There are people who would say yes. In fact, there's a whole blog somewhere where they expose the "truth" about Beachbody and suggest that you shouldn't do anything to support the company because of their practices. Kind of like Walmart.
Ok, I wasn't aware their practices were that deplorable. I'll have to do some reading on the subject.
It's more the general MLM thing. You know, the company is very rah rah, and want their coaches to do personal improvement, read books for personal growth, "make a difference", help people get healthy, etc - all laudable goals.
But the fact of the matter is "coaches" make money by selling product, I estimate approx 25%. So, if you get someone to buy a month of shakes for $130, you get $32.50.
There's MORE money in signing coaches beneath you. How much, I don't know, but the "bonuses" depend on what your downline does and sells. So when the "real" money is in how many people are selling stuff in your downline, it starts to get shady. And the fact of the matter is, some areas of the country are saturated. Some very successful coaches (as in, quit their day jobs) have ended up quitting because the amount of work went up and the payout went down and the competition went way up.
$130 a month for shakes is ridiculous (even though they are quite tasty - haven't quite found an alternative that is even close). If you are a coach, you get a 25% discount and if you get someone "below" you, you get 25%, so the cost to produce the shakes has got to be far less than 50% of the sticker price.
I have a few friends who are coaches who "earn" free vacations. For giggles once, I sat down and tried to figure out what they had to do to earn that (thank you google). I figured that they essentially had to sign up 2 new people a MONTH for an entire year to earn this free trip. That's 24 new customers. NEW customers. That's a LOT. Of course it's "free", which means for something like a cruise, you have to pay for flights to get there and a hotel for the night before/after the cruise. So not really "free".
I'm simply not a fan of the payscale setup. I think it's fine that they use word of mouth to garner excitement. Their products are pretty high quality (workouts, cookbooks, meal plans). A straight-up commission from every sale would be better, IMO. Not a fan of the pyramid.