Market America My experience with Market America Greensboro North Carolina

I was bullied, interogated and harrased until I couldnt stand it anymore. I ended up leaving this group after being ridiculed for learning...... SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMZIATION... I used to sell their websites which in 2006 were pretty good at that time in the market......

They have done little to upgrade their website system since. Other people in Market America were curious how I was able to get my sites up into the top search engines. Sounds like a good thing right? You think they would want more people in their crummy organization to learn how to do this right?

After all, they are an ecommerce company are they not?

WRONG...

Turns out when I posted some strategies on how to get on Yahoo and google, JR Riddenger and his cronie... the guy who ended up suing him... Steve Sawyer, a techo dolt, flew into audible rage that I would even consider help someone else in their organization.

Sawyer is no longer in the group -- he was thrown out, and counter sued I believe. JR Riddenger has never bothered me again because I quit. Started up a profitable company on my own despite all his ridiculous threats.

And... SEO... search engine optimziation has since become a phenom industry. One I am quite confident that goes outside JR's imagination.

I dont miss forking over my money to these idiots.

My life has been so much better without them.

Save your money.

I recognize the drill here. Bury the original complaint under rah, rah Market America and address everything but the original complaint which was identity theft, a greedy and unwielding corporate attitude and some almost the poorest business (internal) customer service posture I have ever encountered in my life.

Happy, Lifelock is run by a crook. So, no, I did not pay to have Lifelock though I do monitor my credit report frequently via other means. As I stated before I signed two affadavits of forgery at the bank which I would have been more than happy to provide Market America a copy of but the Company was not remotely interested in being reasonable.

Fortunately, the Federal Trade Commission DOES listen to the issues consumers have with identity theft and I will continue to work with them as each development arises.

Again, the core of my complaint is about Market America and their extremly poor handling of a simple issue that exposed me to some blatant corporate management defects; their extremely poor level of customer service, their unreasonable attitude, the extreme level of greed and their abject refusal to work with a "distributor" to resolve even a simple issue.

Additionally, if someone considers the inability to contact ANYONE on the Corporate level for any type of targeted customer service/distributor assistance one gets a picture of the company's core level of function. Let me say this plainly. They (corporate management hierarchy) are not only unreachable, they are pretty much unidentifiable. I suppose you could attend some of the larger functions but you would have to pay an entry fee and probably would not be able to address the issue with them anyway? Whatever.     

These characteristics are not the harbinger of a good company to do business with no matter how many fluffy, ranting or repetitive rebuttals one posts and no matter how many "I made MY six figure income" boasts Market America distributors throw out there.

The Market America "independent distributors" I met had to buy a lot of product, sell a LOT of product and needed to have many people underneath them in their "business development centers" doing the same thing to earn any significant payout. Of course, upline can put points under downline to help them gather points faster which they cannot collect any payout from until they get 2 distributors signed up under them and reach a certain point threshhold, however, what this tells me mathematically is that the products MUST be priced that much higher to create these multiple levels of payout for everyone. What's new about that? If 10 (or more) people are to draw money off the sale of a product the product HAS to be overpriced to accomodate this. It also requires a certain number of points to trigger the payment. Common sense will tell anyone reading this thread in it's entirety that large numbers of people purchasing at the bottom are required to feed any "six figure" salaries of the top. This is obvious mathematically, whether MA fits the legal definition of a "pyramid scheme" or not. 

In RJ's rebuttal, there is also no mention of the additional expense of shipping fees, taxes and UFMS fees that significantly inflate the product bill. One only has to ask to see a MA product purchase receipt and check out the final total to get a feel for how much expense these additional charges adds to the overall cost of distributor (and customer) purchases. If you are going to sign up, you may ask to see a shipping invoice of the person you are signing up underneath to see the additional charges you will encounter.  

Furthermore, I was not informed timely about the need for a monthly (or quarterly) minimum REQUIRED PRODUCT purchase and the need to set up a transfer buy to accomodate this. I learned about the purchase requirement only after we were already at a kitchen table signing the paperwork. This untimely disclosure happened almost identically for the person who invited ME to my first Market America meeting. This individual was also not informed up front about quarterly purchase requirements until they had investigated/assessed the business opportunity for months. They ultimately decided not to sign with MA. They now believe themselves fortunate for their decision.

To the unemployed, Market America could represent an unsustainable drain due to initial business startup ($800-$1350) and minimum product purchase requirements ($1600-$2000 a year including optional UFMS, taxes and shipping/handling charges). This does not include seminar and training tickets, office and business supplies, transportation and gas to meetings, and entry tickets ($200+ each), plane tickets and lodging for the really BIG MA sponsored rallies. If one chooses not to do UFMS for the additional $20 a month, then one must do quarterly tax payments and significant record keeping of your business transactions for the IRS and local sales tax entities. 

For the employed, they will do Market America "on the side" of their regular job attending night and weekend meetings escorting potential recruits to functions (you pay $25 entrance fee, your recruit is free).  

As stated before, I stand by my original numbers, comments, statements, observations and details of my interactions with Market America corporate. I refuse to do business with (or for) a company who has a gross lack of common sense and customer service and an acute sense of greed.

If the re-butters would care to address the original complaint (the failure to accomodate an event due to identity theft) and stay on topic that would be helpful. Or not............

Anyway, congratulations on your "six figure income"..............

We're not Market America employees, Because we don't register as an employee.  We register as "INDEPENDENT DISTRIBUTORS".  Market America as the parent company, has put a system in place for people who want to run a business, but don't have the capital or the know how to put the pieces in place for a home managed business.  Broker retail partners and manufacturers, set up trainings on an online network, organize distribution for its distributors automatically each month, update a multimillion dollar webportal, the list goes on... but the point is normal people can't do all that in their spare time after work.  Go to a 2 hour presentation or training, and work with people you know who are 100% financially connected to you until you are ready to prospect strangers who may be looking for the same thing.  What company doesn't recruit? Name one, then recheck your definition of "recruit", and name another 10. 

My favorite part of this article is when you out yourself as someone who that DISCLAIMER is for in the INITIAL PRESENTATION.  IF you're not going to follow the steps and learn the business model, don't expect to make money.

YOU NEED 2 PEOPLE TO MAKE MONEY.  IN THIS ARTICLE YOU CLEARLY ARE NOT SURE IF ITS 1 OR 2 PEOPLE YOU NEED TO "ACTIVATE" AND EARN CHECKS.  WHY DO WE NEED 2? BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T, AND YOU SIMPLY COLLECT THE VOLUME OF THOSE PLACED UNDER YOU AND GET PAID... *****THAT IS A PYRAMID SCHEME*****

You should definitely look into something like AMWAY if thats what you're interested in doing.  After a "year" in the business, you don't know how the compensation plan works??????

Fine you can't be honest with yourself, and admit this business just isn't for you and move on, you have to try and ruin hope and dreams for others who can make a real difference in their own lives, as well as the lives of others.  That... is shameful.

The company that lost your cc information also held multiple banks' info.  I'd say MA made a pretty good call trusting that company, but as in any business, especially with the internet, there are thieves.  Hackers, crackers, and cc fraud have been around for a while.

Does this mean you've taken proper precautions to protect yourself against this in the future with a service like "life lock"?  Or do you just plan to blame the whole thing on a company that only had your best interest at heart in reality?

Its easier to point a finger than to look in the mirror sometimes.  When I look in the mirror, and the think of the 25 friends, family, and NEW friends I've helped in MY FIRST YEAR, what do I do...?  I smile at the mirror.  As the paychecks keep rolling in, for me AND my network, I know with complete 150% certainty.....

MARKET AMERICA WORKS TO HELP AVERAGE PEOPLE GET AHEAD AND ACHIEVE THEIR DREAMS, IF THEY'RE WILLING TO FOLLOW THE SYSTEM.  PERIOD.

I hope this reaches more people than some of this junk I'm reading on here.  Do your research, and search your soul before you buy into ANYTHING.  Be honest with yourself.

All the best.
Happy MA Distributor

I have to question whether or not this is done to bury the truth so far down other readers will actually miss getting to it. Rebuttals from this person have ranged from repetitive to inflammatory to outright false.

In one portion of a rebuttal this person called my statements emotional. I have been straight forward in stating the facts of my experience as a Market America distributor. I wrote about specific events, close to exact money amounts and time periods, detailed actual questions posed by potential customers and spoke of my experience interacting with Market America corporate employees and departments.

My best advice to you when checking out the Market America unfranchise "malls without walls" opportunity is to make sure you read each thread in it's entirety because these dishonest tactics are being used repeatedly to bury the facts about this company from people investigating this company.   

I stand by the accuracy and objectivity of my original post.

First and most importantly, I apologize for misquoting you.  I did in fact read a different post regarding "fudged" paperwork and attributed that to your former Market America (MA) business practice.  Please accept my apology as sincere. 

In your original post you did make serveral observations that are highly emotional and tend stronly to mislead the reader.  I have copy/pasted one paragraph from your post that I would like to address.  My comments will be encased in [boxes].

You stated:  I hear a lot of people ask if Market America is multi-level marketing or a pyramid or like Amway. I can tell you this is how it worked for my business. It cost me almost $1350 to set my business up in the beginning.     [Less than $1,500 to start a legitimate business, not bad, in fact, peanuts]     After that, I was required (or at least strongly encouraged to set up a monthly transfer buy which cost $125-$150 a month in order to meet my quarterly sales requirements.     [The Transfer Buy requirment has nothing to do with quarterly sales requirements.  Regardless of how much product you purchse for your own personal use, you still must retail $200.00 in product every 90 days, or, quarterly.  The only thing that could possibly have a connection is the fact that you can, if you wish, retail the product that you have obtained via Transfer Buy]     Of these purchases, about 30% could be personal use and the remaining 70% (approx) was required to be resold to customers.     [There is NO REQUIREMENT that you sell the product that you obatined through the Transfer Buy.  Your 70% here and 30% there "requirement" is simply 100% false.]     I did this for a year spending almost $4000     [$150.00 times 12 months, (one year) totals $1,800.00, not $4,000.00.  I hope you weren't you own accountant.  Furthermore, if you "did this" for a year, by your own admission you retailed 70% of your Transfer Buy purchases which through retail profit would have paid for your entire transfer buy expenses, or, are you misleading the reader?]     and never earned a paycheck from MA. Why you ask? I accumulated all these points for my purchases     [The points that are associated with products obtained through Transer Buying do not accumulate in your business as points, so, you DID NOT accumulate "all these points" from your Transfer Buying.  Once again, you're ranting and misleading the reader with wholly and utterly false information]     but could not collect any money for all my efforts     [You couldn't collect money for your efforts?  What efforts, or is the truth "in the middle" because you did not fulfill the REQUIREMENTS?  How do you equate buying product with the term "efforts?"  The fact that you refer to buying product as an "effort" very clearly indicates that you had extremely unrealistic expectations.  There are a lot of people like you, that get involved in a business and think that they are going to get rich through TRUE efforts of others.  Your type just want money to start falling in their lap when they "sing up" as you put it.  The world doesn't work that way and neither does the business world.  You actually have to WORK at making money.  You don't make money buying product as you very obvioulsy indicate in your rant that you should have.  When you shop, that usually means to the average person that you SPEND money, so, when you made your transfer buy you were SHOPPING, not building your business]     *until* I signed up at least one (if not two) downline distributors underneath me who would then be required to also purchase and who would not get paid until they, too, had someone signed up underneath them.     [Market America expands their points of distribution through one-to-one marketing.  You are required, in order to receive commission checks, to personally sponsor two people in this business.  Not 100, not 50, not 10, not even five, TWO!  One person on the left side of your sales and distribution organization, and one person on the right side of your sales and distribution organization, thereby, expanding two points of distribution.  The company also teaches a person how to develop ten to 15 customers, not 500 or 300, not 50, ten to fifteen, period.  It's not difficult, if you follow the business plan.  Once you have expanded your points of distribution, you teach others how to do the same.  Sam Walton expanded his points of distribution by building stores.  Ray Kroc expanded his points of distribution by buiding restaurants and finally, by franshising them.  MA owners expand points of distribution by teaching others how to start and manage their own online product brokerage businesses.  It's very simple and very profitable but it's a business that must be treated like a business.  It seems that you are a bit miffed that you didn't get "paid" just for buying product.  Of course you didn't get paid for buying product.  The requirements are spelled out in black and white in your Career Manual.  I opened a child care center in 2005.  I spent nearly $300,000.00 getting the buisiness built, buying furniture, educational supplies, toys, cribs, oh, get a load of this, I had to put in a fire alarm system, oh my gosh, carpeting, a playground, bathrooms, and after ALL THAT EXPENSE, I STILL didn't get paid.  UNREAL.  I had to "get" customers in the door WITH CHILDREN.  After "signing up" TONS of parents, then and ONLY THEN, could I get my first check from my accumulated debt of almost $300,000.00.  Oh, the best part.  I had to "GET" employees and then, I had to PAY THEM money!  So, I had to spend more than a quarter million dollars to "get" my child care business, then I had to "GET" customers and then I had to "GET" employees.  Oh, here's the really scam part of this child care business, those employees were technically "under me" in my business.  Wow, what a scam!!!  Child care centers must be a pyramid thing because you have to "get people."  Your terminology alone indicates to the reader that you looked at this Market America as a "getting people business" and it is not about "getting" anybody.  It's about learning, step by step, now to manage the business and then, showing the business to others in order to expand points of distribution.  When you meet a like minded person that wants to own their own business, you show them how to PROPERLY manage their business, thereby expanding THEIR points of distribution.  Then, they do the very same thing and you are now your own organization, teaching and mentoring others, and they do the same and become successful business owners as well.  I have partnered with seven other people and five of them are cashing commission checks and one of them is soon to PASS ME in commission checks.  Why would he pass me up, I sponsored him?  Because he works harder and anyone that ownes a Market America business can, financially, pass anyone else in the business, regardless of whether they are "under" you or "over" you in the graphics of the organization.  Last week, one of them thanked me.  A man that I sponsored some months ago, serveral times, thanked me for showing him this wonderful business.  This is not about "getting" people and making money from them, it's about partnering with quality, business minded people and making money WITH them, while providing your customers with high quality products, great services and a better way to shop.]     Then and only then would I get my first check from my accumulated points. I believe I read somewhere that the owner of Market America is worth (approx) $77 MILLION DOLLARS.     [Class envy?  If the owner is worth $77 MILLIONI DOLLARS, so what?  Sam Walton's estate is worth BILLIONS!!!  Does that make Walmart a scam?  I believe I read somewhere that Elvis is actually still alive, wahooo!]     MA routinely fills large stadiums with their pep rally business meetings. Profitable MA up line    [Profitable?  How can that be?  How can anyone make a profit?  I'm hearing from you that you spent all this money and never got a dime!  Oh, that's right, they made money from you.  Truth be told, you were NO HELP to your business partners, trust me!  I've had people like you in my MA business and I always breathe a sigh of relief when they bail out.  Your business partners were HAPPY to see you leave, truse me.  Successful Market America owners don't make money from deadbeats.  We make money when our business partners make money, and you can take that to the bank!]     routinely host educational type meetings and meeting for business education and recruiting others.     [Wow, meetings by successful business owners.  I wonder if they make you drink secret Kool Aid.]     Bottom line is, speaking for myself, I spent almost $4000 to open my business and make monthly product purchases during the time I had a Market America business and have not so much as one cent in earnings to show for my expenses, time and energy.     [Speaking for MYSELF, I spent less than $800.00 to open my MA business, I've earned thousands of dollars in commission checks and many, MANY of my business partners are doing the same, and I've done this in less than eight months.  Speakign for MYSELF, I followed the Market America proven business plan.  It's little different than opening any other franchise style business.  Follow the plan and the training and you will succeed.  Face it, you put little or NO time and energy into your MA business.  If you had, you would't be whining about your failure, you'd be doing what I'm doing, defending the company]     Yet the people above me (up line) made money from me signing up.     [False, fake, untrue and quite simply a bold lie.  No MA owner, anywhere on this planet makes money by signing up or sponsoring other Distributors.  That's called Front End Loading and it's a common practice in Multi Level Marketing or, MLM which I refer to as "Make Little Money" style companies.  Market America is not Multi Level and it not a front end load company, period.  When you placed your original product order, senior business partners received product related points but NON OF THEM received "pay" as your accusation states.  They were not "paid" just because you opened your own business.  Any of your senior business parnters that are participating in the commission plan, ie., receiving commission checks, are doing so because THEY treated their business like a buiness and opened up at least two points of distribution.  THEY sponsored others and in doing so, allowed themselves to receive commission checks on ALL the volume that moved through their points of distribution and their business partners' points of distribution.  You sure think a lot of yourself don't you, to make self a serving statement akin to other people making money from you signing up.]     Then when Market America was unreasonable about the identity theft, my up line and the up line above them not only declined to help me with my attempt to reason with this company, they made it clear I was pretty much on my own in sorting this out. In fact, I was told this fiasco was my fault and when I became frustrated saying I was going to have to quit over this issue I was told "I think you should quit because you are not working your business.     [AMEN, they said it and I'll gladly repeat it.  YOU WEREN'T WORKING YOUR BUSINESS.  The proof is in the pudding, or, in this case, quotations and SHE quoted her own business partners' observation!  I will only address the issue of your $25.00 snafu by saying this.  If you'd followed the business plan, allowed yourself to be trained and WORKED your business LIKE a business, the $25.00 issue would not have caused you to walk away in a million years, no matter how obnoxious and uncaring the customer service staff members may have been.  For the record, I've found most of the customer service staff to be wonderful and a few of them to be less than wonderful.  The less than wonderful employees eventually wash out, just like the less than wonderful MA business owners.  I'm earning thousands of dollars, as are a number of my business partners.  Do you honestly think any of us would toss our arms up and walk away from our business over a $25.00 overcharge?  Now, I'll give you this.  You're pissed off about the $25.00 thing but don't rag on the business that YOU failed at, and sell it to the reading public as though the business is some type of scam.  Good grief!  You're bitter and that's unfortunate but again, not everyone succeeds.]     I spent over $4000 helping these people above me make money.     [No you didn't help them make money.  You aggrivated the snot out of them, I know, I've had business partners like you.  So you spent 4 grand piddling around when you should have learned how to manage your business.  That's MA's fault?  And by the way, how did you spend 4 grand when your transfer buy ranged from $120.00 to $150.00 montly?  Your start up costs were $1,350 and your montly Transfer Buy should have come to no more than $1,800.  Now, that comes to $3,150.00.  Are you intentionally misleading the reading public or did you just err in your math calculations?  $3,150 carries a difference of $850.00 when you compare it to $4,000. 

Finally, here's where your entire tirade falls apart.  You have offered NOT ONE SHRED OF EVIDENCE that Market America is a scam.  All of your ranting aims itself in the direction of self spun, postured failure.  Please, tell us, PLEASE, how and why MA is a scam, PLEASE.  Don't pontificate, don't be emotional and insulting (as no doubt if a $25.00 snafu can irritate you, my comments have gotten you to the point of a heart attack) and don't run on and on about how it didn't work because eveyone else failed you and made money from you.  Please articulate with concrete, solid, unyielding evidence, as to exactly how Market America is a scam.  Your readers deserve it!  Again, for those of you who've decided to research this company and pained themselves with the reading of all of MY "rantings" I strongly urge you to meet with any of the thousands of successful MA Unfranchise business owners.  They will be happy to give you a close look at the company.  They'll even be glad to show you the annual financial report.  Market America is a privately held company and STILL, they show all of us where all of the money goes, every last red cent.  No privately held company is required to offer a financial report and very few do, but MA does.  That is truly impressive.  So, good luck in your research but be ever so careful.  There are a number of people that will share the kind of garbage that this pouting gal will share, but they can never, NEVER give factual evidence that MA is anything but a legitimate company that has legitimately shown tens of thousands, literally tens of thousands of average busy people how to earn a six figure income, owing and managing an internet based, product brokerage, franchise style business on a part time basis. 

First and most importantly, I apologize for misquoting you.  I did in fact read a different post regarding "fudged" paperwork and attributed that to your former Market America (MA) business practice.  Please accept my apology as sincere. 

In your original post you did make serveral observations that are highly emotional and tend stronly to mislead the reader.  I have copy/pasted one paragraph from your post that I would like to address.  My comments will be encased in [boxes].

You stated:  I hear a lot of people ask if Market America is multi-level marketing or a pyramid or like Amway. I can tell you this is how it worked for my business. It cost me almost $1350 to set my business up in the beginning.     [Less than $1,500 to start a legitimate business, not bad, in fact, peanuts]     After that, I was required (or at least strongly encouraged to set up a monthly transfer buy which cost $125-$150 a month in order to meet my quarterly sales requirements.     [The Transfer Buy requirment has nothing to do with quarterly sales requirements.  Regardless of how much product you purchse for your own personal use, you still must retail $200.00 in product every 90 days, or, quarterly.  The only thing that could possibly have a connection is the fact that you can, if you wish, retail the product that you have obtained via Transfer Buy]     Of these purchases, about 30% could be personal use and the remaining 70% (approx) was required to be resold to customers.     [There is NO REQUIREMENT that you sell the product that you obatined through the Transfer Buy.  Your 70% here and 30% there "requirement" is simply 100% false.]     I did this for a year spending almost $4000     [$150.00 times 12 months, (one year) totals $1,800.00, not $4,000.00.  I hope you weren't you own accountant]     and never earned a paycheck from MA. Why you ask? I accumulated all these points for my purchases     [The points that are associated with products obtained through Transer Buying do not accumulate in your business as points, so, you DID NOT accumulate "all these points" from your Transfer Buying]     but could not collect any money for all my efforts     [You couldn't collect money for your efforts, or is the truth "in the middle" because you did not fulfill the REQUIREMENTS?  How do you equate buying product with the term "efforts?"  The fact that you refer to buying product as an "effort" very clearly indicates that you had extremely unrealistic expectations]     *until* I signed up at least one (if not two) downline distributors underneath me who would then be required to also purchase and who would not get paid until they, too, had someone signed up underneath them.     [Market America expands their points of distribution through one-to-one marketing.  You are required, in order to receive commission checks, to personally sponsor two people in this business.  One person on the left side of your sales and distribution organization, and one person on the right side of your sales and distribution organization, thereby, expanding two points of distribution.  The company also teaches a person how to develop ten to 15 customers.  It's not difficult, if you follow the business plan.  Once you have expanded your points of distribution, you teach others how to do the same.  Sam Walton expanded his points of distribution by building stores.  Ray Kroc expanded his points of distribution by buiding restaurants and finally, by franshising them.  MA owners expand points of distribution by teaching others how to start and manage their own online product brokerage businesses.  It's very simple and profitable but it's a business that must be treated like a business.  It seems that you are a bit miffed that you didn't get "paid" just for buying product.  Of course you didn't get paid for buying product.  The requirements are spelled out in black and white in your Career Manual.  I opened a child care center in 2005.  I spent nearly $300,000.00 getting the buisiness built, buying furniture, educational supplies, toys, cribs, oh, get a load of this, I had to put in a fire alarm system, oh my gosh, carpeting, a playground, and after ALL THAT EXPENSE, I STILL didn't get paid.  I had to bring customers in the door WITH CHILDREN.  After signing up TONS of parents, then and ONLY THEN, could I get my first check from my accumulated debt of almost $300,000.00.  Wow, what a scam!!!  Child care centers must be a pyramid thing because you have to "get people"  Your terminology alone indicates to the reader that you looked at this Market America as a "getting people business" and it is not about "getting" anybody.  It's about learning, step by step, now to manage the business and then, showing the business to others.  When you meet a like minded person that wants to own their own business, you show them how to PROPERLY manage their business, thereby expanding your points of distribution.  Then, they do the very same thing and you are now your own organization, teaching and mentoring others, and they do the same and become successful business owners as well.  I have partnered with seven other people and five of them are cashing commission checks.  Last week, one of them thanked me, serveral times, for showing him this wonderful business.  This is not about "getting" people and making money from them, it's about partnering with quality, business minded people and making money WITH them, while providing your customers with high quality products and services]     Then and only then would I get my first check from my accumulated points. I believe I read somewhere that the owner of Market America is worth (approx) $77 MILLION DOLLARS.     [Class envy?  I the owner was worth $77 MILLIONI DOLLARS, so what?  I believe I read somewhere that Elvis is actually still alive]     MA routinely fills large stadiums with their pep rally business meetings. Profitable MA up line    [Profitable?  How can that be?  How can anyone make a profit?  I'm hearing from you that you spent all this money and never got a dime!  Oh, that's right, they made money from you.  Truth be told, you were NO HELP to your business partners, trust me!  They were HAPPY to see you leave.  Successful Market America owners don't make money from deadbeats.  We make money when our business partners make money, and you can take that to the bank!]     routinely host educational type meetings and meeting for business education and recruiting others. [Wow, meetings by successful business owners.  I wonder if they make you drink secret Kool Aid.]     Bottom line is, speaking for myself, I spent almost $4000 to open my business and make monthly product purchases during the time I had a Market America business and have not so much as one cent in earnings to show for my expenses, time and energy.     [Speaking for MYSELF, I spent less than $800.00 to open my MA business, I've earned thousands of dollars in commission checks and many, MANY of my business partners are doing the same, and I've done this in less than eight months.  Speakign for MYSELF, I followed the Market America proven business plan.  It's little different than opening any other franchise style business.  Follow the plan and the training and you will succeed.  Face it, you put little or NO time and energy into your MA business.  If you had, you would't be whining about your failure, you'd be doing what I'm doing, defending the company]     Yet the people above me (up line) made money from me signing up.     [False, fake, untrue and quite simply a bold lie.  NO MA OWNER, anywhere on this planet, makes money by signing up or sponsoring other Distributors.  That's called Front End Loading and it's a common practice in Multi Level Marketing or, MLM which I refer to as "Make Little Money" style companies.  Market America is not Multi Level and it not a front end load company, period.  When you placed your original product order, senior business partners received product related points but NON OF THEM received "pay" and you're accusation states and they were not "paid" just because you opened your own business.  Any of your senior business parnters that are participating in the commission plan, ie., receiving commission checks, are doing so because THEY treated their business like a buiness and opened up at least two points of distribution, THEY sponsored others and in doing so, allowed themselves to receive commission checks on ALL the volume that moved through their points of distribution and their business partners' points of distribution.  You sure think a lot of yourself don't you, to make self serving statement akin to other people made money from you signing up.]     Then when Market America was unreasonable about the identity theft, my up line and the up line above them not only declined to help me with my attempt to reason with this company, they made it clear I was pretty much on my own in sorting this out. In fact, I was told this fiasco was my fault and when I became frustrated saying I was going to have to quit over this issue I was told "I think you should quit because you are not working your business.     [AMEN, they said it and I'll gladly repeat it.  YOU WEREN'T WORKING YOUR BUSINESS.  The proof is in the pudding, or, in this case, quotations and SHE quoted her own business partners' observation!  I will only address the issue of your $25.00 snafu by saying this.  If you'd followed the business plan, allowed yourself to be trained and WORKED your business LIKE a business, the $25.00 issue would not have caused you to walk away.  I'm earning thousands of dollars, as are a number of my business partners.  Do you honestly think any of us would toss our arms up and walk away from our business over a $25.00 overcharge?  Now, I'll give you this.  You're pissed off about the $25.00 thing but don't rag on the business that you failed at and sell it to the reading public as though the business is some type of scam.  Good grief!  Your bitter and that's unfortunate but again, not everyone succeeds.]     I spent over $4000 helping these people above me make money.     [You spent 4 grand piddling around when you should have learned how to manage your business.  And by the way, how did you spend 4 grand when your transfer buy ranged from $120.00 to $150.00 montly?  Your start up costs were $1,350 and your montly Transfer Buy should have come to no more than $1,800.  Now, that comes to $3,150.00.  Are you intentionally misleading the reading public or did you just err in your math calculations?  $3,150 carries a difference of $850.00 when you compare it to $4,000.  Finally, you have offered absolutely NO EVIDENCE that Market America is a scam.  All of your ranting points in the direction of self failure.  Please, tell us, PLEASE, how and why MA is a scam, PLEASE.  Don't pontificate, don't be emotional and insulting (as no doubt if a $25.00 snafu can irritate you, my comments have gotten you to the point of a heart attack) and don't run on and on about how it didn't work because eveyone else failed you.  Please articulate with concrete evidence, how Market America is a scam.  Your readers deserve it!  Again, for those of you who've decided to research this company and pained themselves with the reading of all of MY "rantings" I strongly urge you to meet with any of the thousands of successful MA Unfranchise business owners.  The will be happy to give you a close look at the company.  They'll even be glad to show you the annual financial report.  Market America is a privately held company and STILL, they show all of us where all of the money goes, every last red cent.  No privately held company is required to offer a financial report but MA does.  That is truly impressive.  So, good luck in your research but be ever so careful.  There are a number of people that will share the kind of garbage that this pouting gal will share, but they can never, NEVER give factual evidence that MA is anything but a legitimate company that has legitimately shown tens of thousands, literally tens of thousands of average busy people how to earn a six figure income, owing and managing an internet product brokerage, franchise style business on a part time basis. 

First and most importantly, I apologize for misquoting you.  I did in fact read a different post regarding "fudged" paperwork and attributed that to your former Market America (MA) business practice.  Please accept my apology as sincere. 

In your original post you did make serveral observations that are highly emotional and tend stronly to mislead the reader.  I have copy/pasted one paragraph from your post that I would like to address.  My comments will be encased in [boxes].

You stated:  I hear a lot of people ask if Market America is multi-level marketing or a pyramid or like Amway. I can tell you this is how it worked for my business. It cost me almost $1350 to set my business up in the beginning.  [Less than $1,500 to start a legitimate business, not bad, in fact, peanuts] After that, I was required (or at least strongly encouraged to set up a monthly transfer buy which cost $125-$150 a month in order to meet my quarterly sales requirements. [The Transfer Buy requirment has nothing to do with quarterly sales requirements.  Regardless of how much product you purchse for your own personal use, you still must retail $200.00 in product every 90 days, or, quarterly.  The only thing that could possibly have a connection is the fact that you can, if you wish, retail the product that you have obtained via Transfer Buy] Of these purchases, about 30% could be personal use and the remaining 70% (approx) was required to be resold to customers. [There is NO REQUIREMENT that you sell the product that you obatined through the Transfer Buy.  Your 70% here and 30% there "requirement" is simply 100% false.] I did this for a year spending almost $4000 [$150.00 times 12 months, (one year) totals $1,800.00, not $4,000.00.  I hope you weren't you own accountant] and never earned a paycheck from MA. Why you ask? I accumulated all these points for my purchases but could not collect any money for all my efforts [You couldn't collect money for your efforts, or because you did not fulfill the REQUIREMENTS?  The fact that you refer to buying product as an "effort" very clearly indicates that you have unrealistic expectations business expectations] *until* I signed up at least one (if not two) downline distributors underneath me who would then be required to also purchase and who would not get paid until they, too, had someone signed up underneath them. [Market America expands their points of distribution through one-to-one marketing.  You are required, in order to receive commission checks, to personally sponsor two people in this business.  One person on the left side of your sales and distribution organization, and one person on the right side of your sales and distribution organization, thereby, expanding points of distribution.  The company also teaches a person how to develop ten to 15 customers.  It's not difficult, if you follow the business plan.  Once you have expanded your points of distribution, you teach others how to do the same.  Sam Walton expanded his points of distribution by building stores.  Ray Kroc expanded points of distribution by buiding restaurants and finally, by franshising them.  MA owners expand points of distribution by teaching others how to start and manage their own online businesses.  It seems that you are a bit miffed that didn't get "paid" just for buying product.  Of course you didn't get paid for buying product!  The requirements are spelled out in black and white in your Career Manual.  I opened a child care center in 2005.  I spent nearly $300,000.00 getting the buisiness built, buying furniture, educational supplies, toys, cribs, oh, get a load of this, I had to put in a fire alarm system, oh my gosh, carpeting, a playground, and after ALL THAT EXPENSE, I STILL didn't get paid.  I had to bring customers in the door WITH CHILDREN.  After signing up TONS of parents, then and ONLY THEN, could I get my first check from my accumulated debt of almost $300,000.00.  Wow, what a scam!!!  Child care centers must be a pyramid thing.]  Then and only then would I get my first check from my accumulated points. I believe I read somewhere that the owner of Market America is worth (approx) $77 MILLION DOLLARS. [I believe I read somewhere that Elvis is actually still alive] MA routinely fills large stadiums with their pep rally business meetings. Profitable MA up line routinely host educational type meetings and meeting for business education and recruiting others. [Wow, meetings by successful business owners.  I wonder if they make you drink secret Kool Aid at those meetings?] Bottom line is, speaking for myself, I spent almost $4000 to open my business and make monthly product purchases during the time I had a Market America business and have not so much as one cent in earnings to show for my expenses, time and energy. [Speaking for MYSELF, I spent less than $800.00 to open my MA business, I've earned thousands of dollars in commission checks and many, MANY of my business partners are doing the same, and I've done this in less than eight months.  Speakign for MYSELF, I followed the Market America proven business plan.  It's little different than opening any other franchise style business.  Follow the plan and the training and you will succeed.  Face it, you put little or NO time and energy into your MA business.  If you had, you would't be whining about your failure, you'd be doing what I'm doing, defending the company] Yet the people above me (up line) made money from me signing up. [False, fake, untrue and quite simply a bold lie.  NO MA OWNER, anywhere on this planet, makes money by signing up or sponsoring other Distributors.  That's called Front End Loading and it's common in Multi Level Marketing or, MLM which I refer to as "Make Little Money" style companies.  Market America is not Multi Level and it not a front end load company, period.  When you placed your original product order, senior business partners received product related points but NON OF THEM received "pay" and you're accusation that they were "paid" just because you opened your own business, is false.  Any of your senior business parnters that are participating in the commission plan, ie., receiving commission checks, are doing so because THEY treated their business like a buiness and opened up at least two points of distribution, THEY sponsored others and in doing so, allowed themselves to receive commission checks on ALL the volume that moved through their points of distribution and their business partners' points of distribution.  You sure think a lot of yourself don't you, to make self serving statement akin to other people made money from you signing up.] Then when Market America was unreasonable about the identity theft, my up line and the up line above them not only declined to help me with my attempt to reason with this company, they made it clear I was pretty much on my own in sorting this out. In fact, I was told this fiasco was my fault and when I became frustrated saying I was going to have to quit over this issue I was told "I think you should quit because you are not working your business. [AMEN, they said it and I'll gladly repeat it.  YOU WEREN'T WORKING YOUR BUSINESS.  I will only address the issue of your $25.00 snafu by saying this.  You had, HAD a business that HAD the potential of making you hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars.  If you'd followed the business plan, allowed yourself to be trained and WORKED your business LIKE a business, the $25.00 issue would have been no issue.  However, you chose to focus on THAT, rather than buidling your business and now you're bitter.  That's unfortunate but again, not everyone succeeds.]  I spent over $4000 helping these people above me make money. [You spent 4 grand piddling around when you should have learned how to manage your business.  Any by the way, how did you spend 4 grand when your transfer buy ranged from $120.00 to $150.00 montly?] 

Dear RJ,

Please get your facts straight. You read the "paperwork fudging" is contained in someone else's Market America rip off report post. I notice there is getting to be quite a collection of them these days.  

I sold ALL my product as agreed and complete with agreed upon receipts. 

Libel in print does not become you, your business or Market America but what else can one expect?

Market America LOST me over the GREED (corporate) and INGORANCE (of their employees) and SHORTCOMINGS of corporate policy (ie can't reach anyone who is competent on the phone or via e-mail). If you doubt the difficulty contacting someone to resolve a REAL issue on your behalf, just google and try to locate a heirarchy (other than collections or peon customer service reps who lose paperwork). The company also does not accept faxes (now that's a wrinkle that makes you go, hmmmmm, with regards to business legitimacy). MA lost me over a $25 "bounced check" fee that I legally, as a victim of identity theft, do not owe.

I already have a successful college education/primary profession AND a successful second business (one which does not require a college education to run). Therefore I do not need Market America to succeed and am free to objectively judge this company on it's merits. It is this experience that I shared in my posting.  

Please GET and KEEP your facts straight with regards to my MA experience. Congrats on succeeding in spite of the failure of your chosen profession/college education. When I went to college no one promised me a six figure income. EVER. This is part of parcel of Market America who rarely delivers those six figure incomes and, who, in fact cannot deliver without collecting mega jillions of dollars in sales of over priced items from individuals down at the bottom of the business heap. Wonder what happens when MA multi-level marketing hits market saturation, hmmmmmmm?

Carry on and, in the future, keep your facts straight about forged paperwork. Read the original post again if you have to but please, don't lie.

I too was promised fortune, fame, six figures in a very short time.  I attended nearly every class and event held by the organization that I was affiliated with.  I spent tens of thousands of dollars, paying the organization to educate me.  I was the perfect "student" and followed the plan.  When all the dust settled, I was broke and jobless.  Sleepless nights wondering why the system had failed me.  The very system that my peers told me would get me into big money, quickly!  Oh, I'm sorry, that was my college education and post graduation! 

Then I found Market America and my life changed dramatically.  In less than one year I began earning a substantive income and so did most of the people that partnered with me as Market America Unfranchise owners.  Why not all of my partners?  Some of them did not plug into the proven business plan, the plan for success.  Expanding points of distribution is the sole purpose for introducting this business to others.  Market America doesn't build brick stores, they expand their points of distribution through one-to-one marketing.  This complainant stated that she didn't receive any money for her investment.  You can buy a McDonalds franchise but if you don't learn how to make Big Macs, sister, you're not going to get your investment back.  This complainant also stated that she "had to have 1 or 2 people signed up under" her.  Are you kidding me?  You're complaining about a company that you decided to franchise with and you don't even know how many points of distribution are required to participate in the compensation plan?  

Here's the scoop.  College didn't work for me.  That doesn't make it a scam!  I was assured by the college upline people, if you will, that my education was going to land me a career with HUGE income.  Hey, I sucked at interviewing I guess.  I simply could not land the job that was promised to me.  I'm not blaming the college or anyone associated with it.  I blame myself for my failures.  Funny how it's always someone else's fault.  She also speaks of the retailing requirements.  All Market America Unfranchise owners are required to retail $200.00 (two hundred dollars) in product every 90 days.  That's THREE MONTHS to sell very little product.  When her senior business partner(s) "told" her to fudge her paperwork, guess what, she did!!!  Ethics my dear, ethics.  You should have taken your lumps and lost your business volume points and NOT fudged your paperwork.  Odd how it's okay for her to pitch a complaint about the company for their faults, but when she violates her Unfranchise CONTRACT by falsifying paperwork, somehow that's okay because she was "told" to do it.  Honey, send me a box of money...you MUST do it because I just told you to!

If you are looking at Market America, don't believe what she said and don't believe what I've said.  Look at the business, talk to other successful Unfranchise owners and make your mind up based on fact, not a disgruntled gal that failed.

My wife and I are proud of our Market America business, the product that we represent and most of all, elated that we have helped others build sound businesses with residual income.  Helping others has been a blessing.  Some fail, most don't.  Just treat it like a business.

On a side note, I'm sorry that you had your credit card number stolen.  Just for the record, that is not identity theft, it's a stolen number.  Furthermore, don't blame Market America for your failure.  That would be like me singing their praises for my success.  I built my business with ethics and hard work, and now, I can relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor.  The fact that you are getting poor service from the corporate office in unfortunate but given the way you ranted on and on, blaming the company for YOUR failure, leads the reader to surmise that you were probably unreasonable in your dealings with them.

RJ-Wisconsin 

I too was promised fortune, fame, six figures in a very short time.  I attended nearly every class and event held by the organization that I was affiliated with.  I spent tens of thousands of dollars, paying the organization to educate me.  I was the perfect "student" and followed the plan.  When all the dust settled, I was broke and jobless.  Sleepless nights wondering why the system had failed me.  The very system that my peers told me would get me into big money, quickly!  Oh, I'm sorry, that was my college education and post graduation! 

Then I found Market America and my life changed dramatically.  In less than one year I began earning a substantive income and so did most of the people that partnered with me as Market America Unfranchise owners.  Why not all of my partners?  Some of them did not plug into the proven business plan, the plan for success.  Expanding points of distribution is the sole purpose for introducting this business to others.  Market America doesn't build brick stores, they expand their points of distribution through one-to-one marketing.  This complainant stated that she didn't receive any money for her investment.  You can buy a McDonalds franchise but if you don't learn how to make Big Macs, sister, you're not going to get your investment back.  This complainant also stated that she "had to have 1 or 2 people signed up under" her.  Are you kidding me?  You're complaining about a company that you decided to franchise with and you don't even know how many points of distribution are required to participate in the compensation plan?  

Here's the scoop.  College didn't work for me.  That doesn't make it a scam!  I was assured by the college upline people, if you will, that my education was going to land me a career with HUGE income.  Hey, I sucked at interviewing I guess.  I simply could not land the job that was promised to me.  I'm not blaming the college or anyone associated with it.  I blame myself for my failures.  Funny how it's always someone else's fault.  She also speaks of the retailing requirements.  All Market America Unfranchise owners are required to retail $200.00 (two hundred dollars) in product every 90 days.  That's THREE MONTHS to sell very little product.  When her senior business partner(s) "told" her to fudge her paperwork, guess what, she did!!!  Ethics my dear, ethics.  You should have taken your lumps and lost your business volume points and NOT fudged your paperwork.  Odd how it's okay for her to pitch a complaint about the company for their faults, but when she violates her Unfranchise CONTRACT by falsifying paperwork, somehow that's okay because she was "told" to do it.  Honey, send me a box of money...you MUST do it because I just told you to!

If you are looking at Market America, don't believe what she said and don't believe what I've said.  Look at the business, talk to other successful Unfranchise owners and make your mind up based on fact, not a disgruntled gal that failed.

My wife and I are proud of our Market America business, the product that we represent and most of all, elated that we have helped others build sound businesses with residual income.  Helping others has been a blessing.  Some fail, most don't.  Just treat it like a business.

On a side note, I'm sorry that you had your credit card number stolen.  Just for the record, that is not identity theft.

RJ-Wisconsin 

Market America, the multi-kajillion-dollar-multi-level marketing pyramid is now mailing threatening (pay immediately or we're going to put this on your credit), harassing letters over $25 which we legally do not owe as victims of identity theft. This, too, will be passed along as a second complaint against Market America to the Federal Trade Commission. Unethical corporation. Buyer beware.