Vemma seems to be in a little bit of hot water with a website called TruthInAdvertising.org:
“MADISON, CT — (Marketwired) — 08/01/13 — An article posted today by truthinadvertising.org (TINA) raises questions about Vemma Nutrition’s marketing claims regarding its relationship with the National Basketball Association and the Phoenix Suns.
The TINA article notes that Vemma CEO B.K. Boreyko says in a recent video that the NBA signed off on Vemma’s business model after investigating the company’s structure and that it determined “these guys are great.”
TINA contacted the NBA to confirm, and an official stated that the league has no partnership with Vemma and has never investigated the company’s structure. Further, the Phoenix Suns would not comment on whether the team had done such a review, according to a team statement quoted in the TINA article.”
My opinion on this is that B.K. may not have articulated the connection between his company, Vemma and the NBA. Not that big of a deal, really and there is a true connection between the NBA and Vemma through the Phoenix Suns sponsorship.
This TruthInAdvertising site goes on to suggest that Vemma is a pyramid scheme, which I 100% disagree with (and so do the laws).
Vemma is a solid company with good products, good leadership and a good plan.
Umm… Not so fast on the “solid company, and good leadership.” I have not tried their products, so I can’t address that, but people looking to try Vemma might want to head on over to the Better Business Bureau and read how the company responds to complaints. Basically, “it’s not their fault.” They blame their own “independent business owners.”
So no company accountability.
And while you’re searching, you might want to do a google search on their CEO, BK Boreyko or Benson K. Boreyko. Seems like he had another similar business called Verve or New Vision International, in the 90’s. Got in a lot of hot water with the FCC making false claims about “God’s Recipe.” Just do a search over at the ftc.gov, if you don’t believe me.
Finally, let’s address the “Truthinadvertising.org” You make it sound like it’s no big deal, when in reality, the article lists eight things you should know about Vemma. In a nut shell, here they are:
1. FTC has received at least 40 complaints from predatory practices and illegally charging people’s credits cards.
2. They’ve got a goofy enrollment plan so when you sign up, they get to charge your credit card in a negative option plan.
3. BK Boreyko produced a video where he says, “Go to the Better Business Beauro, BBB dot com and you’ll see that Veema gets an A rating.” This just isn’t true. Vemma has a C+ rating. Wonder what else Boreyko isn’t accurate about?
4. They describe Boreyko’s troubles with the FTC with past companies.
5. The Environmental Research Center sued Vemma and claimed they exposed consumers to lead without proper warning labels. (Still think Veema’s a great company?) It gets worse.
6. Boreyko claims Dr. Oz called the Vemma formula is “favorite fatigue fighter.” So does Dr. Oz endorse Vemma? Follow the money. Boreyko is an advisory board member of Oz’s charity and according to Truth in Advertising, he paid dearly for that “non-endorsement” to the tune of $650,000. And he STILL isn’t officially endorsed. (That must be some product to pay all the money for a non-official non-endorsement.
7. The FDA cited Vemma for not having a system in place to conduct investigations into customer complaints. Guess we can see where they get that C rating from the BBB.
8. Finally, Truth in Advertising calls out Vemma as an illegal pyramid scheme because compensation is based primarily on getting others to join their team and not on how much product is moved. They were very careful in their language on this one. While they use the words “appear” and “sounds an awful lot like…” I think we get their drift.
Finally, the NBA thing appears at the very bottom of the page in one paragraph, just about 1/20th of the entire article. Yet this is what you chose to write about?
Conclusion: Do your research and you’ll come to the same conclusion that I did. Vemma is anything but a “solid company.” And yes, I agree with truthinadvertising, Vemma does does an awful lot like an “illegal pyramid scheme.”
A quick dabbling on Google shows quite a few folks last-named “Sarver” involved with Vemma. Knowing that the Phoenix Suns owner is Robert Sarver…you do the math.