Anybody use it, would you buy their energy drinks/bars or any thoughts in general?

Thinking of selling it to earn a few extra quid.

How do you like your pyramids?

With me at the top:)

I’m undecided between falling for the herbalife scam, or the ‘my advertising pays’ scam.

Hmmm…

DrP

Yeah get the pyramid structure, doesn’t really bother me tbh.

More interested in the the reputation they have.

“I’m undecided between falling for the herbalife scam, or the ‘my advertising
pays’ scam.”

You don’t have to lay out any cash so you don’t really have anything to lose *holds breathe*

Yeah get the pyramid structure, doesn’t really bother me tbh.

Then you’re a fool, and will almost certainly end up out of pocket.

On December 20, 2012, Bill Ackman (of Pershing Square Capital) presented a series of arguments outlining why his firm believed that Herbalife operates a “sophisticated pyramid scheme”.[7][9] Ackman has alleged after a year-long investigation that the majority of distributors lose money, that the chance of making the testimonial-implied headline income is approximately one in five thousand, and that the company materially overstates its distributors’ retail sales and understates their recruiting rewards, to the point that he concludes it is a pyramid scheme.[81]

Ackman claimed that Herbalife distributors “primarily obtain their monetary benefits from recruitment rather than the sale of goods and services to consumers.” His firm estimates that, since 1980, the scheme has led to more than $3.5 billion of total net losses suffered by those at the bottom of the Herbalife chain. He said on CNBC that millions of low income people around the world, hoping to become millionaires, are being duped with this scheme, and if they knew that the probability is less than 1% of making a hundred thousand dollars, what Herbalife calls the “millionaires team”, no one would sign up for it.[82]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbalife#Business_model

I’ve had friends fall for this sort of scheme and lose thousands. Walk away.

Worked with someone who used it a few years ago, they stayed fat and on checking the ingredients of the “tea” powder she had it appeared to be mostly caffeine.

Thanks Cougar.

That article kind of teased out my reservations about whether people actually would buy it and how you actually make money… it would seem that people don’t really buy it but you rely on signing up people to work below to make your income.

Not for me!

Herbalife, along with Forever Living can be astonishingly lucrative, I have 2 friends who do it and have done very, very well out of it. But you have to remember a few of things:
1. The products are, basically, crap. You can peddle as much pseudo-science as you like but ultimately they are at best a placebo.
2. However, the above doesn’t matter, you make money by getting other people to go into business, the products you sell make you very little.
3. Because of the above point, you’re selling a lifestyle. The people I know doing it are very forward about how successful they are how much money they make and how big their new car is. You sell by making people want, and feel they can get, what you have.
4. You’ll lose a pile of friends. Because you make your money by getting other people on board, you will end up selling to whoever you spend most time with. Eventually said people will get annoyed and stop wanting to spend time with you. The people I know who do it are now at this point, I see them rarely and certainly don’t look at their social media.
5. To be successful, like everything, you have to throw the kitchen sink at it. You can make a couple of quid selling aloe but to make any real money you need to put in some serious hours.

How much the above bothers you is entirely up to you.

Yeah.

And even assuming it’s otherwise great, it’s inherently flawed. You sign up, recruit all your mates; they all go to recruit all their mates… who are broadly the same people you’ve already recruited, and they fall flat on their face.

So basically, the only way to make money is to screw over all your friends. It’s insidious.

Read Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science book.

Yeah, don’t really want to sell to my family and friends and the do seem very quick to tell you how much money they earn.

Read Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science book.

been on my to read list for a while so have just ordered it

Was involved a very long time a go with a competitor that also used the MLM method.
Absolutely nothing wrong with the principle.
But it only really works when the products sold are sold at big mark ups, so that a large percentage of the total price is commission. And it only really works with repeat orders.
The competitor product was always falling foul of laws regarding sales of medicinal products, since they contained all kinds of herbal extracts that probably do have an effect, but can only be sold as having an effect if they have been licensed as a medicine.
And all the meetings are very much like a cult, and you lose all your friends.
And the pyramid bit doesn’t let you recruit a shed load of people and sit back and earn the percentage from their sales… you need to reach personal targets too, to qualify. If you go on holiday for 2 weeks, you have to works 2x as hard on pure sales in the other 2 weeks that month, else the guy that recruited you will earn all of the commission that you would have earned.

Would I buy the stuff? Nope.
Would I sell the stuff (with or without recruiting a downline)? Nope.

But I have met some that earned a metric shedload.
But they have 0 friends.

the do seem very quick to tell you how much money they earn.

I went for a job interview a good few years ago, some lass saying she was a Managing Director of a company. The address turned out to be a semi-detached on the edge of town, and she was a “Managing Director” of her own company employing precisely herself. She started on her sales pitch about how we were going to be rich and I said, “before we go any further, is this Amway by any chance?” It was. I made my excuses and ran for the hills.

The point of this is, her house was covered in posters of what she was going to do with her millions; A4 prints of sports cars, exotic-looking holiday destinations. She’d basically devoted her life to it, and these were all her reminders of why she should stop whatever not-Amway task might occupy her and concentrate on the ‘business.’ It was scary.

And, I can see how it happens. I’ve been to an Amway orientation meeting, back when I’d never heard of MLM, and it’s incredibly compelling. A friend had bought a box full of eco cleaning products from them and failed to sell any of it, so he dragged me along presumably so that I could lose money as well. The presentation is very well done; it’s honed to perfection, incredibly slick and professional, and essentially two steps away from being a brainwashing cult.

But they have 0 friends.

Lots of pics and comments on social media of the great business lunches they have with great friends in great cafes to discuss great plans. Yet oddly none of any people who are not keen to “enhance their lifestyle” or to “build a great business”, or even of standard nights out with old friends to the pub. Odd.

If they go out the the pub… then the trip to the pub becomes a sales opportunity.

If they meet a new friend… then the new friend is a potential customer and/or downline marketeer.

They speak of financial independence, but working your ass off every waking hour to earn a 6 figure sum to spunk on a new Porsche is not financial independence.

Only a few are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time for that. All of the leaf nodes of the tree will end up buying product to sell, and not being able to offload it. Not a massive problem if it’s something you would use yourself and can earn a few quid selling some of it on. But if buying just to sell on, you will lose, or make so little it’s not worth the time.

A bloke who used to live oposite us was into it. Used to get boxes delivered when he was out which we ended up signing for. We were like a bloody Herbalife depot some days.

I don’t know if he made a sucess of it or not but it seemed to be a last resot to maintain a lifestyle he could no longer afford. He had to sell up.

All of the leaf nodes of the tree will end up buying product to sell, and not being able to offload it.

And therein lies the rub. All the people who are likely to get rich off it already have done. Everyone else at the bottom, they’re simply the product.

“With me at the top:)”

Smart comment but deluded .youll never be at the top of anything selling herbalife.

The only people i know who have made any money affiliated with herbalife – made the money from the lifestyle stuff that they started on the side of herbalife ….. To try and sell herbalife – exercise classes etc…..

Then they realised why bother selling this shite when its actually the exercise classes making me money.

I should say that I have a mate who is making ~£80k/year out of Herbalife, but he started many many years ago.

The products are bullshit.

The sellers are scam artists, even if they don’t think they are, they work for scam artists, who work for scam artists, who work for scam artists….

But…. If we’re lucky any moment now one of their crack Internet PR drones will be along to give some ‘unbiased’ opinions on it. They’re like Betelgeuse, say thier name too many times….

My cousin and her husband have bought into it in a big way.

Constant hard sell at such networking events as “My grandads 100th birthday party” “weddings” “trips to the pub”

Its embarrassing how sucked in they are.