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January 29, 2006
Quixtar and the BBB
By QBlog in Quixtar
The Cadillac News reports that inquiries at the Western Michigan Better Business Bureau were up 20% in 2005 with Multi-Level Marketing businesses like Quixtar and Amway receiving the most information requests.
According to the BBB-WMI website MLM businesses always top the list.
1. Multi-Level Marketing: Locally based Quixtar, Amway, and other direct selling organizations using multi-level sales people. Always # 1 in W. MI. Contacts UP 14%.
But what are people discovering when they receive the BBB info on Quixtar? They're reading that Quixtar has a "satisfactory record" which means that it must "properly and promptly address matters referred to it by the Bureau, and be free from an unusual volume or pattern of complaints and law enforcement action involving its marketplace conduct."
How many complaints have been filed with the Western Michigan BBB? Only 23 over the past 36 months.
The Bureau processed a total of 23 complaints about [Quixtar] in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total 23 complaints in the last 36 months, 5 of those were closed in the last 12 months. These complaints concerned sales issues, delivery issues, service issues, product quality issues, contract issues, customer service issues and credit or billing issues. Of these complaints, 19 were closed as resolved, 4 were administratively closed.
Compare that to other well-known MLM businesses to put that data in the proper context. Over the past 36 months Avon received 54 complaints, 28 complaints for Mary Kay, just 8 for Usana Health Sciences and Melaleuca received a whopping 301 complaints.
Interestingly Oasis LifeSciences, which is run by a former Avon exec, is not a member of the BBB.
UPDATE - Jan 30: Larsen has updated his link. Confusion hopefully averted.
UPDATE - Jan 29: It's come to my attention that Scott Larsen has stated that "Amway/Quixtar and MLM's hold top spot on Better Business Bureau worst 10 for Grand Rapids, Michigan." That's simply not the case and I hope to stop similar confusion before it gains its own momentum.
As I've already stated, the Cadillac News reports on the increase in inquiries to the BBB. The article itself is a merely poorly edited quote of the official BBB report. The confusion is believing that Quixtar is on a "ten worst" list when it's simply not on that list.
Let's take a closer look at the Cadillac News report to see if we can track down the problem. The report begins by stating:
The Better Business Bureau of Western Michigan reports that regional BBB were up 20 percent in 2005 as consumers and donors relied on BBB information more.
What does "reports that regional BBB were up" mean? That doesn't even make sense. Clearly there's a typo here right? The report goes on to mention the increase in complaints.
Complaints about regional companies within the 37 county service area increased only 5 percent in 2005...
That statement is then followed by the "Top 10 inquiries and complaints in 2005."
While that statement isn't clear, especially considering the omitted word from the first sentence, it does explain that the list consists of "inquiries and complaints." The listing then proceeds to give us 20 items. That's right, 20 items on a top ten list. Strange.
Well, not really because the list is top ten "inquiries and complaints" which means it's actually two lists — the top ten inquiries and top ten complaints. So, which list is Quixtar (and MLM) on? Well, it's admittedly tough to tell from the poor article but savvy readers can conclude that the second list, the one falling under the word "COMPLAINTS" is the complaint list.
And I've tried to make this fact clear to those who don't want to take the time to try to decipher a poorly written article.
Comments
Hi Eric,
Thanks for pointing out the Cadillac News article was poorly written. I've updated my linke appropriately.
Scott
MLM businesses are never what they seem to be. I used to be in Amway several years ago before it became Quixtar.
Marriage and the family were one of the values preached from the stage by all of the Diamonds. Then I recently found out many of them that I personally knew have gotten divorced or separated like Bill Britt, Paul and Debbie Miller, and Time and Connie Foley. Such a drag. What was more important to them, their families or their money?
It seems obvious...
Posted by: Jeff | January 30, 2006 5:40 AM