
To all my friends and associates on the Gulf Coast, please be safe and sane. My thoughts are with you--please check in when it is safe!
MLM and Travel It's No Good! YTB, TraverUs, GTI, World Ventures. All no good for the travel industry! MLM and Travel It's No Good! YTB, TraverUs, GTI, World Ventures. All no good for the travel industry! MLM and Travel It's No Good! YTB, TraverUs, GTI, World Ventures. All no good for the travel industry!
One legal source, who has links to the DPP said: "A file has been on the fraud unit's desk twice. We know they've looked at it, and continue to look at it, but it's a question of getting a prosecution. There's no doubt that this is a pyramid scheme, but the chances of getting a prosecution here are close to nil. In California, and elsewhere in the States, they tailor legislation for exactly this kind of situation. In Bermuda, our laws are more broad-ranging, so not much can be done."
In a separate development, the Office of the Attorney General in California warned Bermudians not to get involved in YTB. A spokesman said: "This office does not undertake lawsuits lightly. Every action follows a thorough and complete investigation of the evidence. We hope that Bermudians will take note of what is happening here and will protect themselves from this kind of aggressive marketing."
Oh, before I go. I did happen to send this “gem” up to the home office with an idea of getting everyone together on the Seminar @ Sea with the Davidoff’s and sending the ASTA a postcard from the Seminar entitled “Greetings from Cozumel”.
ASTA Reiterates Opposition to Abuse of Multi-Level Marketing and Card Mills
Alexandria, Va., Aug. 28, 2008- Following on the heels of legal actions taken by various states, including California, against a multi-level travel marketing firm (MLMs), ASTA is reiterating its stance regarding MLMs and card mills.
Said ASTA President and CEO Cheryl Hudak, CTC: "While it may be possible for an MLM to operate within the law, when the rewards for participating individuals are based primarily on recruiting additional participants and not on selling the underlying product, it is appropriate for governments at both the federal and state level to investigate and act where deception and abuse are occurring.
"ASTA is aware of a recent trade article in which a former ASTA official (16 years ago) was quoted in support of a multi-level travel marketing firm that has been sued by the State of California, among others. He is entitled to his opinion, but let me be clear that while we do not question his right to a contrary view, ASTA absolutely does not share the quoted opinion about the probable future of the travel industry.
"Card mills are a different type of operation, in which the idea is to sell what purport to be travel agent credentials to consumers who are not planning to seriously engage in the sale of travel as a business but who are trying to secure professional courtesy discounts that are not intended for them. ASTA has actively opposed card mills for decades. We filed suit in California and the case was settled by our collecting and destroying the cards that had been issued. We also complained to the Federal Trade Commission, but our request for a trade regulation rule was denied in large part due to lack of support from the supplier community," Hudak added.
In 2005, as a way to educate the public about the harm that multi-level travel marking firms and card mills pose to the travel industry and consumers, ASTA released to Better Business Bureaus (BBBs) and consumer protection agencies across the country a white paper entitled What Consumers and Consumer Protection Agencies Should Know About Travel Industry Card Mills. At the same time, this white paper ASTA was made available to consumers on TravelSense.org. To read, go to www.travelsense.org/consumer/index.cfm.
The paper examines how holders of card mill IDs differ from legitimate travel agents and what credentials legitimate travel agents may have. It details the ways in which travel industry card mills harm consumers and the travel industry.
There's no shortage of websites devoted to YTB matters. One law firm is even launching www.ytblawsuit.com as an information source and tool for finding more plaintiffs for a class action filed in mid-August. But someone has apparently expected this kind of litigation for awhile. Another site, ytbclassaction.com, is unused, but the domain name has been held for more than a year, TC hears. The owner is the Roth Law Group in Chicago. But the firm is not listed as a plaintiffs' attorney in either of the existing class actions filed against YTB.
On August 18th, 2008 at 6:24 pm Chris G said
I would like to apologize to all the traditional travel agents out there. I have been a MLM junkie and have been a threat to your business. I have been in YTB since July 2006. I have currently have a massive downline of 4 RTAs (I used to have 6, but 2 quit) and 11 Reps (Reps can join for free in case anyone didn?t know). None of these RTA?s or Reps have been motivated to do anything. I have shown the business to maybe 25 people. I know, I?m such a recruiting machine. I have also booked a whopping total of $172.60 in travel commissions. I know, I know, I should be ashamed of my greed. Most of these bookings have been from family and friends, but also a handful of strangers who found my travel site on the internet. Most of the bookings have been with flights, hotels, rental car and an occasional extra like honeymoon registry or tour. I work a full time j.o.b, go to school and enjoy working my business part time. Even if YTB didn?t have the marketing company, I would still purchase the travel site, even if I knew I didn?t have a snowballs chance of making a lot of money. I guess if I give up my YTB site and if myself, my family and friends book through a traditional travel agent, they will share their commissions, bonuses, tax deductions, benefits and more, cool.
On August 18th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Chris,
The small amount of commission that goes to you or any other YTB or other MLM agent is not the point. You are ?working? a business part-time. You have spent approximately $450 to sign up, and another approximately $1200 in monthly fees to collect $172.60 in commission. Quit now, promise me you won?t go into another MLM, send me a check for $500 for this advice, and you?ll only lose $500 over the next two years, instead of the almost $1500 you lost over the last 2 years. What a bargain! I?m saving you $1000 and you don?t have to do anything at all!
You said, ?Even if YTB didn?t have the marketing company, I would still purchase the travel site, even if I knew I didn?t have a snowballs chance of making a lot of money.? Why would you purposely get into a business in which you knew you would lose money? Are you one of those people that P.T. Barnum talked about?
Apparently you don?t understand that traditional travel agents are not concerned that you are ?stealing? our business. We are more concerned that by pretending to be travel agents, you are going to damage our reputation as people that know the products we sell, and have the experience to give people expert advice on which product is best for them. People that are going to book online aren?t going to come to us anyway. They will go to Expedia, Travelocity or a host of other places, including the YTB sites. Just remember, if you book your trip online, you?re on your own.
If you are really serious about having a part-time travel business, there are host agencies that will give you an 80/20 split on commissions instead of the 60/40 split that YTB gives you. Some of them charge no monthly or annual fees. Some of them give you a website just like YTB?s for free. They also provide true travel agent training, not the CRTA recruiting training.
To get what few travel benefits there are, you will have to earn them. You?ll actually have to sell enough to earn $5000 in commissions in a year so you can get your IATAN card, something you?ll never get with YTB, since IATA dropped them.
So, no apology needed. Go ahead and keep giving Coach and company the hard-earned money you earn at your j.o.b.
When you are ready to be a true travel agent, give me a call.
“It is a rock solid company with the favor of God upon it”
“There are so many people out there who want and NEED financial
FREEDOM... how can we not stay focused on the task God has given us?”
“This company is no different than Jesus. He was ridiculed, scorned,
talked about and everything else. So is YTB. But being built on the
foundation of God's principles I truly believe that God has His hands on
this company”
April, 2004
Travel Trade
YTB Grows With Confab, Personal Web Site Ads
By John Stone
Travel agent readers of Travel Trade in the Southeast in recent days have reported a visible increase of recruitment activity among representatives of YTB Travel, especially in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
The current campaign was climaxed by the company’s first YTB agent network trade show in Orlando last weekend.
Three Subsidiaries
YTB, whose parent company is YTB International, based in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, has three subsidiary business groups including YourTravelBiz.com, REZconnect Technologies Inc., and YTB Travel Network. Some of the company’s travel agency brands include Your Travel Biz, YTBnet.com, Travel Network, Global Travel Network and YourTravelBiz.com, among others.
Key promotional messages communicated by YTB to prospective members include the opportunity to “become your own travel agent” and to “travel the way travel professionals do.” The organization offers its primary earnings opportunities based on the ability of YTB members to attract other people to become members.
People who join as new YTB members are called “RTAs,” for “referral travel agents,” and among the possible layered clusters of members surrounding a YTB recruitment representative are such designated groups as “the first team,” “the power team” and “the dream team.”
Cards available for members are displayed on some of YTB’s recruitment pages. They include YTB’s own agent card with the member’s photo on it; a CLIA member card (the sample card has a picture of CLIA training director Tom Cogan), and an IATAN card, which YTB correctly notes requires qualifying sales levels to obtain.
The company operates multiple Web sites, most designed to recruit industry newcomers to become YTB travel agents and then recruit others to follow them into the network. Local representatives of YTB operate their own Web sites, under their individual business names, such as “Travel Closeouts,” “K and J Vacations” or “Partnor Travel.”
Last month YTB’s parent company, which officially changed its umbrella name from REZconnect to YTB International after the two companies merged on Dec. 8, 2004, reported net losses of $248,530 for 2004, based on net revenues of $3.8 million (Travel Trade, April 25).
Among the notable recent YTB recruitment activities were the following:
Over the weekend of April 29-30, the company hosted its “First Annual YTB Travel Network Funshine Trade Show and Conference” at the Wyndham Palace Resort and Spa in Lake Buena Vista, FL, in greater Orlando.
The event, according to a Travel Trade agent reader in attendance, attracted about 500 attendees, most of whom attended day sessions during either the Friday or Saturday all-day schedule. Most, however, were not visible in the hotel as overnight guests.
Several of the YTB Orlando attendees displayed magnetic signs on the doors of their vehicles in the Wyndham Palace parking lot publicly announcing the name of their YTB travel agency.
Cocktail Party
A weekly networking cocktail party is hosted at Orlando area hotels by YTB representative Scott Bender. Bender’s individual company is named Travel Closeouts and has its own Web site.
An invitation ad for the networking event on Bender’s site says, “Great business opportunity — Travel like a travel agent. Why pay retail for travel when you can pay wholesale? Find out more!”
Professional singles or couples meet at the parties to make new business or social contacts and, in the process, hear about how to become their own YTB travel agent.
Bender was previously an official in an airline ticket consolidator company, based in Orlando, called Airline Reservations Network.
According to a spokesman for the Airlines Reporting Corp., Airline Reservations Network and its affiliated company, Royale Vacations & Cruises, were subsidiaries of Royale Marketing Inc. The parent company held an ARC number (number 10510113) that was voluntarily deleted from the ARC system in March 2001.
Jim Sloan, a YTB rep in Flowery Branch, GA, in mid-April invited online visitors to a free seminar in the Gainesville, GA, Civic Center at which attendees heard about how to become a YTB agent from national YTB Travel & Cruises president Scott Tomer.
YTB meetings are sometimes promoted on the “meetup.com” Web site visited by small business entrepreneurs. Individuals unable to attend YTB gatherings have other ways to connect with a YTB recruiter.
ICQ Interest Groups, for example, is a Web site for personal classified ads in which people search for other people they would like to meet. Three current listings show a 37-year-old male from Texas, a 31-year-old male from Maryland and a 34 year-old female from Florida, and all are YTB agents with a similar message on their personal page.
The young lady from Florida describes herself as interested in “architecture, photography, music, Web design, video data...vacations, travel advice, romance, relationships, dreams and other interests.” Later she says, “I am an RTA (referring travel agent) for YTB Travel & Cruises. Want to have fun, earn extra money, save on travel and write it off on your taxes?”
The lady provides her Web site address for people to respond.
According to YTB recruitment information on the Internet, upcoming membership seminars, involving recruiters and membership candidates but not suppliers, are scheduled for May 7 in Memphis, TN and for June 4 in Richmond, VA.
_____
Industry Reaction to YTB:
Caution and Non-Awareness
Travel Trade last week sought reaction from national officials of CLIA and Florida officials of ASTA to the step-up in recruitment activity at YTB Travel.
“It is quite complex,” said CLIA executive vice president Bob Sharak about YTB. “If an agency has a host agent with outside agents model, and they are maintaining the model with part-time, psuedo or quasi-agents, ethically I don’t think I like the business.
“I don’t like the idea of marketing the CLIA cards for the sake of the discounts,” he added. “But it is hard to police. There are a handful of these guys I watch closely. I go to cruise lines to ask, ‘What are your travel agent rate bookings for this group?’ A couple of these are not around now. But I have to be careful. If it’s not illegal, what do you do? I can’t terminate someone without cause. It is quite frustrating.”
Jan Hammond, ASTA’s Florida area director and an agent at Sixth Star Travel in Ft. Lauderdale, said she had not yet heard of YTB, but plans to look into them. She was asked whether ASTA is making efforts as aggressively as YTB in Florida to attract new agents to the business.
“We’ve held the ASTA World Congress for 76 years and it’s been open to non-members,” said Hammond. “From April 7-9 we hosted the ASTA Cruisefest in Miami, and not even half of the attendees were members of ASTA or NACTA. Through the trade show and other sources, we estimated between 1,200 and 1,500 agents attended. So we are doing things all the time to attract new members.”
Gerry Gregorian, the ASTA chapter president based in Port St. Lucie, FL, said she plans to check with the Florida Department of Consumer Affairs to see if there are any complaints about YTB.
Travel Trade spoke to J.R. Kelly, the Florida consumer affairs department director. “We have not yet received any complaints about YTB Travel,” he said. “But we will check to see if they are properly registered.”
A Florida Seller of Travel number is listed on some of YTB Travel’s voluminous Web site pages.
_____
What’s a GDS???
According to the Travel Trade agent reader attending last week’s YTB trade show, there was an apparent lack of industry experience among several of the agents he spoke to at the event.
“I asked some agents whether they specialized in escorted travel bookings or FITs and was asked back, ‘What’s an FIT?,’” said the agent. “I asked others whether they work on a Web-based booking system or are connected to a GDS, and they asked, ‘What’s a GDS?’”
“Some also weren’t sure about what their commission and override programs are,” said the Travel Trade reader.
One attraction was key to the event. Free trip prizes were provided by a list of major exhibitor suppliers. The agent said many trips were given away, and many suppliers participated in the prize pool.
A list of suppliers for the Orlando show, listed on a YTB Funshine Trade Show invitation found at www.grouptravelmasters.citymax.com, included, in alphabetical order: Apple Vacations, Carnival Cruise Lines, Central Holidays, Funjet Vacations, Gray Line of Alaska, Hertz Corp., Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Sandals & Beaches Resorts, Silversea Cruises, Trade Wind Tours and World Choice Travel, a division of Travelocity.
- Are there any plans to have the Certified Referring Travel Agent Training (CRTA) classes taught by anyone with some certifiable travel experience?
- What is happening to my clients who are traveling August 6-10 since YTB has shut down the home office to allow all employees to come to St. Louis?
- Do you feel that $8 million was really necessary for a 3 day centerpiece?
- Why is the donation of Lady Liberty now in the hands of Beryl-Martin? I thought this was great publicity for YTB.
- How many RTA websites are there right now in YTB? Kim was unable to figure it out with Nadine Godwin, I figured you might know.
- Will Dr. Bob Seligman be addressing the convention?
- Is it true that you, Kim, and Scott are the owners of Beryl-Martin Printing?
- Of the reported 22,000 in attendance, how many Reps and RTAs (not spouses, guests, families and friends) are there?
- When will we be able to concentrate on selling travel and being recognized as a legitimate company? It is tiring having to defend YTB all the time and Kim said he was working on "legitimizing" YTB last year. How is that coming along?
- What are your plans for credentials now that IATAN has refused to grant us accreditation and it seems like CLIA is upping the requirments significantly?
- Are there any plans to offer a more competitive commission split to be comparable to the majority of the host travel agencies in operation?
- When will our finances be up to snuff to be admitted to one of the Big Board exchanges?
- What really happened with Bob Dickinson?
- What really happened with Ted Lindauer?
Lloyd Tomer has stole money off of hard working metro east residents for years. 1st, Primerica, then something else, now this, all in the name of god. He's unbelievable. It's about time this piece of trash was held accountable by SOMEBODY! How do you sleep at night Lloyd, Scott and KIM? I'ts even more unbelievable the number of people who fall for it. It's sad. Better put those building complex plans on hold, Lloyd. Judgement day might be coming. ALthough I'm sure you'll hop in your Lexus and move on to other innocent people in other states.
I worked for YTB a couple years ago in Edwardsville.
I worked there for a couple weeks but after being assigned to "collections" for one day, I had to quit.
I went home that day, and wrote my letter of resignation. I told them I did not want to be associated with a company and would rather be broke than paid by them.
SAD SAD STORY
I went to a YTB meeting and the 1st thing out of the man's mouth was "this is a get rich quick company" There is no such thing is get rich quick. I hope they shut YTB DOWN......We don't need a travel company in Wood River. We need something for the children...
OK all you Pro YTB freaks, get a CLUE. I was on the "inside" of that company for a long long time. I left because. I got sick of all the lies and deceit from the upper "Team Members". Those who you who think you know the company so well, look at all the Tomers and Sorensens on the payroll. The company reeks of nepotism. The company has lost their IATAN status. If you are a real "Travel Pro" you will know what that means. To those who don't, it means that YTB is not a real travel agency. They lost it because of their deceitful ways. Also, I worked several conventions where it was "required" that we be there and work long hours. We were never given gas money. Oh and I was there when those firings happened, and it did happen like it was told. That company deserved to be shut down and soon!!!
Yes Amac it's a great company until you get laid off/fired like so many others these past few months. They have fired people on the spot w/ no reasons given. You wont even see it coming. Unless you are high on the totem poll I'd watch my back if I were you. I would almost put money on the fact that as soon as they find out who these employees are posting on this site they get terminated too. But like the chick who got tanked and quit this weekend said you can get a min wage job anywhere lol.I thought it was insightful and you can read it here--please read the comments and let's discuss here!
Two former referring travel agents for YTB Travel Network launched a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis, Ill., seeking more than $100 million in actual damages for themselves and others who invested in the YTB programs.
They claim they and the members of their class suffered financial losses because YTB International and its divisions operated an illegal pyramid scheme.
The lead plaintiffs are Faye Morrison of St. Louis and Kwame Thompson of Atlanta. One of their attorneys, Christian Montroy, said that because the lawsuit is so new, it is uncertain how many plaintiffs are in the class but “certainly more than 1,000.” He said two more plaintiffs will be added to the suit in the next week.