Actual Letter from a MonaVie Distributor

Wow, I think the writer may have set a record for the most lies, half-truths, and illegal statements by a MonaVie distributor!

Agreed, it would take day’s, if not weeks to pick this drival apart, sounds like another R3Global cult member’s rantings to me.

They are doing so well due to the sheer volume of new people, roughly 90,000 referenced on the IDS and ID numbers around 2,000,000 horrendous attrition rate………

There is no room for religion in the discussion of the value of MonaVie, just like there is no room for religion in the discussion of the value of my kitchen table. It’s simply not relevant one way or the other.

If a drug dealer was selling crack on your street corner wouldn’t you be justified in talking bad about him and his business? Yes, you would. Why? Because not all people in the world are good (even if they try) and not all business are health for consumers. In fact, your comment was a little hypocritical since you are talking bad about me and my business (being a consumer advocate).

I never could grasp why so many MLM’s, MV included always seem to push the religious overtones on everyone within an earshot, only thing I can come up with is since the real world product benifits are arguable, overdoseing it with religion and hype sells.

The old line of a song comes to mind, “Would Jesus wear a Rolex on his television show?”. Religion and Mona Vie have no commonality other than people believe in what they choose and it’s impossible to sway preception with facts.

Well said, Skeptic Searcher.
I’m with you on this one.

Drinkin MonaVie,

Keep in mind that as a distributor you are allowed by MonaVie to say that you believe it helped you with back and knee pain. See this link on MonaVie’s website.

I’ll let FoodTech talk about the illegal statements. I don’t think I saw anything illegal. However, when I read it, it didn’t make any logical sense and there very few correct facts that actually related to the value of MonaVie. Oprah’s religious views have nothing to do with the juice.

I went to a big Monavie meeting in Orlando @Disney last night. I was happy to see that there was not a lot of religious talk, but it was 99.9% about the products and opportunity. When Brig Hart spoke at the end he did mention God and talk a tiny bit about religion, but it wasn’t too much, even for me. Every business owner I have ever known that was religious, talked about there religion and how they have been blessed with there business. Just like he shares the juice, he shares his beliefs. I think that’s a good thing even though I myself am not 100% sure of what I believe (religion). I know I believe there is something out there, I just don’t put myself in any specific religious category because if one is right, then are all the rest wrong? I guess I’m more of a “Karma” person than anything. Brig was actually quite funny and seems to be a great guy. Everyone that wanted to, got to personally meet the top dogs and i had a good time. I’ve been in sales since i was 17 and this is the first company i have been involved with that doesn’t implement hard sale tactics. Drink it, feel it, share it! That’s whats on the website and that’s all they told us distributors to do.

To the guy who’s wife bought the juice and emailed in this letter;

I didn’t notice anywhere in the email that said “lie to your husband” If your wife didn’t tell you ahead of time she probably knows you well and figured you would tell her no. Is it really that bad that she wants the two of you to eat healthier and hopefully live a longer and happier life together?

If you want to talk about it more, feel free to call me at [phone number removed by editor]. I have no problem listening to your opinions!

Of course I think Inc 500 is real. What the person who gave his presentation said, however, was Fortune 500. Even the font and lettering of the flyer looked very similar to fortune 500’s. He also said they were among the “top fortune 500 companies to work for.” That is what confused me, because as best to my knowledge that is not what Monavie is.

I have listened to Brig Hart’s Cds- very powerful speaker! If you listen intently, however, things seem to twist around. In the presentation I heard him say monavie is not a company built in getting to the top or selling juice, but focused on improving health. He then went on to mention the black cars (sorry, forgot what kind) he would like to see in each and every state- how do you do that? By selling juice and climbing to the top. There is a motive behind selling the “health” that is concerning.

My brother in law is thinking of joining Monavie. He said the start up is $325. You mentioned that you did not pay anything to start with Monavie- was that because of your team, or a sale, which is it? My brother in law said that pays for 2 bottles of each kind and a case of the energy drink. That is some expensive juice! Especially if that is at cost! I am also concerned with my friends in the business who have not made a profit. They have twenty something people under them and still make VERY little, hardly enough to cover the juice! I should also mention that the monavie distributer first told us it was “100 something” to start up. Is that without the juice? Again, things are very fuzzy.

I am also curious about the amounts of each fruit in there. Any doctor will tell you that if you have too high a doseage of different vitamins that it can have a bad effect on your health and body. Mr. Hart said in his speech that any time he goes past the fridge he drinks a little monavie. Now, if the vitamins in monavie are so potent and powerful, wouldnt you think that if you consumed that much monavie each day you would see health problems? My friend also said he drinks about a bottle every other day. That is much more than the recommended dosage. I’m confused…

To me, if something is healthy, all health studies will show that it is healthy. Men’s Journal said grape juice was better off for you! As my friend Alton Brown says- “to health!”

As for the energy drink… I drank it at 8 pm and went to bed at 10. Didnt feel a bit different. If I drink a diet coke at 3pm I cant sleep all night. I expected some sign of energy… not keep me up all night energy, but some kind. I am also curious about the green tea in it… where does it come from? What is the quality.

Skeptic; up until January 4th there was no fee to join for almost the last year. The day (M)mun was released (2days ago) they started the $39 enrollment fee again. So I paid no enrollment fee when I started. I stated that I did buy a case of juice so it cost me less than $150 to start my business. If I don’t have juice, I can’t share it or drink it! Your brother in law is wrong about the $325. He doesn’t have to order anything, however, like I just said, If you don’t have it you can’t share it or drink it. So if he orders a variety of product he has more to share and the right type for different people. ie, someones back hurts like mine, let them try active, if they have a family history of heart disease, give them pulse. If there hooked on Red Bull, give them Emv. If there Jewish, give them Kosher. If they have children over 4, give them (M0mun. The more juice you have the faster you can build your biz by sharing.

As far as your friends that aren’t making money, it sounds like most of the 20 something under them are not ordering juice to drink or to share. Like any MLM there is a high drop out rate because some reps sell the making money end and the people aren’t sold on the product. People expect to make a lot of money right away and then get discouraged quick when success isn’t instantaneous.

I would agree that too much may be harmful, that’s why the suggested serving is just 2-4 ozs a day. I would think you would need a whole lot for it to be toxic though, but not sure since I’m not a nutritionist. Can you drink too much Grape or Apple juice?

As for Emv, after two hours I would hope you could sleep, it’s not cocaine, it’s 80% Juice!

The closest Chick-Fil-A in Silicon Valley (Northern, CA) is 60 miles away. Sorry, not close. My family is located in MA, so I fly to Boston to visit them occasionally. There are two restaurants in that whole state. That is three major cities (SF, San Jose, Boston) with almost no presence at all. So while I would like to eat there (I hear it’s good), I haven’t.

Chick-Fil-A doesn’t use their religious beliefs to get you buy their product. There’s a huge difference there between that. They don’t talk down about people who believe in other religions as this person did with her Oprah comment. There’s a world of difference here. And do say, it’s one bad apple, because this person is a Gold-level distributor saying these things.

I don’t think our government’s money is trying to sell a product. Don’t make this into a theological discussion. It’s not. It’s someone trying to use religion as a way of saying, “See we are the same, so you can trust me. That’s justification for buying my juice that costs 10-20x over the juice you currently buy.” If Chick-fil-a starts charging 10-20x what El Pollo Loco does, then I’ll start a blog on their scam as well. Until then, they sell a reasonable product at a reasonable price and I don’t see them trying to trick or sweet talk anyone.

What got me back on the letter is that this is the thread with that conversation and we were talking about religion. It’s relevant to the discussion that this person doesn’t just believe in God, but believes that no one else should have beliefs that differ from her own. That’s part of what makes the letter amazing coming from someone so high up in MonaVie.

If you want 19 fruits, you can get them all from different varieties of V8 Fusion. Buy 6 bottles and mix up a little of each. It’ll cost you about $25, but you’ll get more juice than 10 bottles of MonaVie… and more variety since you’ll get vegetables as well.

The price difference is $1500 a year or more. It’s not like a paying 10% more to use another gas station. It’s like paying 1000% more. And that’s not counting the convenience of shipping (i.e. more cost).

I couldn’t find any details on how much glucosamine is in MonaVie Active. Can you locate that information on their website? At least this way I can do a comparison to how much glucosamine I can buy in another form. Similarly, I couldn’t find data on the Omega 3’s. However, when I buy a carton of Eggs-land’s Best it says that it is 100mg of Omega 3’s. Finally, what are the Resveratrol numbers?

We need to know the numbers behind these or it could be one drop of each per 1000 barrels. We simply can’t make an informed buying decision on that.

I’d be careful about quoting directly from MonaVie’s website with regard to the seven clinical trials. They are also the ones who lie about the ORAC score of MonaVie in their materials (they’ve since cleaned up the website to remove the claim it seems. Notice how they only reference one trial… and a very short 4-week one at that? The other 6 must have been really poor in supporting the product.

Last time I checked Emv is twice the price of Red Bull. Using Amazon.com Red Bull Energy Drink, 8.4-Ounce Cans (Pack of 24) is $51. That’s actually quite a bit more than I’ve seen it locally… and it comes with free shipping. (You can find it for $32 online here). The distributor cost (not even the retail cost – since I don’t want to be a distributor) for eMV is $68… same size drink and same quantity in a case.

It’s odd that MonaVie points out the use of artificial preservatives in other energy drinks when MonaVie uses preservatives in their main products (the Original and the Active I believe). So obviously MonaVie isn’t saying that it’s bad for others to use it in their energy drink, right? That would be hypocritical.

Independent tests proved that people preferred Pepsi over Coke as well. Yet Coke still outsells Pepsi. You might want to read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink (or just the Coke-Pepsi story here)

I think energy drinks are already overpriced and can’t really figure out why people like them. Probably the same people who buy bottled water. A cheap eMV substitute? Take the V8 Fusion juice that I explained above and crush a caffeine pill into it. What’s going to be the difference? It’s the 80-20 rule that we hear about, except that you are getting possibly 100% of the effectiveness for 10% of the cost.

Drinking MonaVie, you have posted here quite a bit and you’ve announced that you are distributor, but you haven’t been following MonaVie’s rules for distributors when posting online in blogs. You are required by MonaVie to include your name and ID number. This may sound nitpicky, but it speaks to how MonaVie lacks communication with it’s distributors. These communication gaps lead to distributors making all sorts of crazy untrue claims (though I realize there are minimal if any in our conversation).

I don’t think you can really drink too much MonaVie to be that harmful. If you look at the label, there are very little vitamins in MonaVie. I’ve seen daily vitamins with hundreds more percentages than what’s in MonaVie. I’m not a nutritionist, but just saying that it doesn’t sound like you’d do much damage. There are only three vitamins and minerals listed on the label (vit C, vit K, and Iron). People take tons of vitamin and I just read that there’s no real toxicity fear with vit K. The iron is only 2% of the recommended amount, so you’d have to drink a whole bottle in a day to get half of the iron you need. I think too much iron can be a problem for males, but think it’s a drop in the bucket from the amount of iron in steak and such. In short, I don’t think there’s much harm in drinking too much MonaVie… but that’s directly related to there not being a lot of nutrition in it.

You know, the only reason I even posted in here is because you guys were stating that there were so many lies and illegal statements in the writers letter. I was googleing everything I could about the company to learn the good, the bad and the ugly so that I would be informed of every aspect. I found the ugly on this site. You talk about the Gold Exec being so high up, did you know there are over 8 Distributor levels higher and the average Gold works 14 hours a week for an average annual income of just over $50,000 a year. The friend that got me involved has been in for just at 1 year and is Silver, only one step below and doesn’t even invest a full 5 hours a week. It doesn’t matter what I say or what you say, we can all go back and forth forever to try to prove each other wrong. This is your site and obviously you have nothing better to do than sit around all day, every day and bash a juice product. I’ve said what I wanted to say and really don’t have the time to keep going back and forth about it. You ask me a question, I answer it. Yea, we can crush up a caffeine pill and put it in V8. Maybe I prefer to just grab a can and drink it. Yea, I can buy a bunch of different V8 drinks and mix them together. Sounds like fun. I own two businesses, One (a traditional Business model) I have had for 2 years and are just now getting to the point of profit after recovering my start up cost, overhead, etc… and my MonaVie biz that has done that in about a month. I really don’t have the time to sit here day after day and keep this going for no reason since it won’t benefit me financially. So you guys can go ahead and give yourself a pat on the back. I’m done, I don’t really care if you like the product or the business model, I know that it’s working for me both physically and financially and that’s all that matters. I really don’t understand why someone would even start a website like this unless they had some other motive like being a distributor for some other competing product. What do you have to gain? I don’t see advertisements that would pay you for traffic. Why not spend your time blogging about more important things than people and there juice, really pathetic if you ask me.

PS- we are not sitting around bashing a juice product, we are trying to disect the sales model of a product that may not be what monavie claims it is… to protect families dear to us for the sake of someone’s pocket and livelihood.

A friend of mine sells Monavie. He is at the Silver level. He quit his job as a teacher to get in full time with this business. I allowed him to give a presentation at my house this week. The speech went in so many different circles I’m not even sure where to begin.

My first thought is how is this good for you? The label does not really prove that it is healthy or better than any other juice. He said that Monavie has a CD that talks about Organic labels and how they work. He said you can only list the minimum amount of daily value because it is an all organic product. My wife buys almost everything organic in our household and I have never heard that before. I am thinking of taking a trip to Whole foods to find out. Has anyone heard of this?

While he is at the silver level, he is in foreclosure as well and painting as a side job. That doesnt sound like good money to me. Sure he might have debt, but it sounds suspicious. He then said the nice thing about the business is you can write off your expenses (ie travel, materials etc…) He said in a proud voice “Well according to the IRS I’m in the hole 7,000 but they have it wrong” Either this guy is really bad with money or he has been lied to by Monavie.

When I asked about the Dr behind monavie, the one who confirms the research- or has done the research for 11 years, he said it is important to note that this guy works WITH monavie, not FOR monavie. Is there a difference? When I work with other companies I consider them part of my team. And do they mean that the dr just GAVE him all of his years of research for FREE? To a company that sells millions of bottles of this stuff? That would be rediculous and I am not too naieve to believe it.

I have been in the business world as part of a large corporate company for about 10 years now. While I dont know everything about busines, I do know that this seems like a crock. A lot of hype over something that might be snake oil.

I am wondering if anyone can explain the label to me. Looking for information to give back to my friend before he loses everything.

Thanks.

I agree it would be foolish for the dr to give away his research for free.

I found this on the FDA website, displaying that Monavie violated Acts in 2007. During my meeting with a distributer, he said they were the only acai berry drink out there backed by the FDA. Interesting.

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/EnforcementActivitiesbyFDA/CyberLetters/ucm056937.pdf

Ok, so I told myself I would not post on such blogs, but enough is enough. It seems that it is easier to get your blog recognized on the internet if you put “SCAM” in the title and spend your time knocking companies that are trying to better people’s lives, in one way or another, than it is to write positive information.

I will admit that I am a MonaVie distributor. I have been involved with MonaVie for a little over 4 months. I have only reach the Star 500 level, but for the amount of time, effort and investment I have devoted to this enterprise, I am satisfied with my results.

I have a few questions for you.

1. Does the makers of V8 Support a charity that is helping impoverished people in a 3rd world company like MonaVie does with THE MORE PROJECT? http://www.themoreproject.org/

2. The 13 servings of fruit and vegetables mentioned above, is in relation to the Anti-Oxidant power of MonaVie, not it’s nutritional/vitamin content.

3. Do sales reps from other companies ever make distortions to make a sale? I will tell you it does happen in MonaVie, and I am totally against this practice. I know MonaVie is as diligent as possible to make sure that false information is not being told by its distributors, but it simply is not possible.

4. What is the percentage of people in the US that is making more than $100,000 dollars a year? If the “chances” of making $100K a year in MonaVie are low, I would argue the fact that this is the case in the overall population.

5. If everyone is so concerned about “pyramids”, how many CEO’s are in most businesses? Usually only 1. Isn’t a traditional corporation the ultimate pyramid?

6. How many businesses are available for a $39 fee (waived if you purchase two cases of juice) and have the possibility, based on effort and knowledge, to turn that into a million dollar business? I know I was looking at franchises, which have no guarantees either, and there aren’t any I know of for $39 with that possibility. There aren’t that many for $300-$400, so not sure where buying $325 worth of juice is a “scam”. If you have a flower shop, you need to buy flowers to promote your business, same in the juice business; you have to have juice to promote the product/business.

7. You say $29,000 is not good income in certain parts of the country. Is that not great secondary part-time income anywhere? No one is saying that you up and quit your job while building the business. In fact, I have been told, that you shouldn’t even consider quitting your full time job until you are making 3x your yearly income in MonaVie.

8. How many people, percentage wise, open new businesses every year, and don’t make it? Were those businesses scams too?

9. Why is it bad that someone would pay $140 a month for something is making them feel better? Placebo effect or not, why is this bad and why does this make MonaVie a “scam”? Is it bad to spend $60 dollars a month on sodas, that have been shown to contribute to obesity, or, because it is cheaper than MonaVie, it is a better bargain?

10. Why the huge concern to have to warn people about the “MonaVie Scam”? Scam is so easily thrown around, that I am not even sure, after reading your site, where the “scam” is. Is it that it doesn’t cure cancer, which the company will tell you that themselves? Or is the scam that most people will not take the time and effort to build a business, thus they have been scammed? Or is it because, most people believe that, although the possibility of making some great money in MonaVie is possible, most want it instantaneously, and aren’t willing to put in the time and effort required, and quit? Even though they did not do what was taught to get to the higher income levels in the business, is that why MonaVie is a “scam”?

11. Is it a “scam” because someone bought 12 cases of juice, and just let it sit in their garage and did nothing to promote their business? If there are people that dumb, and if they lose money in MonaVie, it is not because Monavie is a “scam”, it’s because these people don’t know the first thing about business. (Plus, they now have that 12 cases of juice to consume for themselves)

I could go on and on, but it just makes me cringe, when a website/blog like this may dash the hopes and promise of someone that legitimately was looking to start a business, and the first thing they found on the internet was a website about a “scam”, thus not getting the whole picture.

Many people, like myself, believe in the MonaVie products, believe in the MonaVie opportunity, and believe in the MonaVie cause. If I don’t make any money, it will be because of me, not because MonaVie is a “scam” It is very easy to slam a respected company, behind the anonymity of a website, and not put any burden of one’s failure on the individuals that have half heartily started a MonaVie business and quit when they weren’t making thousands of dollars almost instantaneously.

That’s all I have to say, and will make no more comments.

I have a business to build.

Take care.
Kevin Sullivan, Distributor ID # 2399877

1. Does the makers of V8 Support a charity that is helping impoverished people in a 3rd world company like MonaVie does with THE MORE PROJECT? http://www.themoreproject.org/

Answer: V8 Fusion is run by Campbell’s (probably best known for their soup). You can see from their public website (this for example) that they are active in charities. Meanwhile the MORE Project seems to be misusing it’s donating funds (i.e. putting them to causes other than the ones the donators’ wished.

2. The 13 servings of fruit and vegetables mentioned above, is in relation to the Anti-Oxidant power of MonaVie, not it’s nutritional/vitamin content

Answer: That may be true, but the phrase of “13 servigs of fruit and vegetables” is misleading people into thinking it nutritional/viatmin content. A small amount of cinnamon has a lot more “antioxidant power” (measure by ORAC score) for a lot cheaper cost, so can we agree that it’s a worthless measure?

3. Do sales reps from other companies ever make distortions to make a sale? I will tell you it does happen in MonaVie, and I am totally against this practice. I know MonaVie is as diligent as possible to make sure that false information is not being told by its distributors, but it simply is not possible.

Answer: Perhaps, but usually the product they are within the range of their peers. They don’t price their product at 10x-20x more than fill the Internet with misleading information (see #2) and allow a distribution system that lends itself to these distortions. When was the last time you read a store juice can help with autism? There are quite a few resources out there claiming that MonaVie helps

4. What is the percentage of people in the US that is making more than $100,000 dollars a year? If the “chances” of making $100K a year in MonaVie are low, I would argue the fact that this is the case in the overall population.

Answer: I’ve been told there are nearly 2 million distributors in MonaVie (all distributors not the ones that are listed in the IDS). I haven’t been able to get a hard number. It looks like around 350-400 make $100,000 a year (using average annualized numbers). That seems a lot less proportional to the US, but I’m not going to go looking through census data to prove the point. I’ll leave that as an exercise for the reader.

5. If everyone is so concerned about “pyramids”, how many CEO’s are in most businesses? Usually only 1. Isn’t a traditional corporation the ultimate pyramid?

Answer: Did that CEO have to start out as a janitor for the company or did he go to school, earn a good degree and likely start out pretty high in the company. There are more chefs (higher paying jobs) than dishwashers (lower paying jobs) at most restaurants that I go to.

6. How many businesses are available for a $39 fee (waived if you purchase two cases of juice) and have the possibility, based on effort and knowledge, to turn that into a million dollar business? I know I was looking at franchises, which have no guarantees either, and there aren’t any I know of for $39 with that possibility. There aren’t that many for $300-$400, so not sure where buying $325 worth of juice is a “scam”. If you have a flower shop, you need to buy flowers to promote your business, same in the juice business; you have to have juice to promote the product/business.

Answer: Hmmm, blogging was even cheaper than $39 for me when I got started. I’m not saying it’s likely to make a million, (odds are probably just as long as MonaVie), but it’s something. At least you aren’t selling someone a product that is 10x-20x more expensive than similar products. What price do you put on going to sleep each night with a clear conscious? If MonaVie wants to price it’s juice at $4-5, I have no problem with it and it makes sense to buy product to promote the business. However, unlike the flowers, it seems that MonaVie’s business is getting other people open up MonaVie businesses. When I walked into a Subway franchise they didn’t try to get me to buy a store with my sandwich. In fact, I don’t even think buying a store was an option.

7. You say $29,000 is not good income in certain parts of the country. Is that not great secondary part-time income anywhere? No one is saying that you up and quit your job while building the business. In fact, I have been told, that you shouldn’t even consider quitting your full time job until you are making 3x your yearly income in MonaVie.

Answer: If you look at the IDS, some 85% of the people are working for less than minimum wage when you look at the hours they put in. So no, I’d say that MonaVie isn’t a great source of part-time income. And yes, you shouldn’t even consider quitting your full-time job until that… especially if MonaVie goes the way of Royal Tongan Limu juice and you lose your business overnight. That said, the person mentioned above seems to be thinking about it as a full-time job at $29,000, so I guess he’s making $10K at his current job (or perhaps someone needs to talk to him).

8. How many people, percentage wise, open new businesses every year, and don’t make it? Were those businesses scams too?

Answer: Did they take a product that’s already out there and sell it for 10x-20x? If I open up a 8-12 (not to be confused with 7-11) and sell a Slurpees at $20 each claiming that they are really, really good for you (and not providing any real proof that it’s better than 7-11’s version)… then yes, it’s a scam. You are focusing on the business aspect, not the product.

9. Why is it bad that someone would pay $140 a month for something is making them feel better? Placebo effect or not, why is this bad and why does this make MonaVie a “scam”? Is it bad to spend $60 dollars a month on sodas, that have been shown to contribute to obesity, or, because it is cheaper than MonaVie, it is a better bargain?

Answer: Because placebos can be had for pennies. If it’s is a placebo effect, then it should sell for less than $10 and people should be able to put more of their hard earned money into securing their financial future in these times. People shouldn’t be thinking that they can drink MonaVie INSTEAD of eating fruit as distributors are claiming. People should not go off their medication as I’ve read. That’s simply dangerous.

With soda, you know what you are getting which is the big diffence. It doesn’t pretend to be something it is not. It is also part of that is a thirty quenching experience. You don’t get any kind of thirst quenching from 1 ounce of MonaVie.

10. Why the huge concern to have to warn people about the “MonaVie Scam”? Scam is so easily thrown around, that I am not even sure, after reading your site, where the “scam” is. Is it that it doesn’t cure cancer, which the company will tell you that themselves? Or is the scam that most people will not take the time and effort to build a business, thus they have been scammed? Or is it because, most people believe that, although the possibility of making some great money in MonaVie is possible, most want it instantaneously, and aren’t willing to put in the time and effort required, and quit? Even though they did not do what was taught to get to the higher income levels in the business, is that why MonaVie is a “scam”?

Answer: I said it before, but you have distributors with the misinformation that’s trying to make what seems to be a $4 product sell for $45. If I sell you a $50,000 used Yugo, wouldn’t your friends just say you got scammed? More than likely, I imagine they would.

You are focusing too much on the building the business aspect of it than the value of the product to the consumer with the later parts of the question. I’m not sure that building the business aspect is a “scam” or just a poor business opportunity between the minimum wage salaries for a vast majority, the reliance on one company whose CEO was part of a juice company that was fined millions for the same practices we see from MonaVie distributors.

11. Is it a “scam” because someone bought 12 cases of juice, and just let it sit in their garage and did nothing to promote their business? If there are people that dumb, and if they lose money in MonaVie, it is not because Monavie is a “scam”, it’s because these people don’t know the first thing about business. (Plus, they now have that 12 cases of juice to consume for themselves)

Answer: This seems like #10 just rephrased.

I have no problem with people getting involved in a business. I just think that the product has to either be priced in line with other products or it has to justify the margins. If it’s that good of product, put it on the store shelf and see how it sells at $45 a bottle next to other juices.

I don’t know if you think I was ever involved in MonaVie, because it sounds like you think I was. I wasn’t ever involved with MonaVie. I’m simply someone who doesn’t like to see a family of 4 spend $5000-6000 a year on juice in this economy with little saved for retirement. Unless you are already making much more $100,000 a year (which brings us back to question #4 right?) it’s simply an incredibly curious decision to spend that much on juice without there being clear medical benefits.

Hi.

I know that I said I would not comment any further, but as far as the numbering of the distributors goes, customers get the next number in line, so many of those 2.2 million you refer to are customers and are simply buying the product and not building a business. I have several customers that have an ID # that goes right in line with distributor #s. They are simply preferred customers and are not distributors.

One other thing, if someone buys a Yugo for $50,000, they didn’t get scammed, they made a poor decision. If people think MonaVie is overpriced, then simply don’t buy it. My father always told me that something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. I personally believe that for $120 or so a month, I have have gotten benefit, so I have not been scammed. People have to make their own informed decisions, and again, if they feel it is too expensive and get better results with another product, then that is what they should do.

And one last thing. Your examples under #5 do not hold water. Either a CEO did start as a janitor and worked his way up to CEO or went to college, invested years of his time and money to get educated and then started at a higher rung in the corporate ladder. Thus, he/she bought their way into a higher ranking.

As far as restaurants, is it true there would only be one owner of the restaurant that hires all the chefs and dishwashers? If that is the case, then the one guy on top makes more than the others, thus my example that a “traditional” business is more a pyramid.

I still don’t see where MonaVie is a “scam”, but to each their own.

Take care

I believe it is possible that the vast majority of people who purchase MonaVie are buying it because it tastes good and there might be some health benefits. But Kevin, let’s be honest, we know that’s not true. Let’s look at some things that we know for sure. Not necessarily MonaVie, but something that might fit. MonaVie may not be a pyramid scheme, BUT.
The concept behind the pyramid scheme is simple and should be easy to identify; however, it is often presented to potential investors in a disguised or slightly altered form. It could be a once in a lifetime chance to become filthy rich while curing cancer or helping your dog with arthritis pain.
The Scheme
As its name indicates, the pyramid scheme is structured like a pyramid. It starts with one person – the initial recruiter – who is on top. This person recruits a second person, who is required to “invest” money or purchase a product. That money is then paid to the initial recruiter. In order to make his or her money back, the new recruit must recruit more people under him or her, each of whom will also have to invest money or purchase a product. If the recruit gets 10 more people to invest, this person will make nine times their initial investment back.
The 10 new people become recruiters and each one is in turn required to enlist an additional 10 people, resulting in a total of 100 more people. Each of those 100 new recruits is also obligated to invest or purchase product. Recruiters get a profit of all of the money received minus the initial investment paid to the person who recruited them. The process continues until the base of the pyramid is no longer strong enough to support the upper structure (meaning there are no more recruits).
The problem is that the scheme cannot go on forever because there are a limited number of people who can join the scheme (even if all the people in the world join). People are deceived into believing that by giving money or buying product they will make more money. But no wealth has been created. The fraud lies in the fact that it is impossible for the cycle to sustain itself, so people will lose their money somewhere down the line. Those who are most vulnerable are those towards the bottom of the pyramid, where it becomes impossible to recruit the number of people required to pay off the previous layer of recruiters. It is estimated that 90% of people who get involved in a pyramid scheme will lose their money.
Now we come to Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)
Legal multi-level marketing (MLM) involves being recruited in order to sell a product or service that actually has some inherent value. As a recruit, you can make a profit from the sales of the product or service, so you don’t necessarily have to recruit more salespeople below you. And while you may be encouraged to recruit other salespeople whose sales would give you more profit, you can stick to just selling the product directly to the consumer if you choose.
A pyramid scheme MLM, however, will most likely sell a product with no independent or provable value. The product could take the form of reports of some kind or health and nutritional products or juice. In this kind of pyramid scheme, you would be required to recruit new members into the MLM in order to make a profit and keep the MLM alive. Joining the MLM is the only reason anyone would buy the products sold by this pyramid scheme.
It is easy to see how a pyramid scheme can work, but participating in it (regardless of the form in which it is presented) involves deception and fraud because not everyone will receive the money or benefits that are promised in return. We can come up with as many analogies as you want about Yugos, V8 juice, CEOs, restaurants, etc. But it’s a moot point. MonaVie continues to make false claims (lies) about potential wealth and health, either directly or through their distributors. The product has no proven health benefits. It is obscenely over priced and by the companies own figures, 99 percent of participants will make no money.
Your father may have said that something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. But when it comes to MonaVie a more appropriate phrase would be one that was credited to P.T. Barnum, “There’s a sucker born every minute”.

I don’t get on this one very often, probably should, back to the 2,000,000 plus I asked about, other than some speculatulitve hype that they are all really non distributor preferred or wholesale customers perfectly happy on auto ship and not bitching on blogs.

How many are inactive non renuals (did not pay the yearly fee), cancelled by request, terminated for cause by Mona Vie, or simply non responsive, again asking for real numbers from acredible source, if there are any.

It’s worth noting that there’s nothing in MonaVie that would make one think it could make anyone lose weight. You mention “in between runs” which makes it sound like you are doing exercise and not drinking MonaVie in a vacuum.

Agreed. You ever notice how the testimonials for the latest excercise gadgets say something along the lines of “Betty used the AB-Ominator”, along with diet and excercise, and lost 15 pounds in 6 weeks”. It’s obvious that the diet and excercise caused the weight loss; not the AB-Ominator. Same with Monavie. It does zero for weight loss.

You want to talk about Pyramid Schemes! LOL! Hahahaha! How about the one where you go to work for XYZ corp. with the vision of a 25 to 35 year career. You climb the so called corporate ladder and just before you take over the corporation, they let you go! LOL! Working at a job is the biggest pyramid scheme there is! You get promised all kinds of blue sky and you never ever had a chance at making it to the top! LOL. They never intend on letting you! Get real! Pyramid Scheme! Pfffff!LOL

Mike that sounds like good loyalty 25 years and let your ass loose?

How about this scenario since anyone can just make up stuff.

However I personally know people who have been screwed by corporate America

Your an airline pilot with a mortgage and a family. Because of the economy they let you go. No severance pay and your not gonna sit on your butt and collect unemployment the rest of your life so you become a car salesmen and that makes you work 10-8 everyday and now you are never seeing your kids and wife and not making the money you were before. Sounds great………After 4 years of college, pilot school 10 years as a pilot know you are bouncing around from job to job trying to support your family.

Here we have an opportunity you can build for $140 bucks a month and build into something big all while maintaining your original job. Your control your own hours and your effort. You can now create residual based income meaning if you aren’t around or wanna go away and spend time with the family you can and still earn money. That’s sounds great, sounds healthy for you and your lifestyle and for your family. If you want to make it happen you can people just like to settle and give up on their dreams.

Was never intentional obviously Dallin’s last company did something that didn’t comply with a FTC or FDA rule.

I am sure alot of the people who built solid networks moved on to other solid network marketing companies and some are probably with Monavie.

John,
The point is. While you were working as an airline pilot, car salesman or dishwasher, you were getting paid, normally an agreed upon wage. With MonaVie you will make no money, unless of course you are at the very tip-top of this pyramid scheme. That’s not my scenario, that’s from MonaVie’s own Income Disclosure Statement. And to add insult to injury, you will pay dearly for the privilege of trying to sell their fruit juice. You state that, “for $140 bucks a month and build into something big all while maintaining your original job”. Anybody that knows anything at all about MLM’s will probably dispute that claim. It will take countless hours and a full time commitment to have a chance at breaking even, let alone be successful. And it’s been proven time after time, with this unsustainable business model, IT WONT WORK. The need to recruit constantly will eat up your life (and most of your relationships). You also said, “People just like to settle and give up on their dreams”. That’s the sad part of the MonaVie scam. People loose sight of their goals and dreams while attempting to perpetrate this scheme. They loose a chunk of their lives, statistically from 1-3 years. Many times they have also lost MUCH more. You said “Monavie is not making false claims about rather the distributors probably are”. Can you imagine (seriously) any company allowing their associates to make these claims and not doing something to stop it? Just a thought.

And the lord looked down on the poor of brazil, saw their suffering and thought to himselves “sure I could just poof away this misery, but rather I will create a product based pyramid scheme where by almost all involved will lose so that an undisclosed contribution might be made”

and the lord smiled.

Larson was doing the royal Tongan limu gig until 2002. Mona vie launched 2005. Hard to believe Larson was researching acai when he had the limu product which was reportedly curing people of all sorts of medical conditions (sound familiar?). I believe the reports of 20 years of research may just be an exageration. Perhaps to make the product seem more impressive. It would be quite the under acheivement to spend that much time researching and still come up with such a nutritionally lacking product.

I love that recording. It’s on my iPod.

Speaking from the heart and speaking the truth are two different things.

Clint, did you read the rest of the articles on this website? The facts are straight.