I dont know if this is against posting rules or not and I am not trying to be a salesperson here.....even though I am in sales...lol! I am not a representitive just a customer and some of you might have already heard about it but I just signed up as a member for melaleuca. It is a wellness company that produces its own products and they are all 100% Natural with no phosphates. Most of there products are patented and qutie frankly pretty amazing! Now that this has happened to me I am dedicated to live a healthier lifestyle and this is a great 1st step. They have A TON of vitamins for everything, I am currently taking there 1 a day and there immune system and have to say I am feeling much better everyday. With it being all natural I know I am only doing good. I am just saying that its something I think you should all look into. If you want more information or want to sign up and become a member PM me! As I see it if I can become healthier, help the enviornment, help friends instead of giving my money to walmart and the local grocery store chain that has tons of money it is a win win situation. Trust me you guys dont really know me personally but I do not fall for or get into any of that pyramid BS! Oh and my wife is in love with Nicole Miller cosemtics which this is the only place you can get them because it is all natural and great for your skin. The only lipstick on the market without fermahldahide! If I broke a rule for this post I appologize I am not trying to sell this I just want people to know more about it and become healthier....To me it was a no brainer after all that I have gone thru the past 8 months...of course this isnt a cure and may not have any effect but it cannot hurt only help! Hope all is well!

wow did I mis-spell a ton....lol, maybe I should take there brain supplement!

JIM SAID.....They have A TON of vitamins for everything, I am currently taking there 1 a day and there immune system and have to say I am feeling much better everyday.

Of course you feel better every day, you're only 5 weeks out of the tunnel!! You better feel better every day for the next year or so!!

lol thanks David.....I knew you were gonna say that!

I want to know the rsults after a yer of taking them, It could just be the natural healing process that makes you feel much better.

You didn't break any rules, but notice how everyone jumped on a simple truth. You are so close to your treatment period, that even if you did NOTHING, you would feel better every day as that treatment gets smaller and smaller in your rear view mirror, even if you took nothing.

But if it makes you feel better, and it is part of a new awareness and healthier living regime that you are on.... go for it. Just remember that vitamins are vitamins, and if their available active ingredient is the same you don't have to pay exorbitant prices for them. Besides the fact that your body is coming out from under a time of extreme duress, and that alone will improve your wellness every day, don't discount placebo effect. If you believe enough that these are doing it for you.... (and you have the $ to toss at it) what they hey - if it makes you feel better to do so.

Jim

I am so disappointed in you. I had thought that most people had seen all the laments about Melaleuca being a scam. Or maybe a basic Google Search that turns up over 41 Thousand entries under "melaleuca scam" means there is a conspiracy to keep this company from saving you. The complaints are almost all the same: charges to credit cards that exceeded what was orally promised, typical pyramid tricks, refusal to quit billing your credit card once you discover the fraud, widows and desperate women conned into trying to make money but failing. etc etc.
Melaleuca is a network marketing and multi-level marketing company, which means to make money and achieve success a person must build a large downline of customers who also purchase the melaleuca products and promote the business opportunity. As with most other multi-level marketing companies, it is basically semi legal robbery. The Wellness company, Melaleuca, was founded in 1985 by Frank Vandersloot. Before he took over the company, Melaleuca had been marketing false claims not supported by the FDA. Vandersloot restructured the compensation plan, making it more favorable for the marketing executives, with consumer direct marketing. Independent representatives became membership enrollment promoters instead of being expected to sell products,
PLEASE OCF READERS, DO NOT BE TRICKED HERE. RESEARCH AND BE WARY OF RIP OFF COMPANIES . You risk losing money here just by clicking and joining their web site. Just my opinion, but Jim is seriously misguided to tout this company.

Just as Jim is free to ask you all to PM him and join the Melaleuca company as one of his "downlines", I am free to share this post from my google search results of Melaleuca scam. Perhaps it is just a totally sick deranged person who posted it but it sounds as believable as the posters who rave about the Melaleuca business opportunity. The more I reread Jim's post and notice things like the insistent denial of "selling" or that it is a pyramid scheme- the less it sounds like a harmless mention of taking vitamins. So here is another vision of signing up for Melaleuca:
[quote]Review all Melaleuca complaints
Melaleuca
Posted: 2009-04-19 by Juliet

Unauthorized charges
Complaint Rating: 75 % with 4 votes
Company information:
Melaleuca
United States
melaleuca.com

I signed up for melaleuca under the understanding that I would make money because 'everybody would buy this stuff'. Well after the first few months of limitless phone calls and countless hours of unpaid work. I am disabled in a wheelchair and I have 3 children, 1 terminally ill, and 1 with autism. My husband is my full time caregiver and we receive less than a thousand a month for disability for a family of 5.

After 6 months of being forced to spend at least $50 per month mandatory on their overpriced products (which some were 'ok' but not worth the price) I sent a cancellation letter explaining we could no longer afford to put any more money or time into their company. I also informed the person who signed me up and they harassed me to no end to 'hang in there' that we would soon be richer than we ever dreamed of...blah blah blah.

The next month a package shows up on my doorstep and lo and behold they charged my credit card $65! I called the company and they claimed never to have got my cancellation letter and it cosed me another $12 to send the products back! (I was out nearly $30 from shipping costs which were not refundable)

Again I sent another letter, this time certified, and the following month another package arrives! And may I add, due to these charges it made us short and late on our rent evey month for 4 months in a row causing our landlord to have to cancel our lease.

In the course of that 4 months 9 letters were sent 3 registed, 2 certified and notarized and 4 regular (I have all receipts) And all were received but not claimed to have been received and when I called asking for the mail dept and the person who signed for them I was told they no longer work for melaleuca...blah blah blah... We finally lost our beautiful home and as a result could not find an accessible place and had to resort to living out of our van and using the ymca to shower, and the library for homeschooling our children and use of the computers.

We have now been homeless for 2 months and yet Melaleuca continues to send packages to our old address even though 2 have been sent back (no longer at this address) and they continue to charge our credit card, once for the package (our mandatory backup order + return shipping). I have even faxed and received faxed confirmations that they received our cancellation and they continue to charge us! They were even so bold as to automatically renew our contract without my permission! I have not received even a penny of refund from them (only excuses that I have to call their long distance number as they cannot transfer me to that dept...and I do not have a cell phone or long distance card.) They even have it in their records that we are homeless and we are still getting charged money we cant afford and useless empty apologies and excuses why we cant get our money back.

So, if you see the word melaleuca, TURN AND RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN![/quote]

as you can tell from my posts, I really don't like the OCF forum being used as a fishing pond for businesses. But in fairness, here are some reviews of the company that indicate it is just a sleazy version of Amway (but I don't see Brian selling Amway products to us)

[quote]It's MLM a la Amway. Legit business with legit (if overpriced) products, but you are unlikely to make any money after expenses unless you are a very persuasive person who can build up a big empire of sub-distributors. Avoid, it is not easy, and if you have real sales talent, you could be employing it better than in alienating your family friends and acquaintances through trying to recruit them.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:19 PM on September 10 [5 favorites]

My mom's been involved in this for years. I don't think there's anything particularly illegal about the operation, but it's never really sat well with me. i_am-joe's_spleen got it right when he said it's essentially Amway, another thing my mom got caught up in (detecting a pattern yet?). She loves their products, so she's generally quite enthusiastic about it, but I've never thought their products were particularly spectacular. In general, my mom's done okay with Melaleuca, but not great. She also has a successful and totally legitimate business completely apart from her MLM dabbling, so she can generally afford to take a slight risk on this kind of stuff every once in awhile. I think it's fine, since she enjoys their products and I don't think they're taking advantage of her, but that said, I've never enjoyed it and actively discouraged her on a few occasions. I suspect you and your friend will not find this a worthwhile venture.
posted by Diagonalize at 8:01 PM on September 10

My dad used to be a Melaleuca distributor. You are forced to buy a minimum amount of stuff every month which is not cheap, and if you're not good at selling it, you'll just end up with piles and piles of their product. It's not easy to sell either, as none of it is particularly impressive and as I said, it's overpriced. The stuff isn't bad, it just isn't good enough to entice most people to spend the extra money.

Just stay far away -- it's a waste of time and money.
posted by yawper at 8:33 PM on September 10 [1 favorite]

This is my mother's current obsession. Some of the products are quite nice -- a lot of people swear by the lotion, the stain remover and laundry detergent are very effective, et cetera. However, I find the mandatory monthly orders highly off-putting, don't use enough of any of the products to justify signing up, and don't particularly care to try their own personal versions of a zillion different products so I can evaluate them against the ones I'm already using.

If you like and want the stuff they sell, I don't think it's particularly terrible. If you're looking for free/easy money, you'll probably end up with a bunch of catalogs, sample lotion bottles, and former friends.
posted by mayhap at 7:42 PM on September 10 [/quote]

lol WOW you really have a serious hate issue with Melaleuca! I was simply sharing my experience and am NO WAY a rep for them. However just as there are 41k complaints there are 10 million happy customers including myslef! Can you go to walmart and buy cheaper products...yes of course! Ralph Lauren sells his polo shirts for $79 a shirt, you can buy the same shirt at walmart for $19! Now that is a scam and you know what millions upon millions of people everyday purchase his clothes including myself. I am not going to sit here and argue with you about this, I happen to really like there products and wanted to share it and am by no means trying to get people in my "downline" as you call it and do not appreciate you jumping to conclusions and ripping me about it. You have your opinion of the company great but do not be so naive to just look at google as your information resourse. The guy might be a crook and people might have made a lot of money selling the memberships that is business. If amway, avon and all these other companies are sooooo bad why are they still in business and thriving! Melalueca is UPS #1 customer worldwide and are in 11 countries so they must be producing some decent products or in your words just "ripping off and scamming" that many people! I cannot believe I even had to write this!