med-saver-direct-logoThere is no information on the Med Saver Direct website indicating who owns or runs the business. The company’s Terms and Conditions do state however that,

All disputes will be settled in St. Louis County Missouri, United States of America.

indicating that this is where the company is being run out of.

The Med Saver Direct website domain (“medsaverdirect.com”) was registered on the 20th of February 2014, and lists a “Paul Schneider” as the owner. An address in Missouri is also provided, which matches Med Saver Direct’s Terms and Conditions.

Schneider’s YouTube account is used to host the official Med Saver Direct marketing videos, which are used embedded throughout the Med Saver Direct website.

Given this, it would appear Paul Schneider owns the company, however the nature of his relationship to Med Saver Direct is not disclosed anywhere on the company website.

 

 

Update 19th November 2015 – Paul Schneider has been in touch and with respect to BidForMyMeds, claims the following:

Craig Berens hired my firm Marathon Software to build a system to sell the services provided by BidRx.

Berens has an agreement with Dr. Ralph Kalies to distribute the BidRx services through associations and through MLM outlets.

We built the system with all custom source code for $20,000, integrated all payment processing and APIs for eligibility into the BidRx system in Wisconsin.

Berens asked me to be the first distributor and to recruit people interested in medical / pharmacy sales.

I recruited Larry Lalumodiere.

Larry built a team of over 2,600 distributors in 6 weeks. Commissions were paid weekly for 6 weeks.

Berens made $11,000 after all expenses the first week. I was the system admin person, so I had all of the costs outlined to each vendor and the sales commissions to the field sales people.

A number of so called heavy hitters met Craig Berens by phone. These heavy hitters were all in Lalumondiere’s downline.

They, the heavy hitters, established a Leadership Group. Larry and I were immediately excluded.

They told Bererns this could be a billion dollar company and Berens would be very wealthy.

They said Larry and I were in the way of this incredible growth.

I was terminated without cause.

Lalumondiere then started MedSaverDirect.

/end update

 

Comment #7 below the linked comment above, from the same reader, goes on to detail a cease and desist filed against Schneider by the state of Missouri.

Schneider was issued the cease and desist in 2012 for committing securities fraud.

The Missouri Securities Division went on to file a enforcement action against Schneider for securities fraud, with an enforcement order made in May of 2013.

The Commissioner finds Respondent (Schneider) offered and/or sold unregistered, non-exempt securities.

Respondent (is) permanently enjoined and restrained from offering and selling unregistered, non-exempt securities.

Respondent is ordered to pay seven thousand dollars ($7000) in restitution.

Respondent is ordered to pay one thousand dollars ($1000) as the cost of this investigation.

A suspended payment of $25,000 to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Investor Education and Protection Fund was also ordered, pending Schneider does not violate the Securities Act for three years from the date of the order.

The companies in question were MVP and SkyBuddy, which from what I gather was some kind of online gaming MLM.

Read on for a full review of the Med Saver Direct MLM business opportunity.

The Med Saver Direct Product Line

Med Saver Direct don’t appear to have any products or services of their own, retail or otherwise.

Instead, the company markets affiliate membership at two levels, which in turn provides access to third-party discount offers.

Med Saver Direct claim their $7.95 a month membership provides ‘incredible prices on your prescriptions’. They state that for their $19.95 membership,

you get the incredible prices on prescriptions as outlined for the Standard Product. In addition, you and your family get Thousands of Dollars in Discounts on Vacations, Restaurants, Hotels, Over The Counter Pharmacy Products and Much More.

The Med Saver Direct Compensation Plan

The Med Saver Direct compensation plan revolves around a 5×6 matrix, and recruiting affiliates to fill positions in it.

A 5×6 matrix places an affiliate at the top of the matrix, with five positions directly under them (level 1):

the-final-matrix-5x3-forced-matrix

In turn, these five positions branch out into another five positions each (level 2), and so on and so forth down a total of 6 levels.

Positions in the matrix are filled via the direct or indirect recruitment of new affiliates, who either pay $7.95 or $19.95 a month.

$7.95 a month affiliates earn 50 cents per filled position in their matrix, $19.95 “Premium” affiliates earn $1.

Note that a Med Saver Direct affiliate is not immediately paid on all six levels of their matrix. They have to be unlocked as per the following personal recruitment criteria:

  • recruit 2 premium affiliates to get paid on the first three matrix levels
  • recruit 5 premium affiliates to get paid on four matrix levels
  • recruit 10 premium affiliates to get paid on all six matrix levels

A matching bonus is also available on the earnings of your personally recruited affiliates and their downlines, payable down a total 8 levels of recruitment.

Like the matrix commissions, the matching bonus level qualification is also tied into affiliate recruitment:

  • recruit 10 premium affiliates = a 100% match on level 1, 50% match on level 2 and 25% match on level 3
  • recruit 15 premium affiliates = a 100% match on level 1, 50% match on level 2, 25% match on level 3 and a 15% match on level 4
  • recruit 20 premium affiliates = a 100% match on level 1, 50% match on level 2, 25% match on level 3, 15% match on level 4 and a 10% match on level 5
  • recruit 40 premium affiliates (10 of which must have in turn recruited 20 Premium affiliates each) = a 100% match on level 1, 50% match on level 2, 25% match on level 3, 15% match on level 4 and a 10% match on levels 5 and 6
  • recruit 60 premium affiliates (10 of which must have in turn recruited 40 Premium affiliates each) = a 100% match on level 1, 50% match on level 2, 25% match on level 3, 15% match on level 4 and a 10% match on levels 5 to 7
  • recruit 100 premium affiliates (15 of which must have in turn recruited 60 Premium affiliates each) = a 100% match on level 1, 50% match on level 2, 25% match on level 3, 15% match on level 4 and a 10% match on levels 5 to 8

Joining Med Saver Direct

Affiliate membership to Med Saver Direct is available via two monthly subscriptions, $7.95 and $19.95.

The primary difference between the two price-points is the amount of commissions earned per recruited affiliate.

Conclusion

Referred to as simply “vendors” in their terms and conditions, there’s no disclosure provided on the Med Saver Direct website revealing who they are partnered with.

What is obvious though is that, other than the compensation plan (income opportunity), Med Saver Direct themselves aren’t providing any of the advertised discounts they advertise.

Rather these are affiliate deals, to which Med Saver Direct only provide access to.

In MLM, providing mere access to discounts is not a viable product. You need to actually be selling a tangible product or service yourself.

To that end the only thing Med Saver Direct themselves sell is affiliate membership. When one considers that affiliates are then only paid when they recruit new affiliates into the scheme, Med Saver Direct squarely begins to enter pyramid scheme territory.

Affiliates buy in for either $7.95 or $19.95 a month:

There are TWO WAYS to join Med Saver Direct:

The FIRST WAY is to purchase the Standard Product for $7.95 per month. This pays $.50 upline for 6 levels.

The SECOND WAY is to purchase the Premium Product for $19.95 per month. This pays $1.00 upline for 6 levels.

The more they pay, the more they earn, adding a pay-to-play element to the scheme. Meanwhile, there’s an obvious emphasis on signing up $19.95 Premium affiliates, as evidenced by the affiliate recruitment criteria present in Med Saver Direct compensation plan.

As with all pyramid schemes, once affiliate recruitment slows down, those at the bottom who are unable to recruit will stop paying their monthly fees.

When that happens, those above them will in turn stop paying their participation fees and once this effect trickles up high enough, the scheme collapses.