Following my previous post I want to put more thoughts on this topic. One of the commenters in my previous post has started a blog to pour his experiences with QN. Another commenter argued about the genuineness of the QN and how it touches lives of people. Sure, it touches lives of people, by robbing their money!
Every day, me and my quest net friend argue about QN and its activities. He is very strong believer of QN. His rock solid faith in QN amazes me. He is trained like that. He is drilled with this life changing opportunity story. He is motivated to see only their goals and not in any other perspectives. Their perception and views are more narrowed to focus on only one thing – earning BIG! They are like tamed horses, trained to see in only one direction, irrespective what happens to whom. The people (not the company) at the top of pyramid, who are earning lots of money, want their boats to be unsinkable at any point of time. So they motivate their downlines with inspirational stories. They make you to believe the only way to fulfill your dreams is by earning through QN . It is easy to deceive any person to believe this prophecy, because it is easy to awake one’s GREED by showing, the way to earn easy money.
Now, my QN friend argues the QN is giving the products that worth one’s money! He is talking about some travel packages the company recently started to promote. Well, what about thousands of gold coins which they sold for numismatic face value. God knows, when they will yield their numismatic character, if at all they can! QN sold thousands of gold coins and sold them at four times their value. In turn, it benefited few ladders of referrals. Rest of the money in the company’s kitty. Now, we can safely assume, the company is sitting on a mammoth cash bag, which now can be used to give better products and build bigger network.Thats exactly what they are doing now.
I was told in my first presentation, the founder of the QN, Mr.Vijayeswaran, was working with IBM before venturing into network marketing. Amyway was leader in the pyramid business that time. Vijayeswaran borrowed the idea from Amway, implemented few changes like binary tree structure – which actually helps referrals to earn more money than Amway pyramid structure, no selling products regularly (Amway, Tupper ware does this way) – one time pruchase and forget!, forward your future earnings to your beloved ones after your death. So with these, and huge money in returns, GREED in anyone can be lifted from its dormant state.
The referrals used the IT people very smartly. They know many of these IT people does not know about their monthly cash flows or give a damn about their monies. They sold an idea. The idea of swiping the plastic card and paying it back before the due date from the returns of this business. Though this is an ideal case, but this worked like a magic for those who devised the plan. Thousands of fresh graduates who joined IT companies fell prey to this every year. A small setback is enough for these people, which make them to forget about their investment and leaving their association with QN . This helped the people at top, as they don’t need to manage huge group but at same time weekly cheques in thousands of rupees.
The people who are driving this, are very methodological. They form small teams, promote few under them as leaders for the downlines under them, they train their leaders who in turn train new recruits, motivate to work hard. The whole hierarchy works for weekly targets. They want to achieve new preys as soon as possible before some other big teams catch the poor targets. They all do these activities in the name of Fulfilling one’s dream. Vision, dream, leadership are most abused words in the network. It all boils down to money. Nobody gives a damn about these terms. Those who give, they become leaders and people follow them blindly and loose their hard earned money.
I will pour my thoughts about QN in coming posts. I want some kind of database of stories, analysis and related discussion of Questnet to be created on Internet. So that any prospective person who can google should easily find and take a well informed decision about joining the QN. I will try to share links about Questnet whenever I come across and pls share your story and thoughts (can be in favor of QN also!) to make more healthier discussion and to stop any kind of duping the poor man’s money.
Related posts:
14 responses so far ↓
1 Balaji // May 19, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I checked this link.
http://www.quest.net/products/watches_jewellery/product_overview/en/
To my knowledge, a business is to either a sell a product, or a service. thats why we pay either sales taxes and service tax to government which facilitates the medium for the business.
okay,
so they sell products, cool, watches, i tried to see how much, etc, etc before buying them… but i’m stuck at the first step, i need to get a referral number to buy it…
okay, i thought i need to signup an username providing shipping adress, billing, bla bla. so that i can buy. but i cant do any such login?
i may be not looking in correct place, is there anywhere there mentioned how to get that referal id so that i can go in person and check for the watches? to my knowledge, i don’t think so its there…
can i get it in retail? or should i have to become a member to buy a watch????????
Reply
2 Chintan // May 20, 2008 at 6:09 am
Hi …
Your friend was talking about the travel pack by QN ???
please visit this site …
http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/quest-net-c46001.html
Reply
3 Raju // May 28, 2008 at 5:58 am
Dear Friends,
I understand the person’s agony of being cheated by his own friends or even strangers.
I am not supporting those who are selling without telling the complete details, they should have told you that there is something called a Usage Fee.
But he should definetly go throught the entire details & do hislevel of validation.
Without doing that, there is no way he can complain about somebody told , I took it & now I am cheated & all that story.
I am also with Quest Net.Any questions regarding Netowrk Marketing i can definetly clarify.I would opt to take 1 question at a time & answer.
Any questions, with respect to network Marketing is most welcome.
I am not here for any arguments.
My take with network marketing is different, as I am sure it is not quick-rich , but If I put my effors consistently, I can be sure-rich & Quest Net model is one of best models of marketing, which you would never understand, if you just say, you wont analyse.
It needs open-minded ness to analyse. By any chance, if any of you are interested to take a look at this with open-minded ness, I will answer your questions one at a time, in this post itself.
You can take it from me, I have never forced anybody to partner with me or take my products. But I have done good amount sales & have good partners, who are still with me, in this time of crisis, knowing for sure that this is just a passing cloud for all of us.
Reply
4 Balaji // May 29, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Dear Raju,
I have a question which i have posted before.
can i get your company products in retail? or should i have to become a member to buy a product.
product, say for example which i found in your company website as coin, watch or jewel.?
Thanks,
Balaji
Reply
5 Raju // May 29, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Dear Balaji,
It is a very good Question indeed!!
A straight answer to your question would be YES!!
You can opt to become a customer to buy any of our products ranging from Jewellery, Health care products, Telecom products & so on.
You need not become a partner ( I don’t want to use the term “member”, because it is a business & not a scheme as perceived by many)
There are indeed few reasons for many opting to become a Partner instead of a customer:
1. Customers can get the product for Retail price, while those who would like to register as partners they get it for a discounted-price for all products.
Every single product, discounted price would be 95% of (or even less than that) the retail price
2. Having said that, There are so many reasons for many to opt for the business for the below reasons
1. This can be done across more than 180 countries
For Instance, I am from India, but right now working in USA.I am doing my business here. I have done some good amount of sales & I do have partners here from various countries.
2.Especially People from West see it as having another option, as many times recession is a norm here & they would like to have a part-time option.
Ofcourse, there are prople who are clear about their needs & are always interested to go for products, as a matter of fact, our products are among the best priced & quality ones.
Thanks,
Raju
Reply
6 Chintan // Jun 3, 2008 at 10:00 am
Hi Raju,
You might be telling that its a good thing, but pleas don’t say that products are among the best priced & Quality. The coin they sell for 30k is not worth more than 7k !!! Its has no numismatic vale !!! I haven’t seen any bids on ebay !!! Tell me do you tell all this things in the presentations ??? I don’t think so !! Instead IRs say that you can sell the product on ebay with 10 times more than what you buy for !!! That is so not true !!! By writing some beautiful words with descent language, don’t try to prove that its a ethical business !!! As you said you are not here for any argument but also tell the facts in your presentation !!!
Reply
7 Balaji // Jun 3, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Dear Raju,
If i can get the products in retail, How to get it?
And me as a prospective retail customer, would defenetly need to know how much the product costs in retail, so where to check that out? As i said earlier, when i click the “Retail Shop” cart icon in your company site, i was asked about IR ID… and was not able to proceed.
Since you strongly said that we can get the products in retail, i think im getting some wrong link or something. Because i think i clicked on “Retail shop” link.
Any pointers?
Reply
8 Raju // Jun 3, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Dear Chintan,
How many products ,do you think Quest Net promotes.We promote more than 100 products across 5 verticles today.
Whether you believe it or not, our products are best priced.
Reasons:
1.In this Earth planet, Is there a product with numismatic value which was released for sale & within few months of purchase , can be sold for a higher price??.For reselling any numismatic valued products, a person needs to wait for atleast couple of years to a decade or even more depending on the product.
2.If you just get a 6 gm gold coin from any jewellery shop, it would cost you about 7K. I agree.
But what makes the cost of the numismatic 30K
a. Numismatic product has a artisitic value. which means, the craftsmen have to be paid for each coin they get to deliver .
Say atleast (1.5k – 2.5k)
b.Every product is endorsed by a body. A company cannot just like that put somebody’s face on a coin & publish it.
They have to get permission form the respective person or body & we need to pay a royalty for that.(2 -2.5k)
( Eg: Mother Teresa coin, UNO-FAO endorsed our product & we indeed paid the royalties & which was used to feed POOR people across countries.
Another Eg: Shivaji Coin, was endorsed by Shivaji trust. The royalty which goes to the Shivaji Trust, is used for educating poor people through the trust)
c.The gold which comes out to India from Hong-Kong has to be accounted in the World Gold council & that takes it own charge. ( Few Hundred Rs)
4. Handling Charges & Packaging charges. A person need not fly to Hong-kong to get the products. ( 1k – 1.5k)
5. Insurace Cost attached to the product. (1k- 1.5k)
6. Overheads ( I dont think I need to explain this)
7. Profit Markup ( There won’t be any company in this whole world, without marking up profits & a part of this goes to RYTHM foundation, For instance, We got a chance to supportmany of the Tsunami affected people in Indonesia & the list is endless.)
8. Referral Commision ( We don’t have any advertisment costs. No celebrity comes and says.. Hi I like this product . Pls use it from your TV in your Drawing Room. People like me who are really keen about setting up a marketing organisation, put efforts on part-time or full-time basis & get paid for that.)
3.We do have limited-edition watches which are swiss-made, Swiss-Quartz movement watches, which also cost around 30K.
To compare with other brands, a Rado or Omega watch costs more than that or equivalent . But they don’t have the feature what we have. Ours is limted edition.
4.We have well-ness products which utilise BIO-TECHNOLGY
5.We do have telecom products
6.We do have vacation packages
7.We do have travel tickets, Hotel Rooms, Tour Packages which are ofcourse best-priced, if analysed properly across all parameters.. By selling the air tickets also, an IR like me can extra bucks.Instead of giving business to other online agents, I can book through BONVO & enjoy my commissions.
8.We have even promoted Iconnect, a telecom product of Microsoft.
Since our discussion was limited to numismatics, I didnt elaborate much about other products.
I do agree, there could be few people who really do not understand the business & present the products & business in an unethical way.
But for few people mistakes, you cannot undermine a company with such big reputation & credibility.
If you are not interested or if you think it is not your cup of tea, Pls be assertive & be bold enough to say that you don’t want the business to whoever approach you.
If X works for a company & makes a mistake & he is sentenced legally, the MD of the company cannot be put behind the bars.
For that matter, Nobody can blame the company.
May be the person who showed the products & business to you, does not know much. The company clearly states about every single rights & limitations of IRs & reiterates about Ethical Marketing.But then if an individual doesn’t follow that, unless the company comes to know about it,it cannot do anything.
We do have procedures to suspend IRs & terminate an IR & I have see cases where an IR was terminated, as he conducted the business unethically.
Define What you mean by Unethical in your own terms & we shall discuss about the same.
Thanks & Regards,
Raju
Reply
9 Raju // Jun 3, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Dear Balaji,
You can get the products in retail, from who referred you to the website or the product.
The person who referred you, would have an IR ID & you should use it to make even a single purchase or get the information about the products.
This is the whole point of network marketing.Nobody can access the company’s product without being referred.
If someone referred you to the website, you can get his ID & look at the products
If you had just googled & got the details and if you are keen to have a look at the products, pls reply back to this thread & I shall guide you.
Reply
10 Chintan // Jun 4, 2008 at 9:53 am
Hi Raju,
About the numismatic value, you dint say why I don’t see any bids on ebay then ?? Noway a coin or anything can get the numismatic value if it is manufactured in thousands of numbers !! The coins are not even 18 carat around and may be 16 !! So if they wana make this pathetic quality Numismatic coins why don’t they use steel or Iron instead and just print hundreds in numbers and they can achieve more value of it !!! Why don’t the company directly sell the coins ?? The duties which you are talking about, I guess you are not aware of this fact !!! Questnet dint pay the duties (Rs.123 cr.) while importing the coins and other product to India. The coins which you are saying are already in India even before you order them !!! 81kg of gold and more than 150 Kg of silver coins were found in Chennai office ??? If the coins are coming from outside India, then what these coins are here for ??? Don’t tell me that these are the ordered ones only !!!
The travel pack you are talking about is also pathetic !! They promise for collaboration with any resort in the whole world and any resort can be booked with this pack ??? Already case is going on with the company by cheating like this !!!
No body who is joining QN is interested in the product, everybody joins that QN o fulfill their greed for money and NOTHING ELSE !!! They train their downliners to cheat others and get your money back !!
I was the part of the company !!! Just for 1 day. And just give me one good reason why company don’t allow you to cancel your order. What if I change my mind and I don’t want the product, and by taking the cancellation charges ???
Why Eshwarn is in wanted list of Interpol ??
Why the company is banned in SriLanka, Nepal Afghanistan and many other countries ??
Why did Eshwaran say that he has no link with QuestNet in India and it is completely different entity ??
Ethical ??? Please explain that when the chain will stop (as already no referrals can be found in Banglore) more than 88% people are going to lose their money. Is company going to do anything about that ???
Why QN has to change their name from Gold Quest to QuestNet International after banned given in 2003 ??
Why even after banned in Sri Lanka, QN changed their name to Rytham-Marketing??
For everything I said above, I have proof of it !!!
Reply
11 Raju // Jun 5, 2008 at 2:11 am
Dear Mr Chintan,
Now, I understand your agony.You were part of the company for A DAY!!!I have put a big piece of info here, only thinking you would read with an OPEN-MIND set.
Any product with a numismatic value can be resold after couple of years or even more depending on the demand. I already pointed out in my previous thread.
“In this Earth planet, Is there a product with numismatic value which was released for sale & within few months of purchase , can be sold for a higher price??.For reselling any numismatic valued products, a person needs to wait for atleast couple of years to a decade or even more depending on the product”.
Company does direct sales through the representatives only. It never advertised anything in the media in the first place.
That’s the whole point of Network marketing.
First of all,Iron & Copper do not appreciate much in value as Gold/Platinum & Silver does.It is upto the company to make a decision as to which metal they want to use & i cannot comment about it.
These medallions are 24K with 999.9% purtiy.Proof for this is Olympic & FIFA board. You can go ahead verify the validity with them.
No Company in this world can claim that our product has this quality, who are also the distributors of Olympics & FIFA.If it is mediocre in Quality, Olympics or FIFA board are not nuts to keep quiet & watch somebody making big claims.
Other endorsement is from UNO-FAO itself.If you don’t trust these 3 bodies for their great reputation, I am sorry even GOD cannot convince you and I am NO exception.
Yes I did read the news about the differntial duty. Gold medallions were imported through ICICI Bank and they have been issued a show-cause notice. Silver medallions were imported directly by QN.
Regarding the Gold Medallions, as the agreement between ICICI bank & GQ is not yet well-stated, I cannot speak about what exactly is the claim. But the silver medallions were never sold. It was a complementary product with the gold medallions given by the company,in which case Company can just stop to issue Silver Medallions at its own will & the I am not sure whether the show-cause noice issued to the company is correct on this basis.
Name Change:
GoldQuest International was started with an intention to do sales for Mayer’s Mint in Germany.
Eventually, when the business started growing, they made the Parent company as “Quest International” & its subsidiaries are “Quest Net India Ltd” & Gold Quest International” & there are many more.In most of the presentations, the presenter would be telling that the company was earlier called ” GoldQuest International”. Nobody evades it.
Government already gave a nod to ” GoldQuest International” way back in 2003 to go ahead with business.They caught more than 100 companies & gave nod to less than 10 companies.Had this been a scam, they would have definetly caught Gold Quest International also.The fact is ” It wasn’t, It isn’t & It would never be”.
My Vijay Easwaran was in the wanted list of the Interpol. He was arreseted & was in house-arrest for even few months.But then when the truth came out, Vijay Easwaran was declared Innocent.Because that is the fact.
Few people can close their eyes & say, There is no Sun. Only darkness prevails. But that is not the fact.
Even if million people say, that is not the fact.
It is the samthing here,If you complain about Vijay Easwaran, it is sheer ignorance.
For that matter, Vijay Easwaran was invited by Govt of India , in Jan 2008 to deliver a speech on “Knowledge Economy”, which would speak about his reputation.
Pls check this site :http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/4/prweb831774.htm
Why these news are not published in the Papers. Because media just does business & wants to make more money out of almost everything.
Only Negative news sell. Positives dont sell much in this Information World.This is reason why many people are thinking that QN is all about a investment scheme & they have not looked at this as a business.
Mr. Vijay Easwaran never told that he doesn’t hold any relation to Quest Net India. The note just said, he doens’t exercise direct control over Quest Net India, as he is GMD of the company & not the MD of Quest Net India.
Media does better business than all of us, by twisting things.We should analyse, before we interpret things at the first glance.
Any Government can ban any kind of business. It is upto the people & the Government.
Even If India wishes to ban Network marketing, yes it can. It is upto the Government elected by the people.
Main Loss is for the country & not the company, whatever country it is.
Like IT, like automobiles,Like so many other industries Network Marketing also provides the best possible opportunities to people.You need to understand that first. Many people lack knowledge about the industry & that is the reason behind all these issues.
Regarding: The medallions
Let’s say there is a restaurant X, it puts a board saying ” Tiffin Ready”, and claim to have Dosa & Idly for order, if customers come and order, will the restaurant chef go the grocery shop, get the flour & make the idly or dosa??
NOPS.. NEVER
We can accept this.But,If we say the coins were there, kept for distribution, You cannot belive that.
Certain Coins or Medallions which were published in the website are available only for the Indian Market.
Obviously, when they shipped it for Indian market, they could have shipped all the medallions of one kind & kept it for distribution.
But then the cost is for the shipment which was already done.
RYTHM is the social responsibilty which we took , but then we are not a Charity Organisation to waive off shipment.
(Even the Restaurant owner who made Idly & Dosa awaiting customers, will put the cost for the ingredients & making the food, overheads & profit.
It is just the same way.Will they waive off the ingredienet cost, thinking they made some food, since some customer came & they served the food which was already available??)
Is this a chain Business??
Chain Business is something, where there is no product involved and it is banned in India.
This business is all about referral marketing.
Let’s say a direct selling company with great products, opens up & in another 20 years has a private Franchise (IRs) of say 6 Crore people across the world( which is just 1% of the world), just by catering to the needs of
say top 2% of people in every indsutry, ( which would come to atleast say 10-12% of the world), the whole network can make sales for (12 crore people), especillay the Unique reconsumable products like Vacation packages, travel tickets,wellness prducts, telecom products, jewellery & so on.
By catering to the needs of 12 crore people( who are just customers & not part of business, as they are well-settled with their own business), how much a network of 6 crore people can earn out of it.Dont forget,this would be the employment opportunity for 6 crore people across the world .
Like all other industries, those who are pioneers & commited , would reap huge benefits.
If you can visualise this, you would NEVER say the business is a chain business.
(The numbers I have quoted here are the least possible nos.You along with the whole world are definetly going to witness QN going places )
Regd your statement about the vacation package, pls elaobarate better for my better understading so that I can explain better.
Rytham – marketing in Srilanka.. I need a solid proof on this ( Blogs would not suffice me). But one thing here there are several teams across the world.Kndly do not confuse yourself with the team names & the company name or even some other fake company with a similar name.
To understand all these, you definetly need to analyse all these things, before you choose to be part of any business.
You are able to ask 1000 questions now. You could have asked the same questions to the person who referred you.
May be he was not able to answer. But then if a person fails. It is his failure & you cannot blame the company for that, not even others in the company.If one person is GREEDY, nto everybody is GREEDY.
Did you ever read the P&P. Did you ever ask your referrer about the policies of the company.
You should have done this,before you partnered.P&P will answer all your questions regarding the companies policy including, Transfer of ownership,Back Order Cancellation & everything
The company has cleary specified about code of ethics. How many times did you really go through the website content, before you signed up the business , or even after signing -up, how many days you invested to equip with the knowledge about this business??
Again I am telling this busines is all about ” Partnership” & not about recruital.
IF a person is a partner in a company, he would put his efforts sincerely to make profits out of it.If he is recruited for a salary, nobody can definetly expect him to work, though on papers he is supposed to work.
I understand that there are some people who do not understand this type of business,& the intention behind these type of models, Pls blame those who came for short-term money & not those who are TRU Visionaries.
With due respect, Let me tell this to you.
If one person has cheated, doesn’t mean everyone will cheat you.If there is a culprit in a company, doesn’t mean the company itself is a fraud.
We are here for a long-haul.Only visionaries can understand the vision & achieve great things in life.
It takes true courage to take risk, come out of comfort zone & work for it.Those who do it, will achieve true financial freedom; for others it would just be a dream ( if at all they can think of) & for some others,they said no, without knowing what they said ” NO” to.
By any means, If you feel I have hurt you, I apologise for the same.
Regards,
Raju
Reply
12 Chintan // Jun 5, 2008 at 8:31 am
Hi Raju,
No there is nothing like that which might hurt me !! You probably may be the 1st QN supporter who is talking so nicely !!
Anyways … as you are asking me to listen with the open mind, sorry brother I cant. I don’t mind working hard. That is what I am doing right now for a huge company and also getting paid well !!! And I really don’t think that this business is ethical !!! So nobody in this world or even god can convince me for this !!!
Just want to share what I went through and what made me quit this business …
Please go through this link and try and understand my views – http://questnet-experience.blogspot.com/
All the best with your QN business … I only wish that people don’t lose their money in it. I don’t care about my money !! I decided to quit because I cant see that my downliners loseing their hard earned money when it STOPS.
Thanks !!!
Reply
13 Raju // Jun 5, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Hi Chintan,
I really appreciate your clarity.If you think Network Marketing is not your cup of tea, Pls don’t get invloved in Future also.
It is just for the sake of Industry & your personal benefit, I am suggesting this.
With Due respect, I would like to reiterate few key points..
You partnered with people who are GREEDY, who wanted to make short-term money.That’s the reason for your agony.I can empathise you & understand your feelings.
For reasons best known to you, you are telling you don’t want others to lose in this business.
It is your wish.Those who can see the vision, will reap the benefit out of it, if they are NOT GREEDY & don’t look for short-cuts.
Kindly don’t just blog websites,saying it screwed up your life.The only reason you had to quit was those who showed you how nastily this can be done.
I do agree on this. There are few people who make this Industry absolutely nasty, making it kind of a chain business.
But me & my associates are here to clear the mess & make it a better place.Trust me, I don’t have any broken relationship, because of this business.
I won’t have anything in future also.
My humble request, in future if you are approached to view at any other business (which may not be Network marketing), Be open to it &
kindly enquire thoroughly, before venturing.
Wish you good luck for all your future endeavours.
Best Regards,
Raju
Reply
14 Chintan // Jun 6, 2008 at 9:33 am
Hi Raju,
Thanks a lot for your advice. But still the reason for me to quit is not what you think. I never said that it screwed up my life also. I can very well make the work !! I am capable of doing it ETHICALLY !! But its just I don’t think that this business itself is ethical !! But anyways .. thanks again..
Reply
Leave a Comment