AAA Marketing Rewards Review: No retail incentive
AAA Marketing Rewards was launched in late 2012 and operate in the MLM penny auction niche.
The company provides a “head office” address in the US state of Missouri and is headed up by William Barnhart (below right, credited as ‘William “Jamie” Barnhart’ on the AAA Marketing Rewards website), who serves as company President.
I was unable to find any additional information on Barnhart’s involvement in the MLM industry at either the corporate or affiliate level, indicating that AAA Marketing Rewards is his first MLM venture.
Some initial confusion over how AAA Rewards Marketing was first promoted appears evident, with one ex-affiliate filing the following complaint with the BBB:
Complaint: Product is not as advertised and AAA Marketing Rewards president ***** ****** promised refund and did not deliver.
Signed up and paid for “founding membership” when company first started. Company direction was advertised to be a certain way.
When the company changed direction, I requested to be removed and refunded my membership. ***** ****** said he would refund money but has not done so.
When confronted recently, He said I would have to sue him to get it back. This company is drawing people in with promises that ****** not be honored.
What “certain way” AAA Marketing Rewards was initially marketed with isn’t clarified, however the company did file a response:
The customer in question joined our company in the first part of January 2013 all our members have a 3 day right of refusal as listed in our terms and conditions they also have the right to sell their membership to another person at any time they wish.
The company operates as promoted we have not changed direction.
The customer in question did call asking for a refund in the first week of April 4 months after the purchase this year and we refered to the 3 day right of refusal on all memberships but also stated we would help to sell his membership which we are working on and i expect that ****** be acompolish (sic) in the next 30 days.
If he was not happy with his membership why did he refer it to people and recruit two people under his membership?
Read on for a full review of the AAA Marketing Rewards MLM business opportunity.
The AAA Marketing Rewards Product Line
As with most MLM penny auction companies, AAA Marketing Rewards is attached to a separate penny auction site.
The name of the AAA Marketing Rewards’ penny auction site is “AAA Penny Auction”, on which mostly gift cards are auctioned off.
Bids for the AAA Penny Auction site are sold in packs, ranging in price from $11.25 to $168.75:
- 15 bids – $11.25
- 35 bids -$ 26.25
- 75 bids – $56.25
- 150 bids – $112.50
- 225 bids – $168.75
After participating in the AAA Penny Auctions earlier this year, a customer shared their experience on the Scam.com forums:
After taking some in depth time to look into their business plan, I decided I would try out their product like I always do before looking into a business opportunity.
(The) “company” is based off of a penny auction site aaapennyauction and he (Barnhart) uses a drop shipper to send the product.
I did manage to win an auction after being deceived out of many of my expensive bids, and the product I receive was not what I bidded on.
When I contacted their customer service to fix the issue, I was promised something, and they never followed through.
Whether or not the above dispute was eventually resolved is unclear.
An “AAA Cashback” link marked “new” also appears on the AAA Marketing Rewards website, however this cashback platform appears to have nothing to do with the AAA Marketing Rewards MLM opportunity itself.
The AAA Marketing Rewards Compensation Plan
The AAA Marketing Rewards compensation plan revolves around the sale and purchase of AAA Penny Auction bid packs. Commissions are paid out via retail, matrix and revenue-sharing commissions.
Retail Commissions
Retail commissions are offered on all retail customer (non-affiliate) purchases of bid packs. AAA Marketing Rewards pay out affiliates a 15% commission on bids purchased by retail customers they introduce to the AAA Penny Auction site.
AAA Marketing Rewards Affiliate Membership Ranks
There are eight affiliate membership ranks within the AAA Marketing Rewards compensation plan and, along with their respective monthly qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Affiliate – 20 PV and have a downline generating at least 20 GV
- Presidential Director – 200 PV and have a downline generating at least 200 GV
- Executive Director – 500 PV and have a downline generating at least 1500 GV
- Senior Executive Director – 750 PV and have a downline generating at least 10,000 GV
- Bronze Executive Director – 1000 PV and have a downline generating at least 30,000 GV
- Silver Executive Director – 1500 PV and have a downline generating at least 100,000 GV
- Gold Executive Director – 2000 PV and have a downline generating at least 200,000 GV
- Diamond Executive Director – 2500 PV and have a downline generating at least 500,000 GV
Note that “PV” stands for “Personal Volume” and includes an affiliate’s retail customer purchases, as well as their own purchases and that of their downline.
“GV” stands for “Group Volume” and is the sales volume generated by an affiliate’s downline.
Matrix Commissions
Residual commissions in AAA Marketing Rewards are paid out using a 3×10 matrix compensation structure. A 3×10 matrix places an affiliate at the top of the matrix, with three positions directly under them (level 1):
In turn, these first three positions each expand out into another three positions (level 2) and so on and so forth down a total of ten levels.
Commissions are paid out as a percentage of the sales volume generated by recruited affiliates in the matrix, with how many levels an affiliate is paid out on being determined by their affiliate membership rank.
- Affiliate (3×3 matrix) – 10% on levels 1 and 2 (not paid out on level 3 according to AAA Marketing Rewards compensation plan material)
- Presidential Director (3×4 matrix) – 10% on levels 1 and 2, 5% on level 3 and 4% on level 4
- Executive Director (3×5 matrix) – 10% on levels 1 to 3, 5% on level 4 and 4% on level 5
- Senior Executive Director (3×6 matrix) – 10% on levels 1 to 3, 5% on levels 4 and 5 and 4% on level 6
- Bronze Executive Director (3×7 matrix) – 10% on levels 1 to 4, 5% on level 5, 4% on level 6 and 2% on level 7
- Silver Executive Director (3×8 matrix) – 10% on levels 1 to 4, 5% on level 5, 4% on level 6, 3% on level 7 and 2% on level 8
- Gold Executive Director (3×9 matrix) – 10% on levels 1 to 4, 5% on level 5, 4% on level 6, 3% on level 7 and 2% on levels 8 and 9
- Diamond Executive Director (3×10 matrix) – 10% on levels 1 to 4, 5% on level 5, 4% on level 6, 3% on level 7 and 2% on levels 8 to 10
Note that Gold Executive Director’s are able to earn commissions beyond the ten levels above, provided their downline is generating at least 1,500,000 GV a month. If this qualification criteria is met, Gold Executive Director ranked affiliates earn a 1% additional commission on the sales volume generated from level 11 down to infinity.
Diamond Executive Directors can increase this percentage to 2%, provided they have a downline generating at least 3,000,000 GV a month.
Gold Executive Director – as above plus a 1% on commission on all matrix levels beyond level 10
Diamond Executive Director – as above plus a 2% commission on all matrix levels beyond level 10
Sales Volume Sharing Pool
AAA Marketing Rewards’ Sales Volume Sharing Pool is made up of ‘50% of the Company’s Net Sales Volume of AAA Marketing Rewards by the personal recruitment of Retail customers and qualified and active Affiliates‘.
This balance is paid out monthly to qualifying affiliates, with how much is paid out to each affiliate determined via a share system.
Shares can be earnt in the Sales Volume Sharing Pool as follows:
- retail customer purchasing a bid pack = 1 share
- recruited affiliate purchasing a bid pack = 1 share
- generate 100 PV = 1 share
Joining AAA Marketing Rewards
Affiliate membership to AAA Marketing Rewards is $27.75 a month.
Conclusion
We are often asked if network marketing is a pyramid scheme. Our reply is that traditional businesses and corporations are really pyramid schemes.
-AAA Marketing Rewards compensation plan
I’m always wary when I see the above claim (or similar) made, as it usually pre-empts an attempt to defend an MLM business model that’s evidently not up to scratch.
Why AAA Marketing Rewards themselves felt the need to include it with their original compensation plan material becomes evident as you pick apart their business model.
On the surface the notion of driving retail customers and thus generating retail activity through the AAA Penny Auction site is solid. The reality however is that due to the way the AAA Marketing Rewards opportunity has been set up, the chances of retail activity are slim to none.
This can be put down to two primary factors. The first being the deployment of a revenue-sharing style compensation plan, and the second the ability of affiliates to self qualify for revenue-sharing shares.
What you thus wind up with is an MLM business opportunity full of affiliates who’ve pumped money into the scheme, looking to recruit new affiliates who will also pump money into the scheme.
This is done under the premise of legitimate retail activity, which in reality doesn’t exist because it makes little sense to focus on retail customers. This is the case because retail is a dead-end, whereas recruited affiliates can go on to recruit new affiliates who go on to recruit new affiliates and so on and so forth.
Cutting out an affiliate’s ability to bankroll their own shares in the revenue-sharing pool would go some way to legitimizing the opportunity, but still the problem of a lack of retail incentive exists. This is true at both the affiliate and retail customer levels (a quick glance at the AAA Penny Auction website reveals little incentive to join and participate).
What I suspect is likely to happen with AAA Marketing Rewards is that after the initial buying into the scheme by their “Founders Program” affiliates ($279), and said money is paid out, there’s going to be little to no activity within the opportunity.
From an affiliate perspective MLM penny auctions are approached with caution following the shutdown of Zeek Rewards, which revealed conclusively that affiliate-funded MLM penny auction schemes did not work.
From a customer perspective… well, to date the MLM penny auction niche has failed to generate any significant retail activity. That in itself pretty much sums things up.
Our reply is why don’t they answer the God**** question.
Or better, why would any one ask THEM that question, and why are they qualified to answer such.
This is the MLM my in-laws are currently in and convinced my wife to join using my father-in-law’s money. I won’t let her use any of our money to get involved in dodgy get-rich-quick schemes like this.
I told my wife to set up a separate account and put any money she makes from it into that and to hold onto it just in case it gets shut down like Zeek did and there are clawbacks. This after she begged and begged me to let her join.
The simple fact that they need her to join under them speaks loads about how the MLM focuses on membership and not on retail.
There’s supposed to be a AAA Marketing website that you go through to make purchases from different companies (like Kohl’s department store, for example) and earn points on your purchases, but I’m unclear as to what these points are used for.
My wife and father-in-law are going to a AAA marketing meeting this Saturday. I could go along but I declined. Just knowing that it’s got an MLM scheme attached to a penny auction is enough for me to know that it’s a big scam.
Looks like they’re going with the “two wrongs make a right” defense.
OK, the AAA Cash Back part of their website is where you’re supposed to be able to shop and earn cash back on your purchases, but the site itself doesn’t tell you how it works. I don’t know if you have to sign up first and then they tell you how it works, but I’m not going to provide my details to them.
Like Oz wrote above, it seems to have nothing to do with the MLM or penny auction, but I think somehow it does since my father-in-law is telling his daughters to do their shopping through it. So I’m guessing the affiliates get some sort of bonus from it. It’s all still pretty vague to me.
One more thing… I find it interesting that out of all their auctions (40 total), only 4 had any bids placed on them. Don’t tell me that penny auctions are the way all commerce will be conducted in the future.
Going to a marketing meeting will probably not hurt you. It can give you valuable knowledge you later can use in a defense system against involuntarily recruitment. People will be less eager to convince you if you know the same or more than them about an opportunity. 🙂
Another effect is that it potentially make communication become more “relaxed”, i.e. if both of you (you and your in-laws) can talk openly about it without giving you the feeling of a recruitment attempt.
I don’t think this program will become a success. The profit sharing part is too vague, and people will probably start to drop out after the first few payouts. “1 share” is less attractive than “1.5% for 90 days, compounder”.
You’d think they’d give a discount for buying more bids, but they all work out to 75 cents per bid.
@M_Norway: I wouldn’t mind going just to “spy” and learn a little about this company, but I can think of dozens of other things I’d rather do than sit through an MLM sales pitch.
@Joe
It’s not unheard of for MLM companies to split the cashback they receive from third-party retailers with affiliates. We’re talking percentges of an an already small percentage though so typically this cashback commission is peanuts.
Like I said, you earn “points” via your purchases through the website, but I don’t know what the points are worth as far as getting cash back on your purchases. I’m guessing that 1,000 points and $5 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
If by chance the penny auction MLM takes off (doubtful since penny auction MLM’s will forever carry the stigma of Zeek Rewards), I’m wondering if they’ll ditch the cash back shopping side of things and focus on the penny auctions.
BTW, anyone know for sure what happened to Blue Bird Bids? All the websites are gone, and their facebook page hasn’t been updated for about a year. I’m just wondering if the guy who started it realized it was going to fizzle out and closed up shop. There are still some promotional videos on Youtube though.
As I understand it Blue Bird Bids shut up shop and morphed into PurNRG FX, which never really went anywhere.
The core of AAA Marketing Rewards’ business model is “recruit, recruit, RECRUIT!”. Nearly all rewards revolves around recruitment of new participants. But the profit sharing part will reduce the other payouts, so it’s “neither fish nor fowl” as an incomee opportunity (if I have interpreted the profit sharing part correctly).
Unlike ZeekRewards and some other profit sharing programs (Ponzi schemes), the profit sharing here isn’t an investment type of profit sharing, i.e. it won’t generate any positive ROI in itself directly, it will first generate a profit if you recruit other people and THEY buy something (as customers or affiliates).
It will generate payouts (“discount”) from personal purchases too, but most of those payouts will go to the recruiter rather than to the person spending the money.
The ONLY incentives I can find for anyone to pump money into the program are:
A: Founders positions. Some people will be attracted to ideas like that.
B: Pay to play qualification criterias (PV Personal Volume).
C: Genuine interest in penny auctions (or other products or services they might offer). Genuine interest in small discounts.
D: Emotional ideas. People can have individual motives for joining a program and pay for something.
All in all, there’s very few incentives for pumping money into the program. I’m analysing it as a sales man, looking at which types of sales arguments that can be used and WHY people potentially can become interested.
This is, I think, why my in-laws got involved. They mentioned something about “getting in early,” which kind of makes me nervous because it’s the ones who “get in early” who make the money, and then are subject to clawbacks if the thing gets shut down by the government for being a ponzi or pyramid scheme.
Mob mentality, group belonging, surge of emotion at cult-like events… etc.
If I have interpreted the profit sharing correctly, AAAMR is not a Ponzi scheme. And it will most likely implode by itself within 2 or 3 months after launch, when people will need to sell the program itself rather than the founders’ positions.
“Within 2 or 3 months” was an estimate from my point of view. I have analysed the payouts logically. If the payouts are lower than expected, people may wait a couple of months before they start to analyse WHY. If enough people wait long enough before analysing it and making decisions, the program may last for a few more months.
The program itself isn’t very attractive as an income opportunity. It will fail rather quickly.
Getting in early sure beats getting in too late, but more realistically how do they know they got in “early” when they do not know how long things will last. They may be the last people to “get in early” and if so, then it will be too late.
Founder’s positions are often illegal investments, which would make them unregistered securities. That’s what got Funky Shark fined. Even KT had commented on this in one of his blogposts.
That’s actually reassuring to know. Not that I want them to lose money, but for the fact that it won’t be another Zeek ponzi and we won’t have to worry about the mess over clawbacks.
They got involved in it before it even launched. But I don’t know how many other people got in on these “founder positions.” But if it’s likely to collapse and disappear soon like Blue Bird Bids did, then it doesn’t really matter when you get in since they’re all likely to be losers.
I just wish they’d wise up and realize that all these get-rich-quick schemes are big failures, and they’re not going to get rich for doing nothing or next-to-nothing.
All These programs roll out the same shit. I run legit and always have. But I’m a salesman so perhaps I should start up a hyip and sell it, make a cash grab, and change my company name. Rinse wash repeat.
It had 300-400 founding members in February / March 2013, but it seems to have partially collapsed after that. I checked Youtube, and found a few videos from February / March 2013, with very few views.
I analysed it as a salesman in my first comment …
* WHAT to sell and HOW to sell it
* WHAT people can be attracted to and WHY
* RESULTS it will be able to deliver (financial results)
* EXPECTATIONS it will meet or fail to meet
People can clearly be attracted to “founders positions” and “profit sharing” ideas. “Founders positions” was the ONLY type of affiliate memberships they sold in February / March 2013. It’s an ADDITION to the ordinary affiliate levels, people must still sign up and pay for the ordinary levels.
They sell EXPECTATIONS = people’s OWN ideas about joining a program early enough in one of the “best positions”. The opportunity will typically fail to deliver what people expect it to deliver financially (people’s OWN ideas about founders positions and profit sharing are much better than the reality).
They have also added “long term expectations” to the sales strategy, i.e. how profitable it eventually will become when more and more people join as affiliates or customers.
“Potential future income” will prevent people from quitting for a period of time, e.g. delay it for a couple of months. To delay it further, they can use “potential new income streams” and similar ideas.
They are, by a common cliche, “insane”, as they expect a different result doing the same thing over and over.
http://amlmskeptic.blogspot.com/2013/10/are-serial-mlmers-insane-by-common.html
The correct word is “addicted”. People will get addicted to behavior they repeat over and over again, when the behavior involves the brain’s “reward center” (chemical and electrical stimuli generated by the brain itself).
You can get addicted to almost anything, but the typical example is gambling, typical because most people know what it is about / have some experiences with it. You will also need to separate between different types of addiction, e.g. whether it’s caused by the brain itself or caused by chemical substances (drugs, alcohol, etc.).
I believe ATTRACTION and ADDICTION will be the most correct terms to use.
The idea of joining an income opportunity isn’t “insane” in itself, the idea is actually very normal. The brain interprets a logical connection between what it WANT or NEED and a potential source for it. So the idea itself is quite rational. It fails because of misinterpretations of the type of source.
You’d think they’d realize that nobody has ever gotten rich by signing up in an MLM scheme and then selling whatever product and recruiting everybody they know. The only people who ever get rich are the people who start MLM’s and a few people high up in the organization.
If MLM really was as successful as MLM promoters claim, then why is the economy in such bad shape? If MLM really can make everybody rich, we’d have a nation of millionaires and everyone would join.
I do think that serial MLM’ers must be addicted to the idea of getting rich quick, but you’d think their past track record of getting poor quick would be an eye opener. But the true believers think that if they fail, it was their own fault instead of the system being designed to make people fail.
And I have seen how MLM’ers try to get potential recruits blinded by dollar signs. Not just with check flashing, but promising pie in the sky. At an MLM recruitment meeting I begrudgingly attended, the very first words out of the guy’s mouth were “How many of you have a car or house payment? Now how would you like to not have to make those payments any more?” Sure, appeal to greed right out of the gate.
I don’t remember exactly when they got into it, but it’s been at least since summer. They got into Blue Bird right after Zeek got shut down and stayed with it for a few months until it was obvious that it wasn’t going anywhere, then almost immediately joined AAA.
I just checked out their penny auction site again, and it had 32 auctions with only two people bidding on items. Most auctions only had one bid, the one with the most bids had 4. There’s no way their penny auction is going to take off. If they think they’re generating revenue, then maybe they need to take another look.
Oh, maybe they should advertise by spamming free classified ad websites like Zeek required. I’m sure that would drive traffic in.
Just an update, I checked the AAA Marketing penny auction site and they’re down to 16 auctions, most without any bids. Looking at the closed auctions, there is a huge number which closed without a winner. I’m surprised they’ve kept this thing going as long as they have. But I’m guessing that give it a few months and it will be defunct.
Just checked the auctions today, and there are 20 auctions with no bids at all. Looks like AAA’s penny auctions are officially dead in the water.
Update: Today I checked out the AAA Penny Auction site to find that there is only a placeholder page which says
Down for maintenance for nearly two months? Out of curiosity I checked the aaamarketingrewards.com site and found that it had been parked by Godaddy as the domain expired on 19 November 2014.
I guess we can conclude that AAA Marketing Rewards is officially tits up.