Quixtar - Masters of Spin
"This Biz Now" Testimonials Page

"People tell us Quixtar is better than ever....


The word's out:  This is a pretty cool business opportunity. But don't take our word for it. Listen to what others --  government officials, civic leaders, business executives, and Independent Business Owners - have to say. "

www.thisbiznow.com

You have to love Quixtar's site www.thisbiznow.com, and their testimonials by "business" and "government" and "civic" leaders.   Of course a careful reading of their testimonials reveals none of these people actually endorse the Quixtar business opportunity.  MLMBlog.net also has a letter from Quixtar's Jim Payne stating that:

2. Testimonials: The site includes testimonials and endorsements from our partner stores and from government and industry friends, per the original plan. More will be going up over the next month. But these are not testimonials about or endorsements for the business opportunity, nor could they be. They reflect the actual and real experience that the individual has actually had ... either with Quixtar as a company or with IBOs. Since none of these people have had direct experience with the opportunity, they were not authorized by their respective companies to do anything other than speak from their direct experience.

No doubt all of these people will speak positively of Quixtar (the corporation) since they all in one way or another benefit from Quixtar.   Quixtar would like to let their site visitors assume these people are all endorsing the business opportunity but in reality they are just talking about their experience with Quixtar the "company". 

I guess they want to imply an endorsement of  the business opportunity without really saying it.  I wonder why it took months to get IBO testimonials on the site?  Here is a run down of what some these  govenment and business "leaders" are actually saying:

First there is  Caroline Hannah Assistant Vice President - MBNA Canada.   I did a search of MBNA's annual report and did not get a hit for Ms. Hannah's name.  I wonder why MBNA's Chief Operating Officer,  John R. Cochran, did not give an endorsement of Quixtar?     Anyway, MBNA Canada is Quixtar's partner for the Co-branded Quixtar Credit card.  Caroline praises Quixtar for their support of the IBO and likes the business model but she does not come right out and endorse the Quixtar business opportunity for individuals.  No doubt Quixtar's IBOs are great customers of MBNA's and MBNA is making a ton on the interest all the IBOs are paying on their credit card balances to finance their line of sponsorship system purchases.    I challenge Caroline to query the MBNA data base for all the Quixtar credit card holders to see what their average credit card balance is.   She might be surprised at the balances IBOs are carrying on their credit cards to finance their businesses that earns on average just $78/month1 in bonuses.  Caroline, if you think Quixtar supports success, why not do the credit card balance query on your Quixtar IBO data base? 

Next there is Kory Kozlowski Account Director - Ambrosi a maker of catalogs for Quixtar.  She says nothing about the IBO or the IBO business opportunity.

Then there is Brian Buckley from Barnes and Noble.com.  Brian states that Quixtar was a great business opportunity for Barnes and Noble.  Ninety percent of the customers coming from Quixtar have never shopped at Barnes and Noble.com before.    No doubt from a little research about IBOs, Brian understands the market potential for motivational books to Quixtar IBOs, for whom the main supplier were the Amway/Quixtar lines of sponsorships.  I guess the king pins are smarting from this move.   No doubt the king pin's books sales have been impacted by the introduction of this competition where all IBOs can earn from the sales.  Brian Buckley however did not mention the other problem the relationship has caused in the Barnes and Noble stores.

Elain Brown the Vice President of the Look Good Feel Better Program Canadian Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association basically says Quixtar Canada is a good trade association member.  She never mentions the business opportunity for IBOs.

Imran Jooma, Vice President of Circuit City (well really just assistant vice president of merchandizing), came from Office Max where Quixtar was a also Partner Store.  He too says nothing about the IBO business opportunity or it's tremendous average IBO payout of $78 month1.   Circuit city has revenue of $11.17 billion so even if Circuit city had Quixtar's entire partner store sales of $76 million that would represent at most 6.8% of sales.  Circuit City's 2005 annual report says nothing about their affiliate marketing program.   You can sign up to be a Circuit City affiliate too!

Then there is Ross Creber President and CEO - Direct Sellers Association of Canada.   You know he will be keen on Quixtar since Quixtar is one of the biggest members.   He doesn't mention if distributors in other MLMs make more or less than Quixtar's average payout of $78/month1.

Tom Bruursema from NSF only says that Quixtar's E-spring water treatment system meets the claims that Quixtar makes about them.    Notice he did not say the Quixtar's system was the best on the market, he only said "That product has met the highest standards available anywhere in the world for the types of claims that they make."   Tom did not make mention of Quixtar's IBO's average gross income of just $78/month1, or that the E-spring water treatment systems can be bought for below IBO cost on Ebay.  Log in to see the completed items on e-bay.

Quebecor World Inc's Kevin Kelly VP of Sales, Magazines-Catalogues and Q-NetMedia, prints Quixtar Canada's catalogs.  Quixtar is a great partner.   From Mr. Kelly's testimonial it would seem he doesn't even know about the IBOs or the business opportunity!

Gary Hartigan Director, National Accounts, Sara Lee Coffee and Tea is real keen on Quixtar and Quixtar's IBOs' loyalty.   No doubt Mr. Hartigan loves the Quixtar account since  IBOs have been known to buy the coffee only because it had some of the best PV/$ ratios for an easily consumable product.   I know a few former kool-aid drinking IBOs who had tons of the coffee in their basement because when it came time to support their group and make their PV goal.   The coffee was the best way to get it for the least amount of money.   Once the IBOs stop drinking the kool-aid they realize that the coffee they were buying from Quixtar was way over priced and would never buy it again.  It seems Quixtar motivational kool-aid and Quixtar KAHVE™ coffee go hand in hand.

Birgit Klohs President, The Right Place, Inc. founded by Jay VanAndel (Amway founder), and who is primarily funded by Alticor praises Quixtar, (uh Amway) for the commitments Quixtar...(uh Amway) had made to the western Michigan community for the last 20 years.    She did not mention the IBO opportunity or the fact that the average IBO got paid $78/month1 by Quixtar. 

Mike Foster President and owner of UNIGLOBE Instant Travel says Quixtar Canada is a great partner.   He never mentions or endorses the business opportunity.  

Mark Wilson National Accounts Director - Whirlpool Corporation hawks a lot of appliances through Quixtar.  Mr. Wilson didn't say he was signing up to be an IBO anytime so so that he could supplement is income by another $78/month on average. 

David Vanderveen Co-Founder - XS Energy is super keen on Quixtar.  Their sales sky rocketed after joining up with Quixtar.  He does not mention the business opportunity or its terrific income. 

Then we get a testimonial from Jeannie Mai, Spokesperson, NAO never accept ordinary, a Quixtar/Artistry brand.  Jeannie says  "I was really anxious to meet the IBOs".   (like they were aliens or something!)  It is too bad that no one told Jeannie that the average IBO chose to make just  $781 month in Quixtar bonuses.   Jeannie says Quixtar is not about making money, it is about impacting other people's lives.  She's not lying about the money part anyway!

The business testimonials end with a host of partner stores praising Quixtar.    Amazing is that there are always more and more partner stores and everyone is supposedly doing so well with Quixtar, yet partner store sales have grown only $6 million or 1.7% per year (less than inflation) since the inception of Quixtar.

1Quixtar reported on www.thisbiznow.com that more than 370,000 IBOs received a bonus.  $345 million was paid out in 2005.   (345/0.370/12) = $77.70/month/IBO

Quixtar reported on the "thisbiznow" website  that more than 380,400 IBOs received a bonus.  $373 million was paid out in 2004.  (373/0.3804/12) = $81.71/month/IBO

Quixtar notes in their SA-4400 that a survey of IBOs in 2001 (only those who renewed?) who were surveyed for the year 2000, that their average income was $115/month.