TVI Express, Brilliant Business Model & International Internet Scam?

Posted on 19. Feb, 2010 by in MLM Reviews

Unless you have been living under a rock or in a cave or just simply haven’t been following the MLM industry, you have probably heard of TVI Express (Travel Ventures International) at least a few times by now.

In this article I will break down the good and bad about TVI and try and shed some light on this company for people who may be looking to make a decision to join.

Is TVI Express a legitimate company or is it a scam?

First of all, let me say that I am not a TVI Express affiliate and I have no biased reason for giving a review that leans one way or another.  This review, like everything else, is purely my opinion…backed up with lots of solid factual information.  Ultimately, you need to go do your due diligence and choose what’s best for yourself.

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s likely a duck!

Travel is a tough MLM business.  Many companies have started and very few remain.  Unfortunately, the abuse has been widespread.  After quite a lot of research, I would caution very strongly against joining this “company,” unless you don’t care about being ethical and you are just out to make money at any expense.

Why would I say that?  There are a few glaring reasons why TVI is sketchy at best.

There is a lack of product information and NO clear separation between retail product purchase and distributor purchase

Every legitimate network marketing company knows that the FTC scrutinizes our industry and thus, their corporate sites tend to err on the side of caution.  All intelligent companies focus their corporate site on product.  Review any of the real companies in the industry.  This is purposeful.  It’s the company’s job to ensure long-term stability and navigate the already difficult FTC guidelines properly.

The corporate website for TVI doesn’t even have a tab for product.  As a new person goes through the site, it’s easy to see that the product is discount travel, but exactly what it is is very hard to determine.

First of all, the 6-day/7-night voucher and the companion airline ticket are NOT for resale.  They are travel incentives used by promotional companies all over the world.  I have personally used these in past businesses.  They run anywhere from $3 to $25 and anyone can purchase them.

For an MLM company to be legal, there has to be a clear competitive retail market for their product.  I haven’t been able to find the cost of the TVI retail product, or even a way to purchase retail on their site.  This is a HUGE RED FLAG.

How much is the retail product?  Is it the $250 package?  What is it exactly?  Is it the discount website portal?  If so, wouldn’t a legitimate company show me something about the actual product instead of just telling me?

Although I am no Einstein, I am smarter than the average bear (maybe that’s the problem with TVI) and if I have this hard of a time trying to find out what the product actually is and how to buy it, that spells trouble.

It would be interesting to see if any retail sales have been made yet.  This is an FTC nightmare waiting to happen.

Who runs the company & what is this secret

“UK Based Business Group”?

Any competent network marketer knows that management is the key to long-term business success.  Quality management trumps product, compensation and culture.  Management is everything.

So why hide the management team? Is there a President/CEO?  Who are they?  Real people with solid track records give companies legitimacy.   What reason could they possibly have for hiding their management and investor group?

Are these people not trustworthy?

Are they trying to hide the fact that they are involved?  Perhaps for tax purposes?

The company is incorporated out of Limassol, Cypress, which is a well-known tax haven.  This by itself isn’t a bad thing, but when you combine it with poor corporate communications, management hiding behind a curtain, secret investor groups and lots of money flying around the world…it starts to stink.

It’s been widely reported by TVI distributors that they have a very difficult time getting a hold of anyone at the corporate offices or in customer service.  Many say they wait weeks for a response.  If this was a start up company, that would be somewhat understandable in that with new launches, the field overwhelms customer service.

But TVI isn’t a new company.  They have reportedly sold 300,000 packages at $250 each.  That is $75,000,000.  Even at the disclosed 72% payout, that leaves $21,000,000.  They have blamed some of their corporate woes on “server issues.”  Well, I am not going to say it, but if a company makes $21,000,000 and can’t keep their servers up, that’s either _____________ or ______________.  You can fill in the blanks.

“It’s legitimate, I got paid!”

If you read any of the forums or comments on articles writing about TVI, this is people’s main reason for saying the company is legitimate.  “It’s not a scam, I got paid.”

That’s just funny.

Although the founders of TVI (whoever they are) aren’t, in my opinion, the most ethical business people on the planet, they certainly aren’t stupid.  If they pay people, they keep their cash cow scam going longer.   Not paying people would waste all of their unethical hard work.

It’s just not smart.

Getting paid doesn’t mean this company isn’t going to get shut down…which it will.

Someone show me a real product with TVI Express that I can sell to anyone at a fair market price and the principals who run this company and I will perhaps change my mind.

Unfortunately, people are desperate right now, and money with no effort is attractive…but it’s not real.  People standing up for the legitimacy of TVI really just want it to be real.  They are blinded by the easy cash.

As I said in the beginning, if you are okay with selling NOTHING and don’t care if people get hurt, then TVI Express is a great business for you.

I hear Enron is hiring again too and Madoff is looking for apprentices.

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  • Johnny

    Help me understand what you mean by a retail product??? My wife booked an airfare,car and accomodations thru the TVI Travel Express site and saved $100.00 from the open market travel sites…I would consider that a discount product??? If you someone in TVI they can book travel for you.. and you can take advantage of the discounts also…TvI members do not make anything from booking travel

  • Johnny

    I meant to say if you Know someone in TVI they can book discount travel for you…free of charge..

  • Johnny

    What do you mean you can purchase the travel certificates for $3.00 to $25.00…so what if you can purchase a certificate for that price…what travel company is going to redeem it for you???I may be able to purchase a whole bunch of grocery discount coupons from a printing company, but that does not mean that i will be able to redeem them from any grocery store??/I do not follow your logic?? Help me understand

  • http://authentic-networker.com admin

    Johnny,

    “Tvi members do not make anything from booking travel.”

    Why not? If that is their product, they should make money.

    What then, do they make money from?

    This is the problem with Tvi…nobody knows.

    Your example really doesn’t say anything specific Johnny…did your wife book the same exact airfare, car and hotel? Online sites often have different pricing than each other. $100 over three purchases – even if it were the same exact products/services…isn’t that significant.

    But the bigger issue here is that you say her purchase didn’t trigger any commission to the rep.

    That spells Ponzi scheme bigger than anything else. You have just supported my entire article.

  • http://authentic-networker.com admin

    Oh Johnny, johnny, johnny. :)

    Those certs are everywhere…many are used as incentives…all are redeemable but are not meant for resale.

    Marketing companies use those sort of certificates for sales incentives. They are common.

    I sold travel years ago and we gave away cruises to the Bahamas as incentives for purchasing. They cost the company $20 each.

    That’s what I am talking about.

    Again…these are all small issues. The big issues are where the money is coming from, what are people paying for and is the company actually legit.

  • Johnny

    $100 may not seem significant, but it is a savings none the less… Also I found the 4 Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas thru Orbitz travel was $400 more for a 3 night stay and round trip airfare compared to the exact same thru TVI. The flights and room were exactly the same…same flight number and room size etc… I consider $400 a significant savings…$1900 TVI vs. $2300 Orbitz..I printed up the booking if you would like to see it …I will fax it to you if you would like.. The TVI Travel Certs are not for Resale so I don’t know what you are talking about or perhaps i do not understand your point, but whatever the case the travel cert is given as an incentive to join TVI… The meat of the business is destination travel..I am sure that TVI has struck deals with the vacation industry partners in such a way that money is rebated back to TVi for “X” amount of travel or airfares or hotels booked thru TVIs site..perhaps for every $1 booked TVI recs. 10% back..I don’t know but what I am stating is not far fecthed. The company is generating $$ thru memberships and travel sales..They cover their overhead which perhaps is very low and return profits back to their members..They also don’t carry the high advertising costs or pay retail dist.”travel agents” commisions which lowers their overhead. By the way what line of business are you pushing..I’d like to know if you pay these kinds of commisions??? FYI I heard TVI is pulling in 6000 members per day worldwide that equates to 1.5 million dollars per day… They are paying a % of that to qualified members that cycle out of the Express Board.. The product is travel service..I am sure you are familiar with Netflix…TVI is doing to the travel industry what Netflix has done to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video ..Please call me at 408.679.9470 if you want to talk in person..

  • Johnny

    By the way you accused TVI of being a “Ponzi” scheme Please explain to me in the authentic use of the word Ponzi what Ponzi scheme actually means???..You also accused them of being another Enron can you please explain to me what Enron exactly did to incriminate themselves?? You seem to be very knowledgeable so please help me understand your statements…

  • http://authentic-networker.com admin

    Okay, here it goes.

    First of all, I am glad you found some discounts. That’s a good thing.

    Here’s the deal. You stated that Tvi members do not make a commission when someone books travel. That’s not a good thing.

    For a network marketing company to be legal, a number of things have to be true.

    1. People can’t make money for enrolling new members. Money is ONLY made through product sales. Any company that pays for recruitment is considered in violation of FTC law.

    This is what a ponzi scheme is…money circulating through the members without the exchange of any real value. ie. product. You can look up the rest for further explanation of a ponzi scheme.

    2. There HAS to be a clear retail product for sale. Again, if their product is discount travel, great, but exactly what people are paying for is so unclear.

    Can I buy this product without joining the business opportunity? This too, has to be true.

    Comparing Tvi to Netflix is laughable. Netflix is a publically traded company [Nasdaq: NFLX], Stop spouting the party line garbage that your upline is saying or that you hear on conference calls and just think.

    Who owns Tvi? Who are their management? What are their backgrounds? This took me 20 seconds to find on the Netflix site. I am yet to find a good answer on the Tvi express site.

    If there are 10 things to look for to see if a company is legitimate, Tvi fails virtually all of them.

    People joining isn’t one of the tests. People will join anything.

    With all of this said, there is much to learn from Tvi when it comes to marketing. The numbers they are putting up are staggering.

    As far as my background, you can read that on my profile, but I have been in and around MLM since 1992 and have been a trainer, coach and speaker since 1995.

    I am happy to speak offline as well.

  • http://www.tvitherealdeal.com Johnny

    Hey Keith..I appreciate the fact that you mow over any of my statements and points…but oh well..I will respond to your statements.. later. I need to get to work…By the looks of your Blog site this looks like the most action you have had in a long time…By the Way..just because a company is publicly traded does not make it any more legitimate than a privately held firm…Public companies have been some of the biggest violaters of S.E.C Regs.. in history…We will continue to talk…you got my number call me..

  • http://authentic-networker.com admin

    Johnny – it wasn’t my intent to mow over statements, I thought I addressed them all in one way or another. I didn’t go into detail on the discount issues because it’s not really the point.

    Commissions, # of members, etc. are irrelevant if some of the core legal requirements aren’t in place.

    The fact that you don’t know how they gain discounts is another clue. Generally, legitimate companies share this sort of information as it is a marketing tool and clear differentiating factor in the marketplace.

    This may be an interesting exercise…

    Find me one person who has made over $100,000 a year in MLM who is NOT in Tvi who believes it is a legitimate, sound business.

    My guess is you’ll have a pretty hard time.

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  • Abhang Khebudkar

    I have availed a fantastic vacation here in Goa, India with the help of TVIexpress. I have also earned a amount of Rs. 125000/- which is exactly double the money i invested. I would reccomend to join the company with zero hesitation