As I read through this product review by this poster a smile came to my face. In many ways I think this person might be right. I think in many ways you could save a lot of $s by buying a generic form of the Reliv Vitamins or simply popping a few pills. My dad buys some pills that are powder but have been capitulated to go down easy. They are made by Purity Products and when compared to the Reliv Nutrition charts, many of these products are better than Reliv.
But I think the part of this review that caught my attention was the fact that talked about the Reliv Distributors giving the same stories. The experiences they share, the healing stories, the amount of money you can make is passed from one meeting to the next, each person takes these stories home and has no personal experience or knowledge of them being true but they pass them on as the Gospel.
Buy the "generic" alternatives
by thetruthplease ,Oct 21 '06
Pros: High absorption
Cons: Over the top, far fetched testimonials and claims. Pyramid sales commissions make it way overpriced.
Not bad for you, but Reliv is basically a vitamin supplement that you can get much cheaper. True, vitamins don't absorb as quickly, but why is speed so important? It's the nutrients that are important, and a few minutes don't make a difference. I tried Reliv Classic, Now, Innergize and FibeRestore, and it might as well have been a placebo. The sales persons are almost TOO WELL trained to push this product and I believe the testimonials and claims are WAY over the top! They go to conventions to be groomed what to say, and if you talk to more than one sales rep, they give you the same "personally experienced" testimonial! Yes, it is a result of their motivation to make, for example, $10,000 or more per month pushing this product. It is almost cult-like the way these sales people push this product. By the way -- the sales reps are advised to go to websites such as this and give good reviews, so be careful of the source of the positive reviews you read. Chances are, they are dealers! Save your money and buy a very good multivitamin.
6 comments:
I'm currently taking Reliv. I was introduced to it by a dear (and non-pushy!) friend over a year ago. I had West Nile virus 2 years ago, and as a result I have fibromyalgia-like symptoms; I am also hypothyroid.
It took nearly 4 to 6 months before I noticed a difference on the Reliv. During that time I had several conference calls with the lead distributor in the area. She was encouraging, so I kept taking the shakes. And I'm still taking Reliv. My symptoms are up and down. I have tried going off Reliv several times-- including cold turkey and switching to comparable products (All-One, Fatigued to Fantastic, Arbonne, etc.)-- and I'm unable to get off Reliv. Even though I still have some bad days and my symptoms are not resolved, it does control the daily brain fog I get when I am consistent in taking the shakes. I am a college student and I must have a clear mind to keep up with my classes and studying.
Reliv is expensive. I can barely afford it being in college. But I either have to pay for it, or I pay for it (!) with terrible mental concentration and lower energy levels. Of course, I keep my financial difficulties to myself. If I mention to a Reliv rep the products are expensive, I get "encouraged" to become a dealer or told it's [the price] is worth it to feel better.
I also don't like how much fructose sugar I consume. I take 2 to 3 shakes daily. The classic (single scoop), fiber, and innergize taken in 4 ounces of juice is 130 calories per shake. The innergize is mostly a fructose-based electrolyte balancer (gatorade?) with some vitamins and chromium added. (Although, I do like their fiber product. I haven't found a replacement to equal it.) To sum it up: soy, some brewer's yeast, fructose, synthetic-isolated vitamins, and fiber. Hmm... no wonder I need to take it with juice --and no wonder I have energy from the sugar I consume. And no wonder I get brain fog when I don't get the daily supply of fructose to my brain. (It's just a theory but it makes sense.)
I'm concerned that the soy contained in Reliv may be affecting my thyroid. I had to go to the dr. because I was having terrible problems with my fingernails chipping and peeling - a problem I have never had before. He ordered bloodwork done on my thyroid levels. Lo and behold, my thyroid levels were abnormal and now I have to take a new thyroid medication (which is expensive) in addition with my other daily thyroid med. Thankfully, the new prescription is working and my nails have returned to their normal health. But I don't like taking something that maybe affecting my thyroid health--or at least compromising it.
So why can't I get off Reliv? I don't know. But when I figure out a solution, I will let you all know. The next product I'm trying is stabilized rice bran. I'll keep you updated.
Hi - Thank you so much for taking the time to post your story and share your thoughts with us.
On one side it is really good to hear that you have had favorable results from Reliv. But this is not the first time I have heard of people trying to stop but couldn't. Some of my friends who took Reliv and then tried to stop said it was like a Drug and they became addicted to it. I am not exactly sure why or what causes this but I know of a number of stories. And the only way off for them was cold turkey and then they suffered with the symptoms for a number of days before their bodies returned to normal.
Since your symptoms are still up and down, do you really think Reliv has help you or has this just been the natural course of things?
IF you are concerned about the Soy and how it may be affecting you, I would strongly suggest that you ask your doctor. Remember the Reliv Distributor, in your case your friend, may not be a professional and so it's always better to listen to what you doctor has to say.
The MLM part of Reliv makes it expensive. I have been told that Reliv chose Network Marketing to give their products a wider distribution but the down side of this is the high priced products. When I asked my upline about this and in all of the meetings I attended it was always pointed out that people spends 100s or even 1000s on medicines every month and so why not Reliv? I kind of smiled to myself and thought, "Reliv is not covered by insurance most medicines are".
I don't know how you are buying your products but if you are buying them from a distributor, I would suggest looking at eBay. Though Reliv does not allow the sell of their products on eBay there is still a lot there and most of the time you can get the products at a 25% to 35% discount.
Also there are a lot of other products out there that you could try. The down side is, they are ALL MLMs and so the products are expensive.
Dr. Organics - www.puredrorganics.com
Lifeforce - http://www.homebusinesstruths.com/
Eniva Vibe - www.EnivaMembers.com/Income
Another thing to consider would be getting some help with starting a good Vegan Diet. Many that I know have had wonderful results by become vegetarian or the more strict vegan vegetarian.
Thank you again for taking the time to post your story for us. And we look forward to any updates that you might have or find.
I took Reliv products for almost 5 years; I did get some great benefits from their products....off of one blood pressure med, cholesterol lowered somewhat and relief of pain in my knees. However, trying to do the business after 4-1/2 years, I realized that the Reliv Comp Plan was difficult to duplicate. I was struggling to make $1000 a month working 30 hours a week! Not good! I was introducted to Life Force International. Products are more cost effective, taste great, less sugars and calories and I am getting better results.
Hi G Williams - Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts. I was kind of curious, after taking Reliv for 5 years did you have any problems stopping? One of our posters was suffering from withdrawal effects.
But yes, somewhere here I have the compensations posted from like 200 companies and as far as the business is concerned, Life-Force is like #2 out of 200. Reliv does not fair so well.
Soon I will post an article about the fail rate and I think Reliv has like a 99% fail rate for their distributors. Not very good!
Anyway thanks again for your thoughts.
Reliv WatchDog- did you have a personal bad experience to be looking for the negatives of the company/products? I am just wondering.
You really have no idea what it's like to find the truth about Reliv. With any MLM, any negative comments are bad for business and so they are quickly buried under a barrage of positive comments. And I believe many if not most of the Reliv positive stories are just a bunch of BS. YES YES it has worked and helped some but I think many people give credit for something Reliv has never done. So when I created this blog so that a person could search for "What's Wrong With Reliv" and be able to read exactly that without having to wade through 100s of BS comments.
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