Divvee Review: $9.95 a month for access to discounts?
There is no information on the Divvee website indicating who owns or runs the business.
The Divvee website domain (“divvee.social”) was registered on the 8th of December 2015, with Allen Davis listed as the owner. An address in the US state of Utah is also provided.
As per a Divvee marketing video, Allen Davis is the CEO of the company. Why this information is not provided on the Divvee website is unclear.
Davis (right) has a legal background, which is reflected in his positions within the MLM industry.
As per Davis’ LinkedIn profile, he has served as
- General Counsel, VP of Operations and Chief Compliance Officer for Neways (1997 to 2006)
- General Counsel and VP of Operations for Trivani (2006 to 2010)
- CEO of Qnique (2010 onwards)
- General Counsel and Chief Operation Officer for ForeverGreen International (2012 to 2015)
- General Counsel for TruVision Health (2015 onwards)
Davis ran his own law firm between 2011 and 2015, with Divvee his second stint as an MLM executive.
Davis’ former company Qnique (body wraps) appears to have been shut down. None of the companies’ websites were responsive at the time of publication.
Read on for a full review of the Divvee MLM opportunity.
The Divvee Product Line
Divvee resell cell phone plans from Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. Full cell plan pricing is available on the Divvee Wireless website @ “divveewireless.com”.
Divvee also run an e-commerce platform, through which third-party products and services can be purchased.
The Divvee Compensation Plan
Divvee affiliates are paid when affiliates in their downline and free and paid customers purchase products through the Divvee network.
Divvee affiliates are also paid to recruit new affiliates and paid customers.
Commission Qualification
In order to qualify for commissions, five products must be purchased by either an affiliate or their retail customers through the Divvee e-commerce platform.
Customer Acquisition Commission
Divvee affiliates are paid $1 a month for each new Divvee customer they refer.
Customer commissions are paid out as long as customers continue to pay their monthly Divvee fee.
Recruitment Commissions
Divvee affiliates are paid $1 a month for each new Divvee affiliate they recruit.
Recruitment commissions are paid out as long as recruited Divvee affiliates continue to pay their monthly fee.
Matrix Commissions
Divvee use a 3×10 matrix compensation structure.
A 3×10 matrix places an affiliate at the top of a matrix, with three positions directly under them:
These initial three positions form the first level of the matrix, with the second level generated by splitting each of the three first level positions into another three positions each (9 positions).
The third level of the matrix is generated in the same manner, by splitting the nine level 2 positions into another three positions each (27 positions).
In this manner all ten levels of the matrix are generated, with a complete 3×10 matrix housing 88,572 positions.
Positions in the matrix are filled via direct and indirect recruitment, with affiliates paid 10 cents a week for each fee-paying affiliate or customer in their matrix (free customers only generate product matrix commissions).
Note that matrix levels must be qualified for, with how many levels a Divvee affiliate is paid out on determined by how many affiliates they have recruited:
- recruit 1 affiliate to qualify to earn matrix commissions level 1
- recruit 2 affiliates to qualify to earn matrix commissions on level 2
- recruit 3 affiliates to qualify to earn matrix commissions on level 3
- recruit 4 affiliates to qualify to earn matrix commissions on level 4
- recruit 5 affiliates to qualify to earn matrix commissions on level 5
- recruit 6 affiliates to qualify to earn matrix commissions on level 6
- recruit 7 affiliates to qualify to earn matrix commissions on level 7
- recruit 8 affiliates to qualify to earn matrix commissions on level 8
- recruit 9 affiliates to qualify to earn matrix commissions on level 9
- recruit 10 affiliates to qualify to earn matrix commissions on level 10
This assumes every affiliate is qualified on all levels of their matrix.
If an affiliate is not qualified to earn on a matrix level where a commission is generated, the affiliate above them has their level qualification requirement reduced by one.
Eg. If you’d normally need five affiliates to earn a commission generated on level 5 of your matrix, but the affiliate on 6 of your matrix doesn’t qualify for a matrix commission, you get the commission if you have 4 recruited affiliates.
This affects qualification criteria for all affiliates above you, till a maximum ten matrix levels have been paid out.
Specifically, if a large number of affiliates in a matrix are not qualified to earn on the lower levels of their matrix, affiliates above them are able to earn commissions beyond the first ten levels of their matrix.
Product Commissions
Product commissions in Divvee are paid out using the same matrix compensation structure as affiliate recruitment commissions.
When affiliates in a matrix team purchase a product, each product generates a set commission.
Eg. An item sold through Divvee costs $100, with $10 of that a generated commission per item purchased by affiliates or customers.
The product commission is split across ten levels of the matrix, in the same manner recruitment commission are ($10 divided by ten levels pays out $1 on each matrix level).
Remember an affiliate must be matrix level qualified in order to earn on all levels of their matrix. If they are not matrix qualified at any particular level a commission is generated, that commission passes up to the next upline qualified affiliate.
Unilevel Commissions
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
Qualifying for unilevel commissions requires a Divvee affiliate to recruit either five or ten affiliates:
- recruit five affiliates and qualify for a 25 cent commission
- recruit ten affiliates and qualify for a 50 cent commission
When a new affiliate is directly or indirectly recruited into a unilevel team, affiliates who qualify for unilevel commissions in the upline are paid either 25 or 50 cents.
Each affiliate in the upline is paid in succession until $3 has been paid out in total (a minimum of six upline affiliates if they were paid 50 cents each).
Note that unilevel commissions are paid out monthly, with payments subject to change based on the unilevel qualification status of affiliates in your downline.
Paid customers do not fill positions in a unilevel team, however commissions paid on their monthly membership fee are paid out in the same manner as monthly affiliate fees.
Joining Divvee
Affiliate membership with Divvee is $25 and then $9.95 a month.
Conclusion
Putting aside the recruitment commissions for a second, the premise of Divvee can work if they have far more fee-paying customers over affiliates.
Free affiliates are neither here nor there, as they only generate commissions on product purchases.
Logically speaking, if commissions paid out in Divvee were primarily derived from free customer product and/or service purchases, why Divvee pay out recruitment commissions would need to be answered.
As it stands though, until the free customer mobile app is rolled out on September 1st, the legitimacy of Divvee primarily rests on its paid customer to affiliate ratio.
If commissions pushed out on membership fees are primarily affiliates paying $9.95 a month, Divvee is a chain-recruitment scheme.
To assess the likelihood of this, one needs to examine what paid customers are actually paying for.
The hook for customers in Divvee is the $50 or $55 a month cell phone plan. That, as far as I can tell, doesn’t require payment of $9.95 a month.
The $9.95 a month is for access to Divvee’s e-commerce platform, which had better offer different discounts than what free affiliates will get with the app if it wants to compete.
Without getting too much into what doesn’t exist yet, as it stands Divvee customers are expected to pay $9.95 a month for access to discounts.
Would you pay $9.95 a month for access to discounts?
Divvee marketing material put out by affiliates suggests that “everyday” products offered through the Divvee e-commerce platform will be discounted by “up to 40%”.
If that’s even remotely accurate, what affiliate network has Divvee signed up to?
Obviously it’s not their own, as an unknown company doesn’t have that sort of buying power. With most of the $9.95 affiliates and customers pay out each month going to commissions, the affiliate network Divvee have signed up with is either free or low-cost.
Again, are we really expected to believe there’s some exclusive e-commerce platform out there offering 40% discounts on high-demand products?
That people are going to pay Divvee $9.95 a month to access without the attached business opportunity?
Therein lies Divvee’s Achilles’ heel.
The marketing pitch for paid customers is slick, however what is promised doesn’t really add up. Much the less make a strong case as to why customers are going to pay $9.95 each month.
That leaves us with affiliates paying the majority of $9.95 a month fees, which is a compliance disaster given how Divvee’s compensation plan splits that fee.
All the more worrying is Allen Davis’ claim that he has “extensive training in corporate compliance” on his LinkedIn profile.
The MLM companies Davis has served as legal counsel for aren’t small potatoes, so why Divvee has recruitment commissions at all I have no idea.
The argument could be made that even with a near 100% affiliate adoption rate of the $9.95 a month membership, that’s separate from the $25 affiliate fee (which as far as I can tell is not commissionable).
Fair enough, but there’s two points to consider:
- If only affiliates are paying $9.95 a month, it’s a defacto recruitment commission.
- access to discounts is not a product in MLM, you need actual products being purchased.
Sure, products can be purchased through the e-commerce platform, but if revenue flowing into Divvee is dwarfed by affiliate fees each month, that’s a problem.
The types of products Divvee are claiming will be available through their e-commerce platform don’t sound very niche. They’re marketed as “stuff you’re already buying”.
This is interesting because everyday products and services are typically highly-competitive and don’t offer high commission rates. Reason being “everyone is buying them anyway”, so there’s little to no need to incentivize marketing (via affiliate marketing, MLM or otherwise).
How this ultimately plays out will be interesting to watch, with Divvee scheduled to launch on May 16th.
As for what I’m seeing now on the marketing side of things, it’s all about affiliate recruitment. Recruiting ten affiliates (as opposed to generating retail customer sales), unlocks the entire Divvee compensation plan.
That’s not a good sign considering the retail customer side of the business hasn’t even launched yet.
Update November 21st 2016 – In late September Divvee announced their “Rank & Share” opportunity.
BehindMLM reviewed Divvee’s new business model on November 21st.
Just the “Customer Acquisition Commission” will put them into “illegal referral sales” trouble.
I’m surprised an alleged “compliance officer” would not know the law on this. Must only be trained to ride herd on the minions, and never looked inward.
@ K. Chang
I have read about “referral sales” being illegal several times on this site.
For example:
Are you saying it is illegal for an Insurance Agent, doing business in the USA, to give his clients a $100 Gift Card when they refer a new client to them?
Pure referral is legal.
Making the gift contingent on having made the sale/enrollment is illegal.
NOLINKY://www.mlmlaw.com/law-library/guides-reference/multilevel-marketing-primer/#referral
Makes sense. Thanks.
I interested join but if I have contract with att can still get cell phone discount
Just wanted to clarify a few points.
1) Recruitment: There is no commission paid on recruitment. That is a false statement. Affiliates pay $25 to join and this cost gives them access to the phone apps (iOS and Android) and the social media marketing tools provided by Turnkey Social to market on Facebook, Instagram, Pintrest, etc.
Free customers enroll for free once that launches in September. IF they decide to get the $9.95 subscription then the enroller would earn $1. But that is optional and the enroller would otherwise earn only when that customer buys something from the shopping mall.
2) IF an affiliate decides to purchase the Divvee Up subscription for $9.95 a month (it is totally optional as well), they then have access to discounts from any of the four major cell phone carriers, Travel discounts, discounts on cable, discounts on insurance, etc. all from name brand companies.
The Divvee Up subscription product pays a $1 commission toward the 3×10 as well as a $1 direct commission to the enroller. But I emphasize, paying the $9.95 is only required to earn from the uni-level part of the comp plan.
An affiliate can earn from the Matrix without paying the $9.95. That being said, free customers will want to pay the $9.95 a month because they will be getting at least $50 to $100 in savings on their different bills each month.
Point in case, my mom was paying $90 a month for her Verizon bill. Switching to Divvee is saving her $40 a month. She is happy to pay $9.95 in order to save $40, and that is just ONE of the services.
3) Divvee Social is not using an “affiliate” program for the e-commerce platform. They actually are partnered with Netsuite and Netscale (Netsuite being the number 3 database company in the world after Oracle and SAP) to host the thousands of products that will be for sale with each item really and truly having great discounts and paying commissions because they have contracted with the same buyers who get stuff from Proctor and Gamble, Costco and Best Buy and Home Depot, etc.
As an example, they really will be able to get big ticket items like 80″ televisions that normally sell for $4000 and be able to offer them for $2000 and still be able to pay out a $300 commission. But at the very least, if a customer joins and purchases some paper towels, that purchase will produce minimum $1 of commissions as that is the minimum that any product can pay out.
How can they do this? Because of the contacts that Allen Davis and primary investor Boyd Wathen have to get products directly from the manufacturers.
4) When the free app launches in September, we expect to have at the very least a 10 to 1 ratio on customers to affiliates.
Why? Because we can share a free app all day long with friends and family that offers discounts on Crest toothpaste and name brand Electronics and Huggies Diapers and tons of other items that are actually cheaper than what you’d find at Walmart knowing that they aren’t threatened by having to join an MLM and that if they buy from Divvee they are actually helping out one of their friends.
Oh, and it all has $2 shipping and handling no matter how many items you put in your shopping basket.
5) Divvee will also have it’s own brand of products. Just like Costco has Kirkland brand, Divvee will have the Richfield brand and they will offer all the traditional MLM things like essential oils, energy drinks, nutritionals, etc. but for around 50% cheaper.
1. $9.95 a month is required for full access to the Divvee MLM income opportunity, it is hardly optional.
2. Recruit new affiliate, they pay $9.95 a month and you get paid. That’s a recruitment commission.
We are splitting hairs on the definition of recruitment. It is optional in the sense that you can earn full commissions on the 3×10 side without paying the $9.95 monthly membership.
True, you need it to be qualified to earn on the Unilevel side and so yes, most people will probably want to pay it because they will make more money that way (plus it will be worth it because of the savings they get), but unless it is absolutely required in order to earn commissions at all, it is still optional.
And I have several individuals who are counting on that, not having to pay the $9.95 and being able to earn from the sales on the 3×10 and they will be able to.
Best of all though, I just saved $30 on essential oils today so my $25 subscription already paid for itself. 🙂
You may want to read on on Burnlounge decision then… They have a similar comp plan.
It’s not optional for affiliates if they need to pay it to access the entire compensation plan. It’s pseudo-compliance to claim a “pay to play” fee is optional.
I am hearing that Divvee is changing their model. They are doing some advertising model where they are building downlines to download apps or games and get paid by advertising companies to install and use them.
Supposedly comp plan layout stays the same. However, instead of getting paid on what others buy from the store we get compensated based on the apps our teams download. We will get 10 or so apps to download and try each day.
Seem like you have to be in the program to participate, so no real retail aspect. Anyone else heard about this or have any insight? Perhaps an updated review is in order.
Flagged for an update. Thanks for the heads up.
Article updated to include link to Divvee Rank & Share review.
Total pyramiding. I think it’s a scam and I think that because it is being run by a person who supposedly had his own law firm.
Pretty sure a lawyer would make more than this business would.
I payed £50 into this around 6 years ago and got nothing back. I wish I never did this and now they have my money I can’t get it back. Don’t think the company exists any more.
Definite pyramid scheme. I was lured in when I was vulnerable.