Vibe Direct provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the business.

Vibe Direct’s website domain (“vibe.direct”) was registered on August 26th, 2018.

Dan Robison is the registered owner, through a residential address in the US state of Florida.

Robison lead me to a defunct Vibe Direct signup page, which according to Google cache contained the following paragraph:

Vibe Direct LLC was founded in 2018 by three business partners with over 100+ years of direct sales and social marketing experience.

Dan Robison, Todd Wallace and Jerry Lambert joined forces to bring together competitive priced services with a state of the art backoffice support system.

Vibe Direct’s current signup page does not provide this information. No idea why.

Dan Robison and Todd Wallace appear to have been working together for some time.

A 2005 press-release notes they were both appointed to Y-Tel International’s Board of Directors.

Surprisingly, Robison doesn’t have much of a digital footprint. I did find a Dan Robison in Ambit Energy but I’m not 100% sure it’s the same guy.

A resume on Todd Wallace’s website cites him as COO of TruConnect Direct from 2013 to 2016.

TruConnect Direct is a wireless service MLM company. Traffic statistics for TruConnect Direct’s website suggest there’s not much activity going on.

I couldn’t find any MLM related information on Jerry Lambert.

 

Update 10th June 2019 – A reader in the comments below mentioned Lambert was in Excel Communications.

According to Lambert’s LinkedIn profile, he was a “Senior Manager” in Excel from 1995 to 1997.

Lambert’s professional background otherwise seems to be heavily communications oriented. /end update

 

Considering these three claim to have “over 100+ years of direct sales experience”, it’s odd they haven’t been very public about it.

Read on for a full review of the Vibe Direct MLM opportunity.

Vibe Direct Products

Vibe Direct offers a range of services mostly provided by third-party merchants.

  • Vibe Mobile – two $39.95 cell phone plans, “powered by” T-Mobile and AT&T
  • Vibe Deals – access to “an exclusive network of discounts”
  • ViFi – a 4G hotspot device powered by Sprint, retails at $149.95 and comes with 2 GB of data
  • ViFi data – to be used with the ViFi device, $15 for 1 GB, $25 for 2 GB, $30 for 3 GB, $45 for 5 GB or $85 for 10 GB
  • Vibe Ride – ridesharing app
  • Vibe Live – video conferencing that starts at $12.95 (a month?)

Vibe Ride appears to be the only “in-house” service Vibe Direct offers access to.

One final note, I found a February 2019 press-release on Vibe Direct’s website for Vibe TV.

Vibe TV is the newest offering from the fast-growing Vibe Direct service lineup.

Vibe TV delivers two plans, both the Family Plan and Family Plan Premium, are aimed at helping families find alternatives to traditional television and entertainment.

Both options come standard with over 70 channels, 50 hours of Cloud DVR space, ability to watch on up to 5 concurrent devices, and no contract.

No pricing is provided and for some reason Vibe TV isn’t featured in the “services” section of Vibe Direct’s website.

The Vibe Direct Compensation Plan

Vibe Direct’s compensation plan focuses on the acquisition of Customer Points.

Each active customer counts as one (1) customer point.

As I understand it, an “active customer” is any Vibe Direct customer who purchases a product or service through the company.

Although not explicitly clarified , I believe one service purchased = 1 Customer Point.

So long as an affiliate has the required number of Customer Points when a commission or bonus is calculated, they qualify for that commission or bonus.

Whether recruited affiliates count as customers is not clarified.

Note that all Vibe Direct affiliates are charged $2 a month in “processing fees”, and $1 for every commission/bonus withdrawal request they make.

Vibe Direct Affiliate Ranks

There are six affiliate ranks within Vibe Direct’s compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

  • Independent Rep – sign up as a Vibe Direct affiliate
  • Power Player – generate three Customer Points and recruit three Fast Start Bonus qualified affiliates
  • Team Player – generate ten Customer Points, recruit another three Fast Start Bonus qualified affiliates, and have a total downline of at least twenty-five Fast Start Bonus qualified affiliates
  • Senior Partner – generate fifteen Customer Points and have at least five Team Players in your downline
  • National Partner – generate twenty Customer Points and have at least five Senior Partners in your downline
  • Legend – qualification criteria not provided

Commission and Bonus Tracking

Vibe Direct tracks commission and bonus through a unilevel compensation structure.

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 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Vibe Direct pays commissions directly and then seven levels upline.

Upline affiliates must meet Personal Customer Point quotas, or they are skipped over.

In order to qualify for residual commissions across all seven upline levels, a Vibe Direct affiliate must generate and maintain fifteen Customer Points.

Quick Start Bonus

The Quick Start Bonus requires a new Vibe Direct affiliate to generate 3 Customer Points within their first twenty-one days.

The Fast Start Bonus is paid seven upline levels as follows:

  • the Fast Start Bonus qualifying new affiliate earns $50
  • the affiliate who recruited the qualifying affiliate earns $20 (must have three Customer Points)
  • the second upline affiliate receives $5 (must have three Customer Points)
  • the third to fifth upline affiliates each receive $5 (must have five Customer Points)
  • the sixth upline affiliate receives $5 (must have ten Customer Points)
  • the seventh upline upline affiliate receives $5 (must have fifteen Customer Points)

Customer Royalty Commissions

Customer Royalty commissions make up the bulk of Vibe Direct’s compensation plan.

Customer Royalty commissions are paid on specific services and products used by Vibe Direct customers.

The two Customer Royalty commission examples provided in Vibe Direct’s compensation plan pertain to the cell phone and deal subscription services.

Cell Phone Service

  • the referring affiliate is paid $1 (must have three Customer Points)
  • the affiliate who recruited the referring affiliate and the second upline are each paid 50 cents (must have three Customer Points)
  • the third to fifth upline affiliates are each paid 50 cents (must have five Customer Points)
  • the sixth upline affiliate is paid 50 cents (must have ten Customer Points)
  • the seventh upline affiliate is paid $1 (must have fifteen Customer Points)

Vibe Deals

  • the referring affiliate is paid $1 (must have three Customer Points)
  • the affiliate who recruited the referring affiliate and the second upline are each paid $1 (must have three Customer Points)
  • the third to fifth upline affiliates are each paid $1 (must have five Customer Points)
  • the sixth upline affiliate is paid $1 (must have ten Customer Points)
  • the seventh upline affiliate is paid $1 (must have fifteen Customer Points)

Although details aren’t provided, presumably commissions are paid on the other services Vibe Direct offers in the same fashion (seven levels upline).

Coding Bonus

Although Vibe Direct’s compensation plan provides payment details for a Coding Bonus, what the bonus is actually paid out on is not specified.

Just so there’s no confusion, here’s how Vibe Direct present the Coding Bonus in their compensation plan:

Again while I understand the nature of the Coding Bonus and how it’s calculated, I have no idea what it’s actually paid out on.

Joining Vibe Direct

Vibe Direct affiliate membership is $199.

Vibe Direct charges affiliates an additional $4 a month for a replicated sales website (optional).

Conclusion

For a company launched by three guys with “over 100+ years of direct sales experience”, how Vibe Direct presents its MLM opportunity to the public is certainly lacking.

While the Vibe Direct website contains lots of stock photos of smiley people, bright colors and marketing spiel, it’s extremely light on specific details.

No company ownership or management information is provided, retail pricing for most of the services is absent and compensation plan details are nowhere to be found.

Those are probably the most significant shortfalls. But they’re enough such that Vibe Direct feels like a business idea that was executed without adequate planning.

And while Vibe Direct has only recently rolled out some of its services (Vibe Ride launched on May 10th), the company itself started marketing in September 2018.

That was eight months ago so there’s really no excuse for any of the overall business presentation shortcomings referenced above.

Based on what I was able to put together on Vibe Direct’s compensation plan, the company avoids the complexity that it often found in third-party service MLM opportunities.

Instead services and products translate to Customer Points, which is easy enough to follow.

The Coding Bonus though? Considering it starts at $40 it’s pretty significant.

Who thought not explaining what the Coding Bonus is paid out was a good idea?

The glaring red flag within Vibe Direct’s business model is whether recruited affiliates count as customers.

I.e. can you recruit an affiliate, who purchases services/products and counts towards your Customer Points.

I’m leaning towards yes, because a Vibe Direct’s own purchases count as Customer Points (PCP):

Earn a Quick Start Commission when you personally get 3 PCP within your first 21 days in the business (two of the three can be for services you use yourself).

What this lends itself to is chain recruitment.

You sign up as a Vibe Direct affiliate, subscribe to a few services and to 2/3 qualify for commissions and then recruit others who do the same.

In this scenario retail can be ignored, which in an MLM opportunity is a problem.

I’m suspicious of Vibe Direct not explicitly defining a customer as someone who isn’t part of the attached MLM opportunity.

I want to give Vibe Direct the benefit of the doubt… but when their compensation plan states:

No money is ever paid out based on simply
sponsoring another IR into the team.

And then this is on their official Facebook page…

…I’m hesitant.

The good news is if indeed recruited affiliate purchases count as Customer Points, the fix is relatively easy:

Abolish self-qualification and require all Customer Point quotas to be from retail customers.

Whether that’s viable or not though is another matter.

Of Vibe Direct’s offered service, the flagship appears to be the rideshare.

This makes sense, seeing as the rest of the offered services/products are basically just resold affiliate offers.

As at the time of publication Vibe Ride is available only in Florida and Texas (I believe this has to do with where management are located).

That said, a late May update on Vibe Direct’s website states:

If you’re in TEXAS AND FLORIDA, you can drive or ride NOW.

If you’re in the below states, we open in next few weeks: AZ, UT, TN, MO, MD, PA, OH, GA, CA

And in short order, the rest of the USA.

Eventually INTERNATIONAL – earn worldwide.

Seeing as rides are paid for per trip, I’m unclear on how they fit into Vibe Direct’s compensation plan.

The obvious answer would be splitting the ride commission over the same seven upline levels, but it’d be nice for Vibe Direct to provide this information to the public.

What distinguishes Vibe Ride from other ridesharing services is the attached MLM opportunity.

Not providing this information to potential affiliates and even customers (transparency is important), seems to be a classic case of shooting one’s self in the foot.

If Vibe Direct wants to compete with Uber, Lyft et al, not focusing on the main thing that differentiates them is a mistake they can’t afford to make.

Sure the gig industry is still maturing but it’s already pretty competitive.

Another mistake I think the company makes is nickel-and-diming affiliates for a replicated website.

Once put together, the only costs associated with a website are ongoing development and hosting.

This is part of the cost of doing business though. Vibe Direct charging each affiliate $4 a month for what sounds like a pretty crucial marketing tool…

Vibe Direct has spent an enormous amount of time and effort to develop and predesign this professional website just for your business.

Your website will explain your business to others and provide the links necessary to personally sponsor IR’s and Retailers.

This website will also be a useful selling tool when explaining our services to potential customers.

…comes across as being exceptionally cheap.

Had Vibe Direct only launched a few months ago I’d be willing to write off much of this criticism as growing pains.

Given the company is entering its fourth operational quarter however, it’s just not good enough if Vibe Direct wan’t to be taken seriously.

And again… “over 100+ years of direct sales experience”.

Approach with caution.