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November 2, 2004
"Execution of the BSMAA"
By QBlog in
In July, I received a message from an IBO in Ron Puryear's organization (WWDB) that called my attention to the small print at the bottom of a Puryear Family Reunion application (pdf). The text read:
This event is produced and offered independently of Quixtar Inc. and has not been reviewed or endorsed by Quixtar. Accordingly, it is not covered by the Quixtar Satisfaction Guarantee or Buy-Back Rule. No one can guarantee that the techniques and approaches suggested during this event will work for you, but we hope that the ideas presented will assist you in developing a strong and profitable Quixtar business. The execution of the Business Support Materials Arbitration Agreement for Non-Quixtar Tools & Sales Aids, available at www.quixtar.com website, is an express condition of attending this function.That sounds about right. The BSMAA (pdf) makes it clear that support events (such as rallies, meetings and educational seminars) are not covered by Quixtar's refund policies. However, the BSMAA does have its own refund policy:
...For seminars, rallies, and other meetings, the selling IBO shall buy back any tickets purchased for the buyer's personal use for a period of 30 days following the event on a satisfaction guaranteed basis...Still, it looks like the small print is as it should be — except for the last sentence.
"The execution of the Business Support Materials Arbitration Agreement for Non-Quixtar Tools & Sales Aids, available at www.quixtar.com website, is an express condition of attending this function." The IBO who sent me the application had never noticed the small print before and stated:
Yes, I had people there who have never signed the BSMAA. So obviously they don't enforce this policy by turning anyone away! Surprise, surprise.What an interesting assumption.I assume this means one is bound by the BSMAA at least as pertaining to this function even if one hasn't signed it.
Look, I understand that tools are optional and that signing the BSMAA is a requirement for those IBOs who choose to "buy and sell" support materials. That's fine (though I'm not sure every IBO really understands the details of the Arbitration). What's curious to me is the apparent dilemma presented by this particular event application and highlighted by the IBO comments. Does WWDB work to ensure that every IBO has signed the BSMAA before taking their money? Should such a process be in place? Is signing up for the event tantamount to signing the BSMAA? Or is this a unique and isolated incident? I would've thought that every IBO going to an event had signed the BSMAA but maybe that's not the case.
Let me be clear, I don't think WWDB or Ron Puryear has done anything wrong here. I just think that it illustrates the ongoing confusion over the relationship between IBOs, Quixtar, the BSM organizations and the BSMAA. Seems like a bit of clarification would help a lot of people.
Comments
Be sure that everyone CAREFULLY reads the Rules governing the arbitration process in the "IBO Rules of Conduct" before signing the BSMAA. These rules are in the Business Compendium.
Who's responsibility is it to carefully read documents before signing them? If an IBO presents the documentation to the prospect and makes a fair effort to explain importance, then isn't the responsibility the prospects?
IMHO, a businessperson who knows that they are prospecting people to start a business who may or do lack basic business skills and capital has an ETHICAL OBLIGATION. That is especially true if there is a personal relationship that is the basis of the prospecting "relationship." In the law this is often referred to as a "fiduciary" relationship and imposes a much heightended duty of proactive disclosure.
Who the heck would shirk their responsibilities to help their downline on the grounds that its the downline's fault for not reading the small print (and the 100 page business compendium) when they are being pressured into signing up? That's pretty pathetic, Chris. You should have just answered: "Good idea, honest IBOs are sure to help others understand their business."
Oh well.
Clarification is always good. I recently had questions and got complete answers. WWDB is a system which I recently heard described as "A personal and professional developement system" whose mission is to provide affiliated Quixtar powered IBOs with material and information.
World Wide Group, the parent company of WorldWide DreamBuilders, has no way of knowing who has or has not sgined a BSMAA because that is a part of the Quixtar registration material, so what WWG does is put a reference to the BSMAA requirement on all it's tickets knowing that if someone does fail to communicate the importance of the BSMAA this statement will be noticed. I'm not sure how someone could miss the BSMAA as it is a part of registration but this WWDB feels this double check is a good policy.
Lawdawg, you are a jerk. Calling me pathetic for my questions? I don't know what I did that warranted the lack of respect from you.
I have been very respectful to you and have edified you to other critics on several posts. I don't know why you would respond to me this way when all I did was ask you 2 simple questions to get some perspective from someone who knows his legal stuff.
I thought you would appreciate the sign of respect by me asking you these questions, even though you are a critic. But now I see that your goal is just to take answers and throw them back in the face of IBO's while calling them pathetic for even asking.
I was trying to get some clarification on if the total responsibility falls on the IBO, or if it is shared with the prospect. I mean, should we expect the IBO to sit the prospect down and read them every rule and guideline before registering them?
So where would the line be drawn? My upline pointed me in the direction of the all the legal paperwork and let me know that if I was starting up my own business, that it would be a good idea to understand the rules and guidelines from Quixtar.
So I have done the same for my peronally registered IBO's, but many of them have chosen not to read the business compendium, so when they have questions, I simply make myself available and answer them using any legal information I have.
The bottom line is that I don't see how the sponsoring IBO can be held responsible for the prospect not being willing to fully read everything before registering. So they sign that they have read it, and go from there.
I think it would be fair to say that most people in the united states do not read all the fine print when signing contracts. This is not new.
In fact, I was encouraged to read the Quixtar-related contracts more from my upline than I think anyone else has ever encouraged me to read fine print when they want me to sign one of their forms.
This may not be standard practice, but I do try my best to educate my organization on these issues. If you read my first response to this article, you would see that I am willing to make an even greater effort in this area.
Lawblawg, too bad you had to snap at me. I had always had respect for you, even when I didn't agree.
My apologies for snapping at you Chris. I've spent years correcting mis-information spread by IBOs and have repeatedly heard these same questions or very similar ones directed at other IBOs for doing exactly what their upline told them to do. I misinterpreted your questions as arguments that IBOs have no obligations to their prospects.
One infuriating thing about MLM is that the "pitch" is meant to be directed at people with little business sense or experience, which makes it all that more unethical to take advantage of them, in my opinion.
Pitch is now taking target at younger people. In my organization, within Gala LOS, no body including us never read BSMAA. Until researching 'critic' sites, I had no idea how important that could be. None of my downline read it, and we went 1000 PV in our first full month.
My platinum was Ahmer Azam, never heard him, or diamond Vishal, EDC Kumar saying or training ANYTHING about BSMAA.
Infact, when some one sign up on computer, clicking next to BSMAA is as common as skipping hotmail registration.
And now I'm stuck with ton load of tapes and debt as I can't return any thing. Can't even sue the uplines because I have no idea what I am signing up.
I am all for putting a system in place that would ensure that the IBO has signed the BSMAA before being able to purchase any materials. This process can be simplified if sales are done electronically, but I can see the difficulty of this system when sales are done IBO to IBO.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention, as well as others, and I will see what influence I can have in my organization to implement such an idea.
I think a step in the right direction would be for the Platinum to make sure that everyone in his/her organization has signed the BSMAA.
I don't think it is totally accurate, but if you view your LOS you can choose the option to see who on your team does not have a signed BSMAA on file with Quixtar. The reason I say it is not so accurate is because I have sent in a BSMAA for an IBO, but it still shows them as not having one on file.
Still this a step in the right direction.
Posted by: Chris | November 2, 2004 2:20 PM