| Comment Number: | 522418-03088 |
| Received: | 6/17/2006 9:31:25 AM |
| Organization: | Xango |
| Commenter: | Joe LoBalsamo |
| State: | NY |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Welcome, I like to take this time to thank the FTC for using there position to protest the public for its concerns. I'd like to bring to your attention how this industry has improved the lives for me and my family. I have been in this industry for three years now. It has given me the opportunity to secure our lives for the future from a financial stand point. Something a job has never given me. I have met some very successful and positive people along the way. They have shown my how to live life to the fullest by improving my self personally and financially development. How to care more about others instead of myself. How I can help others from a stand point of health and finances. It's taught me how to live life in the solution rather in life's problems. This industry gives every day people the opportunity to improve there quality of life and the changes your looking to make will make it much harder for people to do that. With that said I would like to talk about one or two rules and how it will devastate our industry. Below is a brief description of the requirements and their potential impact on our business. 1. Seven day waiting period. While all the requirements are significant, the most devastating requirement is the seven day waiting period. This means that a prospective purchaser cannot sign a contract or make a payment until seven days has elapsed from the time he was given all the required disclosures. This waiting period will certainly inconvenience and “chill” enthusiastic individuals anxious to participate in the XanGo business opportunity. It will also create an air of suspicion among prospective purchasers when told that the FTC requires such a waiting period. This waiting period will also create tremendous inconvenience for those distributors who show Xango on the road. It will require gathering contact information and following up seven days later, assuming that all the disclosures were given at the time of the meeting. This waiting period suggests a level of risk that simply doesn’t exist for XanGo and many other direct selling companies. XanGo requires a very minimal up-front financial investment, and XanGo has a generous buyback policy which presents little or no risk to a prospective purchaser. 2. List of nearest references. As part of the disclosure requirements, prospective purchasers will need to be given the names, addresses and telephone numbers of the 10 geographically nearest purchasers. We will have to contact XanGo, which maintains the distributor database, to access the information required by this disclosure. This requirement is overly burdensome and evokes confidentiality and privacy concerns for all involved. Logistically speaking, because we don’t know where a prospective purchaser lives before meeting him, it will be difficult to have this information available to disclose until a later time. This will further prolong the seven day waiting period. From a privacy perspective, all distributors will have to agree to have their names, addresses and telephone numbers disclosed to prospective purchasers for possible contacting. The disclosure of this information will not be limited to bona fide purchasers, but will have to be given to anyone who might be interested, including competitors. The reference information could then be used for any purpose. The required disclosure of this information will certainly discourage participation in the direct selling industry and will not be a significant deterrent to fraud businesses. It would be very easy for a fraudulent company to provide a list of “references” who are involved in the fraudulent business, but very burdensome on legitimate direct selling businesses. I do want to take this time to thank you for the looking after ourselves and the public in this matter. This industry is improving human lives and making people dreams come true worldwide every day, please don't use this situation to make it harder. Thank You