Is Amway a Scam? Legit Company, But Success is Not Guaranteed

That works out at just $6.90 a day!!

This also doesn’t factor in the products that you will need to purchase on a monthly basis to qualify for your commissions. There are also some hidden costs, which we will talk to you about in a moment.

But that just doesn’t work out to a decent income, even when you compare that to the minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 an hour in the US.

When you look at their average platinum member, they earn $55,000 per year, but then that is only 0.26% of Amway distributors who get to that level.

You also need to factor in that this average will only comprise of the active users that have made sales that year.  So, if you consider the non-active users into that, the gross monthly income would be a lot lower.

This is one of the biggest problems with MLM, we have reviewed a lot of them, and they all have the same problem.  The top distributors are the ones that make 95% of the income, whilst everyone else struggles to even cover their costs.

#2 Hidden Costs

It looks really enticing to start up a business with Amway, as it will only cost $69 or even $168 if you factor in the Starter kit.  But that isn’t where the costs stop.

This is because the company doesn’t tell you about any other costs.

For example, going online would require a functional website which all has costs associated with it.

There are also expenses such as the Amway Inauguration Bundle, which is a kit containing marketing materials and costs $338!

There are fees associated with attending their official meetings and conferences.

These are all costs that you will need to factor in when you are starting your own business.

It wouldn’t be so bad if you knew about these costs upfront, but they do not disclose them to you until you have already paid the registration fee.

#3 Several Legal Battles…

It gets harder for their IBO (distributors) if the company has several legal battles in their history.  Here are some of the legal cases brought against Amway:

In 1979, Amway won a landmark case that involved the legality of MLM’s after 4 years of litigation.

In 1982, Amway settle a case with the Canadian government.  They paid $25 million in fines for alleged tax fraud.  This was related to Amway created a system of false product lists and prices.

In 2010, one of Amway’s Subsidiary, Quixtar, settled a class action lawsuit for $150 million.  This is the largest settlement of its kind for an MLM-related court case.

#4 Amway’s Reputation

In our research, we found there is an opinion when Amway is mentioned that isn’t something the company would want.  Mention Amway and the low income claims and it immediately brings up results about whether Amway is a pyramid scheme or not.

Whilst we are confident Amway isn’t a Pyramid scheme as they have products and you do not have to rely on recruiting to make money, there is still a pre-judgement that only the people at the top of the pile are earning the big money whilst everyone else is struggling to make ends meet.

To combat this, many of the IBO’s have resorted to memorising creating rebuttals so they can avoid using the company name.

It also explains why the Amway-affiliated World Wide Dream Builders organisation has been so successful, as people are not talking about Amway…

#5 Lots of Face-to-Face Selling & Recruiting

Amway relies on the most traditional way of building an MLM business, they pretty much invented the model and they still use it.  This means there is a lot of focus on face-to-face sales and recruiting a team who can conduct face-to-face sales.

That is fine if you have experience in sales and recruitment, but that isn’t the case for many who try to join an MLM with the purpose of making money.

They tell you it is easy to come up with a list of 100 potential customers but think about it.  The only people you will know is likely to be your family, friends, co-workers, etc.  They even tell you that your preferred contacts will be your family and friends.

Put that alongside the fact that Amway is already well-known that brings another layer of difficulty to your aspirations.  Let me explain.

Marketing MLM to your family and friends is difficult.  They may buy your products, to help you out but they will not be the best candidate for recruiting into your team as you need proven salespeople to be your downline, as you will only benefit if they make sales.

Many friendships have been broken as you pitch a business opportunity as a great deal, without really being able to show any proven success with your own business and then they walk away losing their money and start blaming you.

This is a business model, and you need to treat it like a business.  That means you have to ask yourself the question honestly – Are you any good at face-to-face sales or recruiting?

Don’t worry if you are not, there are better alternatives out there for you.  But to succeed with MLM, you need to either be good at sales/recruiting or be willing to invest in learning how to become better at sales/recruiting.  But I find that these are skills that come natural to some people over others.  I personally couldn’t pitch products in a face-to-face environment.  But that is why I chose Affiliate Marketing, as it is a passive route that doesn’t require selling.  In fact, I help people and my website earns money whilst I sleep.  Read more HERE.

But the reason I put this as a concern, is that this kind of detail is not really laid out in any real way for people to consider.  I also think it is the reason why so many people fail at MLM, and that is because the company are expecting you to make sales straightaway.  In that way, it is more like a job than a business.  You are paying to be hired to sell their products, in a sense.  As Amway is so well known across the world, you might be pitching to people who already have an Amway distributor already.

The health and wellness sector is heavily saturated, and you may find it hard to shift your products to make any sales.

I am not saying this it is going to impossible for you to succeed, but you need to be going into any decision with your eyes open and do even more research before you decide whether this is for you or not.