TVI Express (Travel Ventures Intl) Member Lies Vol 7: Lies about the Court case ACCC vs. TVI Team OZ, Tarun Trikha lies

Welcome to latest installment of TVI Express Member Lies, now at Volume 7 (and counting). Today, we will concentrate out analysis at an Indonesian TVI Express website, where they published an alleged e-mail from TeamTVIOz and Tarun Trikha, TVI Express advisory board member, where they claim the ACCC court injunction is baseless, and they will defeat ACCC. Do their arguments actually hold any water?

The original is at http://www.kliktviexpress.com/pengumuman. As I don't read Indonesian, I'll concentrate on the English portions.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The website apparently is tired of their own lies and changed the page. However, here's a facebook archive of the same message: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=102721546436429&topic=62&post=272 )

To start, TeamTVIOz and TVI Express claims eventual victory. Why?

ACCC is a commissioned body in Australia which looks after various businesses and places a restriction on them without informing them and without investigating the actual facts. They do it with all major companies and in MLM industry, they did it with Amway, ACN and many more organizations. For your knowledge, ACCC has lost all 20 cases in one go. Ours will be 21^st.

Following is a URL on ACCC's website where they challenged ACN very much like our business and got beaten up:

http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/712090

So TVI Express claims similarity to ACN, and thus, claims that like ACN, TVI Express will beat ACCC. However, if you actually read the link they provided, you'll see that TVI Express is NOTHING like ACN. To quote from the link itself:

... if the [ACN] recruiter does no more than recruit other participants there is no entitlement to any payment; the benefits the recruiter gets come from customers for telephone services and from ACN.

In other words, if an ACN recruiter recruits customers that doesn't buy any ACN product (phones) or phone service, the recruiter does not get paid.

In TVI Express, you get paid for recruiting only. It does not matter whether any one you recruit buys any travel or not, you still get paid. In the entire compensation package, ALL FOUR types of compensation are based on recruiting, two of them completely so. Board payout is based on recruiting, that's obvious as you have to fill the board, two boards in fact. Residual income is based on the number of downlines you have. Power pool share percentage is based on how many times you've cycled through the express board (and you only cycle through through recruiting), and finally, the incentives (yachts, luxury cars, computers) are also based on number of times you've cycled through the express board.

TVI Express also failed to mention that ACN opened their books for audit by the ACCC, and fully cooperated with the investigation. Also, ACN has an integrity panel and a code of ethics, TVI Express lacks both.

Thus, TVI Express is nothing like ACN, and claiming they will defeat ACCC like ACN is at best, wishful thinking, or at worst, outright lie.

TeamTVIOz then claims to quote WFDSA, the world body of direct sellers, to prove they are NOT a pyramid scheme. However, what they quoted does not correspond with what's on WFDSA's website. TVI Express wrote

A pyramid scheme is defined by following characteristics:

--> No product
--> Returns for investments
--> People only at the top make money and rest don’t. All late comers lose their money.

As per the WFDSA and any Direct Selling body, above mentioned are the points which define a Pyramid scheme.

The problem is WFDSA's website says something else...

Numerous legislatures around the globe have proscribed pyramid selling. The wording of relevant statutes, codes, articles, acts, regulations and the like vary, but all contain the following core concept: A pyramid is a scheme in which a recruit pays (an entry fee) for the opportunity to receive future benefits (money or privileges) which are primarily derived from that recruit's (and/or subsequent recruits') introduction of additional participants in the scheme, rather than from the sale of products to consumers.

-- http://www.wfdsa.org/legal_reg/index.cfm?fa=pyramid

This real definition from WFDSA bears NO RESEMBLANCE to what TVI Express had quoted.

Who is lying? You decide.

This is known as a "strawman" defense, and it is a logical fallacy. Basically, TVI Express presented a certain definition (the strawman) which is a MISREPRESENTATION of the actual argument, defeats the strawman, and claims the actual argument had been defeated. That would be a lie. If they present this in court, they will lose.

Now let us analyze the excuses they offered individually:

TVI Express claims that ACCC's charge of "no product" is bogus. Is it? TVI Express wrote:

a) No product
We are a valued travel company having corporate tie ups with RCI, Cambay Resorts, Sarovar Hotels, Fave Hotel and a few other hotels and resorts. The online booking engine has delayed but that does not mean that we do not have a product. We have been giving accommodations to thousands of people which proves we have a product.

WFDSA never said that a pyramid scheme has no product. In fact, quote from the same page:

"A closer inspection of a pyramid scheme's so called "products" typically reveals that they have no real market value. This is because the products are often "gimmicks" such as certificates, spurious training programs or magazine subscriptions, illusory discounts, or over-priced and under-performing "miracle" treatments and the like."

And that's exactly that that "certificate for 7-day 6-night accommodations" is... a gimmick.What else would you call a "product" that less than 1% of people actually used, and redemption problem persisted for nearly a year now?

Where did I get the 1% number? Read their own announcement: "We have been giving accommodations to thousands of people which proves we have a product." Out of a million members (which TVI Express and TeamTVIOz claims, in the SAME webpage), they have redeemed merely thousands to prove they have a product. Even if we take "thousands" to be "ten thousand", that's a mere 1% redemption rate, so the argument is 1% effective. It proves that TVI Express product is only 1% effective. That is not a product. That is a marketing gimmick and downright DECEPTIVE!

Furthermore, query to RCI shows that they have never heard of "TVI Express", and any claims of "corporate tie up" is "unauthorized". As for the other hotel chains, they are in India and Indonesia, hardly "across the world".

Furthermore, now that TVI Express had started charging extra $150 USD to redeem this 7-day 6-night offer, it basically proves that the $250 is the joining fee into the pyramid scheme, NOT to buy the 7-day 6-night product. The certificate is not worth $250 at all, not when you need to pay another $150 to redeem it.

Finally, what do you think TVI Express FAQ "you do not need to sell any products" actually means? Why have products that no one need to sell? The two statements are not compatible. So which is wrong? As one is the OFFICIAL TVI Express FAQ, and the other is from an UNOFFICIAL letter from source unknown, the only logical conclusion is that the above statement "we have product" is wrong.

TVI Express denies being an investment scheme

b) Returns for investments

We do not promise any returns to our members, nor do we operate as an investment scheme. It is a workable plan wherein members make money by referring other people which is just like any other traditional business where more sales means more commissions.

This is a strawman, because they are trying to claim that their pyramid scheme is not a Madoff-style Ponzi scheme. A pyramid scheme does NOT have to be about investment, and arguing they are NOT investment is irrelevant. Nobody is charging them as investment fraud.

It is interesting that this is the same argument they gave when they WERE charged as a fraudulent investment scheme in Sikkim, India. Apparently those chose to recycle an old argument, even though it is irrelevant.

TVI Express also mixed in ANOTHER denial, but completely unrelated to their denial that TVI Express is not an investment scheme, in the second sentence. They claim they are sales people who recruit (referring other people), which is the same as sales people selling things, and earning more commissions.

TVI Express completely ignore the fact that commission based on actual sales is legal, but commission based on RECRUITING is NOT legal when the person recruited (the recruitee) is expect to do the same... recruit more people. That is a pyramid scheme.

We also terminate positions of members who try to collect money from market projecting us as an investment scheme. Out of 1 Million members, company cannot be held liable for a few wrong doings of members. We are clear of what we do and how.

They do? Did you ever see a list of "banned members" on ANY TVI Express related website? I sure haven't. And where on TVI Express website do you see "Thou shall not do..." lists? Nowhere. In fact, there is no "Code of Conduct" for TVI Express distributors. There might have been some fine print in the website, but when you join, were you given a full list of terms and conditions, what to do and not to do, when you join? Did your upline go over it with you? No! You pay, you go recruit, and hopefully you make money!

Furthermore, note this: TVI Express itself has made NO announcements. So if Tarun Trikha, the "advisory board member" is the real liar, then nobody below him or ever heard from him can be held responsible, nor can TVI Express. This is like Mission Impossible: anything you do will be disavowed. TVI Express is defining appropriate conduct UNOFFICIALLY, and that is not the way a reputable company would do business.

According to TVI Express, a pyramid is flat, because everybody has "equal opportunity".

c) People only at the top make money and rest don’t. All late comers lose their money.

Our compensation plan is based upon Revolving Matrix and a Matrix plan is not new. Some people even with less information claim Binary as a pyramid. What they don’t tend to understand is that there is much to a business model and compensation plan than just a structure.

A plan growing in a pyramid structure like binary cannot be a pyramid scheme.

Again, strawman. Brought up a bunch of other info that sounds good, but ultimately meaningless. The plan relies on recruiting two or more people, and that is the definition of pyramid scheme. They just threw out a bunch of buzzwords like compensation plan and business model, but not saying anything, except claiming legitimacy, but with NO FACTS to back up the claim.

Coming to our compensation plan, we give equal opportunity to everyone and all members start from level 1 of Traveller Board. There are thousands of examples who came later and made money than those who joined earlier.

Both sentences are irrelevant. A pyramid have to start somewhere, and somebody has to be on top, the "tip of the iceberg". How that person gets started is simply IRRELEVANT to the fact that in a pyramid scheme, the person who cycles out takes the money from all below him. You can throw in some "jump-over" rules, but it still does not change the fact: in a pyramid, the losers will outnumber the winners by a HUGE margin. In case of TVI Express, with "double matrix", the ratio is 1 to 210 or so. 1 winner, 200+ losers.

With a million members, it's clear that the few "thousands" on top will be the earners, and those who joined later (the rest of million members) will be the losers. LESS THAN HALF PERCENT will cash out that $10000, so the other NINETY-NINE AND A HALF PERCENT are what? Equal opportunity losers, of course. Their "equal opportunity" actually means "you can also be a winner if you recruit enough losers", and that is the problem of a pyramid scheme: eventually, the world runs out of losers.

If this is the type of argument TVI Express and TeamTVIOz hopes to present in court against the ACCC in Australia, TVI Express is doomed.

And considering this letter is allegedly from Tarun Trikha (it is signed "Tarun" at the end) and the fact that he is NOT a TVI Express corporate officer, but just an advisory board member, who job is to advise other distributors... One must conclude that Tarun Trikha really has NO RIGHT to speak for TVI Express, can you take ANYTHING he says seriously?

Yet his letters and e-mails are treated as if it's TVI Express gospel. TVI Express itself says nothing.Tarun Trikha is the "face" of TVI Express, as he had been representing TVI Express for over a year now, having been spotted in TVI Express "conventions" all over the world. It is clear that Tarun Trikha is the ultimate fraudster.

Is this the sort of business you want to get involved in?