1. Bless her heart. She thinks this is simply Mary Kay policy to protect their reputation. A quick google search, “Why can’t MLMs make income claims?” reveals this is not just MK policy…it’s the law.

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   • Well then Tupperware, Lularoe, Primerica, Herbalife and many other MLMs must be breaking the law because they now show their income statistics on their websites (although you usually have search a little bit to find them), however abysmal they may be for 99%+ of the participants. The law must be different in Canada because Mary Kay Canada also posts its income statistics, also rather abysmal for 99%+ of the participants. No real surprises but you knew that every one of these MLMs was very reluctant to post this information.

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     • Canadian law requires income disclosures. US laws do not.

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     • Charles:

       Income disclosures by the corporation are not the same as income claims made by independent contractors. The legally-required disclosures (in Canada, anyway, though some companies voluntarily cough up U.S. statistics) use real numbers that come from corporate accounting records. Vague claims made by reps aren’t going to be backed up by 3rd-party audits, so they’re disallowed.

       By no means am I saying the company-reported numbers are without their own shenanigans. Tracy has covered in detail how they are fudged to look better (e.g., only “active” reps are numbered leaving large swathes of money-losing victims unreported), but the bad news is obfuscated. “We paid $X million to Y thousand reps!” they’ll say, leaving the division homework (and the sad numbers it reveals) to the reader. But the numbers are there for those savvy enough to parse them.

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       • Okay, I see the distinction now. Yeah, the company reported numbers have their own shenanigans but there’s only so much they can hide and the numbers ultimately come as no surprise. 0.05% (if that) making serious money and the rest pulling down less than working at McDonald’s 20-30 hours a week. I’ll say one thing – even though I wouldn’t touch Tupperware, Lularoe, Primerica or Herbalife with a ten-foot pole, at least they were honest on their website. Mary Kay doesn’t show anything and Mary Kay Canada only shows the statistics because they are required to do so.

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2. “….the prizes I have “earned”…”

   That is precious

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3. The lack of self-awareness is classic. “Disgruntled consultants and directors leave the company all the time” because they didn’t make any money, she says. Yeah, because they wised up and realized they’d been taken in by lies, right? Nope. It was somehow their fault that the big rewards never materialized.

   There’s a reason the FTC doesn’t allow MLMs to make any income claims at all, and it’s because very few in MLM make any money. At all.

   Ironic, isn’t it? Mary Kay loudly claims “We’re NOT multi-level marketing! We’re DUAL marketing!!!” Yet their actions say otherwise: why else would they be concerned about breaking the FTC’s MLM rules?

   Hmm?

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4. “…they did not make the money that they WERE TOLD THEY WOULD MAKE (emphasis added)”

   Seriously, does this lady even understand what she posted? The whole problem is that prospective consultants ARE TOLD THEY WILL MAKE money (how much money isn’t specified here, but even being told they WILL make any amount of money is not permitted, not just because it’s a MK Corp rule, but also because 99% of them WILL NOT make any money).

   Them not making what they were told they would make isn’t the problem; it’s the whole being TOLD they would make any money to begin with that is the problem.

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   • George Orwell must have predicted how MK would set up her opportunities because their Doublespeak is astounding at times.

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5. Hmmmmm so we’re all just disgruntled…it couldn’t possibly be that we have actually made ourselves aware of THE FREAKING LAW.

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