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December 18, 2005
Quixtar Tool Trouble
By QBlog in Quixtar
As Quixtar wraps up its Achievers event in Dallas the hometown newspaper in Grand Rapids, Michigan reports of "tool trouble" within the business. Reporter Rob Kirkbride of The Grand Rapids Press reveals that there's much more to Quixtar than selling soap, makeup, energy drinks and water-treatment equipment.
Commonly called "tools" in the Quixtar world, most of these items are created by IBOs at the highest levels. They are designed to keep people selling and to recruit others into the business.
Critics claim the "kingpin" distributors make more money off the tapes, meetings and books than selling Quixtar products. They also complain that lower-level salespeople fork over a lot of hard-earned money for the materials.
Profits from those materials are at the core of a lawsuit in Missouri that has ensnared Quixtar and several large distributors.
It's really a thorough article that provides quotes from the Quixtar faithful as well as critics like Eric Scheibeler. And unlike the Dateline NBC investigation Quixtar actually goes on the record, responding to some of the concerns about tool businesses like Orrin Woodward's TEAM.
Quixtar acknowledges problems with the tools business.
Managing Director Jim Payne said Amway co-founder Rich DeVos left a long legacy as a motivator.
"When you look back at the history of the company, motivation and training have always been important elements of the business," he said.
"As we grew, we made mistakes with it," he said. "The last four to five years, we've done a much better job and set up safeguards to protect IBOs."
The company — part of Ada-based Alticor — is working to create "transparency" so new IBOs know what to expect and what the rules are, Payne said.
It's good to see some quality reporting about Quixtar from the hometown daily paper.
Comments
Mayor's office need introduction to Scott Larsen, Ashley Wikes, Ruth carter and many others as well. ;)
But yeag, Sidney was the first one.
The question though is whether or not the story will help change things. I started following A/Q on the web over a year ago to see if I could find out anything on my former upline. (I was in the biz from 1981-84.) I was amazed to find out that all of the reforms that were supposed to take place in 1983 never happened. But, with the Dateline story and Bo Short's formerdiamond.com website, I thought maybe - just maybe - a change was finally going to come.
Trying to believe that this newspaper story will change anything is sort of like Charlie Brown trying to believe that this time Lucy will really hold the football in place while he kicks it.
The Mayor's Office meant no disrepect to the important and groundbreaking work of Larsen, Wilkes, and Carter.
In fact, the Mayor's Office believes a prospective PhD candidate could have a thesis in examining the viral spread of information about Amway/Quixtar, in which all of the above (and QBlog) would be prominently featured.
One website, Sidney Schwartz's, opened up a whole new set of rules in discussing Amway.
With the internet and other sources of available information, the pyramid may begin to crumble. Prospects have more informaion than ever before to see the dark side of the biz.
Critics claim the "kingpin" distributors make more money off the tapes, meetings and books than selling Quixtar products. They also complain that lower-level salespeople fork over a lot of hard-earned money for the materials.
My God!.. you mean the guys at the top sell stuff and make money! That is just disgusting. They figured out how to grow a big group and then have audacity to sell that information to thier downline!
Disgusting.
You know, if they were smart they would attach some PV to those tools. Oh wait, they can't. ... but if they sell "tools" aren't they taking money from these poor "lower-level" IBO's pockets that could otherwise be spent on products. Wait until Alticor figures that out!
I'm all for keeping them in check but this whole lawsuit doesn't make sense to me.
Attention QUIXTAR IBOs!! Tools ar FREE @ QuixtarTools.com>
The Mayor's Office thinks the only thing that could have made the article better was a tip of the hat to Sidney Schwartz.
Posted by: Mayor McCheese | December 18, 2005 4:58 PM