Comparing Bon Voyage 1000 with TVI Express
Last week in a letter sent out to his downline, US founding member of TVI Express Patrick Dejour announced that TVI Express had been issued a cease and desist in at least one US state.
Naturally this announcement meant turmoil for a lot of US based TVI Express members and many of them seem to now be hailing rival travel club Bon Voyage 1000 as the second coming of Christ.
As one BehindMLM reader ‘Douglas’ puts it;
BV1000 is the best by far.it does not compare with TVI express which is full of promises, ownership is not clear and no product at all!!! but BV1000′s products are accessible.
what a relief!!!
Broken Promises, non clear ownership and no product are apparently what seperate Bon Voyage 1000 from TVI Express and got them into trouble in the first place.
Right?
Maybe… but how about a bit more analysis of the differences between the two? I mean we wouldn’t want all these TVI Express distributors jumping ship only to find that Bon Voyage 1000 runs into the same problems a few months down the track now would we.
So exactly just how different is Bon Voyage 1000 from TVI Express?
The Products
TVI Express’ one and only product was a travel voucher. This voucher was then used to purchase discounted travel packages.
Bon Voyage 1000 on the other hand offer something completely different. BV1000 offer members a travel card that enables access to holders of the card to a variety of discounted travel packages.
Well ok, so maybe they’re not that different. Apart from the cost (BV1000’s travel card costing $349 vs. TVI Express’ vouchers coming in at $250), both products merely provide access to services offered by third parties.
The compensation plans
Both TVI Express and Bon Voyage 1000 use a matrix compensation plan, the difference between the two however is the size.
TVI Express employ a 2×3 model whereas Bon Voyage use a 2×2. As a result, TVI Express’ matrix requires 14 positions to be filled before commission is paid out and Bon Voyage 1000 just 6.
From a marketing standpoint it’d be easy to look at these numbers and claim Bon Voyage 1000 is the better deal and clearly different. But is it?
Both the compensation plans of TVI Express and Bon Voyage 1000 award commissions based on members cycling out of these matrices. The commonality between the two plans however is that due to neither company paying any commission out for use or sale of their products, both then rely on the constant supply of new recruits to the business opportunity.
So instead of exhausting a fixed capacity market at 14 members per commission payout, Bon Voyage 1000 members can now do so exponentially faster requiring just 6 members to cycle.
If you want to analogise that, both company’s are trains travelling on a fixed line towards market saturation.
Whereas the TVI Express train was travelling at 60km/h the Bon Voyage train has come along and upped the speed to over 120km/h. Both trains are going to arrive at the same final destination – but one is going to get there over twice as fast!
Sound sustainable to you? Me either.
How both companies are marketed
This one’s easy and all it takes is two quick google searches to confirm for yourself that both business opportunities are being marketed in the exact same manner.
Both TVI Express and Bon Voyage 1000 are clearly marketed by members as a business opportunity rather then a company with some sort of tangible product.
The fact of the matter is nobody is out there peddling travel cards or vouchers, well except maybe those trying to recoup massive losses by pedalling them off on eBay after they’ve left the company. Instead the internet is inundated with advertisements urging potential members to join the opportunity itself.
This behaviour is quite easy to understand. I mean with zero commissions paid out on retailing the product, why would you even bother marketing it?
Bon Voyage 1000 and TVI Express payout their members for recruiting new members to the business – so this naturally is what existing members advertise towards.
Conclusion
There appears to be a misguided mindset that the reason TVI Express has been declared a pyramid scheme in Australia and ordered to cease and desist in the US because of the lack of customer support and travel opportunities provided to members.
Somehow these two minor areas of the business (as I mentioned earlier, the company doesn’t pay commissions for product use or sales), does anyone really believe they overshadow the far more prominent fact that constant recruitment is required for members to get paid?
Both TVI Express and Bon Voyage 1000’s compensation plans contain the regulatory fatal flaw of not requiring the sale of any product to get paid. You can join either company but regardless of which you join, you’re not getting paid unless you recruit new members to the opportunity.
Product? What product? You don’t need to worry about the product. I’m offering you a ground level opportunity here to make a gabillion dollars – all you have to do is sign up and recruit others – like I’m recruiting you right now! IT’S EASY!’
Well of course it is but at the same time why TVI Express ran into trouble in the first place.
With very little discernible differences between the compensation plans and mandate requirement for existing members to recruit new members to get paid, I don’t believe it will be too far along before Bon Voyage 1000 itself either collapses (due to a simply unsustainable matrix cycle rate of just 6 people) or the authorities step in.
If you can completely strip an MLM company’s products and leave the business model intact then something suss is usually going on. Regarding TVI Express and Bon Voyage 1000, in both cases this holds true.
If you really want to confirm this for yourself – just ask your nearest TVI Express of Bon Voyage 1000 member to disclose how many people they’ve recruited to the business opportunity vs. how many ‘vacation packages’ they’ve booked.
That should sum up everything you need to know about both opportunities.
You do get a product when you join bonvoyage1000, the product is the lifetime membership card with no extra costs except a small annual website hosting fee.
With hotels battling to make ends meet during this economic downturn the 1st aim of bvmagic
is to jolly well get people moving again.
Our 2nd aim is to provide an excellent business opportunity to so many who still look to bosses to hire them. The world is changing people, its more automated and bvmagic is the perfect route to independence with their earn $1000 for simply referring two people to purchase the discount our membership card.
Now on the other hand if the company does not pay its members then that would make it a scam but that has not and will not happen. Ask the women of Kwazulu Natal who were the winners of the iPad giveaways for October, they are earning a healthy living and they understand a good thing when they see it.
You cant go wrong, give us a shot
Renee
@Renee Webber:
I’m not quite sure what you were trying to tell us? If the “discount card” and “membership” includes the right to resell the “discount card” and “membership” to others, you have described a pyramid concept – as described in the laws in most Western countries.
In a pyramid you buy the right to resell the right to resell the right to resell … in an endless stream of people who want to resell the same as you sell. This is called “recruiting” instead of “selling”. In sales you sell products or services to end users, while in a pyramid you recruit new distributors who sell the same as yourself – the right to resell the concept to others.
Here is the definition of a pyramid from the law in Texas (I found these while I was looking for rules in the EU, which is identical):
… a pyramid scheme is “a plan or operation by which a person gives consideration for the opportunity to receive compensation that is derived primarily from a person’s introductions of other persons to participate in the plan…”
“… rather than from sale or consumption of products or services.”
If you receive $1,000 in commission for recruiting 2 new distributors into the plan then it’s probably a pyramid – your income has derived from recruiting.
If you receive $1,000 in commission for sale to two end users it’s probably not a pyramid.
If you recruit a few distributors and have a lot of sale to end users it’s probably not a pyramid – your income have derived primarily from the sale to end users.
Exactly what did you try to tell us? Most pyramids DO pay their distributors, but they are still illegal in most countries.
Since when was membership to something a product? I think you’re confusing selling a ‘service’ with selling a ‘product’. A product is merchandise or a commodity, it’s something tangible that can be traded.
A membership to something else is neither of those things.
How is getting paid to refer (recruit) others to a scheme perfect? Given you can only refer them once, because there’s no recurring product to market with Bon Voyage 1000, What happens when you run out of people to refer?
Madoff Securities paid people out, does that mean it wasn’t a pyramid scam?
Just because a company pays out its members doesn’t mean it’s not sustainable and/or potentially illegal. It’s how company’s pay out their members that matters.
If it’s only via the constant recruitment of one time signup new recruits, then anyone should be able to see we have a sustainability problem.
Hello Bon Voyage 1000!
From the description thus far BV1K sounds EXACTLY like TVI Express. You “join” and get a vacation, but it’s for the member, not for resale. You then recruit more members who also “join” and get a vacation as well as right to recruit more members. Nothing needs to be sold. That’s a pyramid scheme.
So what’s being sold, eh?
I can see why so many ex-TVI-Express members join BV1K. It’s exactly the same thing.
Slight critique… TVI Express offers “two” products:
1) a “eCertificate” that supposedly can be redeemed for a 7-day 6-night hotel at some 3-5 star (was 5-star) hotels and companion ticket (you pay for one, they pay for the other) domestic airfare.
This turned out to be impossible to redeem, that they are now offering to half-size this (4-day 3-night) as “giving members what they want” or pay $150 USD as “taxes and processing fees” to redeem it full size. The only lists of hotels ever released are less than 150 hotels in India.
2) Access to “back office” where one can book travel deals of all sorts all around the world. This may be what Jack and other TVI Team Oz tried to “redeem” as reported earlier.
This back office turned out to be just a front-end to Travelocity / Res99.com. What happened is TVI Express got a FREE custom label frontend to Travelocity booking engine through their affiliate program. They slapped “TVI Express” on the front-end and proclaimed this is their “access to the world” and “strategic partners in the travel industry”, and people who don’t look deeper are convinced this somehow proves TVI Express is legitimate and backed by big names.
In other words, you paid $250 to access something that can be accessed for FREE.
I cannot understand how you can say there is no product. The product is a Lifestyle card which entitles the holder and his family to discount travel, nationally and internationally. Travel includes air travel, cruises, hotel accommodation, car hire, condo hire etc etc.
I have sold the Bonvoyage1000 Lifestyle Card to several people who did their research and found that they can really save a lot of money with the card. They are not interested in becoming distributors. They are business people who travel a lot.
So what is wrong with me selling the Lifestyle card to 6 people who want to save money travelling and I cycle and I earn $1000 in commission? And what is wrong with others seeing that they can do the same and earn money by doing what I am doing?
At the end of the day you are selling a commodity that people want and can use and can save money on. You are getting paid commission on those sales exactly as if you were selling anything else as a distributor for any other company!
@K. Chang
The e-certificate sounds like a voucher type thing. I guess you could define it as a product but it’s boderline.
Access to the back office is only possible via buying membership to TVI Express. You don’t buy access to the backoffice, you buy membership to TVI. This of course leads us back to the condundrum that a membership that gives you access to other goods and services is not a product in itself.
@Createwealth
The lifestyle card is essentially membership which then provides access to other products and services.
The problem with the Bon Voyage model is that you’re not selling the products yourself, you’re selling access to them. In analysing the business model of Bon Voyage 1000, what happens after you sell the membership is irrelevant because you are not paid commission on any of it.
Thus you’re only rewarded when you sell a membership, which is in essense recruitment to Bon Voyage’s ‘club’ whether the customer intends to go on and recruit others or not.
The fact that they have the choice not to is again irrelevant because in analysing the business model we’re not concerned with how the customers utilise the membership. Rather the only thing we’re concerned about is that the only way you get paid in Bon Voyage as an MLM, is by recruiting others.
If you got paid a commission on travel packages after the membership was sold it’d be a whole different ball game, but as far as I know this doesn’t happen.
“The commonality between the two plans however is that due to neither company paying any commission out for use or sale of their products, both then rely on the constant supply of new recruits to the business opportunity.”
In plain speaking, this means that both TVIexpress and Bon Voyage 1000 are Pyramid Schemes. Pyramid Schemes are illegal in most countries in the world.
In my own country (Norway); Establishing, operating, promoting or participating in a pyramid scheme is a criminal offence punishable by up to 3 years in prison.
Have you checked out worldventures? They seem to be the most credible travel mlm around. What can you say about them.
Gday Bheki, I hadn’t heard of World Ventures but I’ve added them to my list for review so stay tuned.
In other TVI Express news…
TVI Express is apparently being investigated in Swaziland, another African country.
http://www.times.co.sz/News/23415.html
And Botswana Consumer Watchdog came right out and called Pyxism “just like TVI Express” a scam.
how can i join??
Just Google it. I’m sure there are plenty of them ready to take your money. Whether you get any back…
Hi, it is very good information on the comparison between TVI Express and Bon Voyage 1000. However, I would like comments on World Ventures if you all have hear of it.
What do you think in terms of their compensation plans and reliability of this company? By the way, the URL is http://www.worldventures.com
Do check it out…
Thanks Steven, I’ve added World Ventures to the list of companies I’ve yet to check out.
Progress is slow but bear with me.
World Ventures, Pyxism, Bon Voyage 1000… They are similar enough to TVI Express that it’d take detailed study to tell them apart, at least in general terms.
At least they’re far less scam-y than TVI Express (they seem to have HQ in the US, have real owners, and so on)
hey guys what do you all think about Revolving Relay? yes it might sound the same but is making new waves now in the industry….
Bonvoyage has failed its members by removing the compensation plans which was there initialy.
Judging by the comments, most of the MLMs Oz blogs about are revolving relays! I keep seeing the same names associated with different businesses.
It’s a wonder any of these marketers are able to engender any amount of trust and loyalty.
I was wondering around the net and found this site again. I am not here to bother trying to convince people who will never believe anything except their own negativity. No truer saying: “For those who believe no proof is necessary, for those who dont believe no proof is possible”.
I’ve seen more than enough people make a good living from Bon Voyage to doubt the prospects.
Plus one more thing, we are now D.S.A approved which adds both crediblity internationally and confidence to our members.
*D.S.A. = Direct Selling Association of Southern Africa and they would NEVER approve of a pyramid scheme… but wait I know the negative people will chose to doubt the D.S.A’s credibility as well, and thats ok, you do whatever you makes your little minds happy.
Our Natal (South Africa) team is the best in the world and I see a lot of money following to our members… this can be confirmed if bonvoyage is contacted.
Over and Out… do as you chose but if you join my team only then will I divulge why our team out performs all other BonVoyage teams in the world.. and thats fantastic because our its empowering our people financially.
@Createwealth By the way you have landed on two of my boards now where I am getting paid for spill over, thanks a lot for that!
My user name is bvmagic so you can check yourself to see you’ve landed on two of my boards, once on the 18th Nov 2011 and again on 11th Feb 2011… thanks once again!
You probably wont see these messages but in case I feel good about reflecting my appreciation so the whole world can see.
Renee
@Renee
I assume you mean the DSASA (Direct Selling Association of South Africa) and not the DSA, which is the Direct Selling Association opeating out of the US.
I had a look on the DSASA website and couldn’t find any mention of Bon Voyage 1000.
Additionally I note that to be a member, companies need to ‘be operating as a direct selling company with a fixed physical address in South Africa, and registered as a business in South Africa‘.
What is Bon Voyage’s fixed physical address in South Africa?
I went ahead myself to have a look if Bon Voyage was registered as a company in South Africa and found no such listing. You can verify this yourself by browsing over to the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office, scrolling down till you see ‘Name Search’ on the red navigation bar on the left, and punching in ‘Bon Voyage 1000’.
You seem to have missed the entire point of the article. It’s not about whether Bon Voyage are paying out members or that if you join the company and mass recruit will you or won’t you make any money.
Rather the sticking point is that Bon Voyage are a recruitment dependent company with no retail products. This is simply not sustainable in the long run and you keep conveniently avoiding this fact.
No results.
Google search of the entire bonvoyage1000.com website shows not a single mention of the word “DSA” or even “Direct Sell”.
I seriously doubt they are DSA member in ANY country. They certain do NOT belong to the main DSA (dsa.org).
This is starting to remind me of the various bull**** TVI Express members were spreading about TVI Express.
TVI EXPRESS has a real product … have a membership to take a discount in 200000 hotels all over the worled …and discount on car rental …. and mooooore .. all this beside the main package ( 8 days at resort to 6 persons ) wooooow it’s amaaazing ..
I and my group go to mooore resorts and hotels ….. the plaan is toooooooo easy coz the step to Ecpress board is easier than bon voyage 1000 to earn 10 000
and there is residual income in TVI Express …….. no comparisooooooon ..TVI CHANGE MY LIFE
Latest TVI Express news: arrest in Indonesia
http://medan.jurnas.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62992:beli-rp20-juta-dapat-rp90-juta-mlm-kelabui-ratusan-nasabah&catid=25:inimedan&Itemid=53
South Africa calls TVI Express possibly largest pyramid scheme in recent years, several BILLION Rands.
Please “eslam”, go ahead and believe it. Guess you’ll need to see police at your door before you realize the truth.
http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=20110801084313377
@eslam
Which is what exactly? Can I buy it without joining the company?
hhhhhh.. working in the company is not Mandatory
go to the resort or the hotel from your account
i have a too peaple do this and join TVI just to go the vaciation … realy beleave me .. ur idea is very wrong and the company have 161 professtional accountant i know more about them .. and we goo tooo many vaciations
@eslam
Can I purchase a resort or hotel package without opening an account with TVI (and thus becoming a member)?
I rest my case…
i join TVI jan. 2010 and know mooore about network companies and TVI specialy ..yes it have real product ..
saying pyramid scheme is large joke …
TVI support the tourism in my country and more peaple catch money and who lose go the vaciation and don’t lose his money
with TVI win win win win win at all conditions
Expert eslam
yes …from my account i can book a hotel to you and have alarge discount to you ..and baying with masster card or visa card …
at all what is the difrance btween booking from account or without .. at all the company will book to you the resort or the hotel !!!!!!!!!!!!! and with agood discount
@eslam — too little and too late.
* TVI Express HQ in Bangalore, India raided, 2 arrested
* TVI Express Indonesia business licensed revoked
* TVI Express outlawed in South Africa, 3 arrested
* TVI Express served “cease and desist” in Georgia, USA
* TVI Express kicked out of Australia, 3 charged with fraud
* TVI Express office in Indonesia raided, arrests made
You’re on a sinking ship. You just won’t admit it.
@k.chang@ozs…
what’s the company u work at ??
i work before in qnet and they say the same words
qnet ..12 arrested in turkey
qnet .. kicked out of syria
and it is amoney game … but it contenue and will contenue
one question to u ??
are TVI have a vaciations or not ??
if yes it will not be scam
if no it will be scam
are the prise of hotels or resorts are good or too expensive?
resorts 400 $ hotels varied
@eslam
You seem to be having difficulty answering a very simple question.
Can I book hotels with TVI Express without joining the company?
Thus far everything else you’ve published is irrelevant and borderline incoherant.
Oh, and the ‘so which company do you work for line?’ is old, tired and wonderfully not-applicable to this website.
Trying to divert the topic, eh?
First, we’re NOT talking about QNET.
Second, thank you for volunteering the fact that you seem to enjoy joining scams and believing in them.
Can I book hotels with TVI Express without joining the company?
yes… i say that to u before
iam enjoing scams and believe them ..loool
i know TVI moore than mr tauran trekhaa 😀
iam very happy to talk to you…but you don’y know any thing about any thing
the company will be scam
if no vaciation … no cometion
the both TVI do them
bey bye
How? I need to book through the company website don’t I?
For that I need to login and to get a login I need to be a member (unless TVI has changed since I last looked at it).
i book to u .. and book to 100000 persons without ur login
in TVI with a large discount any hotel you want :*
i do that and i can book to you with the same prise of the hotel and i have the discount to myself as adirict cometion
(unless TVI has changed since I last looked at it).
why you talk about thing ..u don’t know about it carefully
coz .. u work in another one and want the other companies to fail
or .. coz u want to be wise
ur think about my company is very wrong .. take care
I didn’t ask if you could book. I asked if I could as a non-member.
Can I book a holiday with TVI without being a member?
hhhhhhhhhhhhhh…. where is the MLM here and where is the WOM i do with you when i tell u about TVI … WHERE IS MY profit when i tell you about the company ??!!!!
if you want to book any thing from tvi ..tell any agent as mee and we will book to u without log in
in TVI i paid money and have vaciation
noo looooose and company earn moooooore ..1.1 milion $ per day
why it is ascaam
u r scaam persons
@eslam — you intentionally avoiding the issue. A scam can profit some people. It doesn’t prove it’s NOT a scam.
So far, your ONLY “proof” why TVI Express is not a scam is “it paid me, I can book trip(s)”.
“It paid me” is not a valid reason because pyramid scheme and Ponzi schemes do pay participants… a tiny minority of them.
As for “I can book trips”, you’ve proven only HALF of the ocmpany’s legal, even assume those trips can be delivered. I’ve read reports that the trips were not delivered at all.
Thus, your argument is rather amusing. It is as if you are intentionally ignoring the news around the world but insisting on reading the company’s promotional material as if it’s the absolute truth.
(It is as if you are intentionally ignoring the news around the world )
i have a parteners in 12 country ..all of them is very active and know every thing about the markets
(I’ve read reports that the trips were not delivered at all)
resorts can deliverd 😀 u r wrong
if you do’nt know any thing about pyramid schames .. i can tell u … TVI not pyramid schames
read about this and talk to me again
in my network there are Economists and policemen
tiny minority of the peaple who can’t make money … go the trip and pleased with company
in ur opinion .. tvi will close ???? 😀
there ara 161 very very proffitional accountant … i know afew of them 😀
KSA FULL TVI
EGYPT FULL TVI
LIGAL IN MY COMPANY
good luck 😀
@eslam — then you need to provide the people in South Africa who complained they did not get their trips, since obviously you can get them, so you claimed.
But wait, people in South Africa are getting arrested.
So are people in Indonesia, China, Australia, and more.
heck, even the people in India are getting arrested.
Heck, Indonesia even declared TVI Express haram.
And thus far, all you can say is “it provided me with trips, it paid me”.
And you claim we are not dealing with reality?
Thank you for demonstration of “turning a blind eye”.
@eslam — oh, and you clearly joined QNet / Quest.net / Gold Quest by your own admission and it was a scam though you refuse to acknowledge it.
What makes you think you can spot a scam (TVI Express) this time around? Since you clearly didn’t prosper from QNet, what makes your experience in this thing authoritative?
All you said so far is just repeating the obvious excuses. You sound like a broken record. Got something fresh to say?
@eslam
How do I know what to browse? Can I browse which holidays/hotels I want to book without being a member?
Also if I get you to book something for me, will it be in my name or yours?
Oz
How do I know what to browse? Can I browse which holidays/hotels I want to book without being a member?
Also if I get you to book something for me, will it be in my name or yours?
i can book to you with ur name .. with ur name . with ur name .. with ur name ..with ur name …..with ur name without joining ..without joining …without joining…alarge discount …a large discount… alarge discount
you have to stop .. u r failing =)) …now you cry ,,i see you … don’t play with us .:P:P
k chang
u say any words … ur knouledge zerooo
ur friend Oz is fail coz he don’t know any thing about TVI
all he said is fake… my groupe has the vaciation all over the worled not south africa only…. eslam only have over 43 vaciation in several contry….. the offer is too dificult
…if it is illigal ..it is ligal in my country coz not pyramid scheme and noo scaam to peaple… plz cry far not here