This is going to sound very familiar to those of you who know the history of Marc Accetta, Equinox, Trek Alliance, etc. Or who otherwise been the victim of one of these Multi-Level Markeing traps.
Yesterday, I got a call from a lady named Theresa, who said that she was with a company based in Austin Texas and that they were in the process of establishing a new Los Angeles branch office. She stated that she had received my resume from Monster.com and wanted to interview me for a position in the new office. She asked me what my recent job experience. After I told her I asked what positions were available and she stated that they were looking to fill some sales positions but also had an opening of a "manager of a sales team." Some travel and training of the sales team would be involved. I said I might be interested and she said that she had a slot available at 12:45 the following day. I asked what the name of the company was because she hadn't actually told it to me yet and she said it was called "Future Horizons." (I actually had to catch myself because I almost responded that that sounded "redundant" to me, I kid you not.)
Theresa, said the company was based in Austin, Texas. I asked if there was a website that I could review the info on the company before hand and she said that it was currently down or being redone or moved to new servers but that she could show me the info on her computer when I came in. (I have since learned this is a common response.)
I did a search anyway but Future Horizons turned up all sorts of responses including for one large company that works with getting info out about Autistism and Asperger's Syndrome. I thought that would be cool if it were this company. I couldn't even find the job listing on Monster.com that Theresa had said I had responded to or any listing for a Marketing Manager with a company called Future Horizons or at the Glendale location.
Well when I arrived, sure enough there were two other guys there. We started chatting and found out that we were all told to come at the "12:45 slot." Afterwards, I chatted with the receptionist and it turns out she is actually Theresa's sister and has been working there for 3 weeks.
We are left sitting around in the ante-room until a few others came.By now, having recently been through almost the exact same trap with "WORLD GROUP FINANCIAL" I know what game is being played. I asked the receptionist directly, "Is there any Multi-Level Marketing involved with this company?" She said, well yes there is "Direct Selling." (A common euphemism.)
I could have walked out then but I was interested from a purely research-perspective as to what the pitch, company structure and products would be.
So anyway we got into the room and the usual standing circle-chat to break the ice occurs. We are introduced to several good-looking young, and smartly dressed people who are extremely friendly and eager to know all about us. Finally, we sit down and an attractive young woman goes through her well-rehearsed sales pitch, explaining the wonderful company products and eventually the different levels from associate to double diamond or something like that. It is at this time that we learn that the name of the company is Liquidity International. (Could have used this info before as a shearch of it turns out several negative references in the MLM game.)
Throughout the girl's pitch of course she peppers her shpiel with inane references to such giants of industry as Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates, etc. And asks questions like "You know who Sam Walton is don't you?" as a way of transitioning into how you can make untold wealth in the company. She kept shooting me dirty looks because although I was trying to be courteous, I couldn't help rolling my eyes or conveying in other body language just how moronic this all was. Of course there were a few persons "oohing and aaahing" in the group.
At one point she showed us some cream that she said was a "non-surgical facelift in a bottle" that works in less than 20 minutes. She said one application will make you look "3 years younger."
I broke in saying: "Let me try it now, that way by the time you are done we will see?" Everyone laughed and she said maybe afterwards they can demo it on me. (Oh how unaware poor child you are!)
Actually I was a good boy and kept my comments and disgust to myself. But the kicker for me was when she was demonstrating the "health benefits" of the company's #1 product, the "JUICE OF LIFE" (no kidding). This girl took a gadget with a lightbulb in it and plugged it in and took one of the electrodes and she was saying, "Do yall know what an open-circuit is?" She then says that she is demonstrating that our LA water has no minerals in it as she puts the electrode in the glass. (The bulb does not light up.) Then she says that the Juice of Life, like Gatorade has lots of electrolytes and minerals that the body needs and as she puts the electrode into the glass with the Juice of Life, the bulb lights to the delight of some lesser educated folk in the audience. At that point, I couldn't help but laugh out loud, to which the girl invited me to leave because "we want to find persons who are only interested in this opportunity." This was my response: "I'm sorry, I am trying to be courteous but you are making the most outrageous medical claims. Wouldn't salt-water do the same thing?"
She again invited me to leave but I had already given them over an hour of my time and I was determined to say something for the benefit of the whole group when the time came.
After her part, the usual 4 minute video plays and at the end is Marc Accetta talking. I couldn't help but chuckle as the camera slowly zoomed out revealing him sitting on a new Mercedes Benz in front of a huge mansion, no doubt intended to convey the future riches that awaited us.
Finally, we get to the end and the girl says that there are basically three kinds of people. Group 1, who know this is not for you. Group 2 who like the company but are unsure and Group 3 who see what they like and want to start. She then said that she was going to play some music and give those who felt like they were in Group 1 a chance to leave, afterwards the others would go one-on-one with the reps.
She turned on the music and I stood right away and said:
"I am no fool so I will be leaving. But I want you to know that everyone here was mislead into believing that we would be coming down here for a job interview, and I think what you are doing is completely wrong."
At this point Tony Swansek? —Billed as the 4th biggest money earner and new guy in charge of setting up LA operations. He is only 26 years old.—popped in and started to ask me to please leave. I turned and started telling him that I felt that I had been mislead. Tony motioned to another guy who evidently was a plant sitting in the audience, this guy popped up, grabbed my suitcase and then was about to make an attempt to grab my arm but a warning from me kept him going. He carried by bag outside and returned to back up Tony, while I was letting Tony know what I thought. I told Tony that he seemed like a very nice guy and very smart. (I actually meant it too. Tony seemed like a very nice guy from the chatting we had done earlier.) I motioned to the girl and said she is obviously very intelligent. I looked him in the eye and said "Why are you doing this? Why are you in this company?" Tony only responded that I needed to leave and they would call security. "I said good call them, until then I am having a conversation with you."
(Afterall I had given them 2 hours of my day, so why couldn't they give me 5 minutes of their time hearing me out.) At this point, I was actually interested in what I had been wondering when I was listening to the woman give the presentation. What kind of person gets sucked into this? And what makes a reasonable, intelligent person able to tell other people things which she knows to be totally untrue and to do with conviction?)
So at this point I asked Tony, "Are you familiar with the concept of Cognitive Dissonance?" I could see that he was not so I didn't pursue that.By this time the goon was back and since it has been over a decade since I have gotten to kick anyone's butt I flirted with the idea for just a minute. But instead I thought better of it and just left. At least to my delight all of this hubbub I had created let almost the entire group slip out the door. Only 2 poor ladies were caught by the others who were trying to distract them by talking about the "opportunity."
I guess during this "conversation" with me telling him what I thought and their threatening to call security or to remove me by force, they were not too happy about learning that I happen to be an attorney. (That nipped the removal by force thing in the bud real quick.) By the time I got home Tony had already called my house and left me a message stating that he was very sorry that I felt mislead. That the company uses a clear phone script that conveys that they are looking for independent reps and that he would be talking with Theresa to make sure no one else was mislead in the future.
Conclusion:
So this usacomplaints.com consists of 2 rip-offs in my opinion:
1. The Job-Interview Trap Rip-Off which I feel is very misleading and deceiving. &
2. The company itself, being a MLM with dubious ownership history, and most especially the offering of questionable products and the making extremely specious medical and health claims about the products during these demonstrations.
(I might add their being guilty of logical fallacy. I mean all the girl proved with her demo was that the Juice of Life (like any salty-water) can close the circuit and light up a bulb. Her implication and indication that this was evidence of the health benefits of the product does not follow logically.)
Hope this helps someone
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