I'm skeptical. We've got to be if we are looking to find a legitimate home-based business opportunity.
Scams are EVERYWHERE!! I get multiple solicitations in my in-box daily for the latest get-rich-quick scheme/scam. "Earn $20,000 in 2 days, guaranteed! No Risk!"
Why do you suppose I'm skeptical?So, whenever I begin to assess an opportunity I've just heard about, I assume it's a scam or a pyramid scheme or that the products are worthless or that they'll be out of business in a month or two before I can make a dime. I've seen these things (and more) happen too many times. I've been ripped off and lied to and worse. Probably anyone who is looking at home-based businesses has had the same experiences. My first move is to look for proof of the scam. I ask myself, what's the catch and I begin with internet searches. And that's what I did with TriVita.
I encourage you to do the same. Look for yourself and see what you can find! This blog is about my search for the truth about TriVita and about doing my "due diligence" in researching this potential opportunity.
I did google searches linking the word trivita with words like scam, beware, rip-off. "Is TriVita a Scam?" "TriVita Scams" "Beware TriVita" "Trivita Ripoff" Then I did searches using variations on scam with Sublingual B-12 and Super Sublingual B-12, Adaptogen 10 Plus, Nutrafruits and Leanology which I believe are their top selling products. "Sublingual B-12 Ripoff" "leanology facts" "Beware Adaptogen" I wanted to find out if people who bought their products loved them or hated them. Did they think they worked? Did they send them back for a refund? I wanted to know if people complained about getting ripped off or about some other aspect of customer service.
I found no complaints about Trivita. People seem to love the products and many have apparently been using Sublingual B-12 for years and talk in glowing terms about the health and wellness benefits they've experienced. Additionally, the products are doctor developed and many of them are backed up by third-party research. I learned that they have a lower than 1% return on their products.Then I researched their standing with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). How many complaints have there been against this company? Against the parent company (Ellison Media). Were they settled satisfactorily? What type of issues? Are they members of the BBB?
TriVita is a member of the Better Business Bureau and has very few complaints.I also did searches on the CEO and founder, Michael Ellison and on Ellison Media. I wanted to know how long Trivita and Ellison Media have been in business and I wanted to know as much as I could find out about Michael Ellison and his son, Marcus Ellison who is company vice-president. Are these people ethical? I found no suggestions that these men are anything but ethical, legitimate business men.
In fact Michael Ellison apparently founded this company in response to his own health crisis and a desire to help others to live healthier and gain wealth. The "tri" in trivita is for three aspects of health and wellness (physical, mental and spiritual) and he has written a book called "10 Keys to Creating Health and Wellness" which promotes the foundational values of this company. Ellison Media has been in business for over 35 years and Trivita has been in business for 9 years. I was very pleased to find that these are not Start Up companies! I found no hints of scandal.I went to scam watchdog websites to see if there were discussion threads about TriVita. Then I actually started a
thread on Scam.com asking for anyone to tell me if they had been ripped off by Trivita. These guys love to trash illegitimate business opportunities, network marketing and mlm type home-based businesses. I wanted them to tell me whatever they had found or could find negative about this company, products, opportunity, etc.
The responses were helpful in their skepticism and in guidance toward other business analysis tools, they were skeptical of the claims of Trivita as I expected, but nobody told me that Trivita is a scam or that they have been ripped off by Michael Ellison or that the products are just more snake oil. In fact, I believe that I was able to find a satisfactory answer to every objection and question they raised. Read it for yourself!
Finally, I wanted to analyze
THE MAJOR QUESTION and the point to all my research:
Can I make money with Trivita? I'll discuss this in my next post.....