Is this a pyramid?

A question about : Is this a pyramid?

Anyone heard of Forever Living Products that are part of The QLS Group at all? I think it may be a pyramid scheme and I have been invited to take part - they didn't tell me it was pyramid but I have done a bit of digging. If it is then there is no chance I want in.

Has anyone else come across this at all?

Best answers:

• Its not Pyramid Selling this is of course illegal. FLP are a Multli Level Marketing company like Kleeneze or T Plus,and they have lots of distributors working for them recommending there friends and family to start with.They are members of the Direct Selling Association.
• There is information about Pyramid Selling on the DTI SITE
  FLP have their own website ForEver living Products and there are plenty of distributor sites also.
  Forever Living Products
  Business Opportunities
  While I am sure there are many people who use these products who believe they are beneficial there is a lack of independently produced peer reviewed scientific research which actually substantiates those benefits.
  I personally would be unhappy to persuade my friends and relatives to part with money to pay for overpriced and overhyped products which have no scientific validity substantiating the implied benefits. If equivalent cheaper products are readily available from other health type outlets and other distributors are supplying direct to customers at discounted prices online the prospect of maintaining high margin sales over the long term is somewhat dubious.
• Thanks Ted. This is what I though about the whole thing - dubious. I have my own business that I am trying very hard to establish and it is so easy to be convinced to do things on the side to get some income while I start my business off - but I don't think this one is for me. I will stick with what I know and keep on doing my easy to use web design.
• I am not a representative of this company but to suggest it is dubious is a tad unfair .It is a full member of the Direct Selling Association which is approved by the OFT.It holds Investor in People awards.Its been around a long time,and makes no secret of what its about.Its not into Pyramid selling. Not all MLM companies are dubious!!!
• Further, I was invited by a friend to an FLP "party" last night. She did not tell me that she was selling the products in this way - or that we would have to sit through a 30 minute DVD about how this was not a pyramid scheme. My friend's sponsor told us how she earns Ј400,00 pa for p/t work and then told us after the presentation that the company's UK turnover was Ј35million last year - so she reckons she is bringing in a huge share and for the amount of people she must have in her "team" to earn that sort of money, there must be many who are losing money. The products were overpriced and established, reputable retailers such as Holland and Barrett were denigrated. I left as soon as I could. I would refer you to https://www.mlm-thetruth.com/Forever%20Living.htm and also advise you that throughout the evening the focus was on recruitment and NOT selling - there wasn't even a price list available for the products!! Nuff said!
• Most MLM's work on selling vastly over-priced worthless tat - either plastic widgets or vitamins or ebooks/self-improvement stuff'; they all have the common denominator of being cheap to make but can be claimed to be worth a lot more.
  Eg: Tub of 50 multivits - mfg costs approx 5p, sold by the pyramids boys for Ј35 (insert own figure). How can anyone feel comfortable with these rip-off ways of selling; it's not so much the profit margins that are dodgy, but the fact that they claim that the products will 'enrich peoples lives/make them happy/make them rich' etc.
  Of course the best (as in scummiest) ones work by making sure they 'provide one to one support' for anyone stupid enough to buy their unproven cr4p ie they lock into and exploit the vulnerable in a systematic and long term way. Eg they call the 'dieters' up and if it's good news from dieter it's "coz you're taking the tablets", if it's bad news it's "coz you're not taking enough tablets". Heads I win, tails you lose.
  Of course there are some good MLMs out there, it's just that the names escape me at the moment. No good, can't think of a one. Anyone care to venture the name of a good'un?????????
• Thanks all. I am steering well clear!
• Kleeneze / forever living products / telecom plus
  are all good ethical companies promoting an opportunity to create a substantial residual income
  those who choose to work all thier lives on a 45-50 year plan to get to retirement with nothing much at the end of it result in why 95 % of UK working aged people struggle for money in th UK today (39.5 million people)
  2 of the above named companies are Publicly listed companies
  Pyramid selling/opportiunities/ games or whatever you choose to call them are illegal and are shut down by the DTI every year
  Anyone who believes/ thinks the above named companies fall into that bracket will inevitably fall part of the above 95%
  One bit of advice I was given 10 years ago
  Never take financial advice from employed people. If they know how to be successful , they would not be employed
• And where is the Provenance for that website link?
  It looks like a cheap, tatty website knocked up in five minutes. And further, its only complaints about FLP are that it hits five flags:
  1.Recruitment of participants is unlimited in an endless chain of empowered and motivated recruiters recruiting recruiters.
  So they recruit people. How unusual that a company should attempt to grow its business.
  2. Advancement in a hierarchy of multiple levels of participants is achieved by recruitment, rather than by appointment.
  This is point 1 again worded differently. Bonuses are paid down through all levels of the business both for personal sales and those of your "team". There are NO payments for recruitment.
  3. Significant requirements that participants "pay to play" the game via product purchases. Thus, new recruits are the primary customers.
  Participants are encouraged to try the products yes. How else can you make personal recommendations?
  4. MLM company pays commissions and/or bonuses to at least 5 levels of participants, creating great "leverage" at the top.
  I don't even know what this means. Bonuses are paid on the basis of sales. Just like in any marketing environment.
  5. Most of the payout goes to the upline, rather than to the person selling products, creating excessive incentive to recruit and inadequate incentive to sell products (except to new recruits) – and an extreme concentration of income at the top of a hierarchy (pyramid) of participants.
  There are plenty of sales bonuses and none for recruitment. IF you recruit someone and they sell stuff, they get a bonus and so do you. There is NO bonus for recruitment directly. As for people at the top getting more money, show me a company where that isn't the case.
• Please could we keep on topic, the OP was asking if a specific company was a pyramid seller, not for an argument on the whys and wherefors of pyramid selling.
  Thanks
• The rewards to participants of the FLP plan are set out here
  The arguement here isn't is just whether or not FLP a pyramid scheme but whether or not the rewards to those selling the product and those in the various levels of managing those sellers are disproportionate relative to the intrinsic value of the product (bearing in mind there is virtually no published scientific medical evidence supporting the health giving properties of aloe vera)
  It appears that d.o.o.g isn't able to understand the meaning of the five warnings given at my link. I'm sorry that experience will probably his education.
• Aloe vera
  Vitamins
  Self-improvement ebooks
  Plastic tat
  Slimming tablets
  Cleaning products
  What do they all have in common??
  Pennies to make, sold for between 400% to 10,000% mark-up by MLM companies.
  It's the big margins on these 'un-provable benefits' products (mostly) that let everyone share along the food chain.
• Forever Living Products. Not a pyramid scheme. End of that discussion.
  Worth looking at as a second income? Yes.
  Is it hard work? Yes - all MLM businesses take work and effort.
  Am I involved in Forever Living? No.
  Are the products value for money? Some of them are yes. Check out the concentration of the products versus 'comparable' products sold on the High Street.
  Does MLM work? Yes.
  For everyone? No.
  BUT PLEASE PEOPLE, GET YOUR INFORMATION FROM CREDIBLE SOURCES (DTI), NOT FROM SOME DISILLUSIONED IDIOTS WHO SET UP WEBSITES TO AIR THEIR PERSONAL GRIEVANCES AND WHINE ABOUT MLM/ NETWORKING. SO IT DIDN'T WORK FOR THEM BIG DEAL! WE'VE ALL LEFT JOBS THAT WEREN'T RIGHT FOR US HAVEN'T WE? AT THE END OF THE DAY MLM IS A BUSINESS THAT WON'T SUIT EVERYONE BUT AT LEAST CHECK THESE THINGS OUT FOR YOURSELVES.
  GET THE FACTS.
  Now can I please have a stepladder so I can get down from this high horse?