Like many multi-level marketing (MLM) companies, QNET has had its fair share of detractors. This is to be expected in an industry that is often misunderstood, especially for a successful company like QNET that is one of the leading direct selling companies in Asia, with employees in over 30 countries and customers in more than 100.
Most recently, a man named Gurupreet Singh Anand filed a complaint alleging that QNET attempted to dupe his wife into purchasing a product called “Bio-disc”, to the tune of Rs 30,000. According to the charges filed by Mumbai police, Bio-disc was marketed as having the power to cure ailments like cancer, diabetes, and mental illness. The man claims he was able to avoid being cheated because he instructed his bank not to pay for his wife’s purchase.
However, there’s more to the story. QNET’s chief legal officer, Raj Vasudevan, located in the company’s headquarters in Hong Kong, looked into the alleged incident and provided the following information pertaining to the allegations: “Gurupreet Singh’s wife indeed placed an order, but it was not for a Bio-disc. She placed an order for an online education product valued at Rs 31,500. She subsequently cancelled this order and no financial transaction ever took place between the company and her.”
This information seems to be accurate, considering QNET was able to provide the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police with a previous complaint filed by Anand’s wife six months before his complaint, including proof that the initial complaint was withdrawn because no financial transaction took place between QNET and the woman.
In addition, QNET never marketed Bio-disc as a “supernatural” product, as the complaint alleges. In fact, this is simply a wellness product that has been certified by international laboratories. According to Vasudevan, “Those who drink water treated with Bio-disc have reported feeling energised. The Bio-disc doesn’t heal, the body heals by itself when the detoxification process occurs through drinking bio-energised water.”
With all of this evidence offered by QNET, it begs the question of why this man and his wife persist in their allegations of wrongdoing. Anand has gone on to make all kinds of wild allegations, including claims that 7 million people have submitted affidavits in support of his “crusade” against QNET, and that the company has raked in somewhere in the range of Rs 1,000,000 crore. There is no evidence to support these claims in the charges filed by Mumbai police or anywhere else, and audited accounts for QNET show revenue of only Rs 591 crore for 2015-16.
Although there have been similar claims filed against QNET in India, many of them don’t actually name the company or its officials, but rather individual distributors. In none of these cases have the complainants approached QNET to address their allegations of wrongdoing, probably because the complaints regard misleading and misrepresentation on the part of individual distributors.
It is unclear what Anand hopes to accomplish through his continued insistence of wrongdoing. QNET has provided proof that no financial transaction took place with his wife and that the business they conduct in India and around the world is legitimate. By continuing with his so-called crusade, Anand only calls his own motives into question.
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AFP
