Source: Thai Visa

“We all know what MLM means, it means for a start that the product is always more expensive than selling through other means. There are always the uplines making money, and going on romantic trips to the West Indies or Mexico, or somewhere that sounds great. Do you think the owner of the company pays for this? or the salesperson? No. No. No. Its the customer, YOU, that pays. As regards to Goji Juice, there are a couple of different brands knocking around, but the main one is MLM, they want you to sell their product, to all your friends, relatives, workmates, it gets to the stage where everybody you know pretend that they are not at home when you walk down the street.”

The post on ThaiVista embodies a common view of what MLM and network marketing is often about. Granted that the pyramid structures, recruitment systems, and the business model itself has been debated ad infinitum and there have been, are, and in the future no doubt will be, companies that use the MLM business model in ways that is ordinarily viewed as “a scam”. It is worth noting that Freelife International is not what is often considered a typical pyramid scheme because there are provisions and procedures that “well-run, long-standing MLM companies like FreeLife” put in place to protect its distributors and customers:

• Sell a product of real value. Many companies using the MLM business model are often referred to as “recruiting MLM’s” and are illegal in several countries because there is no actual product involved. This is the kind of situation where the term pyramid scam usually applies.
• Freelife offers a 90-day, 100% money back guarantee. “If you do not like FreeLife’s product, return it within 90 days of purchase and you will get a 100% refund, even if the bottle is empty!”
• One year, 90% buy back. If you join FreeLife and you decide it is not for you even after 90 days, just let Freelife know that you wish to cancel. Freelife will “refund your money less a 10% handling fee for all resalable product and sales aids you purchased within one year of your decision to cancel”. The stock market is certainly not offering this on any investment losses.
• Freelife does not have a requirement to purchase product when you join. There is absolutely no product purchase tied to becoming a distributor.
• No inventory loading. Freelife has the ability to “drop ship” product to customers, there is no need for a distributor to have a garage full of product. FreeLife’s Policies prohibit both inventory loading and encouraging others to inventory load.
• Freelife has no payment for recruiting. Unless a product is sold, no commission is earned.
• Freelife’s Marketing Executives (distributors) are prohibited from making exaggerated income claims. Furthermore, FreeLife publishes its annual income statistics for all to see, which provides income information from the lowest level position all the way up to Presidential Royal Ambassador. Here is one from 2006.
• Freelife’s Ray Faltinsky served on the Board of Directors for the Direct Selling Association for two years and President, Kevin Fournier, was just recently elected onto the board in June of 08.