Opportunity to make a political statement about Amway

[MsUnderstood]

So I come back from vacation and have this little gem in my e-mail:

Subject: Sharing made easy

NAME,

I am home sick, trying to save my voice. We really believe we have a goldmine and want to share it with you. I know you said you don't have time. Donna do you have time to put some DVDs in the mail?

I would like to send you our newest tool for sharing the business, a DVD. See how simple it can be. I believe that I can change peoples' lives through this business. It would be great to have you on our team. Let me know as soon as possible so I can get one in the mail. If you still are not interested, who do you know that would want to be on a team, working to improve others' lives and at the same time make residual income each month? NAME, you could even put tax free money away for CHILD's college. Love STEPMOM

This is from my Stepmother, who still lives with my father. I was complete insulted. So I responded in typical MsUnderstood fashion:

STEPMOM,

I’m sorry to hear you are feeling under the weather. I hope you feel better soon.

CHILD and I just got back from our Washington D.C. Trip. If you have never been, it is such a life altering experience to see the history behind our nation with the monuments, museums, and landmarks. We’ve got some wonderful memories and photos to share if you are interested.

Our Truck is still being repaired. I’m sure my Dad mentioned that the last time we spoke I spoke to him I explained were down a car due to an accident and struggling with using one car to transport.

Fortunately, my partner has been able to get a job part-time as a social worker while she finishes school. I’m sure you remember last time we spoke she was taking time off to concentrate on school. She has 6 months left and we are counting the days! We’ve gone through a stressful spring but I think summer should be better.

STEPMOM, I really appreciate hearing from you guys, and love to keep you updated on our lives; however, I feel it is necessary to be more direct about your sales opportunity.

I am not interested in the sales opportunity. I have a very busy life right now and getting home and making dinner is exhausting enough without trying to take on a second job as a saleswoman. I have enough stress dealing with people during my work day that I don’t want to have to deal with selling products to people or mailing packages or writing form letters.

Even if had time, I could not ever support any Amway based company, service, product or opportunity. Amway is a huge contributor to the Republican Party. This Republican Party is responsible for the 9/11 tragedy by its lack of action, put us into an illegal war in Iraq based on lies told to the American people, sent our economy into a tailspin by giving corporations and the rich giant tax breaks while creating a situation where my cost of living has increased significantly. The Republican Party vilifies my family, ignores my rights as a human being, and chooses to fight a war on “morality” while Americans are dying overseas based on lies and deceit.

It was great to hear from you! I hope the family is doing well.

Ah, it felt good. . .but now I wonder. . .was it enough *evil grin*

[getmeouttahere]

1. Nice summation of the BushCo nightmare...

and all in one relatively concise paragraph. Bravo!

[htuttle]

2. The Truth about Amway/Quixtar

Here's a site set up by a disgruntled former Amway salesperson (who was a fair distance 'up' the pyramid before they quit):

http://www.merchantsofdeception.com/

He wrote a book, "Merchants of Deception" he's also making available as a 300 pg PDF on his website. Recommended.

Amway sounds as bad as the Scientologists (or the Landmark people, or the Moonies, etc...).

[sui generis]

3. I'll bet you she "got the message"

Amway is so irritating - I had a friend who was a family physician who sold that crap back in the 90's (eh, back in the day, what's that sonny?) talk about bordering on unethical.

[BlueEyedSon]

4. This is what I sent someone who tried to "enroll" me.....

http://skepdic.com/amway.html
http://www.amquix.info/amway.html
http://www.merchantsofdeception.com/
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4375477/

[noamnety]

5. Pyramid Scheme

Make sure to call it that each and every time she brings it up in the future. This is a very short summary that's a good length for an email, about the guy who wrote Merchants of Deception:

"Eric Scheibeler discovered that the operation was committing massive fraud and he obtained the documentation to prove it. When he took the information to Amway Senior Management, they shut off his income and told him not to have contact with the distributors he was revealing the fraud to. Scheibeler, a former federal auditor for the US Department of Energy, refused. He and his wife were threatened, ostracized, and lost all they had built over a decade."

from http://www.mediatransparency.com/story.php?storyID=4

[MsUnderstood]

6. Thanks for the links

I began researching a bit but still jet laggy and am suppossed to be working *lol*

I'll check into those to beef up the arsenal if she doesn't take the hint.