Silent But Steadfast - A Post On True IBO Stories

Here is our opinion on the following post from True IBO Stories

Posted on: Sunday, August 26, 2007

"So when you read the many disparaging, critical comments on the Quixtar and Alticor blogs, it's important to keep them in perspective: For every negative opinion, I know there are a hundred IBOs (dare I call them The Silent Majority?) who have positive experiences to share, continue to find promise in this business opportunity, doggedly pursue their goals, and "go placidly amidst the noise and haste.""

QuixtarTools.com: One should keep in mind all the IBOs that have been abused by the tool systems for over three decades and have quit as a result while the Corp. stood by "silently" and full aware of the situation. Most of them kept silent for too many reasons to mention including the bitter taste in the mouth that their experience has left them with, they just wanted to move on with their lives. I've spoken to quiet a few of such ex-IBOs as I was trying to get sales leads to move some product. In very many cases I was successfully, as most of them liked the products.
One should also keep in mind those IBOs who were "legally" forced into silence.

This Business can be the best opportunity in the case it's built right. One good example (not sure if there are others) of an organization that is doing just that is iTeamUsa. An Ibo doesn't have to switch their LOS in order to use this system, so this isn't an attempt to steal recruits. You can request to be invited to an iTeamUsa live online presentation by contacting us.

New Video From QuixtarTools.com

Lets Lower The Prices

Here is a comment I made on

http://amwaynews.alticorblogs.com/2007/05/24/you-asked-for-it/#comment-944
"# Optimistic Ibo Says:
August 14th, 2007 at 6:42 am

My opinion on how it all began;

Amway started out as a mlm focusing on retailing first, sponsoring second, personal development third.

The high pin Ibos realized that they get to keep all of the profits on tools as opposed to profits on products which they had to share with their downline. They therefore switched their priorities to: personal development first, sponsoring 2, retailing third.

Amway decided to capitalize on the brainwashed zombies that tools have created by raising prices inproportionately to commercial standards since they knew that the zombies will hyper consume the product at any price.

Amway gets a bad rep due to the tool scam and high prices and tries to cover up by Changing their name to Quixtar. The cover up fails ( Date line NBC, Merchant of Deception, etc.).

Quixtar decides to change back to Amway in an effort to encourage retailing product and terminates two known tool scam artists in an effort to clean up the tools scam.

My opinion of the future

The brainwashed zombies will slowly start becoming normal people and stop hyper-consuming over priced products while having a hard time retailing them again due to their high price.

Amway will star losing it's sales volume and will be forced to lower the prices in an effort to bring up the sales volume.

i hope I'm right about the future, and if I am, it really is exciting."

Judge rules against TEAM, in favour of Quixtar

In a big win for Quixtar, a Michigan Court today ruled for Quixtar and against TEAM in all 3 cases before it. From the Quixtar press release -

In ruling on three motions related to the terminations, Judge Paul Sullivan of Kent County Circuit Court took the following actions:

* Issued a preliminary injunction preventing Woodward and his company, Team, from using Quixtar business data to recruit Quixtar IBOs as Team builds a competing business;
* Issued a second injunction ordering Woodward and other terminated distributors to return confidential documents and data they had taken from their former trade association, which has suspended them; and
* Denied an injunction request from others who sought to prevent Quixtar from enforcing its rules of conduct.
Read the decision on a PDF

Woodward and Brady are among those who have sued Quixtar in California, alleging it is an illegal pyramid scheme!

From www.MLIVE.com

"Even though they have filed that suit, members of TEAM have continued to recruit another 1,000 new Quixtar IBOs, attorneys for Woodward and Brady said." read full story
Read the Lawsuit Complaint PDF

SA-4400 Replaced

SA-4400 Replaced By OBOB (Quixtar Business Opportunity Brochure). Click to view or right click and then click "save target as" to download.

Here is a response from Fred Harties on his involvement in the Lawsuit

A Comment Posted by Fred Harteis On The New IBOAI Blog Site

1. I did not back out of the lawsuit. I had no knowledge that a lawsuit was being filed and did not authorize anyone to include me as a party to the lawsuit. This fact was conceded by TEAM's attorney to my attorney earlier this week. I had never read or seen the lawsuit. I had never spoken with the attorneys who filed the suit for TEAM. TEAM's intentional and reckless conduct in causing their attorneys to place my name on the Complaint has and will continue to cause substantial damages to me and my family in our Quixtar businesses. The damages that we are sustaining are amply demonstrated by this comment from "TEAM Member."

2. No one exerted any pressure on me to make any decision. I never intended to join any TEAM member in a lawsuit against Quixtar in the first instance.

3. I have never received any compensation from the TEAM training system. And while we're at it, I do not agree with the sale of BSM without the supporting a business that offers consumable products. A system that is promoting the system itself and focuses almost entirely on income from the system is improper and not something in which I will engage.

Fred Harteis


Posted by: Fred Harteis | August 17, 2007 at 02:16 PM

Fred Harteis Removes Himself From Lawsuit

Here is a new report about Fred Harteis. It is apparent that the TEAM is in over their head. Leaders are already splintering off in different directions.

A Lower Paxton Twp. man says his inclusion as a plaintiff in a lawsuit against multilevel marketing firm Quixtar Inc. was "an error," and he has been removed from the legal action.

Fred Harteis, president of Harteis International at 7955 Jonestown Road, said yesterday through a spokeswoman that he remains a distributor for Quixtar, a corporate cousin of the better-known Amway Corp. of Ada, Mich.

The lawsuit contends that Quixtar is an illegal pyramid scheme, violating rules set by the Federal Trade Commission after previous litigation involving Amway.

Here is what TEAM had to say about Fred's move:

Statement from Shughart, Thomson & Kilroy Regarding Plaintiff Fred Harteis:

Fred Harteis was involved in many conversations with us in the previous weeks concerning the state of the current Quixtar business, the pricing of its products, and Quixtar's coming transformation. On Friday, after we filed our Complaint, Fred's attorney notified us that Fred would not participate. Therefore, Fred is no longer a plaintiff in this lawsuit. We respect Fred's right to decide what he thinks is best for his family and business.

Quixtar Raising Prices-Not Quite What Team Wanted

from Amway Facts:

Quixtar.com today posted an update (reproduced below) about some changes coming in the near future. In the context of some of TEAM's complaints about wanting price decreases ... well, it's quite interesting reading. In summary -

one discount available - case purchases - is being removed.
most products will remain the same price, only a few will increase
shipping rates will increase!
the new product lines will be Simply Nutrilite™ foods for people on the go who care about their health and Artistry® Essentials, a natural colour cosmetics line
So, in contrast to TEAM's desire to have prices drop, they're staying the same or going up. TEAM wanted products to compete with WalMart, instead Quixtar is introducing more Nutrilite and Artistry products - premium quality brands.

TEAM Promotes Website

A press release by TEAM earlier today promotes a website www.freetheibo.com.

Jody Victor Jumps Ship Together Fred Harteis. Whos next?

Jody Victor Jumps Ship Together With Fred Harteis-No Longer With TEAM

Jody Victor is listed as the Chairman of the Oversight Committee and Chairman of the Hearing and Dispute Committee and thereby verifies the complain against Woodward, Brady, Wilson, Florence and co.

Here is a copy of the Restraining Order filed against the TEAM and other leaders including Don Wilson and Billy Florence by the IBOAI.

Download IBOAI.Complaint.pdf from mlmblog.net

Alticor fires 15 Quixtar distributors who sued

Alticor fires 15 Quixtar distributors who sued
Posted by The Grand Rapids Press August 13, 2007 16:15PM
Categories: Breaking News

ADA TOWNSHIP -- Alticor Inc. has fired 15 long-term and highly influential Quixtar distributors who filed a class-action lawsuit against the direct sales giant last week.

The ramifications of the dust-up for the Ada-based parent company of Amway could be huge -- especially as the company faces increased regulatory pressure in India and the United Kingdom.

Seventeen distributors are named as plaintiffs in a scathing suit that says Quixtar operates as a pyramid scheme selling merchandise at prices so inflated it cannot be sold to anyone other than distributors.

The suit asks the court to relieve the plaintiffs from six-month non-compete clauses. The suit does not ask for monetary damages.

Such an exodus among Quixtar's upper echelon could prove costly. Quixtar said it generated $1.1 billion of Alticor's $6.3 billion in sales during 2006.

Together, the plaintiffs seeking to leave Quixtar represent about 40 percent of the company's U.S. business, said D.J. Poyfair, an attorney representing the distributors.

The situation is the first domestic public dust-up since promises Alticor made in June to reform its business as it readopts the Amway name over the next 18 to 24 months.

Quixtar is the name Alticor gave what had been its Amway direct sales operation in the United States. The company is owned by the families of its co-founders, Rich DeVos and the late Jay Van Andel.

The suit is led by Orrin Woodward, of Grand Blanc, a co-founder of Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM), a group of Quixtar distributors.

The suit alleges the company knowingly operates as a pyramid scheme by focusing on selling overpriced products only to its distributors, known as Independent Business Owners, or IBOs.

Quixtar said it was unsuccessful trying to work with TEAM leaders to "correct issues related to Team's teaching of inappropriate business-building tactics, improper positioning of the opportunity and use of unauthorized support materials."

Alticor's media blog singled out Woodward, who has been known to draw thousands of IBOs to motivational rallies, as a "poster child for a long list of bad business practices that critics hate about our company."

www.Mlive.com

Quixtar Releases Own Press Release About Termination

Here is a press release by Quixtar about the Team Termination and Quixtar Team Lawsuit:

ADA, Mich., Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Quixtar Inc. announced this morning the termination of 15 independent businesses as a result of actions detrimental to the company's North American operations. The businesses affected were part of the Team training organization or other training organizations using Team's training materials and named as co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by Team's founders against Quixtar yesterday.

Quixtar was working with Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady, founders of the Team training organization, to correct issues related to Team's teaching of inappropriate business-building tactics, improper positioning of the opportunity, and use of unauthorized support materials. These teachings placed themselves, affiliated Independent Business Owners (IBOs), and Quixtar at serious and immediate risk of legal and regulatory actions and had to be stopped.

Woodward and Brady refused to work with the company to return Team to compliance with Quixtar's rules, stated their intentions of starting a new company in competition with Quixtar, and filed a lawsuit against the company seeking relief from their non-compete requirements. The lawsuit is filled with outrageous claims and statements and will be defended vigorously by the corporation.

Due to their refusal to correct their business practices, Quixtar terminated the independent businesses of Woodward and Brady as well as those who joined them as plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit, filed in a California district court yesterday. A Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Order of Injunction was sought by the company and granted today in a Michigan district court, preventing Woodward and Brady from interfering with the Quixtar Line of Sponsorship (LOS), soliciting IBOs for another business opportunity, disparaging Quixtar and damaging its reputation, and requiring them to return to Quixtar its proprietary and confidential LOS data.

Additional co-plaintiffs whose Quixtar independent businesses were terminated include Billy Florence, Don Wilson, Randy Haugen, Chuck Goetschel, Tim Marks, Kirk Birtles, James Martin, Aron Radosa, David Brandy, Benjamin Dickie, Bruce Gilbank, Michael Martenson, and Chuck Cullen.

Incidentally, the law firm representing the plaintiffs is the same firm involved in several other frivolous lawsuits against Quixtar and IBOs.

Quixtar remains committed to the support of all IBOs and will work with those who agree to abide by the company's rules and maintain high ethical standards. In fact, the company has announced many improvements to further enhance its business, including more than $200 million in investments in product development, brand building, training, and compensation enhancements.

Commentary from the company is being provided at the Alticor Media Blog [http://media.alticorblogs.com/] and Quixtar is actively reaching out to IBOs who were in the Team training organization and other organizations affected by these terminations to restate our commitment to supporting their independent businesses.

About Quixtar

Quixtar Inc. offers a business opportunity that allows people to have a business of their own based on retailing products and sharing the opportunity with others who will do the same. Quixtar supports Independent Business Owners (IBOs) with a proven compensation plan, portfolios of quality products in health, beauty, and other consumer categories, plus the merchandising materials, training, and education they need to be successful. IBOs also are supported by communities of those who have succeeded in Quixtar businesses before them.

Since 1999, Quixtar IBOs have generated $6.8 billion in sales through Quixtar.com, plus more than $500 million for Quixtar Partner Stores. These sales have earned IBOs more than $2.2 billion in bonuses through the Quixtar(R) Independent Business Owner Compensation Plan plus other incentives. Their efforts have propelled Quixtar to be ranked the #1 online Health & Beauty retailer based on sales, and 22nd among all e-commerce sites, according to Internet Retailer magazine.

A subsidiary of Alticor Inc., Quixtar supports independent businesses in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and various trust territories and independent island nations in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and Caribbean Sea.

SOURCE Quixtar Inc.

Team; Their Side Of the Story

From www.team_orrin_woodward.typepad.com
Orrin Woodward Resigns from Quixtar!

Team,

Today, August 9th, 2007, eight current members of the IBOAI board from North America, representing a combined average experience of twenty seven years in the business, approached Quixtar/Alticor to express deep concern with the current condition of the Quixtar business. For years, we’ve all been concerned that Quixtar’s products have been hopelessly overpriced and were virtually not retailable. Quixtar has known this, too, because over the last few years we have repeatedly informed them of this fact and have literally begged them to correct the problem. They did nothing, which is not particularly surprising given the ridiculously high profit margins required by families who own the businesses.

When we realized that our pleas had no hope of succeeding, we decided the cover-up needed to stop. Consistent with the principles of promoting fair competition and with commitment to the free enterprise system, we expressed our opinion that it would be only fair for Quixtar/Alticor to roll back its non-competition and non-solicitation rules and give all IBOs a choice to continue their participation in the business. Our position is simple: People should have a choice about whether to stay with Quixtar/Amway or leave for another opportunity. In response to our request, Amway/Quixtar snickered and immediately rejected our proposal.

As a result of this discussion, members of the board immediately resigned. Having reached an impasse, and being unable to have further discussions with Quixtar/Alticor management, we have asked the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to provide essentially the same relief we asked Quixtar/Amway to voluntarily accept. Our complaint to the court can be reviewed in detail by clicking on the PDF included in this e-mail. This lawsuit does not seek damages or retribution. As Moses said to Pharaoh, “Let our people go!”

Download Complaint.pdf

Robert L. Dickie III

Team
Chief Executive Officer

The complaints lists the following plaintiffs -

Orrin Woodward, Billy Florence, Don Wilson, Fred Harteis, Tim Marks, Chuck Cullen, Kirk Birtles, Randy Haugen, Chris Brady, Jim Martin, Aron Radosa, Chuck Goetschel, David Brandy, Benjamin L. Dickie, Bruce Gilbank, Mike Martensen

It essentially claims that Quixtar products are too highly priced to be retailable and seeks relief for plaintiffs to pursue other opportunities.