Star Diamond Director
*1 - 3 Star Diamond Director
2 – Diamond Director
1 – Ruby Director
2 – Gold Director
7 – Silver Director
1 – Bronze Director
1 – Director
2 – Achiever
6 – Builder
4 – Believers
3 – Sharers
 
*(Revised October 25, 2011: I must at one more 3-Star Diamond Director, Robert & Daryl Allen)

Five Six Diamond Directors are what I would consider KEY ASSOCIATE LEADERS. Many of the others were part of one of these key associate's “sales organization” and left USANA to follow their leader. These key leaders have been plastered all over USANA's website, sales material, training material and all over YouTube promoting USANA's business model and its product. However, these Diamond Directors left USANA even before ARIIX launched, which gaurantees these members key positions in the ARIIX compensation business model. This really says a lot about USANA's products and doesn't bode very well for the company. Also doesn't help that Dr. Ray Strand left USANA to join ARIIX. Recently Liz Strand (Ray's wide) had her USANA distributor page shut down as well.

That's not all. USANA terminated a couple of these key leaders (Lynn Allen Johnson & Duke Tubtim) when they were reported to USANA executives for being on a conference call with ARIIX and other interested individuals who wanted to find out more about ARIIX. Many should be very familiar with a recent 2008 arbitration that awarded an ex-USANA distributor $7,000,000 for being wrongfully terminated back in 2003. Well, now we are talking about a couple star-diamond directors that USANA terminated just a few months ago. So where are stock analysts on this issue?

Now I want to make a little prediction, but first I have to make the following very clear. I have no financial position on USANA's stock or any competitor to USANA. I have never traded USANA stock and never plan to. No one is paying me to write anything about USANA. I am volunteering my time to educate people. I do not like to see people lose their hard earned money because they were deceived or misled.

With that said, I believe USANA's active associate numbers will decline across most of their territories, with China being the exception. If USANA's own SEC filings state that “the loss of a key Associate leader or that Associate’s downline sales organization would adversely affect our net sales and our overall operating results. ” Notice it doesn't use the term “might”,“maybe” or “possibly”. It states it “would” adversely affect their overall operating results

The following is a list I have compiled of USANA distributors who have joined ARIIX.

USANA Distributor #133412 - Lynn Allen Johnson - 5 Star Diamond Director
ARIIX Distributor #10146 - Lynn Allen Johnson - Vision is Power Inc.- http://www.myariix.com/lynnallenjohnson

USANA Distributor #2119355 - Duke Tubtim - 5 Star Diamond Director - Millionaire Club
ARIIX Distributor #10198 - Duke Tubtim - Kaizen Support Group Inc. - http://www.myariix.com/Kaizensupport

USANA Distributor #2111980 - Timothy Lewis - 4 Star Diamond Director - Millionaire Club
ARIIX Distributor #10138 - Timothy Lewis - 4DL Enterprises Inc. - http://www.myariix.com/4dl

USANA Distributor #33009 - Robert & Daryl Allen - 3 Star Diamond Director - http://robertallen.usana.com
ARIIX  Distributor #213647 - Robert Allen - http://www.myariix.com/robertallen

USANA Distributor #295671 - Steve and Myrna Swartz - Diamond Director - Millionaire Club
ARIIX Distributor # 10168 - Steve Swartz - Have it All, Inc. - http://www.myariix.com/steve

USANA Distributor #3053770 - Iris Lee - Team ASD – Diamond Director - http://teamasd.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #10228 - Iris Lee - IS Health Enterprises Ltd. - http://myariix.com/teamasd

USANA Distributor # - Sandy LV - Ruby Director -
ARIIX Distributor #19176 - Sandy LV - http://www.myariix.com/sandy

USANA Distributor #2127139 - Tatyana Sutherland - Gold Director - http://www.usana.com/webhosting/tatyana
ARIIX Distributor #11188 - Tatyana Sutherland

USANA Distributor #2765838 - Tracee Gluhaich - Gold Director - http://truehealthintl.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #18696 - Tracee Gluhaich - http://www.myariix.com/truehealthintl

USANA Distributor #3216982 - Phyllis Goodman - Silver Director - http://health4lifeinc.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #10847 - Phyllis Goodman - http://www.myariix.com/phyllisgoodman

USANA Distributor #2137359 - Glenna and Richard Norris - Silver Director
ARIIX Distributor #59886 - Glenna and Richard Norris, CHHC - http://www.myariix.com/gnr

USANA Distributor #3704262 - Randy "Yosef" Katz - Silver Director - Sabai Marketing Group http://www.usana.com/webhosting/sabaiARIIX Distributor #10247 - Randy "Yosef" Katz - Sabai - http://www.myariix.com/esuite/home/sabai

USANA Distributor #86832 - John & Carol Cliffe - Silver Directorhttp://riskfree.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #11327 - John Cliffe -

USANA Distributor#2811720 - David & Monica Rendon - Silver Director - http://www.achievinghealth.usana.com
ARIIX Distributor #42887 - David & Monica Rendon - http://www.myariix.com/rendon

USANA Distributor #2554180 - Marlisa Hurt - Silver Director - http://www.usana.com/webhosting/marlisa
ARIIX Distributor #33636 - Marlisa Hurt


USANA Distributor #2320280 - Jean Amicarella - Silver Directorhttp://www.usana.com/webhosting/jeana
USANA Distributor #3669898 - Jean Amicarella - Sharerhttp://www.usana.com/webhosting/jeanamic (Yes, two USANA IDs with separate websites for this unique distributor)
ARIIX Distributor #17766 - Jean Amicarella - http://www.myariix.com/ariixinfo

USANA Distributor #128089 - Larry & Susie Sisson - Bronze Directorhttp://www.usana.com/distWeb/site/sisson
ARIIX Distributor #10547 - Larry & Susie Sisson - http://www.myariix.com/myfreedom

USANA Distributor #244097 - Arlene Hutchinson - Director - http://www.usana.com/webhosting/bhealthy2
ARIIX Distributor #11578 - Ennis Hutchinson - http://www.myariix.com/marketing

USANA Distributor #3940012 - Pollawat Pankam - Achiever
ARIIX Distributor #11357 - Pollawat Pankam - http://www.myariix.com/esuite/home/username/

USANA Distributor #2398784 - Maryann Cady - Achieverhttp://www.usana.com/webhosting/maryanncady
ARIIX Distributor #38008 - Maryann Cady - http://www.myariix.com/maryanncady

USANA Distributor #3936760 - Somboon Pongpruk - Builderhttp://how2success.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #11376 - Somboon Pongpruk - http://www.myariix.com/esuite/home/online

USANA Distributor #3909038, 4112764 & 4380414 (Builder) - Anh Vongbandith - http://www.dreamsmadeinc.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #12816 - Anh Vongbandith - http://www.myariix.com/DreamsMadeInc

 USANA Distributor #3250998 - Melissa Daniels - Builderhttp://www.usana.com/webhosting/mdaniels
ARIIX Distributor #11496 - Healthy 4 Life, LCC - Melissa Daniels - http://www.myariix.com/healthy4life

USANA Distributor #2479038 - Lucia Sanchez - Builderhttp://www.usanamexico.usana.com
ARIIX Distributor #34596 - Lucia Sanchez - http://www.myariix.com/ariixmexico

USANA Distributor #4202538 - Ed Walls - Builder - http://teamwalls.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #15538 - Edward Walls -

USANA Distributor #4086676 - John R. Parke - Builder - http://4086676.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #11507 - John R. Parke

USANA Distributor #4154550 - Rick & Cynthia Evans - Believerhttp://cevans.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #10896 - Rick & Cynthia Evans - http://www.myariix.com/rickevans

USANA Distributor #4446386 - Irv Segal - Believer - http://irvsegal.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #21328  - Irv Segal -

USANA Distributor #4353344 - Loredana Nuñez - Believerhttp://healthytime.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor # - Francisco & Loredana Moreno -

USANA Distributor #4387858 - Ric & Carmen Goodson - Believer -
http://ricandcarmen.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #11387 - Ric & Carmen Goodson -
http://www.myariix.com/carmengoodson

USANA Distributor #3076606 - Angie Lee - Sharer
ARIIX Distributor #17818 - Angelica Lee - http://www.myariix.com/angielee

USANA Distributor #4202828 - Sou Fin Saechao - Sharer - http://4202828.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor # - Sou Fin Saechao

USANA Distributor #3914138 - Jidbhong - Jayavasu - Sharer -
ARIIX Distributor #56076 - Dr Jidbhong Jayavasu - http://www.myariix.com/dr_jay

USANA Distributor #7662974 - Edward Williams - http://m3ister.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #12996 - Edward Williams - http://www.myariix.com/esuite/home/m3ister/

USANA Distributor #2926598 - Rick Billings - http://www.usana.com/distWeb/site/rickbillings
ARIIX Distributor #10727 - Rick Billings - http://www.myariix.com/RickBillings

USANA Distributor #2812402 - Mike Delevante - http://www.usana.com/distWeb/site/miked
ARIIX Distributor #10817 - Mike Delevante - http://www.myariix.com/mikedelevante

USANA Distributor #8297220 - Debbie Turner - http://turner.usana.com/
ARIIX Distributor #20916 - Debbie Turner - http://www.myariix.com/turner/

USANA Distributor #9638662 - Susan Hamilton - http://www.usana.com/webhosting/susanhamilton
ARIIX Distributor #34007 - Susan Hamilton, CHHC - http://www.myariix.com/SusanHamilton

USANA Distributor #9202660 - Chad zinda - http://www.usana.com/webhosting/9202660
ARIIX Distributor #  - Chad Zinda

USANA Distributor #9613734 - Lyn Clark -
ARIIX Distributor #37967 - Lyn Clark

USANA Distributor #7016988 - Emery Krahn - http://www.usana.com/webhosting/emery
ARIIX Distributor #36707 - Emery Krahn - http://www.myariix.com/emery

27 comments:

  1. The two 5-star diamonds Ariix links aren't redirecting properly. Maybe you can change it to the actual link which includes the "ensuite/home/" part of the url.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Luz Evangelista, Alexander von Griesheim Leading ARIIX Expansion into Mexico, Beyond

    lideres oro usana

    mal muy mal

    ReplyDelete
  3. I Added Robert & Daryl Allen to the list. They are 3-Star Diamond Directors with USANA. If anyone knows of any other top USANA distributors that have joined ARIIX, feel free to add them here.

    I find it interesting that Umany of them still have active USANA websites. If they are allowed to be part of competing MLMs, then why was Lynn Allen Johnson and Duke Tubtim terminated by USANA? Will there be a lawsuit on the horizon?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can't help wondering why diamond directors would walk away from the (very) serious money they would be making.

      Delete
  4. If you go to Allen's Usana site, it has Daryl's name. If you go to the Ariix site, it has Robert's name. They're married but maybe they have their own businesses. Robert Allen is a well-known author. I'm surprised to see him jump ship although, he doesn't have the best reputation. You can find tons of stories of people losing money from one of his many get rich quick programs online.

    ReplyDelete
  5. In response to the poster above,

    Look at the name in the URL for the USANA link:
    http://robertallen.usana.com/

    That's pretty much says it all

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello, I'm Ed (Edward) Williams, one of the people mentioned, and I have even signed in with my OpenID for authenticity.

    Before I begin, my friend found this post, and I don't know whether I should be flattered or find it hilarious that I'm mentioned here... I'm still laughing at the fact that I don't have ANY mention anywhere, even when I hit some decent ranks in other companies (I even just looked to be sure), but someone emailed me earlier and pointed out I'm a special mention in a blog bashing USANA when I haven't even hit Sharer with them!

    Anyway, I do feel the need to clear this up: Yes, I was in USANA, but only active from Dec '10 to about Feb '11, but continued to receive autoship (but not build) until May '11... I admit that the comp plan wasn't even enough to motivate me to build USANA, but I still liked their products at the time. Therefore, it's not like I went directly to Ariix, but the context of the post above made it sound like I did.

    With that being said, I do have a curiosity... I know your objective, but what is the motive behind this blog? Was it because you tried USANA, it didn't work out, and you feel the company is to blame, or are you from a different company and you're trying to make your "house" look better by burning your neighbor's house down?

    Either way, I do admit that there are some interesting posts here, but I do find it a bit odd that you're almost going out of your way to post misconstrued conspiracies about USANA and even Ariix, 2 completely different companies (which contrary to your prior posts, Ariix management PUBLICLY said in MANY ways that they have NO ties to USANA anymore)...

    Not to mention most of all, I don't even see the point of listing the names, distributor IDs and URLs of everybody who left since for one, the real number would be in the THOUSANDS since it's obvious that various multi-star diamonds won't just comprise of just that handful of people. 2nd, this is quite frankly, a bit childish to put everybody on blast.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ed Williams,

    You had a USANA website, which is now offline. That tells me that you are not paying anymore fees to have the website and usually means you are not an active associate. However, you were at one time or another. You also have an Ariix website that is active. My information is accurate and you have confirmed it. No misinformation here.

    As far as my "motive behind this blog", it has to do with being tired of seeing people get scammed and lose their money in a business designed to fail over 90% of the participants in a pyramid scheme. I was never a USANA associate, but people have tried to recruit me. I know people who have lost tens of thousands of dollars in the business without ever turning a profit.

    I'm not from a different company either. Not everyone in this world has a financial motive and not everyone in this world has to deceive others to make money. I'm not saying that you do. I'm saying USANA does as well as the top 1% of distributors who use boiler rooms to recruit thousands. Those who try and recruit churches and their pastors. Those who recruit day in and day out. Its not about marketing the product, it is about marketing a get rich scheme designed to fail almost everyone from the get-go.

    I list the names, IDs, and URLS of the businesses because it is public information. I also list it because I believe providing references to back up my claims is very important. If I simply made the claim without showing any proof, then I would get complaints for not showing proof. Besides, it's important that the readers (stock holders and potential recruits) see what type of associates are leaving USANA to join ARIIX. These were members who are plastered all over USANA videos touting how great their products are. These members left USANA to join ARIIX even when ARIIX had virtually no product. It's all about the money, not the product.

    Good luck in ARIIX. BTW, what happened to Monavie??? You were Bronze according to information available on Google.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How on earth does someone lose tens of thousands of dollars in USANA?

      Delete
    2. In response to "How on earth does someone lose tens of thousands of dollars in USANA?"


      One Time Purchases
      Purchase a professional pack ($1250)
      USANA Business Cards ($40.00)
      USANA Magnetic Car Signs ($34.95)
      USANA's True Wealth 50pack DVD ($75.00)
      USANA's Success from Home Magazine 28pack ($98.00)
      USANA's Difference DVD 56pack ($84.00)
      Starter Kit ($19.95)


      Ongoing Purchases (4-week cycle)
      USANA's Income Maximizer ($19.95)
      USANA's Web Conferencing ($19.95)
      USANA's 200 Autoship Points ($240)

      Yearly Purchases
      USANA Convention Ticket ($124)
      Renewal ($19.95)

      *Not including Travel Expense and other expenses*
      The first year, this associate would have spent over $5300

      After 5 years, this associate would have spent over $20,400

      Delete
    3. Interesting - now USANA WatchDog is changing her story to indicate that she never had a distributorship. In an earlier post she said she had one in college but it failed.

      Delete
    4. Wow. That is pretty speculative. Also, you consistently claim that a USANA distributor must acquire 200 points of inventory each month. In fact (a rare quantity here), a distributor selects when to activate her business centers. So she can buy three, but choose to activate just one initially at 100 points per month, and then add the others as her business grows.

      Delete
    5. 1) I never claimed to be a distributor. I have never joined USANA. I did my homework after I was introduced to the company.

      2) I always indicate 100 PSV for 1-BC and 200 PSV for multiple-BC. However, in the above example of how one can lose over $10,000 I simply used the 200 PSV as an example. In fact, the person I know involved in USANA has been on a 200 PSV autoship from the beginning.

      Delete
    6. Regardless how much people need to spend on USANA.
      U can not deny the quality of the products.
      some people who join in just for products not business, how can u claim this as fail too?
      For business part, u can choose to open 1 or 3 B.C at beginning, and u can swtich off ur autoship at anytime, the only difference is u r still count as associate but no accumulating points only.
      (P.s it's 100 SVP per month, not 200, I hope you can do ur homeworkd better).

      Delete
    7. if you spending 10,000 for healthy supplements called "lose" money.
      how about for those who pay for doctors and hospital?
      you said Ariix and Usana is not about products but money.
      I think you are the one who only judging these 2 brands by $ not products.

      Delete
    8. In response to "(P.s it's 100 SVP per month, not 200, I hope you can do ur homeworkd better)."

      For USANA associates with a "single business center" associates must personally purchase 100 points worth of product (about $110) every 28 days.

      For USANA associates with "multiple business centers" associates must personally purchase 200 points worth of product (about $220) every 28 days.

      What were you saying about homework now???

      Delete
    9. When I was brainwashed in Usana a few years ago I attended a seminar with Fred Cooper. This was just after he became the President.

      One of the audience members raised their hand and asked him: "Does my downline need to fail in order for me to succeed?"

      All Fred replied was "Yes."

      And then he just went onto the next question.

      Delete
  8. I apologize about the tonality of my last post; I thought you had an ulterior motive against Ariix by posting our information. At any rate, I also apologize if you do feel the way you do about USANA Corporate, but keep in mind that our organization didn't have share the same philosophies (or lack thereof) that USANA Corporate allegedly had. They may seem to allegedly have a bad rap, but at least it's not half as bad as some other companies.

    In my opinion, Duke Tubtim is always very humble and down-to-earth; despite being considered a "success", he NEVER boasted about himself (vs. "leaders" from other companies that'll flash their supposed wealth at any given moment), and he ESPECIALLY never struck me as being greedy, deceiving, or "in it for the money" within the 5 years that I have known him, neither do we use nor encourage "boiler room" or even "hard-closing" tactics. Out of 5 other companies that I have worked with, he is doubtlessly the best in terms of cameraderie, upline support, and consistency in terms of retention and staying in the company; not many others can boldly stake the same claim.

    As far as my spiel with MonaVie, I actually hit Silver, but I didn't bother to update it on LinkedIn (if that's where you got it) since I wasn't proud of that so-called achievment... But how I got it is a long, complicated story of my uplines exploiting the comp plan and therefore helped me hit rank by default, but I don't wish to get into any more than that.

    I left MonaVie since my uplines left to other companies without so much as a courtesy notice, and me, my downlines, and whoever else wasn't informed were ultimately screwed since there was no leader duplication and nobody really knew what to do, and the uplines refused to admit me into the new company that they have joined (and eventually even stopped talking on a personal basis)... It pretty much ruined my chances of redeeming myself when I finally found a solid foundation at USANA/Ariix since I burnt my market tried to save that sinking ship.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Isn't Duke the guy with all of those expensive cars? Who knows of him and DOESN'T know about his cars? Nothing wrong with buying luxury cars of course but there's a reason why people in MLM will do anything to drive a high priced car even if they have to lease or rent it... simply, it attracts more recruits. Many reps buy expensive things even if it doesn't make financial sense because they hope it will get more people to join.

    I don't know him personally and I'm sure in his downline's eyes, he's a humble, cool guy. Makes sense. If you're going to create a business built on recruiting, it's best to have a positive image.

    You bring up an interesting point in your last paragraph. When the uplines left, you were "ultimately screwed since there was no leader duplication and nobody really knew what to do".

    In other words, people didn't know the process of recruiting and selling the dream. With any other company, you'd know your job was the sell the products. All MLM companies claim to have the best product in the industry so really, the products should sell themselves but they don't.

    The reality is that even these top earners wouldn't be able to make much just on selling the products. They rely on one thing, the continual product purchases of recruits. The reason why things fall apart for the people who stay with the company when leaders take their downline to another company with them is because the social validation decreases.

    When you meet with hundreds or thousands of other people all hyped up and excited about the opportunity, it's more enticing to join. The recognition goes to the people with the biggest downlines, not the ones with the biggest customer base.

    I don't know what those ex-Usana execs and Usana had differences about but my guess is that it was mainly about money and not an improvement in the products themselves or the betterment of their customers.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You do have some valid points, however, not that I'm trying to prove you wrong or anything, but I do have this to say:

    1. What's wrong with being a car enthusiast and actually getting cars that he wants? Better yet, how about being able to ACTUALLY afford it, versus "leaders" in other companies that like you said, rents, leases or even borrows cars (and I've seen it happen)? Also... If I said my WEEKLY income is in the 5 figures, would I be sending the right message if I showed up in a rusting '89 Celica? Besides, he's even pretty consistent outside of the spotlight; other "leaders" had drug habits, gambling addictions, and even crammed at least 20 people to a hotel room and even proceeded to have loud sex with his girlfriend while everybody was still awake

    2. Speaking of cars, Ariix also has a car bonus where an allowance can be spent on cars and related expenses (gas, insurance, oil changes, etc.), so it'll make sense to have it go towards a... Car, right?

    3. I don't mean for it to sound accusatory, but MonaVie was severely misrepresented by unscrupulous characters, and 1-page long story short, the organization system was systematically created in such a way that needs explicit reliance on the main uplines, where if the "kingpin" falls, everything else follows... That's exactly what happened.

    4. It is evident that you either have network marketing misconstrued or an employee that doesn't know about the fundamentals of ANY business on Planet Earth: Commerce and leverage. Whether it's network marketing, the grocery store, dentists, phone providers, and so on... "With any other company, you'd know your job was [to] sell the products"... But your boss hired you and leveraged off your efforts to provide commerce or even bring him a coffee from the cafeteria, didn't he? Also for "continual product purchases", isn't it fair to say that if you didn't buy food, you'd starve? If you don't pay the rent/mortgage/property tax, wouldn't you lose your property? Same principle.

    5. "All MLM companies claim to have the best product in the industry so really, the products should sell themselves but they don't." What if I can prove it to you with a bowl of water and slices of apples that we can beat Centrum? Also, if you saw a commercial for XYZ Barbecue and and I'm enthusiastically talking about the rack of lamb that I had last night, which one would you listen to more? People spend millions in advertising to gain 10% of the audience, while word of mouth hardly fails.

    6. If you read my last posts, I'm sure I covered the subject on why Ariix and why the execs left... Just like the purpose of this site, they didn't like what they were seeing, felt that they were enclosed in a glass ceiling and left. Let's say if you're a professional plumber, and I paid you millions to replace a burst pipe under the sink, but the company's shareholders won't even let you use a wrench, regardless of the fact that you have one right in your toolbox. Would you stick around? Also Ariix does have products and ideas that would blow the old company right out of the water (no pun intended)... All I can legally say is stay tuned.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 1. Nothing wrong with being a car enthusiast but let's not kid ourselves here. There are people in Usana who buy expensive things even if it doesn't make financial sense purely because they see it as helping their business. In other words, it helps to make potential recruits think they make more than they actually do. Warren Buffet makes more in a day than most people make in a year but he doesn't need to drive an exotic car to get respect.

    2. Again, showing reps standing in front of their fancy cars is for one purpose, to sell the dream. Yeah, it's smart marketing, I give you that but it puts you MLMers in the same class as those get rich quick scammers on late night television.

    4. "continual product purchases".. from reps. It's the main way products are moved. You know why we all buy food "continually"? Because we need it, we want it, we demand it. Most Usana reps buy the vitamins because it's a requirement to do so in order to get paid. If there wasn't a requirement, the amount of Usana vitamins purchased monthly would drop drastically. Simple as that. You know this, I know this, let's stop with the nonsense with your "business" talk.

    The bottom line for any business is product sales. No products sold, business goes under. Who does Usana sell to mainly? Their reps.

    5. Your antioxidant vs non antioxidant mumbo jumbo test is outdated. Cut the crap and let's talk numbers. How many true customers do you have? How much money have you made selling products to people you didn't try to recruit? Does the company reward you more for recruiting or getting real customers? Do the contests that held every now and then give more points to recruiting or selling the vitamins? I don't get why this is so hard for you people to understand.

    6. We finally agree on something, it was mostly about money. That wasn't hard to see.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Re (5) above.
      Speaking for my self...

      "How many true customers do you have?" - 100 to 120 retail customers.

      "How much money have you made selling products to people you didn't try to recruit?" - $1k+ a month retail margin plus commission.

      "Does the company reward you more for recruiting or getting real customers?" - For me, pretty much the same.

      "Do the contests that held every now and then give more points to recruiting or selling the vitamins?" - Don't think I've ever noticed one?

      Delete
  12. Logic

    Thank you for the perfect profile for a snake oil salesmen.
    I think that Ed must be the poster child for the MLM of the Month Club.
    It would be interesting to find out how many were scammed by more than three MLMs. It may be a wild gene or a stealthy virus that causes this "MLM syndrome". This compulsion to put 99 of your friends and relatives in the losers bracket may have a biological cause.

    ReplyDelete
  13. @Logic: If you want to make accusations about Ariix, Duke Tubtim or our organization, do us both a favor and not waste time by not arguing with me about USANA's tactics/ethics when it's clear that we're a different company... It's like asking Rolls Royce to make Chrysler more reliable. With that being said...

    1 and 2: That's them, this is us. Again, I can honestly say that our team's values are completely different from most other companies, and that we DO emphasize that they get their cars once they're established, NOT if they're struggling in debt or encouraging them to move back in with mother to sacrifice rent just to get a flashy car; even we can say that living an inconsistent, "hundred-aire" lifestyle is just plain B.S.

    4 and 5: Again, you're comparing apples to oranges. They have an expensive autoship to maintain every month, we have a lesser autoship requirement and even have a "get 4, pay no more" system. Also, the specifics of my reps and clientele is none of anybody else's business; in fact, I don't even track it too rigorously and don't know the real numbers myself. However, I will say a "significant" amount of customers, "some" have even upgraded to being a rep, but I still have a "good amount" of customers. If you thought that Ariix or even USANA are strictly about inside sales, you thought wrong.

    Also in Ariix, I don't get a dime more if/when someone signs up as a rep; not even if they get a package deal. All that matters is the points, which has the exact same value whether they're a customer or a rep... In fact, now that you mention it, we actually do have a promotion for getting customers, but we don't tweak the points any. You see, this is pretty much like a commission-based job, except we make our own hours, don't have to trudge our way to an office, answer to a boss, and we actually like what we do MUCH better than being glued to a cubicle, flipping burgers, or in my case, driving trucks. Conversely, "I don't get why this is so hard for YOU people to understand" how there's other legit ways of making a living without answering to a boss.

    6: Ah, that's where you missed the point. I said nothing about wanting to make more money; they just had good ideas that could've reversed USANA's bad reputation at least halfway and make the company more innovated, but the Wentz family still like their money more, and the shareholders would like their stocks to remain more worthy, so they decided to formulate a company where the people come first (it's all in their Members Bill of Rights).

    @Anonymous [AKA coward that doesn't even have the guts to face me with a real name]:
    Aside from what little nuggets of information that you learned from your beer buddies that are probably broke or never even tried working with one, please enlighten me of what you know about legal, established MLMs. Seriously, I need a good laugh.

    Also, show me ANY job where I have the chance to make my own hours, have the potential to outearn the CEO in profits with actual work, and I'll quit this company and work with them... If anything, the job world is a scam that I'd be more concerned about.



    Either way, this conversation went from addressing a concern to just a waste of my time with people who don't know nothing about the industry, and I won't make any further replies to these comments. Now if you'll excuse me, I got some better things to do.

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  14. I thought we were mainly talking about Usana in general since you mentioned the apple experiment unless you're telling me Ariix is doing the same experiment. If so, how do they compare to Usana based on that experiment?

    So you're saying that most product sales don't come from distributors? If you only had 3 days to make as much money with your MLM business, what would you focus on, getting customers or recruiting distributors? Oh wait, I guess you answered that already.

    You said, "I don't get a dime more if/when someone signs up as a rep; not even if they get a package deal"... cool, so if you recruit 10 people who spend hundreds of dollars, you get paid exactly the same as getting 10 customers who spend $20 each. So I guess it doesn't matter. I'm glad you cleared that up.

    I'll admit that I don't know too much about Ariix, although I thought we were mainly talking about Usana, but I can say this for sure. When you first joined Monavie and Usana, you were full of excitement and hope. You fought against naysayers. You were 100% convinced it was the best opportunity. You were willing to put your reputation on the line. Same thing goes for Ariix. Same with any other new MLM company that people join.

    I truly wish you success with your new company and hope you don't end up bad mouthing Ariix 5 years from now while promoting yet another company.

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  15. OK, I'll make an exception to my "no further replies" clause, but just this time... I thought that you were bashing Ariix since my previous replies were mostly about how we're different from the stereotypical norm and USANA.

    Actually, yes, our team carried over the apple test (especially since we don't have any [biased] sales tools), and we are able to prove that our products fared slightly better than the HealthPak.

    For the next 2 paragraphs you mentioned: Yes and no... Yes, almost every product company gets more volume by default for packages (I'll admit that its more than what most customers would buy in one setting), but what I'm saying is that Ariix doesn't have an automatic signing bonus... Whereas correct me if I'm wrong, but USANA actually does give a bonus on certain packages, even automatically giving Pro Pack buyers a rank advance, basically giving both sponsor and the new rep false bragging rights.

    Also, I will say this: I still respect USANA for the good aspects, but again, I joined because of Duke Tubtim's steadier reputation, not necessarily because of the company; I'm being completely honest when I say that I wasn't aware of this blog and all the bad things USANA Corporate are allegedly doing until now, when most of us were already terminated.

    Speaking of reputation, the only reason I joined MonaVie was, long story short, following the wrong crowd; if I knew then what I knew now, I would've just stayed in USANA until the end. However, one guy decided to leave for another company and persuaded us to join, then ironically went back to USANA after things weren't working out.

    If it wasn't for arbitrarily trusting my best friend's judgment, I would've never joined MonaVie; even people from other companies were warning me the week I decided to sign. It's good money if you're aggressive, but again, if I knew then what I knew now, nothing about the company made sense, and the organization was comprised of complete shysters that lived up to their reputation in the end when I got the rug pulled from under me.

    However, I will gladly say that even after over 5 months in the company, I still consider Ariix something that is stable for the long run, I've never had so much true success than when I was in any other company, and so far even after nit-picking, I still can't find any red flags or faults... Whereas with any other company I worked, either something was amiss on corporate's end (e.g. comp plan, products, etc.), or I was working with the scum of the earth... Therefore, I can't even find a reason to bad-mouth Ariix.

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  16. Ed, I do wish you the best with Ariix although I think saying Ariix is stable for the long run based on just 5 months with the company is jumping the gun a bit. One red flag for me is that Ariix is an MLM company which means it's a recruiting business but the company is still young so let's see how this all plays out.

    As long as you run your business honestly and ethically, I don't think many people are going to say anything about you specifically but as you've already experienced with other MLM companies, some people in the industry, because of greed, are just outright deceitful.

    Let's hope Ariix distributors will have a different way of running things and be the company that helps to turn the whole network marketing industry's reputation around.

    ReplyDelete

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