IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON by Peter Stilphen, MCC
This newsletter was started 5 years ago as a training and information tool for my Coral Sands Travel agents and has evolved into a straight talking, no holds bared newsletter; opinionated but researched newsletter discussing the dark side of the travel agent distribution system. My newsletter was then and continued today to try and warn travel agents and the industry about the bad guys and at the same time try to bring some order of decency to the Host Agency business model. I started the Host Agency organization, PATH, for these reasons.
About four years ago, Joel Abels, beloved publisher of Travel Trade newspaper and magazine met, on different occasions, a new player on the scene named Bill Alverson, CEO of JoyStar. Joel and I came to the same conclusions about Mr.Alverson. He was not to be trusted. Joel and I did our own separate investigations. As a result Joel would not allow JoyStar to advertise in his newspaper , nor have a booth in his trade show. My investigation showed that Mr. Alverson operated a company called TravelMax International which ultimately suffered the same fate at his recent JoyStar. I spent 4 years warning the travel agent and the rest of the industry about the bad business model of JoyStar and its gimmicky advertising and marketing. A few agents and RCL eventually listened. However most didn't and here we are today with hundreds of agents not receiving their commissions and JoyStar in bankruptcy court fighting the myriad of attorneys, motions, etc.
My job is done as it pertains to JoyStar other than helping these travel agents find new homes (Host Agencys) and listening to some terrible and hard stories due to the loss of commissions. JoyStar's future and its assets are now in the hands of a Federal bankruptcy judge. It's time for me to move on.
The media from this point, I'm sure, will continue to write on JoyStar and Bill Alverson or you can subscribe to this case via the internet.
Bill Alverson dubbed me the "Grumpy Old Agent" and I guess he was right for once.
IS YTB NEXT?
It is my opinion, again after careful research, that YTB will not be in the travel business by the end of 2009 and may be out of business all together.
I believe that the larger suppliers like Carnival are or should be discussing these MLMs and card mills. The suppliers have experienced tremendous chaos via telephone calls from agents and general pressure from the travel industry as a result of the JoyStar situation. Many of these MLMs and card mills are much bigger and have many more agents than JoyStar. When one of them collapses, the large suppliers will be totally overwhelmed. I am saying they need to think ahead as NCL recently did and pull the plug using an orderly time frame giving agents more time to transfer their bookings.
I am recommending that suppliers begin with my list of the more prominent MLMs and card mills listed separately in this newsletter and create a termination program. None of the suppliers would suffer any loss of these bookings as they would just be transfered to another Host Agency.
JoyStar claimed to have 4000 agents, YTB has over 100,000. Should YTB or any of these pyramiders go down quickly, imagine the fall out and chaos. I would hope that IATAN, CLIA and other organizations take a good look at the various Host Agency models and make the necessary changes to protect travel agents and the consumer.
We continue to hear about the multi-level-marketing activities of the people in this business. Usually, it is never in a "good light" and one, especially me, wonders why this sleazy profession is still around. You just need to "Google" MLMs or card mills and you will bring up the sites that are pro and con about this subject. Also try www.scams.com or www.ripoff.com.
I've often wondered who these individuals are that get into this business and why they do it. Armed with my own psychoanalysis credentials, I decided to do some research. I have great credentials. I have seen two episodes of Dr. Phil's TV show, and I stayed once at a Holiday Inn Express. Here's what I discovered.
MLM executives were actually born with a rare gene known as "ripyouoff". The gene brings out various traits almost at infancy. We learned that babies born with this gene were the ones who cried incessantly in the nursery just to receive attention. Their huge ego will be with them all through childhood and last until they are incarcerated, chased from the State or the Devil decides to take them once and for all.
During their childhood years it was not uncommon to see a resourceful MLM practitioner have several businesses. Many of them began a business at a very early age. They had newspaper routes, sold lemonade in the front of their house or even sold girl scout cookies. What made these individuals different was that they had to have another version of the same business and felt the more involved they could get people, the more money they could make.
The kid with the bad gene was more apt to water down the lemonade to increase profits or even to recruit other kids to sell his newspapers paying each kid a tiny percentage of what he actually received from his employer. Same with the girl scout cookies. Recruiting each girl scout and rewarding them based on bringing in additional recruits until he ran out of girl scouts. This worked for a short while, just as today,s MLM venture works for a short while.
I discovered that most all MLM executives have had no business experience other than multi level marketing. It's probably because they couldn't hold down a regular position because their only goals were to get rich quick. Have you ever been curious as to why these same executives have wandered from one MLM activity to another? The reason is that eventually they run out of recruits for a particular product, the State's Attorney General shuts them down for operating a pyramid or the game just gets old. MLM executives do not care about the product they are supposed to be selling as it's all about recruiting and creating a huge pyramid.
MLM executives are generally very lonely people. The reason is that during their life of deceiving and BS..ing their family and friends and the public, they have lost these people in their lives. Have you ever gone to a Pet Smart store and seen the unfortunate dogs and cats sitting in their cages crying out for adoption and love and to your surprise, saw a cage that read "Lonely MLM Executive Needs Good and Loving Home- Completely re-trained." Please adopt that dog or cat instead.
Do you really believe the MLM executives now involved in the travel business care about travel? Of course not. It's about how much money they can make recruiting and the size of the toys they purchase that's important to them. Take a good look at the fools that follow them. It's all about greed and that MLM executive knows it and will take you for all you are worth.
The next time you are at an MLM convention make a statement. Stand up during a speech, flip the speaker the bird and yell out "I'm outta here."
I would like to know what your folks would do with a destination like the one in Canmore- people are being scammed left and right and there is nothing being done.
http://www.cheatauworld.ca
Do you deal with folks like that?
Posted by: Val | October 26, 2009 at 01:48 AM