Can You Really Make Money With ACN? [2022 Review]

The overview and rankings

Name: ACN

Founders: Robert Stevanovski, Greg Provenzano, and twin brothers Anthony and Michael Cupisz in 1993

Website URL: acn.com

Type: Telecom & energy provider MLM company

Products (Including Pricing): 40 out of 100

Success Stories: 1 out of 100

Price To Join MLM: $199 + $25 a month (60 out of 100)

What To Look For In An MLM:

What is ACN?

ACN, which stands for American Communications Network, is a telecommunications corporation based in North America. 

It was created in 1993 by Greg Provenzano, Robert Stevanovski, Tony Cupisz, and Mike Cupisz and employed more than 1,500 people worldwide. Their website, Acninc.com, provides additional details.

ACN primarily provides residential and commercial services.

The following are the services:

Use your high-speed Internet connection and current home phone for home phone service. This package includes unlimited calls to over 80 landline and mobile numbers. This service costs $24.99 each month.

High-speed Internet: Nationwide high-speed Internet in the regions of AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier, and Verizon. This service costs between $19.99 and $100 per month, depending on the service provider chosen.

Flash Wireless provides wireless service.

This wireless service is a phone plan that may or may not contain a contract. The possibility of obtaining a family plan is also possible. The purple, green, and yellow prices range from $$23 to $$64 per month. The green plan varies between $23 and $79 per month, whereas the yellow is between $23 and $69 per month.

XOOM energy

This is the natural gas service of ACN. They provide two plans: certain lock (fixed) and simple flex (variable). If you select the simple flex plan, your monthly rate will fluctuate, but you can cancel or transfer plans anytime.

Television

ACN offers packages for dishes and DirecTV beginning at $39.99.

Home security and automation: Vivint offers smart home control where you can receive notifications and control your smart home from anywhere, as well as wireless security and surveillance with continuous video recording 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The equipment deposit for this service is $50, and there are no activation costs.

Enterprise Services

These services include the addition as mentioned earlier to:

This credit card payment processing service is designed to handle all payment kinds, including credit, debit, gift cards, e-checks, and e-commerce. You can select a free, no upfront-cost mobile card reader for $25 per month.

There is also a no-contract plan for $20 per month and a low-cost meet-or-beat guarantee plan for $15 per month with low transaction rates; however, the swipe easy payment terminal must be purchased separately for $120.

It was founded in 1993 and currently exists in 25 countries in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Pacific.

They claim it's possible for you to make money any time anyone talks on the phone, uses the internet, watches television or uses gas or electricity in their house. 

ACN is kind of like an intermediary provider that connects a lot of well known providers of these services such as AT&T, Spectrum and Frontier. 

Watch the 4-minute video below to learn more about the opportunity to work from home as an ACN partner...

Is it starting to seem like a pretty good opportunity to you?

Well, you're smart enough to know this is just a promotional video made by ACN. 

So you're probably still wondering...

Is ACN a pyramid scheme?

Technically no, ACN is not a pyramid scheme.

They offer legit services that provide people with gas, electricity, internet and other everyday services. 

It's possible for ACN Individual Business Owners (IBOs) to earn money by selling these services to other people, without recruiting anyone.

However, a better question would be...

Is ACN a pyramid scheme in disguise?

What is a pyramid scheme?

A company that offers members payment for recruiting more people into the company rather than offering a product or service.

These are illegal in most countries because they are unsustainable.

Just see the Wikipedia diagram below to see why...

Most MLM companies, like ACN, do offer legit products or services. 

However, some MLM companies use their products to hide the fact that the only way their members can make good money is by recruiting more people into the business. 

We'll investigate more into ACN later in this ACN review, but for now you can learn how to spot a pyramid scheme in disguise in the 5 minute video below...

Success is rare with ACN

Actually... success is hard to find at any MLM.

This is because between 73% and 99% of all MLM representatives lose money!

ACN doesn't release income disclosures like a lot of MLM companies do, so it's hard to say for sure if they fit into these stats. 

However, there are reports that suggest that less than 1 in 200 ACN members ever make their initial investment back. 

If that is the case then that means more than 99% of ACN IBOs lose money...

How does ACN Work?

As we already established, ACN acts like a link between regular people and a range of energy and telecommunication providers. 

Instead of having to spend money each month on advertising and marketing they have everyday people spread the word about ACN for them. 

These people (ACN IBOs) get the opportunity to make commissions from any sales they make or any sales their "downline" makes.

In theory, it's a win-win! 

ACN products

But before you dive into any MLM company it's really important that you understand more about the products on offer. 

ACN offers personal and business services from external providers that include:

• Gas and electric
• High speed internet
• Satellite TV
• Security
• Wireless

You can see all the services below:

And you can find all the products and pricings here (note the prices change whenever the providers change their pricing). 

Now, you're probably wondering, why would anyone choose to go through ACN when they can just go direct to any of these providers?

That really is a great question! And there's no real answer for this. ACN doesn't provide a better price and as you will find out later, you may actually miss out on certain bonuses by using ACN.

I guess the main reason is convenience. You can find a range of providers from one central place.

But note that there are many other MLMs that sell the same stuff as ACN. These are:

• Ambit Energy
• Numis Network
• Ignite
  

You can find out more about how the services at ACN works in the 90 second video below...

Can you really make money with ACN

The short answer is not really.

The long answer is below...

This ACN review will look at whether you really can make money with ACN in more detail later. 

For now, let's just work out how you can make money as an ACN IBO.

There are 2 ways:

1. Sell a service to someone and earn commission
2. Recruit more people into the MLM business and earn bonuses from the sales they make

It is important to notice that this is different to just recruiting people and making money by doing so. You only make money from bonuses and commissions of any services these people you recruit buy themself or sell on. 

This is another way to tell that ACN is not an outright pyramid scheme. 

How much does it cost to join ACN?

It costs $199 for the start up fee to become an ACN Independent Business Owner (IBO). 

There are so many older ACN reviews that show it used to cost $499.

There also used to be a $149 annual renewal fee. I cannot find out if this annual fee has changed price as well. But it appears there still is an annual fee as you can see in the small print on the compensation plan...

ACN monthly cost

There is also the $25 a month "business support fee"...

This allows you maintain your business status and earn commission from any sales you may make.

So your total cost to run this "business" for a year would be at least...

1. $199
2. $25 x 12
3. $149

Year 1 total cost = $648

This doesn't include all the other costs such as training events or for you to market this. 

Even though it's clearly much less than a bricks and mortar business, like a restaurant, would cost to start, it is going to be more than just paying $199.

ACN compensation plan- can you really make money with ACN?

You can see that it is possible to make money from ACN. However, it really isn't going to be easy.

There are 3 ways you can get paid from ACN as an IBO:

1. Customer commissions (1-10%)
2. Overriding commissions (commission from the sales your downline makes)
3. Customer acquisition bonuses (recruit a certain number of people within a timeline)

For some reason most MLM companies make their compensation plan harder to understand than solving a rubik's cube blindfolded (just see the diagram above).

But do you notice that there are only 2 things you need to do?

1. Sell services to people
2. Recruit people into the MLM business

It's simple really.

And you need to recruit people in 2 of the 3 ways you get. 

If you want to learn the nitty gritty about the compensation plan (which isn't needed to get started as it usually confuses people more than it helps) then you can watch the 24-minute video below...

Or you can find the full 7 page ACN compensation plan here.

Is ACN a scam?

No ACN is not a scam.

It offers legit everyday services for personal or business use. 

It also pays their IBOs just like they say they will. 

However, is this the best work from home opportunity for you? Is it really possible to make money from ACN?

The rest of this ACN review will help you to make an informed decision.

Common positive reviews

Here are some of the positive reviews we had from Indeed about the job opportunity...

• "When I was here I made a difference. Management was nice and details that good I would recommend to a friend as long as I don’t have any children in the commute as long if you are in the bay."

Common negative reviews

And here are the common negative reviews...

• "The company is not competitive regarding pay, culture & opportunities. No opportunity for advancement or raises, management is out of touch with it's employees and the environment is one of favoritism for certain cultures."

Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse ACN in any way.

I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.

What I like about ACN

There are a few things that I do like about ACN. 

It makes it stand out compared to some other MLMs out there...

Key Terms:

• Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from referring others to the service rather than providing a product
• Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
• Red Flag - A warning sign

#1 Long history

Did you know that less than 1 in 3 MLM companies last longer than 10 years?

ACN was founded in 1993 so this is enough of a reason by itself to see that ACN is not a scam and shouldn't just disappear tomorrow.

#2 People need these services

People will always need gas and electricity in their homes and business.

The internet is not going away any time soon...

Plus even if these things do change eventually, ACN will adapt and offer things that will be used (the internet was hardly around when ACN started but TV packages are dying out due to services such as netflix).

#3 Giving back

ACN also gives back to the wider community...

For each person that joins with ACN they help to fight childhood hunger while empowering families to live healthier lives.

To be honest many MLM companies offer something like this to make them seem special.

No matter what their reason is for doing it, it's still a really good cause and I like it (after all, not all MLMs do this!)

What I don't like about ACN

Despite these good parts, there are some hidden truths that you need to be aware of before deciding to become an IBO. 

Many people find these things out the hard way when they are already a few hundred dollars out of pocket and caused tension with some of their relationships.

Hopefully this can help you make an more informed decision before jumping in...

#1 Low commission

How easy do you really think it will be to get a couple of people to join AT&T with a special link that you send them?

They could just sit back and let their current provider carry on giving them gas or electricity. 

Even the people that shop around are not likely to want to be restricted to ACN's providers.

So how likely do you think it will be to get 20 customers?

Yeah, probably quite challenging!

Well in ACN's compensation plan they even tell you can expect to earn around $40 a month if you have 20 customers!...

$40 a month for TWENTY customers?!

That just about covers your monthly costs to be an ACN IBO!

Long story short... the personal commission is very small for how much effort it will be.

#2 People are lazy and don't want to switch!

I eluded to this in the previous point...

Most people will not want to spend a few hours switching their providers when they are quite happy with their current service. 

Now I can almost hear your mind saying...

Well maybe they could find a better deal.

Apart from the fact that there are...

#3 Better deals available going direct

If you look on the ACN website for an internet package you can find the AT&T pro internet package for $29.95 a month...

However, if you went direct to the AT&T website you can get the exact same deal with a $50 reward card.

So it's not even as good to use ACN!

Rip Off Report even suggests that distributors are encouraged to ask friends and family to "do them a favour and switch".

Would you really be willing to spend a few hours getting a new service when you could spend the same amount of time and get a better deal elsewhere?... just to "do a friend a favour"?!

#4 Can you really make money with ACN?

The ACN website even says it themselves...

There's no reason why they have plucked Canada's 2010 earnings out, but maybe that was the best year. 

Could you live off $500 a year or quit your job with that kind of income?

It's even been found that fewer than 1 in 200 ACN IBOs ever make their initial investment back (Source).

So can you make money with ACN?...

It's not very likely.

#5 Is ACN just a pyramid scheme in disguise?

Let's make this clear first of all...

ACN is not a pyramid scheme as they do offer legit services.

But there are so many signs that ACN is really just a "pyramid scheme in disguise".

The website and compensation plan is littered with signs that you will need to recruit more people to make any decent money. 

2 out of the 3 ways you can get paid require you to recruit someone.

And the only way you're going to earn more than $40 a month is if you can get a whole team below you that help to recruit more people too.

And all of those things tread on a very thin line between a legit MLM and a pyramid scheme in disguise.

#6 Downward trend

The final nail in the coffin is found on Google Trends.

There are less and less people searching for ACN on Google every month.

Most MLM companies go through an "early momentum phase". It's possible for distributors to jump on the bandwagon before this and benefit from the increasing interest in the company,

However as you can see from newer MLMs, such as Farmasi, ACN is going the wrong way to benefit from this now.

My opinion - ACN MLM

ACN is an MLM company that provides genuine services that people need. 

However, what do I think about the opportunity to earn residual income from ACN?...

With the low commissions from services that you sell and the downward trend for the company it is very unlikely that you can really make money from ACN.

If you could recruit a load of people then you could earn a bit of pocket money, but do you really want to sell this pyramid scheme in disguise to your friends and family?

How I make passive income online

MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.

Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:

• You can promote anything you want and truly own the business
• You never need to sell to friends and family
• It's completely free to start

In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.