Yea I’m going to defend Gene, I may not defend the CEO program but I will defend the guy. I’ve been down to the Dominican and checked out his operation and it was amazing to see what a person can do with the investment and care that goes into creating the cigars you are using as kindling.

His farms are near the same cigar manufacturers that you all gush over every day and there are not many cigar companies that can say they have their own farms!

I don’t know if he needs money and that may be the reason we’re seeing his cigars on CI, but look at the rest of the cigars that are on that site and you’ll see pretty much every cigar company hocking their sticks and have been doing it alot longer then Gene has been in business. Gene is probably seeing the advantage of having CI drive a dumptruck filled money to his place and say give us cigars to sell.

I don’t see people complaining about cigar companies that release ‘limited’ quantities of a cigar and charge a lot more for that cigar just because they say its ‘limited’. This is the oldest trick in the book and I see it every day reading forums where guys jump over each other because a cigar company is releasing a new line in a cool box and charges a premium price. Gene is just getting his money a different way and others are fleecing the cigar smoker behind a ‘limited’ cigar.

Please guys back up your reasons not to ‘particularly care for the Arganese Company’ or why you have ‘problems with Gene Arganese for totally unrelated reason’. What is it before this came to light that you had issue with Gene and his cigars?

$100 initiation fee, $60 annual dues, $30 monthly dues, and a mandatory “sacrifice” of 5 people whom you can scam into this thing.

To legitimize his venture, at least in his own judgement, he will send out “samplers” every month upon receipt of the monthly dues.

If the product in question was books, ceramic figurines, canned soup, or even kitty litter, would such a fee structure be tolerated by anyone on this planet?

I would feel a lot better about this if the man hadn’t loudly and publicly denied any connection, when the connections were clear enough that a person could confirm them with nothing but his keyboard and his brains.

I call it a scam, that is my opinion. The facts and actions support that. Over years, I have found reasons to not particularly care for the Arganese company; this is the last of my trust.

John

Why not try something different? I would not hold it against a manufacturer to try different ideas to help the hobby of smoking cigars as well as make some money. Cigar companies don’t make cigars to lose money. Joe noted the constant flooding of the online market by Rocky Patel and Gurkha with subpar quality cigars and no one raises an eyebrow.

Why call for a boycott of Arganese cigars when you note earlier in your post the high taxation and limits on where we can smoke cigars? Why damage someone’s bottom line in the industry that is struggling under high taxation? We as a cigar smoking community should be more supportive to the companies that try new ideas.

Though I’m not saying we should support this idea, but its a new idea to an industry that has been around for many years. Will it work, probably not…but let the free market work it out. Gene is a guy that will think outside the box and I give him kudos for trying at least. What do other cigar companies try to do? What are they doing to try and ease the pain of paying higher taxes in states that are crippled with overbearing legislators. This should be our concern, not boycotting a cigar company.

CEO – MLM website.
http://www.ceomlm.com

Link to the CEO – MLM enrollment page that lists “Gene Arganese” as the referrer
https://do5.com/qcigar/enroller.dhtml?sponsor=&jfree=&origs=&startp=index.html&startu=&language=&requri=www.ceomlm.com/join.dhtml

The problem I have with this scheme is in its predatory nature. The company wants me to sell my “friends” into the pyramid all the while giving me “money for nothing”. Don’t get me wrong, free money is great, but MLM schemes exploit people in desperate situations while encouraging laziness.

The whole concept leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I am also absolutely spouting off. Our tagline is “News and opinion…”. The judgments I’ve made in the post are quite clearly my opinion.

The axe I have to grind is explained very well in the post. Its title and body contain the name of the person with whom I wish to “grind it” (that’s what she said).

My apologies if any of this wasn’t patently obvious.

-Anejomofo