Around the beginning of 2006 I was terminated from my previous network marketing company (Vemma - a division of New Vision). That is the network marketing company I thought I was going to build a future with. Boy was I wrong.
Early in 2006, I found out that the replicated websites the company “gave” us when we signed up had what I thought was a glitch in the programming. The company introduced two 16 minute videos to our websites. The problem was – if someone spent over 45 minutes or so on the site, it would “timeout”. From that point on, if the visitor hit the back button on their browser, they were taken to a page to fill out a contact form. This form (unbeknownst to the visitor) was NOT part of the replicating site, but the MAIN COMPANY FORM, therefore, I never saw this person’s request for more information. Well…I emailed the owner of the company (BK Boreyko) to let him know what was happening. Remember, at this point, I thought it was a programming glitch. He emailed me back to say he was out of the country and would look into it when he got back on Tuesday.
Well…needless to say, the company found a bogus reason to terminate me almost immediately upon the owner returning to the country. I was served notice via email on Wednesday that I was being suspended pending termination. The reason they gave was because I “disparaged one of the company employees”. Before emailing the owner of the company, I called the home office. I was met with a customer service rep who, on a different occasion, had no clue what I was talking about when I asked a question about the compensation plan. This particular time that I called, he gave me an answer that had NOTHING to do with the question I was asking. I asked to talk to his supervisor. I asked the supervisor my question and got a much clearer answer than the original rep gave me. I said to the supervisor “I don’t mean to be rude, but Ryan is an idiot and should not be allowed to answer the phone.” This was the reason I was given for my termination. By telling his supervisor that he was an idiot and didn’t know what he was doing, I disparaged him.
When I joined this company, I agreed to their Policies & Procedures. In the P&P’s it says that I agree to not disparage the company, it’s products, employees, or other members. WELL…I was shocked. I had always assumed (YEAH I KNOW) that disparage meant to be very nasty and negative towards someone. Then I googled the definition of disparage. Here’s the meaning of the word - “convey a negative opinion of”. GUILTY. I conveyed a negative opinion of the customer service rep who did not know what he was talking about. Boy am I glad they couldn’t see me raising my eyebrows!!! That was really conveying a negative opinion of him.
Thankfully, at the time this happened, I had already met Michael Dlouhy. Michael is my mentor, coach and friend. If it weren’t for him and the Mentoring For Free system, I would have been lost. I immediately told Michael what was going on and asked his opinion. Michael was there for me before that day, during the whole mess and after that day. Michael and the Mentoring For Free system have been my sounding board, my mastermind group, my counselors, my team. “My people” as my daughter called some of them at convention. The people in this group – every single one of them – are absolutely wonderful. The Mentoring For Free system attracts the TRUE LEADERS who are willing to go the extra mile to help anyone in any company be successful. Those who want to live a happier, more successful life.
The “website glitch” that I had inadvertently stumbled upon appeared to be a little scam that the company had going on with their “company approved” lead provider. The people who filled out that main form were given to a woman who just coincidentally had the SAME LAST NAME as the lead provider. Another “coincidence” is that the same lead provider SOLD PREQUALIFIED leads to Vemma reps. HHHMMMM….. Scam going on here? I’ll let you decide.
One of the people that filled out the form got a phone call from MRS. company approved lead provider. She confirmed thier interest in Vemma and said that I was to busy to work with said person but she would find someone who had time to help them. I connected with this person later and she was upset that I “gave her away”. So, MRS. company approved lead provider calls these people to confirm their interest and lie about me, then gives the names to MR. company approved lead provider and he sells the leads back to the reps as “PREQUALIFIED leads”. Of course they are prequalified, myself and others spent time prequalifying them before we sent them to OUR REPLICATED SITE.
PILLAR #1 - Company management experience WITH INTEGRITY. - Does Vemma/BK Boreyko have it? Again, I’ll let you decide.
Why did I wait over a year to go public with this story, you may ask. Well…Vemma’s legal department made it VERY CLEAR that I had signed a contract and agreed not to discuss any of this for at least a year or THEY WOULD SUE ME. They terminated me for supposedly disparaging an employee so I definitely believe that if I had told my story any sooner they would have sued me.
Now I find out that the company was disparaging ME all along. After I was terminated, some reps who knew me questioned why I was terminated. They were told that the company had recordings of me being horribly rude to their employees. I had asked Michelle Cohen of New Vision’s legal department (back when they terminated me and she claimed there were a “couple” of times that I was rude to employees and they had it on tape) to let me hear these so called tapes, but they couldn’t produce them. Then they told other reps that there are over FORTY recordings. But they have mysteriously disappeared. HHHMMM…
Now - to top this all off, I kept getting calls from downline members who looked up their genealogy and saw MY NAME months after I was terminated. I had a customer account in my daughter’s name, so I went in and looked and sure enough, there was my name. (My daughter has a different last name than mine so they had no idea she was still in there or I’m sure they would have terminated her too.) I called the company and told them that they had terminated me and I wanted my name removed from the genealogy. Vemma had always claimed that they have compression so when someone leaves, the rest of the downline members “roll up”. A week or so after I demanded that they remove my name, I looked back in the genealogy and saw the name PLACE HOLDER there. I have never heard of anyone with that name. I can tell you that my enroller was gone 4 months before I was and his name was still listed in the upline genealogy. PLACE HOLDER was still there another month later when I let my daughter’s position go.
This is what happens in a binary comp plan. They PLACE HOLDER that spot and then offer a pre-built downline to some heavy hitter. I can’t say for sure that’s what happened here, but why else would they say PLACE HOLDER instead of just compressing the darn leg?? HHHMMM…I’ll let you figure that one out.
Bottom line - READ your policies & procedures - this is your CONTRACT with the company. Make sure they can’t terminate you for no reason.
You don’t hear these stories a lot because companies threaten people into not telling them. Most people, after a year, are back at a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) struggling and forget all about it. Not me, BK and Vemma. I am still here. Still in network marketing and doing great. Vemma terminating me ended up being one of the best things that has ever happened to me. There are people just like me all over the place. Not everyone tells their story, but I am going to because I don’t want to see others have their income yanked out from under them like I did.
If you need help deciphering your policies & procedures, let me know. I’ll be happy to help you.
You Deserve Success!!
~Roxanne~
Get My Free eBook at MLMsnap.com
.
This original post was lost, but I have gotten the comments from google’s cached version. They are as follows:
7 Comments »
I have nothing but good experiences with Vemma, and they continue to amaze me with the product and the opportunity. I have found the staff at member support to be very helpful in every case.
I am happy to hear that Vemma, or any business, will not share support audiotapes with others who call in and ask to hear them. That would be damaging to the person calling in and would be very nonprofessional.
I have found that I don’t need to call support persons idiots to make my point, I simply need to document my position and let people do their job. You don’t say if you wrote to them and explained the details. “Person name, time, date, what occurred” in an email will go a long way to make your position clear.
If Vemma had sold your position to someone else, they would have required that the person purchasing such a position pay you for the position. I suspect that the position is considered abandoned. PLACE HOLDER is a name that is placed in any position that is abandoned for any reason. The positions cannot be removed from a binary tree since you can’t move the two children into one position.
You make many accusations without the least data to back them up. It says a lot about you.
– Mark –
You had the same problem with Vemma and they fixed it the next day. That proves the problem is still ongoing. How many prospects do you think you lost that you didn’t know about?
You said:
This was not me asking to hear just any audio tapes, this was me asking to hear the tapes they “claim” they had as “evidence against me” but couldn’t produce. In this country, we have the right to hear/see any evidence against us. Vemma could not produce that “evidence”. They needed to get rid of me before I told too many people about what I had found.
I have a TON of data to back up my accusations. Your comment, Mark, is being added to that proof, as you had the same problem with Vemma. They apparently fix it when they are caught doing it, but otherwise, it goes unnoticed, as most people do not follow up with their prospects.
Have a prosperous day!!
Roxanne
It is so amazing that in MLM people buy the hypy recruiting warm and fuzzy story, and sign over years of their life to a sinking pay ship. Ugh
I worked a company 7 years, and then they cut paychecks 80%. Is that thievery, or what. (Oh by the way, the products are good… the COMPANY is making lots of $$$… forget the reps…. they get lots of feel good stories at convention, though.)
I hope you are posting your story on the forum at the Distributor Rights Assocation.
http://www.mlm-dra.com/
To YOUR Success,
Pat Crosby
http://NetworkWithPat.blogspot.com