Recently I was approached to become an IBO in Quixtar. I had never heard of this system before and only had heard of Amway in passing.

Initially my recruiter brought a pamphlet and audio disk. Both were long on pie in the sky goals and rhetorical questions – “Wouldn’t you like: to be financially independent; to have more time for your family; to be your own boss with a six figure income?” Of course they were short on hard verifiable facts. In fact, there was nothing in this original material that mentioned the process, Quixtar or any other business entity that I could research.

He mentioned at our original meeting that the “system” was all about changing your point of purchase. So I was ready for an MLM or Pyramid contrivance. He came back a few days later and showed me the “plan”. He told me about Quixtar but never mentioned Amway.

Sure enough it was an MLM pyramid and I said as much. He mentioned some extra controls were put in place that ensured it was not an illegal pyramid. (I later found out that this was bogus). He originally said that you could buy anything with the system – but as the conversation progressed the greater value of the Amway product lines vs. the third party products became apparent.

He also stated the following:

1.) You get a 3% commission on products purchased from yourself or down-line
2.) Products you buy for yourself as an IBO are at 30% discount from retail (i.e. Costco, Sam’s, etc.)
3.) I got the impression that he as not a Direct, Pin holder or Emerald.
4.) He had recruited around 111 people in the past 7 years
5.) He said that he had a net 12K to 13K a year in profit in the system for 12 hours of work a week.
6.) You go Direct with 15K of sales a month or 7500 Points. At this level of sales you are ensured 50K of income a year.
7.) He never even mentioned retail sales or if they were required.
8.) Once 4 people in your down-line get on the BDS (Business Development System) you may start another leg.
9.) BDS membership is only $60 a month.

In regard to #6 - minutes after he left I multiplied (15K * 12 months), which is 180K and 3% of that, is 5400. How did he come up with 50K? Did his statements above have any grounding in reality? With the given information could he be making that much? Where some of his claims outright lies?

Now I won’t go into the dirty details - that is done much better in other places. But after only a few days of research I found out enough to raise the hairs on the back of my neck. The broad strokes:

1.) Everyone knows this, but Quixtar is Amway – plain and simple.

2.) Without retail sales in the loop this system is completely funded by IBOs down-line. This makes the system (in practicality) an illegal pyramid.

3.) Amway/Quixtar gets around this fact – by stating that retail sales are required, but not enforcing it.

4.) As with any Pyramid scheme the more legs (width) per member – the more money will flow up-line.

5.) BDS are nothing more than the Motivational Organizations – the tools business. These are designed to siphon money off the IBOs in the guise of training and selling tools.

6.) Combine 4 & 5 and it is clear why new legs start when you get your down-lines on the BDS. It’s a classic double dip – increased tools sales – increased money flowing up-line.

7.) According to Amway/Quixtar – IBOs on average gross around 2300 a year before expenses. Add in expenses and motivational materials/activities and most run at a net loss.

8.) Aside from my “recruiter” I have not heard of any IBO with his level of business activity (12 hours of work a week and 111 down-lines - not all of which are active), that makes as much as he says (12k a year).

9.) The Kingpin diamonds do not make the majority of their money from product Sales. They make it from the tools business - anywhere from 70 to 95 percent.

10.) Amway permits this abuse, as they have a symbiotic relationship with the Kingpins. They get their products sold for dirt-cheap by hapless IBOs and the Kingpins make a fortune motivating the IBOs to do so!

11.) Amway/Quixtar is aware of the information on the internet about them and in an attempt to dilute it, recently bombed Google with pro-Quixtar sites and blogs. They got caught doing this red-handed by Google and other bloggers. Why would a company resort to this measure if it did not have anything to hide?

12.) The Amway/Quixtar system is currently being investigated by the FTC and FBI. There are also numerous civil and criminal lawsuits against Amway and/or their kingpin distributors.



As I was researching – I fired off a quick email to my recruiter, which simply stated in a friendly way “Hey I found some interesting information on the web.” And I sent links to the Dateline piece, and some other Quixtar news sites. I genuinely wanted to discuss these things with him. I considered him to be basically a nice guy. Even with all that I had found out – I still gave him benefit of the doubt about Quixtar. I was thinking there has got to be another side to this thing for him to be so enthusiastic about it.

What happened next was a surprise. First there came a long email lambasting me about not thinking for myself. About how Dateline has an axe to grind and anyone who has a problem with or criticism of Quixtar/Amway is a failed businessman. The email went on to then glorify the system: ‘honest, moral, faith filled, honors our country, Christ, and teaches people to help each other’ Clearly he took what I had sent to him personally. I merely wanted to have a dialog with him about the business – but he seemed to defensively pre-empt any discourse by criticizing me and justifying himself.

I don’t like to get into email arguments with people, so I did not respond immediately and waited till I next saw him. He had dropped off some additional materials at our “plan” meeting and had to come and pick them up. I viewed this stuff and again it was long on dreams short on facts. Essentially more infomercials on how great Quixtar is.

It was interesting when he came to get the materials. Now mind you – my last communiqué to him was the short email about the interesting links. When he came to my front door, I could tell he did not want to discuss anything or have anything to do with me. He barely even made eye contact! He clearly had come to the conclusion that based on what I had found on the Internet - I would not be interested. Now of course he had no way of knowing if I had found out anything positive about Quixtar. It was almost like once corrupted by the Internet – I was a tainted goods, a lost cause as a potential IBO.

With his inappropriate email and change in demeanor – I realized that he was probably deep into the motivational aspect of the system. Staying away from the negative, having stock and belittling responses to objections on the system, and generally interacting with someone based on their usefulness to you in the system.

But now we get to my real problem. I would not have put the time or research into this issue if my “recruiter” where just some guy off the street. I met him at a church meeting, we both had a love of Rome and Italy and he is a fellow Knight of Columbus. The faith aspect of the Amway distribution system is very troubling. My recruiter clearly had leg up with me because of our common faith. I look around my parish - at the older retired people and the young Hispanic families with no money and think that they are easy marks for the Quixtar folk. What is even more troubling is I believe that the Amway/Quixtar motivational system is so effective, that the recruiters don’t even realize they are selling people a bogus bill of goods. They themselves are still holding on to the dream of making big money when most are losing it.