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| i-fern scam or not |
Have you heard of Fern C? The 9 year old MLM comapny selling vitamin C supplement in the Philippines? Well now, at the time of this writing they launched a new company called I-fern or Fern international. This new company now sells 4 products namely FERN D ( vitamin D supplement), MilkCa (calcium supplement), FERN-Activ ( a multivitamin) and Aurora (a facial cream).
The people behind the company
I went to the company's website to get the details, here it is below:Tom Manny Tan
President and CEO
Hannah D. Crisostomo
Vice president for Business Development and Marketing
Ma. Lourdez C. Corpuz
Vice president for corporate human resources and
Organizational Development
Eddie O. Senturias
Vice President for Network Operations
Romulo M. Garcia Jr.
Vice president for Information Technology
Jesusa Ortiz-Villavito
Vice President for finance
Companys address:
Northon & Harrison Compound
Sheridan Street Corner Pines Street
Mandaluyong City
Metro Manila
Philippines
Compensation Plan
There are 6 ways to earn in i-FERN1. The Retail Profit
Earn up to 40% of the retail price
2. Fast Start Commissions
Receive up to $45 for your direct referrals depending on the package they purchase
3. Team Sales Commission
Earn $25 for every cycle you make and as much as $14,000 if you reach a certain sales volume.
4. Matching Bonus
As you earn Team Sales Commissions they are matched and you earn more. It also increases as you move up in rank.
5. Group Sales Rebate
Earned monthly from the reorders made by your sales team up to 12 levels deep under the 3x12 matrix structure. Increases as you move up in rank.
6. Global Pool Bonus
Earn via the company's profit sharing.
3% o the company's global monthly global sales are are allotted for this.
This pay plan is without a doubt a lucrative one, but I still have my reservations. I think this doesn't solve the inherent problem with MLM/Networking which is the market saturation end game. The usual question of what happens to the bottom of the pyramid when almost everybody is already a member and there is no one to be recruited or sell to still remains.
If I were to change this compensation plan I would greatly reward those who are at the bottom because those that are on top are more likely rich by that time, on vacation and is not doing anything for the company anymore. Why not reward those who are working hard to promote the company?
Those who are on the streets giving flyers, those who are bugging family and friends to share the business opportunity of company and those who are online 24/7 writing blogs, adding as many friends on facebook and posting on every classified ads they can find on the internet. If only I am the CEO of this company at least I will give those bottom dwellers the Global Bonus Pool that is 50% of the company's net profit. Unfortunately, not everyone really cares about one another these days, its all about me me me.
My FAQ
We do not have a lot of history about i-FERN as it is just a newly launched company at this time of writing. But, we have FERN-C. The company FERN-C is 9 yrs old and is also run by the same people. It must have some kind of a track record already that we can check, and it is the best company to study to get information about i-FERN's history. The most popular issues with FERN-C are the deceptive sales presentations of their distributors, unscientific testimonial claims and the true facts about the alkaline diet (for the full discussion on this topic regarding fern-c read http://paetechie.blogspot.com/2008/02/fern-c-sodium-ascorbate-alkaline-diet.html).The questions now are this:
1. Can these issues of bad business practices be avoided in this new company?
2. What are the steps i-FERN are making to make sure this would not happen again?
3. Are they even making any precautions to avoid these problems?
Another thing that I can not help noticing are their products.The first one I have to mention is FERN-D, a Vitamin D supplement. For me it is the most ridiculous product. Vitamin D is normally acquired from sunshine that is totally FREE and abundant. In the Philippines we are NEVER out of it. Why would I pay a premium price when I could get my vitamin D for free and is easily available everywhere? Why would I deviate from the natural way of getting my vitamin D to a synthetic supplement? Okay, maybe some people have abnormalities that they can not synthesize vitamin D in their skin but how many are these people? Do you think this product can easily be sold honestly?
The next worse product for me is the MilkCa "calcium from milk". It is just made from milk. What is so special about it? Why not just drink fresh milk? It will save you lots of money and keeps you away from the chemicals used to process it in a capsule form. The advertisement says "the goodness of milk in a capsule". How can milk be any good in a capsule? Many of us enjoys drinking milk, mostly kids, and also adults loves to put it in their tea or coffee. Why would it be good to encapsulate something we drink with pleasure?
If that is the case then big companies like San Miguel Beer and Coca Cola should be thinking of making their beverage available in capsule form.
For FERN-Active and Aurora the concern here is how competitive are these products to those that are available on retail stores. For aurora, Is this a unique one of its kind skin cream product? how does it compare via performance and price to a popular beauty creams like Belo products? For the multivitamin FERN activ, the competition is a lot tougher. There are a lot of heavy contenders out there like, Revicon, Enervon and Centrum. How will FERN-Activ be compared to them in terms of price and potency?
After these findings I would like to ask, did i-FERN really make a feasibility study of their product? Did they focus more about their product and not on the networking recruiting part?
Disclaimer
Be it clear that the article above are my thoughts that is a result of my own research, critical thinking and common sense. This is not an accusation but is just my opinion and questions. I am not a professional in any field so this article may not be treated as such.If you wish to add a point, correct/suggest an edit, agree or disagree with me. Your valuable comments are welcome below.
Is i-FERN scam or not?












