Xerveo bites the dust in the UK.

For a while now, there have been troubles and uncertainty within Xerveo. See previous posts on them here and here. More recently there has been widespread panic and rumour spreading from the reps. A lot of infighting has been going on and many reps are jumping ship to other MLMs.

It has been hard to find anything official on the matter though so I have not said anything up until now.

On the 5th of November 2017, Paul Holtham put this document on his Facebook page without comment or explanation.

Paul Holtham is registered at Companies house as the director of Xerveo in the U.K.

 

 

The Trading Standards letter says that Paul is no longer the representative of Xerveo in the UK and all the reps are essentially out on their own now. This letter was dated 31st October and he must have been fired a while before that for it to be mentioned in a letter from the authorities.

Paul explains what happened here in a Facebook post without actually explaining anything.

It looks like he was fired. What for or why remains a mystery.  If you were a rep with him when it collapsed, please let me know what you were told about the reason behind all this.

If anyone has any  information on the rumours about Xerveo being merged with another MLM, I would love to see some evidence please.

Advice to Xerveo reps

If you intend to remain with the company, please read the Trading Standards letter and consider if you are willing to take on that level of responsibility.

If you are owed money for products you paid for and never got, consider talking to your bank/credit card company. A few reps have had their money refunded to them when they havenmt had their goods within 14 days.

If you are a rep who has decided to join another MLM, please be very careful in your choice. I have written an article aimed at helping you avoid the worst MLMs. Please have a look for some tips. Do not blindly follow your team. Consider your options carefully and independently of others.

 

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Xerveo updated

There have been a few developments in the Xerveo story so I have added them here, to avoid messing up the original article.

The company address

There were some issues with the company address in the last post. The address given for Xerveo was 31 Albert Road, Broadstairs which was a normal house. There was another address as well, for Parcel Distribution Ltd, 2 Harold Road, Cliftonville, Margate.

Someone commented on the last post that the 2 Harold Road address was the accountant’s address. This may well be true, and maybe there is an office in the care home that is rented out? What I wanted to know was, where is the warehouse or parcel distribution centre where all the stock is being sent so it can be distributed? There is no address for it anywhere. Where is the warehouse? Where are the vans? The admin staff?  Where is the actual business?

Then I came across this label that has been shown to reps by Paul Holtham, the owner of Xerveo and the Parcel Distribution centre.

The address is given as 31 Albert Road. A normal house on a residential street. It’s not a proper distribution centre at all.

This picture brings us to another story.

Where is the coffee?

Months ago reps ordered coffee that still has not arrived. There is general concern in the ranks as to what has happened to the coffee they ordered. If you to to the Xerveo website now, you will see it is all out of stock.

This is what you see when you click on any of the products

Apparently, it has been like this since the website was shut down for the change to the ‘binary’ system at the end of August 2017.

People have started asking question and Paul (the registered owner of Xerveo in the UK) has given an explanation on Facebook. On 27th September 2017, an insider has sent me Paul’s explanation-

Does this sound reasonable to you? Would HMRC destroy stock because of a mistake counting the it? Would a reputable company headquarters in America respond by waiting for the return of it and then send it back? None of this sits right with me.

Has a delivery really been stopped at the airport? If so, why? Is it Not For Resale? No one has been able to provide proof that it is legitimate and allowed to be sold in this country.

Has the coffee been sent to this country at all? Have Xerveo realised it can’t be sold here and stopped providing it?

Paul has provided the above label at the top of this post as evidence the delivery is imminent. This shows nothing though.

The Health claims

I have spoken to one of the leaders and explained about how they cannot make health or weight loss claims in the UK for their coffee. He has taken note and the message seems to have spread to all the leaders. I have since been asked by someone from within Xerveo to amend my article about health claims. It is true, the health claims have dramatically reduced, well done. The one featured in my last article has been removed. Thanks for listening guys.

Reps now seem to be not mentioning the products or company at all. They’ve completely hidden everything, going all mysterious.

Other concerns

I have looked into Xerveo a little further and a few other niggles have cropped up.

Name Change

Xerveo used to be called Ferveo and then it changed, apparently without any explanation. December 2012 they announced on Facebook they were changing the name and website, via a call to some of the reps. They gave a Ferveo website address that I was going to look at so I could see what happened, but I got this message.

I didn’t feel brave enough to continue.

 

Better Business Bureau

I had read that they had an F rating due to the many complaints from reps and customers so I looked it up. This is what I found

I wonder what it is being updated to? Look at the section it is filed under.

The Ingredients

Here are the ingredients in one of the coffees

Ganoderma Lucidem is a mushroom. As stated in the last post about this mushroom, there are no health benefits to consuming this mushroom. But are there any bad side effects?

Organo Gold had this ingredient in their coffee and they were sued because of the dangerous side effect of blood thinning.

This is what WebMD has to say about it.

 

 

Conclusion

Is this a pyramid scheme with no products to sell? If it is, this is an illegal pyramid scheme. Well done to the reps who have taken heed of my advertising warnings. Please be vigilant of anything that might be dodgy. Let me know if you see anything that concerns you. Alternatively, let me know if I have anything wrong. Keep an eye out for updates. Thank you to my sources who have provided me with information.

Dodgy MLM Products List

Some products are legal to sell in one country but illegal in another. If you are in an MLM, you might want to check you are not breaking the law by selling prohibited products. It is no defence to say that you did not know. If you are saying you own a business and are selling products, you have taken on the responsibility for checking them out.

If you are a Bot Watcher, you may want to check the activity you are observing is legal, in case you want to complain.

Here is a list of some of the prohibited items I have come across. It is by no means an exhaustive list. Please send me information on any products you come across that need to be added.

Vida Divina

This item is a drug in UK law and needs to be sold with a prescription. It cannot be sold through MLM channels.

 

Sleep N Lose by Vida Divina has Melatonin in it which is not licenced in the UK to be sold outside of a pharmacy without a prescription.

People selling this could be reported to the MHRA or the ASA.

 

 

This email was sent to a rep and she put it on Facebook.

 

See Botwatchblog’s analysis of Vida Divina.

 

Forever Living

Forever living do not have any products listed with the MHRA for medicinal use, including for use as a Traditional Herbal Remedy.

There are no allowable health claims for their products.

In the EU, companies can apply to their own country’s authorities for authorisation to sell their Aloe Vera products as a constipation cure, but that would be the only allowable claim.

In the USA, the FDA removed Aloe Vera as an allowable drug to be sold over the counter. It is now used there as a supplement. The US Department of Heath and Human Services say this about Aloe Vera.

Forever Living’s products are not illegal to sell, but it is illegal to sell them as being medicinal in any way in the UK. I imagine it would be pretty hard to sell the products without being able to make any claims about Aloe Vera, especially when you bear in mind that testimonials are not allowed either, even verbally.

 

Juice Plus+

Juice Plus+ are not registered with the MHRA in any way so they are not allowed to make any health claims for their products in the UK. Their products are classed as supplements.

Please be aware that there is vitamin A in these products so they really should not be used by pregnant women.

 

Ariix

On the 11th September 2017 I came across this message on Facebook from an Ariix seller.

“Higher levels of ingredient than UK legislation likes” means illegal then!

So Optimals, Power Boost, Beauty Boost and Restoriix are illegal to sell in the UK. I have asked Ariix for clarification. Here is their reply

 

Valentus

Valentus are trading illegally in the UK. See what happened to Charlotte Thomson in this Daily Mail report.

Do not buy or sell any of these products in the UK.

For more on this MLM, see this post on Botwatchblog.

 

Xerveo

 

Ganoderma mushroom does not have any allowable health claims in the UK. If this coffee is sold in the UK, there can be no weightloss claims made about it or any other claims that it can do anything to your bodily functions. It can only be sold as a normal coffee.

At £40.95 for 24 servings, that is expensive coffee.

 

How to check for illegal health claims

In the EU, there is a database you can check to see if the claims for your product are illegal or allowed.

Please check here before making claims or copying adverts for products with medicinal properties. Clicking on the link takes you to this page-

Please click here to check out claims made for food ingredients. This is the page you get when clicking the link.

Search here for the scientific information about an ingredient and its uses.

 

To check if a product has this allowable use in individual countries, you need to check the individual country’s databases. In the UK, it is the MHRA that police this.

This database lists all the names of products, the company that makes it, and the allowable claims for it.