International Law

Shop to Earn Disclosure

Image by tyger_lyllie via Flickr

Tracy Coenen posted a very revealing post by a distributor in Shop to Earn.

"I am hoping by posting my experiences on here I will help those of you who are thinking of joining and those of you who don't understand how it works.

Also, if I am wrong about something hopefully someone will let me know. These are my personal feelings and experiences.... I was led to believe that all you needed to do was sign up 2 Brokers (and buy $100 worth of earth products) in order to start receiving your SCORE commissions (this is when your points add up to cash).

What I wasn't told (but read in my back office after I had enrolled) was that not only do you have to sign up 2 but in order to keep your SCORE (point) commissions those 2 you sign up have to also sign 2 up and spend $100 through their earth web site.

Basically, your points mean nothing until those 2 Brokers you sign up sign up 2 Brokers of their own. In STE documentation it states... You can only SCORE as many times in a day as those who you personally refered that are qualified.

So if you sign 2 people and they are not qualified (meaning they signed up 2 Brokers/spent $100 on earth products through their own site) your not making any money on your points.

I am not sure but I hope that all of the points I am accumulating will turn into cash once I am able to sign up 2 Bokers and get them qualified......

As of now I have only signed up 1 Broker (and they have not signed anyone up) and if I don't sign up 1 more Broker by the end of this month (October) my points I have accumulated will be flushed and they will keep being flushed every month until I can find 1 more Broker to sign up.

Actually last month (September) my points should have been flushed due to this but STE gave all of us an extra month.

So, even if I do sign up 1 more Broker this month my points mean nothing yet because I still have to have the 2 Brokers I personally referred sign up 2 so I can SCORE."

I don't know if any of what the poster is claiming is true. But, what it highlights is the need for a disclosure document given to the purchaser prior to buying into Shop to Earn.

Oh, what a minute - Shop to Earn is a business opportunity in Florida, a state which requires business opportunity sellers to register and give purchasers their disclosure document so that there are no surprises about the business model.

So what does the Shop to Earn disclosure document say? Anyone got one?

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on October 21, 2008 (boomark / email).