Speak Asia implodes whilst loyal members rejoice?!
One of the long-standing criticisms of Speak Asia since the Indian regulators clamped down on the pyramid scheme back in May has been the lack of an ‘exit option’ for panelists.
Once signed up the company, members thus far have been unable to leave the company, much the less request a refund seeing as how Speak Asia have stopped sending out surveys or paying recruitment bonuses meaning people are unable to generate any income.
Last week Speak Asia Global CEO Harendar Kaur put out a press release assuring panelists that they ‘should expect some respite by the 10th September 2011’. Announced on the 10th September deadline itself, the Speak Asia exit policy seeks to remedy this ongoing thorn in the company’s side.
Unfortunately for Speak Asia’s members, the policy, which allows members to effectively sever all ties with the company (well, those who fall within a specific set criteria we’ll discuss later), at this stage is paper-thin and nothing more than superficial posturing.
With no authorisation to actually carry out the promised ‘exit option’, panelists can sign up for it… but in the interim they’re no better off for doing so.
Strangely enough, there’s also seemingly a large number of Speak Asia members who are heralding the exit option as proof undeniable that Speak Asia has ‘put to rest all doubts about its genuineness’.
First and foremost, let’s have a look at the exit option itself. Due to the differing financial status of its panelists, Speak Asia have split the exit option in order to place its panelists into three main groups.
Here’s a rundown of the three groups and what exit options have been made available to them by Speak Asia;
Group 1 – Panelists who have earnt no reward points
Panelists who have earnt no reward points since joining Speak Asia (most likely recruited after the authorities got involved or prior to this but didn’t manage to recruit anyone and/or do any surveys), can opt to have their subscription amount refunded minus an administration fee.
This administration fee is apparently $20 USD so this means that out of your $240 (Premium Panelist) or $220 (Standard Panelist) membership fee, you’re looking at Speak Asia keeping 9% or 8.3% respectively.
Group 2 – Panelists who have earnt reward points equal to less than that of their initial subscription cost ($220 or $240)
Group 2 panelists are entitled to a refund of their subscription cost minus any reward points (1 reward point = 1 USD) they have cashed out or spent.
For example if you’re a Standard Panelists and you’ve cashed out 50 reward points since joining Speak Asia, your refund will be $170 USD (220 – 50).
Panelists who fall within the group 2 category and opt in for the exit option will forfeit any redeemed Reward Points owing to them and are no longer be associated with the company.
Group 3 – Panelists who have earnt more reward points than the cost of their initial subscription
Group 3 Panelists are ineligible to claim a refund on their initial subscription cost and are instead encouraged to spend and redeem their reward points once Speak Asia resume business operations (and if they don’t, effectively lose any and all surplus reward points earned).
Apart from option 3, which must be an irritation to any panelists who were using Speak Asia as an income replacement (Speak Asia are effectively gambling the outcome of their legal battles), the other two options for now promise a refund and seem fair.
So what’s the problem?
Well the problem is that all of this is merely just a registering of interest on the panelists behalf.
Speak Asia can’t actually guarantee anyone a pay out unless they ‘(re)gain access to the company’s servers from EOW Mumbai‘. And even then, that itself is subject to Speak Asia getting ‘an assurance from the RBI in India that these transactions will be allowed to be credited‘.
Obviously neither of those two conditions are going to happen unless Speak Asia win their legal battles with the Indian authorities.
So how’s that looking for them?
Well, apart from Global CEO Harendar Kaur and Indian CEO Manoj Kumar still remaining in hiding overseas, India’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested four Speak Asia officials just last Friday.
The CID which arrested four persons in Mumbai on Friday for their alleged involvement in the Speak Asia online fraud, produced them before RV Sharma, second metropolitan magistrate of railway court, here on Sunday.
The arrested included Ravi Khanna, director of Seamless Outsourcing, Sheikh Rayees, a technical officer who was dealing with Speak Asia website, Dipankar, distributor-cumfranchisee of the firm Kritanj Management and Allied Services, Raipur, and Rahul Shah, vice-president of Tulsiyat Technologies Limited.
The magistrate remanded the quartet till September 23 and later, they were sent to the district jail.
Despite the release of an exit option that permits Speak Asia’s members to leave in droves and Indian regulators arresting anyone connected to the scheme who operated in an official capacity and the company’s two CEO’s in remaining in hiding, AISPA President Melwyn Castro has declared recent events to be an overall success
First of all, let me on behalf of the entire committee CONGRATULATE the entire Speakasian family on the “EXIT POLICY” announced by the company.
Congratulations?!… is Castro and everybody else over at AISPA on crack?
How can a policy which allows members to leave what is obviously a struggling company be celebrated as a victory? Even more baffling Castro goes on to ask
Is this the action or response we expect from a company on the run?
No, this is the response from a company who is very clearly here to stay and grow along with its panelists.
The intention and resolve of the company is crystal clear for all to see. With this EXIT OPTION the company has put to rest all doubts of
its genuineness.
How on Earth can you associate an intention to stick around and grow (of all things) with an ‘exit option’ policy that effectively severs all ties with members who are eligible to make use of it?
Looking at the bigger picture here, one can’t help but ask why Speak Asia would even announce an exit policy in the first place, if they can’t currently initiate it.
The answer of course is that this is yet another ploy by Kaur and friends to gauge the member base’s current feelings about the company.
Think about it, this legal fight is slowly bleeding into Harendar Kaur’s finances and she’s not stupid. There’s absolutely no point in fighting this all the way if members are only going to abandon ship pending a victory for Speak Asia in court (or the far more likely scenario of the company not being able to continue operating using its current compensation plan).
By accepting (non legally binding) registers of interest from its panel base without actually having to pay anyone out, Kaur and the rest of Speak Asia management can ascertain whether or not this is a case worth continuing to fight in court.
If they’re inundated with exit option requests, we can most likely expect a disappearance altogether of Kaur and Kumar along with any official legal defense of Speak Asia itself.
If the reception is somewhat lukewarm or cold, Kaur will no doubt continue to fund Speak Asia’s legal defense and gamble on the company winning against India’s regulators (as unlikely as this is increasingly looking).
Should the company lose this fight however, again expect a sudden disappearance of Kaur and extremely fast liquidation of any assets Speak Asia have in India.
Speak Asia have released an exit option sure, but it’s got not for its panelists. All we’re looking at here is Kaur and friends trying to decide whether or not it’s time to initiate their own ‘exit option’, that primarily being to finally cut and run with everyone’s money and let this play out the way it was always going to….
…with the complete implosion of Speak Asia itself.
Want proof?
Punch in any old rubbish into the ‘exit option’ form (which is directly linkable thus being accessible without having agreed to any terms and conditions Speak Asia impose on its panelists), and you will still get the confirmation message ‘Your exit application request processed successfully’.
Nothing on the form is verified or checked against any database.
Speak Asia’s supporters will refute this and tell you it’s merely a matter of having faith in the company but again, look at the bigger picture here.
Company members are celebrating an option that lets them leave the company under the guise of promising them an effective refund, yet it can’t be implemented, executives are being arrested and charged by the authorities whilst investigations are ongoing and the company’s two top CEO’s have remained in hiding overseas (despite assurances they would return to India) since this all started back in May.
Honestly, where do you think this is all heading…?
IT’S TIRING TO SIEVE THROUGH SO MUCH NONSENSE.
1]that the exit option is not immediately implementable is not saol’s fault.they are trying to deposit the money with the courts.now why wouldn’t any court allow the company to pay the people who are saying we are not with the company and we want to leave?the courts can withhold the payments of people who are supporting saol by why are they not paying people who want to leave and whom the company WANTS to pay?
2]the administrative expense which will be subtracted from the total payment is only $20.
3]the exit option is hardly to gauge the support base of the company the company knows it’s strenght.the exit option will put an end to the irritant of the same FIR being filed in different places.now the company cannot be seen as willfully not having any intent of paying the panelist.
no new executives have been arrested .it is the same people who are being taken from one state court to another except for tarak bajpai who is recovering from a surgery
4]whats with the ceo’s hiding?everybody knows where they are.why on earth would they want to spend time in jail?they dont have to be in india to run things. they are working for the company from a safe place.
5]we seriosly think saol is heading for victory.it’s messy and will take some time but we’ll get there .
According to CorporateFraudsWatch, one province of India formally banned SpeakAsia from doing ANY advertising (it had previously banned Amway as well)
http://corporatefraudswatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/government-of-ap-india-bans.html
@anju —
1) Perhaps the government would like to know just HOW BIG the scam is, before SAOL pay some of them off and legally barred them from seeking further damages (i.e. “settled out of court”) Didn’t the option states that if you choose the exit option you are no longer considered a panelist?
2) 20 rupiahs PER PANEL? Does that include subpanels?
3) You got Oz on that one! 😀 Basically it IS a transfer of custody. However, it is that the newspaper wrote. 🙂
4) You mean everyone knows where they SAY they are. Statements and press releases don’t come with GPS trackers. And of course, it still doesn’t explain what happened to 600 crore CID said was moved to Singapore…
5) HOPING to implement an exit strategy WITHOUT MONEY AND GOVERNMENT APPROVAL is heading toward victory? Is that like Nixon claiming “Peace with Honor” when the fact is US lost Vietnam? 😀
1]the logic escapes me .the courts want to decide whether people should be paid ,then why are company officials being repeatedly arrested against fir’s complaining that the company is not paying up.an oxymoron if you ask me.i’m hoping with the exit option courts will not allow the police to get further police custody.
2]if people are paid back their subscription amount what further damages can they claim?
3]not 20 rupees its 20 dollars[approx 1000 rupees]
4]what does it matter if the are in singapore or dubai or on a carribean cruise.they are not in india and that’s what we want .
5]they exit option does not mean victory[when did i say that?].it’s a move in the right direction ,the tide will change soon.
one state does not allow any mlm company to operate within it’s border.no matter, we can live and thrive without this particular state.
read this article for clarity
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/do-multi-level-marketing-firms-needregulator/448979/
very soon we shall see some positive coverage of speakasia from the press.that will be a huge relief.
we are adopting a kiss and make up strategy with the press.
@anju
Agreed. Speak Asia members publish so much crap on a daily basis it’s unbelievably tiring to go through each day. Yet here we are.
It’s not anyone’s fault, but why announce it if you can’t follow through?
It’s not like they didn’t know they couldn’t follow through with the option if they didn’t wait until they had regulatory approval or control of their website back.. so why go ahead with the announcement? Especially considering that Speak Asia being allowed to resume business operations or regain control of their website is not a given!
Thanks for the clarification.
How? Anyone operating in an official capacity has been arrested and apart from a small group of vocal members the rest of the 1.8 million panelists (and sub-panelists) are largely silently watching.
An exit option that can’t be followed through is the perfect opportunity for Kaur to guage the feeling of the Speak Asia memberbase at large.
Arrested, re-arrested whatever. I can’t keep up anymore.
You tell me. Kaur was conveniently out of the country when the crackdown began and Kumar dissappeared shortly after.
They don’t have to be in India but hiding in the shadows and pulling the strings from the safety of another country whilst the company you are the ceo of goes through it’s biggest challenge certainly doesn’t inspire confidence of character or management.
Infact both the CEO’s have shown pretty piss poor leadership since May. All they’ve done is put out a few videos and press releases and instead rely largely on others to take the fall and keep panelists up to date with what’s going on.
I’m hearing lots of chatter about some report being released by weeks end. From what I gather this report will allow Speak Asia to resume operations, but only under a drastically modified business model.
It’s pretty much a no-brainer that this is going to translate into ‘no more recruitment bonuses’ which will be interesting, seeing as 99.9% of people joined Speak Asia for these bonuses alone.
The CID action isn’t to establish whether or not people are getting paid, it’s to establish whether or not Speak Asia’s business model has broken any laws.
The FIR’s are people complaining they haven’t been paid in light of these investigations and the resulting fallout. They’re two seperate issues and the catch22 is that people aren’t going to be paid if the business model is ruled illegal, so it’s not just a matter of releasing funds.
And besides, funds were released to Kaur previously and look what happened. She transferred as much as she could out of India and fled. You can’t blame the authorities for waiting for the investigations to conclude before releasing any money to anyone.
Rather than the CID run around freezing bank accounts and having to investigate everything from scratch, you don’t think it’d just be easier to question Harendar Kaur and Manoj Kumar directly??
And if Speak Asia or its management weren’t worried about the legality of their business plan, surely this whole mess would have been cleared up much quicker without all the stuffing around?
Of course coming to India and being subject to questioning would most likely mean Harendar Kaur would have had to give up her millions… but surely that’s negated by the need to represent and defend the legality of Speak Asia itself?
We’re talking about the heads of the company here, the CEOs. If they themselves won’t face up and take responsibility I think that speaks volumes about the type of operation they are running here.
Only criminals run and hide.
whats the sense in being arrested and herded from state to state?the company is being ably represented by phoenix law and when these stupid arrests and rearrests are halted they will be here by the next available flight.they need to be out and about to manage the affairs of the company.getting themselves arrested would be such a stupid thing to do.
saol has a single business module in every state .why in the world would each state want to study it independently.the cid is a central body why cant it alone do the investigation?the problem lies in the legal system which does not have a proactive speedy system to deal with investigations.so we have to sit and suffer through the bumbling laws and its perpetrators.
we do not want harendar kaur to give up her millions to the govt we want her to be able to pay all the panelists.
when sales people mostly work on an incentive based pay model that encourages them to make more and more sales then why cant panelists be paid bonuses for selling more and more subscritions of saol.
The actual purpose of the court is to decide on whether the crime exists or not. Paying the members is part of the SOLUTION AND REMEDY, not the decision itself. Perhaps that’s why the “logic escapes” you.
So the fraud itself should not be punished? You cheat me out of $100. You pay me back $90, and you think that’s it? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.
Thank you for the correction.
What you want is for them to remain out of Indian police’s reach, NOT on the money that left India. Thank you for your clarification.
Did you not write this?
Did I not write this?
You wrote “heading toward victory”, I wrote “heading toward victory”, so of course you didn’t say “victory”… but neither did I. So don’t act so surprised.
Because the Indian legal system is setup that way, with each state its own legal system independent of all others, apparently. Each state has its own “high court”, and its own police, and so on. It has worked for your country thus far.
Complaining how your legal system is complicated doesn’t help you at all.
What exactly is there to manage, other than issuing “official statements” with no way to back them up? The two CEOs can do that from abroad.
It seems you did not consult wikipedia before making the statement… CID is a branch within separate state police forces. They are all called CID, but they are hardly a “national” police body. Perhaps you watched too much TV? I understand CID the TV series is a pretty good one.
Oops, hit post before I meant to.
She had her chance when her lawyers unfroze the account from CID. She chose to transfer the money OUT of India instead. And ever since SAOL have been providing excuses that made no sense, such as “They need to create millions of accounts to pay members and there’s no time.” (It was one such excuses uttered right here on this site)
Sorry, but you just described a pyramid scheme (AND leaving out the “must pay $$$ to join” element)
A pyramid scheme is defined as
1) a program (or whatever)
2) you must pay to join
3) and pays members if the members will do…
4) recruit/sponsor additional members (who also pay to join)
or if you prefer the Indian version, the actual law is
But same 4 elements are present:
1) scheme
2) entrance money (i.e. join fee)
3) get paid if you do certain things
4) such as enrollment of members into scheme
Did you actually READ the laws in question? Or are you going to continue to argue from ignorance?
How about a chartered accountant explaining the law in India?
http://220.227.161.86/23579august2011journal_122.pdf
Very interesting reading, I didn’t know that Network Marketing is ALREADY illegal under Indian law. Skip to near the end and read the Apple FMCG vs. Union of India case. I had thought it was similar to US law.
Maybe that’s why SAOL participants were so quick in claiming SAOL is not MLM. 😀
Disagree with the legal system in India is not an excuse. You can’t just hide from the law and apply it to yourself when it suits you and is convenient. Speak Asia has been called into question legally and jail or not it’s CEO’s should be there to represent it.
Be that as it may, it’s still no excuse to hide out overseas. Whether there’s PIL’s filed or not, Harendar Kaur and Manoj Kumar are wanted for questioning regardless and will be taken into custody should they enter India.
This has been known since May and does not excuse their behaviour.
Harendar Kaur cannot pay panelists without govenment approval. The government isn’t going to do anything with the money either way (as evidenced by the money seized in India) until a legal ruling is made on Speak Asia and the CID are done investigating.
The only practical difference in the money being overseas is that Harendar Kaur can use it as a slush fund for her legal defence instead of spending her own money. That and she always has the option of cut and running if Speak Asia are heavily ruled against.
Because subscriptions are not sales, it’s effectively membership to the company.
You’re not selling a product, just membership under the guise of a 24 month membership club (call it a subscription, it’s still effectively membership). You can’t ‘buy’ anything from Speak Asia without joining the company and paying them money.
This is red flag business wise and is the only reason they have been hauled into court and investigated (PIL’s filed by its members aside).
an mlm requires you to actively recruit people and thats the only way you can make money.
speakasia has never forced recruitment on its members.there are other ways to earn by filling surveys, selling products and advertising space[they were on the verge of launching this]-you may not believe it but that does not make it untrue.
the CBI is a central investigating body it can investigate whether saol is in accordance with the law.why does every state cid have to independently investigate this.how much govt funds are being wasted on this in a poor country where all govt departments are always underfunded.
the exit option has been introduced even with no avenue of payment available YET,because atleast all the info can be collated and kept ready .whenever we get any relef in this matter the payments can be made without further delay.
aispa is organising a press conference and we hope that the press will be able to take a more balanced view in this matter.
hello?whoever said saol has to open up millions of bank accounts to pay the panelists?what i said was they need to set up a SEAMLESS BANKING system which takes four to six weeks.
@anju
Fail. That’s called a pyramid scheme.
MLM should and always will be about the retail sale of products and/or services.
1.8 million panels weren’t created just so that people can make $7 or $20 a week. You know as well as I do the attraction was in the recruitment (once off and residual) commissions. Recruit enough people in Speak Asia and you don’t have to do anything (except encourage those you’ve recruited to do the same.
That’s how Speak Asia was marketed and why they have 1.8 million panelist accounts.
Yeah but they didn’t, so it’s irrelevant.
The press’ opinion will not change until Speak Asia’s business model does. Exit option or no exit option it’s still a pyramid scheme.
Yes, they all know, everyone of them knows pretty well that Speak Asia is genuine and honest, and honest even beyond their imagination! Yet, they are somehow infatuated, everyone of them, just prejudiced and blindly and obstinately trying to see that this company- Speak Asia, not any other companies of similar nature, be ostracized . They have their ill-intention, envy-motivation, and a fear-mixed psyche about this company- Speak Asia.
And they of course they know, everyone of them knows- Kirit Sommaya knows deep inside himself, each and every member of the Star News Group knows in his/ her sub-conscious, Gopal Sekhawat of Nmart knows that his ill designs sprouting out of envious feeling against the company wont b successful at length.
Intelligent officers of the EOW know that Speak Asia is such a benevolent and genuine and honest company that it may not be possible to find any substantiated allegations of fraud against it, RBI knows it very well that this company is honest to the pie and yes, it is ambitious- ambitious to come up as an established super company in the field of ‘direct selling’ of the present era in the Asian region, making India its epicenter.
Together they all know it pretty well that a company with such attributes is not going to be losing interest or getting frustrated/ disgusted even after it is subjected to harassment like whats going on these days.
The third eye of the Judiciary sees it all !
They all will have to come to terms with their mindset, sooner or later! But the later cant be far off- its again sooner!!! Yes, only the people like us Panelists will have to keep a little Patience! And again, that’s what is so very apparent with All of Us!!
Everyone who knows Speak Asia, likes it like anything- not just because it rewards him/ her abundantly but because he/ she sees in it a sensible and novel, benevolent and revolutionary attitude of consumer friendly ‘market building’!
Speak Asia will be Back to Action with Pride and without Prejudice!
We are Proud Speak Asians!
We All will be really Proud “Speak Asians” for years ahead!!
Speak Asia is not only Here to Stay but also to Progress and Prosper, for Sure!!!
Jai… Ho ! Satyameva Jayate….. Truth Alone Triumphs!
One thing amuses me.. For updates and news… Speakasia choose to use Google’s blogging website. Now for exit option, they were able to register and execute a website?
Also if I remember, once they said that their servers are based in US (all in cloud architecture) and now EOW has captured them…
@Brest
Selling memberships is not ‘direct selling’. It’s a pyramid scheme and high time you supporters accepted that fact.
The rest of your comment is superificial nonsense. I believe this CID report (or EOW can’t remember which) that’s being touted for release before the end of the week will contain new guidelines for MLM companys operating in India, hopefully prohibiting existing and future recruitment driven scams.
So there goes you’re ‘waaah why is it just Speak Asia??’ persecution complex.
Then you have a clear MIS-understanding of MLM. In the US, where MLM originated, the Amway decision since 1979 has LONG established that paying on recruiting is ILLEGAL PYRAMID SCHEME.
Other than the misunderstanding YOU YOURSELF were just perpetuating. You are flip-flopping.
Because CBI is an INVESTIGATIVE body. It does not INITIATE investigations of alleged crimes. Even in the US, FBI is called in for consultation, not initiating investigations.
Oz, can you link to the comment? It’s probably not you, but SOMEBODY did.
I can’t tell whether you’re trying act like an SAOL drone for sarcasm, or whether you actually ARE an SAOL drone.
I believe this is the comment from Anju you’re referring to;
if mlm is banned in india how is amway such a big success story here?
there is one state andhra pradesh that has banned all mlm and direct selling companies.
Amyway sell products on a retail level (you don’t have to join the company to purchase something from them) as well as offer a MLM compensation plan backend.
Speak Asia pay out commissions when their members recruit new members and retail nothing.
See the difference?
to become a retailer of amway you have to BUY their product first.you cannot become an amway retailer for free.so you are investing money to be allowed to be an amway retailer.aren’t these products also grossly overpriced to allow for all the handsome commissions at various levels? isn’t this mlm?isnt this easy money too?
similarly speakasians also pay subscription for an informative and simply worded magazine[okay-grossly overpriced but amway was first]and are paid bonuses to retail this magazine to others.
everybody knows speakasia was on the verge of launching a large product range when the witchhunt began[brilliant timing?]
so where’s the difference?
Who said anything about joining Amway? I said you can purchase products from Amyway without joining the company (true retail and what MLM should be about).
Can I purchase anything from Speak Asia without becoming a member? No.
I haven’t verified if there’s an autoship component to Amyway upon joining the company but I’d be very surprised if they forced members to purchase products in order to earn retail commissions. You might need to get on autoship to participate in residual commissions but retail is usually offered no strings attached. Seeing as your asserting this, I’ll get you to back up your statement with proof.
And finally, even if there is a compulsory autoship requirement in order to make retail commissions with Amyway, purchasing products is not an investment as you’re actually buying something and not merely buying into the company (membership) as you do with Speak Asia.
Paying for a subscription (membership) is not the same as paying for a product on a retail level.
If Amway’s products are overpriced, they are still just that – products. Speak Asia’s membership is (as you admit) overpriced and the problem here. There are no products to compare!
Sure… but they didn’t. They also had a year to establish an Indian office, which they failed to do also.
All I hear is lots of ‘we were gunna do this, and this, and this, and that. But in actuality as long as the new recruits along with their membership commissions kept rolling in nobody did anything.
Let’s stick to what Speak Asia actually did rather than hypothesising what they were going to do shall we.
speakasians buy subscriptions to an e-zine, they are not paying to become members of saol.this e-zine may be overpriced in your view as in my view amway products are overpriced.
the new website of speakasia had separate logins for panelists and for non panelists too, who are free to purchase products directly from the company.the only advantage here is that speakasians get an added discount on the mrp of the product.so when speakasians sell this product at its mrp they make a profit equivalent to this discount.moreover these products are in fact under priced as compared to similar products available on the market.
an year is hardly long enough[this is a matter of perception-an year can be too long or too short for anything]for finding suitable office space in a place like mumbai and setting up shop[renovation permissions etc].
i have personally visited this said office premise in goregaon ,mumbai and it’s a huge plush office.however since saol was being refused registration they could not officially start operations from this said office.
Which is not a product.
Oh really? So I can purchase this e-zine without becoming a member of Speak Asia?
I don’t care if it’s overpriced or not, you keep mentioning that. I care whether or not the e-zine can be bought without a Speak Asia membership attached (thus making it effectively a membership in itself).
Yes but this was never launched nor were details of the relevant pay plans made public. So it’s irrelevant. It also had no impact on the recruitment driven business model which was still in effect despite the new website (which means Speak Asia would have found themselves in trouble sooner or later anyway as they had no plans to change it as far as I can see).
So set up shop somewhere else then. India is a big place. A mumbai office could always have been opened at a later date.
Because they were under investigation for… and we’re back to square one here – the pyramid scheme business model.
Then he *did* refer to 1.5 million accounts. Of course, whatever “seamless banking” means.
If it was indeed operating from Singapore, then Haren Kaur should have no problem paying the panelists now FROM SINGAPORE, yes?
You’re not answering the question: can you buy the e-zine without joining SAOL? The e-zine is REQUIRED to take surveys AND earn money by recruiting, so it IS a join fee, albeit disguised.
You keep bringing up this theoretical shopping service. Can you buy the ezine on it? If not, then it’s not relevant. We’re talking about the compensation model, NOT the shopping portal.
Somehow you keep thinking that this shopping portal will somehow legitimate SAOL’s ILLEGITIMATE compensation plan (i.e. pyramid scheme). What’s illegal will remain illegal, until it changes, or the law changes. Dressing it up with a companion service that’s legal doesn’t change its illegal status.
Now you’re making excuses for which you have no facts to base on. Are you somehow privy to SAOL’s office plans? Or are you making it up as you go along? Did Kumar or Kaur personally tell you they have been looking for offices for months and months and somehow none of them can be outfitted?
Which sort of STUPID company AND its STUPID executives starts recruiting members, hands out surveys, and hires local firms to process payments BEFORE getting registered as a company, for a WHOLE YEAR AND A HALF, THEN goes around looking for an office?
Your arguments just sounds more and more ridiculous as you go along.
of course you can purchase the e-zine,whoever told you you couldn’t.enjoy the ezine and dont participate in any of the companies activities[surveys, referrals, training programs and of course their upcoming product range].have it your way.
when saol started work in india under a singapore registration[perfectly good in law] they had not anticipated that the media would rake up so much muck.
though not required by law to do so, to show their good intent and long term plans they decided to get registered in india and estabilish their PE here.
but you dont allow them to work and then ask why din’t they do this and why din’t they do that.quite silly really.
but why worry they will be doing all of this in a short while,then you can buy their e-zine too.
won’t that be just dandy?
That’s not the question. Can I purchase the e-zine and not become a member of Speak Asia?
Well that’s entirely their problem for operating with a pyramid scheme business model.
Irrelevant as a. it didn’t happen and b. it’s not the reason they are being investigated.
Speak Asia had a year to establish a PE and office and did bugger all. Only after the regulators clamp down did they make a big fuss about it and claim they had office space.
Entirely their problem, and also irrelevant as it’s not why they’re being investigated.
Again, can I buy an e-zine subscription without becoming a member of Speak Asia?
If you can’t PROVE this with a publicly verifiable source with proof that it had been available since the BEGINNING of the company, then clearly you are just sputtering nonsense.
There you go sputtering more nonsense. Companies Act of India (1956) specified that any company that operate in India must have Indian business license. There is an India CEO, India COO in SpeakAsia, therefore it considers itself to be an Indian company.
Your lack of understanding of your own laws is quite silly, really.
when you buy an amway product you become a customer of amway.if you further sell the product to some one else you become a retailer.
in saol when you buy the e-zine you become a customer and are welcome to participate in company activities IF you wish.
you are entirely free to spend long lazy sunday afternoons with your e-zine [which will arrive in your mail weekly] and never visit the saol website again.unless of course you want to resubscribe to our lovely e-zine after an year.
pretty much like buying a cosmo subscription for an year.
you need to register your business in india only if you are setting up a permanent establishment here.for selling an ezine over the internet you don’t need to be registered here.
any number of foreign magazines are sold in india without the promoters having registered here.they all use a distribution network and the distributor has to be registered in india.
In order to do this however, you need to first join the company. Thus purchasing on a retail level and joining Amway are wholly seperate actions.
No, you become a member and the person who recruited you makes a commission on your membership fees. You are then free to recruit others and make membership commissions on their fees too. There is no seperation of purchasing the e-zine and becoming a member of Speak Asia.
There’s a succinct difference there.
But that’s not what Speak Asia do. They sell memberships.
False, and it proves you have absolutely NO understanding of MLM in general, or Amway and SAOL other than what you’d been spoonfed by your uplines (which are wrong and misleading).
When you buy Amway product you indeed become a customer of Amway, but then you do that when you buy ANYTHING from ANY store or any other person. However, you don’t “join” that store. You are free to go to any other store.
To “resell” Amway products you must JOIN Amway as an IBO “Independent Business Owner”, sign a long agreement with Amway, and that gives you the right to get stuff at wholesale prices from Amway, and participate in the network building aspect of the business, i.e. recruit more sales people.
SAOL has no retail aspect as its fundamental model. Recruiting and selling e-zine is sold TOGETHER as one package. Thus, it is fundamentally different from Amway.
Except SAOL’s business is to provide panelists / opinions, NOT in selling e-zines.
Thus, your explanation is a red herring.
An interesting article was published today on the comparison between Amway and Speak Asia.
The Economic Times writes;
Pretty much the same arguments that were presented here. Let’s hope someone from the Economic Times is at the AISPA press conference today to grill them, as it seems AISPA are under the delusion that the Indian press core are extremely gullible with no use of critical analysis.
The EC also touched on the Andhra Pradesh Amway case too;
Sounds like a civil case to me, and a rather sad one of a husband furious at his wife’s economic independance. The investigations into Speak Asia by the CID and EOW are criminal.
Further to that they mention that Amyway are currently operating in Andhra Pradesh, which, completely different compensation plans aside, only further dilutes a comparison between the two companies.
Ya I wonder the same. Actually their site is hosted in Singapore. Nothing in US (IP location). As they claim if speakasia is working at global level why they have moved their server to India?
Speakasia has no physical presence in India. Then how come EOW got their server if there is no office or staff here in India?
if you ask any programmer he will tell you that their EXIT OPTION is just a *javascript* no database is used for it or no data operation is being performed.
@Gagan
You are right, but majority of SOAL members are data entry level guys, not programmers. They wont understand javascript, sql, asp, etc.
They are guys who are crying that that 20 Lakh families income is at stake. So 54000 per annum is a big thing for them and they give surveys on LCD/LED Tvs etc.
Which foolish company would pay them 20 Lakh x 500 rupees (100 Crore) for a survey and that too for members whose majority are poor people who cannot imagine beyond 20″ CRT TVs??? With 100 Crores, I could do Huge ad campaign with larger audience reach with it.
i filled the form of speakasia exit option . how we get the information or feedback from speakasia. and what the next step and when we get our money back.
when i fill the form its only shows that u process submit sucessfully.give me the detail about this.