Overheard at Work

[galliver]

Funnily enough, rents in England (well London at least) are often advertised per week, but they calculate the pcm, or per-calendar-month amount, and that's what you pay.

Just for fun one time I was looking at London apartments on Craigslist. I kept thinking "I thought London was expensive; these are the same or less than rent here?!?" Then I realized...

Rents at the extreme lower end of slum housing in the city of the college where i work are advertised (and paid, as far as I know) weekly. Mostly I think the target is factory workers, who are paid weekly. I imagine it makes eviction faster as well as making it sound cheaper.

Pay schedules vary wildly around here, but the general rule I've observed is that the more professional the job is considered to be, the less frequent the pay (up to the max of monthly, the schedule both my husband and I are on).

When I worked in construction, pay was weekly, and it is at the restaurant where I work. My temp agency pays weekly too. But it seems like as soon as you move into a white collar industry, paychecks come less frequently.

Grad student stipends in many places (probably not all) are monthly. Not very white-collar. More like ratty-jeans. ;)

[Albert]

Some bill I pay are monthly (rent, health insurance, credit card), some are quarterly (internet, electricity, TV licence) and some are yearly (public transport pass). None are more often than once per month. Our pay is always once a month and when we talk about income the usually units are pretax francs in a year.

[lithy]

One thing I will add to this conversation is that I often have bills that arrive at different times and would never be able to 'sync' them up to pay everything on one day a month because the due date is usually only 2-3 weeks out.  I'm thinking utilities specifically.

So I do my accounting biweekly on the same day as payday.

[Le0]

One thing I will add to this conversation is that I often have bills that arrive at different times and would never be able to 'sync' them up to pay everything on one day a month because the due date is usually only 2-3 weeks out.  I'm thinking utilities specifically.

So I do my accounting biweekly on the same day as payday.

My utilities let me pay credit. So if I over pay it goes to the next bill. If I wanted I could pay the them on the 1st of march even if I dont owe anything until the 30th of April. I don't do this, but there has been a few cases where this has worked well. 

[Shor]

That's language for you. Flammable and inflammable mean the same thing, too. So long as people commonly use (and understand) "bimonthly" to mean "every half a month", then that's what it means. In a strict etymological sense, it should mean "every two months", and "semimonthly" should mean "every half a month", but etymology isn't the only determinant of the meaning of a word. Otherwise a "boyfriend" would be a boy who is your friend.

I don't see why this was allowed to slide when we have biannual and biennial for the years...
I would say English majors failed to provide the necessary language before people took up the same word "bimonthly" and propagated it under both situations and BOOM! societal collapse. Any time now we'll see the folly in carrying on such a hopelessly conflicted system and just give up.
Our only hope is a scientific study on "The Social Integrity of the Bimonthly vs. Bimonthly Terminology".

I assume English Master students need to find some kind of asinine topic for their thesis... this one's a freebie.

[fantabulous]

When I worked in construction, pay was weekly, and it is at the restaurant where I work. My temp agency pays weekly too. But it seems like as soon as you move into a white collar industry, paychecks come less frequently.

I work in IT as a fake engineer and get paid weekly. Not sure if that counts as white collar.

Grad student stipends in many places (probably not all) are monthly. Not very white-collar. More like ratty-jeans. ;)

I'm not sure if I'm considered a white collar worker or not. I definitely don't do much physical labor, and rarely wear a collared shirt and sometimes wear ratty jeans (or even both). When I did phone/email support for my current employer, I felt like it was essentially blue collar work in that I was a replacable warm body in a building.

[Hunny156]

He will get 36 weeks severance and they are just going to try and keep the house.

I asked if he will try to find another job and she said that it was pointless because his position is in a dying field.  He is just going to  "take the summer off and spend it at the cabin with his mom." 

I feel like I shouldn't be this pissed off.  I do not feel bad for them.  It is their own fault for not building up any savings (hello emergency fund!?)   

This is sad because they don't even seem to be serious yet (about figuring their plan out). It's like she's given up halfway through the struggle. With that much wiggle room there's so much to do and so many cards they can still play--the defeatist attitude there is the most depressing part.

One of my good friends is a recruiter, and she sees this happen all the time.  I look at severance as a chance to find a new job before the $$ runs out and maybe even get ahead, but most people look at it like a paid vacation, and a new job will pop up in the nick of time.  I would never be able to enjoy my "time off" if I thought like these people do!

If my employer gave me that much notice and severance, I assure you, my resume would have been out in the market before the end of the 1st day!

It's great if you can make the timing work. I got laid off last summer. They telegraphed it so far in advance that on the day they laid me off I already had a lunch interview scheduled - my third with that company. Signed the papers for new job 5 days after getting laid off. I did take a few weeks of "paid vacation" in between jobs, though.

It still amuses me to think about the manager apologetically telling me they'd have to let me go - and then looking confused about why I was practically laughing in his face.

Good for you!  When I was laid off, it was really obvious to me b/c both of my supervisors had moved into different positions.  HR called me in and advised me to meet w/two new managers, but they kept delaying my meeting.  I still had plenty of other work to do, but if that's not writing on the wall, I don't know what is.

So, on the day I was officially laid off, I had called in about being a few hours late due to my hot water heater breaking.  I was actually at an interview that morning.  I didn't get the job, but when HR called me into my office, I asked, oh, is it time to get fired now?  It made the meeting less awkward, since I pretty much took the white envelope, confirmed the severance was in line w/my time with the company, and walked out.

I spent the next 18 months bouncing between temporary and permanent jobs, cobbling together an annual salary that was a little bit more than the job I got laid off from.  It was a personal goal for me to bank that severance, which I eventually was able to do, for good!

[Fonzico]

I get paid weekly, and I quite enjoy it - Not only do I get a "bonus" paycheck four times a year (as I don't include it in my budgets) but I get to play around with my money once a week :) I'm one of those who gets giddy when I get to pay off debt or put money into investments, so the more frequent, the better.

All my bills are monthly though. They all either come out of a separate account which gets funded weekly, or credit cards, which also get paid off weekly. It's probably not the most efficient system, but it works for now.

Back on topic though - and in line with this whole "what day is payday" thing, witness the conversation I recently had with a dear friend:

Her: "Well, I might be up for a promotion soon, but I'm not sure if I want to take it?"
Me: "Why not? You'll get a pay raise, won't you?" (I know her and her boyfriend are pretty tight financially.)
Her: "Because my paychecks will come on the same day as [boyfriend's] and then I'll have to make it last for two weeks instead of one!"
Me: "That's absurd! You really can't budget for two weeks? You would have more money! How could you not make that work to your advantage?!" <- not my exact words, but I was pretty blunt.

I love these people, and they work really hard, but just cannot get ahead. Some due to past mistakes, but as far as I can tell, they're not doing anything particularly ridiculous right now. They don't have a vehicle, both work full time... If their eating-out budget is seriously the thing holding them back, wow.

I cannot be the only one around here who wishes loved ones would just put me in charge of their finances! I could make their lives SO much easier..

[Abe]

I have managed my parents' investments since going to college because they saw I had interest in finances and they don't. They essentially use 10-15% of their earnings for discretionary spending and the rest (bills, taxes, savings) I manage.  Let's just say they have a ton more money now than before.

[Primm]

It would make a lot more sense for everyone to be paid once a month. You know, just like virtually every other bill we pay once a month.

A couple of people I know get paid monthly.  Everyone else just gasps and says "how do you do it!?  That last week must be hell!" 

Because apparently you just spend money in the account until it is all gone, and then hang on for grim death until the next paycheck comes through.

I kind of end up feeling that way, because I "pay myself first" and really feel like I don't have that money.  I've done it for as long as I can remember.  I admit that I always feel broke at the end of the month even when I'm saving around 40% (you may scoff, but it's pretty good for me, and getting better).

Me too. My pay hits my account and my little electronic goblins distribute it to savings / mortgage / investments / bills, and what's left over is mine. That's how I get away with telling people I can't afford it and have no money, because it honestly feels like that. My transaction account has something like $200 in it each pay, and that's to cover all my living expenses. It's a mind game, but it works for me.

Funny because we're in the process of buying a house, so everything is stashed away. I asked my husband for $20 for fuel the other day (we have separate accounts) and he looked at me like I had two heads. Then I realised I could just transfer it from my savings account, but that felt so wrong because it's always been untouchable. I actually felt really ill while I was doing it.

[Rural]

Funnily enough, rents in England (well London at least) are often advertised per week, but they calculate the pcm, or per-calendar-month amount, and that's what you pay.

Just for fun one time I was looking at London apartments on Craigslist. I kept thinking "I thought London was expensive; these are the same or less than rent here?!?" Then I realized...

Rents at the extreme lower end of slum housing in the city of the college where i work are advertised (and paid, as far as I know) weekly. Mostly I think the target is factory workers, who are paid weekly. I imagine it makes eviction faster as well as making it sound cheaper.

Pay schedules vary wildly around here, but the general rule I've observed is that the more professional the job is considered to be, the less frequent the pay (up to the max of monthly, the schedule both my husband and I are on).

When I worked in construction, pay was weekly, and it is at the restaurant where I work. My temp agency pays weekly too. But it seems like as soon as you move into a white collar industry, paychecks come less frequently.

Grad student stipends in many places (probably not all) are monthly. Not very white-collar. More like ratty-jeans. ;)

But they're modeled on faculty pay, which is usually monthly, and which, like some grad stipends, doesn't always involve being paid 12 months of the year.

At my institution, faculty are monthly and staff are biweekly.

[KatieSSS]

I was recently at a work-sponsored dinner where I was the only one in the room making less than 6-figures. A conversation with one of the high-earning guests went like this:

Guest: What do you hope to be doing in 20 years?
Me: 20 years? I hope to be retired! (I'm in my 20s, btw)
Guest: Retired!? I'm sorry dear, but it is going to take much longer than that for you to retire!
**Laughter ensues from the rest of the table, with nods of agreement toward the guest***
Me: We'll see….

I hope you get the chance to retire from this company and make EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM eat their words, though I think they will be speechless (and really fucking jealous - they'll probably make up a story that you inherited or married money).  You go girl!

Woot!!! Thanks for the encouragement, y'all! Someone upthread mentioned something about it not being a good career move that I mention retiring in 2 years - it wasn't 2 it was 20.

And actually, these people at my table were not fellow employees, but people affiliated with my company. I would LOVE to get in touch with all of them in 20 years and tell them something to the effect of IN YOUR FACE! However, most of them at my table were definitely in the 50-60 range, maybe even 70. So at that age, they may be dead in 20 years. And I don't mean that in the sense that I wish that for them, but more as an example that they are still working at that age and for them it seems like retirement is still a dream (all based on their reactions to me when I said I wanted to retire in my 40s - I have no actual of knowledge of when they'll retire). I plan on being several years retired by my 60s, so hopefully I never say something similar to what was said to me.

[Nudelkopf]

I kind of end up feeling that way, because I "pay myself first" and really feel like I don't have that money.  I've done it for as long as I can remember.  I admit that I always feel broke at the end of the month even when I'm saving around 40% (you may scoff, but it's pretty good for me, and getting better).

I didn't go to the movies last week with a friend, because I said I couldn't afford it. She then asked me at work what on earth I spend all my money on... I told her I spend it on savings. She was confused.

[grantmeaname]

That's always tough to explain. It's never "I don't have the cash", but "I don't want to spend my money on that" never comes across well.

[Punk]

Me: Is the free wifi working?
Coworker: I don't know, I use (paid faster wifi), why don't you?
Me: Well, I already have free wifi and a computer at work. Isn't the paid wifi $100 a month?
Coworker: No, I pay $25 a week.
Me: So you do pay $100 a month.
Coworker: No, it's $90 if you pay by month.

>_>

Your coworker is kinda right. He does not pay $100 a month. Instead he pays $108.33 on average a month since he's stupid enough to pay weekly ;)

[dragoncar]

Me: Is the free wifi working?
Coworker: I don't know, I use (paid faster wifi), why don't you?
Me: Well, I already have free wifi and a computer at work. Isn't the paid wifi $100 a month?
Coworker: No, I pay $25 a week.
Me: So you do pay $100 a month.
Coworker: No, it's $90 if you pay by month.

>_>

Your coworker is kinda right. He does not pay $100 a month. Instead he pays $108.33 on average a month since he's stupid enough to pay weekly ;)

Wow, these just keep getting better.  Why do you need to pay for WiFi at work, though?

[chicagomeg]

That's always tough to explain. It's never "I don't have the cash", but "I don't want to spend my money on that" never comes across well.

I stick with the ambiguous "It's not in the budget this month", which walks a fine line between the two.

[NeverWasACornflakeGirl]

That's always tough to explain. It's never "I don't have the cash", but "I don't want to spend my money on that" never comes across well.

I stick with the ambiguous "It's not in the budget this month", which walks a fine line between the two.

I like that.  I also go with "we're trying not to spend money right now."  People understand that and it makes you sound very responsible.  Kind of like someone on a diet.  ;-)

[Oscar_C]

I cannot be the only one around here who wishes loved ones would just put me in charge of their finances! I could make their lives SO much easier..

I did this about September of last year. No late bills and no power outages form late electricity bills. Phone bills paid 2 weks in advance. it took almost 6 months of negotiating, but it was completely worth it.

(Also rounding up the numbers a bit so I get a little profit from everything, lol)

[homehandymum]

That's always tough to explain. It's never "I don't have the cash", but "I don't want to spend my money on that" never comes across well.

I stick with the ambiguous "It's not in the budget this month", which walks a fine line between the two.

Yes.  I did this too, back when I had co-workers and spendy flatmates.  Otherwise people would offer to pay for me, and that's just not on.  Now I just hang around with other single-income homeschool Mums, and they *all* understand about saying 'no' to stuff.

[Melody]

I travel a lot so I just say "i'm saving for my trip to..."
What my coworkers don't know of course is that my holidays cost me a fraction of the cost of their holidays (hosteling, budget airlines etc) - so my 6 weeks in America will cost me significantly less than my co-worker's 3 weeks etc. So it seems like a legitimate thing to save for and that it's reasonable I'd be feeling a bit stretched.
Works well with friends as well, as many of them have not traveled or are not very good savers, so they either think travel is super expensive (so many friends think they need to save $5k for a three week trip in Asia - as if! $1k will do it with change, 3k if you want the 5 star experience) or it's not weird for someone on  a decent salary to need to "save" for a year to get say $6000 together for a trip (because that's how long it takes them) - I'll have the money "saved" within 2 months and then it's onto building the stash again!

[Kactus]

I travel a lot so I just say "i'm saving for my trip to..."
What my coworkers don't know of course is that my holidays cost me a fraction of the cost of their holidays (hosteling, budget airlines etc) - so my 6 weeks in America will cost me significantly less than my co-worker's 3 weeks etc. So it seems like a legitimate thing to save for and that it's reasonable I'd be feeling a bit stretched.
Works well with friends as well, as many of them have not traveled or are not very good savers, so they either think travel is super expensive (so many friends think they need to save $5k for a three week trip in Asia - as if! $1k will do it with change, 3k if you want the 5 star experience) or it's not weird for someone on  a decent salary to need to "save" for a year to get say $6000 together for a trip (because that's how long it takes them) - I'll have the money "saved" within 2 months and then it's onto building the stash again!

Perfect segue into something I 'overheard' at work: On the company social network someone posted this:

Can you help with my holiday planning?? Here's your Friday Brain Buster:
 
Nikki and David need to save $5000 each for their trip to Coachella Music Festival in California.
 
Nikki currently has no savings and David has $1000. Nikki can save $150 per week but David can only save $75 dollars per week.
 
How long will it take for them to each save $5000 and at what point will they have saved the same amount of money?

They could mean that that is how much they are saving by cutting their expenses even further than usual I suppose, and that they are still putting loads into investment savings, but I doubt it.

[lifejoy]

That's always tough to explain. It's never "I don't have the cash", but "I don't want to spend my money on that" never comes across well.

I don't like to give the impression that I'm bad with money management. Instead of saying I can't afford it, I say I'm busy or suggest other plans. Or, I go! Investing in friendships can be good :) Everything within moderation!

[Albert]

That's always tough to explain. It's never "I don't have the cash", but "I don't want to spend my money on that" never comes across well.

I don't like to give the impression that I'm bad with money management. Instead of saying I can't afford it, I say I'm busy or suggest other plans. Or, I go! Investing in friendships can be good :) Everything within moderation!

Same here. I'd feel ridiculous saying that I don't have money for going to movies or for few drinks in town. My friends know that I have a high salary and no dependants...

[iris lily]

That's always tough to explain. It's never "I don't have the cash", but "I don't want to spend my money on that" never comes across well.

I"ve learned that's the polite response to panhandlers, "I don't have it" rather than a "No" I won't give it to you.

But sometimes I don't feel like being polite. I wasn't to the female panhandler yesterday, hanging around the gas station.

[MamaStache]

That's always tough to explain. It's never "I don't have the cash", but "I don't want to spend my money on that" never comes across well.

I"ve learned that's the polite response to panhandlers, "I don't have it" rather than a "No" I won't give it to you.

But sometimes I don't feel like being polite. I wasn't to the female panhandler yesterday, hanging around the gas station.

The worst is when all my friends at work have these "parties" where they expect you to show up and spend $50-$100 on purses, cookware, heated oil, spices, or (INSERT OTHER RANDOM-OVERPRICED-EXPENSIVE JUNK THAT I DON'T WANT HERE).

I go out of town a lot so I am usually able to justify "not being able to make it"  but last week one of my closer friends asked me if I was coming to her 31 Purse Party.  I just told her "I really don't like to go to these type of things, and I will never host one of these parties.   If I came, I would feel bad for not buying anything."

She then proceeded to answer all of my questions about the "host benefits" and things she gets from hosting the party.    If her party sells $600 worth of merch to her friends, she is allowed to choose from 3 different purses/organizers to buy at a 50% discount.   She gets less (or nothing) if her party doesn't make the $600 goal.

[Fireman]

"I have to (and he did) get a bigger truck because mine can't reliably pull the camper we just upgraded to."

"I'm going to sell my Jeep to get an older Jeep that's stock so I can do lots of things to it."

"I paid $45 to upgrade the shipping to 2-day with guaranteed Saturday delivery for two new golf clubs."

[warfreak2]

She then proceeded to answer all of my questions about the "host benefits" and things she gets from hosting the party.    If her party sells $600 worth of merch to her friends, she is allowed to choose from 3 different purses/organizers to buy at a 50% discount.   She gets less (or nothing) if her party doesn't make the $600 goal.

She may be your friend, but in this context she is not acting as a friend - she is acting as a salesperson, so tell her that and explain that you'll be her friend but not her customer.

These sorts of sales "parties" are often pyramid schemes, too - the companies sometimes encourage the salespeople to recruit their friends as salespeople, by offering incentives for doing so. It might be worth checking with her to make sure she isn't caught up in a scam.

[MamaStache]

She then proceeded to answer all of my questions about the "host benefits" and things she gets from hosting the party.    If her party sells $600 worth of merch to her friends, she is allowed to choose from 3 different purses/organizers to buy at a 50% discount.   She gets less (or nothing) if her party doesn't make the $600 goal.

She may be your friend, but in this context she is not acting as a friend - she is acting as a salesperson, so tell her that and explain that you'll be her friend but not her customer.

These sorts of sales "parties" are often pyramid schemes, too - the companies sometimes encourage the salespeople to recruit their friends as salespeople, by offering incentives for doing so. It might be worth checking with her to make sure she isn't caught up in a scam.

Warfreak,   it is a TOTAL SCAM....    but a very "sociable acceptible" scam at my workplace and among women across USA.  Not sure if other places have these?  (Not trying to be sexist here - all of these "parties" I have been invited too have only included females.)

[warfreak2]

(Not trying to be sexist here - all of these "parties" I have been invited too have only included females.)

You don't get invited to the male ones, because you aren't a man. Generally a scam is targeted within a particular demographic, the target demographic for whatever product is the vehicle for the scam. One of the advantages of that is less awareness of them in the general population, leading to lower dissemination of information about them, enabling them to continue operating. You rarely hear about scams that target people who are different to you, that's a feature.

[Hunny156]

(Not trying to be sexist here - all of these "parties" I have been invited too have only included females.)

You don't get invited to the male ones, because you aren't a man. Generally a scam is targeted within a particular demographic, the target demographic for whatever product is the vehicle for the scam. One of the advantages of that is less awareness of them in the general population, leading to lower dissemination of information about them, enabling them to continue operating. You rarely hear about scams that target people who are different to you, that's a feature.

My subdivision is RAMPANT w/this crap.  Stella & Dot, 31, Origami Owl, Scentsy, Wine, Sex Toys, Nail Stickers, Avon, Pampered Chef - you name it, we've got several reps in the same 'hood competing.  Some of them get together and do one big party where you can get harassed by multiple sales people!

The usual "bribe" is free wine & cheese.  The hostess pays for this out of pocket, which is the ultimate scam.  Then her friend, the sales rep, gets all the sales, mostly out of guilt by the party attendees, and the hostess gets some sort of trinket for free.

We have a neighborhood FB page, so the mass invites come all the time.  The wife selling the nail stickers wouldn't even weed out the men, hubby got invited too!  I'm most amused by the incredibly religious, modest folks who didn't feel comfortable hanging out in the hot tub after the pool got too cold, yet they are the ones doing the sex toy party??

I still get invited, and I have never gone to one of these things.  I'm sure if I ever had the desire to pay for overpriced crap like this, I could score it on Ebay for far less.

[TLV]

I've seen a few guys selling things like Cutco knives who do the "let me practice me sales pitch on you" approach with their friends. And I've also seen guys fall into the "essential oils" MLMs.

[warfreak2]

Do you have an example of a male one?  I'm not trying to be a jerk - I just have never seen one, and I'm a man.

I don't know why that would be jerk-ish!

Penn & Teller's sometimes-good TV show Bullshit! did an episode on MLM[/quote]. I should clarify that not all of them organise "parties", but the pressure to sell to your friends is the same.

[ScienceSexSavings]

(Not trying to be sexist here - all of these "parties" I have been invited too have only included females.)

You don't get invited to the male ones, because you aren't a man. Generally a scam is targeted within a particular demographic, the target demographic for whatever product is the vehicle for the scam. One of the advantages of that is less awareness of them in the general population, leading to lower dissemination of information about them, enabling them to continue operating. You rarely hear about scams that target people who are different to you, that's a feature.

Do you have an example of a male one?  I'm not trying to be a jerk - I just have never seen one, and I'm a man.  My ex-wife got invited to those parties all the time, but I never got an invite to a single party where my male friends tried to sell me something.  I have a hard time picturing it ever happening, to be honest.  I mean, how would the invite even go?  "Come on guys, let's sit around and drink wine while Bob demonstrates his company's new silver-plated power tools."

I knew a guy selling some sort of herbal cream type of shit that was supposed to make your skin look amazing.

I also know several woman involved with Victorian Epicure and Park Lane Jewels. I HATE THEM!

[huadpe]

Do you have an example of a male one?  I'm not trying to be a jerk - I just have never seen one, and I'm a man.  My ex-wife got invited to those parties all the time, but I never got an invite to a single party where my male friends tried to sell me something.  I have a hard time picturing it ever happening, to be honest.  I mean, how would the invite even go?  "Come on guys, let's sit around and drink wine while Bob demonstrates his company's new silver-plated power tools."

It's less gender specific, but I think there are a number of MLM things regarding investments that tend to target males.  E.g. I once got pitched by a friend of a friend at Starbucks for a few minutes about silver coin investment.  Also things like Primerica.

[Half-Borg]

My uncle tried to sell me some Live-Meeting Tool, meet clients online, do teamwork, boost your career etc. pp. They had online "parties" where they sold their shit. I had some fun sabotaging them and got banned xD

[Albert]

Learn something new every day… I haven't heard about such "sales parties" before opening this thread 5 min ago.

[crumbcatcher]

I knew a guy selling some sort of herbal cream type of shit that was supposed to make your skin look amazing.

When I was paying for a mattress at a discount store (which turned out to be an awesome deal), the owner gave me a pitch on some kind of blueberry-superfood-something-something liquid vitamin supplement stuff that he was selling. It reminded me of the Herbalife pitch I've gotten from a lot of people who were into that. The mattress guy pointed out how much it had helped his Reynaud's symptoms (even though his fingers were still blue and stiff) and other health issues he has.

Strange.

The mattress rocks though.

[fantabulous]

When I was paying for a mattress at a discount store (which turned out to be an awesome deal), the owner gave me a pitch on some kind of blueberry-superfood-something-something liquid vitamin supplement stuff that he was selling. It reminded me of the Herbalife pitch I've gotten from a lot of people who were into that. The mattress guy pointed out how much it had helped his Reynaud's symptoms (even though his fingers were still blue and stiff) and other health issues he has.

Strange.

The mattress rocks though.

Maybe the blueberry-super-slurry(TM) did help, but his fingers are still blue due to previously trying colloidal silver cream or something?

[ScienceSexSavings]

I knew a guy selling some sort of herbal cream type of shit that was supposed to make your skin look amazing.

When I was paying for a mattress at a discount store (which turned out to be an awesome deal), the owner gave me a pitch on some kind of blueberry-superfood-something-something liquid vitamin supplement stuff that he was selling. It reminded me of the Herbalife pitch I've gotten from a lot of people who were into that. The mattress guy pointed out how much it had helped his Reynaud's symptoms (even though his fingers were still blue and stiff) and other health issues he has.

Strange.

The mattress rocks though.

Ahhhhh, I'm pretty sure it was Herbalife! The guy claimed he ahd put it on one side of his face onle and could totally see the difference. He was only about 24 and had no major skin issues, so I'm not sure what difference one would even see.

Park Lane still pisses me off more though, with their tacky ass jewelery, trips, cars and designer shit. I can see that people are involved with them, I can't actually see the skin crap when they're not talking about it.

[Dr.Vibrissae]

I've heard of Man-Cave ones. They tend to be grill and beer parties I think

Oh, I totally have thrown one of these.  The cost of admission is a 6-pack or a side dish, we call them "Barbeques".

The guy that installed our roof tried to sell us some energy drink/workout supplement stuff, he even had a card.  I don't know that they have parties, but the same company set up a table in the Rec Center once, and both men and women were selling.  I think it's the same sort of deal because they all mentioned that 'You could become a seller too!'

[Malaysia41]

recent conversation over OCS at work:
co-worker: "I'm taking the family on a 10 day REI vacation to Australia."
me: "REI?  You mean the store?"
co-worker: "Yeah - this'll be our third with them.  It costs a bundle but I don't have to plan a thing."

I googled it: http://www.rei.com/adventures/trips/pacific/australia-ultimate-adventure.html
That 12 day vacay costs $25k for a family of four.   

[Twenty4Me]

Ahhhhh, I'm pretty sure it was Herbalife!

Nope, sorry. Nothing like that in our range.

For me, personally, this is a little something that I do on the side for some extra spending money. I don't do parties, don't advertise, and rely solely on word of mouth. Am I making a killing? No, but that's not the point either... at least not for me :)

Anyways, just to clear up a little bit of the terminology that's emerged from this thread so far... a pyramid scheme is a multi-level thing that does NOT have a product. In other words, you pay to buy into your spot on the pyramid, and then recruit others to buy their spot as well. From each person who buys in, the money gets pass along up the pyramid with each person taking their cut of it along the way. The person who bought in does not see anything for their money until they start recruiting others in.

Above board multi-level marketing does not solely rely on you recruiting in others. There is a product that you can use yourself and sell to others. You can make pretty decent money just on that alone. And, while someone may not like a product that's on offer, I don't think that you need to call it a scam just because of that. If you don't shop at the local fragrance oil shop, would you call that store a scam? Or does the fact that it's a brick & mortar place somehow mean it's "better"?

Anyways, I don't know about other mlm companies out there, but I'm completely satisfied that Herbalife is above board as not just any company can be listed on the NYSE.

:) But that's just my opinion.

[Bigote]

First post to defend Heballfe?      Do I detect a schill?     


Oh, I think you're wrong that selling product means it can't be a pyramid scheme.   If most sales of product go to new recruits for 'inventory' rather than customers for end use, it's a pyramid scheme, in my view. 

And most of the ones mentioned in this thread are just that, I suspect.   

[warfreak2]

Above board multi-level marketing does not solely rely on you recruiting in others.

Sorry, there is no such thing, and it does solely rely on you recruiting others. The ~90% of people who don't recruit anyone, make losses or just barely break even.

you pay to buy into your spot on the pyramid

Indeed you do, you pay up to $2000 for a "Herbalife business pack". Hint: if it is a legitimate job, why does anyone have to pay for the privilege of being employed? McDonalds don't require you to buy up to $2000 worth of burgers before you can stand at the counter and sell them to customers.

[Twenty4Me]

Up to $2'000 for a business pack? Not that I've ever seen. The ones that I've seen range from $60 to $93.

If you want to be over eager and buy a whole lot of inventory in the beginning instead of taking it slow and buying as you need it, then I can understand why people may believe that they've lost money on their Herbalife business. And while there are distributors who encourage this, this is not the only way to do a Herbalife business. Calling the whole rotten because of a few isn't particularly fair to those who make the effort to conduct their business differently.

You're not paying to be employed or to have a job, you're paying to start your own business under the Herbalife name. If you open a franchise restaurant, don't you buy a license to be able to use that name? Olive Garden or McD's or whatever. Same concept here.

Edit: Oh, and no... I'm not a shill. I haven't hidden the fact that I am a distributor and I have absolutely no interest in trying to entice anyone here into buying or signing up.

[warfreak2]

First Google result that lists the prices says $140 to $2,040.

Franchises are totally not the same thing because franchisees don't make their money by recruiting other franchisees.

[Twenty4Me]

That website belongs to an independent distributor in Australia, and I can assure you they are selling stock with that $2'000 "business pack". You can buy a business pack without all that extra stock above what already comes in the original packs which I quoted above.

Edit: So, I've just gone and pretended on the Herbalife website that I want to buy a business pack. I even chose the full "expensive" option (and not the mini business pack) just so that you can see what I mean. I put in that I would be collecting it from the warehouse in Illinois because I don't have an address in the USA to send it to. I stand corrected in my pricing... It works out to $105 and change instead due to handling and stuff. Still not $2'000 though. I don't know how tax might affect the price from state to state, but I can assure you it won't be by a whole lot.

[Squirrel away]

Someone I used to work with moved jobs and instead of moving her pension along with her took the money out to go away on holiday. She was quite young though.

[Bigote]

Edit: Oh, and no... I'm not a shill. I haven't hidden the fact that I am a distributor and I have absolutely no interest in trying to entice anyone here into buying or signing up.

None of which precludes you from being a shill.


Now 3 posts, all shilling.     I wish Ackman all success, by the way.