AmeriSciences is registered in Florida with its headquarters based in Houston, Texas. It is a manufacturer of nutritional supplements and weight loss products. AmeriSciences is a multi-level marketing (MLM), or network marketing company, and targets physicians and other medical professionals with the promise of "residual income." I and quite a few other doctors got involved in this so-called business opportunity in Ohio. The company is well practiced at exploiting physicians' frustration over declining medical reimbursements and rising practice costs. We thought we had come across a "golden opportunity" in which we would be selling high quality products which are good for our patients, while providing some financial relief for our future.
As presented by AmeriSciences, there are two ways to make money: (1) by retailing the products to patients in the office, and (2) by recruiting and signing others into your "down line, " for which you receive production bonuses and commissions.in our experience, neither of these methods produced results. The products are too expensive for most average people to buy, and finding other doctors to sign on is extremely difficult.
Despite all of our best efforts, we soon realized that this form of multi-level network marketing was not a good business model. Our single distributorship cost us approximately $210,000, because we fell for the company line that we should get in at the highest level to maximize profit. When we asked AmeriSciences to help, they showed their true colors by placing the blame back on us, and said that we did not work hard enough to sell and to recruit. We were also repeatedly reminded that we were highly educated, intelligent and sophisticated individuals, who knew what we were signing. As a matter of fact, we did not! It was not until we realized that we had been deceived did I come across the excellent research on MLMs by Jon Taylor, President of Consumer Alert Institute. His website is called MLM-thetruth.com. On this site, Dr. Taylor lists "30 Typical MLM Misrepresentations."
I was astounded when I discovered that almost every tactic listed in this article was used by AmeriSciences in our recruitment. The financial damage has been tremendous. I took a second mortgage to cover the losses. Another physician lost her children's college funds. Another couple lost most of their savings, and the story continues. Had I seen Dr. Taylor's website and been educated about the true nature of MLMs like AmeriSciences, I would have never gotten involved is such an unfair and deceptive scheme.
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