Even in the time of Dick Devos’ father, the CEO and Co-founder of Amway Corporation Rick Devos, the company’s method of recruiting distributors and sales people to their down lines and marketing activities has been rather questionable and controversial.
 
A number of well-known people including former Presidents of the United States like Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan have made Amway as the prime example of an American business that succeeds and produces results through hard work and good marketing strategy.

Their products have been well received by consumers and Consumer Reports Magazine has even rated the cleaning products of Alticor, Amway’s parent company, as above average in their effectiveness as a cleaning tool.

But the situation is very different before as Alticor and their Internet based owned subsidiary Quixtar have become a butt of jokes on late night television shows and in some Internet Consumer advocate sites and even some regulatory divisions of the government saying that the distribution method of the company known as multi level marketing or pyramiding only benefit those who are in the top of the heap.
 
About two people among 1,000 distributors of Amway will only make $47,000 dollars per year according to the promotional dialogues that have been set up by the company and expenses will begin to pile up. New recruits to the company have to pay $270 dollars for their initial membership and for other training materials that they will receive. Their “sponsors”, those people who have convinced them to join the multilevel company, will advise them to buy the training materials and attend the seminars and conventions that Amway will hold. The materials are already revenue for their “sponsors”, who belong in the upper bracket of the company.

The materials of Amway state that these instructional materials are not required and the newly enrolled members are not obligated to buy them but according to some former distributors of the company their “sponsors” told them that these materials are vital so that they can succeed in their business.
 
Because of this, some members have lost money like Joanne and Mike from Livonia who had worked as Quixtar Distributors for about half a year in 2002 while they are living near Atlanta. They lost about $3,000 dollars before deciding that they had enough. Her Brother, Paul Bortell of Plymouth who had been their “sponsor” has decided to quit after four years because he kept losing money amounting to $4,000 dollars on those four years that he had been a distributor for the company.

Another distributor, Mike McKenna of Livonia had commented that he had lost money in the three years that he had worked as a distributor before quitting his job and added that those higher than him in the company had pressured him to buy about a dozen tapes which were motivational tapes every month, a book that deals with how to succeed in life and tickets to weekly conventions and seminars at least once a month.

Although that is the case, some distributors have still remained active and say that they are happy about it like Kathy Eiden of Plymouth. She said that they would be in this business as long as they live and she really likes the product. According to the new president of Alticor Doug Devos, who has replaced his brother Dick, said that Alticor does not promise immediate wealth and if the distributor is willing to work for it, they will be very successful.
 
But that line by Doug Devos seems to contradict on one weekly recruitment and motivational meeting that were held in Southfield in late August that is promising that distributors will acquire wealth even if they are working part time