Fortunately for us anti-MLMers, I’m back with another MLM post. Unfortunately for this particular multi-level marketing company, I am back with another MLM post. It’s time to talk about WineShop At Home.
An obligatory recap: MLMs are essentially legal pyramid schemes. Multi-level marketing schemes are legal because they sell a product, but the way you make money (if you even make any) is not by selling the products, but by recruiting people into what’s called your downline. Read this blog post to learn more about MLMs.
Okay, so what exactly is WineShop At Home? WineShop At Home is a multi-level marketing company that sells wine, but they basically sell wine from wine tastings hosted in someone else’s home. They want you to get your family and friends to host a wine tasting in their home, purchase a sampler from you, and then have their wine tasting guests purchase wine from you as well. Wouldn’t it make more sense to host your own wine tasting and have people purchase from you?
Once again, I have navigated through the website so you don’t have to. At the top, there’s a button labeled “Become a Consultant.” At this point, we’ve learned that is an MLM red flag. Once you scroll down a little ways, there’s a heading called “Get Started” and underneath it is three business kits. The cheapest kit ($25) is called the Virtual Vino Kit that comes with a one month subscription to their online services, your personalized website, mobile app access, social media tools, and training materials. Training for any job should be PAID, but I digress. The second kit is called the Social Sip Kit ($99) and that includes pour disks, corkscrew, 5 one ounce pour spouts, wine stopper, a tasting guide with a binder, two bottles of wine, and a one month subscription to their online services. Finally, there is a kit called the Premium Pour Kit. For $239, it comes with everything the second kit comes with plus order boards, messenger bag, Wine Away emergency kit, wine glass pens, 12 branded wine glasses, two demo bottles, 20 brochures, and two more bottles of wine.
If you scroll a little more, you get to the FAQs. The first question asks how much one can earn with WineShop At Home. Their answer is simple. As much as you want… You earn commission, but you also earn money on everyone you recruit, plus bonuses if you’re in an upper level. Sounds a bit pyramid scheme-y if you ask me.
Then they start asking if they can run their business online. One of my pet peeves is the fact that people think they own their own business when they join an MLM. They don’t. Essentially you’re a sales rep for a company and you just lose money or barely break even. I had a comment not too long ago asking how earning commission from advertisements placed on my website was any different. That was a great question. The difference between someone in an MLM and me owning my website is that everything on this website is owned and operated by me. Usually there will be something in the terms and conditions that will state that anything related to that MLM is now property of the MLM even if it was just a picture you took of one of the wines on a Saturday afternoon. Everything on my website including my pictures is owned by me. Even pictures of wine bottles. A company or winery cannot use my pictures or words without my permission or I can actually get the courts involved. Now addressing the commission aspect of it. My affiliates are completely free to join. I did not pay to be a part of them, so everything I earn from commissions is 100% profit. MLMs have a structure where you pay to be a part of the company, but then you have to make enough commission to earn money or break even. The FTC states that 99% of people in MLMs end up losing money. This PDF on the FTC’s website tells you everything you need to know.
TQ over at OnlineBzDog found the 2015 WineShop At Home compensation plan. Let me tell you, that thing was incredibly hard to find, which is super shady. It’s not even a recent copy! TQ basically wrote an entire post dedicated to WineShop At Home and even he doesn’t recommend joining this MLM. What TQ found is that you can earn up to 35% commission from selling wine based on your level. You level up by selling a certain amount of wine every month. You also have to sell like $300 worth of wine to stay active in the company. What happens when you don’t sell $600 worth of wine? Well, a lot of consultants will end up buying that much wine just to stay active. The usual.
I will give them props for not creating any charts because if they were to make a chart of the compensation plan through recruiting, it would look exactly like a pyramid.
When you click join now, it makes you enter information for a consultant to contact you or if you know a consultant already, you can just sign up. I searched a random consultant just so I could find the terms and conditions. Their terms and conditions are difficult to find especially since the T&C page doesn’t provide a lot of information. The real tea is spilled when you get past the consultant gatekeeping page.
“I agree that as an Independent WineShop At Home Consultant, I am an independent contractor, and not an employee, agent, partner, legal representative or franchisee of WineShop At Home.” Well you’re not a business owner and you’re not an employee. You definitely don’t want to put this on your resume.
“I agree that I will be solely responsible for paying all expenses incurred by myself, including but not limited to travel, food, lodging, office, telephone and other expenses.” There it is. I’ve worked in the wine industry. All of these expenses are 100% covered if the company asks you to travel. Just saying.
“By entering into the Consultant Agreement, I authorize WineShop At Home to use my name, testimonials and/or likeness in WineShop At Home advertising, training or promotional materials with no remuneration. Additionally, I consent to and authorize the use and reproduction of any and all photographs or video taken by or supplied to WineShop At Home, and further consent to the use and reproduction of any quotes, testimonials, stories, conversations on social media and/or any www.WineShopAtHome.com forum for any print or electronic publicity, marketing or promotional purposes, without remuneration.” I actually just mentioned this above when I was talking about how all of my content is solely under my ownership. Here it is in writing that WineShop At Home can basically take your shit and use it as their own without compensating you. Hypothetically, if I took a picture of a WineShop At Home wine and posted it on my website, they would have to ask for my permission to use my photo for their marketing materials because I am not a consultant of theirs. If I was a consultant under this agreement, they could just cop it from my website and call it a day. Trash.
I actually don’t want to spend another minute on their website. It’s giving me a headache.
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.
