We had been distributors for 4 years and were on top of a large downline, when a large distributor 2 levels above us tried two different times to buy our sponsors downline for a very low price, and wanted our sponsor to also try to talk us into quitting. We all said no. One year later, the corporate attorney sent our sponsors and us a request for a copy of the past 12 months of sales receipts (this is buried in the sales manual and not discussed in training sessions). Neither of us could furnish this as we did not keep them, as we sold products to friends and family only. They terminated our distributorships. We both talked to attorneys and both agreed we had gotten a bad deal. Our sponsors attorney contacted Advocare to complain on their behalf, however, was told that Advocare acted in compliance with the guidelines, and incidently the case would not go to a jury trial as per the dist. Agreement all litigation would be handled in Dallas and by arbitration. Futhermore, any attempt at a lawsuit would be met with a "vigorously pursued counter suit" and asked that the attorney would let his clients know the significant costs in time and money defending themselves against such a suit.
This being said:
1. I had a copy, but did not keep, of a letter from Advocare's attorney from a year or so earlier where a large dist.in our downline was being reprimanded for distributing his own sales literature claiming Advocare products cured diseaes such as Parkinson's Disease. This is a major federal regulatory infraction, however he was merely reprimanded and never missed a paycheck.
2. Charlie Ragus would say Advocare NEVER paid for sports endorsemnts, however I was told by a friend who is the Mother-In-Law of one of the top college strength and conditiong coaches for a major college football program (who used some of the products personally), that shortly after Mr. Ragus died, a person from Advocare's corp. Office, came to his office and offered to pay him $10,000 and give the University $10,000 of product to endorse Advocare. This would be a direct violation of NCAA guidelines, he declined.
3. Regarding sales receipts, Advocare says in their handbook that requests for sales receipts is only aasked for on a random basis, however we and our sponsors being asked for something most distributors don't use, Advocare knows this and it was mentioned (though of course not in writing), in a top distributors meeting which our sponsors had attended as a way to get rid of unwanted distributors. The large distibutor in our downline, who was mentioned above, had never been asked for sales receipts and had never heard of anyone being requested for theirs.
In our opinions we were selectively cut out, and as Advocare was our sole source of income (on track to make $60,000 that year), we could not afford to sue. If we lost we could have been ordered to pay approximately $100,000 back (the total of what we had been paid over 4 years) plus no telling how much in attorney's fees. We had to let it drop and go on. It sill hurts though, glad I found this site. Bewrae if you join with Advocare, and keep careful records if you grow into a large dist. And most important, make friends of those at the top.
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