A KDakota630 Original Blog - Scam Alert
July 12, 2011
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Yes, believe it or not, I'm posting a blog that has nothing to do with Peter Schiff, Peter Grandich, the Fed, Ron Paul, or precious metals.
I hope I can maintain some coherance with this blog as I've just spend about a half hour of my time "discussing" a product and MLM business, explaining to this person why their business was a scam and intentionally misleading people. The woman seemed intelligent enough but for some reason my logic wasn't able to permeate her skull.
I probably wouldn't be so annoyed except that this is the 2nd person who's approached me about this in about a week, and despite my rather extreme objections, both of these people persisted in trying to sign me up, telling me about the great benefit package, and so forth.
The product is Body By Vi, or Visalus, which is one of the Blyth companies, not to be confused with the Bluth Company. Essentially, the program is a 90-day weight loss product where you're taking a couple of their protein shakes (more or less a low-carb, high protein meal replacement powder) per day.
Right off the top, I don't have a problem with with following a diet plan like that. I know that they can work. Many people have had success doing programs like that. EAS had a number of contests largely following that exact strategy, followed by a number of other copycat supplement companies. Chances are you've heard of them, or even know someone who did.
As a matter of fact, I've actually helped literally hundreds of people follow either similar plans, or rather than relying on a meal-replacement powder I've sold them a protein powder which they've used, sometimes with a number of other supplements, either for fat loss, or muscle gain, sports performance, etc. As some of you know, I own a sports nutrition store in Canada, and I've had my business for close to 10 years now. I'm guessing that's why I've been targeted by these two people.
To make a long story short, I did look into the business quickly after the first person approached me. I really wasn't interested, but I wanted to satisfy my curiosity. When she got in touch with me via phone a few days later, I laid out my objections, of which I had three:
Objection #1 - I probably don't need to go into detail here, but first and foremost, I'm not interested in getting involved in any MLM business. Yeah, I'm sure they work for some people, but here's a good website which will save me from typing more than necessary about MLM businesses.
Objection #2 - Did I mention that I've owned a sports supplement store for nearly 10 years? Need I explain more about how this is a massive conflict of interest with what I currently do? If for some reason I chose to do this, I would essentially be selling this new product instead of what I've been selling and believe in selling for about a quarter of my life. I suppose maybe someone would do something like that, but it's highly unlikely.
Objection #3 - And this is the big one... one of the videos on their website is extremely misleading, and to the layperson, might not pick up on it. Here's the video:
For those of you who didn't catch that, let me explain. What they're trying to get you to believe is that somehow, they've managed to combine all that food into a simple, cost-saving 170 shake.
However, if you watch the video again and pay attention to the top, they're actually picking and choosing single items which are contained in each of the foods listed as opposed to the entire food. The average person might think they're getting some super-concentrated food powder that actually contains all that stuff.
How can you be sure it doesn't? Simply put, the impossibility of somehow combining 8,600 calories into something that is 170 calories and calling it equal.
But let me take it a step further. Let's take just 1 item from that list. Let's take just the 13 eggs that they mention in the list of foods.
Conservatively, an egg contains 6g of protein. So, 13 eggs would contain 78g of protein. And as each gram of protein is 4 calories, simple math gives you a total of 312 calories.
So, I've taken 1 macronutrient from 1 item they've listed, and I already have 142 calories more than their entire shake!
And what kills me is that after I've explained to these people (repeatedly) how their product is misleading, they continue to try to push me into the business. Seriously, that takes some gall:
KDakota630 - "Your business is misleading, a scam, and quite frankly if you can continue selling this after I've explained how you're being fraudulent, you should be ashamed of yourself."
Visalus rep - "You know, we have an excellent compensation package..."
If you, or anyone you know, is interested in improving the way they look and feel, check out a book like The Zone, or Fat Wars, and then if you're interested in following those up with supplements, go to a reputable store to talk to someone. I don't think the product itself is a scam, but after talking to these two people I would suggest avoiding this thing like the plague.
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