Calling Florida MLMers

It appears that selling travel in Florida just got a little more expensive. Effective July 1, 2008, EVERY Independent Sales Agent must register with the State and pay a $50 fee annually.



Now according to an email from Doug B back in February, Florida had the most RTAs. I am not sure at what percentage, but if they had 20%, that is a $1.3 Million Dollar Windfall tot he Florida coffers each year!



And since we all know that YTB and the other MLMs pride themselves on their upright business principles, you can download the  Florida DACS 10211 (Rev. 7.08)  right HERE!



Now, I am not sure about you, but if all of a sudden some legislation just took away 48.8% of my income (Average Income for an RTA in 2007 was $102.42 in travel commissions earned from YTB), I might be on the phone to my local Senator. On second thought, I might be on the phone to my Coach and see why this bill got passed in the first place. I mean, I thought YTB bought acquired hired  a Florida Senator!

Does MLM Actually Support Their "Agents"?

I have often wondered about the level of support offered by HQ to the "agents" in an MLM environment. I know that with the large franchises and host agencies, the support departments are fantastic. But what is it like with MLM? Any different?

I was able to locate a former traditional travel agent who had joined YTB. I think the joining was more about seeing the program from a different point of view. When I asked about the support, here is the response I received:

There is no support at YTB or for that matter anyone who truly knows this business. I have called just to make inquiries about groups and other questions and most times the answers are incorrect, they have to get back to you, or one person told me to just focus on getting people to my website and getting new people to sign up. I have not found anyone there with any travel background at all. The people in my group are no help whatsoever. They know nothing about travel and most cold care less, they are pursuing the big money MLM part. One is a travel agent that worked for AX for 25 years. She is the defacto travel group in our group. Not sure how she managed to stay for so long, as she is not very knowledgeable about travel. She says she makes more money now than she did at AX. Find that hard to believe at a 60% split and she has very few downline. Asked her why not just go with a real host agency and she said the opportunity was better through YTB. It has been interesting to say the least. A very unique culture.

I cannot say I am surprised. YTB has (depending on who tells you) between 175 and 300 employees at the home office. Certainly to adequately support 140,000 people certainly there ought to be more than a few hundred. And again to go back to the cruise sale, the level of experience at HQ is questionable.

So what happens when a customer has an issue that is unable to be answered by the RTA? What level of service is provided? Is it the same with Coastal, Traverus, GTI?