Rotten? I don't know yet. But it certainly isn't good.
We already concluded that the diet site, and the diet, is a clone of kimkins. This could be explained by Bonnie or David being early kimkins members and deciding to cash out on Bonnie's weight loss by having their own pay site. (However, Bonnie's weight loss story makes no mention of kimkins.)
I would love for this to be a legitimate business, as I'm so tired of suspect internet practices. However, the inconsistencies just keep adding up. A short summary of findings and speculations from Kimkins Exhausted and LCF, plus some I have come across myself:
Address
Bonnie has a candle business in Granbury, Texas.
- Mapquest of the address shows a location out in nowhere. Surely there are successful businesses run in Texas in rural areas but wouldn't they need a building? Do candles grow in fields?
- In a comment to my previous blog post, Hulon Pate (the daughter in law to Bonnie - edited, I think this should say "son in law") pointed out that "Bonnie had lived all her life in Fort Worth, TX." Why did she find it necessary to even mention this. My post had no information about the location of the business or questioning where Bonnie is or whether she is a real person or not.
- The candle business sells on Ebay. Shipping is from Tollhouse, CA. Hmm.
Diet
Following Kimmer's example, there is no information about the diet plan, unless you pay the money to become a member. The front page just gives this information:
- I Lost 160 Pounds In Only 10 Months
- low carb, low fat and low calorie
- Is it just chicken you eat and the answer is NO. There are vegetables involved and other meats that are eatin as well. (sic)
- So as you can see it is easy to stick with and you never have to go aound hungry or drink some nasty tasting powder drink.
- I hope this sheds some light that this is more than just chicken.
Membership price
The present membership price for this "plan" is $69.95, for the first 200 members.
- Bonnie said herself, in a comment here on my blog, that they have already reached 200 members. But they have not changed the price on their web page.
- The membership fee was initially, and at least until mid July, $19.95. What caused it to jump so suddenly? There is no obvious spamming on the net (apart from a few on Craigslist). Where and how will they recruit new members? Can we expect to see a new WW success story soon, featuring Bonnie?
- The sign up page has the PayPal logo but you can only pay by credit card. Why no PayPal account? Bonnie has one for her Ebay business and surely could get another if she is in good standing.
Is it time to bring out the Chicken Ducks?
Posts
11 comments:
This is all so weird! I wonder how many members there are, and if they are as ill as many of the Kimkins Diet survivors are?
I think the candle business may be what they call a drop-ship operation. Basically, the 'seller' doesn't make anything, they just buy the stuff wholesale, sell it (as on eBay) at a retail price and it's shipped from the wholesaler.
BUT.
I do think this website is awfully bloody close to kimkins for comfort. I suspect that, if anything, this was an early kimkins member who's been recruited by Kimmer to set up a new site without Kimmer's name attached, but with some kind of a profit-sharing deal.
Just a guess.
Elle
I agree on the drop-ship but there were other items listed on Ebay also. Are they all drop shipped from the same supplier in CA?
Bonnie in our opinion has been trying for Sonic corporate sponsorship a.k.a. way more money than an endorsement from Woman's World magazine. Read her comments about that -- in spite of her clean campaign & massive funding, Sonic has expressed zero interest in her or her bid for the presidency of the United Sonic Grilled Chicken Salad States of America.
she said in an email to me that she was candle sales rep and a licensed insurance agent
Some excellent points and how the site is connected to Kimkins.com
has me concerned.
It could be an ex-Kimkins member who saw the success of Kimkins.com and decided to cash-in by trying her hand at it. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
So what is the real reason? Let me know when you figure it out because this cold is kicking my behind. Maybe I need some chicken soup.
Kimkins Diet
HoneyBee’s Blog
I Am Not Ready To Make Nice with Kimkins
Honey - Did I see your pic before? You look great!
BBL with more comments, thanks for stopping by.
I'm not really sure the two candle businesses are the same TX vs CA. The names aren't exactly the same. Plus if she were selling them on ebay wouldn't she have a link on her website? The products aren't the same (ie, different containers)
That being said....they keep saying they have nothing to do with KimKins and it almost seems(the implication) they knew nothing about it until this all started coming out....yet in the ad posting for a web designer it clearly states "like www.KimKins.com" so hmmmmm what is that about?
I'm not sure how to get a message to Mariasol but this is a ad for a web designer from Bonnies husband asking to build a site that is a kimkins clone so they obviously ripped off the site
http://www.getafreelancer.com/projects/ASP-NET/Magic-Chicken-Diet.html
http://www.getafreelancer.com/projects/ASP-NET/Magic-Chicken-Diet.html
in regards to this topic I found above link very interesting....just thought I'd share.
Thank you, Deborah. That's actually how I found them in the first place. A search for Kimkins led me to this ad, and then I looked up the Chicken Diet website. Which again is up, with a slightly modified design.
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