Vemma Scam? Yes It Is In My Opinion!
Update 12/15/2016: Vemma Agrees to Ban on Pyramid Scheme Practices.
The Vemma scam has recently been fined for pyramid selling in Italy. – Source New York Post
Vemma’s top-earning affiliates train their teams to use stories that claim Vemma can cure several diseases, treat dozens of medical ailments, and alleviate the symptoms of multiple maladies. Clearly the representatives of this scam will say anything to take advantage of you. – Source truthinadvertising.org.
There are a few things that really make me furious. One of those things is companies that target college students with scam “Business Opportunities”. These young people are the future creators of amazing new companies that can change the world, but instead they are conned out of their time and money.
You can purchase Red Bull in a 24 pack with free shipping for $1.88 per can at Amazon (Last price check 11/27/2014). – Affiliate link
You can sell energy drinks both powdered and canned with zero minimum purchase requirements as an Amazon Associate. Affiliate link examples: EcoDrink Energy Drink Mix and Hansen’s Diet Red Energy.
I want to focus in on one company that in my opinion is conning many young people out of their future.
That company is Vemma which has a CEO by the name of BK Boreyko.
Claim made by Vemma scam:
Unlimited possibilities! We don’t place any barriers ahead of you; we let you determine your own success.
Vemma products may not be displayed and/or sold to the general public in any office or business/commercial outlet, online, eBay, Internet store fronts (with the exception of Vemma’s corporately-hosted Brand Partner Web sites) or through home shopping network programs (i.e., HSN, QVC).
Vemma Policies & Procedures
http://www.vemma.com/backoffice/pdf/vemmapnp.pdf
92% Make $5,708 or less on average per year!
Our business model is designed to reward those people that promote the Vemma brand products. This is accomplished by devoting almost our entire marketing budget to fund the Vemma Referral Bonus Plan. This plan is based on the simple two team-building concept — a left side team and a right side team. Since there are just two teams to build, this creates excitement as new Brand Partners join, one after the other, down team lines, helping more people benefit from the volume and creating greater leverage within the plan.
Compensation Plan
http://www.vemma.com/backoffice/pdf/compensationPlan.pdf
There is no retail price for a can of Verve.
You must recruit to receive commission income from Vemma.
Business school deans should be concerned that not only does Vemma resemble companies found to be pyramid schemes, it teaches students all the wrong lessons when it comes to business. Students are taught to disregard business fundamentals — understanding markets, competition, the cost of doing business, and accountability — in pursuit of short-term selling based on quickly attracting other students who are then encouraged to quickly attract other students in an apparent endless chain. – William Keep dean of the business school at The College of New Jersey
This is what the FTC says:
VEMMA pays you a significant Fast Start Bonus ($100, or $200) as a reward for getting your new person started the correct way. This is how many people earn $2000 and more in their first month!
We are all about making you look good?
The BBB Now has a C+ rating for Vemma and they are not accredited. This rating is provided because they claimed to have an A rating and they do not. (The ratings provided by the BBB are a scam in my opinion. The complaints are not.)
Vemma CEO B.K. Boreyko says in a recent video that the NBA signed off on Vemma’s business model after investigating the company’s structure and that it determined “these guys are great.” Truth In Advertising contacted the NBA to confirm, and an official stated that the league has no partnership with Vemma and has never investigated the company’s structure. – Source Truth In Advertising
BK Boreyko claims that Dr. Oz called the Vemma formula his “favorite fatigue fighter.” Oz does indeed list Verve on his website as a “surefire way to get a jolt of energy.” It’s one of the few products listed by name on Oz’s site. This is not an endorsement, his spokesperson insists. You see, Boreyko is an advisory board member of Oz’s charity, HealthCorps, and Vemma has been very supportive, to the tune of $650,000 in donations to the charity. “I’m sure Vemma is a favorite company of Dr. Oz because of its generosity,’’ said Oz spokesman Tim Sullivan. – Source Truth In Advertising
Below are some highlights from complaints filed with the FTC about Vemma.
Read the original BBB text of the complaint from the above graphic about the $2000 upgrade to “Diamond”. You can clearly see that the complaint is real and that Vemma refunded the money.
Here is a video from someone who lost a friend to Vemma.
Red Bull this deadly poison that is killing kids world wide must be stopped by our savior Verve. Ha ha ha. Red Bull contains the equivalent of a cup of coffee in caffeine and 5 teaspoons of sugar. It is not killing kids. Verve has the same level of caffeine as Red Bull. Caffeine is the dangerous chemical in both of these drinks. No deaths have been linked to Red Bull in the reports to the FDA.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-16/red-bull-energy-drinks-named-in-21-reports-to-u-s-fda.html
http://www.snopes.com/medical/potables/redbull.asp
Robert Kiyosaki Is A Scam Artist?
MLM vs College – The Showdown
Alex Morton has trained 0.10% of Brand Partners to do what he does and make what he makes as a Royal Ambassador. He must be very bad at teaching people what he does and how to make money like he makes money.
Here is a video of Alex in action.
What is a product-based pyramid scheme?
This is the response I received from BK Boreyko about my Vemma scam claims:
BK Boreyko
October 24, 2013 at 5:26 PM
Ethan, To say I disagree with your opinion is an understatement. You are a critic, and like any critic you profess the negative side of business, culture and life. I’m sure if you focused on small business opportunities, you’d point out that there’s up to an 80% failure rate and the average small business takes an after tax investment on average of $30k. Sounds like another scam yet it is the backbone of this economy and the American Dream. You say what you think and I can tell you what I know, this network marketing industry ($30 billion domestic, $167 billion worldwide) can change a person’s life. It took a bankrupt insurance salesman (my dad) and got him debt free and wealthy. I’ve seen it happen thousands of times and you are correct, it doesn’t happen for everyone or even the majority, but what on this planet does? A job, nope, people get fired or a business closes down. Owning your own business, ugh, the odds are really against you. What else is there for the average person? Even you have to admit there’s limited options for people in this economy. I just read that 88% of the jobs created over the last 12 months are part time jobs. You say nothing good about what I do for a living, yet I pump almost $2 million a week back into this economy by putting dollars that would normally get spent with Madison Ave ad execs and instead, put it into the hands of hard working people that believe in the Vemma brands and tell their friends about them. If I wanted to make you happy, I’d ‘go legit’ and start buying traditional advertising. Sorry, I’d rather continue to make my Brand Partners happy. So, you do your videos and blogs and I’ll do my thing. My dad used to tell me we find out how big of difference we make in people’s lives by seeing how many people show up at our funerals. My dad had standing room only at his and my hope is I’ll be able to top his. He’d have wanted that.
Hi Ethan,
Can you also do a review on Qnet ( formerly Quest Net) ?. Thanks
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Thank you for your request. They are on my list to look into.
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It seems that Vemma is operating as “Vabo-N” in Austria now. Two former Vemma Star Presidentials are it’s CEO’s.In Austria Vemma is still under investigation especially for scamming teenagers and youmg adults.
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Article says the FTC shut them down, can you confirm?
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/09/10/the-ftc-shut-down-vemma-for-being-a-pyramid-scheme.aspx
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They were only temporarily shutdown. The Court allowed them to reopen with a monitor watching what they do.
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Vemma has been shut down! Rejoice!
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Very interesting. I recently made a short film about network marketing, and the average experience with network marketing companies like Vemma for young adults. I’d love to know what you think of it Ethan!
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Very interesting film. I really enjoyed your exploration of the conflict of turning your friends into a business.
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Thanks Ethan, I appreciate the comment!
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Great article… I was introduced to Vemma back in 2012 and unfortunately I got sold into the HYPE of the company (energy drinks, make lots of money, earn free BMW/Mercedes Benz. Lost over $1,500 in 6 months… Don’t waist your time or your money people! STAY AWAY.
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before you join vemma make sure you check out the facts!! now everyone is entitled to their own opinion but facts are facts check this video out! helped me a lot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYxGcxKy_-o
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https://www.linkedin.com/pub/anthony-v-powell/14/482/1a1 Anthony Powell’s linkedin account. According to this he left Vemma August 2014. I guess the Vemma scam is up and he and his gang are on the run.
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Ethan, I own you big thanks for writing this. Soon Vemma will get a taste of what Herbalife is going through. Sadly I have no idea what happen to YPR Pariah site, but keep doing your thing mate! Cheers from IL!
I have a FB page about Vemma scams stuff.
https://www.facebook.com/stoppingvemmafromspreading?ref=br_tf
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Thank you for joining the fight!
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So a few days ago I got a call from a friend of mine saying that she is very excited about this new business opportunity and I feel like she is maybe to excited. She wants to get a car and make a lot of money. I live outside of the US and I’m guessing that they want to branch out and make it internacional or whatever. I honestly don’t know what to do, should I start and do it or should I not?
The fact that I have to put down money that I don’t have and not be sure if I’m going to get it back really scares me.
They say that if you have a bad feeling about something then it probably isn’t good.
This is also to good to be true.
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I have one thing to say to you. Get your money back. You should never start a business under these conditions.
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good news from europa
https://www.truthinadvertising.org/vemma-facing-judicial-inquiries-in-europe/
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You don’t seem to be a big MLM fan… I think Vemma is a legitimate business opportunity offering good products. I’ve taken part to the european pre-launch and I just wanted to let you know that I’d never feel like being scammed in any way. Neither my friends and partners.
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I am not a MLM fan. I was really not a Vemma fan up to their most recent changes this month. I will review them again shortly to see how these new changes effected them.
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This is crazy! The exact same thing is happening to my friend. She got into it and she now neglects all of her real friends and calls the vamma people her family. I’ve gone to several of their meetings. They all sound the same and you can tell they all have been brain washed, they pretty much sound like robots. Their biggest motivation is money and almost all of them are against going to school. they claim they will retire by the age of 25, and when you ask questions they get extremely defensive about it because they can’t ever really answer properly. How can they be so stupid and think that this will take them far in life. It’s so sad but I had to cut her out of my life. It literally made me want to throw up every time I heard her or one of her “family” member talk about Vemma.
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Sorry to hear that. I HAD a friend who asked me to join back in 2011 or 2012. He introduced me to his “superior” (or whatever you call the people who recruit you). He made it sound so easy and fun. “Join so you can retire…. “You’ll retire by 25…” “You’ll earn $3000 this year and next year it will be doubled and the year after that it’ll be even more!” But this wasn’t Vemma, it was a company based in Thailand called Unicity. This year another friend of mine asked me to join Vemma. My other friends who rejected his offer told me it’s a waste of time and that I shouldn’t join it. I wasn’t planning to do so anyways. I’m guessing the reason why he joined Vemma is because he was into the idea of making money, getting rich and blowing it all on parties and living the rich life like the people you see in the media and movies.
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Amway CEO went to jail! Just another wonderful MLM scam!
Become rich with Vemma by recruiting your sucker homies, hoes, fambly, the desperate and other fools!
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They way I see it all is no matter what a man tries to do to make a buck someone is going to have a problem with it.. Walmart forces factories to move overseas and Americans lose jobs… The high cost of low prices..them?panies are feeding us poisons and our gov allows it… People will always find things to bitch and gripe about.. I think if Obama glorified oxygen half the country would hold their breath and die..
For those whose kids have gone astray I hope they find their way in whatever they choose.. But I can say that most of my friends and family that went to college are doing BAD.. IN NO WAY do I condone preying on kids.. But from what I have seen most college grads end up with 9 to 5s and big loan debts.. They only reason I’m not drowning in loan debt is because I went to school free since my dad worked for the university. But some of my classmates..I feel so sorry for them and where they are in life..
I was looking at wun, vemma, herbal life and it works.. I decided to sell hair extensions…lol Vemma was promising. People buy and consume energy drinks ALL DAY.. People use multivitamins everyday..why not combine them!? The comp plan is over complicated in my opinion. The way I see it, points should be str8 commissions for every product purchased.
Any how.. Thanks for the info on wun…my travel agent said all the same things you said!
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Personally I find energy drinks yucky (I’ve tried a dozen brands) and plenty of studies showed that multivitamins don’t really do anything for you if you already eat a balanced diet (and if you don’t, you likely don’t have money for vitamins any way!) Thus, combing them is a “meatball sundae” (thanks to Seth Godin for the term). But then, if people can sell cigarettes, why not overpriced drinks?
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Not that it is your business, but for the purpose of the argument my income is at the “Vemma Ambassador” level, achieved through the traditional college and corporate career. Net worth is also strong. I have funds saved for education, so he would not have any student loans. My son has excellent capabilities in technical fields and other language skills that make his potential probably higher than mine in the traditional routes. Until he was side-tracked of course. I believe he will see the light soon – I see some progress.
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Income at “ambassador” level in Vemma is about 25000 PER MONTH, though actual rank would vary month to month. (Imagine how many kids are buying overpriced energy drinks and dreaming of $$$$ for that to happen!)
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“People will believe a big lie sooner than a little one, and if you repeat it frequently enough, people will sooner or later believe it.” Walter C. Langer
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Vemma has taken over my daughter. She is a freshman in college and now wanting to quite because she says college is a “scan”. Vemma is telling these kids that college will put them into debt with students loans, which is the number one debt in America. This company has totally brainwashed my daughter. This company is nothing but a scan and a cult!!!!! She is giving up scholarships because of this stupid company. Something has to be done!!!
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That is the message they have been using to get kids to focus on Vemma. It is very sad indeed.
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Carol, they did exactly the same with my son. I have written to the FTC, the Attorney General, and Dr. Oz. The only thing that seems to work is to talk with the kids before Vemma gets hold of them. We are about 5 months into it, and my son is starting to come around slightly, but he has lost a lot of money and a lot of valuable time. His grades have slipped and GPA is lower also. And my relationship with him has suffered tremendously because I am “negative and controlling”. Ethan, do you know who we can contact? It is too late for me, but I really hate to see other people have to suffer.
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Lost alot of money? What for, consuming products he would already consume? It’s about shifting dollars from other energy drinks that have no nutritional content whatsoever. Did you know get 3 customers and your product is free? Why did he not have this? Or cancel his position or return the product. There is a money back guarantee. There are no contracts or lock ins. I just don’t get this comment. This is complete BS and I would say Ethan writes these comments signed in as other users!
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I am not Ethan. I don’t know Ethan other than to read/listen to his blog. My son will not tell me how much money he has lost, but I believe it is a significant amount – several thousand dollars. Certainly he was not spending $150 or so a month on energy drinks nor had he ever given anyone $500 for an opportunity to lease a BMW prior to being introduced to Vemma. Why didn’t he “work harder” to get his product free? He seemed to have worked pretty hard. Hard enough to decimate his grades for the semester, which is another several thousand dollars wasted. It is simply blaming the victim to say these kids don’t work hard enough. Taking advantage of young people’s enthusiasm is about the lowest of the low and the karma will catch up to this company eventually.
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R P, seems like you have been brainwashed as well or just haven’t grown to understand how the world works. Numbers do not lie, and neither do the processes that are being used in these business strategies. Yes, many of the people hired for these companies can be very driven individuals. Most of these kids are not mature enough to realize that they have not been given a good opportunity. The idea sounds great, these kids are motivated, but the numbers never add up in the end. Take the wasted money and put it into a real business if you want to work for yourself.
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Don’t bull****, man. Vemma costs at least 2X as much as equivalent Red Bull. You drink energy drink for the caffeine, not reconstituted fruit powder or the various heavy metals added by Vemma.
Did you know they add silver, cobalt, tin and a dozen other metals to Verve? Read the ingredient label yourself.
There is an AUTOSHIP AGREEMENT, which is a contract, duh! People have to actively CANCEL autoship, which is opt-out instead of opt-in.
You just don’t get the comment because you’re not seeing facts in front of your nose. Instead, you’ve been regurgitating PR crap and whatever other crap your upline’s been feeding that empty place between your ears.
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Susan (and Carol),
One place to contact with your stories might be Truth in Advertising (truthinadvertising,org), a consumer-protection nonprofit working against deceptive advertising and marketing. They have a set of highly critical reports on Vemma on their website. Some of their campaigns in the past, which have included sending legal complaints to federal agencies such the FDA and the FTC, seem to have been pretty effective (e.g. against NourishLife). Given how much they’ve focused on Vemma recently, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re mounting a similar campaign against this company also. Getting in touch with them might be a way of letting your stories have a wider impact.
Best wishes!
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Vemma is 100% a scam. The business model revolves around recruiting college aged people and giving them false hope in an opportunity. On the other hand, colleges nowadays have basically turned into a scam. Unless your degree is very specific then students will not be learning as much as when their parents went to school. Kids nowadays have every resource and bit of knowledge available to them in a matter of seconds on the internet. The piece of paper you earn from college is valuable, but the whole process has turned into a scam. Unless you are in a very specific field, the piece of paper basically shows that you can stick to a commitment. IMO the owners of vemma will most likely be going to hell. They are very smart, yet very evil at the same time.
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Carol,
I can totally identify with you. My son is also in this cult and we argue about it all the time. It has definitely changed him, he is arrogant, condescending and ungrateful. He dropped out if college after only his second semester and says school is for fools. I am so incensed about this, it’s affecting me emotionally tremendously. We parents should get together and somehow expose these crooks.
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Silvia, I read ur comment, and totally thought wow she is talking about my son.. we used to be so close, now we fight all the time.
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I feel ur pain… I am going through the same thing with my son, and cry all the time because he’s so far gone.
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Hang in there, ladies. Eventually, they will quit and come back to you realizing they made a mistake. When they do come back, be kind and gracious. They will be embarrassed enough as it is.
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She’s wise to be thinking outside the box and looking at her options, but Veema or any MLM is NOT the answer.
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Thank-you Ethan for showing the truth about Vemma. My 17 year old was ready to sign up for this BS. He wanted to earn money for college. I thank God he came to me for some advice. I’m just a little upset that his good friend would try to get him involved in this.
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You are very welcome. Vemma is targeting kids all over the world. I am glad they talked to you as well.
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I really like your site and Youtube Channel, Ethan.
It would be great if you could explore the psychology behind the scammers. What makes them tic? What is a common trait among people who scam others?
My best guess is that they have personality disorders – Borderline and Anti-social. Borderline would be my guess as the most prevalent. Borderlines thrive on manipulating people into getting what they aren’t entitled to. When one person doesn’t budge, they move on to the next.
In mental health institutions where borderlines are often patients, they wreak havoc on staff and patients who don’t know how to handle them. They invent ways to manipulate. These are the ones who claim that they are suicidal, and engage in benign behavior, which some mistake as suicidal – in order to be transferred to more acute settings where they are treated like kings and queens. They also thrive on negative attention, so being “suicidal” is common. They play games where they endear themselves to staff persons in order to manipulate them. When the staff person does not buy into the manipulation, the endearment ends, and angry accusations ensue. They also tend to do what is called “staff splitting,” where they ask one staff person for something they aren’t entitled to, and when that staff person says “no,” they say things like “well, so and so said I could.”
Borderlines are people who most likely have been abused themselves when they were younger, and as a result, they have never learned to have healthy adult relationships. They tend to be most manipulative with authority figures, but they also prey on the vulnerable; which, in mental institutions, are usually the more mentally ill – schizophrenic people, who don’t have social skills.
It seems to me, that a lot of these people who run scams are a lot like these borderlines I worked with (for over 15 years), but they are more sophisticated, and have learned to take the manipulation to the next level. I would say they are the hard-core, high IQ borderlines who can’t get enough of the energy created by their scams.
Just a thought. I don’t have actual data on this, but it looks like it might be something worth exploring.
according to expert advice on how professionals working in mental health environments, the way to handle threatening behavior from borderlines is to remain detached and uninterested. Body language should be non-engaging, acting bored, and reminding them that the manipulation will not work. This makes them angry, of course, but they eventually learn that their schemes don’t work, and the best way to get what they want is to follow the rules.
Perhaps law enforcement could learn something from mental health experts when it comes to scammers.
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Excellent suggestion. Thank you!
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cc- In fairness, maybe his friend had honorable but misguided intentions. Regardless, am glad your son didn’t get in to Vemma.
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Late night thinking and developing. And after reading this entire blog and it’s comments from multiple people, here’s my conclusion. At first, I was interested in the “opinion”, but as I read and listened on, my beliefs in vemma and BK and the law of attraction, actually strengthened. Which wasn’t the point of this entire shpeal I just read. Which is crazy to think about because I was for sure to find something bad that triggered my logical mind in what I’m involved in. But I didn’t find anything, but motivation to keep on doing what I am doing in vemma, I’m currently at silver rank which doesn’t say much, but I know what doors I have opened for others, family included. It’s the mind frame, the paradigm shift, that I have made that makes it all worth it! Negativity does breed in ones self, which disconnects them from society. The positivity that has been prevoked within me, by my being involved in this company is incompatible to anything I’ve ever experienced. And for that I’ll be forever greatful. I love being in control of my future both in success and health. There’s too many people whom support and live amazing lives through network marketing. And I’m going to be one of the most influential people, that do this industry. I hope more positivity comes your way Ethan, because these negative thoughts will eventually end the existence and impression you have.
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You know what’s funny soo much pride is shown through your comments but when asking someone to go to one of your meetings where’s this pride when having to mislead someone to go. Where’s the integrity when you focus on your scripted story instead of stats and the product. No one has the sense to tell people the legality side of it if I wanted to put my cases in my friends dads franchises (7-11) soo go ahead and be proud of being broke I work for a living and I have been compensated for every second of it. 55000 a year. Btw I’m only 21. Stop being lazy. Your selling damaged goods in a franchise older than you. With a company that’s been marked.
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How are you making your money? Are you selling a legitimate product or are you selling memberships to your friends? I think $162 for 2 cases of energy drinks is a complete ripoff. Let’s say that the 2 cases cost 60 dollars at most (based off what a case of red bull or monster sells for) where does the other 100 dollars go? This would be a legitimate buisness if you got your money worth of product and you sold the product as well as signing up new members. How do you now question where your $162 or 500 dollars go?
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I don’t care how positive you are suckering people into a product based pyramid scheme. Stop doing it.
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So instead of analyzing the arguments presented here through logic, you’re reacting to it as a neg and a dare?
Guess that shows how mature you are. I recommend remedial kindergarten.
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Those “customer reviews are fake” I am in the business and at no point in time has anyone paid 2000 to “upgrade” to diamond. This is completely fake because if you actually knew about the business you’d know that there is not such thing as “upgrading” let alone paying to do so. And that people are being sent vemma products after they’ve cancelled making it seem like the ppl who work here are not cooperative is ridiculous because when I have cancelled I have not reveived product and when my package has been lost, they have sent me a new order free of charge.
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Fany here is a customer complaint from scam book. It looks like the $2000 pay to play is explained here as well.
http://www.scambook.com/report/view/204711/Vemma-Energy-Drink-The-Complaint-204711-for-$331.69
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There is no $2000 upgrade option. Sorry you are wrong.
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Sorry you are the one that is wrong. Below is a link to the original text of the complaint made to the BBB and you can clearly see that Vemma did refund the customers money for the “Diamond” upgrade.
https://ethanvanderbuilt.com/vemma-bbb-2000-upgrade-diamond-complaint/
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This GPS system is in no way associated with Vemma. This affiliate that enrolled this guy in the “diamond upgrade” did so under false pretences and should have been terminated. Vemma did right by refunding this guys money. If you go to the actual Vemma site and read the comp plan and review the website you will see nothing about a $2000 upgrade.
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Global Pro System is created by Anthony Powell. Below is a video of BK Boreyko introducing Anthony Powell. Anthony Powell is not just some random rogue brand partner.
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Ethan blinded liars, their brainwashed….
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Anthony Powell, formerly of Herbalife, left when Herbalife decided to clean house and enforce its rules that members should NOT be selling leads through companies like “GPS”. Apparently Vemma felt it is free to employ Powell and GPS because it is NOT under FTC investigation. Hahaha.
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Exactly. None of this is random, it is all controlled at the top. Even if it wasn’t in a few cases, companies are responsible for things that happen in their name and are held accountable every day.
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These guys are referred to as “program jumpers” meaning that they jump from MLM to MLM without hesitation More than likely, they are planning their next deal.
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