Table Of Contents
MLM Schemes
As you may have read earlier today, I was contacted by "Ohio Premier" for =
a
potential business opportunity in the health and wellness industry. They
would not tell me much about it over the phone, preferring that I instead
come in to their office and talk to them. Ohio Premier is located at 195
Byers Road in Miamisburg, Ohio. It is a suburb of Dayton. (If you=92ve e=
ver
thought about doing a work-at-home plan about selling =93health and wellne=
ss=94
things, you should read on anyway.)
I could find nothing about Ohio Premier on the Internet, which was a warni=
ng
sign in and of itself. (That is part of the reason for this write-up.) A=
co-
worker's husband (who also attends the university I do - that's why I'm al=
so
posting this at Facebook) had been contacted by Ohio Premier, but he had n=
ot
followed up.
So I went.
Ohio Premier is a front for Symmetry ( http://www.symmetryinternational.co=
m/
) a direct marketing company that has a multi-level marketing component.
(You sell to a few people, then you get a cut of the people they refer, an=
d
so on.) They sell herbal supplements, including "Genesis", laughably
labeled "the infused Bible juice". As the CAI points out (link at the
bottom), 99.96% of the people who get involved with Symmetry LOSE MONEY.
Only 0.04% makes money.
When you first walk into 195 Byers Road, there is no sign for Ohio Premier=
,
just "Suite 101". You see a receptionist's desk, a few other office desks=
in
the back, and several well-dressed professional types in the "U" shaped op=
en
office space. There are no - repeat, NO - hints of Symmetry or what you w=
ill
be doing when you first walk in. It is not until the entire group is ushe=
red
around and sat down (about 16-20 people) that you see the supplements. Th=
e
professionally dressed people made sure that they sat down with the newbie=
s.
What followed was a very slick hour-long sales pitch. The planted workers=
responded to everything the presenter said, so you got the opinion that
others agreed with him. The video presentation was hypnotically fast - bu=
t
full of things about past trends that other people got rich from. "Wouldn=
't
you get in on those trends if you knew about them?=94 "Facts" were tossed=
out
so fast that it was hard to catch what was said - and often times, the fac=
ts
were not relevant. For example: "One report from an Ivy League Universit=
y
was printed in 509 newspapers!" Except, of course, that it was only one
report. Apparently, they had never heard of AP or Reuters. Many of their=
facts were correlations at best, non-sequiturs at worst. Yeah, buying sto=
ck
options in Microsoft in 1985 would have been a good deal - but that is not=
the same thing as the (saturated) supplement market today. But the plant=
s
in the crowd were quick to support every thing the presenter said.
There were MANY rhetorical questions, especially at the beginning, that we=
re
designed to get you to agree with the presenter. "Do you like making mone=
y?"
"Wouldn't you like to work less and make more?" And so on. Getting into=
a
pattern of agreement like that is a well-known brainwashing (my term, not
theirs) technique. One woman left, and was made fun of throughout the res=
t
of the presentation. Another asked very pointed questions - and she was m=
ade
fun of to her face. Especially when she tried to ask questions about
marketing and the cost of the supplements. Not surprisingly, her question=
s
were dead-on. (The basic pack is $160 dollars, up front.)
The sneakiest (and most bastardly) technique was this: "This opportunity
isn't for everyone. I am not trying to convince you. Some people just ca=
n't
get it. Not everyone is able to see the chances in front of them, or is w=
ise
enough to ..." You get the idea. High SOCIAL pressure techniques in a gr=
oup
setting... even as they said, "I'm not out to convince you."
Of course, there "just happened" to be ANOTHER hour of training right
afterwards for those who were motivated - and a special trip to Chicago th=
at
leaves... TOMORROW. (That costs $300. Only two seats left!) Enticemen=
t
both by scarcity, a "money back guarantee" (not in writing), and more soci=
al
pressure ("if you're serious about making money and not having to work so
hard...") So you would be quickly uprooted and put into a hotel FULL of ot=
her
people like this? Starting to sound like a cult, anyone?
Look, these techniques - and using so many of them so brutally - could not=
have been happenstance. Ohio Premier is a multi-level marketing scheme fr=
ont
for Symmetry Direct. Their "interviews" are hour-long brainwashing sessio=
ns.
It was *hard* to resist them for the whole time. Knowing the techniques t=
hey
were using (and identifying them as they used them) helped a lot; not
actually needing the money or job helped more. Even still.... That feeli=
ng
you get when watching infomercials, where you start to wonder if maybe it
actually IS worth buying? It was like that - only much, much more intense=
.
I do NOT repeat do NOT recommend anyone else even bother going to an
"interview" with them. The sales pitches are slicker than you think they =
are
- and they want you to commit right away, before you have a chance to go a=
nd
check them out.
Ohio Premier (and yes, I'm repeating the name and address on purpose so th=
at
others who Google it can find this report) at 195 Byers Road in Miamisburg=
Ohio is a front for Symmetry Direct.
They do not call themselves a Multi Level Marketing scheme or MLM scheme,
preferring the term direct sellers. But, as the CAI points out: "Avoid=
falling for the semantic trap of chain-selling promoters who say they are =
not
MLM, or multi-level marketing. If the program pays on more than one level =
of
participants, it is multi-level or MLM. If you get paid only for selling
directly to customers and get no override commissions (other than a small
referral fee) for recruiting more than one level of participants, it is
single level compensation and could be considered true direct selling."
Cockeyed.Com's 27 unsuccessful Herbalife (a similar company) stories:
http://www.cockeyed.com/workfromhome/epilogue/unsuccessful/unsuccessful200=
5.ht
ml
His basic primer on pyramid schemes is here:
http://www.cockeyed.com/ebay/scam/laptop_pyramids.html
MLM Watch is here:
"Accurate information about multilevel marketing is not easy to get. Few
publishers, editors, and broadcasters are willing to examine this topic in=
depth. Most reports reaching the public express what the companies and
individual distributors would like people to believe. Nearly all MLM
companies selling health-related products exaggerate their value, and the
vast majority of people who become distributors do not make significant
income."
http://www.mlmwatch.org/
Consumer Awareness Institutes 5-step DIY evaluation of MLMs is here:
http://www.mlm-thetruth.com/Symmetry.htm
CAI's profitability report is here:
http://www.mlm-thetruth.com/COMPARE12MLMs-vsSellingvsNPSvsVegas-2p-6-06.pd=
f
And apparently, Ohio is not the only place where Symmetry has a front
organization:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/173/RipOff0173038.htm
Ohio Premier does have a BBB listing that lists Symmetry as their website.
http://dayton.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=3D51&bbb=3D0322&firm=3D699
And here's a site I reviewed back in June 2006 for my homeschool resource
list:
http://www.skinnyshoestring.com/reviews/
"You want to make money in an at-home job. That makes you a sitting duck f=
or
scam perpetrators who just want your money. Plenty of people online are
willing to take your payment, while promising you big returns that they
cannot deliver. And you just can not know what works and what does not unl=
ess
you try, right? Wrong."
--