Top 9 Idiotic Comments By MLMers

MLMers are a breed apart. From what I can see, most will not even listen to an opposing viewpoint. When challenged, they will typically spout off any statement (factual or not) that might prove their point, or their foolishness. The other tactics tend to include backing off and ignoring the question, changing the subject or merely saying that "you don't understand". Of course, personal attacks and vague threats are not off the board either. Their comments are amusing, enlightening, and at times very sad. Here are my top ten favorite comments made her or on other boards. SO, in no particular order, here are my top 9 to date:

An anonymous email send from an anonymous email service. Cowardice at it's finest I suppose.

Subject: Cry Baby

You're a real winner aren't you Johnny boy? You haven't seen anything yet from YTB. I can guarantee you'll be in the food line soon...you little cry baby. You go ahead and stay right there...stuck in the past way of booking travel. I have chosen to be a part of the future business model for the travel industry. Good luck with your life!

From another anonymous email. This one was sent from some website and I needed to pick it up like an E- Card. This one must be a retired CIA NOC since he was able to find out all that top secret information about me! FYI, it is flawed. I am still holding on to 45 for a few more weeks!

Hey Johnny Jack Ass!
Now I\'ve got your real name:
John Frenaye
Age 46
Annapolis, Maryland
Man are we going to have fun with your ass now!!
Just remember...you started all this bullsit that is about to come raining down on you.
Have a nice day!

This one is my personal favorite. It was back in July when the column first appeared. Is Bentley Motorcars aware of their new color choices?

AGAIN you get paid for your efforts and if you don't work you wont get paid, so everyone crying about what we aren't doing can keep crying...I'm going to the top, and perhaps that is why I am purchasing a brand new Bently Cocaine White Convertable to go on my 5 acres of property in Wine Country to go along with my already G500 and SL600 because my husband and I both are building an empire with YTB

Another good one from a recent comment on this blog. I think she is suffering from delusions of grandeur.

As far as travel income goes... (not from marketing), I made over $63,000.00 for the year to date. I also have a good number of group cruises I'm working on for people... that will be taken before the end of the year. This will push me extremely close to the $100,000.00 in commissions.

From a poster who always seems to have the inside scoop on the inner workings. Posted right after RCI announced they were terminating some agreements.

My information says it was several companies - ytb not being one of them. ytb actually produces large volume for the RCL family.

Same guy, after a top secret call with YTB HQ:

Having spoken to ytb corporate this morning - they have been assured by their RCCL sales manager that they are indeed NOT one of the companies targeted or listed.

ytb produces significant volume for RCCL and just recently attended ytb's vendor event in Florida with tremendous excitement in where the ytb / RCCL partnership is headed.

I'm afraid your info is incorrect.

Same guy a few hours later:

My sources did not tell me the truth.

The same poster with the inside knowledge.

IATA means very little to ytb anyway.

The SAME insider with a play by play on the success of the One Day Carnival Sale. And a commentary on Perrillo Tours.

Over 35,000 sold as of this afternoon and it hasn't even got hot yet!
LOL @ Perrillo - like anyone books with them anyway . . .
Almost a month gone by and the only other travel vendor that joins rccl is a hamburger helper type tour company that anyone I know has never even used . . . Too funny!!

Is The Cruising Industry Sinking?

If anyone has not heard, there is a new website out there called MyCruiseBookings.com which was initially touted as a place where consumers could go, book their own cruises and get up to a 15% rebate! They used a lot of the MLM language--including "travel like a pro"!

The very day after their press release hit the market, the owners are concentrating on damage control. When Royal Caribbean International got wind of this, they immediately put them on a stop sell. Lisa Bauer sent me a brief response:

Thanks John. We do have an issue with this type of model. We have taken action.

Best Regards,

Lisa

And in an even more shocking development, Carnival had this response from a BDM:

In case you are approached by any of your accounts about the recent article in Modern Agent regarding a new online agency, www.mycruisebookings.com, and the content on their site, please know that we’ve asked them to remove Carnival banners/information from their site until we have a clear understanding of what their model will be. As is, we will not be accepting bookings from them.

Well, there you have it.

But I wonder if this will force Carnival to take another look at the MLM model? They are upset about the rebating, but as Perrillo discovered, a good many of the MLMers are also about rebating for personal travel. While the woman in my previous post does not represent ALL MLMers, I suggest that her motives are probably in the majority.

Doug Bauknight, in his blog, had discussed this new business model and apparently it was posted prior to the backpedaling done by MyCruiseBookings.com. He talks about survival. This is true. We are fighting for survival--but so is every company. Without making money, you are not surviving. YTB as a company is making money. The RTAs are not. YTB as a company may survive, the RTAs likely will not.

The press release indicated that the parent agency is a "mega" agency located in suburban Cleveland. I was unable to find any web page of the agency (strange for a "mega" agency) but did find that they were established in 1992. According to Travel Weekly, they are a $1M agency with 20 years in business, and if that is the case, I am not surprised that it is all about survival. $1M in sales cannot sustain many storefront locations anymore. And also, $1M does not constitute a "mega" agency by any means. More likely they are a member of a host agency that allows then the higher commissions. Regardless, I am sure that more will come out on this issue as it develops and MyCruiseBookings continues to re-evaluate the business model.

If the cruise lines continue to allow these types of operations (and I include the current version of MLM in that definition as well), surely they will be like the ship at the top of this post. I applaud Royal Caribbean International and Carnival Corporation for taking a stand on this small player. Now it is time for Carnival to join Royal Caribbean and take a stand against the other players!

YTB Contracts

The woman in the post below faxed me the contracts and it seems simple enough to get out to me. The contract, as expected, exonerated YTB of pretty much any and everything. They do tell everyone that they need to comply with any and all local laws--so they are good.

The one thing that bothered me was that any customers that register on the site or book travel belong solely to YTB. I guess since the RTA is merely referring customers, they belong to the agency, but then again, most of the RTAs that have been commenting swear that they are an agent. And as an agent, I would be damned if I would give up my client list like that.

And totally unrelated, I find it odd that there were not any more comments on post regarding looking at the YTB money trail from a different point of view! Perhaps there is nothing that can be refuted?

A Disgruntled MLMer Emails Me

I just received an email asking how someone could get out of the MLM agreement as they keep charging her credit card. I asked her a few questions about the contract and this was her response:

I started in October with the first payment of $499.90 which included the first monthly payment of the $49.95 monthly fees.

They have charged my card for November and of course soon December. I paid a $149.00 RTA Certification Seminar fee. This seminar was cancelled because their IATA license has been suspended. So I've been requesting them to refund this amount since the day of the actual seminar which was on Saturday, November 17th, 2007. As of today's date they tell me they will, but as of yesterday when I contacted Chase they had not given me a refund.

My partner and I like to travel frequently and I figured we'd get discounts to really nice places, but unfortunately to date have not been able to go anywhere yet due to personal reasons. However, my ONLY priority for joining was to get an IATA number and ID card as a certified RTA (Referring Travel Agent) to travel at discounted rates.

RIght now all I want is to get my money back. I have sent them letters and are awaiting their response.

Will keep you posted and will fax you both contracts for your information.

I really love to travel and have traveled a bit. Before this, I looked in local colleges and in the internet on how to become a "REAL" travel agent, however, found there to be no real information. So if you have any real information for me, I'd like to check it out. Again it's really to be able to go to nicer locations and far away places at discounted prices. Isn't this what we all want after all???

Best regards,
(Name Withheld by JWF)

A Different View

I will not take credit for this angle--I got it from another forum. However, I did think that it was a good way to look at the YTB program for their RTAs and the compensation plan in particular.

From YTB's financial reports reflecting the first 9 months of the year 2007.

On the income side:

1. Online travel stores and monthly fees $ 69,031,218 (paid by RTAs)
2. Training programs and marketing materials $10,364,547 (paid by RTAs)
3. Travel commissions and services $ 13,930,824 (paid by the travel suppliers)

And on the expense side:

1. Travel commissions $ 9,398,036 (paid to the RTAs)
2. Marketing commissions $ 55,370,759 (paid to the Reps)

OK, now I have all the standard answers:

• You don't know the system
• You can't look at it like that
• You have to join to know about it
• We can't tell you the real numbers because the FTC will get us
• Some RTAs are also Reps
• Etc.

But, there are 120,948 RTAs who collectively paid YTB $69 million dollars in the past 9 months. In return for this investment, they received $9.4 million dollars in commissions.

There is no way to determine who is a double dipper in the RTA/Rep bucket, so let's look collectively and call the two groups one.

Collectively, the group has paid into the YTB coffers $70.4 million dollars. This represents the sign ups, monthly fees, and training. This is an average of $582.03 per person or $64.67 per month.

Collectively, the group has taken out of the YTB coffers $64.8 million dollars. This represents marketing commissions paid (Reps) and travel commissions paid (RTAs). This is an average of $535.50 per person or $59.50 per month.

Now I know we are not talking a lot per person, but collectively it is huge, and precisely why I claim that this program will never work and is destined to fail. The average person in YTB over the past 9 months LOST $46.53. That is $5.17 cents a month.

No one would ever think of suing for this amount. More likely, this is something that would be brushed under the rug as an embarrassing mistake. Certainly no court in the land will accept a case where the plaintiff is suing for $46.53.

The program is flawed. When operating a business--any business, money in, less money out equals your profit or loss. Successful businesses will have profits, unsuccessful ones will have losses. The way I see it, out of 120, 949 businesses all but one suffered a loss. And the one that was able to make a profit, made it to the tune of $2.1 Million Dollars--and that company was called YTB.

You can crunch the numbers all you want at the SEC Filing

I also have to question the nearly $2M in salary taken by the top 5 executives at the company for an average of $377K per year. I do not fault anyone taking a large salary for running a business, but I do fault them when in 9 months they each pocket $282,750 and the 120,948 people that are building this business are losing $46.53. It might make for an interesting Excel graph.

Just A Few Comments On The Competition

While this blog is about MLMs, YTB has taken the brunt of the conversation. No doubt about that. Why? Well, they are publicly traded for one--and their info is out there for all to see--the good and the bad. Number two, their RTAs tend to be very loyal and (in my opinion) overly trusting of what they are told. It is the "he said it so it must be true" mentality that prevents them from addressing any reasonable objections or concerns. That is their own cross to bear. I still think YTB is a bad investment and stand by my assertions that very few make any money in the program. Time and time again, no one has provided any reasonable proof of making any money despite the factual figures provided by YTB that prove my point. I also think I have to be onto something here when major suppliers and industry credentialing associations are terminating them. So it is not just me!

What I find amusing is the circling of the vultures. TraverUs is the lead vulture and they are out in full force recruiting the scared RTAs. Of course this is a warm market--most pyramid participants will participate in many. And TraverUs is most certainly a card mill as well. Although they will not admit it (after all the YTB folk now know that "card mill" is a bad word). They feign compassion for the loss of IATAN and RCI. Check out this excerpt from a blog:

Hi Friends,I wanted to express that I am sorry for YTB losing their IATAN #. It truly hurts any industry when something like that happens. And no matter whether they are a competitor to TraVerus I wouldn't wish ill on anyone's business. I wish you well in any venture you choose!Maybe you're at a crossroads as to what you'd like to do with your business and future. I'm sure you were great at what you do.I am with TraVerus and we're growing strong offering an opportunity with a very low investment. If your downline is in a panic you could give them this option to come over with you. If most move together it could cost you or them little or nothing to join.

What a crock, This is the best thing that TraverUs could have hoped for. Now they can easily recruit with very little effort. Why don't they call a spade a spade? Are they really "sorry" about YTB's situation? Hell no.

And you know what, neither am I. I have said from the beginning, the MLM firms operate on the very fringe of legality. All of them. They may change the terminology from pyramid to pyramid but the end result is the same. You will not make any money in selling travel under these programs. Hey TraverUs--do you have anyone that can show me some proof? Doubt it! So please stop with the false platitudes. You are ecstatic that YTB is having their problems. And to probably a lesser degree, I am as well. I think the truth is finally slowly starting to emerge.

TraverUs, please don't think you are any different. You call then CTAs (which I think is intentional deceit) and YTB calls them RTAs. Pretty soon, you will be in the same position claiming IATAN made a mistake, RCI made a mistake, poor TraverUs.

Time will tell. As the big words at the top say MLMs and Travel: A Bad Mix!

Is YTB Beginning To Get It?

A copy of an internal communication from YTB was posted as a comment on this blog and I felt it was important to bring it to the forefront. I applaud YTB for taking this stance. I also would say that it is a shame that it really needed to be said in any event.

This begins to address one of the concerns the "traditional" agents have with the MLM business model. It is progress, but there is a long way to go. Too bad it does not apply to Rufus and Earl from the farm on YouTube. I have said that if I were Coach, Scott and Kim, I would be livid that some of these people are representing "my" product. I think they are beginning to understand.

Like any business that utilizes independent contractors, YTB has no legal right to dictate anything in terms of how they run their business. When they begin to impose rules, the ICs become employees. The only recourse YTB has is to terminate the agreement with an offending RTA. ANd then you have a business decision to make--lose the RTA revenue or turn the other cheek.

Congrats to YTB for making a stand, I hope that you have the desire to enforce it. (This info was copied from a comment on another post. I have no verification if it is authentic, complete or accurate--but I have no reason to doubt it either.)

YTB TRAVEL NETWORK TRADE SHOW GUIDELINES

VERY IMPORTANT: YOU ARE REPRESENTING YTB!

TRAVEL TRADE SHOW ATTENDEES
ARE YOUR PEERS, NOT PROSPECTS.

Travel Trade Shows are non-solicitation events and selling of advertising, products, or services by agent delegates is prohibited.

Spouses or guests are not permitted unless they are a bona fide home-based travel agent. Event management reserves the right to qualify all registrants and allow or prohibit anyone from attending the show who does not fit the travel agent criteria.

Dress code is business casual. No t-shirts are permitted, logo or otherwise. Please do not wear blue jeans or shorts.

Professionalism and ethical behavior is expected of all RTAs attending Travel Trade Show events. No marketing is permitted by agent delegates. Be sure to be respectful of travel suppliers and other attendees. Exhibit a positive attitude towards suppliers and their products. Remember that your behavior is a direct reflection of YTB and any infraction of the above policies may harm YTB and your teammates. Violations will be addressed by YTB Corporate.

Thank you to everyone for your cooperation as we strive to become the largest travel agency in the world!