| Comment Number: | 522418-01209 |
| Received: | 6/6/2006 11:36:50 PM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | Jody Halton |
| State: | IL |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Dear Sir or Madam: In the last 6 months, I have found my dream business. It allows me to work from home, put my children first, schedule my hours around my family, and sell products that have already improved some of my customer's lives beyond my (or their) wildest expectations. I can work as much or as little as I want and be in charge of my own degree of success. It provides me with a wonderful opportunity to give back to people, help others succeed, and improve the health of the nation one person at a time. This business allows me to build a residual income to reduce or eliminate my future dependence on government programs like Social Security and Medicare. It gives me everything the government says it wants for Americans. And now, the government is effectively proposing to take it all away. I am writing today because I am opposed to many parts of the proposed Business Opportunity Rule R511993. As it is currently written, it could prevent me from continuing in my business as an independent direct seller. I know and believe that your intentions to protect the public are good ones, however I believe this proposal will “throw the baby out with the bath,” taking with it some very respectable businesses like my own distributorship of Mannatech products. The FTC's new proposals will very likely kill my business. I am most concerned about the imposed seven day waiting period. The “enrollment packs” that I sell start for as little as $39, with the highest pack selling for $1,099. It is the buyer's choice how much initial investment to make, and I serve customers equally who purchase at any of these levels. Even at the highest, $1,099 level, this purchase pales in comparison to the cost of cars, boats, and rooms of furniture, yet sellers of these items do not have to wait seven days for their customers to purchase their products. This waiting period gives a very poor impression of the quality of our products or business opportunity, as though the FTC is warning them from the beginning that this is a poor purchase they should carefully reconsider. It will only serve to make my customers wary of the purchase for unfounded reasons. Mannatech already has a 90% buyback policy for all products including sales kits purchased by a salesperson within the last twelve months. Additionally, with this seven day waiting period I will be burdened with having to keep very detailed records when I first speak to someone about Mannatech and will then have to send in many reports to Mannatech headquarters. This proposed ruling will drown my business in paperwork and minutia, and drive customers away. If the FTC sees fit to impose a 7-day waiting period on purchases, it should be done across the board for all purchases in the country, from toilet paper to private jets. All sellers need a level playing field and this ruling will not serve to do that in any way. The FTC's proposed rule also requires display of information regarding any lawsuits for misrepresentation, or unfair or deceptive practices, regardless of whether the company was found innocent. These days, anyone or any company can be sued for almost anything. It makes no sense that I would have to disclose these lawsuits unless Mannatech had been found guilty. Otherwise, Mannatech and I are once again made to look suspect, even though Mannatech and I have done nothing wrong. Equally detrimental to sales is the proposal's requirement that I must disclose at least10 prior purchasers nearest to the prospective buyer. To get a list of the 10 prior purchasers, I will need to send the address of the prospective buyer to Mannatech headquarters and then wait for the list. Yet again, your desire to protect the consumer from fraudulent companies will put me in a position of losing a great volume of sales when my buyers have to wait, wait, wait, and are simultaneously given the impression that they indeed need to contact my references, making me, and the company, look suspect. I also know that I myself would never have entered this business had I seen this sentence that you propose to include: “If you buy a business opportunity from the seller, your contact information can be disclosed in the future to other buyers.” People are very concerned about their privacy and identity theft. No one in their right mind today readily shares their personal information with individuals they may have never met. Again, the FTC is effectively driving my customers away. This country needs honest opportunities. Mannatech and many other direct sellers have provided hundreds of thousands of people like me with just that. While I value the FTC's desire to protect consumers, I urge you to reconsider your approach to protecting the nation from illegitimate businesses in a more surgical or targeted fashion, so that valuable and legitimate opportunities are not similarly subject to unintended consequences. Thank you for your time in considering my comments. Sincerely, Jody Halton