Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Why You Shouldn't be Taken in by "Team National"

Shortly after the election, a friend contacted me to "share" an opportunity. This required that she come to my house, have me listen to several phone calls and watch a DVD. It didn't pass my sniff test, so I told her that I wasn't interested in it. I haven't heard from her since.

Four weeks ago, one of my husbands co-workers asked him to watch a DVD. My husband brought it home and asked me to watch it with him. It was a DVD for "Team National". I told my hubby that I'd already seen it and thought it was a load of crap. For the last four weeks his co-worker has hounded him about coming to his house to hear about this great "opportunity". As reluctant as I was, I figured it would be great to put this to bed once and for all.

We went, heard the phone calls, watched the DVD and listened to the nice man try to sell the snake oil. My opinion isn't changed. Here's why:

"Team National" sells you a membership that allows you to take a 1%-30% discount with select companies. You must order online through your personal webpage. You are not provided an instant discount, but are sent a rebate check. If this sounds to you like eBates or Blastoff, it's because it's the same idea.... only eBates and Blastoff are free. Did I mention that a two-year membership costs roughly $795 and a lifetime membership is $2200? In fact, most of the stores on the "Big N Marketplace" through Team National, have coupons available for the same discount and many have them for higher discounts.

Here comes the fun part, you can SELL Team National and make a lot of money... according to the nice man giving the spiel. If you can sucker two people, then four more into buying a membership you can make $1500. Our host from last night has been hammering away at this for five weeks and has yet to complete this. While it is accomplish-able, do you really want the guilt of selling something to someone that they can readily get for free? It's a morality question, in my opinion. I have no desire to dedicate my life to annoying the hell out of people pestering them just so I can earn some payola.

In my opinion, this is a 100% legal pyramid scam. It's a MLM. Be careful what you attach your name to and be careful not to purchase something that is already free for the asking.

1 comment:

Her Royal Highness, Princess Amy, Drinker of the Beers, Spewer of Bad Word said...

When the business is convincing other people to join that to actually produce or sell a product, it really isn't a business. At least with legit MLMs, like Party Lite, Pampered Chef, et al., even people that recruit no one can make money.