As a work-at-home mom, I am always looking for new income producing efforts. I came across a job posting for a marketing executive with The M.O.M. Team. Going to their website, I was quickly impressed with their compassion for home-bound moms and for their plan to sell environmentally safe products via the internet (Melaleuca - www.melaleuca.com). Sounded like an e-tailer situation to me so I requested more information.

Two days later I received a call from 'Donna' telling me more about the company, the products and inviting me to participate in a conference call the following evening.

Something Amway-ish rang out of the call, but there was absolutely no mention of a down-line or recruiting. I certainly never found anything of the sort on their website.

But after the call, I decided to do more digging and due diligence into The M.O.M. Team.

1. They are an MLM. To be successful you must build a down-line. It took some time, but I found evidence of this.
2. The members spam in a fashion that they call drip.
3. Ads for The M.O.M. Team are smathered across every message board on the internet, fishing for victims.
4. The commission structure is deceptively described.

I have included a copy of a posting from ezboard.com from an ex-M.O.M. team member. She sums it up nicely.

'I'm going to go way out on a limb here because I really need to clear up lots of confusion about MT. I'm an ex-MT. I'm going to state the facts, clear and simple.

MT (sic - The M.O.M. Team) has over 3,000 members now, all of which are being taught to post 10 to 15 ads per day on the internet, preferably on message boards. They are given a list of message boards and free classified ad sites. So, in effect, they are being 'taught' to spam.

After my experience with them, I came out feeling as though I'd left a cult. These gals worship the founder, and will abide by anything she tells them to do.

They have so many rules that it makes it virtually impossible to effectively run an internet marketing campaign without being deceptive.

You cannot mention the name of the company.
You cannot e-mail information to people (I used to break that one).
You cannot take no for an answer. 'No just means now's not the right time.'
You are to create a drip file for people who say no and send follow up letters.
The latest rule is that if you create your own website, you are no longer allowed to mention MT on it, or link to your MT website from it. So there goes any hope of creating any sort of individual identity.

Your goal on MT is to enroll anyone you can get your hands on. It's a numbers game. They beg people to join. Any warm body will do.

Some of them prey on people who are down on their luck.

Some of them have unkind things to say about people who cannot afford to pay the $29 enrollment fee.

They are misinformed, and because of this, they misinform others.

For instance, what they tell you is that you will earn 7% on your customers' monthly product purchases. Wrong!! What you will earn is 7% on your customers' base points purchased. Big difference!! Mel (sic - Melaleuca) has a minimum monthly base point requirement of 35, which translates to about $55-60 depending on what you buy (they'll tell you $43). You get paid 7% of the 35 base points, or $2.45, NOT 7% of the $55 or 60.

They will also tell you that once you enroll 8 people and reach Director, your commission goes up to 14%. What they DON'T tell you is that your monthly base point requirement goes up too!! Way up to 75 base points!! That's more than double.

They tell you that when you reach senior director you get a $400 car allowance. What they don't tell you is that you have to actually buy a brand new car, and as long as you remain a senior director, Mel will give you $400 a month toward your car payment.

And then there are the phone bills. My phone bill was at least $100 a month. For an internet business?

All in all, I sunk at least 1k in MT. My biggest check was $23.00. I paid for offline advertising because of all of the message board spam and bad reputation they'd established on the internet, and I still couldn't get anyone to join because people would figure out that it was a pyramid. And, although I didn't want to admit it to myself at the time, I guess in a sense it is. After all, the founder(s) of the MT made out like a bandit, and everyone at the bottom is left with nowhere to go. At least not on the internet!'

Be wary of The M.O.M. Team. As a 'Teamer' your hard work makes no money.

Rochelle
Centennial, Colorado

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