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I generally let someone talk long enough to hear them out then say I'm not interested if I'm not, I might even let them get in a second shot but this one person that was trying to get me to change my credit card terminal when I said no called me again the following day and all I said was if you send someone to my store I will pick them up and throw them in the parking lot.
You hit the nail on the head re: MLM businesses. You can say "no I'm not interested" and that's all well and good. But what do you do with your feelings of resentment towards the good friend who invited you somewhere under false pretenses? How do you apologize to the friends you had over to a party where your MLM friend opted to consider it just another working night?
Worse, they don't just want to sell you the products. That would be bad enough but easy to say "no thanks, not buying right now" and that would be it. No, they want to sell you the lifestyle. You have to join and recruit all your friends. You have to host a party. And so on.
But what do you do with your feelings of resentment towards the good friend who invited you somewhere under false pretenses? You have to join and recruit all your friends. You have to host a party. And so on. Don't drink the Kool-Aid.
So if you don't want to do something, then don't do it.
Nobody is responsible for your feelings except you.
Nobody is responsible for your choices except you.
If relationships with people aren't working, then change the way you do relationship.
What the opening post person tries to do is denigrate and eliminate a certain way of doing business. There isn't a single business out there, that someone can't claim is a waste of time and worthless and should be abolished. So what? I don't get to close down all the businesses I don't like, or name-call people engaged in them. I simply don't patronize them.
So if you don't want to do something, then don't do it.
Nobody is responsible for your feelings except you.
Nobody is responsible for your choices except you.
If relationships with people aren't working, then change the way you do relationship.
What the opening post person tries to do is denigrate and eliminate a certain way of doing business. There isn't a single business out there, that someone can't claim is a waste of time and worthless and should be abolished. So what? I don't get to close down all the businesses I don't like, or name-call people engaged in them. I simply don't patronize them.
To denigrate is to criticize unfairly. Tell me exactly what in my post in inaccurate about what these people do and the effect they have on others. Given how many other horror stories there are on this thread, I think my original post is right on the money.
Your analogy completely falls apart when you try to compare MLM to other forms of doing business. When you buy a car or hire a lawyer or shop for dresses and groceries, you make a conscious decision to seek out those who specialize in those things. Even if marketing and advertising comes into your home through television ads or telemarketers, you have the option to either hit the mute button, throw away the mailers, or hang up the phone without social consequence.
The insidious thing about MLM is that it requires you to capitalize off your network of friends and relatives, rather than make an honest pitch to the world as a whole. My insurance agent does not invite himself to Thanksgiving dinner and then try to sell Whole Life policies. The guy who owns the book store down the road from me does not cart in a stack of bestsellers when we're having friends over for barbecue. Instead, MLM no longer looks at you as a friend or a relative, but as a prospect. So he is the person changing the relationship, not me.
What's more, it thrusts the recipient of the sales pitch into an awkward social situation. Because you can't tell your friend of 20 years to beat it. And you can't hang up on your sister in law when the planning for your shared condo at the beach suddenly turns to her hawking laundry detergent. What's more, these people are trained to simply not take 'no' for an answer. Go ahead and do those things to a friend or family member. Bet you can't do it and keep the relationship intact.
So the entire purpose of my post was to tell these pests exactly what they're doing to the people they cherish the most. And, judging by the posts on this board, everybody has had to deal with this at one time or another and really resented the person in question for it. And if a few people read this and say, "Huh. Maybe that's why I'm not getting invited over to the Smiths anymore," then I will have done my job.
No, he has a right to vent and I think he has a valid point. As I mentioned before, we've lost contact with several friends over this. Some people might say 'well find new friends'.
What I need to find is an intervention.
To get my friends back.
Without the cult factor.
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It's nothing... let it go!
