Hello everyone, I just wanted to update you all on the situation. I posted a few days ago regarding my cousin joining Monat and trying to sell me the products and get me to join, and I was so thrown off as she seemed like a different person. Anyway, you can read the original post here
I wanted to thank everyone for their advice and for thankfully educating me on the Monat brand. I had NO idea they had that many law suits against them, and I threw away all of my samples.
I ended up speaking with my cousin in person yesterday (she came to pick up some baked goods I made) and I brought up that i’m worried about her and her money while she’s participating in the Monat thing. As predicted, when I brought up it being a pyramid scheme, she automatically denied it, and talked about it being “network marketing” and “helpful to people”. I then told her I just want her to be safe with her money. I asked her if she kept a weekly balance sheet of her costs, expenses, and profits, and if not to do so. She agreed to keep one. I just told her things like the MLM stuff rub me the wrong way, and told her no matter how much she tried to persuade me, I will NEVER do it.
We have always had a relaxed, joking relationship, so I had no problem opening up to her about this. However, I’ve concluded that she will probably keep doing this and she agreed not to mention Monat to me ever again (thank goodness). I sent her those links that everyone had commented on my original post about the lawsuits and stuff, and she denied them. Oh well. She’s been doing Monat for about 2 weeks and I already see a decline in her posting and enthusiasm for it.
In the end, I just told her I care about her and that I want her to be safe with her money. And that I don’t want to be pestered with buying expensive hair products when I can barely afford my car payment. We agreed to get along as long as she doesn’t try to get me to join… lol.
TLDR; I spoke to my cousin about the situation and she agreed not to try to sell me the products anymore. I’m worried about her but hopeful that she’ll break off from the MLM soon.
I applaud your approach. You were as informative and supportive as you could be when it comes to MLMs/Monat. I think that particular company is trying to reboot itself as Modern Nature as the Monet name is poison.
I’d say you cousin will be pulling their hair out over Monat, but the “shampoo” will take care of that for her.
Edit:words
Check out “The Dream” podcast for a ton of interesting information about MLMs and their impact to our culture. It goes into the history of MLMs and it is really fascinating.
This is pretty common in families. I’m sure they encourage it at their motivational meetings: Hit on your family and friends. Happened to me with a cousin pushing Amway. I resisted and he got stuck with a garageful of cleaning products. These organizations are cults
My friend was selling some diet bullshit. I sent her a link about a lawsuit for having a carcinogenic chemical in it and she said “LOL that was an old formula!”. I then deleted her from facebook.
Well handled, there’s nothing else to do now, you’ve planted the seeds of mlm-skepticism and hopefully your cousin will see things for what they are now.