Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Preposterous

So Quixtar goes on a rampage suing people left and right. They sue a mother of four and a guy who quit back when it was Amway.

Now QuixtarLostMyCents (mother of four) doesn't have much contact information or information about her. Her blog was started in September, a full month after all the shenanigans started. Is it really that hard to believe that a mother of four would feel just a little ticked about the overpriced products she's been buying, hoping to make a better life for herself? I *had* people on my team, who if they would have stuck around until August, they would have probably started a blog just like it. I talked to one of them last night. He is a father of seven, and was really apprehensive about talking to me because he silently bowed out. I talked to him last week and he said that he just could not justify the prices while trying to feed his family.

Now Ed Manley's site. How that one made the list is beyond me. Anyone who has been watching the blog comments (not his blog, but everyone else's) knows that Ed has no affinity for Quixtar/Amway/Alticor nor for Team. In fact, before he knew about the non-compete clause, he was actively trying to help people join Market America so they could continue to have an income without Quixtar. The Quixtar blog claimed that they were just trying to find out who these people were. Take a look at Ed's Profile. He's a male, 46, Aries, year of the Ox, full description of his career change from Amway to Market America. Who in their right mind would think he was a Team operative?

I named my blog Crazy World because I had for years been impressed with Amway, ever since I first joined. My upline all quit up to my Double Diamond (investing scam wiped out the leg), but I was always impressed with the education system and opportunity. When I saw what Quixtar was doing with the "firing" of their top "employees" and then the blog posts and emails, I thought to myself "What a crazy world!" (crazyworld.blogspot was already taken, as was crazyfunworld.blogspot.com, hence the crazyfunwildworld.blogspot.com address).

The more I watch what is happening, the more appropriate I feel my blog title is. Its like I've entered a bizarro world. A product company thinks it can take a leadership role away from its leadership organization in a couple of years time. As the whole process has shown, they are a product company with excellent management, but they are no leaders.

I am not directly in Orrin or Chris line of sponsorship. I, like most Quixtar IBOs, have just heard them on CDs for the last couple of years. I have a list of people I really enjoyed on tape/CD. Dexter Yager, Skip Ross, Jody Victor, Bad DeHaven, Ron Simmons, Rob Hale, Don Wilson, Randy Haugen, Bo Short (oops), Chuck Goetschel, etc., etc., etc. Until my *leadership* decided to join Team's system, I hadn't really put Orrin and Chris into my top CDs list (although I may just not have had the right CDs, I definitely have some now in my favorite list).

Then Quixtar tells people where they can go, who they can listen to, what they can buy. Why can't I buy Team CDs if the teach me how to be a better person, and a better Quixtar salesman? What right do they have to dictate my life in that way?

I understand that things can get heated. I understand that when you have grown up your whole life believing in a company that your parents helped create, how you would be hesitant to see it any different that perfect. But the intense persecution of Team and Orrin in particular is amazing. And then to go on a witch hunt of bloggers just adds to it. Don't they understand that the little bit of negative on the internet was nothing compared to the bees nest they are stirring up now? Before it was a few disgruntled, disillusioned or just plain negative people posting "issues" with Amway/Quixtar online on a regular basis. Now there are possibly 50,000 or so people who would probably have been silent and just slid away quietly to await their 6 months non-compete.

But they have stirred the bees nest and want to blame Orrin for it. The only way for them to really believe that (especially given that at least 7,000 IBOs have left) is that we are all brainwashed and do not think for ourselves, just like the negative website have been saying for years. Statistically speaking, 30 out of 7,000 is very likely to just be IBOs who, after the curtain was pulled back by Chuck Goetschel, Ron Simmons and Randy Haugen, found themselves reevaluating their feelings towards the company they had promoted for so many years. As a matter of fact, I get the feeling that if I asked my upline (and I bet Orrin is the same way) about posting to this blog, I bet he would discourage it (hence why I write under a pseudonym).

Quixtar started this. They are bringing it upon themselves and they are only making it worse by not letting the whole thing just slide away quietly. If they wanted to end it right now, they have the power to do it. Team is leaving. There is nothing they can do about that. Over 7,000 IBOs have left. Many are just going to let their IBO number expire at the end of the year. Just let them go. I bet if Quixtar legal sat down with Orrin and said, "Look, our bad. Encourage your people to pull all that negative off the internet, and let's agree to just drop all the legal." I bet he would. They would be no worse off. We would gladly scrub all the websites and postings. And we could just all get on with our lives.

I tried to find it earlier, but couldn't. I could have sworn there was a blog posting from the IBOAI or Quixtar that said something along the lines of "Lawsuits should be a last resort. We are disappointed in Orrin for filing this lawsuit." Hello. He wasn't asking for damages. He was just asking to get on with his life as soon as possible. But Bo Short left too nasty of a taste in Quixtar's mouth, I guess. Now they are suing individuals for monetary damages? And not even just ex-IBOs (if you were in Amway, you're an ex-distributor, you were never an IBO, but then of course were any of us ever IBOs).

Preposterous

4 comments:

Unknown said...

outsiders , like myself, seem to agree. It's a silly suit and will make things worse.

Manley said...

Hey Guys,
Ed Manley Here!!
Known on lawsuit as Blogger 11 !!
I spoke with Q's attorney. They are not going after anyone but individuals that may be hired By TEAM to create controversy over what is happening.
Anyone caught up in the law suit and not being paid by team to promote negative publicity may be compensated for the headache it may cause.
From what he told me, Q had a restraining order against TEAM dealing with something to this nature.
I will be in contact with the attorney from time to time and there may be info on my blog as well. http://quixtartoday.blogspot.com/
Blogger 11
Much Success!!

Manley said...

What has Happen! I haven't been with Amway for years!!
Manley With Market America
Blogger #11
Amway sues to ID Bloggers
GRAND RAPIDS NEWS!!
http://www.mlive.com/grandrapids/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-38/1192257355271070.xml&coll=6

Anonymous said...

Here's a funny. We resigned with Q/A on Sept 11, kind of ironic huh? So its been over a month and we no longer have an IBO # and we also received a confirmation letter from the big Q/A confirming our resignation several weeks ago. Well, guess what we received in the mail today? All of the new year catalogs in a package with our name, IBO # and stating that we were in qualification for Platinum!!! Pretty good for saying we are not IBO's anymore, and have not ordered for almost 2 months. It seems the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. Amazing ain't it! A waste of a good tree or two. I will bet there are alot more just like us.