Four Reasons World Ventures is Not a Scam
The question that we are faced with when someone asks us to join their multi level marketing (MLM) is if this is legitimate or if they are being presented with a scam. Just recently an episode was aired on The Office about Network Marketing and the Pyramid Scheme. I remember when I saw that, I couldn’t stop laughing because it is so true.
Everyone has been approached by someone they know to join some type of network marketing company. Just recently an episode was aired on The Office about Network Marketing and the Pyramid Scheme. I remember when I saw that, I couldn’t stop laughing because it is so true. Everyone gets someone who gets someone and so on. The question that we are faced with though when someone asks us to join their multi level marketing (MLM) is if this is legitimate or if they are being presented with a scam.
Well, I can’t speak for many companies regarding the legitimacy, but I can speak personally about World Ventures. My husband and I joined Word Ventures about two years back and have had quite a bit of experience with them. We currently do not participate in the company as we have found it does not work for us. But in dealing with the company I have gathered four reasons World Ventures is a legitimate company and not a scam.
1. Endorsements
World Ventures has been endorsed by many companies and magazines. They were featured in two magazines recently including Your Business At Home and Success Magazine. Both magazines explained the opportunities it opened up for its members and how it changed their lives. I have met many of these people and have seen their success. I just wish I had more determination to make it successful.
2. Conferences
Earlier I stated that I have met many of the people that have been quite successful in the company. You may be wondering where, well at the conferences. World Ventures has monthly conferences and training’s all over the country. This is where a lot of the top earners come out to speak about their success and how they work their business. Yes, it may seem hokey or whatever you want to call it, but my husband and I really had a chance to talk with these people personally and get to know them. This is also where you can meet other people just like you who are doing well.
3. Vacations
The main reason my husband and I joined the MLM company was because of the travel deals it offers its members. We travel quite frequently and the cheaper we can do it, the more often we can get out. Just this past March my husband and I went on a 11 day cruise to Central and South America for $350 per person. To me that is a killer deal. We had an amazing time and met other travelers that were apart of World Ventures as well. They had a cocktail party set up exclusively for its members and provided free drinks. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!! Besides the party, the cruise was the same quality that I have been on previously but paid more for in the past. So even though I paid a lot less, it was the same quality.
4. Payday
This is where everyone gets skeptical. They wonder if they join and start selling if they are going to get paid. When I was working the business I signed about 20 people up. I was paid on every one of them too. $100 dollars for everyone I signed up. Whether they were signing up just for the travel or if they wanted to do the business. I was also paid on time every Friday the week after I enrolled them. So yes, the company does pay you and on a routine schedule.
All in all, I found World Ventures to be a great company, I just wish I had more success in the business as some of the other people who were involved.
22 Comments
Thanks for your post. I’m not sure your criteria are accurate, though. 1) Endorsements can be made by anybody, including well-respected people who haven’t fully investigated the company they are endorsing. 2) Conferences can be money makers for the higher-ups speaking or coordinating them, as can other motivational tools, seminars, etc. Also, the appearance of success can easily mask a grim financial reality by well-meaning MLMers trying to “turn the corner” once the reach “the next level.” 3) The $100/recruit paydays are a hallmark of pyramid schemes, i.e., payment based on recruiting members v. payment based on selling travel services to consumers (that is, non-MLM members). The book, Merchants of Deception, is a great primer on the pyramid scheme presented as MLM opportunity.
I went to one meeting and this is a scam. All scams have to keep you hooked for more than 3 weeks so of course you got paid. Why hurt family and friends if you know it wont work. Hey but I’m sure your sister or mother wanted to spend a thousand dollars to work at home and get rich. So what happend to all the people that your signups brought in? And the ones they bring in? and so forth. The way it is explained you should be rich by now. Oh but wait not everyone can keep getting paid. The money runs out too fast. Only the company and the biggest scammers can get paid. My god you brought in 20 people. Dont sell people a dream. Sell people an honest product.
Just FYI the $100 commission is not/recruit it is for the sale of travel products. There is no commission for signing reps.
David, you are misled. The $100 commission is for the ’sale of the LTC product’; the ’sale of the LTC product’ is just another way of saying that one has recruited another leisure travel consultant, who in turn, has to recruit more LTCs who in turn have to recruit more LTCs to make a profit…hmm.
Is there a potential to make money from World Ventures? Yes, as long as you think it’s okay to manipulate your friends and family into buying into something that they don’t need. The money one would invest in the DreamTrips package really doesn’t save money unless one would have the time to travel frequently. And those that are involved in the organization are trained to sell the ‘business opportunity’, NOT travel. Why do they call themselves ‘Leisure Travel Consultants’? Because it is NOT the same thing as being a travel agent. They have little knowledge of the travel industry. The company holds conferences that look more like cult revival conventions promoting the organization rather than providing education for reps.
My advice to those who are enticed to join this organization is to think about what is more important in life: wealth or integrity. Stay away from pyramid organizations like this one if you want to keep your friends!
Hannah, you have it wrong. If a person wants to become an LTC they do not have to recruit anybody and they cannot recruit anybody unless they choose to become a company representative. Anyone that becomes an LTC and books their own travel on their own website or shares their website with someone who then books travel from it will earn a travel commission. As an LTC I am not a travel agent and cannot book someones travel for them but I can direct people to my site where they can book their own travel just as they would if they went to Expedia or any of the other sites. When travel is booked on my site I receive a commission for that travel. As for the Dream Trips membership, members take 4 & 5 Star vacations at 2 & 3 Star prices. Why pay retail when you can get awesome trips at wholesale. Alot of our trips will save people more than the cost of becoming a member. And lastly, our training events do provide us with TRAINING, not only for our business but also for our lives. I have to say that I am really sorry you don’t understand our business and don’t want to be a part of it but then again we don’t need everybody.
Denise -
No need to explain. You see the bigger picture.
Mike
There are a lot of businesses that I would not want to do, and/or that I would not be successful at. I CHOOSE not to do them, but I would not call them a scam just because they would not work for me. There are plenty of scams out there, but as far as I can tell, WorldVentures is not one of them. Too many legitimate people are getting involved. It is network marketing in the truest simplest form – you go on a trip of a lifetime, you come home and you tell your friends about it. If they want to take advantage of the same savings they can. If not, no one is forcing them. That’s what networking is!
Denise – You poor thing. You’re drinking the Kool-Aid just like folks used to for old Amway (not the modern, legal Amway pyramid which is much more transparent about its revenue breakdown.)
I joined WV. I attended meetings. Read the “for hire” advertorial “magazines.” I bought travel through my site and tried to push bookings over recruiting. Zero income. I canceled. WorldVentures is a pyramid scam that borrows its verbiage from chain letters that “sold” you a “cookie recipe”, and all you have to do is “sell” the same cookie recipe to ten other people.
The LTC is not a product. It’s a cookie recipe. Can I resell it? Not really. Does it have intrinsic value? No. Do I consume it? No, and I receive absolutely nothing of actual monetary value just for possessing it. (Unless you count the “personal” web site and “custom” URL, both of which you get for free from any number of blog sites).
You have to SELL stuff to get any value out of it. It is, all baloney notwithstanding, a SALES position. When you remove the flimsy disguise of “LTC” and “membership”, recruiting bodies is the #1 profit center for you as well as WV’s founders.
It’s a weak sales position with zero marketing support. How many ads have you seen side by side against Expedia or Travelocity? Fact is, it takes all of 30 seconds to enter someone’s name, and voila! New “custom” Web site. You have to buy all the marketing materials. (Profit center #2 for WV founders.) You have to pay to attend pep rallies and buy tapes. (Profit center #3 for WV founders.)
Use whatever equivocal language you like, but it’s a pyramid that will not scale past a couple million “members” before it begins to lose momentum.
How much of your WV income derives from selling memberships and LTCs and how much is ACTUAL TRAVEL SALES COMMISSIONS?
As a former “should have known better” victim of the WV con, I was encouraged to recruit LTCs and full members. “The vacations can come later, when you’ve convinced everyone and his brother to book travel off your site.”
The hallmark of a pyramid is when the majority of top earner’s incomes derives from recruiting people to join – NOT from ACTUAL PRODUCT SOLD.
Here’s some basic math. Suppose I quickly built an org of 100 DT members at $100 commission per head. $10K! Cool! Now if I earned a commission of, let’s say $20 per DreamTrips trip sold directly thru my site, I would need to push just 500 DreamTrips bookings to MATCH my commissions for recruiting.
Ever try to sell 500 vacations? How about 100? How about 20? (Your mom and brother don’t count. They felt sorry for you.)
There are about 50,000 WV people. In an ideal world, each one can build a dream org with 100 people under them and 500 DT bookings to equal their recruiting commissions. That’s 5,000,000 members and 25,000,000 DreamTrips booked.
Too grandiose? How about only 10% of them strike it rich? 2,500,000 DreamTrips booked. Wow. That’s still a lot of bookings for a site that does zero corporate marketing.
How about… just 1% of them sell sufficient DreamTrips (and downline vacation commissions) to net a mere $10,000 in income per year? That’s 500 people pushing 250,000 DreamTrips (talk about pushing!!) just to match up to their 50,000 recruit commissions.
Are you going to be one of those industrious 500? Will the 100 people you recruit take their rightful place among the elite?
Vacation web sites are practically utilities. Would you pay SoCalEd or ConEd $40 a month just to have the privilege of being on the grid?
Most of your income derives from selling a mirage. Pyramid. Open and shut. When FTC builds its case and exposes the misleading verbiage for what it really is, I will be in line for the class action settlement.
Denise – You poor thing. You\’re drinking the Kool-Aid just like folks used to for old Amway (not the modern, legal Amway pyramid which is much more transparent about its revenue breakdown.)
I joined WV. I attended meetings. Read the \”for hire\” advertorial \”magazines.\” I bought travel through my site and tried to push bookings over recruiting. Zero income. I canceled. WorldVentures is a pyramid scam that borrows its verbiage from chain letters that \”sold\” you a \”cookie recipe\”, and all you have to do is \”sell\” the same cookie recipe to ten other people.
The LTC is not a product. It\’s a cookie recipe. Can I resell it? Not really. Does it have intrinsic value? No. Do I consume it? No, and I receive absolutely nothing of actual monetary value just for possessing it. (Unless you count the \”personal\” web site and \”custom\” URL, both of which you get for free from any number of blog sites).
You have to SELL stuff to get any value out of it. It is, all baloney notwithstanding, a SALES position. When you remove the flimsy disguise of \”LTC\” and \”membership\”, recruiting bodies is the #1 profit center for you as well as WV\’s founders.
It\’s a weak sales position with zero marketing support. How many ads have you seen side by side against Expedia or Travelocity? Fact is, it takes all of 30 seconds to enter someone\’s name, and voila! New \”custom\” Web site. You have to buy all the marketing materials. (Profit center #2 for WV founders.) You have to pay to attend pep rallies and buy tapes. (Profit center #3 for WV founders.)
Use whatever equivocal language you like, but it\’s a pyramid that will not scale past a couple million \”members\” before it begins to lose momentum.
How much of your WV income derives from selling memberships and LTCs and how much is ACTUAL TRAVEL SALES COMMISSIONS?
As a former \”should have known better\” victim of the WV con, I was encouraged to recruit LTCs and full members. \”The vacations can come later, when you\’ve convinced everyone and his brother to book travel off your site.\”
The hallmark of a pyramid is when the majority of top earner\’s incomes derives from recruiting people to join – NOT from ACTUAL PRODUCT SOLD.
Here\’s some basic math. Suppose I quickly built an org of 100 DT members at $100 commission per head. $10K! Cool! Now if I earned a commission of, let\’s say $20 per DreamTrips trip sold directly thru my site, I would need to push just 500 DreamTrips bookings to MATCH my commissions for recruiting.
Ever try to sell 500 vacations? How about 100? How about 20? (Your mom and brother don\’t count. They felt sorry for you.)
There are about 50,000 WV people. In an ideal world, each one can build a dream org with 100 people under them and 500 DT bookings to equal their recruiting commissions. That\’s 5,000,000 members and 25,000,000 DreamTrips booked.
Too grandiose? How about only 10% of them strike it rich? 2,500,000 DreamTrips booked. Wow. That\’s still a lot of bookings for a site that does zero corporate marketing.
How about… just 1% of them sell sufficient DreamTrips (and downline vacation commissions) to net a mere $10,000 in income per year? That\’s 500 people pushing 250,000 DreamTrips (talk about pushing!!) just to match up to their 50,000 recruit commissions.
Are you going to be one of those industrious 500? Will the 100 people you recruit take their rightful place among the elite?
Vacation web sites are practically utilities. Would you pay SoCalEd or ConEd $40 a month just to have the privilege of being on the grid?
Most of your income derives from selling a mirage. Pyramid. Open and shut. When FTC builds its case and exposes the misleading verbiage for what it really is, I will be in line for the class action settlement.
I joined WV. I attended meetings. Read the \\\”for hire\\\” advertorial \\\”magazines.\\\” I bought travel through my site and tried to push bookings over recruiting. Zero income. I canceled. WorldVentures is a pyramid scam that borrows its verbiage from chain letters that \\\”sold\\\” you a \\\”cookie recipe\\\”, and all you have to do is \\\”sell\\\” the same cookie recipe to ten other people.
The LTC is not a product. It\\\’s a cookie recipe. Can I resell it? Not really. Does it have intrinsic value? No. Do I consume it? No, and I receive absolutely nothing of actual monetary value just for possessing it. (Unless you count the \\\”personal\\\” web site and \\\”custom\\\” URL, both of which you get for free from any number of blog sites).
You have to SELL stuff to get any value out of it. It is, all baloney notwithstanding, a SALES position. When you remove the flimsy disguise of \\\”LTC\\\” and \\\”membership\\\”, recruiting bodies is the #1 profit center for you as well as WV\\\’s founders.
It\\\’s a weak sales position with zero marketing support. How many ads have you seen side by side against Expedia or Travelocity? Fact is, it takes all of 30 seconds to enter someone\\\’s name, and voila! New \\\”custom\\\” Web site. You have to buy all the marketing materials. (Profit center #2 for WV founders.) You have to pay to attend pep rallies and buy tapes. (Profit center #3 for WV founders.)
Use whatever equivocal language you like, but it\\\’s a pyramid that will not scale past a couple million \\\”members\\\” before it begins to lose momentum.
How much of your WV income derives from selling memberships and LTCs and how much is ACTUAL TRAVEL SALES COMMISSIONS?
The hallmark of a pyramid is when the majority of top earner\\\’s incomes derives from recruiting people to join – NOT from ACTUAL PRODUCT SOLD.
Here\\\’s some basic math. Suppose I quickly built an org of 100 DT members at $100 commission per head. $10K! Cool! Now if I earned a commission of, let\\\’s say $20 per DreamTrips trip sold directly thru my site, I would need to push just 500 DreamTrips bookings to MATCH my commissions for recruiting.
Ever try to sell 500 vacations? How about 100? How about 20? (Your mom and brother don\\\’t count. They felt sorry for you.)
There are about 50,000 WV people. In an ideal world, each one can build a dream org with 100 people under them and 500 DT bookings to equal their recruiting commissions. That\\\’s 5,000,000 members and 25,000,000 DreamTrips booked.
Too grandiose? How about only 10% of them strike it rich? 2,500,000 DreamTrips booked. Wow. That\\\’s still a lot of bookings for a site that does zero corporate marketing.
How about… just 1% of them sell sufficient DreamTrips (and downline vacation commissions) to net a mere $10,000 in income per year? That\\\’s 500 people pushing 250,000 DreamTrips (talk about pushing!!) just to match up to their 50,000 recruit commissions.
Are you going to be one of those industrious 500? Will the 100 people you recruit take their rightful place among the elite?
Vacation web sites are practically utilities. Would you pay SoCalEd or ConEd $40 a month just to have the privilege of being on the grid?
Most of your income derives from selling a mirage. Pyramid. Open and shut. When FTC builds its case and exposes the misleading verbiage for what it really is, I will be in line for the class action settlement.
You can’t trust any organisation that, as Denise states, gives people “life training”. Sounds like a cult, aka Amway.
They have just come to the UK – I will be telling people to steer clear!
It takes a motivated and self driven person to excel at any home based business. WV is a legit company and just because Burned Bob had a bad experience does not mean that everyone will have that same experience.
Thanks to people like Bob, those who want to escape the corporate world rat race of trading time for money, and never getting ahead, have to work that much harder to benefit from their home based business.
Take a look at the Annual Income Disclosure Statement that is buried deep in the Worldventures.com site. Here are the facts right from Worldventures https://www.worldventures.info/pdfs/incomedisclosure.pdf:
1. Over 70% of the people who sign up make no money.
2. The average annual commission of all members is under $300.
3.. Of the 30% of the people who make money, the average annual commission is under $1,300 and the median is only $115 per year.
Decide for yourself whether this constitutes a scam.
The people that complain about world ventures or other home based businesses, are usually those individuals that have a job, and lack motivation, drive or ambition. These individuals do not understand the industry of network marketing, hence they confuse network marketing with a pyramid scheme. If this is you, you simply lack education. YOu see most people are common day slaves to the government. If you have a job, then who gets a chunk out of your hard earned income before you do? the government of course, in the form of taxes, that is why it is not in the government interest to teach about network marketing at school or colleges. Everyone networks everyday, you just dont get paid for it. All network marketing companies are doing is paying you for a skill that you already possess. Remember that ignorance is not bliss, it can make you poor!
The people that complain about world ventures or other home based businesses, are usually those individuals that have a job, and lack motivation, drive or ambition.
These individuals do not understand the industry of network marketing, hence they confuse network marketing with a pyramid scheme. If this is you, you simply lack education.
YOu see most people are common day slaves to the government. If you have a job, then who gets a chunk out of your hard earned income before you do? the government of course, in the form of taxes, that is why it is not in the government interest to teach about network marketing at school or colleges. Everyone networks everyday, you just dont get paid for it. All network marketing companies are doing is paying you for a skill that you already possess. Remember that ignorance is not bliss, it can make you poor!
Why isn’t this illegal?
Posted on the Texas Attorney General’s website – “The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) prohibits pyramid promotional schemes. The DTPA defines a pyramid as a plan or operation by which a person gives consideration for the opportunity to receive compensation that is derived primarily from a person’s introduction of other persons to participate in the plan or operation, rather than from the sale of a product.”
To the contrary, it is those that lack motivation, drive, and ambition that get suckered into these “Get Rich Quick” schemes.
Howard Roberts
Posted July 26, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Take a look at the Annual Income Disclosure Statement that is buried deep in the Worldventures.com site. Here are the facts right from Worldventures https://www.worldventures.info/pdfs/incomedisclosure.pdf:
Buried deep Howard? We show this at every single presentation to be clear with people this is NOT a get rich quick scheme, this takes time, effort, and most of all determination for your dreams. 60% of people quit on themselves in life. These are stats, for marriages, for education, in jobs, in dreams!!! Then they live mediocre lives and moan all day long, my marriage sucks, my job sucks, I have no money… but are not willling ‘to do today what others dont, to have tomorrow what others wont.’
For me, paying $49 a month to have access to vacations where I more than save that by going on 1 Dream Trip a year is a no brainer… AND I can recommend 4 friends to travel with me and I dont pay any more monthlys?? AND I can , IF I CHOOSE, pay an extra $9 a month to be able to build an organisation, be RESPONSIBLE for peoples dreams, SUPPORT them with their life and their goals… I lLOOOOOVE this concept, I LOOOOOVE this industry…. I despise the corporation model where people are trapped, have no leverage and the corporation makes $7 off of you for every $1 they pay you. With WV, 65% of product sales are given back to the members!!
Ive given up a career it took 10 years to build to help my team. Dont dare come on these websites with opinions and twisted so called facts.
Go World Ventures!!! Lets redesign the travel industry together… Im with you aaaaaaaall the way
))))))
A pyramid is when you work 40 hours+ to make someone else rich. There is the Ceo and at the bottom is you.So Bob how long you been working your pyramid?
WorldVentures profits off of their admitted 70% failure rate. Their high pressure sales tactics are used to intimidate people into making a rash decision.
Slides such as “Momentum” are displayed and verbal misrepresentations are made regarding the status of the company and the immediate potential earnings…
Other sales tactics such as the slide dipicting “YOU” out to the left and “BOB” in your place in the pyramid therefore, “BOB” is going to get all the profits “YOU” missed out on because you didn’t sign right then and there- is another example of misleading the prospect…
Only handing the recruitee a 2 page contract (and in some cases only 1 of the 2 pages) and verbally telling the recruitees “It’s just a standard contract”. Yet, the 2 page contract contains stipulations that the recruitee agrees to abide by a Detailed Compensation Plan and Policies & Procedures, neither of which were provided to recruitee to read/review, nor were those agreements even verbally disclosed…
Utilizing misleading sales techniques from companies the FTC shut down for deceptive practices, i.e. “MOMENTUM”… (Trek Alliance used the same tactic)
Omitting and deceiving the public of the involvement WV executives truly had with “companies with less than stellar reputations”… Marc Accetta’s true involvement with Equinox and Trek Alliance
Training new reps to use deceptive tactics when inviting prospects to meetings “Be in a hurry”, “Keep from explaining”…
I personally witnessed a WV Representative state they are claiming certain tax deductions, in an attempt to lead prospective recruitees into believing they too could get said tax deductions by being a WV rep, when in fact those particular deductions he stated he was claiming are not allowable AT ALL per IRS regulations (confirmed by my attorney)…
I also personally received an email from a WorldVentures rep stating she had “gotten all her money back” that she originally invested in becoming a WV rep through WV profits. Further investigation revealed she actually had a several hundred dollar loss…
In my world, these tactics are unethical, and in some cases – even illegal. Preying on people’s emotions, exploiting their trust, and sending them away with a financial loss and a sense of shame through a feeling of failure.
Couple that with the high unemployment rate right now, a perfect breeding ground for more victims, victims desperate and willing to accept just about anything they are told just so for a glimpse of hope that they can provide for their family.
WV is a pyramid scheme. It offers no value to anyone except those high in the pyramid.
WV prices can easily be beat. How do I know? I went to a WV site and checked the first two FEATURED trips (one would expect these to be “best values”) posted on the site. Then I did a quick internet search for prices at the same hotels (same time frame) as in the feature post.
1) Dreamtrip to Treasure Island (Las Vegas) for two people for 4 days 3 nights for $490 from WV. It is $309 including all taxes and fees if booked from orbitz or cheaptickets.
2) Hawks Cay Resort (Florida) for $1228 for two people for 5 days, 4 nights. I can get it for $984 to $1004 (depending on the week) including all taxes and fees.
I went to a second WV site that featured a 5 night stay at the Atlantis hotel in the Bahamas for $10,400 for two people. I can get the same length stay, same hotel, for two people for $2,000 but would have to dip into the other $8,400 to cover the four breakfast vouchers, transfer to/from the airport, a two night cocktail party (with finger food!), an NFL tailgate party, and gaming points.
The people at the top of the pyramid make the money. There is a guy named Madoff who can explain this to you. Just contact him at the prison.
To the lollipops defending WV Dreamtrips, wake up. The people you are insulting (calling ignorant) are trying to help you. Don’t financially harm your friends and relatives by recruiting them into the WV scheme.
But if you insist on padding your pocket by ripping off others, why join WV? You could take money from your friends and family, make cheaper purchases on the internet than WV offers, charge them the WV prices, and pocket all the money for yourself. Then you can recruit others to rip off their families and friends, and give you a piece of the action!! WV has shown you how to do it…
World Ventures is not for everybody..But you can’t start a business today and expect to make money tomorrow. If you have are negative person this business is not for you.
I rather do this business because when I buy thier products I get something back like commission. Just think i you book your yourself to expedia or rent a car they will not sending you any coupon unless you are booking to thier websites all the time.
I paid my membership at costco and when I add a member to business membership I don’t get any commission.