Quixtar Ada-tudes: A View from the Top : More Facts, Less Spin

More Facts, Less Spin

Wednesday, August 29, 2007 by Beth Dornan
Category: Announcements

Interesting news came out of the Kent County Circuit Court yesterday, where Judge Sullivan clarified his rulings in Quixtar's favor last week. We agreed with the clarifications, yet this did not prevent Team's legal team from declaring victory in a news release. Check out the Alticor Media Blog post including an open letter from Mike Mohr, our general counsel, to D.J. Poyfair, Team's lawyer.

Comments

Bob Jones said: August 29, 2007 3:42 PM | #

Ok then someone needs to explain this:

In the United States District Court for the Easter District of Texas, U.S. magistrate judge Don D. Bush entered a temporary restraining order stating in part that

". . . defendant, Quixtar, and defendant's respective officers, managers, trustees, agents, servants, employees, attorneys, confederates, and all other persons in active concert or participation with them, are hereby restrained and enjoined immediately from, directly or indirectly:

1. Interfering with Plaintiff's Team business support system;

2. Sending verbal, written, or electronic communications to business associates and upline or down-line business partners of Plaintiff's related to violations of the rules of conduct, use of Team materials and attendance at Team meetings and conferences, and threats to suspend or terminate any Quixtar distributor's business based on Team materials;

3. Terminating or threatening to terminate the distributorships or businesses of Plaintiff's and other IBOs who use Team materials forwarded by Plaintiffs;

4. Disparaging the Team approach;

5. Taking any adverse action against Plaintiffs pending disposition of this order;

6. Refusing to pay any bonus to Plaintiffs that may be due in the ordinary course of business;

7. Interfering with or prohibiting, in any way, the operation of the Team as a business support system for Plaintiffs or taking any action to shut down or interfere with the Team's business"

smug said: August 29, 2007 4:23 PM | #

Crow tastes really good with BBQ sauce.

SPARTAN 4LIFE said: August 29, 2007 5:26 PM | #

FIRED UP BOB JONES!!

Quixtar won't admit it though.

Enron didn't admit it either.

SPARTAN 4LIFE said: August 29, 2007 5:28 PM | #

At the very least they will loose a huge portion of their business. The fastest growing TEAM for the last, what, 7 or 8 YEARS! How many layoffs at Quixtar will make up for this lack of revenue?

ibofightback said: August 29, 2007 5:45 PM | #

Bob Jones - that reads almost exactly the same as the TRO that was issued in Michigan when this all blew up - and which was overturned when it went to a full hearing.

TRO's are exactly that - temporary, and they're issued rather easily, and correctly in my view, when disputes arise. A full hearing has far greater weight and only when the Texas court hears the full case can either side call it a "win" or a "loss"

Chillin77 said: August 29, 2007 6:12 PM | #

I guess TEAM is going to have to move their operations to TEXAS!!

How much did it cost an IBO to join Quixtar through the sponsorship of the TEAM LOA? $500? $600? $700? - how much of that was products? how much was tools? Take a guess - That couldn't be front end loading, could it? Did TEAM abide by the tool buy-back guidelines? Hmmmm, the more you dig the more you find, the more you find the closer you are to the truth. TEAM's past real estate endeavors? Hmmm, what could those be? Let's take out our shovel and dig some more.

You may want to bury that 'crow', smug. It's all preliminary. No one is "winning" or won yet. It's not spin - it's legal jockeying, positioning, prep, etc. So does the ruling in TX, discharge the ruling in MI? What do you want explained, Bob? TEAM is filing multiple, duplicative lawsuits across the country - abusing the legal system? Yep. Suprised? Nope. Just like they abused the rules of the company that they contracted with.

Read on, Read on! http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-24-2007/0004651038&EDATE=

SKEPTIC said: August 29, 2007 7:11 PM | #

I used to side with Quixtar, I thought that this TEAM was like a lot of the other organizations that had problems before. But after hours and hours of reading both sides, to me it is very clear that TEAM is right on this. Ron and Chuck seem like they are very creditable sources, and Quixtar doesn't seem to be able to disprove this. With the drive and motivation that the TEAM has, I would say that they will do what they claim and become the largest corporation in the world. Good luck Quixtar, from my view you are loosing this, and it's getting worse and worse everyday. The people that are standing up for you seem to only be able to slander the TEAM. Sorry Quixtar employees, it looks like the unemployment line is in your future.

Albert Smith said: August 29, 2007 7:55 PM | #

I am a long term IBO/Distributor (22 years). As far back as I can remember two things were pounded into my head. One: you can never be fired from your business. Bill Britt would stand on stage as well as others and yell out "I can never be fired". With the firing of these 15 diamonds, it seems we have obviously been mislead. Two: That there is check and balance system in the business. Many many times we were told that Quixtar/Amway cannot do any thing without the consent of the IBOAI or the representative of the IBO's. (This is the one aspect of Quixtar/Amway that set us apart from other MLM's)Now it appears that this too is obviously a misrepresentation of fact. As I read the statement of the Contract and Purpose of the IBOAI the statement effectively says nothing. It is full of hot air. I am sure there are many out there who would challenge you to release the document which shows your real contractual agreement with Quixtar/Amway so that we can see and read for ourselves what the real story is. As it looks like now and until otherwise proven when it comes to asserting yourself against the mother company and really representing the IBO rights you folks are all toothless tigers with a lot of growl and no bite...

KNP said: August 30, 2007 1:01 AM | #

Bob Jones - notice you'll never get the real story on the Alticor and IBOAI sites. It's kind of like a weather man who is telling you it's sunny out when it's raining like crazy!

Why don't we here about the 11 or 12 TRO's that were granted in favor of Team on any of these sites?

Conan said: August 30, 2007 2:03 PM | #

Tex

Below is a blog between you (TEX) and JEFFREY in

It's Not About One Issue in the Ada-tubes blog on July 9th

Jeffrey said:

July 9, 2007 7:10 PM | #

One of the things that really bothers me is that A/Q has a "no compete" rule. We cannot be in another competing business. This makes sense to a point because it may cause confusion with downline IBOs and can divert the attention of an IBO trying to build his/her business. I have even considered joining Fuller Brush so I can offer their entire line to my customers, but I think that would be a rule violation, so I haven't. But, A/Q is in violation of one of their own rules. If there is a no compete rule for us, it should also apply to the company. Access proudly proclaims they develop and manufacture products for "third party" companies that are available out in the marketplace. Several years back on a tour convention, we walked through a warehouse to get to the next phase of the tour and passed literally thousands of cases of Brand-X mouthwash. I was dumbfounded. I did, however, wait until I got back in the car to vent my feelings. It wasn't pretty. Recently, Alticor bought Laura Mercier cosmetics; an absolute direct competitor to Artistry. This makes no sense to me. All this does is make the company less dependent on IBOs. I know that the company has probably done it to create stability for the employees so there is no fear of layoffs. But Steve and Doug need to go back and listen to Rich DeVos on his "Ten Points That Make Amway Special" tape: "This company has no other customers but YOU! (IBOs.) We have no other source of income but YOU!" During this transformation, the company needs to divest itself of any outside businesses and third party contractual agreements and focus on one thing: the success and profitability of the Amway Independent Business Owner. ____________________________________________Tex said:

July 9, 2007 10:30 PM | #

Jeffrey,

No need to get upset over the mouthwash, just mention the brand and get the facts in the open. Amway should openly respond they have broadened their product line and then use some of the profit to bring down the prices for the core products, loosen the non-compete rule, or live with the noise that will be created as a result. The Rich DeVos statement is a position from decades ago, things change over time, and nobody ever said the rules that apply to us apply equally to Amway.

So Tex are we for or against loosening the non-compete rule? You always talk about credibility. You should watch your own.

Tex said: August 30, 2007 3:52 PM | #

Conan,

The operative word in the above post is "or", I was listing the choices Quixtar had at their disposal.

I have been quite clear I am in favor of the non-compete rule, it protects my business against occurrences such as the TIF fiasco (which happened prior to the rule, I believe), and now Orrin is trying to get a pass on the rule.

As far as "we" is concerned", I have told you how I view this rule, but cannot speak for you, as you have your own independent business. I will continue to talk about credibility. I will continue to watch my own, thank you very much.

Jeffrey said: August 30, 2007 6:42 PM | #

I don't like it that the company manufactures things for outside companies, but I can see why they do. I just wish IBOs were more loyal so the volume would be higher and we wouldn't see so many things discontinued. On the other hand, the non-compete rule is for other direct selling ventures. My wife works in a grocery store that sells all kinds of products that compete directly with A/Q, but she is not in violation of the non-compete rule. I don't think I would even be in violation of the rule if I owned the grocery store where she works. It's when I would take those products from the store and put them in a direct sales business and go around to my IBOs and other IBOs and try to sell the stuff to them or try to recruit them into my "new" business.

When I'm standing in the check out line and people unload their cart and I see all those Brand-X products going through, that's when I realize how much work we have to do. I would venture to say that we have less than 1% of the business in any part of the country. Good grief, there are stores right across the street from A/Q World Headquarters that sells Brand-X. I'm sure there are many IBOs in Michigan that also work at grocery stores or Meijers.

But, I still think the company did right by getting rid of all the IBOs that were bending and breaking the rules. And if you're going to sign a contract, for heaven's sake, read it. If you don't like what it says, then don't sign it and agree to it.

Brad Obert said: August 30, 2007 10:47 PM | #

Albert Smith,

Nice post, I'm with you. I've been around 11 years and my jaws on the floor.

Tex said: August 31, 2007 11:15 AM | #

Jeffrey,

It makes sense to make items for other companies if it keeps our costs down. It costs money to have manufacturing facilities sit idle.

If the prices aren't competitive (with due consideration of quality and convenience, which are different for different people), the IBO's shouldn't buy them. It is the upline that preaches 100% product loyalty, it is a great lead-in to 100% tool system loyalty. And we know where that leads us, and it ain't pretty.

Albert,

The TEAM people let go were not the first to go, just more publicized. If you think there have never been any others ever terminated in over 48 years, you must be listening to your upline and not doing a little googling on the internet. Now you know why they told you that, so you wouldn't see the facts.

If Bill Britt said that, and never talked about getting terminated if you don't follow the rules, he was acting irresponsibly, which doesn't surprise me at all. I heard similar things from many high level IBO's.

How influential can the IBOAI be, when they have had the known (to Quixtar, and now us) skeleton in their closet, the MASSIVE tool profits?

Sara Casel said: August 31, 2007 11:37 AM | #

After reading so many of the comments that others are posting regarding the Team termination and seeing so much posted on the integrity of these leaders that I would really like to know how can a man who cheats on his wife and then leaves her for the woman he cheated with. be considered a leader that can be trusted and followed. Wake up people that should have been the red flag of many in the trust issue of who you are following.

Shannon in California said: August 31, 2007 12:58 PM | #

Jeffery,

you said: "But, I still think the company did right by getting rid of all the IBOs that were bending and breaking the rules. And if you're going to sign a contract, for heaven's sake, read it. If you don't like what it says, then don't sign it and agree to it. "

Well, I did read the contract, and I didn't sign up for the new changes come tomorrow. I didn't sign up to become Amway. I didn't sign up to show the "leave-behind" brochure. I didn't sign a "non-compete" clause (cause I've been in longer than 3 years). But if you have a business established, and then a new year comes, and you don't like the rule changes, then you are screwed I guess. That's what I thought the IBOAI board was for. To fight for me and my business. The whole board DIDN'T WANT THE NAME CHANGED BACK TO AMWAY!!!! But the company said, "so what", we want to and we will.

And if these supposed "rule breakers" were not abiding by the companies rules, then why would Chris be on the ethics committee? Why would Orrin speak to represent the company? Why would they let them have their bonuses and trips then? Why would they let them to continue to be on the board? Hmmmm... Answer me those questions then.

I guess you are happy with all the new changes? You are ok with being AMWAY now? You are ok with no more "curiosity" approach? You are ok with having your group suspended if someone in your group doesn't dot their i's and cross their t's? You are ok with losing your bonus if it happens again? You are ok that your WHOLE business will have to be retrained in order to start adding new business again? You are ok with leaving behind the new brochure? You are ok with only using tools that have a stamp of approval from the corporation?

I refuse to build a business with these new rules. I didn't sign up for it... and I want out! So, if you don't like it... they time for a big party, because starting tomorrow, YOU ARE AMWAY NOW!!

Beryl Nichols said: August 31, 2007 6:34 PM | #

Shannon,

Anyone that has a problem with the Amway Corporation has no business, in this business. That's about as curious as it gets around here. Somebody must have licked ALL the red off your sucker. Hope you find what you are looking for. But, a little warning. You may have to be willing to invest in your own company.

jthompson said: September 1, 2007 1:53 AM | #

SPIN

who is doing it and it it morally ok to do it? You decide....

As soon as all this stuff broke out on Aug10 - TEAM hired a Public Relations Company to help them.

www.ashtonpartners.com

Ashton Partners is a strategic advisory firm specializing in investor relations (IR) and corporate communications. We work in partnership with top-level corporate executives to manage and position the information that impacts a company’s credibility, reputation and ultimately, its (e)valuation.

key words "strategic firm... manage and position information... "

Position Information= Spin Information

Ashton are the ones behind freetheibo forum

So OBVOUSLY TEAM is spinning.

Beryl Nichols said: September 2, 2007 10:45 AM | #

jthompson,

Why would TEAM spin? Because they have determined that something is rotten in Denmark! They looked around and there was nobody there but them.

Reminds me of Bubba Clinton looking out from under his desk. I did NOT........ and Nixon.....I am NOT a theif!!! Spin? Why would Woodward spin?? No, surely not mr. integrity. Say it isn't so!!!

The Big Apple said: September 2, 2007 3:47 PM | #

The IBOAI is an independent advisory board. They are elected by the field, and the committee assignments come from within.

I believe there was a time when Amway nominated or appointed half of the board members and the rest were elected from the field. Now, they're all elected from the field.

So that makes the board totally political. The big organizations tell their Platinums (only qualified Platinums can vote) who to vote for. So, the most massive organizations get their candidate elected.

And who has the largest organizations? The motivational systems, which means that all the board members have tool (BSM) businesses. Since they make more money from the BSMs, functions, and speaking fees then they do from Quixtar products, guess what influences every decision they make? Their BSM businesses.

This is why they’ve been trying to get Quixtar to lower prices, to make it more attractive for people to become shoppers. Not sellers of product, but shoppers. Those larger numbers of people would also provide IBOs more for their BSM business. Do you see what drives their decisions?

I believe that qualifies as a conflict of interest. If their BSM income exceeds their Quixtar income on an annual basis, to me, that is a conflict of interest. If their BSMs don’t train for the Quixtar business, that is false advertising and a conflict of interest.

Besides, who is going to represent all the Independents, like me? There are more of us out there than you realize, it’s just that were not organized, and therefore, don’t show up on the voting radar screen. We have no way to direct the vote.

It’s also why no Independent Diamond will every be elected to the IBOAI board.

Beryl Nichols said: September 4, 2007 4:47 PM | #

Good Points Big Apple!!!

If these people continue unchecked everything will disappear except the BSM's and all of a sudden they simply become BS and won't be worth anything either.

The business is driven by PV/BV and not BSM's. The BSM's are not produced in the Amway factories. DUH!

jthompson said: September 5, 2007 12:24 PM | #

The following is one of the main categories of freetheibo forum.

"Where We Are Today. The Facts Without Spin - RS

by moderator01 on Sun Aug 26, 2007 12:04 pm 38 Replies 5587 Views"

"Without the Spin"?

Gee! Isn't that what TEAM hired ASHTONPARTNERS.com for?

here is Ashton's mission statement

Ashton who creates the freetheibo press releases and the forum are hired to spin info, "manage and position the information"

Now I don't think that is wrong... but saying Quixtar is spinning and TEAM is not, is simply not true when they hired a pr firm to "manage and position the information"

I think TEAM is realizing the freetheibo website is not trying to be fair but is controlling the information and its presentation to their people... by the website info, the forum, and deleteting all posts by non- ProTEAM bloggers. Why do I say this? According to their website, at 11:15am today... out of their 75,000 ibos.... and thousands of friends outside that.... they only have 1 registered user online.

TEAM (as a system/asset and influencing giant) is becoming History!

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About Beth Dornan

I’ve been writing professionally (published) since I was 14, which means I’ve now logged 30+ years as a writer. I grew up in Northwest Indiana (“the region” to those familiar with the greater Chicago area), went to journalism school at Indiana University and was a reporter before going into PR. Realized I didn’t have the heart or stomach for journalism. I worked at a Grand Rapids PR agency founded by two former Amway Public Relations alums before leaving them to join Amway Public Relations in March 1989. I hopped over to Quixtar shortly after its launch in 1999. I’ve been married since 1992 to my college sweetheart and am Mom to two girls.

adatudes@opportunityzone.com