| Equinox International, Inc. |
| In 1998 I was solicited to attend a business seminar. Upon arriving I was greeted by the person who had invited me, a man by the name of John Norris. The meeting was in a large room with a huge stereo, shelves displaying products, and offices behind a windowed wall in the back. It looked suspiciously like an MLM (multi-level marketing) setup. I almost walked out - in retrospect I wish I had! This was my introduction to Equinox, a multi-level marketing company created by Bill Gouldd, a slickster who sold dreams and made millions through this and Advanced Marketing Seminars (AMS), a separate training company that he owned and ran Equinox seminars through. John and his fiancee (whose name I have forgotten) roped me in and ripped me off. I was very short on cash back then, being an operations manager for a tightwad company called McGuire Research, and I knew I could get no loans. John told me that his upline had extra PV (purchase volume) and if I could come up with $1000 of purchase volume, he could get me started as a "manager" instead of a rep, meaning I'd get a bigger discount and bigger incentive payouts. We finally arranged that I'd come up with enough cash to generate $500PV and Equinox would loan me a matching amount. I spent a couple of hours pouring over the catalogs, picking out enough products to get me that $1000PV. When I was finally done I handed it to John's fiancee so she could put it on an official form and send it in. I was announced to everyone in the office as a manager and they all cheered for me. I got to put my name on a markerboard under the manager heading. Hoorah! When I finally got my products I discovered that she had shorted me a product so that I was just shy of the $1000PV mark and so would not get the refund I would've received had I not been short. They promised to make it up to me...and never did. We attended an "advanced" training seminar in Las Vegas, NV, which was to take us beyond the "basics" seminar and launch us into a whole new realm. I drove out with John, his fiancee, and another "manager" he'd sponsored. While there I stayed with another ops manager from McGuire Research. When I was around John he was rude and bossy. That really turned me off. After we got back I decided not to do any more work with them. They called me 2 or 3 times to see if I was coming back and, eventually, they disappeared. They never gave me the money they cheated me out of. A long time later, after quitting Equinox, I discovered that, despite the fact that John said I was a manager, and that my AMS seminar nametags displayed my title as manager (because that's what I wrote on my application for the seminar), that I had never, actually been a manager as far as Equinox was concerned. I never would've gotten the better pricing and incentives managers get. Needless to say I was disgruntled. Bill Gouldd, Equinox and AMS were recently sued by several states and they are now permanently prohibited from ever doing MLM business again. I never heard from John and his woman again. I submitted a claim to be reimbursed by the lawsuit against them but, since I moved to Indonesia in 2001, I've heard nothing about it. If I could offer any advice to someone considering joining an MLM it would be these things: 1) Look at how long it's been in business. If it's less than 5 years then that can be a bad sign (although National Safety Associates had been around much more than that when I joined them and they are now gone). 2) Contact the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, and other consumer advocacy organizations to see what dirt they have on the company. Also check all public records. In MLMs the distributors are said to be independent representatives of the company but if the company doesn't follow the federal regulations governing control of independent distributors they can still be held responsible for the actions of their distributors in a lawsuit against distributors and/or the company. The more bad things you dig up the more caution you should exert. 3) Distributors are salespeople. They will glamourize, propagandize and even lie if it will convince you to buy their product or join their group. My sponsor's sponsor in Amway, Ron Purvis, lied all the time about the products that Amway offered from other manufacturer's, as well as Amway's products. The way he talked about the products they were hand-crafted by God. My personal experience with third party products showed me that Ron was full of shit. When a distributor makes claims about a company, its products or services, get corroboration from as many independent parties as you can. Thoroughly research this person's claims before you buy or sign ANYTHING. 4) The meetings are a lot of glitz and propaganda but you can learn about the products and services, the parent company, the organization you will be a part of (the distributors that are most directly associated with, and most highly ranked, the parent company will form their own organization and the rules, ethics and business practices, etc., will vary from one organization to another.) You may discover that your potential sponsors claims have been exagerrated, or that the parent company isn't all you were told it was, or that the organization you would be a part of has ethics and practices that are opposed to your own. When I was in Amway I belonged to two different organizations (the second, ILD, split off from the first). Both of them were heavily Christian and I sometimes found it disturbing, if not downright offensive, when they would preach from the stage and say bad things about people who didn't believe in God and Christ, or who went off about certain types of people. If you don't like anything that you see in the products, services, or parent company, move on. If you like them, but not the organization, then find a sponsor in a different group. Keep searching until you find an organization that has beliefs and ethics you agree with. It's not worth it to settle for second-best - remember you're in for the long haul with them! 5) Try some of the products or services. Dont go overboard. Ask for free samples. Many distributors, in an effort to "hook" you, will give you free samples. Take advantage of this and find out for yourself if their product claims are realistic. 6) Ask friends or family if they have any experience with the company, products, services, or reps. Find out about their experiences. 7) Look closely at what your business responsibilities will be. Do you have to have a business and/or sales license? Will you have to handle payout of income to your downline or will the parent company do it for you? What will be your tax liabilities? Will you have to file tax forms for your downline? Are you willing and able to handle the paperwork and additional responsibilities? 8) What kind of training will be provided, how often, and what will it cost? How much will your upline help you build your business? Do you like your upline? Are you sure you can trust them? 9) What will be your initial and recurring costs? A low initial cost isn't necessarily a bad sign and a high one isn't necessarily a good sign. Are there yearly distributorship renewal fees and are they reasonable? Are products distributed from one location or several? What is the average shipping time? Do they use their own shipping company or someone else's, like UPS or FedEx? 10) How serious is the parent company and its distributors about following the federal guidelines that keep it from being classified as a pyramid or Pongi scheme? Do they wink their eye and turn their backs or are they strict about it. If it's the former that's a bad sign. There are other guidelines but these should give you a good idea as to the health, reliability and trustworthiness of the company, it's products, services and independent distributors. If in doubt walk away! |