wellstar-logoWellStar launched in 2004 and is headed up by Founder and CEO, Christian Wiesner.

christian-wiesner-founder-ceo-wellstarAs per Wiesner’s WellStar corporate bio;

Christian looks back to more than 10 years international experience as an active networker.

He was one of the industry´s most successful leaders in Europe with an overall team size of 120,000 customers.

Possibly due to language-barriers (German), I was unable to ascertain what company/companies Weisner was active in prior to 2004.

In 2015 WellStar lost top affiliate Kari Wahlroos, which resulted in a public spat between the two parties.

Wahlroos left WellStar to promote OneCoin, a points-based Ponzi scheme. WellStar responded by accusing Wahlroos of engaging in “criminal behaviour”.

Wahlroos countered by claiming he left WellStar because the ‘company will never deliver on the promises you make‘.

Wahlroos claimed that when he approached Weisner about fixing WellStar’s “endless problems”, he was simply to told to “recruit more” affiliates.

The administration of Wellstar remains a disgrace.

Products flaws. A product returns system that does not work. Non-existent of customer support, terrible partner support.

We both know that so many leaders have quit because they don’t earn any money so you have to launch a new country every 3 months.

The worst issue with Wellstar is the financial matters, especially delayed commission payments.

Countless leaders, and especially me, have suffered from delayed and incorrect commission payments. And because the Wellstar model is only about recruiting ‘in the fast start’, the plan does not work so no-one earns any money.

Weisner dismissed Wahlroos’ claims as “lies and false and cheap accusations”.

Read on for a full review of the WellStar MLM business opportunity.

The WellStar Product Line

WellStar operate in the personal care niche, with a number of cosmetic orientated products listed on their website.

  • BYAS Face Lifter – an “all-in-one high tech skin rejuvenation system for home use”
  • BYAS MOVE MST Eye Lifter – “combines pure Hyaluronan special serum for eyes with professional skin rejuvenation technologies”
  • BYAS Body Lifter – an “exclusive all-in-one high tech body forming system for home use”

No retail pricing is provided on the WellStar website.

The WellStar Compensation Plan

Despite provided definitions and liberal use of diagrams, the WellStar compensation plan is poorly presented and explained.

Nonetheless it appears to be unilevel based, with additional performance-based bonuses on offer.

WellStar Affiliate Ranks

There are fifteen ranks within the WellStar compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

  • Vice-President – generate 0.6 PV a month (either via autoship, purchase of product or retail customer orders)
  • Trainee – maintain 0.6 PV a month and recruit at least two new Vice-President affiliates (each VP unilevel leg must generate a minimum 5 GV a month each)
  • Junior Manager – maintain 0.6 PV a month and two recruited Vice-President affiliates (each VP unilevel leg must generate a minimum 10 GV a month each)
  • Manager – maintain 0.6 PV a month and two recruited Vice-President affiliates (each VP unilevel leg must generate a minimum 25 GV a month each)
  • Director – maintain 0.6 PV a month and 100 PV (see note below)
  • Country Director – maintain 0.6 PV a month and 100 PV for two subsequent months (see note below)
  • Regional Vice-President – maintain 0.6 PV, 200 PV a month (see note below) and have two unilevel legs generating 100 GV a month for three consecutive months
  • National Vice President – maintain 0.6 PV, 500 PV a month (see note below) and have three unilevel legs generating 100 GV a month for three consecutive months
  • International Vice President – maintain 0.6 PV, 1000 PV a month (see note below) and have four unilevel legs generating 100 GV a month for three consecutive months
  • Ambassador – maintain 0.6 PV, 2500 PV a month (see note below) and have five unilevel legs generating 100 GV a month for three consecutive months
  • Crown Ambassador – maintain 0.6 PV, 5000 PV a month (see note below) and have seven unilevel legs generating 100 GV a month for three consecutive months
  • Double Crown Ambassador – maintain 0.6 PV, 10,000 PV a month (see note below) and have nine unilevel legs generating 100 GV a month for three consecutive months
  • Triple Crown Ambassador – maintain 0.6 PV, 25,000 PV a month (see note below) and have eleven unilevel legs generating 100 GV a month for three consecutive months
  • Royal Crown Ambassador – maintain 0.6 PV, 50,000 PV a month (see note below) and have twelve unilevel legs generating 100 GV a month for three consecutive months
  • Grand Royal Ambassador – maintain 0.6 PV, 100,000 PV a month (see note below) and have twelve unilevel legs generating 300 GV a month for three consecutive months

Regarding the multiple PV qualification requirements, I believe the 0.6 PV figure (cited as PPV in the comp plan) is personal purchases. The second PV figure is volume generated by an affiliate’s personally recruited affiliates only.

This includes their autoship orders, purchase of products otherwise and retail orders.

I’m not 100% sure on this but that’s what I was able to ascertain from the provided definitions:

PPV = personal PV = your personal orders.

PV – Commission value Each product has been assigned a PV, which determines the commission amount.

Generally, EUR 100 in sales corresponds to approx. 1 PV. For each PV, EUR 90 is channeled into the incentive plan.

This means that each partner earns a percentage share corresponding to his or her level in the commission plan of EUR 90 per each PV of his or her team sales.

As you can see the provided definitions are far from clear.

Retail Commissions

WellStar affiliates are paid a retail commission when they sell WellStar products to retail customers.

How much of a retail commission earned depends on how many retail orders are generated every four weeks and for what product:

  • MST Eye Lifter – 1 customer = €35, 2 customers = €37, 4 customers = €39, 8 customers = €42, 12 customers = €44, 20 customers = €49 and 30 or more customers = €54
  • Face Lifter and Body Lifter – 1 customer = €222, 2 customers = €242, 4 customers = €262, 8 customers = €283, 12 customers = €303, 20 customers = €343 and 30 customers = €384

Note that the above commission rates are per order placed over a rolling four-week period.

WellStar affiliates are also eligible to qualify for discounts on their own product purchases, based on their personal sales volume over the same rolling four-week period.

Recruitment Commissions

WellStar’s explanation of FastStart bonuses in their compensation plan makes little sense.

From what I can work out affiliates are paid up to 25% of the fees newly recruited affiliates pay, with specific percentages tied to rank:

  • VP (Vice-President?) – 3%
  • Junior Manager – 6%
  • Manager – 10%
  • Director – 15%
  • Regional Vice-President – 20%
  • National Vice-President – 25%

Differential bonuses of up to €198 EUR are available on the above commissions, which I believe sees higher ranked affiliates collecting breakage on commissions lower ranked affiliates earn.

A matching bonus on recruitment commissions earned by personally recruited affiliates at the same rank as you is paid out as follows:

  • Director – 10%
  • Regional Vice-President  and National Vice-President – 20%

There is also something called a “level bonus” that pays up to €3000 EUR, however there’s no explanation as to what the bonus actually is.

Residual Commissions

Residual commissions in WellStar are paid out via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

unilevel-commission-structure

If any level 1 affiliates go on to recruit new affiliates, 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 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Commissions are paid out as a percentage of sales volume generated on each unilevel level, with how many levels an affiliate earns on determined by their rank:

  • Vice-President – 5% on levels 1 and 2
  • TR – 5% on levels 1 to 3
  • Junior Manager – 5% on levels 1 to 4
  • Manager – 5% on levels 1 to 5
  • Director – 5% on levels 1 to 5
  • CD – 5% on levels 1 to 6
  • Regional Vice-President – 5% on levels 1 to 7 and 10% on level 8
  • National Vice-President – 5% on levels 1 to 8 and 10% on level 9
  • International Vice-President – 5% on levels 1 to 9 and 10% on level 10
  • Ambassador and higher – 5% on levels 1 to 11 and 10% on level 12

A 20% bonus is available on level 5, subject to the following qualification criteria:

JM = ASP + 2 E1 New PV. DIR to RCA = ASP + 4 E1 New PV

(Don’t ask me what that means)

Europe Bonus Pool

The Europe Bonus Pool appears to be made up of a percentage of WellStar’s company-wide sales volume.

Starting at the Director rank, nine pools are detailed in the WellStar compensation plan. The Director rank has a percentage value of 4%, right up to Royal Crown Ambassador at 20%.

Whether or not these percentages are accumulated or independent of eachother at each rank is unclear.

To qualify for shares in the Europe Bonus Pool though, an affiliate must have a standing 0.6 PV autoship order and “4 E1 New PV” (I don’t know what this means).

A matching bonus of up to 50% is available

on all qualified partners of the respective Pool Level from Europe (Europe Pool) and to 50% on all qualified partners of the respective Pool Level in the given country (Country Pool).

Founder Pool

WellStar affiliates qualify for a share in the Founder Pool by ranking as a Crown Ambassador within one year of joining the company, or as a Double or Royal Crown Ambassador within two years.

Despite this qualification criteria, the compensation plan lists bonuses starting at “Gold Club”:

  • Gold Club (2000 places) – pool is made up of up to €45,000 EUR
  • Regional Vice-President (1000 places) – pool is made up of up to €109,285 EUR
  • National Vice-President (200 places) – pool is made up of up to €221,785 EUR
  • International Vice-President (100 places) – pool is made up of up to €446,785 EUR
  • Ambassador (50 places) – pool is made up of up to €896,758 EUR
  • Crown Ambassador (25 places) – pool is made up of up to €1,796,758 EUR
  • Double Crown Ambassador (12 places) – pool is made up of up to €3,596,758 EUR
  • Triple Crown Ambassador (10 places) – pool is made up of up to €7,058,296 EUR
  • Royal Crown Ambassador (3 places) – pool is made up of up to €22,058,296 EUR
  • Grand Royal Ambassador (1 place) – pool is made up of up to €44,558,296 EUR

The WellStar compensation plan states that the pool is paid out annually, and that

once the maximum number of founder positions available has been reached, you are no longer eligible to qualify for the Founder Pool.

How his works at the upper tier ranks (Grand Royal Ambassador has only one position, for example) is unclear.

Car Bonus

WellStar’s car bonus requires affiliates to qualify for a share in the Europe Bonus Pool for three consecutive months.

The Car Bonus is a monthly cash bonus, put towards repayments of a car:

  • National Vice-President – €1200 EUR a month
  • International Vice-President – €2000 EUR a month
  • Ambassador – €2500 EUR a month
  • Crown Ambassador or higher – €3500 EUR a month

Maldives Master University

Become Regional Vice President (the regulations of the respectively current incentives apply) in your first 6 weeks and qualify for the WellStar Master University on the Maldives, including special training for Crown Ambassadors with WellStar CEO, Christian Wiesner.

Joining WellStar

Basic affiliate membership with WellStar is €49 EUR.

Bronze, Silver and Gold affiliate memberships are also available, however costs are not disclosed on the WellStar website.

I did try to ascertain these costs via additional research but was unable to do so.

Conclusion

Whether it’s language-barrier issues, the fact that WellStar was founded twelve years ago – whatever the reason – WellStar as an MLM opportunity is in desperate need of an overhaul.

Problems arise with a lack of disclosure on the WellStar website, spanning retail prices, affiliate membership costs and basic compensation plan information.

As to the compensation plan itself, there’s a lot of information presented but not much of it makes any sense. I’ve been sitting on this review for a few days now trying to make heads or tails of much of the plan, with the end-result being more educated guesswork than comprehension of the information provided.

An abundance of abbreviations and non-standard terminology makes what is already a difficult to process compensation plan even more complicated.

Qualification: JM = ASP + 2 E1 New PV. DIR to RCA = ASP + 4 E1 New PV.

Exemption from qualification: Starting from 5 direct partners with each an active ASP per month, you receive your own ASP free of charge.

Starting from 10 direct partners with each an active ASP per month, you don´t need to have E1 volume yourself (the E1 New PV is the PGV of your personally sponsored partners in their Faststart).

Who WellStar wrote their compensation plan documentation for is unclear, but it certainly wasn’t their affiliates or the general public – much the less someone who’s intimately familiar with the various MLM compensation plans out there.

And what’s this nonsense about a €44.5 million EUR annual payout to Grand Royal Ambassador annually? Anybody with even half a clue should be able to suss out that’s never going to be realized.

Even the millions of EUR listed for the ranks below Grand Royal Ambassador in the Founder Pool seem ridiculous.

The cynic in me typically attributes a lack of disclosure and confusion in an MLM opportunity’s presentation, with there being something to hide.

With that in mind, the following official “steps to success” WellStar advise their affiliates to undertake certainly raised eyebrows:

Your steps to success:

1. Get started by becoming an independent partner with WellStar.

2. Start the Autoship programme.

3. Qualify as Junior Manager or even as high as National Vice President in your Faststart in the first 4 weeks.

4. Sponsor 5 partners or more, and show them steps 1 – 4.

Sign up as a WellStar affiliate, sign up for monthly autoship, increase size of autoship to qualify as a National Vice-President, recruit five affiliates and get them to do the same.

This is undoubtedly the blueprint of an autoship recruitment scheme, in which little to no retail activity takes place.

Additionally, WellStar describe affiliate autoship as a way to “secure your active status to be entitled for receiving commissions”.

Given Kari Wahlroos’ comments about affiliate recruitment, my guess is this is the core of the WellStar business opportunity.

As a prospective WellStar affiliate, I’d strongly suggest enquiring with your potential upline as to how many retail orders they are taking each month.

If you’re like me and can’t make heads or tails of most of WellStar’s compensation plan though, probably best to avoid the opportunity altogether.