Jeunesse Review: Answering the affiliate autoship question
Jeunesse launched in late 2009 and operate in the health and wellness MLM niche.
Based in the US state of Florida, co-founders Randy Ray (CEO) and Wendy Lewis (COO) head up Jeunesse’s executive team.
As per Ray’s Jeunesse corporate bio:
Randy has been involved with multi-level marketing for eighteen years, including co-owning MarketQ, Inc. with Wendy Lewis.
He has provided service and support to the industry with back office software, commission processing, and full customer service.
Some more information is provided in Wendy Lewis’ bio, but no MLM specifics:
Wendy and Randy started their multi-level marketing adventures eighteen years ago as distributors and then owners of MLM companies and support companies.
Under their visionary leadership, these companies have flourished. With offices and distribution centers operating worldwide and a network of more than 500,000 distributors in 215 countries and territories, they have paid out over $122.5 million in commissions.
Multi-lingual customer support, in-house shipping, on-staff professional software programmers, and a proprietary web-based Back Office system are only a few of the many examples of what they have accomplished.
Ray first appeared on BehindMLM has the CEO and owner of Global Telecom Connect.
Launched in 20Global Telecom Connect sees affiliates pay $179.90 or $299.90 when they sign up, with commissions paid when they recruit other affiliates who do the same.
Back in 2005 Ray and Lewis launched was Fuel Freedom International, now known as Forever Freedom.
Forever Freedom market ‘pills trade marked as MPG-CAPS, which are claimed to improve fuel economy, reduce emissions and increase engine power‘.
Despite BehindMLM having not formally reviewed Jeunesse, I’ve previously written about the company due to the controversy it attracts.
Jeunesse first appeared on BehindMLM courtesy of a lawsuit filed over a $90,000 secret affiliate deal.
Then President of Jeunesse, Darren Jensen, responded by accusing plaintiff Matthew Nestler of murder threats.
Jensen has since gone to become the CEO of LifeVantage, having left his position with Jeunesse in May.
Earlier this year, Jeunesse executed a takeover of a bankrupt Monavie. By way of rank purchasing, active Monavie affiliates have since been rolled into Jeunesse.
Last month Alex Morton signed up with Jeunesse, following a very public departure from Vemma.
A few weeks after Morton (a top-earner in Vemma) left the company, it was shut down by the FTC.
The regulatory agency contends Vemma is a $200 million plus illegal pyramid scheme, with the matter set to play out in court.
In the aftermath of the FTC Vemma shutdown, questions have been raised regarding similarities between Vemma and Jeunesse’s respective compensation plans.
Read on for a full review of the Jeunesse MLM business opportunity.
The Jeunesse Product Line
Jeunesse’s product lines span the personal care and wellness niches, with the following product lines listed on the Jeunesse website:
- Luminesce cellular rejuvenation serum ($134.95 for a 15ml bottle) – “this silky serum soothes and supports your skin with a unique formula containing the highest possible percentage of growth factor complex”
- Luminesce daily moisturizing complex ($69.95 for a 30ml bottle) – “this daily facial cream provides serious protection for your skin”
- Luminesce advanced night repair ($99.95 for a 30ml tub) – a “nightly cream” that “nourishes your skin”
- Luminesce essential body renewal ($59.59 for a 150ml tube) – “Your skin will love its antioxidants and human growth factors that revitalize your skin’s appearance, giving you a healthy and nourished look”
- Luminesce ultimate lifting masque ($69.95 for a 118ml tube) – a “unique formula” that provides “provide a gentle exfoliation, lifting away old skin to reveal your glowing complexion”
- Instantly Ageless ($74.95 for fifty 0.3ml sachets) – “lightweight and contains a skin-conditioning complex of minerals that evens skin tone”
- AM & PM Essentials ($139.95 for two bottles of 60 caplets) – “dietary supplements exclusively designed for your well-being”
- Reserve ($134.95 for a box of thirty 30ml pouches) – “a botanical blend of antioxidants that super-charge your internal systems”
- Finiti ($289.95 for two bottles of 60 capsules) – a “proprietary blend of natural ingredients known to safely lengthen short telomeres and maintain healthy stem cells”
- Zen Shape ($55.95 for a bottle of 120 capsules) – “fights sugar cravings while controlling hunger”
- Zen Fit ($48.95 for thirty single-serve packets) – “a rich source of amino acids, which aid with muscle recovery as well as with the digestion of proteins”
- Zen Pro ($69.95 for fourteen single-serve packets) – a “potent blend of whey, rice, and pea proteins to build the power you need to tone up”
The Jeunesse Compensation Plan
The Jeunesse compensation plan sees affiliate paid for making retail sales of Jeunesse products to retail customers. The MLM side of the business sees affiliates paid on the sales efforts of their recruited affiliate downline, with an emphasis on signing affiliates up on a monthly autoship order.
Jeunesse Affiliate Ranks
There are fifteen affiliate ranks within the Jeunesse compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Associate (no MLM) – sign up as a Jeunesse affiliate (minimum $49.95)
- Distributor – generate 100 PV within a 30 day period
- Executive – maintain 100 PV a month and recruit 2 Distributors
- Jade Executive – maintain 100 PV a month and recruit and maintain 4 Executives or 8 Distributors
- Pearl Executive – maintain 100 PV a month and recruit and maintain 8 Executives or 12 Distributors
- Sapphire Executive – maintain 100 PV a month and recruit and maintain 12 Executives
- Sapphire Elite – maintain 100 PV a month and Sapphire Executive qualification, in addition to earning at least 100 binary commissions the previous month (an ongoing requirement)
- Ruby Director – maintain 100 PV a month, have at least two Sapphire qualified legs and have earned at least 200 binary commissions the previous month
- Emerald Director – maintain 100 PV a month, have at least four Sapphire qualified legs and have earned at least 500 binary commissions the previous month
- Diamond Director – maintain 100 PV a month, have at least six Sapphire qualified legs and have earned at least 1000 binary commissions the previous month
- Double Diamond Director – maintain 100 PV a month, have at least two Diamond Director legs and have earned at least 1500 binary commissions the previous month
- Triple Diamond Director – maintain 100 PV a month, maintain a downline of at least 10,000 affiliates on autoship, have at least four Diamond legs and generate at least 2,000,000 GV a month in downline sales volume (no more than 500,000 GV from any one recruitment line)
- Presidential Diamond Director – maintain 100 PV a month, maintain a downline of at least 15,000 affiliates on autoship, have at least six Diamond legs and generate at least 3,000,000 GV a month in downline sales volume (no more than 500,000 GV from any one recruitment line)
- Imperial Diamond Director – maintain 100 PV a month, maintain a downline of at least 20,000 affiliates on autoship, have at least eight Diamond legs and generate at least 4,000,000 GV a month in downline sales volume (no more than 500,000 GV from any one recruitment leg)
Note that a “Sapphire qualified leg” is a recruitment leg that has one qualified Sapphire ranked affiliate in it.
A Diamond Director leg is a recruitment leg with a Diamond Director or higher ranked affiliate in it, with a Diamond leg simply requiring a Diamond Director or higher ranked affiliate in it.
Also note that Jeunesse affiliates can temporary buy affiliate ranks when they sign up as follows:
- Supreme Package ($499.95) – Pearl Executive rank for 60 days
- Jumbo Package ($799.95) – Sapphire Executive rank for 90 days
- Ambassador Package ($1099.95) – Sapphire Executive rank for 180 days
- 1 Year Jumbo Package ($1799.95) – Sapphire Executive rank for 90 days
Retail Commissions
True retail doesn’t seem to exist in Jeunesse, with affiliates instead encouraged to purchase product themselves and then resell it:
At any level in Jeunesse, Distributors are able to purchase products at the wholesale price for personal use.
As a Distributor, you are also able to resell Jeunesse products and earn a retail profit.
What happens after a Jeunesse affiliate purchases products is external to the Jeunesse compensation plan, with the above description not fitting that of bonafide retail sales in MLM.
That said, products are purchaseable from the Jeunesse website, which when used with a Jeunesse affiliate referral link would count as retail. Ditto retail customer orders placed through an affiliate directly with Jeunesse (not supplied by product resale).
On those sales, the Jeunesse compensation plan quotes a 20 to 45% retail commission.
Note that Jeunesse preferred customer orders count as retail commissions.
Preferred customers receive a 20% discount on the retail price of Jeunesse products, in exchange for signing up for a monthly autoship order.
Commissions paid on preferred customer orders are the difference between the price paid by the customer and the wholesale cost of the product(s) ordered.
A $25 commission is also paid out if a preferred customer refers two new preferred customers to Jeunesse. Note that this commission is paid out to the affiliate who signed up the preferred customer, not the customer who referred the two new customers.
Retail Commission Bonus
If a Jeunesse affiliate makes a sale to five retail or preferred customers, or they recruit five Jeunesse affiliates who purchase a Basic Product Package ($199.95) but have not yet recruited another affiliate (classified as wholesale customers in the Jeunesse compensation plan) in any given month, a 10% retail bonus commission is paid out.
If the number of sales is ten, a 10% bonus commission is paid out.
Note that the above qualification criteria is for US and Canada based affiliates only. Outside of the US and Canada the retail bonus qualification criteria revolves around autoship recruitment.
To qualify for a 5% bonus retail commission, a Jeunesse affiliate must recruit and maintain five autoship customers each month. These customers can be preferred retail customers, or affiliates on autoship who have not recruited another affiliate.
If the number of autoship customers is 10 for any given month, then the retail bonus is paid out at 10%.
Recruitment Commissions
When a Jeunesse affiliate recruits a new affiliate who signs up with a product package, the following recruitment commissions are paid out:
- Basic Package ($199.95) – $25 commission
- Supreme Package ($499.95) – $100 commission
- Jumbo Package ($799.95) – $200 commission
- 1-Year Jumbo Package ($1799.95) – $200 commission
- Ambassador Package ($1099.95) – $250 commission
If a newly recruited affiliate signs up and purchases products outside of the above packages, then the following commission percentages are paid out:
- 100 to 200 CV order = 10% commission
- 200 to 300 CV order = 12% commission
- 301 or more CV order = 15%
Note that CV stands for “Commissionable Volume”, a point value allocated to each Jeunesse product and affiliate product package for the purpose of commission calculation.
MLM Commission Qualification
In order to qualify for MLM commissions in Jeunesse, each affiliate must generate in sales or purchase 100 PV in products within a single month.
Thereafter in order to remain commission qualified, each affiliate must maintain 60 PV in product volume each month. This monthly requirement can be met either through sales to retail customers or via an affiliate’s own purchase of products.
Note that PV stands for “Personal Volume”, with it having the same point value and purpose as CV (explained above).
Residual Commissions
Residual commissions in Jeunesse are paid out weekly using a binary compensation structure.
A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):
Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of new affiliates, with positions filled left to right as the binary team expands.
Sales and affiliate purchase volume is tracked through both sides of the binary with commissions paid out using a 2:1 matching ratio.
When 600 GV of sales volume matches up with 300 GV on the other side (which side is which doesn’t matter), a $35 commission is paid out.
Note that every Jeunesse affiliate’s binary earnings are capped at 750 matches ($26,260) a week.
Leadership Matching Bonus
The Leadership Matching Bonus pays a percentage match on binary commissions earned by recruited affiliates, paid out down seven levels of recruitment.
How many levels an affiliate can earn on is determined by their Jeunesse affiliate rank as follows:
- Jade Executive – 20% match on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
- Pearl Executive – 20% match on level 1, 15% match on level 2
- Sapphire Executive and Sapphire Elite – 20% match on level 1, 15% match on level 2 and 10% match on level 3
- Ruby Director – 20% match on level 1, 15% match on level 2, 10% match on level 3 and 5% match on level 4
- Emerald Director – 20% match on level 1, 15% match on level 2, 10% match on level 3 and 5% match on levels 4 and 5
- Diamond Director – 20% match on level 1, 15% match on level 2, 10% match on level 3 and 5% match on levels 4 to 6
- Double Diamond Director – 20% match on level 1, 15% match on level 2, 10% match on level 3 and 5% match on levels 4 to 7
Diamond Bonus Pool
The Diamond Bonus Pool is made up of 3% of Jeunesse’s company-wide commissionable sales volume.
The pool is paid out per quarter, with affiliates able to qualify for a share of the pool by acquiring and maintaining ten retail, preferred or wholesale customers throughout each month of the quarter.
If the above qualification criteria is met and a Jeunesse affiliate is at the Diamond or higher rank, then shares in the pool are allocated as follows:
- qualifying as a Diamond Director (first time) = 1 share
- maintaining Diamond or higher qualification each month = 1 share per month an affiliate maintains Diamond or higher rank qualification
- a personally recruited Jeunesse affiliate qualifies at the Diamond rank (first time) = 1 share
- each 1000 binary commissions paid out in the quarter = 1 share
- (non-US and Canadian affiliates) recruit and maintain ten affiliates who are signed up on autoship = 1 share
Rank Achievement Bonus
Jeunesse pay the following cash bonuses when affiliate qualify at the Triple Diamond Director or higher rank:
- Triple Diamond Director – $100,000 bonus
- Presidential Diamond Director – $250,000 bonus paid over 12 months
- Imperial Diamond Director – $500,000 paid over 24 months
Lifestyle Rewards
Jeunesse offer the following performance-based incentives to their affiliates:
- qualify as an Emerald Director for at least three months in the calendar year = a trip to “the luxurious Grand Wailea Resort in Hawaii for five days of fun in the sun”
- qualify as a Diamond Director for at least three months in the calendar year = an “annual six-day Diamond Discovery” held at “exclusive five-star resorts and experiencing some incredible adventures together”
According to the Jeunesse compensation plan, affiliates may only qualify once for the Emerald Director reward:
You may only participate in this experience the first year you meet the qualification criteria.
Joining Jeunesse
Basic affiliate membership with Jeunesse is $49.95 and then $19.95 annually.
Note that if a affiliate signs up for and maintains a minimum a minimum of 360 CV in autoship the previous year, the $19.95 annual affiliate fee is waived.
To give you an idea of how much 360 CV in autoship is, here’s an example of some Jeunesse autoship monthly orders:
- 1 bottle of Luminesce cellular rejuvenation serum, 1 box of Reserve gel packs, 1 set of AM & PM Essentials and 1 set of Finiti costs $299 and generates 200 CV
- 1 bottle of Luminesce cellular rejuvenation serum and 1 box of Reserve gel packs costs $167.90 and generates 120 CV
Single product orders of Jeunesse generate between 20 CV ($29.95) and 120 CV ($179.95).
When signing up, an affiliate can also choose to do so via a Product Package:
- Basic Package – $199.95
- Supreme Package – $499.95
- Jumbo Package – $799.95
- 1-Year Jumbo Package – $1799.95
- Ambassador Package – $1099.95
The primary difference between these packages is products bundled with them, as well as income potential through the Jeunesse compensation plan.
Conclusion
With a readily retailable product line, there is no question that Jeunesse as an opportunity is able to marketed to retail customers.
The question most of you are reading this review want answered is whether or not that’s actually happening.
Before we get into that, I have to point out that Jeunesse do make a fair effort to encourage retail sales. Affiliates who generate retail sales are rewarded with products and of course the commissions the sales generate.
The problem is the rest of the Jeunesse compensation plan departs from this focus, leading itself to a focus on affiliate recruitment and autoship.
This is most evident in the Jeunesse affiliate ranks, which start off with a 100 PV requirement that I imagine is universally qualified for by an affiliate’s own purchase of Jeunesse products. Recruitment then kicks in as well as meeting minimum downline rank requirements.
Then at the Triple Diamond Director rank, all of a sudden an affiliate needs 10,000 affiliates in their downline on monthly autoship.
Not as an optional method of meeting monthly sales volume quotas, but as a requirement in and of itself.
Think about that for a moment.
It’s not like Jeunesse affiliates are going to hit Triple Diamond Director and then switch their focus on recruiting affiliates on autoship. The 10,000 (later 20,000) autoship recruitment quota is built up from the ground throughout the rest of the compensation plan.
The retail incentives I mentioned earlier? Jeunesse affiliates need to be on monthly autoship to qualify for it. And if an Jeunesse affiliate maintains autoship, they don’t have to pay annual affiliate fees.
One thing I also noticed was the suspicious separate qualification criteria for the retail bonus and Diamond Bonus Pool.
Non US and Canadian affiliates can qualify for both solely based on their affiliate autoship recruitment efforts.
Why?
Why aren’t these affiliates subject to the same qualification criteria as US and Canadian affiliates?
In December 2013 Scott Lewis, Jeunesse’s Chief Visionary Officer, told Direct Selling News that ‘Asia Pacific is about 80 percent of Jeunesse’s revenue‘.
Direct Selling News observed this was
unusual for a company started in the United States.
In fact, of Jeunesse Global’s top 10 markets with respect to revenue, the U.S. marketplace ranks eighth.
How much revenue does Asia generate for Jeunesse in 2015? No idea, but I don’t imagine it’s changed too much.
So what’s the significance?
Well autoship recruitment schemes in the US (and Canada) are known as product-based pyramid schemes.
In Asia, regulation of such schemes is decades behind. It’s a market where the old fallacy of “we have products, how can we be a pyramid scheme???” is still trotted out.
The multi-million dollar question here is how much of Jeunesse’s Asian revenue is sourced from affiliates purchasing product on autoship or otherwise. And what percentage of revenue was from genuine retail sales orders.
On a related note, I couldn’t see an Income Disclosure Statement anywhere on the Jeunesse website.
That Jeunesse’s compensation plan is customized to encourage autoship affiliate recruitment outside of the US and Canada speaks volumes as to what the focus of affiliates in those markets is.
That said, it’s not like affiliate autoship chain recruitment isn’t entirely possible in the US and Canada – it’s just that it won’t qualify you for certain bonuses.
Under Jeunesse’s current compensation plan, it’s entirely possible to self-fund commission qualification and then do nothing more than recruit other affiliates who sign up for autoship.
Hell, with 10,000 minimum autoship affiliates required for the beginning of Jeunesse’s top-tier affiliate ranks, it’s pretty obvious that this is the core of the business (what’s the bet existing Triple Diamond Director affiliates have nowhere near 10,000 retail customers throughout their downlines?).
Another indication as to the core driver of revenue within Jeunesse is the recent flocking of Vemma affiliates to the business.
As mentioned in the introduction of this review, Vemma, who operate a similar binary-based affiliate autoship orientated compensation plan, were recently accused of being a product-based pyramid scheme by the FTC.
I’m really not seeing much difference between Vemma and Jeunesse at the backend here, albeit Vemma was slightly more aggressive in their autoship recruitment efforts.
Nonetheless, the reason so many ex-Vemma affiliates are excited about building their new Jeunesse businesses, is because they can carry on doing what they were doing in Vemma.
That is, paying for autoship to qualify for commissions each month and then focusing on recruiting other affiliates who do the same.
A secondary issues in the Jeunesse compensation plan include the purchase of affiliate ranks.
Affiliate ranks within an MLM compensation plan should be obtained via sales performance. In Jeunesse however it’s entirely possible to almost $2000 and buy a rank.
Granted the rank is temporary (unless requirement are met within the set time-period, which can be as long as six month), but ranks are being sold for cash nonetheless.
That recruitment commissions are paid out on these purchases is also cause for concern. By all means pay commissions through the binary on product purchases made by recruited affiliates, but to pay a separate commission out?
That just further encourages affiliates to focus on recruiting package affiliates (who sign up on autoship).
And I’m not making this up, most of the affiliate marketing material I went over for this review (in addition to information on the Jeunesse corporate website) emphasized that paying $1099.95 represented the “first best recommended” option new affiliates sign up with.
And that’s not just lip-service. With marketing material like that, what do you think new Jeunesse affiliates are going to be advised to sign up with?
And it pays their way into the compensation plan ranks to boot!
On the solution side of things, I’ve already mentioned paying affiliate purchase of products through the binary only gets rid of the recruitment commission concerns.
How do you fix the complete lack of incentive to market Jeunesse products at a retail level (beyond qualifying to receive a few tubes of product each month)?
Simple. Add in retail sales volume qualifiers to binary commissions. Implement them incrementally, so that those earning binary commissions are required to be making retail sales each month.
I mean anyone making $26,260 a week should at least be personally generating a minimum $1000 a week in retail sales.
If not, what on Earth are they earning on? (hint hint the FTC and Vemma hint hint)
Update 23rd January 2023 – Jeunesse has been sold to Terry LaCore’s LaCore Enterprises.
Randy Ray and Wendy Lewis have cashed out, with LaCore appointing Jason Borne as CEO.
Borne does have an MLM executive past but I believe was an internal field promotion. Marketing videos from 2017 to 2019 cite Borne as a Diamond Director ranked Jeunesse distributor.
This review was published just over seven years ago and is likely due for an update.
I figure I’ll give LaCore Enterprises a few months to settle down, so I’ve marked Jeunesse on BehindMLM’s calendar for a review update in late March.
1] jenuesse products seem Expensive!
2] jenuesse has no Income Disclosure Statements! this will be very hard to digest by the FTC, if it comes knocking. the FTC puts great emphasis on detailed income disclosure, to prevent deceptive practices.
an article by kevin thompson, MLM attorney says;
3] jenuesse affiliate ranks:
this ^ rank along with retail sales, will provide the fact based evidence about whether jenuesse is MLM, or a product based pyramid. how many members are at this rank and what is the quantum of sales to them.
the ranks above this, are fueled by autoship, and if the jenusse sales data shows emphasis on these higher ranks, then jenuesse is no different from vemma.
4] paying bonus on retail, is a good thing, but it is not the same as ‘ensuring retail’. any affiliate on autoship, is essentially loading inventory, and this attracts the implementation of the ‘amway protections’, which jenuesse does not appear to be doing.
5] purchasing temporary ranks is sooo ‘pay to play’, i wonder how jenuesse can Dare do it. at least, now with the vemma action, we can see the regulatory climate has changed, and jenuesse better Halt this practice immediately!
6] without sales data it is difficult to Prove whether jenuesse emphasizes recruitment over product sale, but an intuitive guess says that most jenuesse affiliates will be on autoship, and retail will be minimal.
Associate affiliates can sign up for autoship and get paid recruitment and retail commissions. They aren’t retail customers.
once they sign up for autoship, their rank will change wont it? they wont be associate affiliates any more?
of course not. but they are affiliates purchasing product for self consumption and resale, and sales to them are genuine product sales, because the Primary Motive is self consumption and resale.
you have to add such genuine product sales to retail sales, to get a picture of how much product sales is going on in an MLM.
Ah my bad. 100 PV in a month switches them over.
Still, if you’re forking out $59.95 just to sign up as an Associate, I think it’s a given you’re going to generate 100 PV in a month (probably through self-purchase).
if the 59.95$ is non commissionable and refundable, the risks to consumers becomes very low.
as there is no inventory requirement thrust on the affiliates they can do just as they please, from buying zero product to 100 PV.
I have a question:
1. whether all the autoship product based mlm illegal? then how about Market America? whether Market America should be shut down?
2. As I see, all the MLM companies based on affiliates recruiting, any one you think is legal? give an example?
No. If you have significant retail sales taking place affiliate autoship is fine.
You’re looking at the wrong MLM companies.
Autoship isn’t illegal in itself. It will heavily reduce distribution costs from manufacturer → retailer → customer.
The illegal part is the pyramid scheme itself. Other deceptive trade practices are illegal too, e.g. price fixing systems, misleading marketing.
no, autoship is not illegal.
MLM companies that rely heavily on autoship are illegal, because they are nothing but product based pyramid schemes in practice.
you cannot sign up affiliates and put them on autoship and pretend everyone is self consuming. if affiliates are on autoship they better be doing some retail.
the retail requirement will ensure that the product has real world value and demand, and prevent the MLM from deteriorating into a product based pyramid scheme, with endless chain recruitment.
for example, a company like vemma [or probably jeunesse], may easily have over 90% of its affiliates on autoship. in contrast, a company like amway may have only between 20-25% of affiliates on autoship. thus the endless chain argument is not sustained in an MLM like amway.
@M Norway post# 8 you stated:
How does autoship do that?
Everything you know in advance can give you the chance to plan it better.
Manufacturer will need to order raw material / ingredients from suppliers. Delivery from supplers can be made more accurate, more “just in time”.
The work force will be more effective if the work can be planned in advance, e.g. how to distribute the work from day to day / week to week / month to month (make the daily and weekly workload become more stable).
The distribution between manufacturer and wholeseller or retailer can be more effective if it can be planned in advance.
Random orders from random customers are much more difficult to plan. They can be planned based on previous experiences, but it will be less accurate.
I believe the Jeunesse autoship requirement is $60 PV, not $100. It can also be achieved by customer product sales with no purchase by the representative. i.e. sell 60PV of product to a customer and autoship is not required, and all status is maintained.
The only thing that happens if a representative does not maintain the 60PV is that their POINTS will not accumulate for the team bonuses, etc. But as soon as they have 60PV, they begin to accumulate again.
@M Norway
Thanks for reply.
A textbook and very generic response that has nothing to do with heavily reducing distribution costs which are based more on quantity and lead times then anything else.
Was hoping I might’ve missed something in several decades of wholesale manufacturing and retail experience that would’ve been relevant.
In my opinion only reason for autoship (or should we say auto buying) is your product can’t sell otherwise. Any other reason is smoke n mirrors.
Can take your response point by point if you wish.
You’re probably entirely correct, however “probably” is the operative word.
The main problem is, it would be logistically and economically impossible to investigate the “smoke and mirrors” aspect of every MLM and pseudo MLM company.
Without Governments and bureaucracies introducing draconian MLM specific laws, it’s hard to see a solution being found, at least in the short term, other than the one currently being undertaken in the Vemma case.
IOW, pick off one or some of the most egregious abuses of the laws governing MLM, putting similar companies on notice.
IM(very)HO, should Vemma be convicted, what is required is for the FTC to follow up by prosecuting five or six companies using the same or similar tactics as Vemma, thus sending the very clear message the pendulum has swung too far and such behaviour/s will no longer be tolerated.
@LRM didn’t see probably anywhere in my post. So let’s not add that and take off in a different direction.
That’s not necessary. Since you asked a rather general question, the answer became generic too.
I don’t have anything NEW to add to it, anything you don’t already know if you’re familiar with distribution of goods, the whole chain.
The question was about whether autoship was a typical part of an illegal system, or whether it was a normal part of business — about its primary function. Its primary function should normally be seen as “quite normal business function”.
Are we talking about the same thing? It seems like you are focusing on one specific part of the chain, on specific conditions?
If you have worked in manufacturing then you know perfectly well that you can reduce costs if you can have some agreements with customers (wholesale or retail) about regular shipments.
It doesn’t necessarily need to be about regular shipments either, it can be about almost anything the customer reasonably can be able to predict about future orders.
Umm, err, “probably” was a word I deliberately inserted into my comment.
Unless you can come up with definitive evidence your statement that “anything else is smoke and mirrors” is the “truth”, the whole “truth” and nothing but the “truth” and that your “truth” aligns exactly with mine, then what we have here is a perfect example of why the FTC and other regulatory agencies are reluctant to act against the MLM industry as a whole, rather than targetting individual companies which go a step too far.
well ahem, meet the newly minted improved version of alex morton:
to be[lieve], or not to be[lieve]?
I believe Morton has been in talk with lawyers since he read our articles on his building of Vemma 2.0 at Jeunesse (hi Alex!).
This follows on from the recent lack of self-fellacio posts on his Facebook timeline.
Whether or not Morton’s talk of retail focus is lip-service or put into practice remains to be seen. The Jeunesse compensation plan certainly won’t help (upper ranks require 10,000s of recruited affiliates on monthly autoship and have no retail qualifiers at all).
The lack of actual Retail Sales, the dirty little secret of MLM, is now seeing the light of the day.
If your company or line of distributorship is promoting any of these power phrases, you might want to wake up sunshine:
1. Just Get Two
2. Don’t worry about the price of the product, get three and yours if FREE
3. Hey Bob, I just found this deal that is exploding. My friends are making $10,000 per month in their FIRST MONTH. BAM!!
Bob asks, “What is the product?”
MLMer response, “The product? Jeez…who cares dude. People are making $10,000 in their FIRST MONTH! This beats working for a living! BAM!
4. We already have a POSITION saved for you on the POWER LEG.
5. We will build HALF of your check for you
6. NO MEETINGS. NO SELLING. NO TALKING TO FRIENDS. WATCH THE VIDEO! BAM! BAM! This deal is blowing up man! We’ll get rich!
7. I know we all lost money on my last 7 deals but THIS ONE is different.
8. No selling required. Just invite your friends to our meeting and we will do the SELLING for you.
To all of you posters who are saying that PRICE DOESN’T MATTER, I say this:
The average price for gas around the country just reached $2.44 per gallon How many people do you know that would agree to pay up to 50% more for THE SAME GAS?
I know people who will drive out of their way to save 2 cents per gallon.
It is time to get real here folks. The MLM Model is Broken (ADDS COST TO THE CONSUMER) and I hope the FTC sends a strong signal by pointing out this fact during the Vemma court battles.
THERE IS NOTHING ILLEGAL WITH SELLING OVERPRICED PRODUCTS. Some would argue that 7-11 charges more for a bag of chips than Walmart. Hey, I get it….convenience comes at a price.
But that is not the point with the delivery of products thru the MLM Model, is it? In fact, there are little to no retail sales in the MLM Model! 🙂
The Tree analogy applies well to the MLM industry: The Roots (MLM MODEL) are Dead but the Leaves (most distributors) don’t know it….YET.
let’s face facts…….in light of the vemma scam, he thinks he’s going to deflect attention from his name on their records by posting bullshit.
Oz/Whip – I don’t understand why the regulators take action against the MLM companies and their Top Distributors but never go after the other MLMers who push these pyramid schemes too.
If they finally decide to do so with Vemma, that will help put an end to a lot of what is going on. Most of these distributors have a “wink and a nod” view to Pyramid Laws and believe they can jump from deal to deal and get away with it each time, as they have in the past…..many times.
These “promoters” are as guilty as the rest of the bunch, IMO.
Not many can or want to handle the True Jeunesse Story, but here you go…..
It amazes me how many people think Jeunesse and its fearless leaders are such ethical wonderful people when that is complete BULL!
First off, Randy, Wendy and Rob Dawson (The 3 owners) got Jeunesse off the ground by bankrupting FFi’s bank account and them raping its distributor base and screwing A LOT of people in the process to only benefit themselves!
Then they cut deals LEFT AND RIGHT to certain distributors to get their base going in Asia because they knew that is where all the money was.
People like TOP RATED SCUM OF THE INDUSTRY JASON CARAMANIS! They put him in AND MOVED HIM and his entities AROUND IN THE GENEOLOGIES above numerous legs cutting him deals and several other people to generate them revenue to get it off the ground.
As far as your early post mentioning of 80% of their income is coming from Asia, absolutely it is!
What they do is have meetings in Hong Kong and fly and move people across the boarders and do business in China illegally. That’s how they built the entire company and the initial revenue stream.
Then once they got their hands on some money, they started offering company deals left and right to broke mlm veterans in the U.S. to camoflouge the whole illegal China scam.
They had/have leaders pushing cash inside the China borders with pay cards.
People like Caramanis go behind the scenes and offer cash deals and relocation of downlines to recruit big hitters to further the scheme daily.
Their so called retailable products are GROSSLY over priced. You can buy very similar products online for a fraction of the price! Certain top leaders have quoted “It’s just one big legal money game”.
Not only has Jeunesse never had any income disclosure statements for each of it’s years of business, but also what they count as a retail sale is a total sham!
Any good legal investigation would find that out, because what they count as a retail sale is simply any distributor who hasn’t recruited another distributor, they count them as retail sale only. That is not legal!
Not to mention they charge an annual membership fee. Membership fee for what? A website that cost nothing? What do you actually get for 50 bucks a year?
It’s just a matter of time before Randy, Wendy and Rob sell out before the shit hits the fan, because that has been their plan the entire time to load their pockets while all the sheep go to slaughter again except for their insider front people just like they did with FFi. (Fuel/Forever Freedom International)
They already have plenty of cash and assets stashed away in Panama, as well as backup online business hard and software to cover everything when big brother comes knocking at their door. They then will drop doing business in North America in a heartbeat.
Once again, amazes me how wonderful all the sheep think these people are!
Jeunessse has a secondary role in Mannatech / Sam Castor’s fall. When Darryle See embaarassed Castor with the supposedly study of ambrotose (later turned out to be bogus) and Castor sued See, See went to Jeunesse.
And to answer John’s question…
To answer that, you have to answer: WHY autoship?
Autoship to keep the stuff in stock — probably legal
Autoship to keep qualifying for the commission — probably illegal
Mouse, how do you know all of this? Did you work for Jeunesse before? Where is your proof.
Hey Levo, You really think I could or would pull all of that out of my ass?
I’m a long time veteran of the industry and know most all the scum bags of the industry. I usually don’t say much, but once in a while I have to just speak up.
I’m simply tired of everyone praising all the Jeunesse Owners on how great they are, and how great the company is when it absolutely is not true, and it’s simply time for them to get exposed.
If you don’t believe anything I said then go ask them, and watch how fast they deny it and can’t answer your questions, and dodge it all. It’s all totally true!
Go see what you can find on Jason Caramanis anywhere. You wont find anything, no facebook page, no nothing no where. Why cause he stays hidden to do all the backroom deals for the ownership.
Funny how one of the top 5 paid distributors of Jeunesse you can’t find anything out about isn’t? Don’t you find that a little strange?
Normally people making the money he is making they are parading all of the place to lure people into their scam.
Speaking of that is another issue….I can’t for the life of me figure out what everyone is so excited about either at Jeunesse. Their comp plan is a total dinosaur Binary plan, and their products you can find anywhere for a fraction of the price. What the hell is everywhere so excited about??
Also you notice Randy and Wendy are called co-founders? Well who are the other co-founders? You never see any mention of the other owners or founders do you? Why is that I wonder? I know why……………
Levo you can doubt me and my inside knowledge all you want, really doesn’t matter to me.
Bottom line is, Jeunesse isn’t even close to what all the sheep think it is, and especially the ownership of it!
TINA aren’t too happy with Jeunesse:
truthinadvertising.org/what-you-should-know-about-jeunesse-global/
According to JusticeAlwaysLate, Jeunesse has been ordered to cease marketing in Malaysia, and Government have ordered Malaysian ISP to block access to JeunesseGlobal.com for violation of “control of drugs and cosmetics act”.
Hmm I can’t find any news on it other than that screenshot.
I’m not expecting much, but maybe an announcement by the relevant Malaysian authority?
clearly it was taking away from uFun. lol
According to an expose in Chinese, founders of Jeunesse / GCC, is also involved in My Fuel Freedom, may even be founders?
From the review:
I believe that you must also hear from the majority of the consumers of Jeunesse products whom I represent.
A friend gave me samples of their products and I love them! I wanted to get the 35% discount, so I signed in.
In truth, the autoship requirements is not even enough to supply my family’s monthly needs, so I end up purchasing large packages. If you care to google images for “RESERVE by Jeunesse testimonials” you will be overwhelmed by real stories from real people from different places all over the world whose lives have been changed by Jeunesse products.
Randy Ray and Wendy Lewis has struck gold with their phenomenal products and this is exactly the reason why Jeunesse has hit a billion dollar sales in just six years, making it the youngest and fastest Direct Selling Association to achieve such as feat.
I suggest you try the product yourselves and I’m sure your clouded opinion about Jeunesse will radically change 🙂
How… how is that even possible?
How much product do you buy on autoship each month as an affiliate, and how much are you retailing? (dollar amounts please)
Who elected you representative to “majority of consumers of Jeunesse products”? What does that even mean?
Does the company know you’re doing this? Is this even compliant with their marketing guidelines? Or the FTC’s?
Mr Quinos’ response is a perfect example of why regulatory authorities don’t rely on the anecdotal evidence of a handful of victim/members when investigating suspected ponzi and pyramid schemes.
Orlando boom company Jeunesse faces scrutiny over direct sales structure:
orlandosentinel.com/business/os-jeunesse-direct-seller-20161111-story.html
I think there is a misunderstanding that should be clarified regarding autoship.
Monthly authoship is a (probably intentional) misnomer. There is no requirement that a distributor buys monthly autoship. However there is a requirement that a distributor generates a minimal activity of 60 points whether through through autoship, back office sales or website purchases.
I think it makes it easier to explain (or exploit) for Jeunesse to use the word montly Autoship.
Again, monthly self purchases ARE NOT A REQUIREMENT.
That does change the fact that there is way too much emphasis on recruiting… but still on that specific point you are absolutely wrong.
Whether autoship is a requirement or not becomes irrelevant when the majority of affiliates are qualifying for commissions via autoship.
You concede affiliate recruitment is a core focus within Jeunesse. Affiliate recruitment and autoship commission qualification go hand in hand.
The review doesn’t state autoship is a requirement. You just made that up and ran with it.
I forgot… I did find an income disclosure statement which stated that on average most distributors make less thant $79/year in comission.
Also, it only makes sense for executives (people with at least 2 recruits) to be on Monthly Autoship. Ranks below: Distributors and (espcially) Associates do not really benefit from maintaining a 60points minimum.
Lastly, the cost for the annual license in Europe is only $29… and depending on promotions just $1.
Triple Diamond and higher ranks have affiliate autoship recruitment requirements built into the qualification criteria.
If you’re a Jeunesse affiliate and not on autoship, expect a lot of pressure from the first Triple Diamond or higher in your upline to sign up for it.
Maybe.. but they way you stated it (and again I think the Jeunesse company as well) is misleading.
It seems to me the that minimal sales activity level is rather low and that it is not unreasonable for a company to have a required minimal network participation level in order to benefit from the network. Otherwise one might just signup, disappear and be paid monthly for no activity at all…
However I cut it, it makes sense. Perhaps other aspects of the jeunesse marketing machine make this requirement look like some sort of encouragement to hoarding inventory… but really I’m not sure there is a way around. If so do let me know…
How so? You seem to have read into what wasn’t there and claimed what isn’t there is misleading.
If that’s affiliate purchases at the expense of retail then you’re looking at an autoship recruitment scheme, which in MLM constitutes pyramid recruiting (see Vemma).
Except that’s not how MLM works. Commissions should primarily be tied to the sale of a product or service to retail customers.
I am a jeunesse affiliate and no body has ever pressured me to be on autoship… Actually that was one of the reasons why I was not going to signup… until I found out it was not a requirement. My websales cover the minimal activity and I have never had to buy autoship.
Again, this montly autoship thing does make it sound seedy but again, even for diamond or double diamond and all other compensation scheme:
THERE IS NO MONTHLY AUTOSHIP REQUIREMENT.
The requirement is that you have X people with a minimal sales activity of at least 60points.
========
The issue that you miss however is that beyond 60 points, any purchases from a distributor is useless to him/her which then has its own pernicious effects but that is another discussion.
This is what the Jeunesse compensation plan has in the Triple Diamond qualification criteria (verbatim):
Your immediate upline is obviously not a Triple Diamond.
While I was looking for that I also came across this dodgy nonsense:
Those are specific “non-US” rules because in the US regulators would see that as a pyramid scheme.
No so much in China, *winkwink, nudgenudge*.
I mean hey, congratulations if you’re a Jeunesse affiliate qualifying for commissions via retail sales. But by all accounts you’re in the minority.
Commissions ARE tied to product retail… when people buy from my website I get a commission. However, it is in the interest of the company (and mine) to duplicate that effort to whatever extent is possible. How do you incentivize the duplication?
Also, if minimal activity is a requirement, authoship is a convenient solution (too convenient you probably say) so that a distributor accumulated points does get accidentally erased for a one off lack of activity.
If not they might have to fake a retail sales which makes no sense since they can buy from their back office as well ( and send to their cousin? 🙂
In any case again I did concede that there was too much an emphasis on recruiting (and the perversions that come with it) However it is a bit normal to want to acheive scale in order to distribute a product.
To your point, I have heard several times already that the company was preparing to change the compensation plan to emphasize more retail sales… we’ll see.
Again they do make it way too easy for distributor to think they have to make a monthly purchase. If you made that point I would grant that wholeheartedly.
But there is NO such requirement. I think that from a matter principled intellectual honesty you make the distinction between what might be the practice or the effect and the requirement.
It maybe that the the practice was always intend that way (which is really devious since it is not a requirement)… but it is misleading to label something a requirement when it is not.
Yes I KNOW… that is how it is stated but that is incorrect and misleading (for them to state that way). I have already explained why.
Residual commissions are paid out on retail sales volume are they not?
This is supposed to be the cornerstone of every MLM business.
If an affiliate can’t consistently meet minimum volume requirements via retail sales, they should probably look at doing something else.
Commission qualification via autoship leads to autoship affiliate recruitment which leads to a pyramid scheme (ref: Vemma).
They’re probably waiting for an outcome on the FTC’s Vemma case. Y’know, to see how much they can get away with going forward.
Never said there was. Again, you just made that up and ran with it.
If you can point out where in the review it states autoship is a requirement I’ll happily address it.
I’m sorry what? The official Jeunesse compensation plan is “misleading”?
Yeah you’ll have to forgive me for taking what’s clearly written over an affiliate claiming otherwise.
Triple Diamond qualification requires 10,000 affiliates on autoship. That’s what written and that’s what it is.
I wrote this review over a year ago and the qualification criteria is still the same. Surely if it was wrong Jeunesse would have changed it by now?
Your interpretation of the compensation plan doesn’t appear to be based on facts.
Don’t need to be. Vemma was judged to be a pyramid scheme. They don’t have any “autoship requirement” either, but the entire emphasis on the comp plan is “get on autoship and stay on autoship”.
You’re welcome to read what Kevin Thompson, one of the few MLM lawyers, wrote about it:
( NOLINK://thompsonburton.com/mlmattorney/2015/10/01/vemma-analysis-lessons-learned-part-1/ )
With no end users, Vemma was judged to be a pyramid scheme.
Jeunesse is just like Vemma, as they have identical “not a requirement” blah blah. You can’t stay qualified without autoship. Don’t bull**** yourself.
My Interpretation of the requirement is based on my own **experience**. Again, I have never had to make an autoship purchase.
Your interpretation is based on the assumption of what the word authoship means.
Which one has any weight?
That said, I want to make sure you hear me right:
You have EVERY reason to understand it the way you do. Also I do think jeunesse is being devious/disingenuous/careless in using a word that is going to be understood in its most natural way (the way you understand it).
Also to the point of K. Chang, if the legal test of pyramidal schemes is based on the effect and not the requirement, I would concede it.
However, from what I understand the other necessary test is the ratio of users vs pure networkers.
I don’t have the info on that.
I only know from my own experience…. Personally I am mostly an online seller. When I recruit people, they generally already are in the beauty industry or commerce, often they have brick and mortar shops. I just offer a new revenue stream.
Also personally, most of my friends happen to be rather well off and they have very very very little interest in any type of MLM “SH!#!@%!@!” (to quote one of them) and would not be caught dead anywhere the words MLM. HOWEVER, some of them do buy the products regularly (and are on autoship 🙂
On one hand, I understand your point and it is well taken. But again my experience has been that I first present the products. If they like it, then I suggest they become at least distributors to get the product a whole sale price.
Again that is MY experience and that of those around me.
Why do you keep coming back to this?
The review doesn’t state autoship is required to earn commissions.
The only time it’s required is for Triple Diamond and higher qualification, and then it’s the immediate downline.
We’ve already established your immediate upline isn’t a Triple Diamond or higher.
Autoship is autoship, there’s nothing to interpret. Ditto the Triple Diamond qualification criteria.
You’ve basically just gone: “I don’t have to sign up for autoship, so the Jeunesse compensation plan qualification criteria that doesn’t apply to me or my upline is misleading.”
New registrations down:
traffic.alexa.com/graph?o=lt&y=t&b=ffffff&n=666666&f=999999&p=4e8cff&r=1y&t=2&z=30&c=1&h=150&w=340&u=jeunesseglobal.com
I need to get more detail information on how Jeunesse affiliates are going to hit Triple Diamond Director rank… I have read the review but I don’t really comprehend on whether this 10,000 affiliates on auto-ship or 20,000 to be recruited are calculated based on all time affiliates I have recruited, or if these are to be recruited within 3 months.
please help me to understand this.
thank you in anticipation and worm regards.
Mr. Rich, a network marketer.
@Rich
all-time downline affiliates, not three months.
Do you need to have auto ship to not loose points?
You can meet monthly requirements via retail sales, however there’s no indication significant retail activity is taking place in Jeunesse.
Thus the defacto method of maintaining commission qualification would appear to be affiliate autoship.
I’ve had three readers contact me this month claiming or asking about Jeunesse being sold off.
ACN is the forerunner. And this includes at least one Double Diamond Jeunesse downline being sold off to OmegaPro, in a deal brokered by Eric Worre.
I haven’t been able to verify anything hence no article. But when three different readers send in similar emails, something is probably up.
Review updated with news of LaCore Enterprises buying Jeunesse. Updated Jeunesse review coming late March.