Looking back: The aftermath of MLM distribution

Not everyone understands the seriousness of deciding whether or not to join a multilevel marketing company, so knowing the experiences of distributors, past and present, is crucial to knowing what may happen upon joining, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

For those who have left, they often have to pick up the pieces. The mess might be financial, but former distributors also may experience embarrassment, regret or damage to friendships.

Emma Fife, a former distributor for a diet MLM, looks back and feels embarrassed — but the aftermath for her also lay in financial issues. She was successful as a distributor, reaching a high enough rank to receive a $20,000 bonus paid out over several months, but only if she maintained the rank. When she left on an 18-month mission trip, she fell from it; when she returned, she wasn’t able to earn it back.

“Because I had lost that level, my income had gone down from $6,000 or $7,000 a month to $300, and that's just not enough to live,” Fife said. “Not even close.”

Living away from home as a 20-something without the steady income she had previously been earning was difficult for Fife. She didn’t have the money she needed to pay rent, buy gas or even pay for something as simple as shampoo.

“I was trying to get a job and I couldn't, and I was also sort of trying to work (the MLM), but ... feeling very embarrassed about it and not really wanting to,” Fife shared.

Renée Carver, another former distributor, looks back with regret on the way she sold. Many family members couldn't afford the products, but they bought them anyway because they wanted to support her.

“I've always grown up dancing on the line of poverty, barely getting by as a family, and my family wanted to support me, so they bought product, and most of them never used any of it,” Carver said. “They spent hundreds of dollars in product to support me, so I felt awful.”

She recognizes now what she wishes she’d known before joining. She recalls having a gut feeling about it while being recruited, but she ignored it in the hopes she could break out of the cycle of poverty in her family.

“I wish I could shake my little shoulders and say, ‘Just think critically. It seems too good to be true. Your gut, or the Spirit, is telling you this is not a great idea, so you probably shouldn't do it,’” Carver expressed.

Randall and Marilyn Oveson, former distributors for a wellness MLM, faced a strained friendship with the couple who recruited them.

“We really went in big thinking that they'd work with us, that we'd have help and we'd build, and what they sold us up front — ‘if you invest x, then you will always get a part of the payout that's coming. It'll be like getting bonuses if you've paid out x.' — then you had to keep buying at the highest level every single month,” Marilyn Oveson said.

Before they knew it, the couple had left the company without letting anyone know to join a different MLM. The Ovesons were left without the help their friends had promised and were starting to realize the many stipulations that came with trying to make money in this business model.

“I would say betrayal is probably how I felt the most,” Randall Oveson said.

Rebekah Dubé, another former distributor, warns other people of the dangers of MLMs with a simple rule of thumb.

“If it sounds too good to be true, it is,” Dubé said.