Internet Burns Woman Caught in Candle MLM Scheme

On Reddit, a woman who works as a Scentsy consultant is being slammed after she attempted to leverage her multi-level marketing (a.k.a. MLM) candle business into a competition with another vendor who sells handmade wax melts, all in an effort to recruit the other vendor to their business.

Ultimately, her scheme got her banned from an event she was scheduled to sell products at.

Messages between the two women, who were initially both signed up to participate as vendors at an event, went viral when they were shared on Reddit.

In her message to the other vendor, whose contact information she got from the event contacts sheet, the Scentsy consultant proposed a challenge.

"Hey, girl! I saw you're apart [sic] of the vendor event I'm a part of. I'm a Scentsy consultant, and you sell wax melts, so let's have a friendly competition. If I sell more (online orders count for this week), you join me as a consultant. If you sell more, I'll place a $100 order with you. Deal?" she suggested.

Shocked by the Scentsy consultant’s audacity to try to recruit her, instead of replying to the message, the woman immediately emailed the event coordinator to let them know their contact list was being abused by one of its vendors.

"Soon after you sent out the list of vendors, I received a message from one of the vendors attempting to get me to join in on a deal with them. Attached, I have provided a screenshot,” she wrote in her email.

The woman wrote she did not appreciate the Scentsy consultant's attempt to solicit her to join her MLM. She also took offense at the consultant’s implication that their products are comparable, as she handmakes her goods while the consultant sells mass-produced items.

The event quickly banned the Scentsy consultant from the event. In a follow-up message, the consultant complained about getting banned.

“I just woke up with an email … saying that I’m not welcome at the event anymore and my money was refunded. It was a simple deal, you could [have] said no!” the consultant messaged her.

Predatory multi-level marketing schemes, in which the primary goal is to increase the number of distributors for a product, have long been controversial.
In the comments section on Reddit, many dragged the Scentsy rep for attempting to recruit another vendor by abusing the contact sheet for their event.

"As someone who sells at vendor markets, this is extremely satisfying. I'm so tired of MLMs taking space from makers," one user wrote.

“My God was this an amazing example of instant karma,” someone else shared.

"But I need to recruit everyone. I also know to sell the same candles so that the market is oversaturated with salespeople, and I make sure I create lots and lots of competition for myself. It makes sense, right?" another commented.

"Legally speaking, MLMs aren't pyramid schemes because they actually sell a product. Functionally though, they absolutely are," someone else wrote.

“Well, they wanted to be ‘apart’ of the event. Now they are,” another joked.

“This has got to be the most satisfying post I’ve seen on this sub,” someone wrote.