Why Does Amway Have A Bad Reputation And A Good Reputation?

[Kurt]

Amway is both loved and hated at the same time. How did this happen?
Here's been my experience with Amway and my take on how such a bi-
polar situation can occur.

We have purchased Amway products for over 15 years now, and there are
none better, anywhere. One surprise was how helpful the company is
when it comes to product support.

Amway reminds me of the way store used to be where the merchant
actually knew all about their product and put the Customer first. If
something is not right, they fix it with no questions asked. It's not
a cliche to say, they provide the best support of any company I've
dealt with as far as products go. They even pay the return shipping!

The business side of Amway has been very good to us. It's not been
easy, but it is a simple business. Amway is like no other business in
that they have both a bad reputation and an excellent one. Most
companies have one or the other. Amway has both.

The bad name some have given the word "Amway" actually derives from
some people or teams, not from Amway themselves, but the public has
lumped the two together under the name "Amway". Amway makes products
and pays people to "advertise", "share", whatever you want to call
it. If you are responsible for sales, they track the volume and pay
you for what your business account did in volume.

The bad name has come from the people and their groups' actions. If
Amway is guilty of anything, it's not policing these groups better,
but other than that, Amway is trying to live between these two worlds
of being the supplier and dealing with these teams of business
partners.

The drive of people to make money can cause them to overlook their
principles and do stupid things. The Amway corporate people have let
bad behavior get out of control in the past, but the new direction of
the company seems to have a positive way of dealing with this.

The recent move to allow IBOs to market their own sites has probably
been the best decision to date that they have made in dealing with the
negative image. IBOs are who will fix their image, not their corporate
advertising, and given that they are beginning to remove the rules-
shackles from the IBOs and untying their entrepreneurial spirit is a
good thing.

Time will tell, but I've found plenty of room to behave how I want to,
and so can each person. We can only hope that more good people will
band together and crowd out the knuckleheads!

As for our team, we market using a simple concept, i.e. I buy my
products, share the good news with others and help those who would
like to make some extra income. No obligations, no false promises and
no pressure or demands as far as what a person is required to do,
etc. Just shop, share and earn.

Amway should be something that adjusts to your life, not your life
adjusting to it. Some work their business hard, some take it easy, but
the driving philosophy with us is that is makes sense to buy stuff
from your own business that you're already buying anyway. We tell our
story, we don't sell our business model.

It took us 5 years, but we sold our 6 carpet cleaning businesses in
Nov 2000 because of our Amway income and we're loving it more and more
everyday.

The big benefit from having an Amway business is the personal
development that has come from the team we learned from. Great people
and great life lessons in an honest, caring environment. That's what
business should be. It's unfortunate that some people have had a bad
experience, but that's the same throughout all of life.

As the saying goes, it's not that crap happens, it's how you deal with
it that determines where you end up in life, and that's as true with
Amway as it is with any part of life.

The way I choose to see it is that life is good and the best is yet to
come.

Kurt at www.GrossInternational.com