One of the main things that often convinces people to sign up as an Arbonne consultant is the opportunity to receive a free Arbonne Mercedes when they hit a certain rank.
The lure of a free luxury car is too good to pass up for many, with the famed white Arbonne Mercedes-Benz acting as a physical manifestation of the lavish lifestyle that can be yours if you want it badly enough.
But as most of us know, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is, and there is no such thing as a free lunch free Arbonne Mercedes.
I decided to dive into the myth of the free Arbonne Mercedes and present you with the facts so that if you do want to join Arbonne with the goal of getting a free car, you won’t encounter any nasty surprises after you sign on the dotted line!
But first, if you’re new here and are unsure of Arbonne as a company or what MLM (multi-level marketing) even is, I suggest you read my posts about how much money you can expect to make with Arbonne and why MLM companies suck.
The Truth About the Free Arbonne Mercedes
There is no such thing as a free Arbonne Mercedes
Let’s get straight to the point.
There is no such thing as a free Arbonne Mercedes (or a Monat Cadillac).
When you become a Regional Vice President at Arbonne (the rank that enables you to qualify for an Arbonne Mercedes), you will not just be given a car.
What you will be given is cash payments towards a car.
This doesn’t sound too significant, until you realise that the car itself has to be purchased/leased in your name, connected to your bank account.
As long as you hit your monthly quota, you will continue to receive payments towards the car from Arbonne, but if you fail to make the required amount of qualifying sales one month, lose your ranking within the company or leave Arbonne altogether, you will still be responsible for meeting the payments on your ‘free’ car.
This puts a tremendous amount of pressure on not just you, but your downline as well, because their sales count towards your own.
If a few members of your downline make less sales that month or decide to take some time off and go on holiday somewhere, it is you who won’t receive your car bonus that month.
This means added stress for you, but also for them, which doesn’t sound like a great exercise in team bonding!
Put simply, you are tied into a lease and Arbonne are not obliged to give you a penny towards it.
And that’s not all.
Arbonne state that ‘The Mercedes-Benz Cash Bonus Programme is available to all paid as RVPs when the RVP provides documentation that he or she has purchased or leased a white Mercedes-Benz car, has affixed the Arbonne car emblem to the vehicle, and each month meets the following Central Region QV requirements.’
This means that not only do you have to purchase/lease the car before Arbonne pay anything towards it, but you have to provide proof that you are displaying the Arbonne emblem on your car (3 times, no less!) and, as we just discussed, continue to meet your monthly sales quota.
Worryingly, Arbonne reserve the right to change their minds at any time, saying ‘Arbonne reserves the right to periodically amend or modify this SuccessPlan, the Policies & Procedures, Privacy Policy, and the Independent Consultant Application & Agreement (the Agreement). The Arbonne Independent Consultant agrees to abide by the Agreement and all amendments and modifications as set forth in the Agreement.‘
So basically, if the deal wasn’t already sketchy enough, Arbonne could move the goal posts whenever they like, and legally, you wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it.
This could mean giving you a higher target to reach in order to receive the bonus, or it could mean signing a 4-year lease, locking you into making the car payments no matter what.
The Arbonne Mercedes Emblem – A Clever Marketing Ploy
If your spidey senses didn’t tingle when I mentioned the Arbonne emblem that must be displayed 3 times on your Arbonne Mercedes, read the next sentence very carefully.
In order to receive the Arbonne Mercedes, you must display the company logo on the car.
Arbonne claim that this ‘lets everyone know you have earned your Mercedes-Benz through your successful Arbonne business,’ but come on, do we really believe that?
Arbonne want their logo plastered across your car to advertise themselves, not because it shows what a successful business woman you are.
Diggles Creative says that ‘It goes without saying that many businesses take advantage of our vehicle and commute-bound situations and use vehicles as advertisements. Simply by driving to and from their place of business, a vehicle advertisement can get 30,000 to 70,000 daily vehicular impressions.’
Up to 70,000 pairs of eyes seeing the Arbonne emblem on your car each day?
That sounds like a big win for Arbonne!
It’s no wonder businesses usually pay people to display their logo, is it?
With Arbonne, you’re tricked into not only doing it for free, but also into believing that they are doing you a favour – genius!
The Arbonne Car Presentation – A Recruitment Event
I’ve seen less fuss made over graduation parties or pregnancy announcements than the so-called ‘Car Presentation’ events that Arbonne encourage their consultants to host.
While the point of the Car Presentation is officially to celebrate your success in ‘the business,’ what they are in practice are just huge recruitment events, where you can show off your material success with all your friends, making sure they know that it’s all thanks to Arbonne.
Not only do Arbonne ‘generously’ give you a bunch of free Arbonne products to use as ‘prizes or giveaways’ to the people attending your party (another sneaky promotion tool), but they encourage you to ‘invite everyone you know’ (source) to attend and listen to presentations filled with MLM buzzwords about the ‘Arbonne opportunity‘ and ‘how to make it work for you.’
This is just flat-out shady.
Imagine being invited to celebrate your friend’s business success (or new baby, or engagement, or anything), and going along to show your support, only to find out that the whole thing is just a massive sales pitch?
Bleurgh.
The Mercedes-Benz Cash Bonus – A Win-Win for Arbonne
It may seem like Arbonne are just being super generous and taking care of their consultants with the Mercedes-Benz Cash Bonus programme, but really, this is just another win for Arbonne.
Not only do they increase the pressure on you to make more sales (meaning more money for them!), but if you stop making as many sales, they will never be out of pocket because they will simply stop making the payments.
What’s more, they benefit from you driving around and advertising their company to everybody that sees the car, as well as using the Car Presentations as thinly-veiled recruitment events.
It’s genius…but it may not be the best idea for you.
The Free Arbonne Mercedes | Final Thoughts
I believe that the ‘free car’ offered by Arbonne is just another one of the network marketing lies designed to make the company look better.
While driving around in a Mercedes is certainly not to be knocked, I think that it is very important to look at this ‘car bonus’ as what it is – something designed to benefit Arbonne as a company.
I would only suggest signing up for the Arbonne Mercedes if you can already afford the payments without Arbonne’s help. If you have another, well-paid job that is more secure than network marketing and could easily afford the payments if you stopped making sales with Arbonne, go for it. Take the money and step on the pedal, sis.
But if the only way that you can afford this car is through your monthly sales with Arbonne and/or the cash bonus, don’t do it to yourself. You’ll be asking for trouble.
If you have any more questions about Arbonne or the Mercedes-Benz bonus, don’t hesitate to ask me in the comments section below! If you would like to know more about multi-level marketing/network marketing, you can find my other articles in my anti-MLM section!
Until next time,
XOXO
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