Leadership Team Development
Reviews and Complaints

Amway and it's associated "training and mentorship" organization Leadership Team Development (LTD) are a destructive cult as well as a product based pyramid scheme. I was apart of Amway/LTD during the span of about four months in 2018. I was in the Chesapeake, Virginia chapter of the organization for reference. From the start, I was lied to about the time required to be "successful" in this "business opportunity" as they claim it only takes 10-15 but in reality it's more like 40 hours 7 days a week. Second, they brain wash people into think this a legit business/ mentorship opportunity when it is actually just an Amway commissioned based sales job. No real business tips are discussed it's all hype, emotion, and selling a dream of being rich in 2-5 years by recruiting more people into scheme. Selling the overpriced/ mediocre products to actual costumers is not the priority, recruiting is. They demand IBO's (Independent Business Owners) or Amway sales reps to buy 300 dollars worth of products themselves and just pressure others to do the same so people upline in the pyramid can profit.

Additionally, the uplines/diamonds or "mentors" are some of the most arrogant and gross human beings I have ever meet. They do everything in their power to brainwash people in this organization. They mock, belittle, and shame anyone this is critical of Amway or the business model (that is structured like an pyramid scheme). They teach people to hate their actual jobs, instill in the idea that Amway is the only way to be successful in life. My mentors have gone on record to imply that college is a waste of time, jobs are prisons, and starting a legit small business is a waste of time. They also want complete CONTROL of your life. They want people to check with upline before they spend money on entertainment or even food. All extra money should be spend on Amway/ LTD conferences, books, audios, and products (again this is so uplines and diamonds can collect a paycheck AKA pyramid scheme practices). They also teach people to not associate with family or friends unless they support the amway business ( cult tactics).

I lost a freelance job that assisted with my legitimate entrepreneurship efforts of building a digital marketing company. My upline pressured me to got to a LTD conference and got pretty angry when I questioned going. I also felt embarrassed by the tactics my sponsor and upline taught me such as lying to my friends about the business opportunity and more. Many others lost marriages, and relationships with other important people in their life thanks to the advice of uplines in LTD. None of the uplines in LTD are held accountable for the lives they have destroyed by their arrogance and deception.

I lost around 800 dollars in the months I was in as well as the freelance job and lost great relationships with former friends. I write this complaint in hopes others will NOT join Amway or LTD as it is a pyramid scheme and a dangerous cult.

Was misinformed about everything from "auto-replenish programs", payment structures, and even how much time was actually needed from me.
The group I was in specifically was racist (encouraging me not to reach out to colleauges from hbcu's and did not want any more "black people" in his group) even though he, himself was black.
We are encouraged to attend all meetings so they can constantly emphasize the same points and messages drilled to us during conferences, meetings, and those god-forsaken audios).
At the conference, I was sleep deprived and we were not given meals and most venues don't allow out outside food. Each session was at least 5-6 hours long and afterwards the uplines ("leaders") would want to meet even longer in these sessions called "night owls".
I've witnessed people falling asleep everywhere from behind the stage to behind the wheel.
This company is insideous in nature and I would outright call it a... Cult...

My wife and I were in Amway Global under LTD for a couple years and did not have any noteworthy success (the business never paid for itself). Let me be clear on one point: We have absolutely no issue with Amway Global. Amway's business is straight-forward, no-nonsense, and their support personnel are very polite and helpful (and English-speaking). Picture yourself as having your own department in a local sales company, and say your boss gives you a commission based on your sales but also the performance of your entire department. Perfectly fair, right? The problems with Amway generally come from the third-party organizations that make up the base of distributors, such as LTD. In other words, Amway brings the pyramid, and the outside organization brings the scheme.

LTD's business model is based on getting the distributors to buy the products, rather than any real selling to customers. The idea is that each person who joins is expected to buy about $200/mo of products for their own use and sell another $100/mo of products to their families and friends (also saying that it'll be primarily things you were going to buy anyway... toothpaste and toilet paper and such). They accomplish this by talking people into signing up before they have any earthly idea how it works, and then the sponsor assists in doing the same for the new member's prospects.

The conferences were extremely loud. The testimony from those at the top was very motivating and inspirational. However the events are also extremely commercial... They do things like forbid outside food and drink, and then put up barricades in front of water fountains and cover them with trash bags so you have to buy bottles of water from the vendors at extreme prices. You know, I'm prone to dehydration, and I really don't spend hundreds of dollars and drive half a day to attend a conference just to be denied tap water. It's actually pretty rude. I didn't appreciate being treated that way.

We've been out of the business for a year or so now, although we've recently been giving some consideration to trying Amway with a more reliable organization. We recently had an incident with one of the higher-ups in LTD, someone in the third tier from the top. He was advertising his business on Facebook, and my wife responded with a one-liner like "We tried it, and it didn't work for us." I didn't actually get to read her original comment because the guy promptly deleted it and wrote her a very nasty message. They went back and forth a couple times, and then I gave him a piece of my mind, and we both blocked him. I'm not going to list his name or the full content of the messages at this time, but here are some excerpts.

"Thanks for the ignorant post on my wall... It didn't work for you because your lazy not because of LTD. Amway works no doubt. And considering that LTD is the fastest and most successful organization in Amway in North America, its kinda hard to say its LTD's fault either."

"We are successful in LTD and Amway... And you all are still struggling. Justification and blame.. Now its not LTD's fault, its 's fault..."

And he mentioned to get one more nasty message through to my dear wife before she got him blocked:

"Since your coward of a husband wrote me a message and then blocked me from responding because he is a gutless coward. Please let that ball-less male know that it was you that sent the first message not me...
I feel really bad for your kids to be honest. They have to grow up with parents who are cowards"

Apparently I'm a coward for blocking him. I guess it's socially expected of me to engage in some idiotic urinating contest with him until he's blue-as-a-sharpie in the face. Anyway, that was our experience with LTD. The local team was pretty nice, and we would occasionally go out to eat or go bowling, etc. But the higher-ups have a philosophy they teach you, which is either you're in, or you don't matter. In the end, we felt like we were deceiving people, and we made a conscience decision to part ways with LTD. This kind of behavior from people at the top of the organization just goes to show that we made the right decision.

My wife and I were in Amway Global under LTD for a couple years and did not have any noteworthy success (the business never paid for itself). Let me be clear on one point: We have absolutely no issue with Amway Global. Amway's business is straight-forward, no-nonsense, and their support personnel are very polite and helpful (and English-speaking). Picture yourself as having your own department in a local sales company, and say your boss gives you a commission based on your sales but also the performance of your entire department. Perfectly fair, right? The problems with Amway generally come from the third-party organizations that make up the base of distributors, such as LTD. In other words, Amway brings the pyramid, and the outside organization brings the scheme.

LTD's business model is based on getting the distributors to buy the products, rather than any real selling to customers. The idea is that each person who joins is expected to buy about $200/mo of products for their own use and sell another $100/mo of products to their families and friends (also saying that it'll be primarily things you were going to buy anyway... toothpaste and toilet paper and such). They accomplish this by talking people into signing up before they have any earthly idea how it works, and then the sponsor assists in doing the same for the new member's prospects.

The conferences were extremely loud. The testimony from those at the top was very motivating and inspirational. However the events are also extremely commercial... They do things like forbid outside food and drink, and then put up barricades in front of water fountains and cover them with trash bags so you have to buy bottles of water from the vendors at extreme prices. You know, I'm prone to dehydration, and I really don't spend hundreds of dollars and drive half a day to attend a conference just to be denied tap water. It's actually pretty rude. I didn't appreciate being treated that way.

We've been out of the business for a year or so now, although we've recently been giving some consideration to trying Amway with a more reliable organization. We recently had an incident with one of the higher-ups in LTD, someone in the third tier from the top. He was advertising his business on Facebook, and my wife responded with a one-liner like "We tried it, and it didn't work for us." Any real business model should be able to withstand such a mild criticism, right? I didn't actually get to read her original comment because the guy promptly deleted it and wrote her a very nasty message. They went back and forth a couple times, and then I gave him a piece of my mind, and we both blocked him. I'm not going to list his name or the full content of the messages at this time, but here are some excerpts.

"Thanks for the ignorant post on my wall... It didn't work for you because your lazy not because of LTD. Amway works no doubt. And considering that LTD is the fastest and most successful organization in Amway in North America, its kinda hard to say its LTD's fault either."

"We are successful in LTD and Amway... And you all are still struggling. Justification and blame.. Now its not LTD's fault, its 's fault..."

And he mentioned to get one more nasty message through to my dear wife before she got him blocked:

"Since your coward of a husband wrote me a message and then blocked me from responding because he is a gutless coward. Please let that ball-less male know that it was you that sent the first message not me...
I feel really bad for your kids to be honest. They have to grow up with parents who are cowards"

Apparently I'm a coward for blocking him. I guess it's socially expected of me to engage in some idiotic urinating contest with him until he's blue-as-a-sharpie in the face. Anyway, that was our experience with LTD. The local team was pretty nice, and we would occasionally go out to eat or go bowling, etc. But the higher-ups have a philosophy they teach you, which is either you're in, or you don't matter. In the end, we felt like we were deceiving people, and we made a conscience decision to part ways with LTD. This kind of behavior from people at the top of the organization just goes to show that we made the right decision.

Yesterday I was interviewed for LTD and asked to attend a talk which would give me more details about the company (I didn't even get the name of the company until I asked). I wasn't allowed to keep the rep's brochure for 'tax purposes, ' so I knew something seemed out of place. Still, the talk was free, so I thought it couldn't hurt.

It was revealed during the talk that the 'supplier' of LTD's products is Amway, and as a contractor, the main source of my income would be getting new recruits, rather than selling products. The speaker literally spent about two minutes explaining how LTD and Amway are not pyramid scams (technically they aren't, but they're darn close), and then proceeded to confuse the definitions of a pyramid and a Ponzi scheme.

The worst part was that my current employment situation was used as an example of how bad the economy is, and how it's not as good a means of support as LTD. This is personal information that I did not give the speaker permission to share (he used my name in the presentation). I was later asked questions for demonstrative purposes that I gladly answered, but I still did not appreciate the first time I was used for his presentation.

LTD is supposed to be a web-based business, but it was clear that the speaker does not understand how eCommerce works. LTD's business model appears very weak, and requires constant recruitment to maintain any kind of cash flow. They create 'alternative' websites for companies to sell products, but why would a company need them? If a company can sell a product from its own online store, it makes no sense to pay someone else to sell it for them.

I was honestly tempted to just stand up and warn everyone in the room about this obvious MLM scam, but I opted to cause a scene and instead posted here. I hope the people who attended the talk get a chance to read this.