Pyramid scheme?

[oitnb]

An old friend from my highschool days messaged me on facebook.

 

I thought he was just looking to talk, but he quickly brought up his "awesome" job, where he gets "paid to drink and promote energy drinks"! Amazing! (sarcasm)

 

I replied, "oh that's cool." And he enthusiastically offered to help me get a job doing it as well. Hmm.

 

I did some research on it because, honestly if it is legit it'd be a quick fix to my lack of ANY money. I've seen good reviews and bad, mostly bad, and it honestly seems like it's either AWESOME or a pyramid scheme. I can't tell which.

 

Is it even worth the risk? The drinks called verve. I'm slightly offended he's trying to drag me into it. But also intrigued. Lol I guess that's how scams work?

 

Older people with more experience in this type of stuff, HELP!

[indea08]

Pyramid schemes aren't all that terrible. You may actually make money if you take it seriously and work really hard. It is a risk though. You have to spend X amount of money on your own inventory, and then sell that at a higher price, and keep a percentage of the profit. You can then "drag" others in and then you get a percentage of their profit as well. The problem with a pyramid scheme is that you will only be able to add more people under you, you will never be able to advance higher than the person above you. Another problem is, as skeptical as you are about joining, everyone else will be the same way therefore it's very hard to build your own team to actually make money. It is possible to make money, but I wouldn't guess very much money, and it would take a lot of effort.

[bulletproof]

I have to be honest, whenever one of my friends hits me up for this stuff, I get incredibly annoyed.

 

So be prepared to annoy your friends (if they're anything like me) should you decide to join this business.

[732mni]

If this "job" involved you paying money upfront, then yeah its a pyramid/MLM. Normally a job should involve you receiving money for work.

 

You are justified in feeling offended. These programs ruin friendships because the most likely customers/victims are people in each others social networks.

 

I would recommend passing for your own well being.

[Cognitive_Canine]

Yep, I've heard of this energy drink one specifically.

 

If you think you can make money with you, you'll have to be prepared to talk to every single person you know about selling your product. You'll have to call up people you haven't talked to in years and try to pander this to them.

 

I couldn't do a pyramid scheme because I have too much shame bothering people like that. You can make money but you have to be prepared to invade space, annoy your friends, call up people you haven't talked to in years to alienate them with the scheme, and force pity buys from your friends and family who want to help you out.

[Lorem Ipsum]

Plus, a lot of these kind of schemes require you to purchase a bunch of the product in advance. So if you've got no money, you're going to have to get a loan in order to participate.

 

Pyramid schemes work for those who get in early. If you have no shame (so you can hound anyone, anywhere, anytime about how marvellous this stuff is) and are within the top of the pyramid, you can make loads of money. I've seen what one person managed to make who was near the top of an herbal supplements company. But, she got in practically on the ground floor 20 years ago.

 

Seriously, I was on vacation recently and some woman tried to get me to buy some of this stuff that she was selling. Even gave me the whole "it's a great way to earn extra money on the side!" pitch. And I was on vacation. So was she. I could never do that to people.

[RedDress]

I agree that MLM is annoying. I also get a little snarky and offended when people approach me with that stuff. And really - there is no such thing as a 'get rich quick' scheme. So - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

 

If you really want to make some money on the side and are willing to sell stuff to people - why don't you go with a reputable company that's been around forever? I'm thinking Avon, Tupperware, etc. Sure, there is more 'competition' in that there are more sales representatives.. but at least you know what you are getting... the people who you are selling to know what they are getting... and all you really have to do is let it be known that you are selling that stuff.

[HeatherB]

You don't make money selling the drinks. You make money if you can convince other people to sell the drinks. And you make more money if you can get those people to convince others to sell the drinks.

 

It's gross. Pretty soon people will start avoiding you because they know that sooner or later talk will always turn to Verve and your amazing health results.

 

What normally happens is that you buy a bunch of product yourself to meet certain thresholds, and then fail to sell it. Then you wind up consuming it yourself and giving it to everyone for xmas. Then you watch a company video or attend a team pep meeting and find yourself buying even more. Because what went wrong was just that you didn't commit enough and now that you know that, it'll be different...

[Dragunov-21]

I'm pretty sure it's not a pyramid scheme. There is legitimate commerce taking place and unless your returns are withheld until you have referred 2+ people then I don't see any reason to call it one.

 

It seems like a wholesale distribution network for really, really stupid people who don't realise the high price they'll have to sell the goods at to make a reasonable return on investment. Not much different to Avon, bar that I imagine you can reasonably make a wage from Avon sales.

 

link removed

 

 

 

You realise that pyramid schemes are an illegal scam (at least in the US and Australia), right?

 

*EDIT* I guess there's confusion between the terms "pyramid scheme" and "pyramid selling" (aka multi-level marketing). It's MLM alright (which is bad enough) but by the sounds of it you are forced to purchase stock regularly and must recruit to be eligible for continued commissions? That's flying pretty close to the wind...

 

link removed

[mfan]

Pyramid schemes aren't all that terrible. You may actually make money if you take it seriously and work really hard.

 

But what about the immeasurable cost to your social life when you become an annoying pest to all your friends, begging them to listen to your marketing speeches because you can't find enough strangers to sign up? You'll be lucky to have any friends left at all by the time you're done with this. They will all avoid you like the plague until they receive assurance that you've quit this system and are "clean" again.

[Truthhunter]

Joining these things is not a decision to make lightly. I joined one of these my first year out of college. Some are not pyramid schemes, they really do sell products and the revenues generated do come from these sales, but understand that most likely it will not be easy to sell and you will really focus on your family and social circle first before moving on to cold calls. If you think you have the perseverance to do this without earning money during the first one or two years, go for it, it does pay off in the end, but you have to understand the costs that you will have to pay (not just monetary).

[Batya33]

An old friend from my highschool days messaged me on facebook.

 

I thought he was just looking to talk, but he quickly brought up his "awesome" job, where he gets "paid to drink and promote energy drinks"! Amazing! (sarcasm)

 

I replied, "oh that's cool." And he enthusiastically offered to help me get a job doing it as well. Hmm.

 

I did some research on it because, honestly if it is legit it'd be a quick fix to my lack of ANY money. I've seen good reviews and bad, mostly bad, and it honestly seems like it's either AWESOME or a pyramid scheme. I can't tell which.

 

Is it even worth the risk? The drinks called verve. I'm slightly offended he's trying to drag me into it. But also intrigued. Lol I guess that's how scams work?

 

Older people with more experience in this type of stuff, HELP!

 

The fact that you hadn't heard from him otherwise in years and he then pitches you shows you how desperate it gets in his sales job. I'd stay away.