I really don't know who to pit here. (Roped into a Pyramid Scheme).

The BBQ Pit
1

My fiance decided that we were going to go to a presentation on health and nutrition. A friend of hers was giving the presentation and she was going - I was, of course, expected to go along. I figured, what the heck, it’s only an hour and half of my Thurs night. Maybe I’ll even learn something. I didn’t ask too many questions about it, I just went along with it.

On the way over, I asked how much it cost to sit in on this presentation. Nothing was the answer. Shit. Why would anyone give a free presentation? They must be trying to sell something. I still wasn’t too upset. I don’t eat as healthy as I probably should - maybe I could buy some vitamins.

When we get there, sure enough, there’s an entire product line sitting at the front of the room. Oh well, I’ll listen and make the best of it. The presentation was actually quite good. Nothing revolutionary - basically the importance on antioxidants and what they do. I also learned why to keep sugar intake down and causes of adult onset diabetes. By the end of the presentation (which was about an hour) I felt like I had a better understanding nutrition and why I should eat what I should eat.

Then it all when downhill. This chippy bimbo gets up in front of the audience and starts talking to us like we’re a bunch of little fucking kindergarteners. Couldn’t we use more money? I know I like new shoes! Wouldn’t you all like to go shoe shopping!? It’s soooo easy, just get two of your friends to join!

She emphasized that this was NOT a pyramid scheme, this was Network Marketing! I sat there for an hour listening to this drivel. You could be making an extra $1000 a week! Without doing anything! I was fucking pissed to be sitting there, but my fiance didn’t want to seem rude, so we sat through the whole fucking thing. By the time we left, I was noticably annoyed. I hate sitting through 30 sec commercials on TV, and here I was trapped for over two fucking hours.

The real bitch of it? She got pissed at me for being upset! I couldn’t fucking believe it. She got me to go to this thing under false pretenses (she didn’t know either, but it certainly wasn’t my idea), and was mad at me for being upset that she dragged me to this thing.

I’ve certainly learned my lesson. Nothing is free. If you are going to a presentation in a hotel conference rooom and they are not charging you, they’re selling something. Fuck, I want my two hours back.

2

Why would you be mad at your fiance if she didn’t know what kind of presentation it was either? She did not set up the false pretense, her friend did.

Anyway, you apparently learned something about nutrition, so it wasn’t an entirely wasted evening.

If you gave your fiance the impression that you were mad at her for dragging you to this presentation under false pretenses, you should apologize. She was just as much a patsy as you and doesn’t (necessarily) deserve to be the object of scorn.

3

Ugh, that would piss me off.
I’ve learned (unfortunately from repeated assults) that they really have no answer when you tell them that you are prefectly happy with the money you make at your current job, you value your spare time and use it to spend time with family and doing things you enjoy, and you have absolutely no intention or need to waste your spare time making money.

4

No, I wasn’t mad at her - much. I was just in a pissy mood after sitting through that crap. I was kind of mad that she didn’t find out what was really going on - but in retrospect, she probably wouldn’t have gotten straight answers even if she did ask.

5

I can understand you being pissed at the meeting organisers, but at your fiance? Who didn’t know this was going to happen? Not fair.

6

I can understand being pissed at the fiance because she didn’t want to leave when the idiotic sales pitch came on.

7

Question;

Is Avon a pyramid scheme?
Amway?
Network marketers can make more than their upline so they aren’t pyramid schemes in the true sense of the definition.

8

Sounds like a multilevel marketing scheme.

I’d be dubious about the quality of the nutrition information you heard. These presentations are heavily geared to selling you things you either don’t need or which are more than adequately supplied in a normal diet.

Lots of people get roped into working for these companies, and have a stake in promoting the products to protect whatever (usually disappointing) income they make. Often they wind up on online forums urging people to buy Glyconutrient X or Colon Blast, posing as satisfied users.

9

Maybe you should look to how you manage your emotions?

I don’t mean that to sound rude, but if you were taking your anger at the presentation out on your fiance, then that’s really not fair.

And if you’re saying that even if your fiance had asked you to talk about why you were angry, you wouldn’t have been upfront with her, then that’s a whole 'nother ballgame.

10

But this presentation was at her friend’s place, right? She likely didn’t want to offend her friend. The person to be pissed at is the friend for putting everyone in that position.

11

I think he meant that the fiance wouldn’t have been told ahead of time that it was an Herbalife presentation, or whatever it was. Which is likely true.

Anyway, count me among the :dubious:. I was waiting for the reveal that said fiance had dropped $1000 on this, and borrowed from the OP in order to do so. Believe me, if all these people got from you was two hours of your time, that’s nothing.

12

Ah right, that makes sense. My bad.

13

Not sure I’d go as far as saying “your bad.” I think the OP should, as you say, start managing his emotions if he’s going to be married. Saying, “What the hell, I went along with it, it was her idea, but now I’m sitting on a tack because she dragged me” is not a great attitude. And for that matter, her being mad because he’s mad, if that’s how it went down, is not healthy either.

Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. Learn to communicate, dang it!

14

You may also want to Pit yourself for not leaving anyway. You could have left and gone for a walk to cool down, and your fiancee could have called you when it was done. Then, you could have helped soothe her nerves on the way home, since she was upset too.

15

Indeed. I’d already said that in a previous post, so didn’t want to unfairly tar and feather the guy.

16

I would also be annoyed by my loved on expecting me to stay for the whole thing. Getting suckered in the first place is not a big deal, but once everyone realizes what’s going on? That’s the time to forgo niceness and leave.

Many of these organizations count on people being too “polite” to get up/hang up/whatever the case may be. I put polite in scare quotes because I don’t believe it’s at all impolite to end a sales pitch.

17

Whoa! I should’ve been watching this more closely. I did mean that she wouldn’t have gotten a straight answer if she had asked what the presentation was all about.

We did talk about it. I wasn’t so much mad at her as I was just mad. Just fuming that I had to sit and listen to the very stuff that separates idiots from their money. No, I didn’t get involved, but the waste of time was enough to piss me off.

She was mad because I was mad. But I think that she was embarassed to get roped into going didn’t want to admit it.

We didn’t get into a fight over this - we communicate just fine.

Can’t we focus on lambasting the people that sucker their friends into listening to this crap so they can attempt to recover some of the money they lost by investing in it?

I should have been mad at the friend (who I don’t really know) and at the company (which I had never heard of), but unfortunatley, by the time I could show my true emotions, the only person to see it was her. I guess I should apologize for being pissy with her.

18

Missed my 5 min edit window -

**jsgoddess **, yes - exactly. We (actually more she) didn’t want to be rude by leaving. As soon as I knew for sure what we were getting into, I just went to my happy place to daydream until it was over. If I had been there by myself, I would have left as soon as the ditz opened her mouth.

19

Yeah, apologies are good. :slight_smile:

Was the ‘chimpy bimbo’ your fiance’s friend or someone else?

20

STOP! If she were going to a gyno appointment would you be expected to go along? IMHO one of the things that makes relationships prosper is the individuals having some things that are not automatically shared.

I agree. Unless the “presenter” has a PhD in nutrition/medicine/etc she is most likely parroting what she has learned will sell product.