One of the first ways Quixtar betrayed its loyal IBOs:
Some of you (probably not most) may be wondering why I have used the terms Quixtar/Amway together or interchangeably. The reason for this is that Alticor/Quixtar/Amway, or the lawyers possibly controlling the companies, have decided to dissolve the Quixtar name in the U.S.A. and revert to less loved name of “Amway.”
Source: WOOD T.V. Grand Rapids, MI
Yes, that means that over the next 18 – 24 months, from June when the decision was made, Quixtar will become permanently known as Amway. It still does not cease to amaze me how many IBOs (now possibly ABOs) have no idea that the company is changing its name to Amway. These same IBO/ABOs may not even realize how hard an Amway business may be hard to promote in North America. They also probably do not know that when they renew their Quixtar/Amway contracts at the end of the year, many automated renewals, the rules can and probably will be switched on them. Most of them do however, realize what a bad stigma the Amway name carries with the general public of the U.S.A.
Personally I did not feel defeated by this. I knew building an Amway business would be harder due to the negative report circling the Amway name. I also understand that I have goals and dreams for my future and I will not let anything stand in the way of reaching them. I just assumed that the IBOAI board had the best interests of the IBOs they represent. What is that you say IBOAI board? You did not approve the name change of Quixtar back to Amway? I was amazed to discover that the name change was not proposed by the IBOAI board, and not approved by the IBOAI board. What was more amazing was when I discovered that all 20 members of the IBOAI board unanimously voted against the name change and the company moved forward anyway. If the IBOAI board is in place made up of IBOs to protect IBOs, and we pay our yearly fee for their input, and the IBOAI board has the IBOs best interest at heart, then why would the corporation make such a rash and hurtful decision against the wishes and best interests of those that make the company as successful as it has been in the past? What is more is how can they make that decision without approval? Is the IBOAI board not specifically put in place to protect IBOs against bad corporate/lawyer level decisions? Let us see what Amway founder Rich Devos has to say about the purpose of the board:
I will add my own comments to the quote below in red. To be very clear, text in red below are not the words of Rich Devos.
“Do you know that before we formed Amway (Quixtar) we formed an association of all of you? You weren’t in it then, but we did. And we setup the Amway Distributors Association (Independent Business Owners Association International) before we ever formed the Amway (Quixtar) Corporation for one very simple reason. That we wanted to make sure that the people who put their time and effort and energy into building an Away (Quixtar) distributorship would have a voice in the sales policies of this company. […] And there is no percentages changed in this company and there is nothing done to the sales plan unless the board of directors of your association asks us, or we ask them and they approve, then it is done. Everything we do is done in consultation with your representatives that meet with us four times a year. We call it the Amway Distributors Association (IBOAI). We did that so you would feel secure (And I did feel secure until recently.) that somebody like Jay or myself (or your sons or the Quixtar lawyers or Mike Mohr), when they got fat and happy or something might decide to change the deal. And so we said before we even got it going we’re going to setup a guarantee (Guarantee… You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.) that we can’t change the deal. Because if we know we can’t then we won’t even think about trying. (I sincerely believe Rich Devos and Jay VanAndel never wanted to ‘change the deal,’ but apparently the people currently running the corporation didn’t know that they ‘can’t change the deal’ and so they found a loophole and made it happen.) […] Why do you know in all thirteen years of our history, we have never failed to do what the board of your association asked us to do. […] And it’s worked pretty good. (Way to ruin a great track record Quixtar. And it is obvious from overwhelming negative results that when you decided to not do what the board asked it stopped ‘work[ing] pretty good.’) […] Well I’ll tell ya that’s something. When you have that assurance and that protection for your plan, (and how we yearn for it) because a lot of ya have been without because they changed the deal, (and now the company you founded did it to us) just about the time you were gonna make it live for you. So we wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to you. (You did a great job of this while you were alive, but your system didn’t hold up well when you left us.)”
[Rich Devos]
The recording of this speech can be heard by clicking here. Or by copy/paste this link into your address bar in your web browser:
http://www.musicwebtown.com/theiborebellion/playlists/114468/884361.mp3
I will post again shortly to include some other ways I feel IBOs were betrayed by Quixtar and explanations of them.
4 comments:
Great blog. I think the anger so many of us feel toward Quixtar/Amway comes from our feelings of betrayal. After years of defending the company to our friends and families and ignoring all the criticisms, we have now been forced to see that we were wrong, wrong, wrong.
Too bad. They don't seem to realize that it was our loyalty that kept them going. Oh well, our loyalty will shift elsewhere.
Great blog.
Thank you.
I think the anger so many of us feel toward Quixtar/Amway comes from our feelings of betrayal. After years of defending the company to our friends and families and ignoring all the criticisms, we have now been forced to see that we were wrong, wrong, wrong.
This is so very true. I will no longer be caught defending the company of course. I will however defend the concept, and the ESBI, and other principles that I have found true. As will I continue to defend the loyalty of Orrin and the rest that have proven it to me and many of us.
Too bad. They don't seem to realize that it was our loyalty that kept them going. Oh well, our loyalty will shift elsewhere.
This.
I will be linking to your blog from my own. www.noonetoldmewhattodo.bogspot.com.
What amazes me the most about this is the ignorance of the children to what their fathers created. To the children the IBO is nothing more than a slave. The difference between the families and Pharoah is.... Pharoah took the straw away AFTER the Israelites complained, the families took the straw (real wholesale pricing) away BEFORE there were complaints. I guess $500 million per year is not enough to feed them all.
1 John 5:13
As a high level distributor with Quixtar/Amway (Not TEAM) who has (and still currently remains) not yet resigned his IBO I can tell you that projects like this, what is happening in the UK with Amway, the name change, how TEAM leaders were treated by the company before, during and after, a mute and useless IBOAI and massively fat and happy Diamond leaders who have decided to ride the fence and not do anything to upset or hurt their cash cows...yes, we have all been betrayed when for years we defended the company and the values we thought they stand for only to be STABBED in the back repeatedley. But, that is what happens when a cancer develops...everything looks fine on the outside for a while and if gone untreated eventually kills it's host after a slow and painful attack on it's host's inner workings. It's over in 2008.
I have provided some rantings ever since the TEAM/Quixtar conflict and you can take a look at these on my blog at: http://makingthedecision.blogspot.com.
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