mlm solicitors (hotel, houses, high school)

[avage]

Ever been approached by a poser at a bookstore, or grocery store, etc and asked to join a multi-level marketing program?
They typically say or ask some small talk topic and then end up asking you if you want to join their scheme. (Sell products to your friends, pay them a fee). A store employee later clarified that soliciting is illegal there.

I've only seen this in the South Bay. Some mlm lair around there? lol.

[sandy7]

Been approached before. I would make a lot of small talk with them, joke, act courteous, basically anything to play along, show great interest. Apparently the whole idea is to invite you to a monthly meeting at Wyndham or some hotel where solicitor pays your entry fee of $5 or so. I play along and day of the meeting pull out with an excuse.

I hope I've frustrated them enough by wasting their time(atleast close to an hour in most cases) and hopefully they will have some doubts before trying to lure unsuspecting folks.

Then again most of them might be tenacious enough to keep trying.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by sandy7

Then again most of them might be tenacious enough to keep trying.

Because they can't do anything else to save their lives!

Uh Oh - our own SJ Earthquakes are sponsored by...Amway! Oh well, they threw down a bunch of money to help the team.
But I would refrain from getting roped into one of their and similar mlm seminars, as they tend to be ravenous, unrelenting savages in sheep's clothing. Their cult leaders are always there evaluating how wonderfully obnoxious and bloodthirsty their underlings behave. Getting a little promised prize ain't worth encountering such a startling display of inhumanity.

[Nell Plotts]

My time is too precious to waste on idiots. Brush the mlm folks off.

[Oberleutnant]

I first learned of this when I was approached by a guy and a girl in their twenties on SJSU's campus when I was taking classes there. I figured I didn't have anything to lose so I attended a fancy little presentation by Vartech Telecom held in a hotel. I remember most of the other attendees were of high school/college age and thus more impressionable.

It wasn't long before it was obvious that it was a huge pile of BS. They ran a video showing how easy it will be to make money selling phone plans and showed a bunch of their employees driving Hummers and living in nice houses because they signed up. They even had people cheering and clapping on cue. And to even get started you had to give them a $700 deposit to get a "starter kit" that you only get back after you sign up your first customers. I am just not the kind to pester my friends and relatives to sign up for crap so I can make money.

I got up and started to leave but before I could make my way out these two girls desperately tried to convince me to stay and signup but I gave a firm no and left. I knew that if I signed up they would have made a few hundred each. Even after that they still called me the next day.

A few years later a painter hired to paint my house tried to get me to signup for this but again I declined. Unfortunately a good friend of mine got suckered into giving $40 to get into an MLM scheme but he immediately wanted out but could not get back the $40.