I am a stay at home Mom and could really use some extra money. I was on MySpace one day and received a Friend Request from Mary Myrick with Motivated Moms in reference to her work at home opportunity. I looked at her MySpace page and her page at the time (she has edited it since then) stated that it was not a "sales" job. I also went to her website www.MARYMYRICK.com and it also stated "No Selling" as well as "No Costly investments!" Her MySpace page and her website interested me so I requested more information from her. I spoke with her about the business and asked questions on more than one occasion prior to joining Motivated Moms and Melaleuca. Mary appeared to be a nice Mom and Grandma. I thought that I could trust her and what she was telling me about Motivated Moms and Melaleuca. As it turns out the only information Mary provided me with was misinformation.instead of helping me build my business as she promised Mary only helped me out of my time and money. Now I am stuck with red tape to go through to get my money back along with outrageous shipping and tracking fees.
As I mentioned above I spoke with Mary on more than one occasion prior to joining. Mary told me that my commission would be 20% on each monthly order for every person under me every month. She also told me that her enroller got a check for $900 last month and has only been with the company two months. Mary knew that I only wanted to work part-time at this.
I was informed prior to joining that I would have to place a minimum order each month for the Melaleuca products. At this point I was hesitant to join. I told Mary that I was concerned about this and that I was afraid of losing money if I did not like the products or if the business did not go as planned for me. She assured me that Melaleuca had a 60 Day Money back guarantee and told me that I could even return empty bottles to Melaleuca for a FULL refund! She stated that I would get all of my money back because that is just how good Melaleucas money back guarantee is. I was led to believe that they were going to save me money, were less expensive, and were of better quality than Wal-marts products.in addition to this I was told how great the products were by Mary. She told me that I would love Sol-u-mel and Sol-u-guard. She stated that they smelled so good. She told me that Melaleucas dryer sheets were so powerful that you could use them twice each! When my first order arrived I was terribly disappointed! The Sol-u-guard and Sol-u-mel stunk to high heaven! At no time did Mary tell me that they were made with Tea Tree Oil! My Husband and I both hate the smell of Tea Tree Oil! After smelling the Sol-u-mel and Sol-u-guard, My Husband got upset and told me never to use those products in our home! Not that I blame him because I am not very fond of the smell either. My Mother told me that those products made our house smell like a hospital and she hates the smell of a hospital. I tried the dryer sheets as Mary recommended and they were too worn out after the first use to re-use again! None of the products that I purchased impressed me at all. I did not find them to be of fine quality as Mary or Melaleuca claimed that they would be.in my opinion they were no better than the products that I purchase at Wal-mart for a third of the price. Not to mention the fact that with Melaleuca you have to purchase the spray bottles and pumps separately so you are having to spend even more money instead of saving money as I was told. When Mary told me that I would receive a FULL refund and that I would get all of my money back this led me to believe that I would also be refunded my shipping as well as Melaleuca paying the shipping for the return of the products to them for a refund which when I called Melaleuca I found out that this was not the case at all! As a matter of fact, I had a rude awakening when I called Melaleuca. Not only am I responsible for the shipping but I also have to purchase tracking so that I know when the package is received by Melaleuca and then I have to call them back because it is NOT their policy to refund the money directly back to my Debit Card as I have requested! It is Melaleucas policy to refund the money to my Melaleuca account and then I have to call again after the products are received by them and request that the money be put back on my Debit Card! I asked the Melaleuca Representative on the phone how long it would take to refund my money to my Debit Card and was only further upset because she could not give me a time frame! Mary should have told me this! I would have never joined if I knew that it would be such a hassle to get my money back! I also found out that you cannot return empty bottles as Mary stated to me that you could. It says right on the back of your invoice that you must return the unused portions in order to receive a refund! So now I have to pay to ship two boxes one with heavy products weighing approximately 28 pounds back to Melaleuca! Mary made it sound so easy to return every thing when that is not the case at all with Melaleuca.
Now back to Mary's claim of "No Selling!" One of the first things that Mary told me after joining was that I should get my Mother to order products. Then in the New Mom Meeting the moderator was instructing us to get our family and friends to purchase Melaleuca products. I don't know about you but that sure sounds like sales to me! Now this brings me to the "No Costly Investment" claim. During the hour long meeting the moderator tried to convince us "New Moms" to purchase the "Value Pack" or "Career Pack." These packs cost approximately $200 and $300 each! She told us that we needed to try all of the products so that when we get a New Mom and she asks about a particular product that we can tell her that we have used it and convince her to purchase it and raise our commission. Well, if you are making a commission then isn't that making a sale? Don't you have to make a sale in order to receive a commission? Aren't you "selling" the New Mom on the product in order to make a commission? In my opinion you are "investing" money if you are trying products so that you can tell other people to buy them and $200-$300 is costly to me on my budget! Mary also sent me a document titled "Tax Advantages of the Melaleuca Business" via email telling me what I could deduct on my taxes as a business expense. It stated that my monthly purchases, value pack, and career packs were business expenses and could be deducted the explanation for this was due to the fact that.
In order to understand and market Melaleuca's unique products, you need to use them yourself. I just looked up marketing in the dictionary and the definition is the act of buying or selling in a market. So therefore it is a sales job! In addition to this I later found out that my job title was Marketing Executive so I do not understand how Mary's website can legally state "No Sales" and be truthful.
Back to the claim of "No Costly Investment." I do not know about you but my time costs money. Not to mention the fact that in the New Moms Meeting they tell you to make up posters, flyers, and business cards. They tell you to post them everywhere and get your name out there. They tell you that the more a person sees these that the more curious that they will become and that they have to see these over and over again before they will build up the courage to call. So if you are buying products every month, purchase a Value pack, having business cards, flyers, posters printed up not counting your time to distribute these items then it all ads up! This sure seems costly to me!
Now I will address Mary's claim that I would be making 20% commission. Later, after joining I found inconsistencies with this. I was told different things by different people with the company.in my first Moms meeting the moderator stated that it was 14% for the first person that you first signed up and then another team leader claimed that it was up to 20%. After I received my business pack from Melaleuca and looked over the materials that I received I found that it was only 7% to start. Had I been told the truth from the beginning I would have never joined.
I find it awfully convenient that Mary would never email me a copy of the compensation plan as I requested numerous times. After joining I went to the message boards and found a posting by Mary's enroller. As I mentioned earlier Mary stated that her enroller received a check for $900 last month which was her second month as a Motivated Mom.in that posting I would find that Mary's enroller puts in approximately 16 hours a day! That is less than minimum wage! Me and my husband sat down and did some figuring. If this person works only 5 days a week at 16 hours a day and only received $900 a month then that is less than $3 an hour. Had Mary been totally honest with me I would have never joined because my time is worth more to me than $3 an hour! She did not tell me that you have to put a lot into the business to get anything back out of it. She did not tell me that if I only worked at it part-time that I would have to keep investing in a product order each month and would not see results right away as her enroller has because she invests 16 hours a day into this business. I remember telling her when I joined that I was scammed by another company that only paid me $5 a lead and that I had put in 12 hours days and made nothing at it. She should have warned me that I would have to work long hours like her enroller with Motivated Moms in order to quickly see a profit prior to my joining. I should have been told that I would not make any money in Motivated Moms/Melaleuca until I made it to Director level.
If this wasn't enough Mary promised to help me build my business with Motivated Moms. She told me that Motivated Moms was a team of Moms working together. I understand that she was new and that the other Moms would have to help me a lot because she was new and they did. But the straw that broke the camels back was that I asked her if she was going to attend the "New Moms" meeting with me and she told me that she was. But when it came time to attend I Instant Messaged her and she did not answer. Then she appeared to quickly log off. I was left to attend the meeting by myself and was not only disappointed and hurt by this but also embarrassed when all of the other new Moms were introduced by their enroller and I had to introduce myself. I felt very small and like only a monthly commission check to Mary at this point. I had hoped to later receive an email explaining her absence but did not. I understand her being new and all but why couldn't she at least attend the meeting with me? All she would have to do is be there and introduce me to the group. How hard is that? Why did she even tell me that she was going to attend if she was not? If something came up she could have emailed me and she did not. I found that I could not depend on Mary for anything. It was the next day when I put everything together and decided that Motivated Moms and Melaleuca was not for me and quit.
Today, I went to the post office to mail everything back to Melaleuca and had to pay $33.27! You might be wondering how it cost me $33.27? I know I was shocked when I got the bill. It cost me $5.21 to send a certified letter to Melaleuca stopping them from charging my card with the Monthly Orders. Then it was another $8.23 to ship back my business kit Parcel post (4th class mail) not to mention another. 75 for delivery confirmation (tracking) and then another $18.33 to ship 28lbs of products back Parcel Post to Melaleuca and again another. 75 for Delivery Confirmation.
After leaving the post office I went and ran errands. Upon returning to my home I found the 28lb package of products returned to me in a garbage bag! When I called the post office and asked what happened and why was it returned to me I was told that it leaked all over their floor and that it could not be shipped that way. Now I have to re-package the products and pay another $19.08 to ship it back to Melaleuca and pray that it gets there!
So now I am out a total of $62.42 in shipping charges alone! This includes $10.07 for Melaleuca to ship the products to me, $33.27 at the post office today, and now I have to pay another $19.08 to re-ship the products to Melaleuca because they will not allow me to return empty bottles for a refund like Mary told me that they would prior to my joining Motivated Moms/Melaleuca.in addition to this, I have to wait and track the packages and after their arrival back to Melaleuca I have to call Melaleuca and ask them to place my credit on my debit card instead of leaving it in my Melaleuca account! Wish me luck! I hope that this Rip off Report will prevent someone else from making the same mistake I made in joining Motivated Moms / Melaleuca.
Andrea
Orlando, Florida
U.S.A.
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