I joined Trek after being tired of working in the retail & restaurant business. I was 19, and living in a small apartment with my fiance. He had a good job, but I had a hard time finding something that fit me. I looked in the ads in the paper, and found one that sounded like this:
Team Players Wanted!
If you:
-Don't make more than $1,000 a week
-Hate your boss
-Like to set your own hours
Call us! We have several positions open to fill. Quick advancement oppertunities! No experience necessary! We will train you!
Call Brian at 651-555-1212
How good do you think that sounded to a 19 year old, working full time and going to college part-time? Excellent! I started off slowly, but not making a dime. I bought the shampoo (which smelled great but had no difference on my hair), the weight loss pills (which caused me to go to the hospital with heart palpitations from the ginseng), and the liquid vitamins (which tasted like vomit unless you put it in juice or something).
I tried to get people I knew to buy the stuff, but where I live, you are nuts if you pay more than $15 for a haircut, let alone shampoo where you get less in the bottle than even in the salon products. Not that people don't like to spend money here, but my family members and friends just didn't have the money to KEEP ON buying the stuff. You pay $15 for a tiny tub of laundry detergent that didn't do a very good job of washing the clothes and wasn't worth the price when washing clothes for a family of 6, such as my family. Who else was I supposed to sell this stuff to? In the rules and guidelines in which you must go by to be able to sell the stuff was stated that you couldn't sell the products these ways:
-Garage/Rummage/Yard Sales
-Mall kiosks/shops
-Other retail establishments
So the only way is REALLY to go to your friends and neighbors who really don't want to buy this stuff, but do because they feel sorry for you.
I tried the no-inventory technique for about 6 months. I made a grand total of $0. No one wanted to buy something even I had not tried. Then Brian Smith, and his wife Christine, convinced me to take out a loan to become a 'Bronze Member' where I'd move up on the profit percentage ladder. Ooohhhh... Ahhhhhh. So I went to the bank, and to 'show' his kindness, Brian even drove me there. I got the loan for $2000 without a co-signer (though I should have MADE Brian co-sign). My payments were about $110 a month after interest. No big deal. I had a full time job at the time I took out the loan. Brian insisted I would be able to pay that loan back in a matter of 3 months. That was back in March. My last payment on that same loan is next month (3-20). Finally! I am nearly free of that loan.
What really made me angry though is you know how they advertise 'training weekends', in some major city? Well, in March there was one in Chicago. I had a full time job and Brian Smith KNEW that, and I couldn't just blow off work on a Friday to go to Chicago for the weekend, especially since it cost about $250, which I did not have. Brian wanted me to go so badly, he signed me up WITHOUT my permission, then called me to tell me to call in sick to work and go to Chicago. Well, that really pissed me off as well as my fiance, I arranged to get off work without calling in sick-nearly losing my job in the process, and went to Chicago.
I am so glad I did not pay for the weekend!!! Brian had done it in advance, and I had told him I was only going because I didn't want to waste his money (I had more of a conscience back then). That weekend was fun, but only AFTER spending 8 boring hours in a FREEZING COLD hotel conference room listening to "Kale Flagg", and "Heather Hromoho" yak about how you could make all this money in short amounts of time, yadda yadda yadda... It was a blown up version of the same so called 'interview' that suckered you into this scam.
6 months after taking out the loan, I got tired of having all that stuff in my apartment taking up space, so I got Trek to buy back what was left of the stock. I kept the shower and the counter-top water filter because it's nice to have that filtered water. I totalled up all the inventory that I sent back with an updated pricing list they faxed me. The total was about $1200. I finally got a check in the mail for $750, with a letter explaining to me that some of the items were received damaged. I think that was total BS, but I didn't feel like dealing with them anymore, so I took the check and paid off some of the debt that I incurred while trying to 'make millions'.
What's REALLY funny, is that the offices in which were rented out to the Trek branches, are no longer open. I have no idea where they went to, but they are nowhere to be found here. The reps that here in the Twin Cities (Brooklyn Park and Eagan) seemed to have skipped town. I think last I heard Brian and Christine Smith were in St. Louis, MO.in my recent job searches, I have come across similar companies, selling stuff from sports stuff to steak knives. Every time I go to what I think is an interview, and see the typical "group interview", I leave. Simple as that, and I give no explaination. I don't have to.
This scam is SO similar to AMWAY, and their NEW branch, Quixtar, which is another RIP-OFF by the way, even bigger than Trek.
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