I think Melaleuca is a fairly interesting company overall and thought I would do a brief review on it to give some immediate insight on any future discussions. Melaleuca is a word derived from "Melaleuca Alternifolia", a plant known for producing an essential oil which acts as an anti-fungal, and an antibiotic. The Melaleuca company is a producer of health, home, and personal care products, and was founded in 1985. These oil extracts are used in many of Melaleuca's health and personal care products which currently consist of over 350 items, including a series of EcoSense cleaning products for the home said to be environmentally friendly.

The company's founder, Frank Vandersloot, produced his business back in 1993, focusing his efforts on exporting to over 15 different countries throughout the world. Although the company considers itself an Australian business, its main headquarters is set up in North America in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Melaleuca's product base consists of home, health and wellness products which include deodorants, soaps, body gels, various cleaners, and lotions, in addition to products for your internal health, such as antioxidants, digestive aids, multi-vitamins, energy pills, mood support, eye and vision supplements and healthy snacks. In addition, Melaleuca also offers skin treatments, feminine hygiene products, heart burn relief, muscle pain relief and first aid kits.

 Interestingly, Melaleuca doesn't allow its Marketing Executives to place Melaleuca, its products, services, or compensation plan in directory listings or ads, although the majority of reviews on the Internet suggest that the company is well liked and trusted among the average customer and entrepreneur, with the exception of occasional complaints. The Melaleuca business model utilizes a referral program reminiscent of the BMG CD club in which you are able to receive free CDs in exchange for referring friends. Melaleuca is said to send cash based on a percentage of what the referral spends.

There is also a part of their program called the Preferred Customer Program where customers can receive a 40% discount for committing to buy $50 per month worth of product from the company. As it stands, it seem like Melaleuca is a stand up company built on a few good experience lessons from the Australian Essential Oils Company. The products are respected and purchased in impressive quantities according to charts, and the business opportunity seems promising, considering the growing popularity of organic and environmentally green products.

I was involved with Melaleuca, briefly, years ago and have nothing negative to say about the company or the products.  I adored the concept that I would be successful by helping others become successful and the couple who sponsored me were lovely, lovely people; the timing just wasn't right for me. 

With that said, I am hoping Travis can help me understand why Melaleuca has chosen to not let reps use the name Melaleuca.  I am almost certain that it has to do with reputation, but a company that I found to be completely respectable is now presented elusively; such as: freedomunitedteam.com  Its a big turn off to me...  'can't help but think it turns others off, as well unfortunately, and that makes me sad because I really like Melaleuca.

Scentsy also has a goal of maintaining a positive reputation, so reps must advertise as being Independent Consultants and use only the Independent Consultant Scentsy logo (much different than the Scentsy corp logo).  Then (hopefully) people know that any poor behaviors are not coming directly from Scentsy corp. 

'seems to me a much better approach, without knowing all of the variables going into the decision...

Yes I just checked the link here. I never heard about Melaleuca, but by your link I just founded this. The services they are providing are good. Our company also provides the health products like how to loose weight. You can check the following website for this. Any keep sharing the good stuff here.

www.herbaldiet.com/

Hi Wallacel, Sorry for some irrelevant words in my post, I am just introducing my company in my post. and one thing I want to say is  I am not a spammer I am SEO…

Regards))

Ashley

I have to agree with you Carleen.  I'm in a lot of work at home mom forums and the Maleluca reps come across as "secretive" which does not instill trust.  Plus, it is a big turn off for potential new consultants because then they wonder how they can market their own business. 

SendOutCards is actually very similar in that you cannot reference the actual company name or service in advertising.  You have to use generic terms to capture leads - which I don't agree with either.  I'm very transparent and I do not like that approach. 

On the other hand, I understand their reasoning because they want to protect the brand's image of being a product about personal relationships.  I love the product and service and  have a good base of customers that feel the same way.  But it is challenging to build a business without advertising a good name and being up front.  

I'm not sure if you're a bot or not Ashley but would you mind starting a separate thread where you will be more than welcome to pitch www.herbaldiet.com? This thread is about Melaleuca, and your posts are a bit inappropriately placed and slightly disruptive.

Thank you kindly. :)

No problem Ashley, you are more than welcome to post about anything you want, but it is polite to keep on topic as best you can. If you post about your company, just start a new thread that's all :) If you post in an already existing thread, try to keep the topic the same.

Welcome to Repspace.

I think Melaleuca and SendOut Cards are also missing out on the momentum that could come with having a good reputation... 

Case in point: How pleasant its been for me here at this forum, "Oh, I've heard of Scentsy/used Scentsy/know of other Scentsy reps... and it/they are wonderful".  So I skip that initial "battle" of having to prove that the company I represent is legit and desirable; get to the close faster.  Now I "only" have to prove that I am Scentsy-worthy.  lol

Hello Carleen and Ivette, welcome to the boards.

My wife and I were discussing something similar the other day, and one of my complaints is, that for all the love I have for my company as an sd, there really are times I not only feel, but appear to be working for the "Illuminati". I'm not literally insinuating that by the way, just being a bit silly as I enjoy my morning tea. I'm only one guy, so its not exactly something I can answer for everyone else in the company, but when you move up far enough you begin to realize that Melaleuca enjoys a very low-key existence, one that's based on letting the product quality speak for itself. About 3 years ago I sat in on a meeting and Melaleuca's marketing guidelines were discussed. One of the sole complaints from most reps is that they feel handcuffed when it comes to advertising, understandably so. Someone during the meeting brought up the quality of representation of another company I won't name for the sake of respect.

A story was told about this individual engaging in some relatively aggressive behavior which included preventing a woman from leaving an office until she finished the representation to the end. After filing a complaint with law enforcement and the company, the rep was obviously removed from service, but his web site also contained visual and audio representations of the company that were fairly inappropriate. In short, it was explained to us that in order to prevent this kind of thing (which Melaleuca claims has a devastating effect on PR) the company tightened its grip. My problem with what was said, is that it has always been a tight grip as far as I can tell, and I fail to see why it would be so difficult just to set some guidelines and leave it at that. Melaleuca sometimes reminds me of an old lady trapped in the bathroom because she just had her hair done and a section of it is out of place and she has no comb. The bottom line is that Melaleuca is protective of their brand name and how it is used in commerce. Many people feel that the company is working on a way to carefully monitor how the brand is represented on the Internet but I have quite a few friends who would know, and all seems quiet in that area.

Thanks for the input, Travis.  I figured it had to do with protecting their reputation..  but being secretive and/or elusive, in itself, is actually harming their reputation, in my opinion.  It must have been very frustrating and disappointing for you when they made that change, to say the least.

Its my pleasure Carleen. What I found most odd is that I never experienced a change to be honest, it has always felt very restrictive, long before the alleged events took place. The individual whom explained it to us and told us that story said that those restrictions were put in place as a result, but it simply wasn't true because I have been with them for quite awhile and the reigns have always been tight. It could also be that many reps are worried about how they represent the Melaleuca name and are a little fearful of breaking the tos, but I have yet to see any serious reprimands, in fact even I feel a little tension talking about it here but I've never seen anyone get in any serious trouble that cost them a membership or a rank. I don't know if I feel that the elusiveness is harmful as much as restricting, although a restriction could certainly count as being harmful so you're correct I suppose.

There are certainly things that I would do differently if it were up to me, and contrary to the denial of some of our leaders, I do see a few pr issues that could use addressing, one of them being a lack of financial backing in cleaning up our image on the internet. There was a young man on these forums that complained about Melaleuca, claiming to have been cheated, but I personally offered to refund all of his losses if he could just show me proof of the ordeal, even if only a little and he never got back to me. His claim is one of quite a few floating around cyberspace, and I know darn well that 99.9% of them are bogus. I see no action being taken at all by my company to clean these up, and they don't realize that people read these, they DO matter. So I am left to wonder how it is that Melaleuca is so strict about their policies and how they are represented, while doing nothing to improve its reputation...at this point in time, that is probably my biggest criticism. Other than that, I couldn't be happier, and if you're an honest person willing to do the work and bring your best to the people, its a fantastic company to be a part of.

To be fair, it is true that you offered to compensate me, and as I stated in my responses to you, the loss was not big enough to justify that much trouble and I am doing just fine financially so I felt no reason to go through the process. I felt as though you were attempting to "purchase" a solution to a problem, when in reality the problem was that I felt I had the right to voice my opinion about Melaleuca. You just stated that you feel as though your company should spend money in order to clean up its reputation, but don't you think the fact that it needs to is relevant? How many business mistakes could you make that the only way to truly correct it is to have money on hand to bury it? Is that what you mean when you said that? How do you feel morally about doing that? Sure its legal, its probably practiced by just about every politician that has ever walked the earth, but how ethical is it to simply bury complaints?

I was never arguing with you to give me your money, I wanted Melaleuca to do what was right. I also wanted the right to voice my opinion without feeling put down, or as if my arguments had no legitimacy. I'm not a needy consumer Mr. Walton, I don't require your money in order to sedate my need for some kind of justice. I am also deserving of free speech and the ability to say that Melaleuca distributors that I've had contact with seem to be the most secretive, aggressive, and underhanded in the industry when it comes to promoting themselves or their opportunity. I've come to expect that with most distributors of any product, but I had high hopes for the mother company behind it all, because you can always blame an individual for bad manners. I thought for sure that Melaleuca would correct my problem, and they went beyond failing. I actually felt violated as a person, and you can make fun of me for whining all you want, but how would anything get any better in the big picture of things?

I went to the source for help, in good faith in fact, and Melaleuca was rude, they lied and lacked any sense of caring. It was a similar feeling to being fired if you have ever lost a job you were great at. In many ways Mr. Walton, and I mean no disrespect; many things you have said mirror the mother ship philosophy and your desire to have them spend money to basically cover up bad publicity. That is simply wrong, especially because you can't empirically prove your 99.9% statistic. I think that was a very egotistical statement to make. Maybe I am that remaining 1%, and I have every right to be heard as your reps do. Will you spend money to remove my posts criticizing Melaleuca, since you could not pay for my silence directly?

I have nothing personal against you, I just wanted to make that clear, and I can appreciate your desire to be successful and to see your company be successful, but I don't appreciate the direction Melaleuca seems to prefer to travel.

I was first introduced to Melaleuca about 20 years ago and received an attractive business card with the pretty Melaleuca logo right on the front of it.  I liked the look of the card enough to listen to the story.  I joined briefly, but the timing wasn't right for me.  I wouldn't have listened to the story had I received a card that said some like:  "Freedom Home United"

Travis,

could you post or email me the exact wording in the contract re: advertising/using the Melaleuca name?

Its my pleasure Carleen. What I found most odd is that I never experienced a change to be honest, it has always felt very restrictive, long before the alleged events took place. The individual whom explained it to us and told us that story said that those restrictions were put in place as a result, but it simply wasn't true because I have been with them for quite awhile and the reigns have always been tight. It could also be that many reps are worried about how they represent the Melaleuca name and are a little fearful of breaking the tos, but I have yet to see any serious reprimands, in fact even I feel a little tension talking about it here but I've never seen anyone get in any serious trouble that cost them a membership or a rank. I don't know if I feel that the elusiveness is harmful as much as restricting, although a restriction could certainly count as being harmful so you're correct I suppose.

I was wondering what happened to you Crytex, you sort of vanished out of that thread. I can totally agree with you on some points, not so much on others, and I don't mean with this thread alone, but overall. I thought it was a crazy amount of money to go this far with because had it been me, I'd have just got it out of my mind. At the same time though I can understand your underlying point about not wanting the money itself but the right to speak your mind. In defense of Travis though, I don't think he was suggesting that Melaleuca is trying to bury anything that wasn't true, but things that had either been dealt with, or were outright lies. I don't know what vitamin mlm company feels they are toe to toe with Melaleuca that they pay some internet people to write a few bad reviews to try to tip the scales, but if that kind of thing really does happen, I would like to think there are ways to clean it up. I have to be honest, I thought you were one of them when you wouldn't take Travis up on his offer, and then when you disappeared I was like, positive of it. Welcome back though, and I hope you stick around long enough to come to some kind of peaceful conclusion about it.

You just stated that you feel as though your company should spend money in order to clean up its reputation, but don't you think the fact that it needs to is relevant? How many business mistakes could you make that the only way to truly correct it is to have money on hand to bury it? Is that what you mean when you said that? How do you feel morally about doing that? Sure its legal, its probably practiced by just about every politician that has ever walked the earth, but how ethical is it to simply bury complaints?

Crytex, my statement had nothing to do with cleaning up a reputation as much as correcting some inaccurate feedback. Criticism is welcome by Melaleuca, that's how we improve our products, our service and our public image, but there are some posts and articles out there that are not only intentionally destructive, but simply not the truth. Companies pay money all the time for people to investigate even the smallest of complaints, offer a satisfactory resolution and close down the complaint or article so long as it is resolvable. There are some people that are not happy no matter what you do, and there is little that can be done in cases like that. You also seem to cheapen my offer to you despite the fact that I represent Melaleuca. I found your original story to be a bit shady Crytex, and I still do, and it does matter to me that you were unable to provide any kind of proof, yet I was still willing to give you the money you claim to have lost. I am still leaving that offer open right now in fact, and will leave it open so long as you yourself consider the case closed. I'm not certain how you approached Melaleuca with your original complaints but I find it hard to believe that the main office wasn't willing to compensate you, especially for such a small amount. Your story doesn't seem to reflect the quality of Melaleuca's standards, but I am not here to call you a liar.

Complaints have run the gamut from poor customer service to outright thievery, and in nearly every attempt at remedying a situation, the individual is either unable to provide even the most simple proof of purchase, or no one responds to all attempts at making contact. Ironically, its not my main objective as a Melaleuca rep to do that, and yet I do it on my own because that's how much pride I have in my company. This is basically why I remain steadfast in focusing on your posts because I truly want to get to the root of a problem. You remain focused on the principle of it being me offering the refund, and not Melaleuca, but as a rep, I am Melaleuca. I'm fully aware that I most likely can't get you to publicly state that you like, appreciate or condone Melaleucas functions in any way, but I would think that it wouldn't matter where the refund comes from, and that it is essentially what you wanted from the beginning. In regard to simply wanting the right to say that you don't like Melaleuca, I don't think anyone attempted to oppress that in any way, I have simply offered you an alternative solution to the inevitable outcome you have described.

You just stated that you feel as though your company should spend money in order to clean up its reputation, but don't you think the fact that it needs to is relevant? How many business mistakes could you make that the only way to truly correct it is to have money on hand to bury it? Is that what you mean when you said that? How do you feel morally about doing that? Sure its legal, its probably practiced by just about every politician that has ever walked the earth, but how ethical is it to simply bury complaints?

Crytex, my statement had nothing to do with cleaning up a reputation as much as correcting some inaccurate feedback. Criticism is welcome by Melaleuca, that's how we improve our products, our service and our public image, but there are some posts and articles out there that are not only intentionally destructive, but simply not the truth. Companies pay money all the time for people to investigate even the smallest of complaints, offer a satisfactory resolution and close down the complaint or article so long as it is resolvable. There are some people that are not happy no matter what you do, and there is little that can be done in cases like that. You also seem to cheapen my offer to you despite the fact that I represent Melaleuca. I found your original story to be a bit shady Crytex, and I still do, and it does matter to me that you were unable to provide any kind of proof, yet I was still willing to give you the money you claim to have lost. I am still leaving that offer open right now in fact, and will leave it open so long as you yourself consider the case closed. I'm not certain how you approached Melaleuca with your original complaints but I find it hard to believe that the main office wasn't willing to compensate you, especially for such a small amount. Your story doesn't seem to reflect the quality of Melaleuca's standards, but I am not here to call you a liar.

Complaints have run the gamut from poor customer service to outright thievery, and in nearly every attempt at remedying a situation, the individual is either unable to provide even the most simple proof of purchase, or no one responds to all attempts at making contact. Ironically, its not my main objective as a Melaleuca rep to do that, and yet I do it on my own because that's how much pride I have in my company. This is basically why I remain steadfast in focusing on your posts because I truly want to get to the root of a problem. You remain focused on the principle of it being me offering the refund, and not Melaleuca, but as a rep, I am Melaleuca. I'm fully aware that I most likely can't get you to publicly state that you like, appreciate or condone Melaleucas functions in any way, but I would think that it wouldn't matter where the refund comes from, and that it is essentially what you wanted from the beginning. In regard to simply wanting the right to say that you don't like Melaleuca, I don't think anyone attempted to oppress that in any way, I have simply offered you an alternative solution to the inevitable outcome you have described.

I just wanted to offer a peaceful closing on this, because I have had enough of this thread all together. You can be as polite and diplomatic as you want, but you're still basically accusing me of lying lol. I'm a grown man Travis, I can handle being called a liar, there is no sense trying to sugar coat it. I certainly didn't when I considered your company a giant scam filled with con men and a PR dept willing to buy a better reputation. I say that should be illegal and you should have to earn it, but I guess that level of honesty is no longer in existence. And all due respect, you are NOT Melaleuca, you are a rep, I don't k now your rank, but at the very least you're a rep right? You do their bidding, you make a pay and feed the fam. I can understand that, but please don't act as if you having refunded the money would have been the answer. It wasn't. I am not going to explain why I wanted Melaleuca customer service/management to take care of the issue, this is a very fundamental concept and you're making a very simple thing more complicated. I don't want your money, I appreciate your offer despite your intentions, and I think it best to just let it go at this point. I will not, and can not be convinced that you work for a great company, I dislike them very strongly, I have the right to, and I have the right to voice it on the internet, end of story.

I was treated unfairly, taken advantage of, refused a basic business reparation that I deserved, and then ridiculed for it by a Melaleuca rep (big surprise there) lol. I wish you nothing but good things, I hope you maintain your success and even exceed it. I also hope that somehow Melaleuca improves its customer service policies and takes a few steps closer to operating a more legitimate company. I again, and for the last time; thank you for your offer, but decline on the grounds that it is not a valid, and since we're on the topic, has it ever occurred to any of you that the secrecy is for a reason? lol. Think about it, when in history has anything that was "kept quiet" ever good? What reason does a salesman have to leave out certain details, or for a manager to tell his or her employees to be careful what is said to customers regarding policies? None, no good reasons other than to avoid making promises, or being liable. Not all business are like this, but Melaleuca is just the classic formula. It feeds on honesty for profit, and that's the bottom line.

Peaceful closing accepted.