TVI Express in 2010: Expansion or inevitable collapse?
It’s no secret that TVI Express has had a rough year. Their first major hiccup was in Australia after the ACCC accused TVI Express of being a pyramid scheme and launched court action.
The case is currently being played out.
Meanwhile over the in the US, TVI Express received a confirmed cease and desist in at least one state – citing that TVI Express was engaged in unfair and deceptive acts or practices‘.
Despite these two major setbacks however, there are still those out there claiming that business in TVI Express has never been better. Depending on who you listen to… either TVI Express is on the verge of cataclysmic collapse or a massive global expansion boom.
So which one is it?
The court action taken against TVI Express by Australia’s ACCC is no small matter. The regulatory body, responsible for ensuring that individuals and businesses comply with the Commonwealth’s competition, fair trading and consumer protection laws, have flat out labelled TVI Express a giant pyramid scheme.
So strongly do they feel about this that they’ve not only publicly declared TVI Express to be a pyramid scheme but have also made them the test case for new laws introduced on July 1st, permitting civil action to be taken against pyramid scheme operators.
The case is currently being played out but things aren’t looking to good. Regarding the TVI Express business opportunity, the ACCC are claiming that
there was either no product being sold or the product was of no value and that the presentations were mainly about ‘deriving income from introducing others”.
TVI Express’ defence?
Ms Jutsen told the court that the ACCC case was ‘deeply flawed”.
‘Deeply flawed’ going up against specific detailed evidence doesn’t sound like a solid argument to me.
Over in the US the state of Georgia issued a cease and desist which was recently made public. As Kasey from Kasey’s Korner pointed out,
TVI Express was given 21 days to appeal. Nothing happened, even though headquarters was notified as soon as this letter was received. This order is now permanent and cannot be appealed.
Not even bothering to challenge the cease and desist it seems TVI Express are a bit light on the defence side of things. Either that or they know their business plan isn’t legit and simply don’t have a defence to present.
Well at least in the short term.
Roz Kaspi and Vanessa Jackson, who run the ‘TVI Express Professionals’ blog, are claiming that there are three law firms in the US who are
working hard on making 100% sure that all TVI Express terms, conditions, policies and everything else are in full compliance with all United States law.
Indirectly of course this admission concedes that currently TVI Express is not in compliance with United States Law. I’m not entirely sure what a team of lawyers are going to be able to do for TVI Express barring a complete overhaul of their business model.
I myself have steadily maintained that TVI Express is about nothing more then deriving commissions from recruiting others to the opportunity. The travel club membership is irrelevant and vaporware.
This in itself is reflected in the selling points of the business. Even with all the regulatory hammers coming down the strength of TVI Express is portrayed in the amount they can recruit.
In touting the future of TVI Express, Kaspi and Jackson write ‘TVI is now set to bring in an additional 500,000 new members by 2012‘. Where this half a million number comes from I have no idea but to say it’s ambitious is a bit of an understatement.
Furthermore it perfectly highlights the core problem with marketing TVI Express. There’s no mention of a product or any updates or changes to the product line. The sole attribute used to promote and describe the future of TVI Express is that ‘hey guys, we’re gunna recruit half a million new members!’
Why? Because that’s half a million new commission payouts for existing members. Oh and there’s a travel club in there somewhere too? Could have fooled me.
Kaspi and Jackson also write about a new US based support centre that’s been predicted to open around January 2012. The US based support centre will be based in Florida and designed to offer support to TVI’s US distributors.
If all these regulatory hammers continue to come down on TVI Express and the company doesn’t change it’s core business model anytime soon, I kinda get the feeling that TVI distributors are going to need all the support they can get.
TVI Express support sites are known to repeat any lies sent through their “uplines”, who then get it from Tarun Trikha, who claim to have gotten it from the nonexistent Sam Cooper and so on.
TVI Express members have repeated lied, as documented by MLM websites and my blog. Some members claimed that TVI Express was backed by some glass factory in Italy and a casino resort in UK back in June 2009, relayed by an Indian upline “Goyal”. Such claims were never seen outside of Asia, and never corroborated by TVI Express itself.
TVI Express fan site in Indonesia kliktviexpress.com had previously published a letter allegedly from TVI Team Oz (the 3 folks getting sued by ACCC in Australia) and Tarun Trikha, that claimed they kicked ACCC lawyer’s *** and they are no longer bound by any account freeze and so on.
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=102721546436429&topic=62&post=272
QUOTE: “today was another win for us. They don’t get to touch my bank account, they don’t get to restrain us from our ewallets, they don’t keep us away from our evouchers, they don’t get to put anymore “orders” (kitchen’s closed, no more orders!).”
If that’s true, how was ACCC able to file a contempt of court charges against TVI Team Oz? Either the writer of the letter lied, the forwarder modified the letter, or the entire letter was a fabrication.
Please also note that the original link on kliktviexpress.com was ERASED, and replaced with some other announcements! But Facebook kept a good backup.
Who’s the liar? In this case, I’d pick TVI Express.
Also, another thing… TVI Express first started promising support centers back in July 2009 in their OWN announcements still found on their website. They claim they are going to establish call centers in China, Hong Kong, and India, as that is their largest markets at the time. So what are the facts?
Office in China — NEVER HAPPENED
Office in Hong Kong — NEVER HAPPENED
Office in India — did not open until APRIL 2010, almost a year later.
Call center in the US? Now that US legal attention has been directed against scam in at least one state? It will never happen, as it will force them to submit to US laws, and there’s NO WAY they are legal according to current American FTC rules. (FTC is equivalent to ACCC in Australia)
Instead of explaining it myself, I’ll let a MLM lawyer explain it:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Top-MLM-Attorney-Explains-why-TVI-Express-is-NOT-legal
One last thing: about supposedly lawyers working to “reform” TVI Express in the US?
The only “proof” came from an upline. That upline claimed to have spoken to Mr. Grimes of that lawfirm, but so far, there is NOT A SHRED OF OUTSIDE EVIDENCE to support the claim. I have written to the lawfirm but have received no reply thus far.
Yet we *have* seen lies sent by uplines to their downlines. Just take the above Facebook post for example: it was allegedly from Tarun Trikha and TVI Team Oz. Inside they referenced WFDSA definition of pyramid, but the definition they quoted doesn’t exist. Took me 60 seconds of search on WFDSA website to see that. The actual definition says something else entirely.
Experience leads me to doubt authenticity of ANY sort of information released from TVI Express or TVI Express members trying to increase legitimacy of TVI Express. More often than not, they are outright lies. I want to see outside corroborating evidence, and I am not finding any.
Oh, and one more thing… That website actually claims the call center in the US is coming in January 2011, not 2012, in a different blogpost. That’s right, they can’t even keep their own statements straight.
http://increasemymonthlyincome.com/tvi-america-office-opening-in-florida-early-2011/
Mate I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they’re just milking as much as they can before inevitable collapse.
I wonder what it takes for the US government to issue a statement putting a stop to all this ‘everything’s ok, we’ve got it all under control’ nonsense TVI Express keep spouting. Clearly not everything is ok and is grossly misleading for them to be parading around still recruiting new members like it is.
Thanks for the additional information and updates, some real eye openers there into the business practices and history of TVI.
Sorry, one last thing… Did you notice that Kaspi and Jackson’s claim that there’s a TVI convention coming to Florida, US in January 2011 is NOT announced on TVI Express website or TVI Express “community event calendar”?
So who’s the liar, one wonders?
One more update… see the latest announcement from Patrick Dejour:
* Florida may be about to declare TVI Express a pyramid scheme as well.
* Canada has allegedly declared TVI Express illegal
* Allegedly Tarun Trikha has been denied US tourist VISA
Huh?
http://presidentialelite.media.officelive.com/Announcements.aspx
Kaspi and Jackson kept on spewing bull****. They now relay a message from an upline that the upline had talked to a guy named “Aknon” who is “barrister of marketing” of TVI Express… and he was only been on the job for a month.
You’re Oz, you’d know that barrister = lawyer (and I do as well), but obviously Kaspi and Jackson choose NOT to understand the word, since it made no sense! What the heck is “barrister of marketing”?
http://increasemymonthlyincome.com/darren-aikens-tvi-information-from-aknon-tvi-barrister-of-marketing/
I’m finding this entire TVI Express saga to be quite entertaining to follow…
So as it stands the company is set to have a big gala opening of their support centre in Jan 2011 whilst their CEO can’t even get into the country.
Meanwhile they’re under some serious investigation in the states and from the looks of it are on a one way trip to being shut down. Reaffriming that no amount of lawyers can rectify a fundamentally illegal compensation plan.
Barristers are the guys that front court whilst solicitors handle everything else. I assume abarrister of marketing is a barrister who specialises in uh.. marketing cases or some such?
Either way I agree it’s rather poor use of legal terminology and somewhat vague. Wonder what the emergency was that Tarun had to run off to during the webinar?
I also note there’s talk of TVI Express in the US getting a new name and website. Couldn’t possibly be an attempt to distance themselves from the name ‘TVI Express’ now could it? I of course wouldn’t at all be surprised if the new name came with a new compensation plan too.
Here’s something else funnier… Do you know what Aknon means? It means “pimple” in Esperanto (and is a city in Everquest the MMORPG, apparently).
If they start a new name, it’d be whack-a-mole. Hit it here, it pops up over there.
And why would TVI Express need a “barrister of marketing”? Does that imply it has other barristers as well? Why is this barrister of marketing only talk about marketing, not about law?
Why do I have a feeling that one day Tarun Trikha will announce that it was all a big joke, ha-ha, fooled you, and disappear with the millions?
And finally… Here’s what Reese and Grimes say about illegal MLM / Pyramid scheme…
“If a program compensates participants, directly or indirectly, merely for the introduction or enrollment of other participants into the program, it is a pyramid. ”
http://www.mlmlaw.com/library/guides/Primer.htm
So even Reese and Grimes would agree that TVI Express is a pyramid scheme. The evidence is straight from TVI Express FAQ:
3. Do I need to sell any products?
No. You don’t need to sell any products. TVI Express is a unique e-commerce opportunity allowing you to build the Business around the globe sitting at your home. However, we do support leaders who take initiatives to promote the opportunity offline conducting seminars and workshops about the Opportunity.
5. What do I need to do to cycle out of the boards?
The first thing you need to do is sponsor two (2) people who join the TVI Express Opportunity. This will qualify you to cycle out of the boards as you progress ahead in the Compensation plan. Secondly, you need to encourage and teach those two downlines (people you sponsored) to sponsor more people and duplicate the process. Following these two simple steps will have you making money even while you sleep
10. What do I receive when I cycle?
You get the following commissions after you cycle out of the respective boards :
1) Traveller board : You receive $500 ($250 cash + an eVoucher worth $250)
2) Express Board : You receive $10,000 and a re-entry into the Express Board
You can make money by only recruiting people. It’s a pyramid scheme. Enough said.
Lol nice pickup there with the Reese and Grimes website.
Seems to be in plain English that by their own definition – yes, TVI Express is a pyramid scheme!
Hi, I have redeem three TVI hotel voucher for my group, two was booked for Boulevard Hotel: blvhotel.com (4 star) in Malaysia on last Oct 8-13, 2010.
I booked Triple Room Deluxe – Room Only without breakfast in October 7th 2010 at 7pm! ..yes at 7pm! that’s 5 hour to Oct 8, and surprisingly when check in the hotel, they also got breakfast :).
I can show you the booking certificate and you can check it to Boulevard hotel for prove.
They pay the tax in the booking portal TVI web around US$ 100 only, and you don’t need to pay anything when check in the hotel.
One other voucher I booked for Kamandalu Resort and Spa in Ubud – Bali (5 star) on Nov 17th 2010: http://www.kamandaluresort.com. They pay the tax for about US$ 250.
After make a booking in the TVI online booking portal, they call the hotel and the hotel confirm their booking
If possible I will make the video when they check in using the TVI Voucher and I will broadcast it in YouTube.
You can found famous hotels like Marriott, Conrad, Hilton, Hyatt, Swissotel, Radisson, Sheraton, Novotel, Four Season, etc. in TVI hotel list. That is the prove TVI is not illegal, the voucher product is real.
Giant hotels industry like I’d mentioned before will not accept TVI voucher if the travel company illegal. Also I can find around 50 hotel in Sydney Australia, there should be no hotel list in Australia if it’s illegal.
In the TVI scheme, you can jump over and leave your Upline and get the reward, this can’t be done in pyramid scheme, your Upline is your Upline forever, your can’t jump over it.. So TVI is not pyramid.
The negative responds is all about business competition and politics.
@Dandy — those hotel vouchers are purchased by TVI Express just to create the illusion that “anyone” could redeem their travel certificate. It proves nothing. It is about as legit as “I got paid so it cannot be a scam” excuse used by everybody else.
Though you should redeem those certificates as fast as possible. TVI Express do not have enough money to redeem the trips AND give out those $10000 board payouts. Start with 7 members and work your way up.
Assume everybody redeems their trip, which costs USD$200 (for a 7-day 6-night stay for 2 at a 3-5-star hotel AND companion airfare…) You will find TVI Express could NOT possibly redeem ALL the trips AND keep enough money to pay the board payouts. Go ahead, do your math…
So, good luck in maintaining the fiction, and keep the faith. It’s crashing down as we speak.
@Dandy
Redeeming the vouchers isn’t why TVI Express is getting into trouble with regulators around the world, it’s the fact that the vouchers play no part in the business model. The TVI Express business model relies entirely on you and your team going out there and recruiting new people, and those new recruits then doing the same.
Yes the hotel vouchers might work but that doesn’t address the business model or compensation plan problems.
And how do you obtain this jump? You go out and recruit more people who then go out and recruit more people?
In TVI Express your upline is also your upline forever and whilst you might be able to ‘jump’over them, you’re still only able to do so if you’re better at recruiting then they are. At the end of the day that’s all TVI Express comes down to, recruitment, recruitment, recruitment.