<prompt> Human: Ive been a longtime lurker but I needed to talk about this. I work in retail and as summer is here Im trying to work for the sake of work. and one day this old couple comes in to look at a said product, I go and introduce myself. About 5-10 min in they ask for my information so we can go out for coffee and lunch together, and that I should bring my wife along too. They give me a call the next day and ask if I could go out for coffee with my wife, I agreed out of the generosity and curiousness of what why and how. Upon meeting them they ask questions and personal answers and asked more about finance and how they can mentor us and that they want us as mentees, they then brought out a pamphlet with amway on the front of it, and I instantly remembered that name from reddit, and started putting up all the walls and securities I had mentally. I smiled and sat there for two hours listening to them talk about how they want to help us make a lot of money and that its like a faucet and all I had to do was turn on that faucet for the money to start flowing, problem is, we both had to pay 160 starting and they said that as members we would have exclusive membership to items only sold by them, and that we needed a team of experts to get the flow of money going etc etc etcThe end of this meeting, shake hands and he warns me that there will be people on the internet, trolls, who will discredit the amway name, and to not trust themReddit, but to trust themthe amway folks cause we know them and they know us now, and that the internet lies about amway he even said this isnt a pyramid scheme! Im like wtf?? Politely said bye, walking to my car with my wife going, I think that was a Ponzi scheme... she goes how do you know? I reply with... Reddit taught me So I wanna say thank you Reddit.Assistant: Good job dodging, but in the future, you can avoid wasting so much time on things like this. Sales people, cold-callers, missionaries, panhandlers and fundraisers will try to push you into things by being superficially polite while they steal your time and attempt to bilk something out of you. Learning that its okay to say no and leave is important.You can decline to give out your info and instead ask them to provide their info so you can contact them if you choose. Its awkward when somebody approaches you at work and you have the retail obligation to be nice, but you are not required to give out your personal info and can decline.If you realize that a meeting is an unproductive and unending sales pitch that you are not interested in, instead of smiling for two hours you can leave. Vague excuses are fine I have a prior engagement or just we really have to go. If somebody gets pushy, you can just keep repeating we have to go and leave, and they will give up eventually. Its easier than coming up with a lie. Leaving gets awkward if your spouse is with you and doesnt go along with the excuse.One trick people like this use is to keep talking a lot before they ask anything of you. Skilled panhandlers use this tactic, and talk for a good two or three minutes about their hardships and their personal experience, and asking questions about you and complimenting you. They keep going and dont leave space for you to politely exit; they make it hard for you to get more than a word in. If you realize youre in this trap, and want out, you just have to talk over them, and either cut to the chase I am in a hurry, what are you asking for? or say goodbye Im sorry, I have to go, best of luck.It can be very awkward to get sucked into these situations. If you are naturally polite andor somewhat introverted, it will be extra uncomfortable to interrupt somebodys story and tell them no.You do not have to sit politely for a further two hours after you realize the people across from you are trying to rope you into MLM. They dont care about your time, your feelings of awkwardness, or your financial security. In fact, they are actively stealing all three of those from you in order to better themselves. You are more than justified, in situations like that, to be superficially polite but immediately extricate yourselves from the conversation. We appreciate your time, but we will never be interested in participating in Amway. Have a nice day.Human: Kind of wished I had this knowledge prior to meeting but Im glad I went through it first hand, its a good waste of time that I regret getting my wife to sit through with me  <response>: Its the kind of thing you can learn over time, as you get used to the idea that you cant always trust other people with the courtesy of talking until they choose to finish. Experiences like this one are how you learn it. Youre very fortunate that you knew to avoid Amway, so the cost of this lesson was a few hours, instead of piles of money and months or years of wasted work. 