We have to stop meeting like this. And to answer your question: yes, Boisset (bwah-say) Collection is an MLM. I’ve seen a lot of people go the Boisset Collection route lately and I wanted to write a post before anyone else lost their money to yet another multi-level marketing scheme.
As I do on any MLM post in my “Is [blank] an MLM,” I have to reiterate that MLMs are basically legal pyramid schemes. The focus is on recruiting people into your downline, but they sell products because it’s a loophole so they don’t get in trouble with the FTC. Read this blog post if you want to learn more about that.
Now let’s talk about Boisset Collection. When you go on their website, they’re like a legit company. They own some pretty well known wineries such as Raymond Vineyards, Buena Vista Winery, JCB, De Loach Vineyards, and more. There’s nothing on their website that seems remotely suspicious except the “Ambassador Program” at the very bottom of the page. When you click that, the fun starts.
If you skip the “wine world is calling” headline, you’ll see another headline in all caps: “The Boisset Opportunity.” This is followed by a 14-minute long video where the cover photo is spitting off some bad juju like, “I invite you to join us to experience a rewarding career in winery-direct sales. Share your passion for wine with this unparalleled business opportunity.” The flags are not pink here, they are RED. “Business opportunity” immediately says MLM and you don’t even need to play the video or scroll down any further to realize you need to run and RUN FAR.
I also watched the 14-minute video so you don’t have to. In the first 20 seconds, they kiss the founder’s ass. Luckily after that they literally present a slide titled “What to expect.” Company background, “exquisite” wines, ambassador day-to-day activities, compensation plan, training and on-going support, business kits, and next steps. I mean come on, I didn’t even have to work that hard to find all of the makings of an MLM. If you’re going to be a money vampire, at least make me work to roast you on the internet!
After a couple of minutes of Boisset history, they get straight into “wine tasting experience at home” and “incredible business opportunity.” Multi-level marketing schemes love to tell you that you’re running your own business, when you’re really not. Then you get to watch them talk about the wineries I listed above like Buena Vista, De Loach, and Raymond.
Now onto the “day-to-day” activities. The video says ambassadors get paid to socialize, sip wine, and introduce people to their collection. The video then goes on to say that they transform living rooms and offices to tasting rooms and that the host gets deeply discounted wines to let their friends and family try. For hosting a tasting, the host gets a “thank you” wine that they only have to spend $1 on and they get essentially what is store credit to buy Boisset Collection wines. Yeah, I snorted when I saw the slide for that. You literally can’t make this shit up.
Which leads to the compensation plan. Ambassadors can earn 15% to 35% commission based on their monthly sales performance. They try to sell you on the fact that people love to reorder wine for gifts and entertaining purposes, which makes logical sense, but that’s if you build a loyal customer base. Who’s to say that your customers won’t just go to Costco and buy Raymond Vineyards wine there?
Now here’s where it gets spicy. Ambassadors also have another way to earn money which is through what they call “sponsoring.” When ambassadors bring on new ambassadors, they can earn commission from team sales. If this sounds familiar, you’d be correct. This is literally recruiting a downline.
Their training slides are laughable. Quoting word-for-word here, “Our training was designed to enable us to bring people on board with little to no experience and teach them to be successful immediately.” Ah yes, immediate success. If that were a thing, I’d be 50 pounds lighter. They offer the typical webinars and annual retreat like most MLMs do.
What about business supplies? Don’t worry, Boisset Collection tells you that you need to invest in business supplies to make your business successful. First is what’s called Cellar Suite. For the price of $14 per month (or $120 per year), you get your online store, sales tracking, email and order notifications, and all the other website stuff. Then in small print it says, “Cellar Suite subscription is required for all ambassadors.” Great, so you’re already out $120-$168 annually. Then you have to add a starter kit. For $42, you get the Digital Package where you get online training access and $25 in store credit. For $169, you can buy the Essentials Package that comes with six bottles of wine, marketing materials, online training access, some random “passion for wine” book and journal thing, and $25 in store credit. And finally, for $289, you get the Deluxe Package which includes 12 bottles of wine, the same random book and journal, online training access, marketing materials, and $25 store credit.
I was curious about the terms and conditions or the ambassador agreement so I signed up for a whole account in order to get to them until I realized that you could get to them via the FAQ page SMH. Somehow I was able to bypass the credit card information and finally on the checkout page, I got to the “Independent Wine Ambassador Enrollment Application.” Fortunately, you don’t have to do all of this to find them, I guess I just wanted it to make research a little harder for me.
Anyway, here are some interesting things I found within the terms and conditions:
“I will present and promote the Company products in a truthful manner.” Well, it’d be against the terms and conditions to say that the company isn’t an MLM because then that wouldn’t be truthful.
“I am entering this Agreement as an independent contractor and not an employee of the Company. I will be solely responsible for paying all expenses incurred by me, including but not limited to travel, food, lodging, secretarial, office, long distance telephone and other expenses.” Here’s the red flag. You’re an independent contractor, not an employee and definitely NOT a business owner. I’ve said it a million times, but a normal company would reimburse you for all expenses related to the company. So not only are you spending money for the stupid business kit, but also the costs associated with being an ambassador (phone bill, gas, etc.) are coming out of your pocket.
“…for a period of one year after the termination of this Agreement, I will not own or operate a wine related home party plan based business with a multi-level compensation plan.” This was a weirdly worded paragraph, but basically you’re not allowed to join another MLM until a year after you quit this one. This is the first wine MLM I’ve seen that has flat out said “multi-level.” There’s no denying that Boisset Collection is an MLM now. Hilarious.
Thanks to the FAQs, there’s a whole bunch of information that was skipped in the video, such as specifics on earnings. “Ambassadors receive commissions twice a month and earn between 15%-35% of the commissionable volume (CV) on wines and merchandise.” I’m no accountant, so bear with me here.
Looking at Boisset Collection’s compensation plan summary, it looks like the base compensation is 25% commission if you have over $250 in sales (15% for less). You can receive up to four more bonuses if you achieve different sales levels. An additional 3% is added if you sell between $3,000-$4,999 of wine, an additional 2% for $5,000-$7,499, another 2% for $7,500-$9,999, and another 3% for anything over $10,000. This brings your total up to 35% of what you sell over $10,000. If you thought $3,500 was bad, it gets worse. Yes, you’ll earn 35% commission because you sold $10,000 worth of wine, but you’re not getting 35% of $10,000. Only 75% of the $10,000 is commissionable, so you’ll be earning 35% of $7,500 which is $2,625.
So that’s the base pay, but then they get into recruiting and the weird compensation that comes with recruiting other people into your downline. It’s a whole lot of yikes.
Would you look at that… a pyramid. In conclusion, RUN AWAY.
Mary Kay is the same as any of the wine MLMs except for the fact that they sell makeup. I really liked this book because it gave a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to be in an MLM. If you’ve never joined one and never plan to like me, it’s extremely insightful and thought-provoking.
