It's Christmas so I figured I'd make A Christmas Story reference to start off. You're welcome. I recently came across a YouTube channel featuring a young couple who used to be a member of WorldWide Group (WWG). An Amway cult just like URA. I just recently watched their first vlog detailing their time in their cult. The stories are nearly similar and even more outrageous than the ones I've shared on here. Give em' a look:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl4Zu5UZmoiEWJkYqQkmKog?disable_polymer=true
They brought back many bad memories, but one that they touched on that I haven't yet was the dreadful DITTO. *DUN! DUN! DUNNNNN!!!!!!* "DITTO" is the Amway scheduled delivery system. Basically, you place monthly orders in advance The orders are for your use, as well as getting samples for customers and what not. They make this sound like it's a convenient way to get your products to you, but what it REALLY is is a way for your upline to (sometimes underhandedly) place orders for shit you don't need and lots of it so your numbers/business value go up.
When my upline sponsor Matthew first showed me how to do the "Ditto" he did it with our upline platinum's wife. He started running up a HUGE bill. Like $250 worth. If you've read my previous blogs, I didn't have two nickels to rub together so I was like "WHOOOOOOA SLOW DOWN!" He then reassured me that I could change the order any time I wished. As soon as he left I deleted EVERYTHING. At the time, I figured it was just apart of the business model and Matthew was just showing how it's done. I later realized that putting in an order for that much shit was to pad the upline's stats.
It also seemed like a minor incident in a grocery list of major ones that I experienced during my time in the URA cult. However, when I was at Summer CONference, I remember my upline platinum's wife going on a crazed rant about how it's "inexcusable" for people not to do their ditto. I'm not saying she was crazy. I'm saying she has this psychotic, 'I haven't been laid in three years', no coffee in the morning for a week, I'm gonna set my husband on fire if we don't make emerald by next year look in her eyes that was very disturbing. Like missing your ditto is comparable to forgetting your anniversary. Looking back, she was actually a very unsettling type of person. Not quite all there. She'd been "cultified."
That obsessive demeanor is all too real. I only refer to our "upline platinum" because he did what upline platinum's do. He led our group. He was more of a defacto-platinum. He never reached the qualification. He was what they call an "arrow." From what I gathered, he was close, but never got to that level due to constant turnover. After talking with past group members, many didn't like him. He was a very snooty, unpersonable kind of guy. My family sure as hell didn't like them. They liked Matthew, but they didn't like him AT ALL. If my family doesn't like you: there's a good reason.
The couple I mentioned in the YouTube link talked about the thousands they spent on just Ditto alone. It's all a part of the scam to boost/pad numbers and most people are willing. I said in a previous blog that it was a rare time I was happy to be poor. They tried to get blood from a stone and they couldn't. So for all you "entrepreneurs" out there faithfully doing your ditto, here's some great advice in just two syllables:
DIT-DON'T!
Ditto was just another commitment that upline wants. Not much different than standing order or book of the month, voicemail, etc. The more commitment they receive, the more guaranteed income they receive.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that the diamonds, at least most of them are nowhere near as wealthy as they want you to believe. Which is why they need to extract every ounce of PV and tool consumption they can in order to get as much Amway and tool income as possible.
What many don't know is that most of a diamond's income is from the once a year diamond bonus and their actual monthly income might be quite small, depending on their group size.
Dude, I was also apart of URA until both my wife and I left last October (that's right just after FED). Thank you for sharing your blog. So I am sure you are familiar with the Dussault's, Coley's, Fields,etc... It is just so cultish, and it really comes out at the conferences. Would be great if we could all get together over skype or something swap stories.
ReplyDeleteWe might be able to if I knew who you were! Haha! e-mail should be in the top right hand corner. Yes, very familiar with those names, they're under aliases on this blog. Cheers on getting out! I also recommend you visit the YouTube channel I just mentioned. Very helpful for people who have been wronged by this cult! Check out all my posts on here. I'm sure you can relate!
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I also was a URASucker from mid-2015 (first conference Summer Conference that year) to early-2018 (last conference Winter Conference). That was the last event I went to in DC but I stayed on membership because I had some folks that liked the products until the end of 2019.
ReplyDeleteThe Ditto thing was obnoxious. I always felt obligated to buy stuff. And now, I just keep finding unopened Perfect Packs and bottles of vitamins years later. What a waste.
And I'm not sure if you caught heat, but oftentimes my Upline Emerald would blast out texts and sarcastic videos about "Dittos not processing" and "this is what happens when you're an eight billion dollar company and bigger than the NFL". Utter BS. "Ditto on the 1st!" "Your downline will duplicate this!" And on the first of each month, several hundreds of dollars would just evaporate only to make a few bucks on the 15th of the succeeding month.
And you were probably in when I was in when the "coach" went on stage and talked about "300 by the 5th" and how they could not call it the "URA Standard" anymore, but they were calling it the "URA Recommendation". Such garbage.
We should connect. We probably have different uplines but it would be nice to share war stories and how much conference weekends SUCKED due to all of the rehashed drivel we had to listen to.
Please post more! Would love to hear more of your experiences.
And I wanted to add that I never ever attended another event after Winter Conference of 2018 as I was determined to never give them any more money for future meetings or seminars or "major events". What a money pit!
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