I answered a radio advertisement to start a home-business with no name of the company given (I should have been wary of this alone). Wanting to begin a home-business, I left my name and telephone. A recruiter from Texas telephoned me, and he said the business was Herbalife. I recognized the name, but I did not know much about the company,
On April 18, per the recruiter's request, I signed the necessary paperwork and mailed it back to him immediately. After this time, he told me there would be a three-way call with an upline and himself. His wife was on the phone, not him. Also, the upstart questioned me about the level I would start at: Distributor not Supervisor. They fed me the soft-soap that I would make fifty cents on every dollar of sale. I fell for this hype.
On May 1, he called, saying I do not know what you want to do. Are you going for Supervisor. Unfortunately, i agreed, and the credit card was charged for $2,900 and some change. Within a few days, three large boxes of products arrived. From the time I completed this sale with him, I hardly heard from him.
When he did call, in one of his messages he said, "if you are a failure" to which I replied to him that I would work hard in this business. From that point on, communication was strained; and he never showed any real intent to be serious with the business. He also told me that this business with Herbalife was a numbers game, and he was very aggressive working it.
This recruiter never told me what was involved in setting up this home-business such as, opening two websites as Supervisor, picking out web names and checking that no one else used them, paying to register the websites and paying for one year with Register.com, paying $299 to open a merchantmasters account, opening a USPS account, needing an 800#, a tape-recorder for the three-way telephone calls and the scripts, rehearsaing the scripts with the upline and himself, writing a story about myself with three references before using Herbalife and three references after using Herbalife and how the product changed my life drastically, getting a fax machine, and buying general office products. If I was prewarend about all of this setup, his answer would have been No.
Every Thursday evening, Herbalife has a Countdown Call or Information Call to which you would have to listen. Eventually, I felt they were all part of a cult, reciting the mantra. Again, as he told me, the business is a numbers game. After printing every report that was e-mailed to me, listening to the Countdown Calls, taking notes from the CD's, studying the products and listening to the CD's, I felt like I had put in a week's work, in addition to my full-time job. Meanwhile, I was hardly hearing from my Recruiter.
As time went on, he would e-mail me, and I would e-mail him. We also talked on the telephone less and less. One night, after we spoke for about one-half hour, I had a business computer question for him, and he fluffed me off, stating that his time was up and where to find the information. A time pressure was bubbling inside me; and, after three days, I figured where to go on the computer. Support was sorely lacking, in addition to commitment, integrity, sincerity and business ethics.
Back at the main office in Los Angeles, I had my problems there, too. Sometimes I would call to get the information that the recruiter would not give me. Then, it reached a point where the office help said I was not registered with Herbalife.
During this time also, I was e-mailing the recruiter, but to no avail. When I mailed him if he had sent in the Application form and also when I had sent in my weights and measures, I never heard from him via e-mail answer.
After reading reviews and comments on Ripoff.com, I have come to the same conclusion that I was just a customer with Herbalife. As a recruiter, he was upping his ante with his numbers game, duping people into his net.
Today, I sit with $2,900 plus of products sitting in my living room. I have just organized them for sale. If that is not feasible, then my niece will use the products with me. My recruiter is nowhere to be found - no e-mail nor any telephone calls. Nor is headquarters in Los Angeles very communicative. They give the big brush-off. Also, before with his 800#, he told me not to call him at that number.
Herbalife is the biggest ripoff in the business of vitamins and personal products. The company is very vague, and the recruiter is very vague. Nobody wants to give a straight answer. I am left hanging out to dry. Herbalife's big pitch is to get in at the Supervisor level - the pricy one. You are lucky if you can get anyone interested in the products. Not only is Herbalife a fraud, but the Recruiter is a fraud as well. The company and the recruiter practice deceptive, phony and contemptible actions, with no regard for the people they are duping.
Normally, I check out the business before buying. However, in this case, with the name Herbalife, I felt it was a well-known above-board company. The recruiter spun the sales pitch, afterwards telling me that he was reading off his Recruiting Documents. The bottom line is not to fall for any pitches before doing investigative work about a company. I paid a very high price to learn too late that Herbalife is not a quality company. Their main objective is to shore up the numbers game pushing product. Herbalife and its recruiters sacrifice standards of ethics, morals, honesty and concern in their business dealings and service to others.
Marilyn D.
Randolph, Massachusetts
U.S.A.
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