Complaint Review: Melaleuca

I've been a customer for 17 years and love the products and love the system and have zero complaints about Melaleuca! It has been one of the best $29 investments I've ever made since they have sent me checks totaling over $21,000 for doing little to nothing...referred a few people here and there! Awesome company, awesome opportunity!

It is not a scam if you are told these things up front, which you are. I shop with Melaleuca and have for nearly a year. All of the things that this person has written which were a "surprise" to her, are told to you right up front. It is not Melaleuca's fault if you don't pay attention and read what you are signing! Shame on you for filing a fraudulent report.

*PLEASE READ*
My comments have often been lost in all the comments and the issues have been confused.

Hello My name is Ariana. I have seen several posts with my name attached to Melaleuca. I since many posts have left that company and my LLC MomsWIN has been separated from them as well.

Many complaints mention the following:
I did not know I would get a monthly order
I was mislead about costs

None of these complaints are from people who actually spoke with me or personally worked with me. At the time I was affiliated with Melaleuca we held national calls that were live and often recorded.

I set forth the guidelines and standards which were ethical and moral. MomsWIN was a service for a group of over 38,000 individuals whom I did not employ, govern, or hold a contract with. My own relationship was to service them with FREE tools to support their business.

I for my own reasons left the company Melaleuca. I feel confident in my business and professional conduct. I would challenge anyone to call me or email me directly and make a judgment call. I am very open to answer any questions and handle any comments.

Please separate MomsWIN from Melaleuca. Please do not assume because one member of Melaleuca who also used MomsWIN as a tool misrepresented the terms that everyone is bad.

CHALLENGE FOR YOU
Don't assume anything. See for yourself.

Ask me yourself and put me to the test!

Ariana

I have been a customer and marketing executive with Melaleuca since October of 2007. I joined under my cousin's massage client. She (my enroller) made many many claims to me about the "ease" with which I could grow a six figure income in a matter of 12 months (or less). She was fully aware that I have four children all 5 years old and under.

My enroller was so high pressure and convincing that she promised me that if I joined in October I would "inherit" a group that was already established of 40 people. She guarenteed me that I would earn no less than $500 per month. I have had only one pay check that was almost $500. In 8 months I have only earned a little over a thousand dollars! And every penny of that has gone back to them for my product commitment. Not to mention business cards, a laptop computer, a cell phone contract, and other overhead expenses. I started out only having to order 35 points a month but when I enrolled my 8th referral they jumped my monthly reguiremenup to 75 points a month. That usually averages out to over $120 a month in products. I am continually disappointed with how little I am getting for my money.

I never inherited any group. First of all because according to Melaleuca's business development dept, it is impossible for a person to sign up and inherit a group. The only way you can inherit a group is for your personal customer (someone you personally referred) to have enrolled customers and then droppped out. For example: If I were to send in my cancellation notice my enroller would then "inherit" my 10 personal customers and ALL of their customers as well! So if I drop out my enroller then gets my comminssions as if she were the one who had enrolled those people herself.

I was never told that as you build a business you are required to order more products than preferred customers.

I was never told that if you don't continue to enroll at least 2 customers a month you may not recieve your whole commission check.

I was never told that someone can come along and "recruit " your customers out from under you. Even though this practice is clearly against company policy! I found out yesterday that because Melaleuca's cutomers are considered independant and are not governed by the company there is nothing that company is willing to do when an enroller mistreats their customers.

Two days ago my enroll became enraged because I told her that I would no longer actively persue people to recruit. I informed her that I would maintain the customer base that have built and that if anyone that I come across wants to enroll I would definately enroll them. This was not good enough for her! She threatened me. She belittled me. She called me names. She ha put in motion to remove my last enrollement from me. Simply because my last enrollment was my cousin (who introduced me to my enroller and who dropped out of Melaleuca for 6 months so she could sign up on our team) because my cousin wants to build a business and my enroller does not think I should get paid for what my cousin does.

Melaleuca is marketed by VERY greedy people! The rich get richer and the poor get poorer! My enroller actually has told me more than once that the people I know are not of good enough caliber for Melaleuca. Because they are working class people who actually care about where their money goes! She told me I needed to make new friends who were higher class!!

I contacted Melaleuca's Business development offce in Idaho to determine if they really cared about the people their business is hurting. I was told that there is NOTHING that they can do to Independent Marketing Executives (especially ones that earn $30,000 a month). That all that would happen IF I submitted my complaints in writing to their policy department, is that they would call my enroller to ge her side of the story and unfortunately unless she cooberated my story there is nothing they can do. And even if she did admit to all the lies and manipulations she would only be advised to be more discreet next time! This came directly from business development!

I have been duped! I fell for their crap about being "Ethical", "caring about the little guy", "helping people reach their goals" etc... Melaleuca does not care about people! They care about MONEY! And they encourage GREED!

The ONLY way this company will work for someone is if they are the kind of person who knows alot of people who know alot of people who can convince them to sign up. They tout a 94% retention rate of customers who reorder month after month!

Beware do your homework before you sign up! Read ALL of their policies! Not that they enforce them. And if you are person that cares about how your money is spent think really hard before you commit to order a specific amount of products.

Two more things before I close this note:
1. The products I have purchased are not consistent in strength or quality.
2. I recenly discovered that this company tests their products on animals.

I actually do like some of the products they have to offer and would enjoy continuing to use them but cannot bring myself to spend aditional money every month to meet a commitment they have determined.

I am actually at this moment still an active customer but as soon as my commision check comes this month and then I will attempt to cancell my membership.

Good luck to you all!

I have been a customer for about 4 years my self. All of the information is clearly laid out and when my wife and I got divorced...we had a joint account with Melaleuca. I wanted to cancel...they accepted my cancellation right away and didn't know we both were going to re-join.

They also don't keep billing you if you have cancelled...

Okay, let's look at the facts here:

You: I went for the Melaleuca scam. I joined through the M.O.M. Team, also known as, Mothers On a Mission. I joined about 4 years ago, read an advertisement on a message forum, and figured why not. What does it hurt to find out more information.

So the choice was YOURS to join Melaleuca via the MOMSwin team. You obviously got the information, saw what it was all about and decided to go for it. Great! After finding out what it was all about, YOU decided to join. I assume therefore, that you knew what it was all about.

You: It cost me $49 to join, since I live in Canada it was more expensive. The products were much more expensive as well, but I went for it.

Well actually, it's no more expensive than anywhere else in the world. Sounds like you're trying to say the Canadian $ = the US$, when it clearly doesn't.
I joined last year (2004), and paid \3150, which equates to about $29US. (I live in Japan). When compared with the US, UK and Australia, it all works out that we ALL pay the SAME fee to join. Let's not confuse higher numbers with being higher costs! Same goes for the product prices too. Sure there may be a couple of dollars difference, but each country's price reflects each country's economic standing. On average I pay around US$1+ more than in the US, but that's only on some items. In the end, it's still MUCH cheaper than paying for the brand names in the local supermarkets!

You: Anyway, the candles are like $8. WTF!!! Who buys $8 candles?? I bought one, and I can tell you it was wonderful.

You knew the price of the candle, but bought one anyway? What's the problem here? Where's the scam? Because so far I'm seeing none! And yes, the candles are 'wonderful', even if they do seem to be expensive.

You: Well, now, there's a catch, you also have to buy so many points worth, not only $$. Unless it has changed.

Hmmm, changed? It was never any different. But you're making a mistake by saying that you had to buy so many $$ worth of products. Melaleuca has NEVER EVER said it's about spending a certain amount of $$!! It's ALWAYS been about purchasing a set amount of points relating to each product every month. I can vary my shopping with Melaleuca and some months have 60 points (the required minimum here in Japan), and other months have over 170+ (my most recent for February being 364 points!). Some orders can be around 100 points and cost anywhere from $90 upwards (again, based on economic trends. This figure would be lower in the US, but equal to the US equivalent).

You: had joined about 4 years ago. so now my credit card bill is climbing, not to mention my phone bill, I had about one call total to Canada, the rest to the states. Expensive!! My credit card bill was scary, and before I knew it, it was maxed.

If you knew your credit card was going to be billed every month (which you obviously did because you gave the information for Melaleuca to use it each month), why is it now 'maxed'? Don't you pay your credit card bill then? Are you saying that every single penny owed to your credit card is from shopping with Melaleuca? Seems hard to believe, but if it is, why haven't you made the effort to pay your credit card bills?
As for the phone bills being expensive, look, there are a gazillion companies out there that offer cheap rate calling cards, that you can use to call long-distance at VERY cheap rates. I have one that costs me just $20US each month, and I use it to call the UK (where my family is), Australia (where my team is located), New Zealand (where I have customers), and the USA. I get around three and a half hours for that $20. You should enquire about getting yourself a similar card. In fact, doesn't Melaleuca have such a card in your neck of the woods? I think they do. Check out the homepage for more information.

You: After I received my last order, I never heard from them again. I still have some of the products left. I have the Tough and Tender from the original start up package. LOL

Well if you've never made payment to them after your credit card being maxed, of course they're not going to send you anything. Why did you sign a customer agreement form if you intended to not to want to pay? I'm glad you think it's funny to mess people around and are now trying to blame the company for your financial problems!
You've still got the Tough & Tender from the original package? GREAT! USE IT! Because it sounds like your dissatisfaction with Melaleuca stems from your lack of product knowledge.

You: Anyway, the point is, if it sounds too good to be true, then it most likely is.
Don't do it.

So far you've given no-one any reason to think that Melaleuca is a 'scam'. If you weren't happy at any time, you could have easily cancelled your customer agreement, and be done with it. Yeah, Melaleuca does sound too good to be true, and they know it. That's one reason why they rely solely on word of mouth advertising. Because they want people to find out for themselves just how effective their products really are. Sure, we were all a little skeptical before we started out with Melaleuca, but through trial and testing, each of us has come to learn more about the products, the company and the benefits of both!

You have been very unfair of your comments about Melaleuca here, when it seems pretty obvious that you enjoyed the products, enjoyed shopping with them (or why would you stay with Melaleuca for so long?), and haven't given any reason as to why you put this post up here!
Is it that you weren't happy with the M.O.M.s Win team?
Whatever, Melaleuca lives up to it's part of the deal, and it's only fair that if you, the customer, has a genuine concern, deal with Melaleuca directly. No need to get all bitter about it.
Grown adults are more than capable of finding out information on their own, without relying on just one source.