What Is ACN?

Your friend introduced you to an excellent way to make money from home, but what is ACN? That’s probably why you came across my site to find the answer. If yes, you’ve come to the right place.

I’ll cover the below topics to walk you through this opportunity, and you’ll get enough information to make up your mind if you read till the end.

  • What Is ACN?
  • How To Make Money With ACN?
  • ACN Compensation Plan
  • Can You Make Money Selling ACN?
  • Is ACN A Pyramid Scheme?
  • Is ACN A Scam?

I am not associated with ACN, so you won’t see me pitching or pushing you to click a “JOIN NOW” button. This review is my approach to examine whether it delivers or keeps things under promise, so it’ll be honest and unbiased. Without further ado, let’s get started.

Disclaimer: As the owner of Smileaffiliatesuccess.com, I have tracked down special deals for products, tools, and services mentioned herein. When you click my affiliate links on this page to make a purchase, I may get a small commission, and you will definitely get a great bargain. This is a win-win advantage for both of us.

What Is ACN?

-Summary of ACN-

Product Name: ACN
Founders: Greg Provenzano, Robert Stevanovski, Tony Cupisz, and Michael Cupisz
Product Type: A Telecommunication Service MLM(Multi-Level Marketing)
Price:
$199 Start-up Fee + $25 Monthly Business Support Fee
Recommend: No

ACN is a telecommunication service MLM company that has operated since 1993, and it offers telecommunication services that people need daily.

The founders had countless years of direct sale experience before starting ACN. They were unsatisfied with other companies and the job opportunities they encountered, so they created ACN.

In the first five years of operations, ACN was ranked 22nd in INC’s magazine’s list of fast-growing companies in North America. In 2020, ACN sales revenue was estimated to reach 275 million, and they reported that it operates in twenty-seven countries.

The services they provide are what people need in modern days, such as the internet, phones, electricity, or gas, making it easy to explain to potential customers.

But, is this a good opportunity to go with to build your ACN business & be your own boss? Let me share more details right below, so you can be the judges yourself.

Inside ACN

ACN is a telecommunication service MLM company with a wide range of services. Here are some major services you’ll get, whether you are a customer or distributor.

ACN Services

ACN services fall into the below categories:

  • Gas & Electricity
  • High-Speed Internet
  • Television
  • Security & Automation
  • Mobile
  • Identity Theft Protection
What Is ACN? - ACN services

Literally, if you are watching TV, shopping online, sharing on social media, scrolling on the news feed, cooking, turning on lights by smartphone, texting, paying with credit cards, and making phone calls, you are already using the services that ACN provides.

ACN doesn’t sell products with cutting-edge technologies, making it hard to recite when you do the promotions, but they focus on essential services that people already use and pay for. It also reminds me of two other MLM companies that offer similar services, Ambit and Stream Energy.

However, ACN doesn’t provide lower prices, better services, or even higher-speed internet. Why makes people switch their plans from the one they use to ACN…?

How To Make Money With ACN?

Just like other MLM companies in the industry, there are two ways to make money with ACN:

  1. Selling Products: Sell ACN services to earn your commissions
  2. Recruiting: Recruit more people under you to earn extra bonuses & incentives when your team hits a specific sales target.

ACN makes money from those service plans you sold and pays you back a tiny percentage. Every time your referrals pay bills, you will earn commissions. If they recruit their friends, you’ll even earn more.

Getting Started

To start your ACN journey, you must be of legal age and pay a $199 Start-up Fee and a $25/monthly Business Support Fee.

ACN will cover everything you need, and you can focus on what matters the most, building your own business!

The cost doesn’t stop here. WHAT?

After the first year, you need to pay a renewal fee of $49, so we get an idea of how much it costs to be an ACN IBO for one year:

  • Start-up Fee $199
  • Business Support Fee $25*12=$300
  • Renewal Fee $49

The total cost is $548, much lower than other MLMs and a brick & mortar business. Other costs, such as additional training, travel, gas, food, or miscellaneous expenses, are not included, so the total cost must be higher than my calculation here.

ACN Compensation Plan

Here comes the most complicated and confusing element of this review, the compensation plan.

Most MLM likes to create fancy terms and acronyms to make people see loads of ways to make money online. Don’t worry today, I made things easier for you:

  1. Residual commissions: 3-20%
  2. Customer acquisition bonuses: earn $100-$500 when you personally acquire customers & sell services
  3. Overriding customer acquisition bonuses: earn $50-$150 when your team grows

If you want more details of the ACN compensation plan, you can find it HERE.

The basic idea is to sell ACN service plans to as many customers as possible and recruit those customers to become your downlines.

You don’t earn commissions & bonuses by recruiting, but you earn from service plans you and your referrals sold.

How Much Do You Need to Sell to Stay Active?

Your account won’t be suspended or terminated by paying a $25 monthly business support fee. You won’t earn a dime without selling ACN services to others.

Ugly Truth About ACN

TOP#1 ACN Income Disclosure

For an MLM company that has operated longer than two decades, it’s weird not to show people how much the average annual income every IBO makes.

What I only got from the ACN official website is the below screenshot, showing people that less than 1% of IBOs earn annual income.

ACN doesn’t provide any more earning stats, making it hard to know if any distributor ever made money with ACN.

TOP#2 Low Commissions

I found out that ACN ever illustrated the earning potential in the 2019 compensation plan but removed it in the 2020 & 2021 versions. However, we have the internet that cached everything for us.

It said, “40 personal customer points earned from 20 customers, and 20 Customers x $40 commissionable revenue x 5% = $40/month personal commission,

Meaning you only make $40 if you recruit 20 customers who each pay a $40 bill. 20 customers for $40 per month? Which is relatively low…

TOP#3 Expensive Than Going Direct

MLM products are usually more expensive than similar products found in retail stores or online. ACN is no exception.

Let’s see the comparison for internet services between ACN and AT&T services:

You pay $45 per month for ACN’s AT&T internet 100 plan, while you can get an AT&T internet 300 plan at a $35 fee or an internet 500 plan at a $45 fee.

I am not good at math, but I am pretty sure 300 Mbps will give you a speed greater than the 100 Mbps router. You even pay 10 dollars less for better service with AT&T directly, so what is the point of purchasing from ACN?

TOP#4 Complaints

There are tons of complaints about ACN online. Let’s see a few on Better Business Bureau.

In the last three years, ACN gets 69 complaints closed. Most complaints are about billing/refund issues, low-quality customer service, and delivery problems. Here are some examples:

What I Liked About ACN

TOP#1 The Longevity

More than half of new businesses fail during the first year, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years.

ACN started in 1993, 29 years passed, and they are still in the industry. They must do something right to keep the business going. It’s a good sign showing ACN is not a scam at all. If it were a scam, it would collapse in the first few years after its inception, right?

TOP#2 People Do Need This Service

Most people fail to make money with MLM business opportunities because the MLM products have two things in common:

  1. They are not necessary.
  2. They have lots of competitors in the industry.

In ACN, people use the services daily, so it should be easier for every distributor to promote them.

But, people need the service is one thing; convincing people to switch the services from the one they are using is another.

Can You Make Money Selling ACN?

You can make money by selling ACN services and recruiting, like making $40 for 20 customers.

However, you need to work your butt off to sell the services to people face to face. Don’t forget that you must recruit as many downlines as possible to earn extra bonuses and incentives.

After all the red alarms I just showed you, do you want to push them to choose another low-quality service at a higher cost? If I were you, I would only recommend the products that meet my expectations and beyond, instead of the services that ACN provides.

Is ACN A Good Business Opportunity?

ACN doesn’t disclose the income, so we cannot know the average annual income made by all the ACN IBOs.

Maybe they are covering the cold hard truth that no one makes money with it? I am not very sure…

Is ACN A Pyramid Scheme?

According to Wikipedia’s definition of a pyramid scheme, “A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products.”

ACN is not a pyramid scheme because it offers telecommunication services.

On the other hand, the ACN compensation plan focuses on recruitment. If you can recruit more customers to pay for the bills and sell as your team members, you will earn $40+ per month. That’s the reason people call it a pyramid scheme in disguise.

Is ACN A Scam?

No, ACN is NOT a scam. But I won’t recommend my readers to try it either.

It’s better to try other methods to make money online than ACN IBOs because 99% of them lose money.

MLM-Pyramid

Meanwhile, when it comes to making money online, there are plenty of options on the internet, such as freelancing, dropshipping, GPT sites, drop servicing, or affiliate marketing. Wanna know my top pick?

My Alternative Way to Make Money Online

My alternative way to make money online is through affiliate marketing instead of promoting ACN products in person.

Imagine you sell ACN products to your friends, family, or anyone you know. Don’t you feel embarrassed or blushed? They might avoid you ever since.

Doing affiliate marketing will save you from that:

  • You don’t even It’s free to start your affiliate marketing business.
  • You don’t need to buy physical products and sell them face to face.
  • There is no monthly minimum sales quota in affiliate marketing.
  • You don’t recruit people to become your downlines to build a team.
  • You are not restricted to promoting one product. You can promote anything you like!
  • Work on your schedules & you are your OWN BOSS!

You only need to create a website with quality content. So every time people land on your site to read your product reviews or other articles, they will find insight and value.

If they like it, they may purchase the products or services via your links. Here comes your earning potential.

Affiliate-Marketing-Process
Affiliate Marketing Process

The platform I am using currently is Wealthy Affiliate. You will find all the proven-to-work training courses, every Friday night LIVE training courses, one keyword research tool called Jaaxy, 24/7 site support, and the most friendly community.

You are more than welcome to check my full Wealthy Affiliate review HERE, or click the button right below to start your online journey with us.

Wealthy Affiliate Income Proof

Here are some of the most active members from Wealthy Affiliate. Each of them did succeed in generating a sustainable income to replace their 9-5 jobs. You are more than welcome to check their stories HERE.

I hope you enjoy this review, and you are more than welcome to share ideas or leave your comments below. I will reply as soon as I can, thanks.

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What Is ACN?What Is ACN?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matt is a 30ish guy who has a corporate job and chases the dream to become a digital nomad with a laptop lifestyle. He is passionate about making money online and will keep creating quality content to find his online success.

4 thoughts on “What Is ACN?”

  1. Having joined a few MLM companies in the past I never made any money with them. ACN looks to be no different and to be honest, only a small percentage of people make any money.

    Although they’ve been around a long time and cover quite a few services, they don’t appear to have good customer service. What I don’t like about ACN is the amount of money it costs to join. If you stay with the company for a year and earn nothing you’ve wasted over $500.

    I completely agree that affiliate marketing is the best way to make money online. You have very low start-up costs without the need to buy any physical products.

    Reply
    • Hi Kathy,

      Thanks for coming back again to my website. I hope my ACN review helps you well to make a better decision today. 🙂

      It seems like many people fall into one or two seemingly good MLM businesses in the past, and they all made zero income in the end & gave up. Meaning the nature of MLM’s compensation structure has some flaws, which makes it hard to succeed.

      Running an affiliate marketing business has more benefits than an MLM business. I agree with you that you don’t have to waste $500 for staying a year with ACN since you can choose to start an affiliate marketing business.

      My recommendation, Wealthy Affiliate is indeed the best platform for people interested in affiliate marketing. I’ve leveraged it to make a stable online income stream, so you are more than welcome to check my full review to know more. 🙂

      Cheers,
      Matt

      Reply
  2. Matt,

    You know, reading this review sounds like an MLM I had gotten dooped into joining when I lived in Oregon. One of the PT’s in the building that I worked in, had told me that he had a great way for me to make some money on the side. When he came to my house for a “show” he brought with him his uppers that signed him up.

    Well, they dooped me into signing up as well. It was similar to this plan you described above, and they made it seem like you could make money just by getting people to switch and use you for the services they already pay for. Internet, cell phone, home security, etc. The problem? You don’t make any money if you don’t sign people up under you! So, it was a sham. Thankfully, I recognized this in just 2 months and got out before paying them more money.

    I hate MLM’s and always have.

    Thanks for sharing this! I can’t believe they changed the name!

    Katrina

    Reply
    • Hi Katrina,

      Sorry to hear that you have hooked with a similar MLM back in Oregon, and you did the right thing to get out of the plan within two months. The ugly truth of any MLM business is that you always need to recruit people under you to make more commissions, so the design of the compensation structure has a flaw that makes it harder for newbies to make money.

      Based on the statistics, 99% of people fail to make money, and only 1% actually turn profits with any MLM business. So, I don’t recommend people to join it blindly. However, if people are looking for ways to make money online, I suggest they try affiliate marketing. It’s the business where most of my online income comes from, so feel free to check my FULL review here to know more. 🙂

      Cheers,
      Matt

      Reply

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