Is USANA A Scam? (A Revolutionary Way to Make Money)

Have you ever tried science-based nutritional products? USANA is well-known for its quality products but some people are skeptical and think it is a big scam. I can tell you, their products are definitely worth looking into. This company claims to have a revolutionary way to make money. 

In this review, we’ll find out what these products are about and what complaints if any exist.

I’ll also be talking about how you can make money with USANA’s business opportunity and whether it’s really revolutionary or not, what I like about it and don’t like about it.

First, let me commend you for taking the time to do your research here because it’s the only way to prevent yourself from being scammed and find legitimate ways to make money online. 

I also want to let you know that I am not associated with USANA in any way. I’ve done hundreds of product researches and write unbiased reviews on them to help you make decisions.

Let’s begin…

What Is USANA

Founded in 1992 by Dr. Myron W. Wentz, USANA (Usana Health Sciences, Inc.) is an MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) publicly-traded company operating in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

The company manufactures and sells its science-based nutritional products, along with a variety of dietary supplements and a line of their skincare products all over the world (26 countries).

Like all MLM companies, USANA does 2 things:

1. They offer their business opportunity to people who want to be independent associates (i.e. distributors) and make money. 
2. They sell their products to their independent associates.

Apparently, according to USANA, their independent associates are their salespeople because their products are not sold on the retail market.

About Dr. Myron Wentz (Humanitarian and Philanthropist)

Dr. Myron Wentz, the founder of USANA, is a world-renowned immunologist and microbiologist with a vision…

“I dream of a world free from the pain and suffering of degenerative disease. Share my vision. Love life and live it to its fullest in happiness and health.” 

Dr. Wentz also founded Gull Laboratories in the early part of the 1970s, where he devoted 20 years to research and tests of detecting infections and certain kinds of autoimmune disorders.

His greatest achievement and success was his test on the Epstein-Barr virus infection creation.

Dr. Wentz has several other impressive accomplishments…

• Wentz Medical Center (Cambodia) – Center to help children with various diseases like malaria and HIV.
• USANA True Health Foundation – Charity to help people who are undergoing crisis and natural disasters.
• 2006 Children’s Hunger Fund –  Dr. Wentz is awarded the Children’s Champion Award
• Author – “A Mouth Full of Poison” (the truth about mercury), and “Invisible Miracles (cellular nutrition) and other publications

So you can see Dr. Wentz is genuinely interested in helping people.

Inside USANA – The Products

USANA’s premium products are “science-based” nutritional supplements, health food and personal care products.

Watch this video to get a good understanding of what USANA is about…

The company has over 150 products which are broken into 4 categories:

(1) Nutritional Supplements (cell improvements)

• Heart Health
• Bone and Joint Health
• Immune Health
• Digestive Health
• Brain and Nerve Health
• Healthy Weight Loss
• Eye Health
• Men and Women’s Health
• And more

(2) Food and Energy

• Meals Replacements (Shakes)
• Energy Drinks, Bars, Fiber

(3) Skincare

• Hair Care
• Body Care
• Celavive Facial Skincare

(4) Healthy Living

• Healthy Teeth and Gum – whitening toothpaste, oral probiotic

NOTE: USANA will say on their site that their products have not been evaluated by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and that their products are not intended to cure diseases.

How to Get Started With USANA

There are 2 ways to get started with USANA:

(1) Preferred Customer (FREE to Join):

As a Preferred Customer, you can purchase products for your personal use at discounted prices but you are not entitled to any commissions or bonuses.

(2) Associate ($29.95):

As an Associate, you can do the following…

• Purchase products at discounted prices and sell them at retail prices. You earn the difference which is your retail commissions.

• Purchase products at discounted prices for your own personal use and for your family.

• Recruit Preferred Customers and other people to be Associates to your downline and when they sell products you earn commissions and bonuses.

Some Things You Need To Know As An Associate

As a USANA Associate, you need to purchase your Welcome Kit if you want the opportunity to earn commissions and bonuses. The good news is it’s only $29.95.

USANA will say you don’t have to buy any products but I’m pretty sure you’re going to spend much more than the Welcome Kit, for instance, your guests are going to want to see the products before they spend their money. This means purchasing products at discounted prices. 

For instance, you might want to purchase 2 of USANA HealthPak ($131.95 x 2 = $263.90 at the Preferred Price). One pak has 336 tablets for you to get your user experience and the other to show it off to anyone interested. It comes with the following:

• Vitamins
• Cell food
• Essential nutrient supplements 

“Legal” MLM companies will say you make your money when people buy products. If you want to be a USANA Associate you will “only earn compensation when products are sold.”

Just be aware that your sponsor will push you into buying more products, likewise, you’ll do the same. This is the nature of the business. This is how you make money. You buy products and sell them, recruit people and get them to buy products. 

Your Welcome Kit has the following:

• Business Building – Checklist to get started, online tools and resource guide, USANA policies & procedures, explanation to the compensation plan, Jim Rohn’s marketing strategies, downloadable business brochures, and examples of conversations.

• Lifestyle Items – Downloadable catalogues and Workout Guide with a resistance band, blender-bottle, pillbox and more.

Do USANA Products Really Work?

I don’t use the products myself because I’m quite happy with the health and wellness products I’ve been using for years and have great results from them plus I workout 4 times a week at a Bootcamp.

Because of that, I did a lot of research on USANA products and honestly, I really haven’t come up with anything negative on user experiences that’s worth mentioning.

On BBB, there’s only 1 complaint closed in the last 3 years and it’s not directly related to any USANA user product experience.

I looked on Amazon, and eBay, and other sites, the reviews on USANA products look positive and so that’s quite impressive, don’t you think?

USANA products work!!

Next, let’s see if you can make a real living out of USANA’s business opportunity…

USANA’s Compensation Plan

Making money with USANA’s business opportunity is based on the Binary Compensation structure which I’ll explain below. 

USANA offers you 7 income streams as an Associate:

1. Sell Products at Retail Prices

As I mentioned earlier you purchase the products at preferred prices and sell them at retail prices. You earn the difference which is your retail commissions.

2. Weekly Commissions

The way Binary works is you need to recruit 2 new members for your downline. The Binary has a left leg and a right leg.

One of your new members goes on the left leg and the other is placed on the right leg.

Each of these 2 new members is required to recruit 2 people and so on.

Your Weekly Commission is based on 2 things:

• Each USANA product has a point value assigned to it.

• When you and your team purchase products either for personal use or to resell at retail prices, the points are accumulated. You receive your Weekly Commission based on where the volume points on the left side match the volume points on the right side.

3. Lifetime Matching Bonus

When any of your recruits reach a certain level, for example, the Premier Platinum PaceSetters, you can earn a certain percentage that matches their commission volume based on your rank.

The beauty is you get this for as long as they remain in their company business.

The Catch: You can only earn this in your first 8 weeks so you have to really work hard to recruit people and push them into buying products if you want this lifetime bonus.

4. Incentives

If you actively get involved in USANA’s incentives and contests and do well in them, you’ll be generously rewarded with trips, prizes, and privileges.

5. Leadership Bonus

USANA has a worldwide bonus pool in which they reserve 3% of that to be divided among the top-ranking Associates.

Once you reach one of the top levels, you can qualify to participate in that pool each week.

6. Elite Bonus

Once you become one of the top earners, you can earn a much larger commission. To be honest with you, the only ones who joined early at the time of the company’s birth will be here.

For further information on USANA’s Compensation Plan, you can read it on this PDF. 

Finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for…

Making a Living With USANA Business Opportunity

USANA lets you set your own selling product prices after you purchase them from the company at their discounted Preferred Customer prices. At their suggestion, you can markup those prices 10%.

USANA knows that’s not much for your efforts, so they offer you their Auto Order (automatic monthly product shipment) plan. By signing up, they give a further discount of 10% off your Preferred Prices on products.

So by setting your own retail prices and with your Auto Order, you can apparently make as much as 18% for your retail commissions. This is before your shipping and tax costs.

I definitely don’t like the Auto Order and from my previous experiences of being an MLM marketer myself, it only benefits the owners and your sponsors. If you’re not careful, you can easily build up inventory if you’re struggling to sell your purchased products and not able to recruit people. 

Let me just say, if you want to make more money on your products, you are going to have to sign up to the Auto Order so you can give discounts on your prices to your family and friends if you’re desperate to get points.

Next, let’s look at the figures for 2017 to see how much you can potentially earn from your downline using their chart…

According to USANA’s Chart, 38,239 USANA members were active Associates in the USA.

Out of that…

• 53.45% of those active Associates made $0
• 96.86% of those active Associate made between $1 to $5,000

Even if you and/or your recruits made $5,000 for an entire year, that’s only$416.66 a month.

Can you really make a living on that? NOPE!

What I Like About USANA

1. Being Around a Long Time

USANA has been around since 1992. That’s a long time, especially for an MLM company.

Since its time of inception, the company has received numerous awards locally, nationally, and internationally.

What I like about USANA is they’re really focused on research,  development, and quality control testing that’s why they have “science-based” nutritional products.

Four of their products received recognition by a third-party tester, ConsumerLab.com.

2. Science-Based Products 

I think this video says it all about USANA’s “science-based products”…

Dr. Myron Wentz and his team are all about cellular nutrition to help make your cells healthy so you have energy and feel younger.

I mentioned earlier, Dr. Wentz received the Albert Einstein Award in June 2007 for his “Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences.”

USANA was also the Editor’s Choice in NUTRISEARCH for the 3^rd time. 

3. Associate Membership Price is Inexpensive

When you join as an Associate Member, you only need to purchase your Welcome Kit for $29.95. That’s an excellent deal considering you’re getting a ton of resources and training… coming up next.

4. No Real Complaints On Products/Services

I checked Consumer Affairs and BBB for reviews on USANA and nothing really worth mentioning in regards to their products and services.

On Amazon.ca (Canada) and eBay people have written happy reviews. 

I highly recommend the products. 

5. Lots of Training and Resources

USANA wants you to be successful in your business and happy with your products so they provide a wealth of online and offline knowledge on the products and they give you everything you need to run your business.

There are also plenty of live training and webinars.

6. No Inventory Required for Associates

The fact that USANA will say you don’t have to purchase any products is worth putting here as a positive.

All you have to do is talk about the products and have your guests make the purchase on your personalized website (they give you this).

More on this below…

What I don’t Like About USANA

1. Auto Order

As this is pretty much standard with most MLM companies, it’s still something I don’t like even though it’s not mandatory here but this is where you as an Associate Member, USANA and your sponsor will make a lot of money.

The company gives you this enticingly additional 10% discount off your Preferred Prices which is already discounted. This means you can potentially earn as much as 18% commissions on the sale of your products. So you see how USANA does this when they say you don’t have to purchase any products??

Auto Order is exactly as it sounds. When you select this option and the frequency your products are delivered to you automatically. The problem with this is if you don’t need the products and you forget to turn the Auto Order off, you now have unnecessary inventory.

2. Must Pay to Get Paid on Your Commissions and Bonuses

In order to get paid on your Group Sales Volume (definitely want this), you must be an active USANA Associate Member generating a minimum of a total of 100 points on every 4-week cycle. This is your Personal Sales Volumes (PSV).

This means purchasing products either for your personal use or to resell them to your clients.

BUT if you think it’s only going to cost you $100 a month to get those points… NOPE!!

For instance, look at the image above, Item #100 for the HealthPak (56 packets), if you were to purchase this for the sake of reaching your minimum 100 points, it’s going to cost you $131.95. 

I was involved with 3 MLM companies, health and wellness, candles, and skincare. The skincare products, in particular, cost me around $175.00 CDN a month just to meet my minimum 100 points and that didn’t include my shipping and handling costs which were extra. 

My end result? I ended up with a lot of inventory just so I could get paid my commissions and bonuses.

Trust me, you will end up with unwanted inventory if you don’t get out and recruit people and sell your products.

3. Competitors

There is no doubt that health and wellness are some of the most popular MLM niches.

If you’re looking to do USANA as a business, you’ll be faced with lots of competitors. I will admit USANA has better quality products and the fact they are scientifically tested nutritional products is definitely a benefit.

Some of their competitors are:

• Yoli
• Isagenix
• Herbalife

4. Products Prices For Associates Are Expensive

The USANA Health Pak (I talked about this earlier) will last you only 28 days. 

USANA HealthPak (from the image above) is $131.95 Preferred Price for 1 box. If you want a better discount then you’ll want to sign up for the Auto Order to get that extra 10% discount.

USANA HealthPak (from eBay) for 2 boxes is a total of $228.00 (228 / 2) = $114.00 per box.

5. Most Associates Lose Money

I already showed you how many Associates were not making money for a living. If you are opt-in for the Auto Order, you could potentially lose a lot of your money invested in your business.

Even USANA themselves will tell you most of their Associates join to get discounted prices on the products to improve their own health or just sell to their friends and family. They do talk about how you can do the business part-time or full-time.

If you’re here hoping to make real money, I can show you how… CLICK HERE! 

Is USANA a Pyramid Scheme? Is it a Scam?

USANA is not a pyramid scheme nor is it a scam. The company has quality health and wellness products that work that help many customers.

If USANA was a pyramid scheme the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) would have shut down them down a long time ago. I will admit though there was a lawsuit from some of their Associates back in 2007 that I made reference to earlier and apparently the company was cleared.

Some people have been very critical of USANA as being a pyramid scheme and were investigated by the FBI but I believe that the case is also now closed with no charges.

The company also focuses on you marketing their products and they will say you don’t make money on the number of people you recruit.

Even on Amazon and eBay, there are excellent reviews and don’t forget Dr. Myron Wentz’s greatest achievement on his test on the Epstein-Barr virus infection creation and all of his charities. 

Having said all this, I still do not recommend USANA as a business opportunity. The majority of active associates according to their 2017 chart I talked about clearly show they are not earning enough to make a living on this.

I absolutely recommend USANA’s products for your own health and wellness as well as for your family and friends.

You should know that USANA products are not FDA (Food and Drug Administration) evaluated and in my opinion, you should consult with your family doctor if you are already on prescribed medication.

The good part is at least USANA will tell you their products are not meant to cure, treat, or prevent diseases.

Want to See How We Are Making Money?

You probably already know I’m not a huge fan of MLM. I’ve been there and done that 3 times! 

The other reason I don’t like MLM is face-to-face selling. I’m not comfortable doing that and the home parties, well that’s just not me. Do you feel the same way??

Yep, I am also an affiliate marketer too… why?

That’s because it’s the BEST way to make money online. The Affiliate Marketing Business model is my #1 recommendation and it will always be.

Why?

• No recruiting
• No face to face selling
• Promote any product(s)/services your heart desires.

If you can promote any product(s) you want and not be stuck with only MLM products wouldn’t that be more exciting and open more doors to the success of your online business?  

I must warn you first… affiliate marketing is not a shiny button that you can push and make instant money. It requires hard work, patience, and perseverance.

You’re not going to make money overnight. It might take you 5 months, 1 year, maybe even 5 years or longer before you make a decent amount of money because it really depends on your commitment to hard work.

If you treat your online business like a REAL BUSINESS you can have one of the best opportunities to make a sustainable lifetime income doing affiliate marketing. If you’re not ready to do this, then it might be better to move on. 

If you’re ready…you need the right training.

I’m also a member of Wealthy Affiliate, and yes, it’s also my #1 recommendation for the best online affiliate marketing training platform that teaches you how to make real long-term income the right way. 

Meet RD40… CLICK HERE to read his story.

So what do you think? Would you like to get your affiliate marketing training with Wealthy Affiliate?

It’s FREE to join, ZERO RISK, and NO CREDIT CARD IS REQUESTED! What have you got to lose?

Thank you for reading my review of USANA and I hope I was able to provide you with helpful information. 

If you have any questions or comments, it would be awesome to hear from you.