I’ve multiple times pointed out the lies of Amway critic “joecool”, who has been exposed creating false blogs and false identities simply to rubbish Amway. A reliable source contacted me a while back and told me that Anna Banana, aka Cheryl Rhodes, was doing much the same on her “Married to an Ambot” blog, and that many of the stories were plain made up, and many of the commentators were in fact Cheryl pretending to be a legitimate commentator.
Now she’s made it easy to show her dishonest activity. Earlier in the month she posted a blog “Worst Amway Distributor” and claimed –
Not too long ago I get an Amway employee working in the Alticor office in Grand Rapids Michigan end up at my blog after doing a Google search for “worst Amway distributor”.
I thought that was pretty bizarre, so I did that google search. There were ZERO results that referred to her blog except for that current post. (Virtually all the rest are her anti-amway zealot friends linking to that post.)
I tried searching with quotes, I tried searching without quotes. I tried it with all sorts of different search settings. I even tried Bing.
Until she wrote that blog post, google simply did not return her website as a result for that search. Clearly this search by this supposed “Amway employee” simply never could have happened as she states.
What’s the only conclusion? She made it up.
What else is she making up? My sources tell me an awful lot.
You guys attack a woman. I could tell you Amway is shit and it was obvious from day one, which is why I lost a friendship because the IBO wouldn’t stop harassing me to join. Its a glorified cult that encourages people to quit their jobs and empty their pockets to support some scumbags dream. You’re not an IBO. Donald Trump is an IBO, you work for AMWAY and whatever douchebag signed you up. If you want to challenge me or think I’m the girl you’re speaking about hiding behind a name or whatever other conspiracy theory you could think of then write back with your email and I’ll personally speak to you. If Amway makes you happy that is great but I’ve seen peoples lives become isolated because of this thing.
John Durden/Frank Dimasi/Josh –
(1) you are posting under different names. Continue to do so and I will delete your comments. No, I don’t think you’re Cheryl.
(2) Amway does not encourage people to quit their jobs, you are outright lying, or someone has lied to you.
(3) I have been running various of my own businesses for nearly 20 years. A properly operating Amway business is an independent business. Again, don’t believe me, go ask the IRS
(4) There’s a contact link at the top of the page to email me.
I’ve been reading a bit on Amway and it makes for spirited discussion for sure. I read JoeCool’s site also and he does make some valid points about Amway. On this site I see numerous attacks on various critics that seem overy personal. Whether deserved or not, I don’t see that as a way to show that Amway is the high road. So what next, a critic writes some ugly piece bout an Amway supporter and you have a this for that exchange? If everyone stays away from personal attacks, then information seekers can make objective decisions. The “truth about Amway” is probably in the middle of the road somewhere, not on the blog of an Amway extremist, whether it be a critic or a supporter.
I “outed” JoeCool after he falsely accused an IBO of threatening his family, and implied it was me. I “outed” AnnaBanana after she posted death threats against me. Both, and other critics, have posted my full name, address, photo, and other personal details.
With both Joecool and AnnaBanana I think it’s important to know that they actively lie and make stuff up. They’re simply not telling people the truth.
That’s sort of my point. You call them liars, they call you a liar and on it goes. If one of them sent you a death threat, report it to the police. Instead you just “outed” her and then she says you are wrong and you call her a liar and on it goes. As I said I read some “against” Amway articles and I can’t say I disagree with all of them. There are good reasons to join Amway and good reasons not to join. Back and forth insults do’t help either cause. Just my 3 cents.
Brad,
The difference is I actually provide evidence for my claims. You can read the death threat on her blog. You can read yourself where she contradicts herself. You can do the google search yourself and check if what I said is true. You can read yourself where Joecool is posting fake comments on blogs. I don’t say they are liars, I show it! Heck, if I wanted to just make claims I could point out the ironic fact that the author of marriedtoanambot isn’t even married! It’s true, but not something you can easily confirm yourself, so not something I highlight. Brad, rather than this back and forth though, how about you point out some of the concerns you’ve read and we can discuss them?
Hi, I get your point but as I said, Joecool has posted threads indicating you lied also. While you say you have “more” evidence, the average person doesn’t know better. I just think the high road is less traveled and paved nicer.
Regarrds Amway, some of their products are good. Generally I see their prices as being pretty high although I did not factor n shipping, concentraton of product, etc. That said it can still serve a niche market. However, I do not really view Amway as a business opportunity that I would consider because I don’t think it’s reasonably possible to move enough product to make serious coi. It would take sponsoring and downline but it seems that most people can’t/won’t do much to profit so there’s and endless need to recruit downlline while maintaining your own sales. Evevn if you build an empire, chances are it won’t last. While some people might accomplish this, I don’t see it as achievable. Then there’s the unwritten and controversial pressure to attend conventions and to use other training materials that seem overall to be mostly ineffective.
I would rather do something les complicated and with more personal control of my destiny.
I find the debate fascinating though. How an MLM company can creatte such a dichotomy in the intternet world.
Brad, as I said, I don’t tell you joecool lied. I show you joecool lied. You don’t need to believe me, you need to just go and read for yourself. Have you read this post, which outlines him posting fake comments on blogs? All of the links on that blog were live for months after I posted. Anyone could check them to see if I was telling the truth.
What, by the way, has Joecool said I lied about? I rarely visit his blog.
Regards Amway, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan put it “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts”. You don’t think it’s possible to move enough product to make serious “coi” (I assume you mean roi?) – yet hundreds of thousands of people have done what you don’t think is possible. You think there’s an endless need to recruit, yet when Amway halted all sponsoring in the UK for nearly 2 years, they still did millions in sales. You say “some people might achieve it” but you” don’t see it as achievable”, which is a contradiction. You say there’s “unwritten and controversial pressure to attend conventions” etc, yet the vast majority of IBOs don’t attend these conventions, so clearly it’s not very intense pressure! You claim the tools are ineffective, yet evidence shows otherwise, with virtually all Amway success coming from people that use education, training, and motivation materials, and little to none out of people who don’t.
And then you say it’s too complicated and you want more control? Honestly, I can’t think of any way of making decent money that is simpler, or where you have significantly more control. If you know of any, please share!
Joecool has articles with evidence that you told some lies That really is not the point. The point is that the attacks between you and him are unnecessary. I said fake comments are wrong. Again tha’s not the point. We’re grown ups and need to overcome the personal issues.
Given the prices and shipping costs, aside from some specialty product, I just don’t see it being realistis to do Amway as a business to make some serious coin. I’m sure you can possibly generate some money thru sales and referrals.
Some exceptonal people might excel in Amway but building a large organization is not achievable for most people, even those who are willing to work because I believe you need a perfet storm to build and hold together a business where attirtion is high. I alsothink the tools part of the business has potential for much abuse. I’m not saying it’s common but I read about some groups where it was pretty common. That’s the shady partt. I know Amway was working on fixing it but I believe some leaders still have room to abuse their downline.
And Brad, please point me towards these “articles with evidence that (I) told some lies”. I haven’t lied, and don’t lie. I’d like to see the “evidence”.
Interesting. I look forward to reading more about it on your site. Thanks!
Thank you for the invite but I will pass. You have seen them, even commented on those threads. No need to stir the pot. What I am curious about is how this flame war started.
What also interests me is what noobs are taught because I’ve seen some zany stuff about people being told that someone just joined and made $10,000 a month, or that the name of Amway is withheld until you are sitting in an actual meeting. Crazy! I know it’s not everyone but seels like these stories are not that uncommon.
Also, I wonder why you named yourself “fightback”? Were you being attacked?
Amway was getting attacked on the internet (unfairly in my view) for many years. Amway effectively banned IBOs from posting on the internet (in order to prevent spamming) and believed that if they just ignored the internet critics they’d go away. I’m an internet entrepreneur and have been since it’s early days, I decided to “fight back” against the falsehoods, overgeneralizations, and misrepresentations.
Cheryl Rhodes aka Anna Banana is a lazy writer.
I am not a regular reader of her blog, but when I wrote a blog post about her last year, I spent time reading/researching dozens of her posts.
She uses the “people were searching XYZ and came to my site” device often.
It’s a contrived, uncreative, and lazy way to craft a piece.
And as you’ve pointed out, ibofightback, it’s also fabricated–like most of her blog.
— Bridgett
Here we go again! Garbage in – garbage out! Why bother with ignorant critics? There is way more good stuff on line.
Unfortunately people like Joecool are actively out on the internet linking to the kind of rubbish on his and Rhodes website. On scam.com alone he has over 5300 posts. While things have improved dramatically with google over the years his website still comes up as a top 30 search under “amway”. Neither this site or AmwayWiki are even in the top 100. Nevertheless I regularly receive emails from new IBOs and prospects thanking for me this site as they’d nearly been dragged down the negativity plughole after visiting the sites of JokeFool and his ilk.
As you know, Amway patrols blogs regularly and asks that untrue content be removed. To date, Amway has never asked me to remove any content from my blog.
I too, received heartfelt thanks from people who read about experiences on my blog and were able to benefit from it or make informed decisions about whether or not to get involved in Amway and/or MLM.
Frankly, you do a disservice by promoting an opportunity where most will “do nothing” and out of those who remain, the vast majority will make nothing or lose money.
Actually, no, I don’t know that “Amway patrols blogs regularly and asks that untrue content be removed” and apart from a couple of cases a couple of decades ago, I’ve never heard of it either.
More Joecool lies?
I was getting hits almost daily from Alticor and whoever was reading my blog spent about 15 minutes per day on my blog. They also had in the past, asked Scott Larsen to remove some content from his website.
How do we know you’re not the liar dude? Maybe you’re in “the business” and want to make sales. Amway does have a lawsuit trying to block people on blogs etc. Look it up you’ll find it. Its the most obvious scam and somehow it leaks through the cracks. How much do you make per week? How many hours do you put in? How much do you pay your sponsor for books and parties etc? How can you function in life brother and not realize you have to rip people off to be successful with this? Man to Man be honest.
John Durden/Frank Dimasi/Josh –
(1) Nearly everything I say can be confirmed elsewhere, I usually provided sources and links when I can
(2) Amway does not have a lawsuit trying to block people on blogs, again you are either lying, or have been lied to. Back in the late 1990s Amway sued blogged Sidney Schwartz as part of a series of lawsuits involving competitor Proctor & Gamble. Schwartz was being partly funded and supported by P&G. About 6 years ago Amway kicked out a large number of Amway leaders because they believed they were operating in an unethical and potentially illegal way. You should be happy about that! That group was in the process of setting up a competitor and launched numerous anonymous blogs attacking Amway. Not surprisingly, Amway sued them. Amway won that case. The court agreed with Amway that the bloggers were attacking Amway for commercial reasons (often with false claims). It happens I’ve just discovered some of those same bloggers have been making false claims about me, saying that I’m involved in blogs that criticise their new ventures (MonaVie & TEAM). I’m not and am investigating my legal options. Do you think people should be allowed to spread lies about people and companies?
(3) I am in “the business” but have not been actively building for many many years. I’m upfront about that. When I do build the business it’s about finding people who want to use the products, and people who want to make money marketing them to other people. The products are some of the best rated and awarded in the world.
JC: You are ridiculous. 😀 Do you honestly believe that whole Amway has nothing to do but deal with each and every sick minded person on the Internet? Oh, wait… You do!!! Do you believe in Santa Claus too? 😀 😀 😀
You guys are more funny. You believe that you’ll get lifelong residual income from Amway. Do you also believe in the great pumpkin? 🙂
Do you believe you’re actually an IBO? And not just another schmuck who lined the pockets of a scam artist and tries to sell shit products in exchange for long hours and little money?
John Durden/Frank Dimasi/Josh –
How many Amway products have you tried?
Joe, I don’t believe Amway will waste an employee’s time monitoring the internet. If somebody happens to bring their attention to something there, they will check it out. I know this from first hand experience.
In this country our right to free speech is guaranteed. Amway and I will honor that. That doesn’t mean we have to agree with all we read.
You are right when you say not all businesses make money. That is a true statement across the board.
Very few (small) business last more than five years. Joe’s Dinner (no pun intended) that opened for business last week might not be there next year. The reasons can be many and varied.
The Amway business is no different. Key to building a successful business is trust in the relationship between IBOs.
Bob Andrews summed it up at the recently concluded Diamond Club when he said, “When trust is low, unity can’t flow, and business can’t grow.”
People will stay in an organization when they believe the people they are associated with genuinely care about them.
If you think that Amway is all about money, you are wrong. Amway was intended to be about people helping people. The people that love money more than people don’t last long in our business.
Love people and use money.
You may or may not be doing people a service by trying to scare them off. Most people won’t do well in Amway or any other business. They will succeed if:
1) they have a mentor that has their best interest at heart.
2) they will follow their mentors advice.
3) they aren’t quitters.
4) they remain humble and don’t come across as a know it all.
5) they develop the necessary people skills.
6) they learn about and use their products.
Building a business is not easy, is it?
Rich DeVos says it best, “You can do it!.
Does a gym do a disservice to the community by providing a vehicle to get people in shape despite the fact that 90% of people quit the gym and are still fat and most people throw their money away and don’t workout?
Is this lady sick or what???
Yes, unnamed anonymous sources are great for reliable information. Are you for real?
The source is not unnamed and anonymous to me. Neither is google search, where you can confirm the “worst amway distributors” lie yourself.
You don’t really expect Joecool to confirm it, do you? 😀