Warning Signs of the MK Scam
Written by CoralRose
At first I was shocked by what I read on Pink Truth. How can Mary Kay be a scam?!
I mean, of course making money as a consultant was harder and took more time than I expected, but the word scam seems a little harsh. But, when I reflected on my short time in Mary Kay, I realized the warning signs were there all along, I just didn’t recognize them.
Here’s a few:
1. During one of our “training” calls, my director used an example of recruiting someone who wasn’t interest at first but eventually signed up and “she came in with a $800 order! Look how exciting that is for the consultant! She’ll get a Love Check from the company, just for doing an interview! So, ask everyone you know; don’t prejudge, you never know, blah, blah, blah.”
I thought it was really weird the director mentioned the new consultant’s initial order amount. And, that $32 “Love Check” is not really worth getting excited about. Now, I realize my director was so excited because that’s $800 of product SHE doesn’t have to buy at the end of the month in order to make production. Also, she needs to find some way to motivate us to recruit, because initial orders of new recruits are where the money is.
2. My director would always tell us “I JUST KNOW the limited editions are going to sell out, so get them on your shelves now before it’s too late!” But they never sold out. And, my customers never wanted them. I thought my director was just making an honest mistake or being too optimistic. I even thought that eventually she’ll realize these products won’t sell out! Hahaha. After Pink Truth, I realized that her paycheck depends on how much her consultants buy, and pushing ordering of the limited editions is one way to get us to buy more. All directors push these products, my director wasn’t just overly optimistic.
3. During a conversation my director said something like “I never push people to order unless they’re selling. I never want my girls to buy their star.” I thought that was so weird! Who would order more product just to get a prize?! Why would ANY director push consultants to order if they weren’t selling? Little did I know that it’s commonplace in Mary Kay, and MK Corporate designed the system to encourage women to do exactly that.
4. And, of course, there’s the Mary Kay math. I assumed my director was just not financially savvy, or maybe bad at math the first time she over-estimated a consultant’s earnings at a party, and under-estimated the amount of time spent working. I shake my head thinking about that. Pink Truth made me realize that, that too, was part of the manipulation designed to get consultants to order more inventory. And that directors are trained to talk that way about income.
The subtle signs were there all along that this was a scam. Reading Pink Truth finally put the pieces together for me of the things that just seemed a little off.
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Well said CoralRose.
I think people often associate the word “scam” with something more blatant. Something like, “They sold me a stereo, but the box was full of bricks when I got home.” Or, “Yeah, I didn’t make any money; it was a scam.”
The public needs to know that “scam” is a broad term. With regard to MK and all MLM companies, I use the context more closely related to the “confidence game” aka “con” or “con game”. MLM is a very elaborate confidence game. And with that, people take on the confidence that Mary Kay is not a scam – by design!
You have to pay attention to what they say, but also WHAT THEY DON’T SAY.
There are also all those positive connotation words that have been corrupted when applied to MLM. “Training” sounds good and innocent, but training to do what? Sell a dream? How to lie without looking like a liar? And so many more words hijacked by MLM.
Like the 50% off for personal use consultants!
Every time they open their mouth, they are lying. I remember one MK consultant who wanted me to order from her because she was in a ‘contest’. I believed her. Looking back, I was so naive.
There is always a contest, a challenge, a goal . . . Always!!
That wasn’t your fault. Mk has years and decades of convincing and manipulating women. Blame mk not yourself. Mk teaches us to blame ourselves when things don’t go right but it’s mk mlm that is to blame not women who want to help others. They use that lovely quality against women.
Here is the ultimate give-away of the underlying scam that is MLM:
Take a forensic look at any MLM down-line, pick any MLMer, no matter how high or low that person is on the pyramid, and you will see that their personal down-line (including all current and former members) has lost money, in aggregate. This has been true for every pay-to-play endless-chain scheme like MLM since the beginning of time. And in some cases (like LuLaRoe), many thousands of dollars have been lost per person on average. The down-line must lose money in MLM. The money spent in aggregate by the consultants in the down-line always exceeds the total money they receive in return.
If you take a forensic look at an individual in a normal company, no matter who, no matter what level, you will see from that person on down, they get more money from the company than they give to the company. In real companies, it is possible (and likely) for everyone to make money. In MLM, such success is mathematically impossible.
Normal companies get their revenue from outside customers. MLMs like Mary Kay get the majority (if not all) of their revenue from the pockets of their own sales force. No outside sales are necessary for the MLM corporation (and the kingpins at the top) to be successful. Meanwhile, in pay-to-play endless-chain recruiting systems like MLM, it is mathematically impossible for any down-line to be profitable as a whole.
The consultant is the primary customer of the MLM, by design. This is why selling the MLM “opportunity” is a scam. Traditionally, selling over-priced products of dubious value qualifies as a scam (snake oil anyone?). Financial advancement that depends on selling retail products to your family and friends is unsustainable, unethical, exploitative and therefore also a scam.
Best to avoid MK (and other MLMs) altogether.
I saw this article on my Google news today. I’m not sure which MLM she was involved with, but the results were the same…
https://www.koin.com/news/oregon/oregon-author-on-becoming-a-millionaire-under-cult-like-mlm/
Rodan + Fields.
She is wrong about “nothing wrong with products” they are over priced. Always.
I agree. Your comment made me think of something else relevant to “scam”. A lot of people associate scam with a bogus product. And while that can be the case, some MLM companies do have okay products – albeit always overpriced. This actual product is, of course, irrelevant to the con game of selling dreams and endless-chain recruiting.
I recall an MLM company many years ago that sold reusable ionic laundry discs instead of detergent. “It made your laundry smell like rainwater and was good for the environment.” Lol. Turns out, they were plastic discs filled with regular water. Not only were they overpriced, the product was bogus. That was just a double whammy compared to scams like Mary Kay and Amway where the product is useable.
Regardless, all the products are just tools to lure you in, help disguise the scam, and are used to transport the money in the con game.
I would never buy limited editions cause of customers liked them then… um.. you are screwed.
New products coming in May.
Her director said “I never push people to order unless they’re selling.” So per that logic, this director always put aside the commission she received on her peoples’ WHOLESALE orders and didn’t spend that commission until she confirmed that her people actually sold the product. Right?
“I realized that her PAYCHECK depends on how much her consultants BUY”
Yep. She’s paid commission based on how much her downline buys, NOT on how much they actually SELL. And yet she’ll complain about chargebacks when “her people” return product they bought but couldn’t sell. She’ll go on the director’s Facebook group (where parsonsgreen is working undercover) and bitch about how unfair it is that somebody below her had the audacity to return unsold product to MKC and how rude and thoughtless it was because now this director would get the chargeback out of her MK paycheck.
That director felt entitled to commission she received on her downlines wholesale purchases, never bothering to confirm that product was all sold before she spent the commission she was paid. Why is this not a bigger thing? It grates me like a small rock inside a shoe whenever I read about chargebacks. To the MK directors: you have zero right to complain about “losing” money that you never “earned” to begin with.