Is USANA a Scam? Astonishing Facts Revealed!
Time freedom, getting the world’s best health products, and making money with your own business…
These are the “perks” USANA Associates tout about.
But is USANA really the perfect solution to both your financial and health problems?
In this USANA review, you will learn the 17 critical insights to help you decide if you should join this Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) company and promote their products.
Points 1 to 5 are the most critical, but let’s start with point number 17…
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17. USANA is Founded by An Immunologist and Microbiologist
Much like Jeunesse, Forever Living, Amway, and Herbalife…
USANA is a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) company in the health and wellness niche.
The word “USANA” came from Greek and Latin words that translate to “True Health.”
EUmeans “true,” and SANAmeans “health,” – USANA.
The company was founded in 1992 by Dr. Myron Wentz – a professional immunologist and microbiologist.
Having founded by a man who spends most of his life’s work on health, you would expect that USANA products are superb.
But are they? Let’s find out.
16. USANA’s “Breakthrough” Technology (InCelligence) Gives You Optimal Health
The unique selling point of USANA products is InCelligence.
InCelligence is USANA’s breakthrough technology that allows you to activate your optimal cellular health.
USANA sells almost every possible product there is for a person to stay healthy.
From weight management shakes, food supplements, skincare, and even for kids, USANA has something for you.
Their products are categorized into 3 categories:
- Nutritionals
- Food and Energy
- Skincare
Nutritional Products
USANA Essentials
Their flagship product line is called USANA Essentials which provides you with high-quality vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants your body needs for great health.
- Core Minerals – It contains a broad range of essential minerals to nourish human cells.
- Vita Antioxidant – Collection of vitamins and antioxidants that activate your cells’ natural ability to protect and renew themselves.
- Body Rox – Targeted at kids, it provides them with essential vitamins and minerals.
And, perhaps the most popular (and value for money) product pack is the USANA Essentials CellSentials which consist of 1 Bottle each of Core Minerals and Vita Antioxidant.
Optimizers
- BiOmega ($26.35 for 56 capsules) – Pure fish oil supplement that provides you with vitamin D and Omega-3 fatty acids. It is a convenient way to get these nutrients when you’re not consuming enough fish.
- Procosa ($37.35 for 84 tablets) – Formulated to protect your joints
- Proflavanol C100 ($48.35 for 56 tablets) – Supplement that gives your body advanced antioxidant protection and supports a balanced immune system.
- MagneCal D™ ($24.15 for 112 tablets) – Helps protect your bones
- Hepasil DTX ($40.65 for 84 tablets) – Formulated for liver-support and detox
Digestion/Detox
- USANA Probiotic ($30.75 for 14 packets) – A blend of probiotic bacteria that support healthy digestion and immune function.
Food and Energy Products
- Nutrimeal™ ($76.95 for 28 packs) – Meal replacement shake for weight loss
- USANA MySmart™ Whey Protein Shake Base ($39.55 for 14 servings) – High-quality protein shake made from whey protein
- USANA MySmart™ Soy Protein Shake Base ($39.55 for 14 servings) – High-quality protein shake made from soy protein
Skincare
- Celavive® Regimen Pack ($218.90) – Consist of the entire range of Celavive products
- Celavive® Enhancement Trio ($108.90) – Consist of Perfecting Toner, Vitalizing Serum, and Hydrating Eye Essence
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15. USANA is a Billion Dollar Company
USANA has sold billions of dollars worth of products, thanks to its 500, 000+ associates and customers.
In 2018 alone, USANA’s revenue is almost 1.2 billion US dollars.
USANA also has an outstanding A+ rating in the Better Business Bureau.
Furthermore, many world-class athletes like Manny Pacquiao (Boxing Legend), Monica Puig (Gold Medalist – Tennis Player), Michelle Duffield (Triathlete), Deon Kenzie (Top Track and Field Athlete), Sawan Serasinghe (Badminton), claims to use USANA products regularly.
Even Dr. Oz talks highly of it.
So, with this kind of popularity, it seems that USANA products are a “no-brainer”, and its associates should have no problems selling the products, right?
But unfortunately, this isn’t the case.
In fact, most USANA associates are not earning a decent income. But more on this in a moment.
14. USANA Has Expensive Products
Okay, some of you might not like what I said, but let’s face it.
USANA products are relatively expensive compared to similar non-MLM brands.
I could throw a stick, and it could land on multi-vitamins, kid supplements, or personal care products that are much cheaper than USANA.
You could argue that USANA products are better in quality than the said brands, but are there definitive proof to that?
Every supplement company out there have their unique selling point, and almost every one of them claims to be the best.
But who is there to verify. Let’s check it out…
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13. Expensive, But Good Quality
I found a couple of interesting videos where associates, as well as health enthusiasts, did some experiments to determine the quality of USANA products against others.
I am by no means a health expert, but I will try to explain the objective of these experiments.
The Apple and Banana Test
A common test done is to put a sliced apple or banana, and the supplement, in a cup of water.
When the flesh of an apple or banana is exposed to oxygen, it will start to turn brown (decay) and release free radicals that are said to be harmful (as it harms other cells).
The antioxidants provided by the supplements should be able to bind to these free radicals preventing them from further decay and doing further damage to other cells.
Here are other interesting experiments…
As a consumer, after watching these experiments, I think I am convinced that USANA’s products are of quality. What do you think?
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12. The FDA Does Not Evaluate USANA Products
No matter how great these supplements are or how well its associates sugarcoat them, the fact remains that the FDA did not issue any evaluation for the USANA products.
For what its worth, USANA products are still not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any diseases.
The company may have many athletes promoting its products but still…
There are no guarantees that USANA products can do wonders for your body.
11. USANA has a lot of Complaints and Lawsuits
Amidst the good and bad USANA reviews that you can find on the Internet…
There are also plenty of complaints coming from customers – even from its own associates!
The latest complaint I found is against a USANA associate, a general practitioner, that used her profession to prescribe USANA products to one of its patients unethically.
In 2017, a class-action lawsuit was filed against USANA by the Pomerantz Law Firm.
Surprising enough, its own members and associates even sued USANA.
The proposed class-action lawsuit in 2007 accuses USANA Health Sciences Inc. of fraud and deception.
10. USANA is Not a Scam or a Pyramid Scheme
Well, with so many complains and lawsuits, USANA is not a scam because…
- It has been around for decades, and the company products are made in an FDA registered facility and are considered world-class in quality.
- USANA has been awarded many recognitions and named the #1 Distributor’s Choice Best Company for 10 successive years for Network Marketing Today and MLM Insider.
- USANA has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
- USANA’s founder is a distinguished and well-respected personality in the health and wellness industry.
On the business side, many claimed that USANA is a pyramid scheme.
And, although the USANA compensation plan has similarities to a pyramid scheme, it is not one because…
- USANA’s compensation revolves around product sales and not recruitment income;
- USANA Associates don’t make money by merely recruiting people. They only earn commissions every time their recruits sells a product.
Furthermore, for argument’s sake, let’s say that USANA stops accepting new associates today.
I don’t think the company will collapse immediately in the following years because USANA has regular customers and product users.
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Reasons for USANA scam claims
I believe that the bad USANA reviews and the complaints of it being a scam originates from unscrupulous practices of some associates.
Because success in MLM like USANA is tough (we will discuss why in a moment), many associates are tempted to lie, make fake promises, and deceive other people just to make money.
It could also be because of a person’s misunderstanding of the USANA business model, or perhaps coming from a customer who didn’t have a pleasant experience of the USANA products.
9. It Cost $29.95 to Become USANA Associate, But…
You can become a USANA Associate by purchasing a USANA welcome kit for $29.95.
As a USANA Associate, you can…
- Purchase USANA products at a discounted price.
- Get your own duplicate USANA website to promote and sell USANA products.
- Earn profits from USANA products through personal or online sales.
But, to earn from the compensation plan, you will need to purchase at least 200 points worth of products to activate your “business center”.
Each item in the product list will be tagged with a point system.
So, to put it simply, you’ll need to spend at least $309.95 ($280.00 + $29.95) to start your USANA business.
8. You’ll Need to Purchase Products Every 4 Weeks to Stay as an “Active” Associate
To stay as an active Associate, you’ll need a minimum of 100 points in “personal sales volume” per 4 weeks.
Group sales volume or sales made by your team members are not counted as your “personal sales volume”.
And, to maximize your profits (from your other business centers – will be explained below), you need a minimum of 200 points in personal sales volume per 4 weeks.
From the example above, you’ll probably need to buy at least a HealthPak with 100 points to stay active, which costs about US$125 (converted from CA$164.95). Considering that you did not personally sell any products in 4 weeks.
7. A Typical USANA Associate Will Advise You to Open 3 Business Centers Because it “Make Sense”
Whenever you express interest in joining as an associate, you will be advised to open 3 Business Centers because it will “double” your earnings.
Every associate will start with one business center (which requires 200 points), and to open 3 business centers, you’ll need just 400 points in total (not 600), which sounds like a good deal.
But, that means it’ll cost about $679.95 ($650.00 + $29.95 Welcome Kit) to start.
How 3 Business Centers will “Double” Your Income
Let’s say that you start with Business Center 1 (BC1), and you put BC2 on the “left leg”, and BC3 on the “right leg” (see image below).
Then, as you start recruiting associates and place them on the left and right leg of BC2 and BC3, they’ll begin generating sales volume points.
Sales Volume Points: Remember the points tagged to each item in the product list? Those points will be added as sales volume whenever a product is sold.
In a perfect scenario, say that BC2 has 1000 sales volume points on the left leg and 1000 sales volume points on the right leg. This makes up to a total of 2000 sales volume points.
And, BC3 achieved the same results as BC2.
This means that your BC1 will have a total of 2000 sales volume points on both the left and the right leg.
Your commission rate is 20% of the sales volume points on the weaker leg.
3 Business Centers vs. 1 Business Center
That means your potential income for 3 business centers will be:
- BC1: 2000 x 20% = 400
- BC2: 1000 x 20% = 200
- BC3: 1000 x 20% = 200
- Total Commission Points = 800 (which equates to about $960)
Whereas if you have only one business center (BC1), you’ll earn only 400 commission points (about $480).
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6. There are 6 Different Ways to Earn as a USANA Associate?
While they all primarily involves selling and recruiting people…
There are indeed six different ways for you to make money with USANA.
Retail Profits
As a USANA Associate or business owner, you can buy products at wholesale prices and sell it at any price you set.
But, the suggested retail price is a 10% mark-up from the wholesale price.
In addition to your product sales, you can also earn commissions from the products sold by your team (associates you’ve recruited).
USANA doesn’t incentivize you to recruit people.
Weekly Commissions
You will earn 20% weekly commissions on the product sales that yours and your downline’s business centers made (refer to the example of 3 business centers above).
Lifetime Matching Bonus (Direct Sponsor Commission)
You can receive up to a 15% matching commission on all of your personally sponsored USANA associates as long as their USANA business centers are active.
This means that if an associate that you personally brought in to the business earns a 800 commission points, you’ll earn 15% from what they make (120 points).
Incentives
USANA Associates who successfully sold a large volume of products in a month and those who can advance in ranks by building a sales team, will get more rewards.
USANA incentives include luxury trips, cash bonuses, and other prizes.
Leadership Bonuses
3% of the total worldwide weekly sales of USANA products will be divided among the top-performing associates.
Elite Bonuses
On top of all your earnings, over 1% of USANA’s worldwide sales per quarter will be rewarded among the highest-ranking associates of the company.
5. Most USANA Associates Don’t Earn Enough
Amidst all the “perks” of the compensation plan, not many are able to leverage on them.
Now you would think that with USANA’s solid reputation and innovative products, most associates are making money.
For example, in 2017 alone, USANA earned a little over $1 Billion. (Please refer to the image in #15)
One. Billion. US. Dollars!
With this kind of income, you would think associates are earning fat checks, right?
Sadly, while USANA as a company is earning billions, the vast majority of its associates aren’t getting a piece of that pie.
On this income statement issued by USANA in 2017, a little over 93.62 % of USANA associates in the US did not make any life-changing income.
A total of 40.17% are making peanuts, and 53.45% of them did not even earn a dime!
The same thing could be said about the earnings of Canadian Associates in 2016.
In the image above, you can see that:
- Only a little over 8% are actually making a decent income;
- A vast majority of 76.79% are earning less than ideal income; and
- 13.97% did not earn any money at all.
The thing about the USANA business opportunity is that most associates are not expecting success to be this tough.
They are sold on the idea that making money with USANA is simple and easy.
That’s why with the wrong expectations, it leads to many Associates dropping out quickly.
But, the cold hard truth about the business opportunity is that…
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4. Success with USANA Depends Heavily on Your Ability to Sell
To earn good money with USANA, you must first be comfortable with the sales environment.
After all, you are trying to earn money from your friends and family.
And, to persuade someone you know to buy something from you requires more than a friendly gesture.
Many associates thought that a good product would sell for itself, but what they don’t realize is that it is hard to get someone to take action, even if the products presented in front of them are so amazing.
The sales environment is not as easy as it seemed.
Sales skill is not acquired through books or a training course for that matter, it requires practical experience, which means being rejected over and over again.
This is the only way for you to hone your sales skills.
And, that’s what many associates are not willing to do.
I mean, who loves to get rejected over and over again for an exchange of experience, right?
So, if you are considering to join USANA, consider if you are passionate enough to be in sales.
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3. Selling Products is Not Enough, Recruitment is the Name of the Game
If you sell $100 worth of products, you earn only $10 (10% markup). Which means you need to sell $30,000 worth of products a month to earn a decent $3,000 income.
That’s really tough if you are doing it alone, and you will soon run out of people to sell to.
And, that’s why it only makes sense for you to recruit others in your team and leverage on their social network.
Because, as we talked about in the compensation plan earlier, you get paid when someone in your team makes sales.
So with building your sales team, you’ll be able to achieve your results much faster without exhausting your own list of prospects.
But, the thing is, selling the products is tough; selling the dream is much tougher.
As you meet with many of your friends and family, you will realize that not many people have the same mindset as you.
They may seem like they want a better life, but in fact, deep down, they do not have the intention to better their life.
Some people are just too comfortable with their current situation that they become cynical when you try to get them out of their comfort zone.
That’s why the general recruitment rate is only about 1% (out of 100 people you meet, probably only 1 will join as an associate).
But, if you are a great salesperson, the rate increases to about 3% to 5%.
Now, say that you managed to recruit a sales team…
2. More than 90% of Your Team Members will Dropout Within 6 Months
Now, this figure is based on my past experience as well as many network marketers I know.
No matter how great of support you give to your team members, there will be a vast majority who are not “tough enough” for this industry.
It is really sad that you have put in so much time and effort to recruit and train someone in your team, but to see them leave.
What happens to your business when there is not enough influx of new associates to replace those who left?
Your business will be hanging by a thread.
And, if you are not tough enough to accept this emotional impact, you will be the one leaving as well.
That’s why I think that finding the right people to join your team is more important than anything else.
By “Right People”, I mean people who have an entrepreneurial spirit and would do anything to achieve their goals.
But, the question is, how do you find them?
A Little Known Strategy to Find and Prospect Business Builders
1. Earning A Decent Income Is Possible But Improbable; You Could Even Lose Money
Based on the income disclosures above, it is clear that almost all USANA associates aren’t making the life-changing income they were hoping for.
I think this is because USANA uses a binary structure where you are forced to balance the points on both your left and right sales force to earn commissions.
With how the USANA compensation plan works…
No matter if you have 1,000 commissionable points on your right leg (sales made by your hard work and labor), but on your left side, you only have 125 points…
Your 20% commission rate is only counted from the 125 points.
The remaining 875 uncounted points from your right leg will be “rolled over”.
However, at any given 4 weeks cycle, if any of your business centers are inactive due to lack of sales volume (200 points), the rolled-over points will be reset to zero!
So, with the fear of loss, most associates will purchase the products with their own money, not from profits, just to keep their business centers active.
The sad part about this is that if this goes on for a few months, you can easily find yourself buried in debt with tons of products in your garage. Sounds familiar?
This is probably another primary reason why many people considered USANA a scam.
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Conclusion: My Sincere Advice
USANA is, without a doubt, one of the biggest names in the health and wellness industry.
However, as impressive as the company is, the majority of its associates are not earning money.
I would say that you should only join USANA as an associate if you are passionate about being an advocate of the company.
And, this passion comes from a transformational experience of the products.
If you are set to join USANA, then I would recommend that you learn how to leverage on the internet to find the Right People (people with an entrepreneurial mindset) for your business. Otherwise, you will have a tough time progressing with the company.
However, if you think that USANA is not the right business for you, then I highly recommend that you check out this program.
It is the program that has taught me how to turn my passion into profits as well as allowing me to quit my job and still earn a full-time passive income from home.
Thank you for taking the time to read this USANA review.
I hope that you find this worth your while, and if you have any questions, let me know in the comment section below.
Until here, and I wish you success in whichever path you take.
Your pal,
Jack
You basically buy a home based business when you join USANA . The company is 22 years old and there are thousands of millionaire distributors. There are an insane amount of tax breaks available for company representatives . USANA will be as mainstream as AVON once was . It is entering the communities as we speak . In the form of energy drinks REV 3 POP machines . And MY SMART START SHAKES .,
Hi Jack and thank you for this comprehensive and revealing review. We desperately need them to balance “good and evil” in the Internet. There are tons of scams out there, each one of them trying to cheat and rob peoples’ money.
So I am very thankful for the work that you do. Just keep going. 🙂
And I like your logo. Impressive 🙂
Once again you give us a a great analysis, with enough information to enable an informed decision. I do find myself agreeing with you on most of the points you make about most of the MLM opportunities out there.
Regards and good luck
Thanks John! I had many bad experiences with MLM companies, most of them do not provide good training, some do not even have training. You need to be a good sales person, good speaker in order to be a successful MLM Marketer. If you are not, you need to find a mentor who is willing to guide you through your success, and if you do not have that avenue as well, you will fail in MLM. Thats probably the reason why 90% of people who join MLM fail.
I approve of Affiliate Marketing because I do not ever need to sell something to someone, or give a sales pitch. All I need is good writing skill and you are set. It is much cheaper to start an affiliate marketing business than a MLM business.
To find out more about Affiliate Marketing click here.
Cheers!
~Jack (BareNakedScam)
Great post Jack!
Excellent job again in informing people about these schemes!
Straight away I am turned off from this one because of the expensive upsells!
Thanks for this great review!
John
Hi John,
Yeah! There’s always a catch to everything.
Cheers!
~Jack (BareNakedScam)
I heard good things about Wealthy Affiliate so I did some research. I could not find one bad review so I am going to join; however, your links do not work. They do not lead me to the start page. Please let me know and thanks again for creating this website.
Hi Deidre,
I couldn’t find any link that is broken. Let me know which link is broken and I’ll fix it.
Cheers!
~Jack (BareNakedScam)
I was introduced to Usana by a buddy of mine a couple of years ago and just now I decided to look into it. Thanks to your review, I might try this Wealthy Affiliate you speak of. Thanks Jack!
You are welcome John!
Cheers!
~Jack (BareNakedScam)