Is the Berry Tree a Scam?

Yesterday, out of curiosity, I visited ripoffs.com to see if any complaints had been lodged against the Berry Tree. I was quite surprised to see several complaints. Someone wrote that the Berry Tree was a scam and that the company lied to them. Unfortunately, those who lodged these complaints misunderstood what they were getting into and had not done their 'due diligence' before joining. It seems also that one person was signed up by a berry tree member who broke all the rules that Berry Tree has in place to prevent credit card fraud. That member was expelled from the company.

The Berry Tree is a highly ethical company with legitimate products with a groundbreaking compensation plan. A member can choose to be 'passive' - in which case, that person will pay a monthly fee of only $56/mo for 18 months before they begin to see a payoff. What other network marketing company will do that? $56/mo buys a great health product and a share of company advertising. They also earn 1 BMC (Berry Member Credit) for every two months they are 'full members'. When they have accumulated 10 BMCs, they become qualified to earn a share of $5.00 x every member in the company/the number of members who have qualified for the same bonus payment. In this way, one can progress through the Bonus Pool levels of the Berry Tree. As membership levels grow in numbers, the pools also grow larger.

Unfortunately, 'passive' members often forget the business they are in and become lazy in learning about how they can accelerate their earnings and how they can build their business with the leads provided. Passive members often don't understand that in order to make good money with any business, they need to allocate money towards advertising and then make a follow-up contact with those members - even if it's only for 5 minutes on the phone.

Anyway, Is the Berry Tree a Scam? I say 'no' because the company is honest in their advertising, they have real products that are packaged and sent out from a real location in Mechanicsville, VA and the fellow who wrote below clearly thinks it is not a scam.

Let's start by defining the word 'SCAM' or 'RIPOFF' in relations to the home business arena...

1. A company, organization or entity that makes CLAIMS with no intention of fulfilling those claims.
2. A company, organization or entity that has no morals or integrity and it's primary 'mission' is financial gain with no possible return to it's clients.
3. A company, organization or entity with no known products or services.

Attempting my best here to be unbiased, I nor anyone else can legitimately say that The Berry Tree is a scam.

(1) The Berry Tree has made no CLAIMS of income. It does not state on the site that there is a guaranteed amount of income that you'll receive in a certain amount of time.

(2) Being that I've talked to the owners and creators of The Berry Tree (face to face), I can honestly say that MORALS & INTEGRITY stands out more than any other network marketing company or entity I've ever dealt with. It was a pleasure to meet Art & Rob Phelps (brothers), Bob & Blair Bremner (father & son) and many other executives of the company in Orlando, Florida at the 2007 Convention.

(3) Being that I receive products on a monthly bases and have personally visited the Nutronix/Berry Tree headquarters in Mechanicsville, VA, it would be an outright lie for anyone to say that The Berry Tree or Nutronix International don't have legitimate products. Why did I go there? Because I like to know who I'm working with and since the headquarters is only 120 miles from me it was not an expensive trip. Bob Bremner (one of the owners of Nutronix International) gave me a personal tour of the building. I even got 'toured' through the shipping/receiving area where I visually saw REAL PEOPLE packaging REAL PRODUCTS to be shipped out (April 1st 2007).

Of course The Berry Tree is a division of Nutronix International. They ship their products from the same location (Mechanicsville, Va) as mentioned. They both are helping people in over 60 countries around the world. I've introduced people to their products and have received some excellent feed back on those products. Although they are not allowed to make claims of curing any disease, many of their members would love to make those claims for them.

With all of that being said, in the past I've also worked with other companies in the Health & Wellness field like Melaleuca and Shaklee, just to name a few. Honestly speaking, those 2 companies really had EXCELLENT products as well. However, I joined those businesses because I wanted to help people AND get paid a decent income at the same time. The latter did not happen. In my honest opinion, if you want a spot in the Health and Wellness Home Business Arena, there's no other company online or offline that can even come close to the compensation plan of The Berry Tree. If money is not an issue for you, then go join Shaklee or Melaleuca. But let it be known that you'll have to convince your prospects to convert their entire household to Shaklee or Melaleuca products which are very good but outrageously expensive.

Below are statements that are shown to my prospects before they even get to my signup page:

Begin personal message
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1. You will earn credits for just being a member in our program. Once you reach the defined amount of credits you will begin to earn money MONTHLY from every membership order in the ENTIRE Company (Not just members in your downline).

2. A small portion of your monthly membership fee goes toward guaranteed advertising. This is advertising done by the company on your behalf. Within a few months you will begin to see members placed into your downline with no effort on your part.

Note: The above mentioned incentives (credits and advertising) are a part of your membership. These incentives are earned by both passive members and active members. However, as you'll soon learn in our compensation plan, the members who are referring others to the program will have the potential to earn MORE money and also they will have the potential to earn money FASTER than 'passive' members.
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End of personal message

That info is shown once a prospect begins the tour of my website. If anyone would like to see where this message is then they can go to the page below and follow the 'Quick Tour' link. I'm not sure if this is allowed here on ripoffreport.com but at least you will see that we are not ripping people off. There is no webform to fill out. I'm giving you direct passage to bypass my webform so that you can read and listen to exactly how The Berry Tree works. You can take that info and signup below the person that originally referred you or not at all. This is just to give you the facts:

http://quickstarttowealth.com/members/harold/thanks

So why are people crying 'Berry Tree Ripoff'?

The answer to that question is quite obvious. This is not to put the blame on any Berry Tree members or any specific groups of people. But it is a fact that many members do not follow up with their new signups who are just joining their organization. These new signups have NO IDEA what to do or how to become more 'involved' with the program.

When those newbies don't get the attention that they need or have no idea what's going on then they say, 'I've been in for 2 months and I haven't made a dime!' Well, they don't know that they've already accumulated 2 BMCs (1 upon signup & 1 every 2 months) which is bringing them closer to earning on EVERY monthly membership order in the entire company! There's no guarantee that you'll get 1, 2 or 3 guaranteed signups within your first month or even your second month. However, there IS a guarantee that you WILL earn those Berry Member Credits just by remaining a member. BMCs are a powerful part of The Berry Tree's Compensation Plan but yet most newbies don't even understand how they work, not to mention how many they've accumulated.

Another reason that some current members are not as successful as others is that they refuse to learn how to market the products which is the main part of the program. These very few members joined The Berry Tree and began marketing their affiliate links online and offline. This was a bad move. Why? Because people (prospects) who are interested in the opportunity CAN NOT contact the owner of that affiliate site. There's no lead capture form, no sponsor email address and no telephone number for prospects to call. Again, this is where they are totally lost and have refused to check into all of the services that are listed in their Automatic Builder backoffice. Instead of marketing their affiliate sites they should be marketing a lead capture page. I've even gone to the extent of creating capture pages for my team to use as an additional option. This is in addition to the abundance of resources that the company has already in place upon signup.

Below is information also that I copied and pasted from my 'Quick Tour' product page where I explain what is included in the $55.95 charge... Product, shipping/handling, Customer/Tech Support, Website/Hosting, GUARANTEED ADVERTISING:

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begin special note

What Is GUARANTEED ADVERTISING?

Within the next few months of your membership with The Berry Tree you'll begin to see members fall into your downline through the company's advertising efforts which is included with your membership.

Therefore, you DO NOT have to ADVERTISE the O2 Berry Product or The Berry Tree Opportunity if you are willing to be patient by waiting on the company's efforts and spillover from your upline. However, keep in mind that this DOES NOT mean that you will immediately be in profit while allowing the company and your upline to do ALL of the work for you. Again, the members who are actively promoting The Berry Tree Opportunity will earn money much faster than the members depending on the guaranteed advertising alone.

Furthermore, Guaranteed Advertising is done by 'Cost Per Acquisition' (CPA). This means that there is a price paid for each new member brought into your downline. For example... Let's say that $11 from your monthly membership is going toward guaranteed advertising. It may cost the company $1,000 to get 30 members to take the free trial. This means that the CPA is $33.33. This also means that with your $11 (taken from your monthly membership fee), it would take you approximately 3 months to receive one (1) enrollee through the guaranteed advertising. This is ONLY an example of how 'CPA' works.

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End special note

Now as far as the 'Failing' of the guaranteed advertising is concerned... When the Berry Tree launched we all had an 8x3 matrix. When the company sponsored someone and placed that person in the next available position that person could only benefit 2 other members (because of the 3 levels). There simply was not enough company sponsored signups to accommodate EVERYONE in the program. The Berry Tree recognized this and re-structured the comp plan. We now have a 2x12 matrix where a member can potentially earn 10 times the income as before. Furthermore, with the 2x12 matrix, even if someone is placed on your level 9 this person will benefit 8 other members. With this huge change in the comp plan, guaranteed advertising will work much faster, spillover is more likely and the members who stayed with us are glad they did. My point here is that the company has ALL of the qualities of a good company and they've proved it by putting in the extra hours to make sure that we members have the best mlm program on the net.

The part that amazes me most is that people claiming that The Berry Tree is a ripoff are the ones who have obviously never come to any conference calls, training calls, etc. I know this because if they would have been there then they would have had the perfect opportunity to ask questions and get answers. Again, The Berry Tree has never promised anyone that they would earn a certain amount is a given time. This is a real home business and I look at the guaranteed advertising as a bonus that 99.9% of the other companies don't do. This is a Network Marketing company and networking is about introducing products to others, PERIOD. The marketing tools in The Berry Tree are simply amazing. They even have leads that members can purchase for faster growth. These are leads that have already gone to that members 'Berry Tree free trial' site. They also have a lead source in place where the leads have already been pre-called for them. Anyone not having success in The Berry Tree and calling it a ripoff is simply someone looking for a 'get rich quick scheme' which The Berry Tree is not. It's a real home business which takes time to build. I'm living proof that once you start building it builds fast. But you only can build with people who take the time to understand how the program works.

Bottom line...

People will complain about Walmart being too crowed even though Walmart has (in general) the best prices on retail products. People will complain about gas prices even though there are so many ways to earn an additional income to cover those fuel expenses. People will complain about everything on the Internet although they would cry like a baby if the government took the Internet away. The Berry Tree is an EXCELLENT income opportunity but if you don't use it correctly AND learn all of the details then you might also unjustly call it a Ripoff.

Learn All there is to know about The Berry Tree!

I joined The Berry Tree and Nutronix International on February 24th, 2007. I was a full time truck driver at the time. I worked the business for about a year before I was able to retire from the trucking industry. As of March 1st, 2008 I now work for MYSELF. Even though my commute to work was only about 12 miles, I'm now able to commute to work in about 12 STEPS (down the hall into my office).

I think that ripoffreport.com is an excellent site. We all can expose TRUE scammers here. But wouldn't it be better to expose the companies that are taking your money and closing their doors the next day? Or exposing the ones who are intentionally robbing people with no regard? It's a shame to see people get misinformed about an opportunity that could really change their lives for the better.

I hope this rebuttal helps people in making a decision about The Berry Tree. It was certainly my pleasure to write this 'insider' report. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any additional questions about this opportunity.

Sincerely,
Harold Bryant
International Executive Director
http://nobullstuff.com/contact.html
828-242-4094
NC, USA

Start a Home Business Now - Don't Be a Casualty of the Bad Economy

WASHINGTON - AP News Report - The U.S. economic downturn gained steam Tuesday, with a report of the highest inflation since the early 1980s, more bad news for banks and automakers and a suggestion by the Federal Reserve chief that worse days are ahead.

This is gloom and doom in real time. It is not a scenario. It is upon us right now and the best thing you can do for yourself and your family is to marshal the funds you have left and start a home business. Which one is the big question. Of course, I highly recommend the Berry Tree and Nutronix International. Growing your business in these two companies is as easy as purchasing qualified leads, calling them and talking with them about what you hope to get from this business and perhaps how you can help them grow their business and even perhaps how both of you can team up to grow their business.

That's the plan. It's easy. It doesn't require meetings and warehousing of products or hard-selling anyone. The Berry Tree has eliminated the 20th century need to do those things through its business model and patent-pending compensation system.

If ever there was a good time to join a network marketing company, now is the time. No one should expect to get rich in 6 months. Anyone who promises you that is dreaming and not grounded in reality. Expect and create a tax-deductible budget for advertising that will involve your purchases of qualified leads for your business (unless you're an experienced online marketer) each month for 6 months.

The Berry Tree and Nutronix work synergistically to multiply the income you can earn with these two companies. The products are unique and life-changing.

If you need other ideas to generate a second income or extra income visit Second Incomes USA