MonaVie, LLC reviews and complaints

The MonaVie Scam Detailed
December 27, 2008 by snakeoilbuster
Let’s look in detail why Monavie is a Scam whos business practices are unethical at best and boarder on criminal:

First and foremost; too many crooks are involved with Monavie at its highest levels, along with the clinical study that was done on the juice.

Dallin Larsen, Monavie CEO, was previously an owner and Vice-President of the company Dynamic Essentials, Inc. This company focuses on health and wellness products, primarily nutritional supplements.

In late 2003, just months before the launch of Monavie, the FDA sited Dynamic Essentials, Inc and forced them to destroy their product. Shortly thereafter, Dynamic Essentials, Inc. was shut down by the FDA for false claims that their product would treat various illnesses like like cancer, arthritis and ADD. These actions are detailed in the following press release:

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2003/NEW00976.html

Mr. Larsen went on to found Monavie, LLC just months after this statement was issued by the FDA. Monavie, LLC is now making nearly the same claims made by Dynamic Essentials, Inc and following the same business model Dynamic Essentials, Inc followed.

Dallin Larsen has a documented track record of promoting fraudulent health claims and business practices associated with his business ventures. An example of this in an audio inks with Dallin Larsen raving about the health benefits of Dynamic Essentials product right before the FDA shut them down for deceptive and unethical business practices:.

http://web.archive.org/web/20020205072337/dynamicessentials.com/msMembersPresent.html

January 28, 2002 distributor training conference call featuring Dallin Larsen follows:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020205212919/63.167.229.232/deistream/conf020128.wma

*** Note that Dallin Larsen uses numerous deceptive comments on this call, much like he does with Monavie.

Second, and most important, the independent study performed by Dr. Alexander G. Schauus on the benefits of Monavie that every Monavie distributor across the country references in their presentations has be declared by The National Council Against Health Fraud as a completely invalid study.

Not only that, but Dr. Schauss’s company was raided by the FDA where they seized illegally imported drugs, unapproved medical devices and other items at the clinic. How bogus is the Monavie clinical study now?

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9205625_ITM

http://www.lysator.liu.se/skeptical/newsletters/Georgia_Skeptic/GS05-05.TXT

Recently, the FDA issued a Warning to MonaVie and sales reps for making unethical medical claims. FDA is not done with MonaVie yet, after a cyber warning, they keep MonaVie on the Radar. With all these reps making medical claims and giving their name, phone number and website out, the FDA has a way to hit Monavie hard.

http://www.fda.gov/cder/warn/cyber/2007/UTVokes.pdf

Interestingly, for a privately held company, Monavie, LLC sure does have a lot of complaints on the Better Business Bureau website!

http://utah.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=139&bbb=1166&firm=21000953

Of even more interest is the very recent lawsuit filed by Quixstar (Amway) against Monavie for making unethical medical claims in order to build their business back in March of 08. Quixstars intent for the suit is to help protect the MLM industry from MonaVies deceptive tactics to build a business. Many examples was provided with Doctors making speeches of falsely claiming MonaVie cures cancer. The docket link does cost 8 cents per page to review the court case.

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-utdce/case_no-2:2008cv00209/case_id-65339/

Finally, Monavie is a sinking ship. Across all of its markets, Monavie distributors are dropping out of the program at an alarmingly fast rate. This dramatic collapse of Monavie started 6-8 months ago and has accelerated over the past few months. What does this all mean? For one, anyone would be foolish to get involved with this company.

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FDA Issues Warning Against High Ranking Monavie Distributor
December 15, 2008 by snakeoilbuster
http://www.fda.gov/cder/warn/cyber/2007/UTVokes.pdf

July 6, 2007

CERTIFIED MAIL
RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED

Mr. xxxxxx xxxx
xxxx xxx xxxx xxx
xxxxxx, xx, xxxx

Dear Mr. xxxxx:

This is to advise you that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reviewed your web site at the Internet address http://www.acai-berry.com and has determined that your products “MonaVie Original, ” “MonaVie Active, ” “MonaVie Combo, ” and “MonaVie Gel” are promoted for conditions that cause the products to be drugs under section 201(g)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)]. The therapeutic claims on your web site establish that the products are drugs because they are intended for use in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease. The marketing of these products with these claims violates the Act.

Examples of the claims observed on your web site include:

MonaVie Original, Active, Combo and Gel
“Imagine a juice product that combines a variety of the most powerful fruits … with additional compounds that aid in the fight against inflammation, and you’ll find MonaVie ….”
“Acai Berries [an ingredient in the MonaVie products] are high in essential fatty acids and omegas – 60% Oleic omega 9 – a monounsaturated essential fatty acid which helps to lower LDL (harmful cholesterol) while maintaining HDL (beneficial cholesterol). 12% Linoleic (omega 6) – a polyunsaturated essential fatty acid which has also been found to lower LDL while maintaining HDL.”
“Acai also contains many valuable Phytosterols. Sterols are compounds of plant cell membranes providing numerous benefits to the Human body, namely the reduction of blood plasma cholesterol.”

MonaVie Active
“MonaVie Active is MonaVie Original with two additional ingredients meant specifically to help relieve joint/muscle pain and inflammation ….”

Furthermore, your MonaVie products are not generally recognized as safe and effective for the above referenced conditions and therefore, they are also “new drugs” under section 201(p) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(p)]. New drugs may not be legally marketed in the U.S. without prior approval from FDA as described in section 505(a) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 355(a)]. FDA approves a new drug on the basis of scientific data submitted by a drug sponsor to demonstrate that the drug is safe and effective.

This letter is not intended to be an all-inclusive review of your web site and products your firm markets. It is your responsibility to ensure that all products marketed by your firm comply with the Act and its implementing regulations.

If you need additional information or have questions concerning any products distributed through your web site, please contact FDA. You may respond in writing to Kristen Moe, Compliance Officer, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, MD 20740. If you have any questions concerning this letter, please contact Ms. Moe at [protected].

Sincerely,
/s/
Jennifer A. Thomas
Acting Director
Division of Enforcement
Center for Food Safety
And Applied Nutrition
cc:
Monavie Corporation Headquarters
10757 South Riverfront Parkway
Suite 110
Salt Lake City, UT 84095

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MonaVie: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
December 1, 2008 by snakeoilbuster
1. Monavie - The Good

Monavie was founded by Dallin Larsen and is based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Their juice is a combination of 19 blends of fruit juice, the leading ingredient of which is a freeze-dried and powdered version of acai. There have been plenty of testimonials from people using the MonaVie product, ranging from headache relief, arthritis, to lowered blood pressure and relief from other heart-related issues.

Monavie is a network marketing company, and they pay out, up to 50% commissions on a binary compensation plan (which means you need two “legs” under you). A bottle of their juice retails at $37.50, and requires a registration fee of $39.00.

2. Monavie - The Bad

One of the first concerns about starting a Monavie business is the mandatory order of four bottles per month (approximately $130 before shipping and taxes) just to be eligible to collect a check. The price is not so much the issue, as the volume of liquid. Unless you have a family that enjoys the juice, you will be making a commitment to include this juice as a staple in your diet.

Monavie has a pretty standard “network marketing” model for their distributors to follow - making lists of friends and family members to invite over for a “tasting party”. This is where you can have a bunch of strangers in your home, chugging the zesty juice that you paid for. In fact, distributors are encouraged to actually hand out bottles to prospects. At nearly $40 a pop, it does not take long to become an expensive endeavor.

3. Monavie - The Ugly

The real downfall of starting or growing Monavie business is their marketing plan. Like so many other network marketing companies, they hold that your best results will come from hounding your “warm market”. What is truly unfortunate is when they advertise that a distributor can make Black Diamond (the top rank in the company) in 3 months because a professional network marketer that already had a substantial downline did it.

This is refereed to as “cross recruiting” - where a company will recruit a full-time network marketer with a big organization to swing their downline over to their company. All the while, they recommend that distributors just “follow the system” of friends and family. This hypocrisy and lack of integrity is one of the key issues that people take with network marketing.

Growing a Monavie business can be a great opportunity. They have a decent product, but there are plenty of companies that have great products, and many people that market great products never make a dime. There are also plenty of terrible products that generate millions of dollars in revenue (anyone remember the pet rock?) The difference is the marketer, and their ability to target their market effectively.

In closing, I would say that starting and developing a Monavie business is lucrative if someone knows how to use the telephone, the Internet, and other effective marketing tools. It is not a scam, but like any business, success will be determined by the skill-set of the marketer. Monavie is definitely not a lottery ticket or a stock option - meaning, you do not just buy in and wait for a payout.

If someone does not have the first clue on how to market effectively, then I would suggest they either learn how to be an effective marketer, or else just use the acai juice as a health supplement.

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A Drink’s Purple Reign
November 26, 2008 by snakeoilbuster
Devotees claim MonaVie cures their ills and makes them millionaires. But is it just hype in a bottle?

By Tony Dokoupil | NEWSWEEK

Flanked by a Ferrari, a Maserati, a Bentley, a Rolls-Royce and a Lamborghini, Dallin Larsen paced the stage, swigging deeply from a bottle in his hand. “I’ll tell you what, ” said the tanned 49-year-old, opening his arms to the 4, 000-person crowd, people are “looking for something they can count on, they can depend on, that’s constant.” The stirring scene would not be out of place at a megachurch revival—except Larsen’s event, organized this June in Orlando, Fla., was bent on earning sales rather than salvation. The object of hope was not God but a dark purple fruit juice called MonaVie.

The rich syrupy blend of Brazilian açai (pronounced “ah-sigh-ee”) berries and 18 other fruits has gained a cult following among those who say it can kill pain, disease and malnutrition. Packaged in wine bottles like the one Larsen gripped onstage, MonaVie retails for around $40 a pop and isn’t available in stores. Instead, the Utah-based company tore a page from the Avon lady, enlisting regular people to sell the product to friends and family. Now MonaVie claims to be one of the world’s fastest-growing private companies, with inroads on five continents, and an army of drinkers and sales apostles signing up at a rate of 10, 000 a week. Earlier this year, the company announced that cumulative sales had topped $1 billion and that it had signed its millionth unsalaried sales person. “We’re blessed, ” says Larsen, who founded the company in 2005. (As a private organization, MonaVie isn’t required to publish financial data, making such claims difficult to judge.)

In a sliding economy, MonaVie appears to buck the trend, minting dozens of mom-and-pop millionaires, according to company sales data, and luring customers who rave about the not-too-sweet taste and miraculous health benefits. In NEWSWEEK interviews and proliferating online videos, people testify to MonaVie beating back cancer, curbing anxiety and controlling the symptoms of autism. Among the converted are former Daytona 500 champ Geoff Bodine, who credits MonaVie with helping him recover from one of the worst crashes in NASCAR history; Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone, who says it will help him live another 50 years (he’s 85); and Boston Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew, who sells the stuff on his MySpace page.

Distributors Diane Nafziger and Sherry Whitaker embody the two-sided MonaVie pitch: better health and more income. The former first-grade teacher and onetime flight attendant travel the country hosting “tasting parties” and sales meetings to entice new recruits. At a recent event in a New Jersey Holiday Inn, they put on a smooth presentation for an audience of around 10 people. Nafziger took the stage first, describing how a diabetic friend committed to MonaVie broke his need for insulin shots. Then Whitaker plied the business angle, outlining MonaVie’s sales structure. For a $39 initiation fee and responsibility for sales of at least eight bottles of MonaVie a month, people can retail the product and build their own sales tree, which is where the big money is. In two years, Whitaker and Nafziger have built a 30, 000-person tree, earning them up to 20 percent of every sale—which is more than $1 million each in annual commission.

But not everyone is drinking the Kool-Aid. Critics call MonaVie a “legalized scam” that benefits only a few kingpin executives. The product itself, they say, is an overhyped fruit drink that eludes drug regulation by the Food and Drug Administration by letting its distributors (as opposed to MonaVie itself) make the health promises. On PurpleHorror.com, a hugely trafficked MonaVie discussion Web site so large that it’s slow to load, outraged distributors and perhaps more level-headed juice fans trash the purple elixir. a NEWSWEEK reporter who took the MonaVie daily dose—two ounces, twice a day—for two weeks, didn’t experience the drink’s miraculous benefits, and got headaches. (Then again, that might have been because he got new glasses.)

Meanwhile, most of the million-strong sales team is really just drinking the juice, according to MonaVie’s 2007 income disclosure statement, a federally required printout of their distributor earnings. More than 90 percent were considered “wholesale customers, ” whose earnings are mostly discounts on sales to themselves. Fewer than 1 percent qualified for commissions and of those, only 10 percent made more than $100 a week. And the dropout rate, while not disclosed by MonaVie, is around 70 percent, according to a top recruiter.

Larsen, for his part, realizes that his sales team can get him in hot water with the Feds. A 20-year-veteran of the multi-level marketing industry, he left a senior post at another juice company in 2002, a year before the FDA destroyed the company’s “bogus products” that were being falsely promoted to treat “cancer, arthritis and attention deficit disorder.” Last summer, the FDA warned MonaVie about medicinal claims on its Web site and, in an email to NEWSWEEK, says it’s satisfied with the company’s response. At sales meetings, like the one in Florida, Larsen says he reminds people that MonaVie “is just a juice.” Meanwhile an 18-person compliance department investigates distributors suspected of making false claims—although with a million sales people on the books, that’s easier said than done. “It’s next to impossible, ” Larsen concedes, “like herding cats.” With sales of a million bottles a week, it’s also like minting money.

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Monavie, What Is The Truth?
October 14, 2008 by snakeoilbuster
With the recent increase of baby boomers interests in wellness products, this has brought about a great deal of timely marketing ideas bursting into the economy. You should be seeing hundreds of ‘health’ juice drinks around the globe. The latest phenomenon is the MonaVie scam.

We will discover the truth behind the MonaVie scam. With the help of some known facts you will also be able to take an insider look. Instead of boring you with some ‘fatty’ information we will dive straight into the heart of the matter and surface the ‘meat’ of the MonaVie scam.

Founding MonaVie

If you have not done your homework about the MonaVie scam yet it is fine. Here is how MovaVie actually started. MonaVie was founded by a gentleman named Daillin Larsen. Daillin had come from a 17 year experience on direct selling and wanted to share the açai berry’s health benefits with people.

Instead of just creating a product with the açai berry, Daillin has his team of scientists identify 19 fruits to be included in the MonaVie product drink. That is your great summary to the well known MonaVie drink. Since then, it has evolved into the MonaVie Active formula drink.

Before The MonaVie Scam And The System

Just don’t judge the MonaVie scam to be valid too quickly because it was not this way in the beginning. You should do some good research on more about the company before drawing your own conclusion.

Like all typical multi level marketing systems your guess is a correct about it’s selling propositions. You are normally encouraged to become Independent Distributors if you purchase MonaVie’s products. You profit by bringing in more distributors and get a percentage of every sale made by your down line.

It is correct to say that you will be working in a network marketing based system where “leveraging on others” is the common motto. Generally, you bring in a network of people to sell MonaVie juices, they sell to their friends, and their friends sell to their friends. Let us get down to more details about the MonaVie scam now.

The Sad Truth

Unfortunately, your fellow friends of the public do not agree with MonaVie and most it’s claims. We shall go over each point briefly to validate this. Firstly, it would be nice for you to know that the price you pay for each bottle of the drink costs $45. A one month supply is about $180.

A brief summary of some sad facts of the MonaVie scam:

1) MonaVie is not purchasing their Açai berries from Sambazon (source of the best berries)

2) The drink is not made up of 100% freeze dried Açai. They use a blend of Açai puree and freeze dried Açai

3) Independent distributors can abuse the system and try to recruit endless representatives

Most people get burned by point 3 because in reality it isn’t that easy to recruit people who can work the same system to your liking.

There is still some light at the end of the tunnel. If you really want to profit easily but with some element of direct marketing involved, doing an instant commission sale is the trend for today. You would not even bother about the MonaVie scam topics once you discover this.

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Monavie Overview
October 1, 2008 by snakeoilbuster
The scheme: Typical multi-level marketing company, using the guise of “direct sales” to make the business look like a legitimate retail venture. The reality is that it’s nothing more than a recruiting scheme like Usana, Mary Kay, Arbonne, PrePaid Legal, Primerica, Herbalife, United First Financial, and so many other companies that make big promises to members, but provide little actual reward to 99%.

The founder: Dallin Larsen founded MonaVie. He used to work for Usana Health Sciences, and actually helped found Usana. He helped grow the associates to 70, 000 and helped make up the compensation plan. Then he ditched out and started his own company

The product: Acai berry juice plus other fruit juices. I like to call this “magic berry juice.” It supposedly cures whatever ails you and there’s never been anything quite like it on the market. If you study multi-level marketing companies, you will see that one very common characteristic is some unique/special product that is hard to find and has never been offered before. It typically has magical powers and is so powerful that it justifies a high retail price. In reality, the high prices are not because the products are so good, but because there are so many levels of the pyramid which must be paid commission.

The cost: A bottle of the berry juice runs around $40. If you drink the recommended amounts, the bottle will last you about a week, which means the cost is about $5.71 a day. That’s an expensive way to get your vitamins. Excessively so.

The compensation: Here is the detail to the MonaVie compensation plan. Like a typical MLM, it’s got a complicated points - commission - points - bonus - override - incentive system. You build two legs to your downline, and qualify for commission based on the shorter leg. That longer leg? Too bad. Bonuses stop wherever the shorter leg ends. You can usually be sure of one thing in MLMs: The more complicated the pay plan, the less it benefits the members. And oooh… you can have up to “four business centers.” That means more purchases of products by you in order to get your commissions!

The product scam: There are apparently no scientific studies that prove the alleged benefits of the MonaVie juice. There’s no denying that there is nutritional value to the juice, just like any other juice. It’s the extraordinary health benefits claimed that are suspect. (Of course, the company disclaims any knowledge of cures claimed by the “independent” distributors.)

The recruiting scam: As with other MLMs, the company’s focus appears to be on recruiting, rather than retailing the product. Of course, the product is integral to the scheme. Without it, MonaVie could easily be called a pyramid scheme. With the product, we’re not supposed to identify the company as an endless chain recruiting scheme or pyramid scheme. And until the FTC decides to enforce the laws against pyramiding, many will believe that a company like MonaVie is perfectly legal and legitimate.

The commission scam: In order to qualify for commissions, a distributor must order at least 4 bottles of juice per month, which amounts to about $130 plus shipping and taxes. This is a common part of the MLM game: You can’t get your commissions unless you buy a minimum amount of their products. MLM supporters say “Well of course you’ll be selling the products so that minimum purchase isn’t a problem.” The truth is that very little actual retailing goes on in these companies because consumers are smart. The required purchases are usually not sold to a legitimate retail customer.

This and more can be found at http://monavierevealed.wordpress.com/