Beware of Mannatech
DO NOT TRUST MANNATECH!
I used to run health & business teleseminars and physical open seminars and trainings across Australia and New Zealand with full authority of and publicity by Mannatech.
Mannatech does not follow it’s own policies and precedures. They interpret them to suit themselves and allow select top distributors free reign to do whatever they wish so long as they are “in the good books”.
The company and some top distributors then turned on me because I also associated with other companies that sold what Mannatech considered to be competitive products. They were NOT.
Mannatech accused me of crossline and downline promotion of competing companies that could not be proven. Distributors and company officials lied in statutory declarations.
The company finally decided to terminate my business after 10+ years of dedicated promotion and support. They can do that because they sign the cheques, have expensive lawyers and deeper pockets to fight you till you are exhausted, emotionally destroyed or have run out of money (or all of the above)
Mannatech Terminates Glenn in 2007.
A group of the top Mannatech distributors did not like me because I was making waves in the internet marketing and got popular on my international conference call.
They made up stories and blatantly lied to Mannatech. Mannatech took their word for it did not investigate properly.
They terminated me without warning citing solicitation.
I fought them, at my own cost and with no legal representation for nearly six months, and won my distributorship back again.
However they could never prove fault on my behalf.
In 2008 I got a corporate job as Sales and Marketing Manager in Amega Global, a new MLM to Australia. I felt obliged to terminate myself from Mannatech due to a potential conflict of interest. The paperwork was never confirmed accepted by them.
Forward to June 2010
In June 2010 (12 months later, after Mannatech’s non-solicit clause had expired) I put out some marketing info on a new MLM to my email lists.
Mannatech did it AGAIN…
They attempted to put the 12 month solicitation clause after temination into effect… even though I had been terminated for over 12 months!
They claimed I was only terminated from them from March 2010 when they entered my termination into their system. They would not accept the legal (effective) date on the signed termination form!
They blatantly refused to correct the termination date in their system, however, after months of bullying by Mannatech we mutually agreed on 1 Jan 2010 as the effective end of rights and responsibilites following termination (under extreme duress on my part).
Here’s My Beef
Distributor lists are NOT confidential information owned by the company. They are JOINTLY OWNED.
MLM companies say they OWN the customer list. No matterwhere it comes from. They say I have no right to use it after I cease being a distributor, even though as part of my business requirement was to build a business network at MY cost.
MLM company customer list and solicitation definitions are too draconian! They do not take into account how a business network develops. They do not even take into account relationships that existed prior to becoming a distributor with thaat company.
A HUGE change is due and I welcome the ruling that came in against Melaleuca, a company with the MOST draconian rules I have ever seen.
I know of an Australian couple who fought Melaleuca for this same reason.. They settled out of court but they were minus $250,000 in legal fees! It apparently cost Melaleuca 10 times that!
MLM companies think that if a distributor (or ex distributor) sends an email promoting another opportunity (MLM or otherwise) to one of their distributors then that distributor will stop producing an income for them.
That is totally false and built totally on fear of loss!
If THAT distributor is so ready to jump to another company or opportunity then so be it. They were not committed to the company in the first place and ANY opportunity that came along would interest them, from me or otherwise.
I make the comparison to a Catholic talking to a Jew with the intent to being converted to Judaism. If it was meant to happen then let it happen. If not the Catholic will stay with their faith and say thanks but no thanks. Everyone is still happy.
I believe this is how it should be in MLM. Let people make up their own mind and get on with business of seeking and keeping happy customers and ditributors, not trying to hold onto the ones that are not interested anyhow.
That’s my rant for now… I could talk on this topic for hours. I will not bore you with more here so call me to talk to me if this has happened to you or you need advice as to how to proceed if it IS happening to you.