The Facts Half-Truths About YTB--Part 4

Today, let's take a look at the fourth tab on the new YTB site called www.TheFactsAboutYTB.com :

Values:
This is one of the shortest pages on the site (if not the shortest) and there is probably a reason for this. YTB seems to be a bit short on values themselves.

Coach is pictured with his saying, “If it ain’t true, don’t say it and if it ain’t right, don’t do it.” It is a nice PR piece, but I would like to present the following:

• Funneling millions to Beryl Martin(a company that is owned by the Founders) for all marketing materials and convention props aka. statue of liberty is right in Tomer's eyes.

• Convincing people to buy a website to sell travel which can be obtained for free from Travelocity is right in Tomer's eyes.
• Purchasing a plane and millions of dollars in property at above market prices from Board members and then selling it at a loss a year later is right in Tomer's eyes.
• Creating a comp plan where 80% of the RTA's make $0 and less than one half of one percent are making a livable wage is right in Tomer's eyes.
• Even though less that one half of one percent(163 out of 300000+) makes any money, marketing the "opportunity" as a way to make millions is right in Tomer's eyes.
• Making questionable loans to Directors and then having to write them off at the expense of shareholders is right in Tomer's eyes.
• Meridian Bank loan deals that contributed to the Bank being taken over by the State and Feds is right in Tomer's eyes.

They discuss the compensation plan, but this plan is nothing special. Sure it is unique to YTB as anyone's plan is unique to their company. However the deception lies in that they market it as unable to be changed. Well, the program has been changed numerous times--sometimes for the better, and sometimes (like most recently) for the worse.

The Facts Half-Truths About YTB--Part 3

Today, let's take a look at the third tab on the new YTB site called www.TheFactsAboutYTB.com :

Identity:

This is a nice fluff piece and makes for a good brochure, but is once again laden with half truths and misleading statements.

This first paragraph discusses their ethical standards and the experience of their Board and Corporate Executives. Here is what they do not say:

• They are being sued by California for deceptive business practices
• They are being sued in two separate Class Action Suits for in excess of $100M for deceptive business practices.
• That YTB and Coach Tomer is personally being sued for deception when he convinced a gardener working at his mansion to give up and sell his business to join YTB as an employee and was subsequently fired.
• That YTB has been the target of investigations in the past.
• That YTB is currently the subject of statewide investigations in at least three other states other than California.
• That YTB knew about the California problem for 18 months and never disclosed it to the SEC or their field.
• That YTB insiders sold a lot of stock during the California investigation while it was still marketable.
• That YTB was delisted from the OTC markets for irregular accounting practices.
• That YTB filtered $6M or $8M for their Statue of Liberty stage prop to a privately held company owned by Tomer and Sorensen.
• That YTB has made numerous poor business decisions costing the company and mor importantly their shareholders millions--purchasing a jet from a Board member and selling it for a loss. Purchasing real estate from a Board member and selling it for a loss.
  
• The list goes on....

YTB talks about being international. They do not mention that because they did not want to adhere to the TICO regulations for operating in Toronto, that they were almost run out of Canada and only saved themselves by being reactionary and buying a flailing retail location--Sunrise Travel.

YTB discusses the DSA and how YTB is the only travel company that is a member. Well, the DSA has nothing to do with travel. It is a lobbying organization for the MLM businesses. YTB did not mention if they were members of any travel related organizations like IATA, ASTA, ARTA, OSSN, or NACTA. Don't look. They are not. The only industry affiliation they have is with CLIA.

The Affiliate Health Plan is a money maker for YTB. They do not disclose this but according to Thayer Lindauer (their former attorney), YTB is acting as an ILLEGAL insurance agent and subsequently earns commissions on any policy that is purchased by an RTA. It needs to be noted (as it is not stated on the site) that this is a bare bones policy and offers very little coverage and classifies YTB as an illegal insurer in many jurisdictions since they have not received the appropriate licenses.

YTB Botches Up Honeymoon

In this morning's Atlanta Journal Constitution, and in the reporter's own blog, is a story of a honeymoon gone bad.  Ultimately, the client was made whole financially by the supplier, and YTB feels that shows how hard the "agent" worked for the client. 

Well, had the client booked with a legitimate travel agent, much of this would have been avoided.

• Rather than help a bride through the web, a real agent woudl have handled it.
• A real agent would have been checking on the status of the resort opening.
• A real agent would have made sure the replacement accomodations were equivalent.
• A real agent would have handled it while they were on property.

I am not sure the couple was entitled to a "full" refund--at least not from Travel Impressions. Why did the agent let them go knowing that the replacement accommodations were sub par? Why did the agent not explain that the airline tickets were non-refundable? Why did the agent not call the hotel and leave that to his wife?

The Latest Recruiting Push!

Recruit 2000 people in 12 months and get $100,000

Recruit 5000 people in 24 months and get $250,000

Recruit 10,000 people in 36 months and get $500,000

Yes, recruit enough people to give Coach $5 million dollars and receive $850,000 in return.

We all know how well the last "incentive" worked, I wonder how this one will? You can read the fine print of the latest one here.

How To Shut Up A TTA In One Easy Lesson

There has been a resurgence of "I made millions selling travel" comments and posts on this blog, other blogs and various forums. One of the contentions that the TTAs have made from day one has been that the members of YTB and other MLMs in fact do not make money selling travel but that it is all in the recruiting.

Do you all remember Proud To Be YTB? She was a director in Florida and claimed she was making $30,000 a month in travel commissions. Then she changed the story to that she SELLS $30,000 a month in travel. And then when she was challenged on that, she disappeared.

Way back when this started, in a column on MSNBC, I challenged the naysayers to put their money where their mouths were. That was back in mid-2007 and no one has stepped up to the plate. Not a single person in almost 18 months. What is happening? Are they still trying to find ONE person that makes decent money selling travel in MLM?

So, I will throw it out there again, if anyone wants to shut up the TTAs on this issue, all you need to do is to photocopy a monthly TRAVEL commission check from YTB and redact the personal information and I will post it here for the world to see. Take off your name and address, and YTB's bank account number and let us see the period it reflects and that it is indeed for travel commissions. Anyone up for the challenge? Can anyone put their money where their mouth is?

The Facts Half-Truths About YTB--Part 2

Today we will continue our analysis of the half-truths on YTB's new website, www.TheFactsAboutYTB.com :

History
While this page seems pretty factual, it is certainly exaggerated, but exaggeration is not to be unexpected.

The two most notable exaggerations are in the travel sales figures. They claim in 2006 to have sold $226M but that number has never been verified and it was further clouded by YTB in the reporting to Travel Weekly by saying that $93.7M was by "third parties" and that $175.2 was from hosting of outside agents. When questioned about the number, Kim Sorensen admitted they did not have any actual numbers and the result was "gleaned" from a variety of sources--passengers reported from one vendor, dollars reported from another, and estimates of how much travel they thought RTAs sold on their own outside of the YTB websites. In 2007 they re-defined "third parties" as RTAs, so no one really knows. In 2007, they report $414M in sales, but they were a little bit more forthcoming to Travel Weekly this year and in reality it is only $211M sold by "third parties" (RTAs), so the average annual sales per RTA drops from $3160 to $1610. $1610 is pretty consistent with prior years and would reflect a self sold vacation. $1610 also represents approximately $96 in ANNUAL INCOME--which again is very consistent with prior years!

The other area of exaggeration is the number of attendees at their various events. While the numbers may indeed be accurate, they do not disclose that the number includes, friends, husbands, wives, children, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents that happened to tag along for the ride. As a matter of fact, if you look at the photos of their most recent convention you will see a great number of children present and yes, they were counted as attendees.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing EVERYONE on both sides of the fence a safe, peaceful and happy Thanksgiving!