| Comment Number: | 522418-08572 |
| Received: | 7/13/2006 12:15:29 AM |
| Organization: | XanGo |
| Commenter: | Priscilla Harrison |
| State: | NC |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Dear FTC, Thank you for your effort in trying to protect all of us from fraudulent and unethical business opportunities. However, please don't through the baby out with the bath water.I have been in the traditional business world for 20 years and my husband has been in the traditional business world for 35 years. He went through 2 bankruptcies and 1 merger and a court decison that said the company could take 70% of his retirement for the sake of the company's survival. Many of the people we know come to our XanGo home based business from being mistreated in the traditional business world. The proposed ruling you have suggested would scare our prospects to death. I understand that it is meant to protect us from fraudulent opportunities but they will always find a way to exist while the legimiate ones will suffer. Please don't do this to the brave citizens of this great country who dare to dream again and who thrive on selling products that truly help people. I would like to very briefly comment on each of the 5 disclosure requirements proposed. 1. Seven Day Waiting Period: Doing something different and doing something new always creates a little fear in people even if the cost is only $35.00 as with our company. But telling people they must wait seven days to get started sends a huge red flag to be cautious!! Something must be wrong here. Getting people past their fears of doing something new and learning something new is our biggest obstacle. Don't make the fear even bigger and impossible to over come. 2. Nearest References: All I can say is I would be mad if my name was being used without my permission and I was being called by strangers. I would not join a company if I had to agree to have my information "out there" for others to call. I think there are some privacy laws about this as well. 3. Earning Claim Statement: All legimiate companies have rules and regulations already in place to terminate distributors who make false or misleading claims. All the fraudulent companies will continue to practice unethicial behaivor and that is why they are fraudulent. We follow the rules. 4. Legal Actions: Again, please don't make me scare my prospects away before we even get started. We are living in a very litigious society and anybody can sue anybody for anything. Surely you don't want us to expose innocent people to that and if we did, surely we should allow for the outcome too. 5. Cancellations and refunds: When I go to the gym after New Years, the parking lot is full. By February it is thinned out again. People get excited and change their mind. Why should anyone have to keep up with and keep track of people changing thier mind. My goodness, that's just people. It happens everywhere. Why should this be any different? In closing, it seems like besides scaring all our prospects away, these rules would be impossible to monitor and maintain. I can't image any other legimiate business that could survive under such regulations. I have been in network marketing for 15 years and these have been the happiest 15 years of my life. I have found skills and talent in me that I never knew existed and now I have the ability to develop the hidden skills and talents of other people. Network Marketing is the American dream. Please don't regulate it out of existence. Sincerely, Priscilla Harrison