Complaint Review: Monavie

Have you heard about this magical superfood fruitjuice called Monavie?

I tried this product for about 3 months (and several hundred dollars). I can't say that it did anything for me personally. There are a lot of good things purported to be in the juice and it tastes... well, it tastes okay. Some people enjoy it, I thought it was kind of gross but to each their own. I saw no noticeable difference like some other people did but there's some fruit juices and other good things in there so the fact that some people are seeing results is not surprising to me. Here's a shocker: Fruit juices are good for you. Fruits/veggies with antioxidants are good for you. SHOCKING! We've known that for years. But that's where my belief in this product ends. After trying the product for 3 months I decided to do a little research and honestly what I found is disturbing.

1. The company has been involved in several lawsuits over the last few years, though in all honesty this has not always been related to the Monavie juice product itself and some of these suits were initiated by the company against other companies.

2. The FDA sent a warning to Monavie in 2007 because they were making unsubstantiated claims regarding the effectiveness of the product in treating diseases.

3. An article in Forbes Magazine basically described the company and their Multi-Level Marketing distribution platform as a "pyramid scheme."

4. Famous Doctor, Andrew Weil, who is known very much as a proponent of holistic medicine and alternative methods said on his website that the product is of little use and their claims are unsubstantiated.

5. Ripoffreport.com which is a consumer activist website has several testimonials from customers/former employees of the company who feel cheated, ripped off, or scammed by the company

6. Consumer Reports had an article which again, has annoyed customers and employees stating the product is worthless and the business shady.

7. There's an entire website, purplehorror.com that is devoted to angry customers and employees of the company as to the products effectiveness and the business practices

8. An article in Men's Health magazine cited an independant study they commissioned that found the Vitamin C levels in Monavie to be signigicantly lower than regular grape juice. Further, other highly touted benefits were found to be vastly overblown and in two cases they found that apple juice was actually more beneficial.

9. Various other news outlets, publications, and health professionals have cited Monavie as being just the next "cureall superfood" that doesn't work as well as claimed.

10. Though this can't be attributed to Monavie in and of itself, various distributors in the Monavie family have been cited for making outlandish, unsupported, and even false claims. A Multi-level Marketing company basically "recruits" anyone willing to push the product. These people don't really "work" for the company and so they're more or less left to their own devices. Claims like it cures cancer, arthritis, depression, and even CELL PHONE RADIATION poisoning have been made. This is, again, not the company itself making these claims in most cases, but is a massive flaw in the MLM platform.

Again, I tried the product and didn't find that it did anything for me. There IS fruit juice in there, and there's some highly touted juices and extracts so the fact that some people get a benefit from this product is in no way surprising. I can't imagine that this product is BAD for you and it might do some good to some people. Everyone's body is different and responds to things in different ways. However it IS very pricey and according to a lot of reputable news and health professional sources there are better things out there that aren't nearly as shady or as costly. The MLM distribution platform ultimately hurts this product and it's a shame if it actually IS a good thing that helps people.

Multi-level Marketing companies are not ALWAYS scams or pyramid schemes but there's a stigma on them and I feel personally that if this product is as good as they say it is then they chose the wrong distribution method for it. Ultimately if the product is as good as they want us to believe then people would embrace it in any way it was presented to us. The MLM aspect just screams shady.

Every few years some report comes out that says something like eating raw red peppers helps fight cancer or something like that. And every few years a few people get better and Dateline NBC or someone does a news story where the person says it was absolutely the red peppers that helped them (even though they went through 18 months of chemo and radiation therapy while eating the red peppers). And maybe they DID help. But for every person who swears by the red pepper that "cured" them there's 100 other people who shrugged off the chemo, the radiation, the drugs, and died clutching a piece of raw, red bell pepper.

Davewestny
Tarrytown, New York
U.S.A.