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December 22, 2005
Quixtar Discussion at MetaFilter
By QBlog in Quixtar
There's a very interesting discussion about Quixtar happening on the insanely popular MetaFilter community site.
Tonight at 7:00pm I had representatives of Quixtar come into my home. Should I join or not? Apparently by being an Independent Business Owner (IBO), I can make tons of money just through referrals. As a poor college student, this sounds enticing.
If you are not familiar with Quixtar, they are doing what Amway used to do. I am skeptical of their claims, however, I am looking to see what everyone on askmefi thinks. It never hurts to get a second opinion and besides this hasn't been addressed on askmefi yet.
The pitch went something along the lines of "this is not a pyramid scheme" and "all you are doing is refering people to a virtual mall."
The comments range from insightful to hilarious. Here are a few selected comments pulled from the discussion:
storybored
Signing up with these guys is a good way to lose friends. Most people *hate* being given a sales pitch by the people they're close to. You'd be putting them into an awkward position.
winston
The only way MLM can work is if you'd actually make money selling the product even if it wasn't MLM. If you sign people up who want to make money by just signing people up who want to make money just by signing people up, etc., etc., then nobody's selling anything. For you to make money, someone somewhere has to actually start selling the product.
BorgLove
I wouldn't touch MLM with a long pole, but that doesn't mean it's completely worthless. Some people do actually make money. Others learn to stay focused, set goals and maybe even derive some benefit from all that self-help product that gets moved. In any case, there's no harm in keeping an open mind. Networking is probably more sociologically beneficial than sitting at your computer at night posting snarky comments to MeFi.
Geektronica
I have a co-worker who's into it, and he has given the pitch to just about everyone. Nobody can stand him.
thanotopsis
Compared to actually getting a job and earning a wage (rather than victimizing people with your "products") MLM is useless, and is a drain on our society.
If you're not a MeFi member (everyone calls MetaFilter "MeFi" and it's pronounced "Mee Figh" which rhymes with "knee thigh") I'd encourage you to join and add your own comments to the discussion. If you're not familiar with MeFi it's basically a blog that anyone can contribute a link or a comment to. There's even a Wikipedia entry on MeFi.
Comments
Ah. Didn't realize it cost money now. That sucks.
Maybe that's why Tony hasn't shared his, um... "enthusiasm"
Look Quixtar is a great opportunity and if you in fact are ambitious enough and driven enough it can and will be done. Sure there are annoying people out there that people hate hearing but that's probably some newbies who haven't grasped all the success principles and have no posture which it takes along with character and integrity. But it is not for everybody as we can see. But to me it beats the true pyramid scheme slash MLM, a JOB. think about it you can only make so much money and no matter how much you work you will never make more than your supervisor, manager, vice president, president, CEO...you get the picture. You do all the work at your place of work and THEY get all the money....Through Quixtar you do the work you get ALL the money but your sponsor gets paid by Quixtar Co. for training you how to generate buisness and product flow. Of course products have to be bought but you DONT have to sell....you just have to change where you buy stuff ie: deodorant, TP, food, drinks, toothpaste,etc. and teach others to do the same....you can't beat it
Did you pay $5 to sign up, or have you been a member for a while?
I love an Amway rant as much as the next man, but I'll save it for now til I'm a little more flush with the cash :)
Posted by: Chris Andrews | December 22, 2005 7:36 PM