A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent’s position.

To “attack a straw man” is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by substituting a superficially similar yet unequivalent proposition (the “straw man”), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.

-Wikipedia definition of a “strawman argument”

For some reason, when you criticise the compensation plan of TVI Express and the fact that its members are not awarded any commissions based on the use of TVI’s product, members of TVI Express interpret this as ‘TVI Express’ product does not work’.

Given that this is not the argument presented to them about why TVI Express is nothing more then a money game pyramid scheme, it’s accurate to label their retorts as strawman arguments.

Despite the ineffectiveness of countering an argument with an irrelevant rebuttal, recently NSW based TVI Express member Jack Panaghis decided to record a video of himself redeeming one of TVI Express’ travel vouchers;

Panaghis’ clip is interesting in that it refutes the claim that the only available hotels on offer are based in India and require a $150 fee in taxes to book.

In the video Panaghis makes a booking at the ‘Blue A Taj’ hotel in Woolloomooloo Bay, NSW and claims it cost him just $

Panaghis also repeatedly claims that ‘this is a first for Australia’. I’m not entirely sure what he means, but presumably either Blue A Taj is the first hotel in Australia to accept TVI Express vouchers or that Panaghis is the first Australian TVI member to actually redeem a travel voucher.

Either way though neither of these scenarios, nor the fact that the voucher worked, address the claims that TVI Express members are only rewarded compensation upon recruiting others to the business opportunity.

Case in point? If Panaghis wants to obtain another travel voucher from TVI Express there’s no other way for him to obtain one other then by cycling out of a compensation plan matrix.

How does he do this? By recruiting new members to TVI Express of course.

Nobody made a commission on Panaghis redeeming his voucher and there’s no way for him to purchase another one independently of recruiting a new member to TVI Express.

Panaghis also happens to belong to the TVI Express group ‘TVITeamOz’ who were recently named by the ACCC after they succesfully won an injunction against the operators of the team, Laulhati Jutsen (also known as Teddi Jutsen), Tina Aroha Brownlee and David Graeme Scanlon.

The injunction effectively banned the three owners from ‘promoting the scheme, accepting payments from new “members” or paying other participants‘. However whilst Jutsen, Brownlee and Scanlon seem to be barred from promoting the business, that hasn’t seem to have stopped other members from doing so.

For now it appears TVITeamOz are still alive and actively promoting TVI Express not only in Australia but worldwide.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see that TVI Express’ travel vouchers actually work but the point remains that the compensation plan TVI Express uses is unsustainable and reliant on a constant supply of new recruits.