Thursday 29 June 2017

Millionaire 'Utility Warehouse' boss, Charles Wigoder, all but admits 'Multi Level Marketing' is a Big Lie.

Statutory Warning

More than half a century of quantifiable evidence, proves beyond all reasonable doubt that:

  • the widely-misunderstood phenomenon that has become popularly-known as 'Multi-Level Marketing' (a.k.a. 'Network Marketing') is nothing more than an absurd, non-rational,  cultic, economic pseudo-science maliciously-designed to lure unwary persons into de facto servitude, dissociate them from external reality and not only steal their money, but also deceive them into unconsciously acting the role of bait to lure other unwary persons (particularly their friends and family members) into the same trap. 
  • the impressive-sounding made-up jargon term, 'MLM,' is therefore, the misleading title for an enticing structured-scenario of control which has been developed, and constantly acted out asreality, by the instigators, and associates, of various copy-cat, major and minor, ongoing organised crime groups (hiding behind labyrinths of legally-registered corporate structures) to shut-down the critical, and evaluative, faculties of victims, and of casual observers, in order to perpetrate, and dissimulate, a series of blame-the-victim 'Long Cons*'  - comprising self-perpetuating rigged-market swindles**, a.k.a. pyramid scams (dressed up as 'legitimate direct selling income opportunites') and related advance-fee frauds (dressed up as 'legitimate: training and motivation, self-betterment, programs, recruitment leads, lead generation systems,' etc.).
  • Apart from an insignificant minority of shills (whose leading-role in the 'Long Con' has been to pretend that anyone can achieve financial freedom simply by following their unquestioning example and exactly-duplicating a step-by-step-plan of recruitment and self-consumption)the hidden overall net-loss/churn rate for participation in so-called 'MLM income opportunities,' has always been effectively 100%.
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*A 'Long Con' is a form of fraud maliciously designed to exploit victims' existing beliefs and instinctual desires and make them falsely-believe that they are exercising a completely free-choice. 'Long Cons' comprise an enticing structured-scenario of control acted out as reality over an extended period. Like theatrical plays, 'Long Cons' are written, directed and produced. They involve leading players and supporting players as well as props, sets, extras, costumes, script, etc. The hidden objective of 'Long Cons' is to convince unwary persons that fiction is fact and fact is fiction, progressively cutting them off from external reality. In this way, victims begin unconsciously to play along with the controlling-scenario and (in the false-expectation of future reward) large sums of money or valuables can be stolen from them. Classically, the victims of 'Long Cons' can become deluded to such an extent that they will abandon their education, jobs, careers, etc., empty their bank accounts, and/or beg, steal, borrow from friends, family members, etc.


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** The enticing structured-scenario of control fundamental to all 'rigged-market swindles' is that people can earn income by first contributing their own money to participate in a profitable commercial opportunity, but which is secretly an economically-unviable fake due to the fact that the (alleged) opportunity has been rigged so that it generates no significant, or sustainable, revenue other than that deriving from its own ill-informed participants. For more than 50 years, 'Multi-Level Marketing' racketeers have been allowed to dissimulate rigged-market swindles by offering endless-chains of victims various banal, but over-priced, products, and/or services, in exchange for unlawful losing-investment payments, on the pretext that 'MLM' products/services can then be regularly re-sold for a profit in significant quantities via expanding networks of distributors. However, since 'MLM' products/services cannot be regularly re-sold to the general public for a profit in significant quantities (based on value and demand), 'MLM' participants have, in fact, been peddled infinite shares of their own finite money (in the false expectation of future reward). 

Thus, in 'MLM' rackets, the innocent looking products/sevices' function has been to hide what is really occurring - i.e The operation of an unlawful, intrinsically fraudulent, rigged-market where effectively no non-salaried (transient) participant can generate an overall net-profit, because, unknown to the non-salaried (transient) participants, the market is in a permanent state of collapse and requires its non-salaried (transient) participants to keep finding further (temporary) de facto slaves to sustain the enticing illusion of stability and viability.

Meanwhile an insignificant (permanent) minority direct the 'Long Con' - raking in vast profits by selling into the rigged-market and by controlling/withholding all key-information concerning the rigged-market's actual catastrophic, ever-shifting results from its never-ending chain of (temporary) de facto slaves.

Although cure-all pills potions and vitamin/dietary supplements, household and beauty, products have been most-prevalent, it is possible to use any product, and/or service, to dissimulate a rigged-market swindle. There are even some 'MLM' rackets that have been hidden behind well-known traditional brands (albeit offered at fixed high prices). Some 'MLM' rackets have included 'cash-back/discount shopping cards, travel products, insurance, energy/communications services' and 'crypto-currencies' in their controlling scenarios.
  
No matter what bedazzling product/service has been dangled as bait, in 'MLM' rackets, there has been no significant or sustainable source of revenue other than never-ending chains of contractees of the 'MLM' front companies. These front-companies always pretend that their products/services are high quality and reasonably-priced and that for anyone prepared to put in some effort, the products/services can be sold on for a profit via expanding networks of distributors based on value and demand. In reality, the underlying reason why it has mainly only been (transient) 'MLM' contractees who have bought the various products /services (and not the general public) is because they have been tricked into unconsciously playing along with the controlling scenario which constantly says that via regular self-consumption and the recruitment of others to do the same, etc. ad infinitum, anyone can receive a future (unlimited) reward.

I've been examining the 'MLM' phenomenon for around 20 years. During this time, I've yet to find one so-called 'MLM' company that has voluntarily made key-information available to the public concerning the quantifiable results of its so-called 'income opportunity'.

Part of the key-information that all 'MLM' bosses seek to hide concerns the overall number of persons who have signed contracts since the front companies were instigated and the retention rates of these contractees. 

When rigorously investigated, the overall hidden net-loss churn rates for so-called 'MLM income opportunites' has turned out to have been effectively 100%. Thus, anyone claiming (or implying) that it is possible for anyone to make a penny of net-profit, let alone a living, in an 'MLM,' cannot be telling the truth and will not provide quantifiable evidence to back up his/her anecdotal claims.

Although a significant number of 'MLM' front-companies (like 'Vemma', 'Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing', 'Wake Up Now') have been shut-down by commercial regulators, some of the biggest 'MLM' rackets (like 'Amway' ,'Herbalife', Forever Living Products' ) have continued to hide in plain sight whilst secretly churning tens of millions of losing participants over decades.

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(Blog readers should be aware that since this article was posted most of the incriminating video links it contained have mysteriously vanished from the Net. Also, I have tried, without success, to interview Joanna Lumley and get her side of the serious matters which I set out in the article below. I personally suspect that she has been ensnared by the offer of a large donation to one, or more, of her numerous favourite charities. That said, in the 'Utility Warehouse' video linked below, Joanna Lumley very specifically introduces herself by name and speaks as though she is personally guaranteeing the authenticity of the company and its so-called 'life-transforming MLM Income Opportunity').

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UPDATE

www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jul/08/get-rich-quick-utility-warehouse-energy-scheme-joanna-lumley

A week after I published this artcle, a UK financial journalist, Rupert Jones, began to take a closer look at 'Utility Warehouse MLM Income Opportunity.' Although this commendable media report (which was guided by my own research and that of Robert FitzPatrick) could only scratch the surface of the 'MLM' phenomenon, within hours of it appearing, the 'Utility Warehouse' propaganda video it referred to (featuring iconic British celebrity, Joanna Lumley) had vanished from Youtube.

Despite the fact that the bosses of 'Utility Warehouse' have (contrary to the UK Fraud Act 2006 section 3) made a considerable effort to hide the quantifiable results of their so-called 'MLM Income Opportunity' from the public, probably on the advice of the Guardian's lawyers, Rupert Jones described this demonstrably-unlawful enterprise as: 'legal.'

A Blog reader then contacted me who imagined that, because the video had vanished, 'Joanna Lumley must have realised her gaff and cut her ties with Utility Warehouse.'

Unfortunately, Joanna Lumley is still being used not only to commit fraud in the UK, but also to prevent victims of the fraud from facing reality and complaining. Furthermore, although I accept how difficult it must be for her to face the truth, Joanna Lumley now cannot plead ignorance.

Blog readers can still watch her acting out the comic-book ritual 'MLM' controlling scenario as 'reality,' by clicking on the link below.

www.uwopportunity.co.uk/?v=autoplay


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www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/partner-help/partner/answer/promo-videos



(Blog readers should again note that since this article was posted the incriminating 'Utility Warehouse' propaganda/recruitment video featuring Joanna Lumley has also vanished from Youtube).

"We are thrilled to welcome Joanna Lumley as our new Brand Ambassador. Like Sir Terry, she is a national treasure, well respected not just for her film roles, but also for the many deserving causes into which she has put in so much time and hard work. Inside this issue, you’ll find full details of all the new promotional tools we have launched featuring Joanna, to help you build your business faster and more profitably over the coming months than ever before."

Charles Wigoder

file:///C:/Users/ordinateur/Downloads/NewsPlus_Spring2017.pdf

We’ve teamed up with British icon and national treasure, Joanna Lumley, to make a series of short films, which explain all the benefits of Utility Warehouse. As you might expect, our new brand ambassador does a fantastic job of introducing the Discount Club and our business opportunity — and in doing so, makes your job much easier! Joanna Lumley is one of the UK’s most recognised, trusted and respected personalities. Known for her charisma, honesty, sincerity, and down-to-earth good nature, you can confidently introduce Utility Warehouse, safe in the knowledge she has chosen to recommend us. So, all you need to do is say: “I’ve found a way to save money and earn extra income — can I show you how?”


Part-transcript of a 'Utility Warehouse' recruitment video, 2017

"Becoming a Utility Warehouse partner is easy and risk free
Even the joining fee is fully refundable
If you have second thoughts after your training you'll get it back no questions asked.
You can work on your business part time, full time or from time to time.
It's like a mini franchise, but without any financial risk or stock to buy.
Spend a few hours per week building your business and you will quickly find yourself earning an extra few hundred pounds each month.
Keep going, work a little harder and you could earn thousands of pounds extra each month
You don't need to be a salesman, a utility expert or a workaholic, just organised and committed and passionate about helping others to save money and building a better future for yourself
And you won't be thrown in at the deep end - you'll get help every step of the way with free training an experienced mentor and local support groups who will share their knowledge and experience with you.
Every time you introduce a new member to Utility Warehouse, you'll get paid.
The more new members you introduce: the more you'll earn, it's that simple.
And what's more you will continue to get paid a % of their Utility bill for as long as they stay a member.
That means every time they boil a kettle, switch on the heating, make a phone call, you'll get paid.
But it doesn't stop there.
If the members you introduce become a partner like you and sign up the people they know you'll get paid again - a small part of their utility spend every month.
That could mean a regular extra income for life.
And there's another reward that I really love - seeing more and more people share in the success of Utility Warehouse, not just cutting their household bills, but as a partner fulfilling their ambitions and dreams.
There's no limit to how far or how fast your business can grow.
Start small with the people you know and grow big with the people you don't.
Tens of thousands of people have already become Utility Warehouse partners and are reaping the rewards financially socially and through gaining new skills and confidence.
It's a purple army that is leading a revolution in the way that people buy their utility services.
Why don't you join them?
It could earn you financial freedom for life."

Joanna Lumley  

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A few weeks ago, via some concerned third parties, I was put in contact with a young woman in the UK who wishes to remain anonymous. She told me that she had recently become involved in an upsetting incident with a middle-aged guy who was excitedly boasting (at a private social event) that he was 'making good money as a Utility Warehouse Distributor.' He was shamelessly prospecting other guests and even the catering staff at the event venue. My contact intervened by discreetly suggesting to a prospect whom she knew and who seemed interested in joining, that this approach sounded like a pitch for a pyramid scheme. Unfortunately, she was then pointed out to the recruiter (by the prospect) who immediately approached her and took her aside. In an arrogant fatherly tone, the recruiter advised her to keep her nose out of something that she didn't understand, insisting that the 'Utility Warehouse MLM Business Model' is 'endorsed by Joanna Lumley and other celebrities' - including 'Richard Branson and Warren Buffett.'


See original image


Before she could get away from him, the 'Distributor' told my contact that last year 'Utility Warehouse' had paid out more than £20 millions in commission to its 'Partners' and that he was only 'inviting other people to share in the company's success.'  At this point, my contact felt so uncomfortable, that she made her excuses to her hosts, and left. When she got home, she began to look on the Net and found the ongoing discussion of the 'MLM' phenomenon on the Mumsnet forum where recruiters are affectionately referred to as 'Bots' (as in robots).


 
 


In the past, 'Utility Warehouse' has wheeled-out various top British celebrities as useful idiots in propaganda videos. Furthermore, after I posted a brief article last year warning about 'Utility Warehouse,' a reader contacted me privately who felt terribly let down by the fact that the BBC's Terry Wogan (who passed away in January 2016) and her favourite comedy stars, Dawn French & Jennifer Saunders, had all been involved.

Thus, just a few days ago, I telephoned Joanna Lumley's agents, Conway Van Gelder, who gave me the contact details of the star's personal assistant, Lisa Baker. I then sent my urgent concerns about Joanna Lumley's involvement with 'Utility Warehouse' in a private e-mail via Lisa Baker who sent me a disturbing reply.

Dear Mr Brear,

Thank you very much for your email last week regarding Joanna Lumley and the Utility Warehouse Ltd. We have referred your enquiry to Tom Walker at the Utility Warehouse.
With all good wishes,
Lisa Baker
PA to Miss Lumley


A quick Google search revealed that Tom Walker is a RADA-trained former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, who apparently is now reduced to making promotional videos for 'Utility Warehouse.' 


Image result for charles wigoder
The Honourable Charles Wigoder (b. 1960)


Mr Walker, did not contact me, but after I sent a follow up e-mail to Lisa Baker, just a few hours later, I received an unsolicited e-mail from none other than the Honourable Charles Wigoder - the son of a life Peer (hence the 'Honourable' title) and boss of 'Utility Warehouse.' In fact, Charles Wigoder owns 20% of 'Telecom Plus/Utility Warehouse PLC' - making his personal stake in the company currently worth around £200 millions.





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Dear David,

Joanna Lumley

I understand that you have been attempting to contact Joanna Lumley in order to discuss your longstanding concerns about the harm and damage which most MLM companies cause to those who participate.

The honest truth is that I had exactly the same concerns when someone first suggested I looked at Telecom Plus a little over 20 years ago. As one of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs, with a hard earned reputation for integrity in all my business dealings, being tainted with the so called ‘pyramid selling’ brush was the last thing I needed….but I was persuaded to do so and am deeply glad that I did.

And whilst you may be right about MLM businesses in general, you are wrong about us.

By way of example:

(i)                 Of course not everyone who signs up as one of our Partners goes on to build a significant residual income – but with us, anyone who tries the business and decides (for whatever reason) that it isn’t right for them, can receive a full refund of the joining fees they have paid; the churn/loss ratio looks very different when virtually none of the new Partners who join actually make a loss!
(ii)              Most MLM business require a constant stream of new recruits in order to create income for those higher up the chain; with us, the incomes of all our Partners can  continue growing without a single new Partner being recruited, as more people become Members, and as existing Members take more services from us.

If you are genuinely interested in learning more about our business model, and why we have become a powerful force for good in the UK, I would be very happy to meet. I am on annual leave for much of July, but we could perhaps get something in the diary for the second half of August.

I have cc’d my PA (Lucy) who can make the arrangements.

With kind regards

Charles Wigoder
Executive Chairman

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Firstly, it is interesting to note that Charles Wigoder is a champion Contract Bridge player.

Image result for bridge cards

(Briefly, for the benefit of Blog readers who might not be familiar with the game of Bridge, it's a sophisticated version of Whist complete with its own terminology and etiquette: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_contract_bridge_terms  . Bridge involves dealing the entire pack of playing cards to two pairs of partners who then make bids in turn as to how many tricks each thinks his/her pair will win against the other pair based on the strength of the hidden hand each holds. Each playing partner attempts to communicate to the other the strength of his/her hidden hand via the strength of his/her bids. Bridge is one of the few card games which actually involves a very subtle form of cheating: tone of voice, facial expression, gestures, etc. Officially, in Bridge tournaments, secret signs between partners are frowned on, but they are inevitable. The highest bidder wins the contract also establishing which suit will be trumps or if there will be no trumps. The contract winner then plays both his/her own hand and that of his/her partner - the 'dummy' - whose cards are laid on the table. There is a large amount of skill involved in leading your cards, and those of your dummy, in the right order. The highest points are scored when you win the number of tricks you contracted you would, but you can lose if you fail to achieve the contract).

Thus, Wigoder's opening bid in which he pretends to be my partner (by apparently admitting to suspecting that most 'MLM' companies, apart from his own, have been the fronts for pyramid schemes) is obviously not that of someone who is entirely convinced that he's holding a strong hand, but strangely he's confident that I'm going to accept his disguised invitation to play the role of dummy.

Instead of entering the 'Utility Warehouse' rabbit hole: in the rest of this article I'm going to stay well above ground and calmly lay on the table exactly what it is that the Honourable Charles Wigoder and his associates don't want Joanna Lumley, or the public, or regulators, or law enforcement agents, or legislators, or journalists, or satirists, to uncover.

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For a long time I've proposed the formula that the universal identifying characteristic of pyramids and Ponzis is that they have no sustainable, or significant, source of revenue other than their own participants who are tricked into handing over their money (and sometimes their time and effort) in the false-expectation of future reward. Pyramids and Ponzis can, therefore, be more-accurately described as dissimulated closed-market swindles. That said, by their very nature, all pyramid and Ponzi schemes have been presented as perfectly lawful ,and viable, enterprises with an external source of revenue. Over the years, the methods of dissimulating pyramids and Ponzis and making them appear to have legitimate external sources of revenue have become ever more mystifying and sophisticated, but their hidden quantifiable results have remained exactly the same. i.e. The schemes' instigators make a fortune, and virtually everyone else loses. Recently, I've come to the conclusion that it is probably even more-accurate to describe Pyramids and Ponzis as dissimulated rigged-market swindles.




In blame the victim 'Multi Level Marketing/Prosperity Gospel ' cultic rackets, the innocent looking products/services' function is to hide what is really occurring - i.e. The operation of an unlawful rigged market where effectively no ill-informed (transient) participant can generate an overall net-profit, because the market is in a permanent state of collapse and requires its (transient) participants to keep finding further (transient) participants, ad infinitum. 

Meanwhile a tiny well-informed (permanent) minority rake in vast profits by selling into the rigged-market at fixed-prices (and sometimes by also charging sign-up fees) and by controlling all key-information concerning the rigged-market's actual catastrophic, ever-shifting results in respect of its participants.

Although miraculous cure-all quasi-medical pills and potions, and household, and beauty, products have been prevalent, it  is possible to use any product or service to dissimulate a rigged-market swindle a.k.a. pyramid scheme. There are even some 'MLM/Prosperity Gospel' rackets which have hidden behind well-known traditional brands (albeit offered at controlled high prices) others have hidden behind travel products, as well as financial, and insurance, products, cash back cards, etc. I believe there is now an 'MLM' racket based on cannabis products in the USA

Behind all the products/services, bedazzling celebrity endorsements, commercial camouflage, mystifying mathematics and Utopian imagery, in 'MLM/Prosperity Gospel' rackets there has been no significant or sustainable source of revenue other than never-ending chains of temporarily bedazzled contractees of the 'MLMfront companies. These front-companies always pretend that their products services are high quality and reasonably-priced and that they can be sold for a profit based on value and demand. In reality, the underlying reason why it has mainly only been 'MLM' contractees who buy the products /services (and not the general public) is because they have been led to believe that by doing so, and by recruiting others to do the same etc. ad infinitum, they will receive a future (unlimited) reward.

Put in very simple terms, 'MLM' has been form of mind-numbingly complex economic 'alchemy' behind which bedazzled and befuddled victims have been peddled infinite shares of their own finite money.

I've been examining the 'MLM' phenomenon for around 20 years. During this time, I've yet to find one so-called 'MLM' company which has voluntarily made key information available in an easily understood form to the public concerning the quantifiable results of its so-called 'income opportunity'.

The key-information which all 'MLM' bosses seek to hide concerns the overall number of persons who have signed contracts since the front companies were instigated and the retention/net-profitability rates of these contractees. 

When rigorously investigated, the overall hidden net-loss churn rates for 'MLM' income opportunities has turned out to have been effectively 100%. Thus, anyone claiming (or implying) that it is possible for the average participant to make a living in an 'MLM,' cannot be telling the truth and will not provide quantifiable evidence to back up his/her anecdotal claims.




Some of the biggest 'MLM/Prosperity Gospel' rackets (like 'Amway' and 'Herbalife') have secretly churned tens of millions of losing participants over decades and they've also been widely-described as 'commerical or business cults.' Interestingly, 'Amway' offers insurance and also once hid behind utilities supplied by 'Enron.'






There is already a large body of documentary evidence proving that 'Utility Warehouse' adherents have been, and are being, exposed (without their fully-informed consent) to co-ordinated devious techniques of social, psychological and physical persuasion, designed to shut down their critical, and evaluative, faculties - dissociating them from external reality in order to exploit them and prevent them from complaining. Lying at the dark heart of the 'Utility Warehouse' cult has been the classic guilt-producing closed-logic controlling narrative. This constantly tells 'MLM' converts that only those who exclude all negativity and continue to believe totally that they will achieve the future redemption of financial freedom, can achieve financial freedom. Thus, all those who lose money and quit must not have believed totally and only have themselves to blame. Tellingly, the bosses of 'Utility Warehouse' have never disclosed the actual results of their so-called 'MLM Income Opportunity,' because if they did, no one in their right mind would want to sign up. Instead they have focused attention on a minority of apparently successful and satisfied shills, whilst 'Utility Warehouse' (just like 'Amway' and 'Herbalife') has been peddled as an 'income opportunity,' and not a net-income opportunity.

Further research has been published by my associate Robert FitzPatrick (President of Pyramid Scheme Alert). This clearly shows that 'Utility Warehouse' has been copied from various US-based pyramid schemes dissimulated as 'MLM/direct selling income opportunities' hiding behind utilities.


The Texas-based MLM, Stream Energy, which sells gas and electric utility services in Texas and in Georgia, has been sued for operating a pyramid scheme. The civil suit, which is seeking class action status, claims that Stream misrepresents income potential, misleads consumers to invest as salespeople, is causing the great majority of "sales people" to lose money and is destined to collapse.

The suit notes that the ratio of Stream customers to salespeople is now only two to one. Therefore, the income potential could only come from recruiting other sales people in an endless chain fashion. In such a plan, only a very small number can be successful and all others are doomed to failure. Stream's pay plan is a typical MLM that pays earlier investors with funds invested by new ones in an "endless chain" plan.

The lawsuit will be eerily familiar to consumers who have watched the MLM industry. Stream is a type of MLM similar to Pre-Paid Legal, the now defunct Excel Communications, the travel scheme, My TravelBiz.com that was prosecuted as a pyramid scheme in California, and the telephone scheme, ACN which has also been prosecuted in Canada and Australia, but was able to continue based on rulings by judges. These schemes offer payments based on the number of new sales people recruited and each salesperson must also have a small number of retail customers to be qualified for commissions.

By using the endless chain pay plan the scheme can drive a large number of sales, though almost no sales people actually earn a profit and virtually none actually earn a profit for "direct selling." Excel, for example, recruited 500,000 American salespeople in one year at one point and quickly became the 4th largest long distance phone service in America. Yet, 80% of its salespeople were quitting each year. It quickly spiked and declined rapidly, eventually going bankrupt, ruining all distributors and all shareholders. Pre-Paid Legal also enjoyed fast growth, but now is in steep decline, with recruiting slowing and the ratio of "retail" customers to salespeople narrowing. My Travel Biz became the 17th largest travel agency in America, though virtually none of its salespeople actually earned a profit from retail travel sales. The big earners were making money off all the other sales people's investments.

In these cases, the products are sold at competitive prices, but each salesperson must pay upfront and monthly fees in order to participate in the chain. The net result is to produce a large base of customers, but the incentives and promises made to the salespeople – which produce the sales – turn out to be false. The salespeople are churned in huge numbers as they discover that it is mathematically impossible for them to build their own large downlines.

Most other MLMs – which constitute a variation on the pyramid selling model – have virtually no retail customers at all and they usually hype grossly overpriced products. 40-60% of those high prices are then transferred to the top of the pyramid. In those cases, the MLM companies do not track retail sales at all, though they may officially claim that each salespeople is required to make retail sales.

The Stream Energy model builds in a requirement for a small number of retail sales, giving an appearance of greater validity. Some news analysts are blinded by the large number "sales" these schemes produce. They also do not understand the pyramid pay plan that tricks the participants into losing their investments and wasting their time and effort.

http://pyramidschemealert.org/PSAMain/news/StreamClassComplaint.pdf

'Utility Warehouse' has recently begun to offer insurance products ( but still acting as an agent for another company) and has publicly advertised this.


Classically of an 'MLM' racket, only persons under contract to 'Utility Warehouse' can make purchases via the company whilst escalating commission rewards have been offered to all Utility Warehouse contractees provided they sign up at least 6 new contractees (although previously it was 3 new contractees). Thus, in the end, the possibility of future 'commisssion' rewards have been offered to all contractees on purchases which they make themselves and on the purchases of anyone they might recruit and on the purchases of anyone their recruits might recruit, etc., ad infinitum. Thus, basic common-sense reveals that no 'Utility Warehouse' contractee should be trusted when it comes to any anecdotal statement which he/she makes about his/her activity; for in order to have chance of recruiting, no matter what their actual experience, they all likely to recommend the company and to claim to have saved, and/or made, money. However, many people who have abandoned the company, tell a very different story.

The deeply-mystifying 'commission' reward system has been presented in 'Utility Warehouse' promotional material as being without limit and a proven means of attaining 'financial freedom for life,' but remember, no accurate easy-to-understand data has been disclosed concerning the overall results of the so-called 'Utility Warehouse MLM income opportunity.'

Bearing the above in mind, this is from the UK Fraud Act 2006 (section 3)

3Fraud by failing to disclose information

A person is in breach of this section if he—
(a)dishonestly fails to disclose to another person information which he is under a legal duty to disclose, and
(b)intends, by failing to disclose the information—
(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.








'Utility Warehouse' currently claims 41 700 'Partners/Distributors,' selling Utilities, insurance, etc., to 600 000 'members/customers,' but it can't be repeated enough that even 'members' (who are in the anti-chamber to the real fraud) are also offered rewards on the purchases they make themselves as well as the possibility of 'commissions' for signing up a minimum number of new 'members' and the possibility of 'commissionson the purchases of their future recruits, etc. ad infinitum. Thus, if we divide the current number of 'Members' by the current number of 'Partners/Distributors,' on average each one has only a paltry 13 'customers.' 




'Utility Warehouse' is currently offering to pay an up-front head hunter bounty of £200 for each new recruit an existing recruit signs up. This dodge again has been copied from US-based 'MLM' rackets. What the promotional material doesn't make clear is that these head hunter payments are a 'commision' advance on what the new 'customer' recruit should (in theory) ultimately hand over to the company. Thus, if the new recruit drops out and doesn't continue obediently to buy via 'Utility Warehouse,' the recruiter has to give his £200 bounty back to the company. 


Tellingly, part of 'Telecom Plus/ Utility Warehouse' is a subsidiary debt-collection company which has already fallen foul of UK energy regulators due to its misleading appearance and bully-boy tactics.

In order to become a 'Partner,' a 'Member' also has to pay a sign-up fee. For years this was around £200, but since I posted my article highlighting this last year, the sign-up fee for 'Members' was suddenly reduced to around £100, but apparently for non-'members' it remained at just under £200. The company has offered to refund the sign up fee if a 'Partner/Distributor' signs-up 12 new recruits. Significant sign-up fees to participate in trading schemes are prohibited by law in the UK. In reality, many Utility Warehouse members have been merely participants who haven't been able to recruit 6 more members (let alone 12), but many have been obediently buying via 'Utility Warehouse' and trying to recruit others, based on their false-expectation of future reward . Whilst, the overall churn rate of Utility Warehouse contractees (based on the accumulated number of persons who have signed contracts with the company since it was first instigated and the number of persons under contract currently) has not been disclosed in an easy to understand form.

In reality, the number of recruits required to be found and maintained for any of the existing 41 700  'Utility Warehouse' so-called 'Partner/Distributor's to earn a minimum-wage net-income (let alone financial freedom) is considerable. However, the number of recruits required to be found and maintained for all existing so-called 'Partner/Distributors' to earn a minimum wage net-income, is astronomic.

Again in the most simple terms, 'Utility Warehouse' has been peddling an unoriginal, pernicious financial fairy story - ie. endless recruitment + endless payments by the recruits = endless profits for the recruits.

Bearing the above in mind, one more time here below is the link to, and part-transcript of, a current 'Utility Warehouse' promotional video featuring Joanna Lumley which, once you know the truth, is revealed as a classic tragicomic 'Prosperity Gospel' preachment - offering vulnerable prospective converts an exclusive ticket to a (non-existent) future secure Utopian existence (in exchange for their critical and evaluative faculties). Ironically, this illusary filmed ritual-performance has been bought and paid for with past and present 'Utility Warehouse' worshippers' own cash:






"Becoming a Utility Warehouse partner is easy and risk free
Even the joining fee is full refundable
If you have second thoughts after your training you'll get it back no questions asked.
You can work on your business part time, full time or from time to time.
It's like a mini franchise, but without any financial risk or stock to buy.
Spend a few hours per week building your business and you will quickly find yourself earning an extra few hundred pounds each month.
Keep going, work a little harder and you could earn thousands of pounds extra each month
You don't need to be a salesman, a utility expert or a workaholic, just organised and committed and passionate about helping others to save money and building a better future for yourself
And you won't be thrown in at the deep end - you'll get help every step of the way with free training an experienced mentor and local support groups who will share their knowledge and experience with you
Every time you introduce a new member to Utility Warehouse, you'll get paid
The more new members you introduce: the more you'll earn, it's that simple
And what's more you will continue to get paid a % of their Utility bill for as long as they stay a member
That means every time they boil a kettle, switch on the heating, make a phone call, you'll get paid.
But it doesn't stop there
If the members you introduce become a partner like you and sign up the people they know you'll get paid again - a small part of their utility spend every month
That could mean a regular extra income for life
And there's another reward that I really love - seeing more and more people share in the success of Utility Warehouse, not just cutting their household bills, but as a partner fulfilling their ambitions and dreams.
There's no limit to how far or how fast your business can grow.
Start small with the people you know and grow big with the people you don't.
Tens of thousands of people have already become Utility Warehouse partners and are reaping the rewards financially socially and through gaining new skills and confidence.
It's a purple army that is leading a revolution in the way that people buy their utility services.
Why don't you join them?
It could earn you financial freedom for life."

Meanwhile back in the adult world of quantifiable reality, and for those persons with fully-functioning critical and evaluative faculties, this is from the 'Utility Warehouse's' current annual report :

"In March, we launched a number of films featuring Joanna Lumley as the new face of Utility Warehouse, explaining who we are and the benefits we provide to those looking to save money (by joining as a new Member) or make money (by becoming a Partner). These new tools were well received, and we have since seen an encouraging increase in the number of new Partners joining the business.”

In reality, there is no independent evidence that 'Utility Warehouse' actually offers cheaper services. As for “making money (by becoming a Partner)”, here’s what the annual report states:

"Distribution expenses include the share of our revenues that we pay as commission to Partners, together with other direct costs associated with gathering new Members which are included as part of the Customer Acquisition Segment result for the year. These reduced slightly to £21.1m (2016: £21.4m), mainly reflecting lower energy commissions following the industry wide gas price reductions at the start of the financial year, partly offset by increased commissions paid to Partners from the increase in new Members and services." 

The annual report also stated that 

"annual revenue is £740 million, with 600,000 customers  and 41,700  distributors.” 

So, £21.1 millions was paid out among the 41,700 'distributors, ' but that’s a mean average of £506 per year, or less than £10 per week. However, this figure, as pitifully low as it is, is still grossly misleading. Sellers have had to sign up a minimum number of buyers before they get paid any commission, so probably most got no payment at all. The company does not disclose anything about 'Distributor' income, except to state:

"Whilst it is more challenging for Partners to gather new Members and build their Utility Warehouse businesses when there are such large pricing differentials in the energy markets, we have been pleased to see many of them still achieve significant success during the year by focusing on the unique strengths of our proposition and the exclusive benefits we offer."

One revealing reference appears in the 2013 annual report: ('Utility Warehouse' never repeated the data in future annual reports)

"DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

The number of new Distributors joining the business between April and December last year averaged around 900 per month. Since then, we have seen a significant increase to around 1,300 per month, taking the total number of registered Distributors at the year end to a record high of almost 39,000 (2012: 37,263)." 

So, if 'Utility Warehouse' was recruiting 1,300 a month or 15,600 a year with a total annual number 37,263, that’s 42% of the total were recruited in the same year. So, at £200 a recruit, that was £3.12  million just in sign up fees gained for that one year 2013. 

For 2016, the company said it had 41,700 total 'Partner/Distributors.' 42% of that number (new recruits signed up in same year) is 17,514 new recruits, generating £1.75 million in sign-up fee revenue at £100 each. That’s also a significant % of the total commissions paid out to the recruiters. 

If each 'Partner/Distributor' buys the average amount paid by the “customers” for services, £1,230 per year, and the company pays 2.85% of revenue for “commissions”, then the newest recruits (17,514) each  bought £1,230 in a year’s time, or  £21.54 million in total in services.

Overall, the company paid 2.85% in 'commissions' on revenue. So, if there were 41,700 'Partners/Distributors' in 2016 and each bought the 'average' amount in services, £1,230, then these people themselves generated £51.291 millions in revenue. With 2.85% of that being transferred back to them, then another £1.46 millions of the 'commissions' came from the 'Partner/Distributors.'

Typically, of an 'MLM Compensation Plan,' the 'Utility Warehouse' version is deeply-mystifying and guaranteed to shut-down the critical and evaluative faculties of anyone examining it who doesn't understand that its real function has been to shut down the critical and evaluative faculties of not just ill-informed victims of the scam, but also those of ill-informed observers (including regulators, journalists, etc.). 

http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/384275/15650131/1324210774600/CompensationPlanChanges161211.pdf?token=BugVQuakpvKM4vQZxfgSPWyVIsA%3D

In total, the above figures show that at least £3.21 million of the “commissions” came from the sign-up fees and purchases of the existing “Partner/Distributors”, or 15% of the total paid out.

In this case, the available data shows that at least 15%, of the rewards come directly from the pockets of participants in the pay plan themselves. This is only by counting the portion of the payments assigned to 'commissions.' If you use the gross profit figure, that is, the amount of revenue over the cost of the utilities the company resells, the amount that the 'Partner/Distributors' generate is much more. 

The company has a gross profit of about 18% after it pays for the utilities. So, if the 'Partner/Distributors' generate £51.291 millions in revenue from their own personal purchases, then the company actually gains over £9.2 million in gross profit from purchases of these people themselves, in addition to the £1.75 million gained each year in new sign up fees.  

In reality, all the revenue has always derived from the 'Partner/Distributors', since they are recruiting, on average, 13 'customers' each. Of course, many of these  'customers' were recruited by non-salaried participants who long since quit, because few have actually received anything for their time and effort. Remember, they were required to find a minimum number of 'customers' before they qualified for 'commissions.'  On the average of the approximately £7000 gross annual revenue which 6 recruits would bring in for the company, the 'Partner/Distributor' would have got back the average of less than 3% (or below £4 per week) minus their own operating expenses. However, the company would have reaped just over 15% in profit (i.e. approximately £20 per week)

In other words, behind all the reality inverting 'UtilityWarehouse is powerful force for good' propaganda has lurked a constantly-churning de facto slave workforce obtained by getting useful idiots to endorse the fraudulent unlimited income offer and make it seem impossible that the company could be a cruel fraud.

In summary:


  • 42% of claimed 'Partners/Distributors' at year end are recruited during the year.

  • This reflects an annual churn rate approaching 50%.

  • The annual churn-rate builds up eventually producing an overall rate approaching 100%

  • We still don’t know the quitting rate specifically of those that join each year (ie the last ones in)

  • The mean average gross-payment to 'Partner/Distributors' is £506 per year, or less than £10 per week.
  
  • The company pays out only 2.85% of its revenue in 'commissions'

  • Based on the minimum sign up fees for the newest recruits and the mean average purchases by the “customers" (£1,230 per year), at least 15% of all “commissions” paid to the “Partner/Distributors” come out the 41 700 'Partner/Distributors'  own pockets, but in the end, all the revenue is coming from a never-ending chain of 'Utility Warehouse' contractees no matter how they are arbitrarily labelled on their take it or leave it contracts.

 


This brings me onto the cultic/advance fee fraud aspect of 'Utility Warehouse' and its connections with so-called 'Mindset Masters', like Wes Linden, but I will cover this in a follow up article  -  which no doubt the Honourable Charles Wigoder, his associates and their attorneys will not appreciate.




David Brear (copyright 2017)




  






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64 comments:

  1. David, watched the video and found myself asking is this a comedy sketch?
    How could this smart celebrity agree to dress up in purple and blather on about joining the purple army and achieving financial freedom?

    Thanks for your insightful description "illusary filmed ritual-performance... paid for with past and present Utility Warehouse worshippers' own cash"

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    1. Anonymous - Put like that, it does seem pretty unbelievable that Joanna Lumley would agree to do this, but remember this racket hides in plain sight and its corporate front has bedazzled all sorts of apparently smart celebrities. Today, I will probably add a link in the text to a video of David Cameron and Boris Johnson visiting 'UW's HQ .

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    2. Hi everyone. Have you read this? It was posted 6 years ago.

      http://www.acherontiq.com/blog/bollocks/utility-warehouse-discount-club-just-dont-for-your-own-sanity/

      So who are the Utility Warehouse Discount Club? They masquerade as a service supplier, offering consolidated management of your various utility services; phone, broadband, gas, electric etc. The more services you have with them, the more you supposely save. That’s what they’ll tell you. You can save even more money by introducing friends to them. All sounds very convenient and great, doesnt it?

      What they don’t tell you is that every other monthly bill you’ll receive they will have ‘revised their pricing’ until you’re paying way over the price of their competitors. Mine rose so much over the short time I’ve been with them that I could now get the same services from almost any other provider far cheaper.

      They also basically operate as a pyramid scheme where they charge inflated prices for services to offset the discounts they’re able to offer for ‘introducing friends’. As you convince more suckers to switch to their utterly shit company, you get a discount proportional to the amount that THEY spend with the company. And so it goes on down the chain of victims. You can even become a Utility Warehouse Discount Club ‘authorised distributor’ and earn cash from referrals. All you need is a complete lack of morals and scruples, and a desire to fuck people over for money.

      This is what provides them with their loyal army of snitches who make sure that nothing bad appears about them online – it is of course in their interest that they protect the reputation of the company. They also manage to completely unbalance and obscure the search results for Utility Warehouse Discount Club by running their own ‘authorised distributor’ web sites singing their praises. They even have a neat ‘dirty tricks’ tactic – their OWN websites are called things like ‘Utility Warehouse Scam’, which then go to great lengths to convince you that no, it’s not a scam! Thus obscuring results for any real sites exposing them as a scam. Clever.

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    3. Thanks GN, I'm sure that a lot of Blog readers have already looked at 'Utility Warehouse' and discovered exactly what the author of this piece also found.

      It's a good rule of thumb when looking at suspected scams/frauds, that if you Google-search the name of the suspected fraudulent company + the word 'Scam', 'Fraud' etc., and discover lots of sites incorporating these words, but absolutely denying that there is a problem: then the company is the front for a fraud.

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  2. Without need to exactly quantify external revenue or annual churn rates, or how many “customers” are just the accumulation of failed “distributors”, it is clear that Ms. Lumley is trafficking in extraordinary deception when she tells people they can make thousands a month. The only way that can happen is by pyramiding recruits which means only a handful could ever achieve that income, no matter how much they “believe” or don’t believe. The average per capita “gross” income is about £40 a month. If the average customer spends about £1200 a year and the commission rate is about 3% on revenue, then the average profit per customer for a “distributor” would b £36 a year! If everyone had on average 13 “customers”, they would earn £468 before all expenses and taxes, and signup fees. So how does one earn “thousands” a month? And if only £21 million is paid out to 40,000 salespeople, how many could earn “thousands” a month? If thousands just meant two thousand, or £24,000 a year: (£21 million / £24,000 = 875! The maximum is 875 and everyone else would have to earn ZERO.

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    1. Many thanks for your e-mail with the simplified explanation David!

      I'm posting some of your explanation here for others to read, because it helped me to get it.

      The only funds being shared out in the 'UW' scheme are coming from the 18% gross profit on the services being sold to the 'distributors' and the members.

      Because of the 18% profit margin, 'UW's' prices are not the cheapest available.

      The funds come from 'distributors' recruiting more 'members and distributors' who are led to believe that 'UW's' prices are the cheapest available.

      No common-sense limits have been placed on the number of persons who can be recruited into the 'UW' scheme as 'distributors.'

      The minority of 'distributors' who manage to recruit and maintain enough customers to qualify for commissions, appear to get around 3% of the gross profits and the company keeps the rest, but these 'distributors' are probably getting even less and the company even more.

      Most 'distributors' can't recruit and maintain enough 'members and distributors' so they aren't actually being paid any commission.

      People who have never heard of 'UW' are actually being paid just as much by 'UW' as the majority of its 'distributors' (ie Zero).

      'Distributors' have been leaving the 'UW' scheme at a rate approaching 50% every year.

      'UW' and its apologists pretend that all these ex-'distributors' didn't try hard enough.

      The 'distributors' are paying their own operating expenses so most of those being paid some commissions can't generate an overall net-profit

      Since the 'UW' scheme started, the overwhelming majority of 'distributors' have inevitably given up because, by design, only a tiny minority can occupy the highest ranks of the pyramid.

      In order to continue the swindle, the people running, and profiting from, the 'UW' rigged market hide its results and keep pretending that lots of people have made money from it, and anyone can make money from it.

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    2. Sorry everyone, I missed an important part out of the first point.

      (Apart from the sign-up fees) The only funds being shared out in the 'UW' scheme are coming from the 18% gross profit on the services being sold to the 'distributors' and the members.

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    3. What a fucking joke! How can it be "your own businesss" if it pays you 1/5 of the benefits your efforts produce?

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    4. Anonymous - Thanks - in the simplified explanation which has been cut and pasted from my e-mail to GN, it should read 3% of gross revenue and not 3% of gross profits.

      The minority of 'distributors' who manage to recruit and maintain enough customers to qualify for commissions, appear to get a total of around 3% of the gross revenue and the company keeps the rest, but these 'distributors' are probably getting even less and the company even more.

      As you have observed, 3% of the gross revenue represents about 20% or 1/5 of the gross profit margin, but most 'distributors' have got less than nothing for their efforts.

      Delete
  3. Just signed up to lower prices bills today. She says she can save me £433 a year! Having second thoughts now!!

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    1. Thanks for your input Nicola.

      One of the most disturbing things to understand when you encounter gung-ho 'MLM' recruiters, is that although the quantifiabe evidence demonstrates that they cannot be telling the truth, they are not lying (in the strict sense of the word), because they have been conditioned to exclude quantifiable reality.

      Whilst they remain under the influence of their group, 'MLM' adherents genuinely believe that they are helping you by signing you up.

      I would advise you cancel your contract with 'UW' and immediately seek independent legal advice, if you have any difficulty doing so.

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    2. No-one ever has difficulty in cancelling a UW contract because very few of the services are in anything other than a one month rolling contract. In instances where a significant cost has been incurred such as a line installation a minimum contract term will only apply from date of installation well after the 14 day cooling off period. I was once told by a business energy broker that the easiest contracts to take over were UW contracts as all other business energy suppliers had agressive customer retention practices.

      I am appalled at the extent to which you are prepared to spread misinformation about this company in order to support your extreme bias against them.

      If you genuinely believe that customers don't get a very good deal and very good customer service how do you explain their status as the Which Consumer Magazine Utility Supplier of the year and Which recommended best buy for at least the last 10 years in a row? How did they reach No 2 for customer service in a UK Institute of Customer Service survey of all UK companies?

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    3. Unknown - There are plenty of people with fully-functioning critical and evaluative faculties complaining that UW does not offer a good deal to its contractee/customers. However there are plenty of people under contract to UW (I presume that you are one of them) who keep insisting that the company helps its 'customers' to to save piles of money

      Pardon me for stating the obvious, but a company that offers to pay its current contributing contractees a commission for finding more contributing contractees (ad infinitum) is hardly likely to have current contributing contractees (with fully functioning critical and evaluative faculties) who are going to tell the truth and who are not going to recommend the company.

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    4. Of course anyone can earn whatever they choose to earn based on the effort they put in. I have a team member who joined 3 years ago. His mother and her partner liked other peoples UW Facebook posts and are waiting to support him by signing up yet he has failed to ever present to them and has yet to sign them or anyone as customers. Some people join and do nothing. Counting recruits and dividing no of customers by no of recruits is not a sensible way to determine the success of the business. Many peope join because they like the idea of earning an extra income. The sad reality is that most will not make the effort. Many kid themselves that they will pick it up when they have time and so they keep paying their £3.50 per month. That is their choice. No-one is forcing them to stay. An inactive team member is not earning me and residual 50ps so I don't care if they stay or go. I will have a chat occasionally and offer support if they want to get started, Sometimes a dormant partner will make an effort, many never will. I read a stat that only 5% of people in the UK are entrepeneurial and will make an effort to take control of their own lives. UW gives everyone that chance. Whether they take that chance is their choice. They don't need to keep paying their £3.50 partner fee and they don't have to remain a customer. But why wouldn't they at least be a customer? I challenge you to find a cheaper energy tarriff than UW at the moment. I know it is unbeatable. I check regularly what our competitors are charging. Is there a cheaper unlimited data/text/minutes SIM than UW's £10 SIM? Is there a cheaper broadband deal than UW's £20 any speed broadband? (BB prices are discounted for 1st 6 months then rise to regular price)

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    5. Dave - Since you have nothing original to say and no quantifiable evidence to support your familiar scripted-claims, perhaps you should consider prefacing all your future comments with: 'Once upon a time? That said, if at any time you wish to come out of the 'MLM' world of make-believe, then you will rise in my estimation and I will be very interested to hear from you.

      Delete
  4. While your article uses facts and figures that seem legitimate your intention in this article is to do a hatchet job on Utility Warehouse. You do make valid points but you choose to ignore any facts that would undermine your criticisms. It is interesting that you are not prepared to meet Charles' "bridge challenge". Afraid he will call you out on your bluffs?
    Bluff no 1. You claim that profits are subsidised by joining fees of business partners. Joining fees are fully refundable if a partner tries the business and decides it is not for them.
    Bluff No2 It is impossible to make an income. If this were true why are Utility Warehouse paying up to 7 years of residual income commissions in advance with no clawback if a signed customer were to leave within that time? This Quick Income Plan allows partners to make a real second income that can replace their job. You could have interviewed many partners who are making several thousand pounds a month part time using this Quick Income Plan paid on gathering customers without tbe need to recruit any partners into your team. However why would you not share this opportunity with similarly motivated people.

    I feel you masquerade as an investigative journalist but when you only select facts which support your bias then you are the scammer here.

    All sales jobs have high churn rates. It is not easy and it does not suit everyone. I have had "proper" sales jobs where I have targets to meet and I quickly got dropped if I fail to meet them. Any customets I brought in still contribute to the orofits of that company but they no longer pay me once I am sacked. With UW I can gather 1 customer a month or none and I still get paid for all the customers I have introduced in the past. So long as you make the minimum of effort you will profit from UW and if you make more effort you can make this a very viable business.

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    1. Dave - Apparently you are now claiming that 'UW' is offering non-salaried 'sales jobs?'

      Tellingly, you have misrepresented the evidence-based analysis I have written whilst the so-called 'facts' which you have offered my readers, are just elements of the classic, unsubstantiated jargon-laced 'MLM' fiction.

      The fact remains that, contrary to the UK Fraud Act 2006 (section 3) the bosses of UW have not publicly disclosed the quantifiable results of their so-called 'MLM income opportunity.'

      Therefore, you cannot tell my readers how many ill-informed people have signed up for the so-called 'UW opportunity' since it was first instigated and how many of these ill-informed persons have generated an overall net-profit.

      Furthermore, you cannot supply my readers with a lawful reason why this key-information has never been disclosed.

      Please go away and find a copy of George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and read it. Then come back and tell us which one of the powerless, ill-informed and unpaid animal characters best represents your own current position in respect of the 'MLM' fairy story?

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    2. Dave

      Your comment proves you haven't read what David Brear wrote, because there isn't any bluffing in Bridge, only bidding.

      Dave, could you explain why you refer to Charles Wigoder as, Charles?

      Are you one of Charles Wigoder's 'UW' associates Dave ?

      Also Dave, could you explain why you have written this MLM BS when Charles Wigoder has said that David Brear "may be right about MLM businesses in general?"

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    3. Sorry for the late reply. I have been busy and this farce masquerading as honest investigative journalism is not that important to me. I have posted a new comment which explains my position further if David Brear has the courage to post it and also answer it's key points. I actually think it is a waste of time trying to open your minds. So I will leave it at that.

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    4. Bidding is the bluffing in Bridge. Why ask if I am an associate? That is obvious in my answer. Charles Wigoder may well be right about many MLM businesses having flaws. I would not join any other MLM business than this one but I know plenty of people who enjoy working in other MLM businesses. I would not want to join an MLM business that either
      required me to hold and deliver stock, that required repeat monthly sales to my existing customers or that required me to be constantly recruiting new partners to ensure my success. I enjoy recruiting partners and helping them get to the level I have achieved or beyond but I can earn a good living from UW without having to do that. True I can benefit from a small share of their income if they are successful but I think unique or rare in MLM a healthy residual income can be earned just from gathering satisfied customers who do not switch from UW. David mentions the partner churn rate which is indeed the fault of those leaving not having tried hard enough or at all. He fails to mention that UW's customer churn rate is the lowest in the industry.

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    5. David Findlay - From your latest jargon-laced comment, you evidently know as much about the game of Bridge as you know about authentic business or about rigged-market swindles/advance fee frauds dressed-up as authentic 'business opportunities.'

      FYI. You are allowed to bluff (known as "psych") in Bridge only in limited situations. eg. You can bid a suit you don't actually have in your hand. However, your partner must not know anything more than your opponents. The "ethics" of Bridge are higher than for other games, such as Poker.

      In Poker, it is perfectly acceptable to bluff. Not so, in Bridge.

      As for the rest of your scripted comment - It is perfectly obvious (from the examination of the available financial data) that 'UW' has been generating a more-than-healthy gross-profit of 18% on the services it sells on to its contractees, and that a small % of these 18% gross profits have been paid back to a small % of active non-salaried 'UW' sales-agents labelled as 'partners'.

      Basic common-sense reveals that effectively no one who has signed a take-it-or-leave-it contract with 'UW' can have generated an overall net- profit from their non-salaried activity, but 'UW' has been making plenty out of these de facto slaves - whilst employing a classic closed-logic system designed to keep 'UW' adherents ignorant of reality and make them blame themeselves for failing to achieve success.

      To date, every scripted comment you have posted on this Blog has merely confirmed the accuracy of my overall analysis.

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    6. I rarely add customers to my UW business. I have been very part time. I have never the less made a healthy profit. You don't know what you are talking about. Meet me. Let me show you my commission statement. And I am one of the failures who hardly lifts a finger in this business. I have 2 team members who earn 10 times what I do. And they have qualified for their FREE or at least heavily subsidised UW mini. I am higher up the "pyramid" than they are but they outsrtip my earnings because they have been more active. Where in your analysis of the business do you state that possibility for partners ro earn more than their recruiters? In the interests of honesty and accuracy you should meet me. If you don't you should take down this obsessive, negative, arrogant, opinionated misinformation.

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    7. Dave - I presume you are the same David Findlay- a long-term 'MLM' core-adherent who kept sending lengthy scripted-comments to this Blog several years ago?

      Ironically, your total belief that anyone challenging the authenticity of the 'MLM' fairy story must be 'obsessive, negative, arrogant,'etc., and therefore, spreading 'opinionated misinformation,' merely confirms the accuracy of my analysis.

      Delete
  5. very impressed with your research. look forward to the follow up article. Any idea when it will be published.

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    1. Unknown - Might I ask: what has prompted you interest in 'Utility Warehouse?'

      I haven't got round to posting an article specifically about the secondary advance-fee frauds which have been run behind 'UW.'

      However, all 'MLM' rackets are essentially the same.

      'MLM' shills like Wes Linden pretend to have once been ordinary poor humans, but who have gained access to a secret step-by-step plan that has enabled them to transform into prosperous superhumans. 'MLM' shills also pretend that they are prepared to share this secret knowledge with anyone for a price (part of the price being the surrenderof the 'MLM' adherent's critical, and evaluative, faculties).

      In the near the future, I will try to post a standard 'MLM' questionnaire, but adapted to current and former UW adherents. This document should further explain how 'MLM' cultic rackets function.

      Delete
  6. This article is full of inaccuracies, misconceptions and lies to support your prejudiced views. You are one of these people who so hates the idea of a successful honest and ethical MLM company that you are prepared to sacrifice your journalistic integrity to prove your bias is correct.

    I am an authorised distributor for this company. I have so far gathered 65 personal customers only 5 of whom I persuaded to also become partners. I earn about £3000 a year in residual income from these customers who feed me referrals because they are so happy with the services I provide. You can earn shopping vouchers for such referrals pretty much like many companies referral schemes. Two of my downline have gathered double the amount of customers I have and therefore earn double the residual income that I do. That alone disproves one of your key arguments. If you want to see my commission statements I am happy to send them to you.

    It is true that if you average out the commission's paid and customers gathered as you do against existing partner numbers you get disappointing results. But your conclusion is totally wrong. You would need to average income and customers gathered amongst active distributors only. Many join and do nothing. UW are the only MLM company I believe that will refund these non starters their joining fee which will usually be no more than £50 not £200. Claiming that joining fees are a significant income stream for UW is false and a distributor earns nothing from a failed recruit.

    If you were an honest journalist you would have taken up Charle's offer to help you understand why UW is different.

    Your claim that our services are expensive is also false. At time of writing a check on GoCompare shows only one company beating our 2 year fixed price energy deal.

    Someone else on here describes UW as a "shit" company. Really? He is a better judge than the UK institute for customer services who listed UW 2nd of all UK companies for service only beaten by Amazon but ahead of John Lewis M&S First Direct etc.. UW services have been recommended best buys in Which Consumer Magazine for the last 10 years. Have been named Which Telecoms Provider of 2017 and Which Utilities Provider of 2018.

    You miss out all these positives in your report of course.

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    1. David Findlay - Perhaps you might explain why you keep sending partly- scripted comments to this Blog in which you pretend that I have been pretending to be a journalist?

      Pardon me for stating the obvious, but, anyone who is signed up with UW, and who is still trying to find other people to sign up, is bound to insist that it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

      Perhaps you could also explain why you cannot tell my readers how many ill-informed people have signed up for the so-called 'UW opportunity' since it was first instigated and how many of these ill-informed persons have actually generated an overall net-profit.

      BTW. Commission statements are meaningless documents which do not qualify as quantiable evidence that you have earned an overall net-income.





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    2. A Blog reader has contacted me to ask David Findlay:

      I worried about my friend who signed up with Utility Warehouse, but he can't tell me where all the money comes from to pay comissions in the scheme. He also can't tell me if there's a limit on the number of levels in the Utility Warehouse pyramid? ie. If someone recruits you into UW and they get a commission off what you spend, does the person who recruited them also get a commission off what you spend - so where does all this stop?

      Delete
    3. To the person/persons who recently sent abusive comments to this article - please note, they will not be posted.



      Delete
  7. Yes there is a limit on the commissions paid out. I am not an official spokesperson for the company so you are best to address your question to them or read the terms and conditions of being a partner. There is an explanation here https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/partner-help/partner/answer/ngl-nnl

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    1. Mr. Findlay - You don't need to be a professional propagandist/apologist (a.k.a. 'official spokesman') for 'UW' to address my thoughtful reader's common-sense question with honesty, but then, anyone paid to recite the 'positive UW/MLM' fairy story cannot tell the truth, because the truth has been systematically excluded as 'negative' by this closed-logic fictitious narrative.

      Thus, your own vague reply, and invitation to enter the mystifying 'UW' rabbit hole, simply ducks my reader's common-sense question.

      By stating that 'there is a limit on the commissions paid out,' you falsely imply that there has been a limit on the number of non-salaried sales agents in the 'UW' recruitment pyramid, when quite obviously no such common-sense limit has previously existed.

      Indeed, you don't have to take my word for this; for Ms. Joanna Lumley made it perfectly clear that 'UW' has not been offering a so-called 'multi-level marketing scheme' - the bosses of 'UW' have, in fact, been peddling an 'Amway' copy-cat, economically-unviable, infinite-level recruitment scheme dressed up as a viable 'income opportunity.'

      This is part of the incriminating script Ms. Lumley recited:

      'There's no limit to how far or how fast your business can grow.
      Start small with the people you know and grow big with the people you don't.'

      Delete
  8. What a load of utter rubbish! Laughable actually.
    Now in 2019 and Utility Warehouse has been going for over 23 years and is a bigger success than it ever has been before.
    If you're researching online because you're unsure about all of this (perhaps you're wanting more information about being a customer or a partner) I would encourage you to look for unbiased reports and information. Such as Which! Magazine, Best Buy and the numerous Money Wise Awards.
    Good luck with your research, and I hope you uncover the real truth about this company.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous - Contrary to what you pretend, there has been no accurate data made available as to the quantifiable results of the so-called 'Utility Warehouse MLM Income Opportunity.'


      i.e. The bosses of 'UW' have very pointedly not disclosed how many individuals have signed take-it-or-leave-it contracts with their company, since the so-called 'opportunity' was first instigated, or the % of this endless-chain of ill-informed contractees who have managed to remain active as de facto slave recruiters for more than: one year, two years, three years, four years, etc.


      What you claim to be 'unbiased reports and information' have, in fact, been un-scientific surveys based on the unsubstantiated 'positive' claims of 'UW' adherents who have been conditioned never to say anything 'negative' about their activity in the false-belief that this is part of a 'proven step-by-step plan to achieve success.'



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    2. What you claim to be 'unbiased reports and information' have, in fact, been un-scientific surveys based on the unsubstantiated 'positive' claims of 'UW' adherents who have been conditioned never to say anything 'negative' about their activity in the false-belief that this is part of a 'proven step-by-step plan to achieve success.'

      Which Magazine does not include business partners in its surveys.

      Delete
    3. Mr. David Findlay - Interesting that you don't actually deny that 'UW' adherents have been conditioned never to say anything 'negative' about their activity in the false-belief that this is part of a 'proven step-by-step plan to achieve success.'

      Whilst you are here, can you please explain to my readers what lawful reason(s)might explain why it is that the bosses of 'UW' have not publicly disclosed (in an easy-to-understand format) how many individuals have signed take-it-or-leave-it contracts with their company, since the so-called 'MLM income opportunity' was first instigated, or the % of this endless-chain of ill-informed contractees who have managed to remain active as de facto slave recruiters for more than: one year, two years, three years, four years, etc.?

      It has evidently still not dawned on you that every comment you have sent, and continue to send, to this Blog merely confirms the accuracy of my analysis. This particularly includes your latest puerile and abusive comments (in which you seek to portray me as a 'twisted individual' who is frightened to engage with you). Such foolish comments will not be posted.

      If, as you apparently believe, 'UW' is just some sort of innocent 'home business opportunity,' why are you so obsessed with denying the accuracy of the contents of my Blog and attacking me? What possible difference do you think my published thoughts could make to what you apparently believe is just a form of lawful commercial activity? Presumeably, you are frightened that my Blog will encourage potential 'UW' recruits to stop and think before they sign up?

      Ironically, I actually predict this type of gung-ho reaction from persons such as yourself. I explain that what is commonly-referred to as 'Multi-Level Marketing' is really a form of self-perpetuating non-rational ritual belief system which has been instigated for the hidden purpose of human exploitation.

      You are clearly another core-adherent of, and proselytiser for, the 'MLM' belief system who just cannot accept external reality, but presumeably, one day, you will exit this two-dimensional fiction which has been controlling your model of reality.

      When you do exit this 'negative vs positive' mindset, please feel free to re-contact me.

      Delete

    4. Mr. David Findlay - Presumeably you have been conditioned not to trust media reporting of the 'MLM' phenomenon, but are you aware that 'MLM' adherence has lately been linked in the media to 'QAnon' adherence and to the anti-Covid vaccination movement?

      https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22688317/mlm-covid-19-pandemic-recruiting-sales-paparazzi

      Do you accept that the phenomenonon of non-rational belief exists and that it can be used to exploit people?

      Delete
    5. Trouble is ... I love a good argument. And I will keep coming back when I know I am winning. You just keep repeating the same old record like your obsession with how many people join and fail You can't fail if you do some activity. It is not relevant how many people join and don't earn. THEY HAVEN'T TRIED or maybe the business just didn't suit them. You never address any of my points that don't fit your irrational hatred of UW and some prominent UW personalites. I would love to get to the bottom of why you are so obesessed with these people and this company.

      Delete
    6. Mr. David Findlay - FYI. I am not arguing with you, I am politely explaining to you, and to my readers, how, in your current inflexible state of mind, it is a pointless excercise to try to reason with you.

      The fact that you assume that anyone refusing to swallow the 'MLM' fairy story must themselves be controlled by a form of inflexible non-rational belief, is also quite predictable.

      Thus, you are now pretending that I am exibiting 'hatred,' and not just 'hatred,' but 'irrational hatred.' Clearly, all I'm doing is pointing out how the 'MLM' phenomenon has functioned as a form of non-rational ritual belief system disguised as a business.

      You will have been taught by your 'UW MLM Gurus' (like Mr. Wes Linden) that the only way to achieve success in 'MLM' is to 'duplicate exactly a proven plan to achieve financial freedom, never to quit, to develop a 100% positive mindset and to exclude all negativity.' However, this is just another way of saying you need to have blind faith in a secure future Utopian existence. This is what is known as closed-logic, and it is the basis of all blame-the-victim cultic rackets.

      Part of how the 'MLM' phenomenon has functioned has been to convince its core-adherents that anyone criticizing it must be deficient in some way, filled with jealousy, hatred, etc., and is, therefore, not to be heeded.

      You are a text-book example of someone acting under the influence of the fictional divisive ('negative vs positive') 'MLM' narrative, but this type of totalistic thought-reform program is neither original nor unique. Can you not think back to a time when you were not controlled by this narrative?

      In reality, you have absolutely no idea of who I am or of my own commercial experience. You are simply making false-assumptions based on the 'MLM' controlling-narrative.

      Currently, 'MLM' propagandists claim around 150 millions persons under contract to 'MLM' companies around the world, but each time an 'MLM' company has been investigated, it has been discovered that effectively no rank and file contractor has been generating an overall net profit. Furthermore, the annual net-loss/churn rates for 'MLM' participation have been discovered always to be in excess of 50% and sometimes in excess of 90%. This means that exponentially the overall net-loss/churn rate for 'MLM' participation has been building up over the decades, to the point where it has long-since reached effectively 100%.

      Delete
    7. Mr. David Findlay - I have read your other comments and I've not posted them, because they mostly contain typical false-assumptions based on your total belief in the 'MLM' narrative + they contain ridiculous, fraudulent invitations from you for me to hand my money, and presumeably my time, to 'UW.'

      BTW, my standard answer to 'MLM' recruiters, is: f... off, but before you do, prey show me your 'MLM' income-tax payment receipts.

      Also, your claim to have spent 3 years studying 'UW' before you joined, is preposterous.

      That said, one interesting point you do manage to raise, is the question of Donald Trump's involvement in 'MLM' rackets. Trump and his kids are currently facing a class-action lawsuit in NYC regarding their promotion of an 'Amway' copy-cat 'MLM' racket known as 'ACN.' In return for at least $10 millions, Trump and his kids spent around 10 years reciting essentially the same narrative that you have been reciting in your comments. He then set up his own similar racket known as 'Trump University.'

      Despite what you claim, there is very little essential difference btween what the bosses of 'ACN' have been offering and what the bosses of 'UW' have offered. The 'negative vs positive' controlling narrative of both groups has been virtually identical. Indeed, there are currently more than 1000 'Amway' cop-cat companies registered in the USA, all of which peddle essentially the same (demonstrably-fake) endless chain 'business opportunity.'

      Many of the most visible American 'MLM' gurus have been linked to numerous 'MLM'rackets and some can be linked to 'UW' star performers, like Wes Linden.

      Where the hell do think Mr. Linden acquired his unoriginal act? He has been reciting exactly the same bedazzling kitsch BS as dozens of other 'MLM' shills, all designed to lure vulnerable persons into dozens of essentially identical 'MLM' rackets. This pernicious fairy story is what you have also been taught to recite.

      As for your claim that the senior corporate officers of famous-name companies wouldn't work for a fraud, have a look at this linked video.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx3zdjgOuCc

      Now consider the fact that the CEO of 'Herbalife' was previously the CEO of the Disney corporation. Yet, 'Herbalife' has recently shelled out $200 millions to US regulators in order to prevent the company from being shut down as a pyramid scheme. The regulators then sent out 350 000 compensation cheques, but only to recent American 'Herbalife' victims.

      BTW. One of the people employed by the bosses of 'Herbalife' to make it seem impossible (to persons like you) that Herbalife/MLM could be a fraud, was none other than the fomer US Secretary of State (under the Clinton administration), Madeleine Albright.

      Ms. Albright (or rather her consulting company) received at least $10 millions from 'Herbalife,' which can only have come from victims. As far as I'm aware, she has not offered to give any of this cash back to 'Herbalife' victims, but unlike Trump, she is yet to face any lawsuit, because all she did was play the role of useful idiot. Apparently, despite her achievements many academic qualifications, Ms. Albright had absolutely no idea what was lurking behind 'Herbalife/MLM'.

      Delete
  9. Greetings David (David Brear not David Findlay).

    I've just been reading this thread, and wow! Findlay is one crazy 'MLM' bot.

    What's the betting he's spent more than he's been paid?

    Any chance of posting his other comments?... I could do with a laugh.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous - I'm not going to post Mr. Findlay's other comments and, although it is easy to ridicule 'crazy MLM Bots' like this, I don't think it's fair to laugh at any of them, because I think that will only drive theem further into their belief in the authenticity of the pernicious 'MLM' narrative.

      That said, in one of his comments, Mr. Findlay attempted to ridicule me by repeating my analysis almost word for word, and pretending that it's me who is an adherent of a self-perpetuating non-rational ritual belief system.

      How he worked that out, is truly baffling.

      Mr. Findlay is a Scot - a nation reputed for its common-sense and its care with money. So I would invite him to sit down and think like a true Scot for just a moment.

      Currently, Mr. Findlay spends his time approaching people and reciting a script designed to convince these people that they can not only make money, but that they can make unlimited ammounts of money, by joining an 'MLM' scheme.

      If Mr. Findlays 'prospects' sign up, they in turn will be also taught to spend their time approaching even more people and reciting a script designed to convince even more people that they can not only make money, but that they can make unlimited ammounts of money, by joining an 'MLM' scheme.

      If any of these 'prospects' sign up ..... etc. etc. ad infinitum.

      However, there is no evidence that any human-link in any of these endless chains of 'MLM' evangelists has ever made a penny of overall net-profit from his/her non-salaried recruitment activity. There is however, plenty of evidence that the instigators/bosses of these MLM rackets have been making fortunes at the expense of their transient de facto slaves.

      Yet Mr Findlay accuses me of being an adherent of a self-perpetuating non-rational ritual belief system?

      I don't think Mr. Findlay got to bit of my analysis where I went on to explain that self-perpetuating non-rational ritual systems can be instigated, and or perverted, for the hidden purpose of human exploitation.

      Delete
    2. "If Mr. Findlays 'prospects' sign up, they in turn will be also taught to spend their time approaching even more people and reciting a script designed to convince even more people that they can not only make money, but that they can make unlimited ammounts of money, by joining an 'MLM' scheme.

      If any of these 'prospects' sign up ..... etc. etc. ad infinitum.

      However, there is no evidence that any human-link in any of these endless chains of 'MLM' evangelists has ever made a penny of overall net-profit from his/her non-salaried recruitment activity. There is however, plenty of evidence that the instigators/bosses of these MLM rackets have been making fortunes at the expense of their transient de facto slaves."

      "MLM evangelist" that's a perfect description of Findlay's ridiculous situation. Even when you try to explain the truth to them, the craziest bots like Findlay react as though you are crazy and hate them.

      What else can we do but laugh at these clowns?

      Delete
    3. The problem is that laughing at gung-ho 'MLM' cult recruiters and calling them 'clowns' doesn't help to bring them back to reality. Also I have contact with ex-'MLM' adherents who have managed to face reality (that they were deceived and exploited and that, in turn, they were used to deceive and exploit their friends and relatives). They are still deeply-embarrassed by their experience, and laughing at current 'MLM' adherents doesn't help these people either.

      Granted Mr. Findlay's current situation is on its face ridiculous, but it's also tragic. He is evidently trapped in a classic 'MLM' ego-building guided fantasy. On the Net, he boasts that he is 'a Business Partner with Telecom Plus PLC a FTSE250 company currently valued at £1 billion.'

      In reality,'the most-powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor, is the mind of the oppressed.'

      The more convinced a person is that he/she cannot possibly be fooled/enslaved by an 'MLM' cult: the easier it can be to fool them and keep them fooled/enslaved.

      Delete
    4. Whats a "business partner with a $ billion company" doing hanging about on your blog?

      Delete
    5. Perhaps a more appropriate question is how is possible that Telecom Plus PLC, a publicly-traded (and apparently regulated UK company with a stock-market value approaching one billion £) has been allowed to derive a significant % of its profits from one of its subsidiaries, 'Utility Warehouse,' which has been the corporate-front for a classic 'Amway' copy-cat blame-the-victim 'MLM' racket preying on vulnerable UK citizens?

      The answer being: that senior UK regulators (and senior law enforcement agents) have become far more interested in the dangerous fantasy that they 'need to protect the stability of financial markets,' than in the reality of their job - i.e. protecting their employers (UK citizens) from gangs of wealthy copy-cat cultic racketeers all dressed up as 'philanthropic capitalists offering the UK public viable, and lawful, income opportunities.'

      Delete
    6. Actually what really bothers me is this.

      Millionaire 'Utility Warehouse' boss, Charles Wigoder, all but admits 'Multi Level Marketing' is a Big Lie.

      Basically Charles Wigoder is agreeing with you that there are alot of badly run and possibly fraudulent MLM companire out there. You should celebrate this. Instead you PAINT him as a spokesman for the MLM industry caught out in a CARELESS BLUNDER.

      This is the beginning of the fraud you commit in writing this article.

      Delete
    7. Mr. David Findlay - Decades of evidence, in the form of countless millions of persons around the world who have been, and who continue to be, quietly churned through so-called 'MLM income opportuities,' leaving their money behind, proves that 'MLM' is a Big Lie.

      It is yet to be established how many vulnerable persons have become totally dissociated from reality, and committed suicide, as a result of chronic adherence to the Big 'MLM' Lie.

      Charles Wigoder's claim that he is/was as concerned as I am about the 'MLM' phenomenon, but that his company has somehow been offering something completely different to all the other so-called 'MLM income opportunities,' is laughable. 'UW' has employed the same enticing, technical-sounding, reality-inverting, 'MLM business/unlimited income' pseudo-economic jargon that was first made-up in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s (under the banner of 'Amway'). 'UW' shills, like all 'MLM' shills, have been peddling the cruel illusion of a future secure Utopian existence ('total financial freedom') to endless-chains of ill-informed persons who desperately need to believe that this is real and can be obtained by anyone.

      One thing is certain, as a major shareholder in 'Telecom Plus/Utility Warehouse,' Charles Wigoder has had millions of reasons not to want to admit the full truth about how 'MLM' racketeering has functioned, or for the full truth to be made public.

      Despite your constant whining of 'censorship,' I have simply not allowed you to post the bedazzling/pernicious 'MLM' narrative on my Blog, because its a Big Lie. You also keep pretending that I am a 'fraud' trying pass myself off as a 'journalist,' when clearly I am presenting a fully-deconstructed analysis of a mind-bending cultic racket which has been designed to fool not only its victims, but also all casual observers (including journalists).

      It would be interesting to learn if Charles Wigoder will accept that lurking behind so-called 'MLM' companies have been ('Scientology'-style) secondary advance fee ('secret knowledge initiation') frauds comprising persons (shills) reciting an unoriginal script in which they all steadfastly pretend to have acquired a secret (step-by-step) knowledge that has enabled them to transform from ordinary poor humans into fabulously wealthy 'MLM business owners.' These 'MLM' shills further pretend that they are prepared to share this secret (step-by-step) knowledge with anyone (for a price.)

      Clearly, this unoriginal, and highly-profitable, racket is what has also been lurking behind 'UW.'

      In the past, when certain 'MLM' company bosses have been widely-accused of fronting a cultic racket, they have thrown their hands up in horror and pretended to have been completely unaware that this unauthorised fraudulent activity was going on amongst the ranks of their 'distribution networks,' but now that it has been uncovered, they will remove the guilty parties for breaking company 'rules.'

      In reality, this is how the 'MLM' racket has been maliciously structured - to isolate/insulate its biggest bosses/beneficiares from liability.

      Indeed, the mystifying 'insulating' structure of 'Amway' was once compared to that of major organized crime groups by America's leading expert on organized crime, Professor G. Robert Blakey.

      https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Amway/blakey_report.pdf

      Interestingly, if a low-level adherent such as yourself were to be produced as a witness in a trial concerning an 'MLM' racket, you would be revealed as someone without the beginnings of a clue as to what you were really involved in.

      Even now, you will probably struggle to accept that these matters have been completely beyond your understanding.

      Delete
  10. Mr. David Findlay, you guessed it, your latest deluge of puerile and abusive comments will not be posted. But I'm not taking offence or ridiculing you, I'm actually paying you respect by continuing to tell you the truth, no matter how painful this might be for you, and knowing that you don't want to hear it.

    Thus, as I pointed out in my previous comment to you, it is abundantly clear that you haven't got the beginnings of clue what you have really been involved in.

    You obviously think the sun shines out of the arses of your 'business partners' (the big bosses of 'UW'), but these unoriginal 'MLM' Pied-Pipers have lured you down a reality-inverting path to point where it is almost impossible for you to turn back.

    Classically, everything that you have written is based on your absolute conviction that no one has deceived you and that you have been making free-choices. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.








    ReplyDelete
  11. David

    I was asked by an old friend to look at Utility Warehouse a couple of years ago. She wanted to know if it is a scam or if it's as good as it sounds.

    Without looking I told her that in matters of finance, if something appears to good to be true... then it can't be true!

    MLM schemes have bugged me ever since.

    Looking at this more closely and I don't get how Utility Warehouse's endless chain business model can work. Alarm bells ring because its all so bloody confusing. As you point out, his is an infinite level not a multi level scheme because no limits are set on the number of people being signed up - but it's a scheme that offers to pay cash rewards up front to its recruiters known as "partners" for signing up new recruits who it labels as "customers," but these "customers" can become labelled as "partners" if they recruit enough "customers" who can all also become labelled as "partners" if they recruit enough "customers?"

    At first I couldn't understand where all the money comes from to pay the recruiters up front?

    One presumes that the rewards being offered are based on the future profits derived from the purchases of the recruiters' recruits and on the future profits derived from purchases of the recruits of these new recruiters.

    Surely this company can't being paying people a share of profits on revenues that it is yet to collect?

    All this makes little commerical sense and it still seems far too good to be true.

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    1. Thanks for you input Anonymous - What you are doing here is applying your critical and evaluative faculties and questioning, but behind 'UW' and indeed, behind all 'MLM' rackets, have been well-rehearsed shills who all claim to have made piles of money and who keep instructing 'UW' adherents to 'duplicate their success/positive mindset' and never question the 'MLM business plan' and 'never quit' it.



      Delete
    2. Thanks - I've not really looked at the cult part of MLMs yet.

      What should make everyone question - is this "no limit" claim in Utility Warehouse bumf.

      I've just read more of your analysis of MLMs and from what I seen it makes perfect sense. People buy from these contraversial companies not because of value and demand but because they are told they will get a future pay out.

      Also if MLM types all think they will get paid for recruiting more people ... surely they are all going to say their company is fantastic.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous. Lurking at the heart of all 'MLM' cultic rackets has been the comic-book, self-perpetuating, pseudo-economic belief that:

      Never-ending recruitment + never-ending payments by the recruits = never-ending profits for the recruits.

      'MLM' racketeers have also converted a significant minority of their recruits to the pseudo-psychological, closed-logic belief that total commitment to 'MLM' success and the refusal to count your losses and quit, will ultimately bring you 'MLM' success.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous. Have you watched interviews with distressed 'MLM' victims?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx3zdjgOuCc&t=17s

      'UW' adherent, Mr. Findlay, and 'UW' boss, Mr. Wigoder, have begun to agree wth me that significant problems exist with 'MLM' companies, but without spelling out what exactly these problems are. Mr. Findlay has even attempted to trivialise the damaging results of 'MLM adherence as being the result of 'badly run MLM companies.' Both of them have claimed that 'UW' cannot be compared to these other problematic 'MLM' companies. Neither of them have displayed any real empathy towards distressed 'MLM' victims. Indeed, Mr. Findlay has attempted to post one of the standard blame-the-victim scripts on my Blog, which pretends that people only fail in 'UW/MLM', because they don't work hard enough.

      Virtually every provocation and attack that Mr. Findlay has attempted to post on my Blog could have been sent by a core-adherent, or propagandist, of almost any other 'MLM' racket.



      Delete
    5. I don't care if you don't like MLM as a business model and I would commend you on exposing genuinely fraudulent businesses whether MLM or other types. I detailed 2 in the post suffering an error so I am not sure you got, which I think are obviously ponzi or pyramid schemes masquerading as MLM. I would love it if you campaigned to get them shut dow. I will join you. Quite frankly I don't know why they have not neen investigated yet. Kangen water and PlanNet marketing. Go after them. They are genuinely fraudulent companies, in my opinion, posing as MLM. An agent's main source of revenue in those businesses is from recruiting. That is the definition of a pyramid ponzi scheme. The Kangen one involves buying an over priced water ionising machine for thousands of pounds more than alternatives available and then lying to their prospects, inadvertantly I suppose, about the health benefits. Anyone joining those businesses will be victims.

      Delete
    6. Mr. David Findlay. The current list of blame-the-victim 'Amway' copy-cat 'MLM' rackets is almost endless. Some are far more obviously fraudulent than others, but all of them have employed essentially the same 'income opportunity' controlling-scenario written in essentially the same reality-inverting jargon. All these various groups have formed the constituent parts of one overall criminogenic phenomenon of historic significance.

      FYI. So-called pyramid schemes are a phenomenon, and phenomena cannot be accurately defined. You can however list the identifying charcteristics of a phenomenon.

      The fundadmental identifying characteristic of all so-called pyramid and Ponzi schemes, is that they have no significant or sustainable source of revenue other than ther own contributing participants, and this fact has to be kept hidden from their victims in order for them to function. Thus, just like totalitarian dictators, the bosses of 'MLM' cultic rackets seek to maintain absolute monopolies of information and part of this involves their seeking to denigrate anyone attempting to expose them as crooks.

      Delete
  12. The way you run this blog is censorship of an Orwellian nature, akin to how Nazi Germany, The Soviet Union, Communist China or North Korea behaves.

    You take information that you are uncomfortable letting your public read in its raw state and you "interpret" it so that they will agree with your views but think they have recieved unbiased information.

    You are terrified to let them read my evidence lest you be overthrown as the guardian of wisdom keeping them safe fromthe evils of MLM.

    I have lodged a complaint with the blog site citing the spreading of misinformation.

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    1. Mr. David Findlay, the drivel that you have just written, demonstrates that you have no more idea of what Eric Blair, aka George Orwell, thought and what actually constitutes a totalitarian regime dressed up as 'Socialism, National Socialism,' etc., than you have as to what constitutes a rigged market swindle dressed up as 'Capitalism.'

      Recently, even in traditionally democratic countries, sales of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' have again been exploding; particularly in the USA, where many worried people are searching for a multi-dimensional explanation of the two-dimensional world according to ex-President Donald Trump.

      Orwell understood how the powerless inhabitants of totalitarian states are dissociated from external multi-dimensional reality. Thus, the enemy of all totalitarian regimes is reality, and totalitarian rulers seek to make the understanding of it impossible in order to replace it with their own fictional 'us vs them' controlling-narratives which not only exclude, but also invert, reality.

      In Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty Four,' the ruling regime is systematically destroying 'Oldspeak' (traditional language which allows human critical, and evaluative, faculties to function) and replacing it with 'Newspeak' (a puerile ritual jargon designed to prevent human critical, and evaluative, faculties from functioning).

      'The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought — that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc — should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meanings and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and by stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meanings whatever.

      Orwell's thinking can be easily adapted to shine a light on how 'MLM' cults have functioned as totalitarian states in microcosm.

      The purpose of 'MLM Income Opportunity' jargon is not only to provide a medium of expression for the unquestioning world-view and mental habits proper to the core-adherents of 'Amway', 'Herbalife', ' NuSkin,' etc., but to make all other critical and evaluative modes of thought impossible. It is intended that when 'MLM Income Opportunity' jargon has been adopted once and for all and traditional language forgotten, a heretical thought — that is, a thought diverging from the 'positive' principles of 'Amway', 'Herbalife', 'NuSkin,' etc. — should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary is so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every 'positive' meaning that an 'MLM Distributor' can properly wish to express, while excluding all other 'negative' meanings and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This is done partly by the invention of new 'positive' words and phrases ('Amway', 'Herbalife', 'NuSkin', 'Multi-Level Marketing', 'Distributor' , Independent Business Owner,'), but chiefly by eliminating undesirable 'negative' words and phrases ('cult', 'totalitarian', 'fraud', 'deception', 'brainwashing', 'victims', 'exploitation' , 'de facto slaves',) and by stripping such words and phrases as remain of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meanings whatever.

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    2. Mr. David Findlay. Discovering 'Nineteen Eighty Four,' George Orwell's intentionally-ironic factual presentation of totalitarianism as fiction, can be a disturbing experience. Today, in countries ruled by fictional totalitarian controlling-narratives, 'Nineteen Eighty Four' remains banned (although it is widely-available in pirated form).

      Of all the many books that have been peddled to 'MLM' adherents over the decades (on the fraudulent pretext that these vital works 'contain the secrets of MLM success'), somewhat significantly, 'Nineteen Eighty Four' has not featured.

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  13. Mr. David Findlay. You will again notice that I am not posting your latest comment, because it contains puerile and abusive provocations, based on your ignorance of who I am, and which completely fail to address the substance of what I have written; particularly, on the subject of George Orwell and totalitarianism - a subject which you patently know nothing about.

    FYI. The UK government's only attempt to shut down an big 'MLM' racket came in 2007-2008. At that time, it was discovered that at least one million UK and Irish citizens had been churned through 'Amway'since the company first came to the UK in 1973. There was no evidence that any of these people had earned a penny of overall net-profit. Furthermore, 'Amway UK Ltd.' had never once declared an annual net-trading profit and had never paid any corporation tax in the UK. The charade had been funded by mysterious injections of cash coming from overseas. Behind the permanently insolvent 'Amway UK' front, a labyrinth of apparently independent companies had been peddling the constantly-churning losing British and Irish 'Amway' adherents a 'step-by-step-plan to achieve financial freedom.' These parallel companies, which were controlled from the USA by a handful of wealthy racketeers linked to 'Pentacostalist/Doninionist Churches,' were immediately wound up when the UK regulators began to take interest in them. It was estimated that around one billion $ could have been extracted from British 'Amway' adherents over the years - by peddling them effectively valueless publications, recordings tickets to meetings, etc.

    One of the UK government's most senior regulators, Deputy Inspector of companies, Cliff Callaghan, assured me that once 'Amway' was closed using civil isolvency procedures via the UK High Court, a major criminal investigation of what lay behind 'Amway' and 'MLM' would be conducted by the Serious Fraud Office. One senior regulator, privately described 'Amway' to me as operating like the 2nd. 'KKK' in the 1920s. BTW. It was only as a result of my sustained complaints to UK regulators that 'Amway UK' was investigated and prosecuted, in the first place.

    However, the UK government's public interest bankruptcy petition against 'Amway UK Ltd.' was mysteriously declined by a single judge, Mr. Justice Norris, breaking all previous legal precedent. The government's appeal was then declined by a 2 to 1 majority in the Appeal Court. No evidence of the massive advance fee fraud that lurked behind 'Amway' was ever presented in court, and no SFO investigation has ever been launched.

    During the civil investigation of 'Amway UK Ltd.' the company employed Eversheds LLP to represent it. Working for Eversheds at that time was the former Deputy Director of the SFO, Peter Kiernan. Mr Kiernan resigned from Eversheds when it was privately explained to him what he was representing. He has kept his mouth tightly shut ever since, but for a while he took a lucrative job with an American law firm, Crowell and Moring LLP. This firm had been indirectly connected to 'Amway'. At that time, Kiernan's salary was probably in excess of one million $.

    This is what happens when you complain, and continue to complain, to the authorities in the UK, but in the USA, the level of 'MLM' corruption has been on an all together much-higher level.

    I suggest you order of copy of Robert FitzPatrick's new book, 'Ponzinomics.' You can then read not only about the origins of the big 'MLM' lie, but also about who I am and what a relatively few private individuals have done to advance public understanding of the 'MLM' phenomenon.

    https://www.amazon.com/Ponzinomics-Untold-Story-Multi-Level-Marketing-ebook/dp/B08NHWBSZ2

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  14. Mr. David Findlay. You now ask:

    "How does a partner getting paid anywhere from £50-£400 for signing a customer constitite fraud or make them a victim? A person will become a customer if they are genuinely saving money or are impressed with the simplicity of everything on one bill and cashback every month equivalent to between 1% and 20% of their shopping bill depending on where they shop. Less than 6% of customers are also business partners. UW have 700,000 customers. Are our customers victims too? A partner gets paid nothing for signing up a business partner except an incentive payment of around 10p per group customer per month. So a partner signing 50 customers in a year, one a week (not too hard surely?), will likely earn an average of £200 per customer. So £10,000. The partner who recruited them will earn £60 for that group activity for the same year. Explain to me how that is an unsustainable commission structure."

    In response to your enquiry, perhaps you had better watch this linked-video of a Canadian guy called Andy Nyakas. Andy was presenting and Austrian-based 'MLM Income Opportunity' called 'Lyoness' to a panel of experienced investors on 'Dragons Den.' What Andy says in this short video clip, and what the Dragons tell him in response, should all sound strangely familiar to you. BTW. The big boss of 'Lyoness' once managed to get himself photographed with Nelson Mandella by giving money to South African Childrens' charity. 'Lyoness' has also sponsored the Austrian Open Golf tournament. All of which made it seem impossible to persons like Andy Nyakas that 'Lyoness' could be the front for a cultic racket. 'Lyoness' still exists in various corporate guises, and it continues to operate all over the world, despite mounting complaints and a few low-level civil investigations in various countries.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8I4mNnht1E

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    1. Mr. David Findlay. Can you please try to put aside 'UW' for a moment, as well as your own involvement and, like me, attempt to focus on the wider picture?

      As you apparently cannot find the short video clip of the 'Lyoness/MLM' adherent, Andy Nyakas, that I posted, I suggest you watch the whole segment via this link here.

      https://streamable.com/heuv8

      No matter how you label 'MLM' contractors, all 'MLMs' have been based on creating a belief in the pseudo-economic theory that constant recruitment of new contractor/recruiters will lead to constant revenues deriving from the regular purchases of these recruits and from the regular purchases of recruits of their recruits, etc. etc. ad infinitum. In other words, in the overwhelming majority, the persons who have been buying into these schemes have been their own ill-informed contractors. The majority of these purchases have been made based on the false-expectation of future reward.

      Apart from the investigation, and failed civil prosecution, of 'Amway' 2007 2008, 'MLM' rackets have been allowed to operate in the UK largely-unrecognised since 1973. Even 'Amway' is still operating without any effective regulation in the UK. Currently, the 'UK Direct Selling Association' (which has fronted the biggest 'MLM' rackets) claims that more than 600 000 UK citizens are under contract to its member 'MLM' companies. Around 70% of UK contractors are women. However, the annual churn-rate for these 'MLM' contractors is known to be way in excess of 50%. This means that at least 300 000 UK citizens are being quietly churned each year through 'MLM' rackets (3 millions per decade), all of which claim to be operating perfectly legally, but none of which have voluntarily published their overall numbers of contractors since they were first instigated. The hidden overall net-loss churn-rate for 'MLM' participation has built up over the years to the point where it is effectively 100%.

      Despite all this unchallenged analysis, there is still no effective agency of law enforcement in the UK to which complaints can be filed about any of these 'MLM' rackets and which will then be able do something to protect the public from this phenomenon. This remains a largely-unrecognised criminogenic phenomenon hidden behind mystifying labyrinths of legally-registered corporate structures. The phenomenon has become so big and profitable that is effectively out of control on a global scale. Most 'MLM' victims have been short-term and have little idea what they were really involved in. Longer term victims remain confused and fearful, because they have signed contracts which oblige them to enter 'MLM' companies' own rigged and costly 'dispute resolution' procedures. Others fear that they might have broken the law themselves. Many people reason that since the authorities have allowed them to operate in plain sight with the apparent support of celebrities, 'MLMs' cannot possibly be illegal.

      Despite well-financed reality-inverting propaganda attacking persons challenging the Big 'MLM' Lie (as 'irrational mis-informed cranks filled with blind hatred, who are themselves spreading lies,' etc.), an increasing ammount of accurate information and analysis has become available to the public over the years which begins to explain the true criminogenic nature, and global scale, of the 'MLM' phenomenon. This widening-breach in the 'MLM' bosses' monopoly of information has led to the emergence of an anti-'MLM' movement. This movement has largely-comprised ex-'MLM' adherents who have courageously faced up to reality. That said, many of them still unconsciously describe what they were involved in using the reality-inverting ritualised jargon of 'MLM.'

      Again, putting aside 'UW' and your own involvement, I feel sure that you are someone who would be able to appreciate the seriousness of the wider picture.

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