5Linx Review: Too complicated to take seriously
5Linx launched in 2001 and operate out of the US state of New York.
Heading up 5Linx are co-founders Craig Jerabeck (President and CEO), Jeb Tyler (Executive Vice-President of Marketing) and Jason Guck (Executive Vice-President of Sales).
5Linx would appear to be Jerabeck’s first venture into network marketing, with his 5Linx corporate bio revealing a history in telecommunications:
Formerly the President/CEO and founder of @Wireless Enterprises (1997 – 2004), a franchisor of wireless retail stores. @Wireless operated 78+ stores in 11 states.
Prior to @Wireless, Mr. Jerabeck founded Cellular Unlimited Corp., which owned and operated 23 shopping mall based retail stores in NY, MA, RI, NJ, DE and FL.
Cellular Unlimited was the largest independent retailer of cellular phones in the Upstate NY region in the 1994 – 1997 period. Jerabeck sold Cellular Unlimited in 1997 to a national wireless retailer.
Earlier professional roles include two years as the General Manager of Cellular One (later Cingular) in Rochester, NY and eight years with AT&T in sales and sales management.
On the regulatory front 5Linx appear to be in the clear (at least publicly), which is notable for an MLM company that launched thirteen years ago.
Read on for a full review of the 5Linx MLM business opportunity.
The 5Linx Product Line
5Linx split their product range into the categories home, wellness and business.
The home category covers
- a “residential energy program” (a portal that offers access to suppliers 5Linx have affiliate deals with)
- telecommunications – VOIP (Globalinx, wireless (Globalinx Mobi), PowerPlay (mobile power pack + speakers), satellite TV (provided through DISH Network and DirecTV), “internet, fiber & cable tv (offered through a number of third-party providers)
- tech support (phone and onsite tech support)
- personal security – data vault (online cloud backup), SafeScore (credit monitoring) and IDGuard (identity theft protection)
- home security (provided by affiliation with Protect America Inc.)
The wellness category includes
- enhancedcareMD – a ‘supplemental healthcare plan that provides members with 24/7 direct access to registered nurses and doctors for quality healthcare‘ (note this is not health insurance)
- enhancedcareMD Connect – doctor consult service provided through Optum HealthAllies (limited to Optum HealthAllies approved doctors)
- Hi5 Challenge – a “challenge kit” that ‘provides tools to help anyone achieve their health and fitness goals‘
- Hi5 Boost – appetite suppressant tablets
- Hi5 Lean – vanilla shake mix
- Hi5 Edge – a dietary supplement that ‘helps improve endurance, enhanced metabolic activity, boosts cognitive function, supports healthy aging and helps maintain healthy cholestrol‘
- Montavida – “healthy coffee”
And the business category covers
- payment processing – ‘from virtual terminals with mobile application features to the traditional countertop terminal‘
- energy – 12, 24 or 36 month energy contracts provided via third-party company the “Energy Service Company”
- mobile marketing, which includes “business elite services”, text marketing, mobile marketing for realtors and churches and a mobile website optimizer
- security systems (offered through affiliation with Protect America Inc.)
- satellite TV (offered through DISH and DirecTV)
- enhancedMD Commercial – “alternative health care solutions for your company” (not health insurance)
Note that there are no retail prices provided for any of the products and services listed on the 5Linx website.
If one enters “5linx document 715” into Google however, a current list of products and services 5Linx provide access to comes up. Note that there doesn’t appear to be any differentiation between wholesale and retail, with any every 5Linx customer being charged the same price.
The 5Linx Compensation Plan
The 5Linx compensation plan is not readily provided to the general public. To access it, one must conduct a Google search.
There are two documents that come up in the search listings, “Advanced compensation plan” and “Detailed compensation plan”. Note that the analysis below uses information sourced from both documents.
Commission Qualification
All 5Linx affiliates must maintain the following criteria in order to qualify for commissions:
- 8 points worth of worth of products and services offered through 5Linx
- at least one preferred service and one preferred product
Although not explicitly clarified in the compensation plan, I believe self-consumption qualifies an affiliate for commissions.
Each product and service offered through 5Linx is assigned a point value as follows:
- monthly affiliate fees = 4 points
- energy = 1 point for residential and 2 for business
- enhancedMD services = 1 point
- personal security services = 1 point
- internet, cable and satellite tv = 1 point
- business elite services = 2 points
- text marketing = 2 points
- all other mobile marketing = 1 point
- cell plans = 1 to 2 points
- payment solutions = 2 points
- Montavida coffee = 1 to 5 points
- Hi5 wellness range = 2 to 14 points
Currently listed preferred products are:
- MontaVida autoship – $29.95 a month
- MontaVida “bulk” autoship = $249.95 a month
- MontaVida “brew cups” autoship = $39.95 a month
- Montavida “bulk brew cups” autoship = $339.95 a month
- Hi5 Edge autoship = $59.95 a month
- Hi5 Boost autoship = $59.95 a month
- Hi5 Challenge autoship = $189.95 a month
Currently listed preferred services are:
- 5Linx affiliate backoffice fees – $49.95 a month, $275 for 6 months or $500 for 12 months
- enhancedcareMD services – $24.95 to $29.95 a month (enhancedMD commercial service varies in price)
- Business Elite services – $49.95 a month
- Text alert services – “starting at $60 a month”
- Globalinx Mobi “Unlimited Everything” and “Unlimited Talk & Text” – $59.95 and $44.95 a month respectively
- Globalinx Premium – $25.95
- Globalinx Value – $15.95
5Linx Affiliate Membership Ranks
There are eight affiliate membership ranks within the 5Linx compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Trainer – commission-qualified and personally recruit and maintain one commission-qualified affiliate
- Executive Trainer – acquire and maintain fifteen customer points, recruit and maintain at least two commission-qualified affiliates and complete applicable mandatory rank training
- Executive Director – acquire and maintain twenty customer points, recruit and maintain at least three commission-qualified affiliates, have at least one Executive Trainers in two individual unilevel legs and complete applicable mandatory rank training
- National Director – acquire and maintain twenty-five customer points, recruit and maintain at least four commission-qualified affiliates, have at least one Executive Director in at least three individual unilevel legs and complete applicable mandatory rank training
- Senior Vice-President – acquire and maintain twenty-five customer points, recruit and maintain at least five commission-qualified affiliates, have at least one National Director in at least three individual unilevel legs and complete applicable mandatory rank training
- Platinum Senior Vice-President – acquire and maintain twenty-five customer points, recruit and maintain at least six commission-qualified National Directors, have at least one Senior Vice-President in at least two individual unilevel legs, have a downline generating at least 15,000 GV points a month and complete applicable mandatory rank training
- Double Platinum Senior Vice-President – acquire and maintain twenty-five customer points, recruit and maintain at least six commission-qualified affiliates, have at least one National Director in at least two individual unilevel legs, have at least one Senior Vice-President in at least four individual unilevel legs and have at least 30,000 customers in the downlines of Senior Vice-President ranked affiliates in your downline
- Diamond Senior Vice-President – acquire and maintain twenty-five customer points, recruit and maintain at least eight commission-qualified affiliates, have at least one National Director in at least two individual unilevel legs, have at least one Senior Vice-President in at least three individual unilevel legs, have at least one Platinum Senior Vice-President in at least three individual unilevel legs, and have at least 30,000 customers in the downlines of Senior Vice-President ranked affiliates in your downline
Note that the following time-sensitive rank bonuses are paid out if an affiliate qualifies at one of the three following ranks within the specified time periods:
- Trainer – $50 (30 days)
- Executive Trainer – $1200 (30 days)
- Executive Director – $500 (60 days)
Single-level commissions
Commissions are paid on any products or services paid for by recruited 5Linx affiliates.
The commission paid out is a percentage of the Commissionable Volume (CV) amount assigned to the product or service being paid for.
How much of a percentage an affiliate earns is tied to their 5Linx affiliate membership rank, with percentage amounts at any given rank appearing to be unique to each product and service offered.
The 5Linx compensation plan states that basic affiliates earn 2%, with affiliates able to ‘earn up to 65% of the CV as higher leadership positions are achieved‘.
To give you an idea of the CV assigned offered products and services, $1 is the minimum CV payable and $70 the maximum.
This would equate to a $0.02 to $1.40 commission at the 2% rate and $0.65 to $45.50 commission at the 65% rate.
Residual single-level commissions are paid out for the life of the subscription. All residual commissions begin paying out 90 days after a customer signs up for a product or service.
Residual Unilevel Commissions
5Linx pay out residual unilevel commissions on the monthly fees charged for products and services offered.
A unilevel compensation plan places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any of these level 1 affiliates go on to recruit new affiliates of their own, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team. If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
Commissions in 5Linx are paid out using percentages, which are tied to an affiliate’s membership rank.
These are “override” commissions, with a maximum commission percentage payable over applicable ranks. The higher an affiliate’s the rank, the larger the size of the percentage they are paid out.
- Affiliate – 2%
- Trainer – 1%
- Executive Trainer – 1%
- Executive Director – 1%
- National Director – 10%
- Senior Vice-President – 30%
- Platinum Senior Vice-President – 10%
- Double Platinum Senior Vice-President – 5%
- Diamond Senior Vice-President – 5%
Note that per subscription fee charged, commissions are only paid out at each rank level once. Higher ranked affiliates automatically collect any unallocated lower level percentages.
Eg. Using $10 CV as an example, an affiliate makes a sale and collects 2%. Their upline is a Senior Vice-President so they collect 48% of the payable commission.
The system then looks further up the upline to pay out the remaining percentages. Any affiliates ranked lower than Senior Vice-President are skipped, as all their percentages have been paid out to the Senior Vice-President ranked upline already.
A maximum 65% of the CV generated by a sale is payable directly to Diamond Senior Vice-President affiliates.
Generational Residual Commissions
Generational Residual commissions are a second type of residual commission, paid out via rank generations.
Starting at the National Director rank, when a 5Linx affiliate makes a sale an affiliate of equal rank is searched for in their upline. Once found, that affiliate constitutes the “first generation” and is paid out accordingly.
At the Senior Vice-President and Platinum Senior Vice-President ranks, the system continues to search higher for a 2nd generation ranked affiliate to pay another generation residual commission out to.
The ranks and percentages paid out via the generation residual commissions are:
- National Director (1st generation) – 5%
- Senior Vice-President (1st generation) – 15%
- Senior Vice-President (2nd generation) – 10%
- Platinum Senior Vice-President (1st generation) – 5%
- Platinum Senior Vice-President (2nd generation) – 5%
Monthly Customer Bonus Pool
When a customer signs up for a product or service provided through 5Linx, the company puts $2.50 into two bonus pools.
At the end of the month, these pools are shared equally among qualified affiliates:
- the 100 Customer Club Pool requires an affiliate to acquire and maintain 100 customers
- the 200 Customer Club Pool requires an affiliate to acquire and maintain 200 customers
Note that an ongoing qualification requirement of adding 2 new customers each month also applies.
Rank Achievement Bonuses
5Linx’s Rank Achievement Bonuses are slightly different, in that they are based on commission-qualification achievement by an affiliate’s immediate downline.
All Rank Achievement Bonuses in 5Linx are only paid out if a newly recruited affiliate qualifies for commissions within 30 days of their joining the company (see start of compensation plan analysis in this review).
- National Directors are paid $520
- Senior Vice-President are paid $650
- Platinum Senior Vice-President are paid $655
If the affiliate who recruited an affiliate commission-qualifies themselves within 30 days is at a rank lower than that of National Director, a reduced commission is paid out to the first National Director or higher ranked affiliate in the upline:
- National Director – $55
- Senior Vice-President – $30
- Platinum Senior Vice-President – $5
A generational bonus is also available on Rank Achievement Bonuses paid out, offering up to two generations of payments at the Senior Vice-President rank:
- National Director – $20 to the first generation
- Senior Vice-President – $10 to the first generation and $5 to the second
- Platinum Senior Vice-President – $5 to the first generation
These generation payouts function in the same manner as the “Generational Residual Commissions” outlined above.
Team Bonuses
Team Bonuses pay out a commission when 5Linx affiliates have a specified number of affiliates in their downline who qualified for commissions within 30 days of joining the company.
How much of a Team Bonus is paid out is determined by an affiliate’s own membership rank:
- Executive Trainer – $200 at five affiliates, $500 at five, $1000 at ten, $1500 at fifteen and $2000 at twenty
- Executive Director – $750 at five affiliates, $2000 at ten, $2500 at fifteen, $3250 at twenty, $4500 at thirty, $6000 at forty and $8000 at fifty
- National Director – $2000 at fifteen affiliates, $5000 at thirty, $7500 at fifty, $10,000 at seventy-five and $15,000 at one hundred
- Senior Vice-President – $2000 at twenty-five, $4000 at fifty, $7500 at seventy-five, $10,000 at one hundred, $12,500 at one hundred and twenty-five, $15,000 at one hundred and fifty, $25,000 at two hundred, $40,000 at three hundred and $50,000 at four hundred
Note that Team Bonuses are not accumulated totals, the above numbers are ongoing monthly qualifications.
Revenue Bonus Pools
There are three Revenue Bonus Pools in 5Linx. $10,000 is placed into each of the three pools. Each pool corresponds to an affiliate membership rank (Executive Director, National Director and Senior Vice-President), with the funds in each pool paid out to the top ten sales generators for that month:
- Top affiliate – 30% ($3000)
- 2nd affiliate – 15% ($1500)
- 3rd affiliate – 12% ($1200)
- 4th affiliate – 10% ($1000)
- 5th affiliate – 8% ($800)
- 6th to 10th affiliate – 5% ($500 each)
Platinum Bonus Pool
The Platinum Bonus pool is a monthly pool. It is made up of
- $10 for every commission-qualified affiliate in the company
- 75c per home security customer company-wide
- 75c per Globalinx customers on $24.95 a month plan company-wide
- 37.5c per Globalinx annual customer company-wide
- 25c per energy customer company-wide
- 25c per Tech 24/7 customer company-wide
- $5 per Business Elite customer company-wide
- $5 per customer who orders Montavide products company-wide
- $1 per affiliate paying monthly fees
- $1 per TextAlert marketing customer company-wide
At the end of each month, the Platinum Bonus Pool is divided among all commission-qualified Platinum Senior Vice-President ranked affiliates.
Joining 5Linx
There are two affiliate membership options with 5Linx, CR ($99) and IMR ($249).
The CR membership (“Customer Representative”) provides commission on a single-level and excludes the MLM components of the compensation plan.
Thus the defacto cost of affiliate membership to 5Linx as an MLM opportunity is $249.
Additional monthly/annual costs to consider are “Platinum Services”. These are billed as optional, however they provide basic affiliate functions (a replicated website, backoffice support etc.) and I believe are going to be required purchases for the vast majority of 5Linx affiliates.
Conclusion
5Linx’s compensation plan is deceptively simple, but bogged down by the incorporation of the immense amount of products and services offered through the business.
There’s no easy way to combine so many products and services from third-party providers into a single MLM compensation plan, and so we have things like product points, vastly different CV values and a ton of bonuses that revolve around boosting customers.
This I feel is reflected in the lack of information provided to potential customers and recruits on the 5Linx website (they don’t want to scare people away by revealing just how convoluted the compensation plan is).
On that note, one of the biggest potential red-flags I’ve observed is the lack of retail appeal within 5Linx.
From a retail perspective, with the vast majority of products and services on offer sourced from third-parties, there’s little to no incentive to sign up or purchase anything through 5Linx.
The affiliations the company maintains are not exclusive and competition from any one of the niches 5Linx offers products and services through is steep.
As a retail customer, I don’t believe 5Linx is all that attractive.
And that brings us to the likely scenario that most of 5Linx’s customers are affiliates.
Product and service points can be generated by an affiliate themselves purchasing services. An affiliate’s own Platinum Services (basic affiliate functions) counts towards this quota (50%), meaning one or two services is all an affiliate need sign up for to qualify for commissions.
They recruit others who do the same, with that appearing to be the core of the 5Linx business opportunity.
The “hook” 5Linx suggest affiliates use is the saving of money and approaching of family and friends.
Prospective affiliates are told in a video featured on the 5Linx website,
Your greatest assets are your relationships and contacts. Your social connections through family, friends, co-workers and social media.
Here, I’ll prove it.
Open your phone contact list and look at the first five names. And thinking of these people, ask yourself if they would be interested in saving money in areas of home energy, mobile services, maybe home security or possibly looking for better health.
If you don’t think they would be interested in any or all of these, delete them from your phone right now.
Again, given that 5Linx merely offer other company’s services and products (or those they have manufactured by third-parties), just how realistic are the purported savings going to be?
Certainly nothing exclusive that cannot be found elsewhere.
In that sense, it is the 5Linx business opportunity that is likely to prove far more attractive from a marketing standpoint.
Sign up as affiliate, pay your monthly fees and then switch over a few services you’re already using. You might not save much (if anything), but you’re unlikely to start losing money either.
Recruit new affiliates who do the same and build your business.
A danger of chain-recruitment is inherent in the Rank Achievement Bonuses and fact that retail customers are not required at any level of the compensation plan.
In general I think the retail appeal of “everything under the sun offered by third-parties” companies like 5Linx just aren’t that attractive on the retail front.
Key to this particular opportunity would be asking a potential upline for their monthly product/service point split between actual retail customers and recruited affiliates. Anything short of a close-to 50/50 split or the ratio tilted in favour of retail customers is an indication that 5Linx is affiliate heavy.
As a matter of interest, I’d also request a 5Linx affiliate explain the compensation plan. Let them use all the materials they need (obviously short of just reading the official company documentation verbatim), and see if you understand most of it by the time they’re done.
It took me a good few reads and a bit of head scratching to get my head around it. And I had to look at no less than four seperate documents to put the compensation plan section of this review together (none of which were linked or provided on the public 5Linx website).
I really think your standard 5Linx affiliate is going to have a hard time demonstrating they truly understand most, if not every aspect of the company’s complex pay plan.
How much they can explain might be a good indication of just how well they know their business (and the likelihood of them signing you up to a few services and then moving onto the next potential recruit).
Good luck!
Wow, this plan has recently changed.
So, basically if I recruit 3 people every month as a ET and get them qualified by buying their own services I will get a $200 monthly bonus.
However, if I signed them up as a retail customer at a CV $10 I will get $.20 residual each month. It will take 1000 retail customers at a CV $10 to make $200 residuals each month.
In 2012, the company had revenues of $103.6 million according to Inc 500, and according to one of there founders they had about 80,000 reps in U.S. and Canada.
80,000 reps X $50 a month ($50X12 months) = $48,000,000
That $50 a month only counts for 4 points; a rep at the lowest level needs 8 points within 30 days.
Realistically, that reps has to spend an additional $30-50 a month to stay qualified. Lets arbitrarily say 30,000 reps do this:
30,000 reps X $30 a month ($30X12 months) = $10,800,000
That’s nearly $59 million from reps alone. I think my estimates are low.
This does not include the $249 all 80,000 reps paid to start; nearly a additional $20 million over the years.
Basically, one needs thousands of people paying for their services on a consistent monthly basis in order for one to earn a decent to comfortable living income.
What is also not made clear is the customer/affiliate drop off/retention rates which, understandly, are not made glaringly obvious.
5linx smells like FHTM: a bunch of unrelated stuff thrown together for sales team to hawk, with minimum “residuals”.
I’m a National Director in 5LINX and thought the actual break down of the comp plan was pretty good. Much of it is factual. However there were some glaring inaccuracies in the conclusions you drew. (By the way, if you would like a comp plan, point breakdown, etc. I’d be happy to provide it for you)
What initially prompted me join 5LINX is the fact we market essential products and services people use every day. Contrary to the above, many of our third party providers are indeed much lower in cost, versus going retail. I’ll cite a couple of examples:
Our prepaid wireless carrier allows persons to obtain cellular coverage on the wireless network of their choosing: Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint or AT&T for as cheap as 44.95/mo (plus tax) for unlimited talk and text with a decent data plan. Persons can also bring their phone over.
I would also like to refute the notion that we profit solely based on internal consumption. In fact, while you correctly pointed out the existence of our commercial divison, you neglect to cite how lucrative this can be and the fact that unless we have brick and mortar businesses, it is nearly impossible to be our own customer.
The largest part of my personal portfolio is commercial energy (100 plus personal customer points)–something that can be quite lucrative. In our commercial division, we can help any business cut costs on their services (credit card processing, security, mobile marketing and websites, etc) and as a result, we earn an ongoing residual payout based on their usage/bills.
Lastly it seems you are misinformed about our product mix and who owns what.
While we do have some 3rd party partners (which is a huge plus given the familiarity and credability it signals), we own/control subsidiary relationships with Globalinx (Our Digital Voice Provider), Globalinx Mobi (Our Wireless Provider), TextAlertz (Our Mobile Marketing Service) and our entire Wellness Division which is predicted to propel our business to over 1B in revenue within the next 5 years, especially as we expand overseas.
Last but not least, I invite everyone to study the company’s health. I assure you it has done far more than remain “in the clear.” It is the only MLM/Direct Selling Company to my knowledge to have been an INC 5000 company for 9 consecutive years and commands a DSN Global Top 100 Position–and this is just our domestic coverage (many Top 100 Companies have factored their international dollars as well).
I also take pride that 5LINX has an A+ Accredited Rating in the Better Business Bureau, is a ranking member in the Rochester Top 100 and has created hundreds of jobs for our Representative Services Staff which employees folks who work on behalf of the representatives.
The upside is vast: the ability to learn ongoing income on “sticky customers” like wireless and energy customers, yet being able to offer very lucrative and cutting edge healthcare products and services.
5LINX offers a variety of services to the marketplace and in turn, us the ability to earn income when people turn on their lights, watch television, drink coffee, lose weight and even when potentially thousands swipe credit cards at their local restaurants.
I invite anyone to check out this company make up their own minds. To me, it seemed practical, lucrative and down right smart. And three years after I launched my business, I’m very happy I trusted my instincts.
Ricardo Suber
Why can’t I just get it from the 5Linx website? Why is this crucial information withheld from the general public?
And what, that price is not available elsewhere?
Lucrative for who?
Why as a retail customer would I sign up for third-party services through 5Linx?
Who provides the service? Who actually owns the companies?
Honestly, just listening to your explanation echoes the comments I made about everything in 5Linx being so complicatedly convoluted.
Right. Predicted by who? You? 5Linx management?
Cmon son, spare us the marketing BS.
What is your ratio of non-affiliate customer points versus recruited affiliate downline generated points each month?
Also what is your own personal point generation on produts and services you personally purchase month on month?
Did you know that FreedomPop has an unlimited EVERYTHING II plan for $20 a month? That’s unlimited talk, unlimited text, and unlimited data (only 1GB on 4G, rest in 3G).
NOLINK://www.cnet.com/news/free-phone-service-freedompop-unveils-20-dollar-unlimited-plan/
Sorry, but your prepaid rates are horribly uncompetitive. Must have been overpriced to pay for your “residuals”.
Most people are paying over $100 a month with this company to have enough points to get commissions.
One could easily spend $150 a month. Look at the first 30 day bonus it promotes this because you don’t have to have any outside sales.
It could cost $200 plus a month to maintain 15 customer points, and you have to sign up two other people to do the same to get the 30 day bonus.
I have yet to see any services they offer that is cheaper.
I have seen shady marketing, like saying home security systems are on sale on their website, but its always that price through the normal company who they sell the service through.
Also, these companies are promoting tax write off for business expenses. Without telling the people you can only write off a percent of the expense. So, if you spend a $1000 most people will be able to write off $150, but will simple lose $850.
However, if you are not showing a strong income what is the write off going to do?
Firstly, the initial article has a ton of misinformation. So do the comments.
If you want a breakdown of the policies and compensation plan then you would want to contact rep services at the corporate office and ask for the contact of a rep in your area.
They are obligated to give you all policies and compensation plan information as far as Customer acquisition bonuses, bountys, upfront bonuses, commercial and residential residual compensation, team bonuses, openline bonuses, position bonuses, quickstart bonuses, promotional bonuses etc… ALL BEFORE YOU ENROLL or spend a single dollar signing up.
“To maintain 15 pts it costs XXX a month” is a line of total crap. All reps are encouraged to SELL products NOT personally be their own sole customer.
People fail in this business by cutting corners and trying to cheat the system to earn bonuses. When they get disheartened because it doesn’t work to their advantage to do so, they end up on pages like this giving out misinformation to the masses about things they have no legitimate understanding of.
Ricardo is an ND of ours and is giving factual information in his comment. Other than that.. this whole article and its contributors would do themselves a favor by gaining a thorough understanding of what they are talking about before disseminating false information.
Also, there are no advertised prices for products because the services and rates vary by region everywhere.
You are ALWAYS presented with an offer and the opportunity to research competitors prior to any purchase.
Good luck with that. It’s such a convoluted mess I can’t imagine them explaining it adequately.
Any MLM opportunity where you have to contact someone just to get basic information (comp plan) is a red flag.
But it’s entirely possible to just ignore customers and be your own customer. How is pointing this out total crap again?
A legitimate company takes steps to ensure this isn’t a problem.
A company less so blames its affiliates.
So? Plenty of companies have different rates for different regions and don’t have a problem providing retail prices.
Ever heard of geographical based storefronts?
Not provided retail pricing in MLM is a big fat fail.
All the people I know are encourage by their SVP to buy 5linx stuff to help qualify. $50 a month for a website that is replicated thousand of times is bogus. Training is not new every month, its not like their paying for new training monthly. (isn’t that what weekly meetings are for? They pay for that too. SMH)
They sell affiliated services that most have national prices.
None of their services are cheaper because they have no control over prices.
People shop at Target and spend more than they would shopping at Walmart. Why? Because they like Target.
People purchase cable bundles and spend more than if they purchased the services separately. Why? It’s easier.
People buy Girl Scout cookies from girl scouts even though you can buy the same cookie made by Keebler at the grocery store. Why? Because they are supporting the Girl Scouts.
If I am selling a cable product that saves my friend or family member $5 a month, they will get it from me. Why? Because they are supporting me. Can they get that discount somewhere else? Yes. But they don’t know that salesperson.
My hairdresser processes her credit cards through our services. We got her a great deal. Could she get it somewhere else? Maybe. But I support her business, so she supports mine. She is more expensive than the stylist down the street, but I like my stylist. We’ve built a relationship.
Can I explain our compensation plan? Mostly. Could I explain my compensation when I was working in Corporate America? Yep. Easy. No raise for 5 years, but my CEO owned 3 homes and cars worth enough money that could feed small nation.
What I love about this is you don’t have to join 5LINX. You don’t have to purchase products from 5LINX.
You will continue to live, save money elsewhere, and complain on blogs about other people making money. You will keep looking for reasons why MLM don’t work. But it’s cool…
I will keep earning my “minimal” residuals, even as I type (I get my internet from myself). And I will continue to enjoy my retirement (I’m 39). Thank you 5LINX.
Target actually carries a lot of different brands than walmart, unlike 5linx offering other people services for same price calling it a savings.
Bundles are cheaper for the terms. lol
Everyone knows that upfront, plus some cookies are hard to find elsewhere.
Please show us where You can discount the cable prices from these major services providers. You cant anyone can get the same price going directly through them. By signing up with you they lose out on the free gift cards or tablets those companies sometimes give away.
Yes you do, the website for $50 a month. Its replicated thousands of times for free to them. They don’t even pay for your website.
During sign up for 5Linx:
Fact – the individual is first asked to pay the $249 one time payment
Fact – it is immediately recommended the individual sign up for the virtual office $49/month
Fact – it is immediately recommended that the individual BECOME THEIR OWN FIRST CUSTOMER!!!! i.e., purchase products / services to obtain a required 8 points
Maintaining Points
Fact – maintaining the required 8 points is not cheap
Fact – the Virtual Office is a monthly fee of $49 which counts as 4 points,
Fact – purchasing the additional 4 points is not cheap, usually the individual has to purchase a combination of two of the following:
Boost $59.00 per monty
Lean $79 per month
Coffee $36 per month
FACT – Total Monthly Costs for a Representative to Maintain their limited status of IMR for 8 points can range from $152 – $187
($152 = Virtual office, coffee, boost) ($187 = Virtual Office, boost, lean)
$49 for virtual office 4 points
$79 for lean 2 points
$59 for boost 2 pont
(Sometimes the coffee is offered for 2 points which means a person can drop the lean or boost and pick up the coffee to lower their monthly outlay of cast)
Fact – drop your self purchased products/ services and you lose your points and status unless of course, you find others to sell products / services to replace what you drop – not saying anything is wrong with this, but is it a fact that people are not told about up front
Fact – representatives are constantly pressured to bring other representatives in mainly so those above them can make money off of them and others when they pay that initial $249- constantly.
Not saying anything is wrong with this, no one forces anyone to do anything, but this is just another one of those hidden facts that 5Linx reps do not reveal upfront and it is not indicated on their website as it should be – everything should be given upfront so people can make informed decisions
Fact – when an individual is signed up, the rep that signs them up does not bother to inform the new person that they can cancel within 10 business days and get a full refund of their $249 instead, frequently, “some” people sign up and within a coupe of weeks, too late to get their money back, they realize something is strange about constantly being pressured to bring in other people.
They also realize they have basically encountered a new monthly bill between $150 -$180, also too late to get a refund for that money, and they may decide to quit losing almost $500 – $800.
Fact – 5Linx makes a bundle of money from reps bringing in people who pay that initial $249
Fact – 5Linx charges its so called business partners for everything including everything
business cards
business materials
$25 for regional training – this is regional training, why does it cost anyone anything
$100 – $119 for national training – this is training, why should it cost anyone anything other than the cost of flight to event and hotel, otherwise the event itself should not carry a fee but 5Linx changes its representatives a fee to attend the event.
What’s more ridiculous is that 5Linx encourages representatives to purchase additional event tickets so they can obtain points – there is always a pitch for “business partners to purchase 5LINX, services, products, event tickets, etc, to earn points this is FACT.
Fact – many people are not aware that a business loss is only as good as business income – in other words, they are informed that they can write off their losses, that is not how it works wight the IRS. An individual can only write off business losses to the extent of business income.
Most new people in 5Linx are making little to nothing but they are putting out hundreds if not thousands of dollars for the year.
At the end of the year, no matter how your taxes are completed, by you, a CPA, the IRS, Turbotax, etc. the business loss you encounter with 5Linx or any other business is only written off to the extent of business income from the business generating the loss (i.e., an individual cannot write off a 5Linx business loss against income they make from another business such as rental income received from renting out your house…) Again a slight little very important detail many are not informed of—
Fact – every time someone writes the truth about the very convoluted, misled, and seemingly very faulty 5Linx system, a 5Linx Rep always gets on the blog and tries to dispute the truth that people are learning about this company.
Yes, there are people making tons of money off of being involved with 5Linx, but it is not solely because of them saving anyone any money, in fact, if the people who are buying the products would really look into the details of their purchase, and do some minor research, they too will realize that as a customer of a 5Linx rep, they are not saving any more than they would if they were to go directly to the service provider.
For some reason, 5Linx reps have a hard time admitting this truth – go ahead attempt to sign up for cable, phone, cell, etc and once you get through all the glitches, look at your bill, rio some research and find out all the restrictions, and mediocre service plans.
Fact – joining 5Linx is a choice, most people are drawn in by a family, co-worker or friend asking them to join to help them without being provided all the find print.
However, no one is forced to join, no one is forced to stay in, or to do any of it, and a lot of people are making a lot of money off of being a part of 5Linx.
As such, it would be very scrupulous for the 5Linx website and reps to offer the real small print information up front so individuals can make an informed decision.
I’m 5Linx Representative. No one forced me to join and neither was anyone else on my team.
My 5Linx Family and sponsors support, educate and teach. No one is alone.
We are also told from the start everything. Nothing is hidden and if you don’t understand something (head scratchers), we have all answers at our disposal between the website tools and our sponsors who happily enlighten us.
Plus, no one has mentioned how the company compensates those who really works in this business. Look it up.
Bottom Line- Again, we are not strong-armed into this business, you can always say NO. Plus, I don’t know of anyone making money without spending money.
The system works. It’s not easy, but it works However, for those of us who choose this path, I say GO, GO, GO!
sorry, but from someone who was in 5linx from the beginning of 2010 to the end of 2014, and had family members who had attained the senior vice president position until we left… i will tell you that this statement is ENTIRELY not valid…
unless they made changes to the “SVP / PSVP / DSVP pamphlet” that they give all their SVP’s and above at every national event, and/or every last 5linx rep started incorporating the contents of that pamphlet (if they are even aware that such a thing exists, and what’s inside it) into the presentation in the 10 months since we left.
i sincerely doubt that neither of that has happened.
on the SVP benefits slide of their presentation, they tell you that they take their SVP’s on an all-expense vacation every year… what they don’t tell you is that you’re only guaranteed ONE vacation.
for every year after that, you have to hit an IMR or customer production level that’s not reachable by most SVP’s in order to re-qualify for the vacation.
i’ll go out on a limb and say that most SVP’s you meet have not been on more than one vacation.
that “residual income” slide is deceptive. most people take that 20 people in your team x 20 customer points x $0.50 example at face value and make it a deciding factor of joining the business thinking that that’s all it takes to make $200 a month.
at my apex, i had over 50 reps with 20 points or more, and i made WAY less than $200 in residual.
they give you up to $800 a month to pay for a BMW. what they don’t tell you is that if you fall out of qualification from SVP, you will be stuck paying for that BMW on a demoted ND’s income… and to make things worse, i have attended 14 national events, and been to most of the company BOM’s.
do you know how many advisory council members i’ve seen presenting the opportunity on stage jokingly tell you that you can get “any series BMW” but the catch is “it has to be silver, is that alright?
hell, if they were giving out pink BMW’s i’d take it… hey, it’s a FREE BMW”?
even if you qualify for the $800, which most SVP’s don’t, the most BMW you can get for $800 (without you having to pay anything out of your own pocket, technically making it free) without paying the $3000+ due at signing to lease it is a brand new 428i.
if you want a new 7 series (which falls into the “any series” category), you are screwed. and at the lowest qualification level for the BMW program, they will give you $200.
try walking into a BMW dealership saying you need a new BMW, and you have a budget of $200 per month. that’s a complete joke. i know of an SVP who got promoted in 2012 that could only get a 5-series that was 2 generations old.
what they don’t tell you is the stressful life a decent chunk of their SVP’s have to endure because they have to focus on holding their organization together to stay qualified, instead of focusing on building it…
and what alot of SVP’s in that position start doing is putting new reps and paying for services out of their own pockets to put under key people in their organization who are in amazing grace period. yet, they make being an SVP look so glamorous.
don’t get me started with the deception with the novelty checks they present the PSVP’s on stage at the january national events, and how they put the amount of money they get from the platinum pool BEFORE they deduct the bentley payments… and seeing how they get up to $4000 a month to pay for that bentley?
let’s do the math… $4000 x 12 months = $48000. if their novelty check says $100000 on it, then they use the entire $4000 allowance per month, then… you do the math.
and i’m sure you’ve heard this remark before, because i sure as hell have… “best comp plan in the industry”…. uhh, no. that’s a totally unfounded and baseless claim.
the company i’m with now has a WAY better comp plan than 5linx… and i won’t even go as far as to say that we got the best comp plan. all i’ll say is that anyone who was in our organization in 5linx that jumped ship with us is and put in work is getting paid generously.
i am at the ND equivalent in my company, and i make more on a residual basis than your bottom level SVP’s do, and only had to do an ED’s amount of work to get there.
does the system work? for a few people, it did. the rest of you need to follow the system and seek some sort of divine intervention to make it work, and that’s probably why the main stage trainers suggest looking to god so much at the national events. red flag.
and let’s keep it real… a vast majority of you spouting that “the system works” rhetoric have not gotten it to work for you other than giving you a few hundred measly dollars per month in CAB bonuses, if even that, and probably never will.
i have to ask you, CK… you stated that “we are also told from the start everything. nothing is hidden”.. were you aware of any of the things i have stated above? is any active rep in your organization aware of any of this?
if you can stomach all of the ridiculous shortcomings of the 5linx opportunity and keep on pursuing the “coveted” PSVP position, then go right ahead… but unfortunately, you’ll have to convince a minimum of 6 “reds” that they should overlook these shortcomings the same way you can, and hope they have enough fortitude to fall into the right qualifications for you.