TVI Express: 7 questions you should ask before joining

NOTE: This is a companion article to "TVI Express: 8 verified facts you need to know before joining"

TVI Express claims to be a "multinational conglomerate headquartered in London, UK", and lets you make $10000+ in weeks. If it sounds too good to be true... well, it probably is. At the minimum, read the 8 facts above (and click on the links I provided so you can see for yourself), then ask yourself these questions I pose:

1. Just where exactly is TVI Express located?

If you said, London, you'd be wrong. TVI Express is no longer a London Company. They now list a Cyprus address (just go to their website, says so right at the bottom), even though they use a London phone number, and claims to be a London company. So why aren't they listed as a UK company (search in UKData.com)? Any if they are a London UK company, why do they claim that they are only subject to Cyprus and India laws? (See their Terms of Service at the bottom)

Why is this relevant? Simple: if you ever have problems, who do you call, or even arrange a face-to-face meeting? Or legally speaking, whose law is applicable? Can you afford to hire a lawyer in that area in case you have a legal dispute? To which government do you report the problem to? And why would you hand over money to a company if you don't even know where it is located?


2. Just who runs TVI Express? Who am I actually paying?

Go ahead, search the TVI Express website yourself. Just who runs TVI Express? Nobody knows. Even their website has domain privacy turned on, no info available.

Travel industry is hardly new, and neither is MLM. and TVI Express is certainly NOT the first to combine MLM and travel. A recent example is YTBI (which was shut down by CA as a pyramid scheme, by the way).

Or put it another way: why are they so afraid to show their names? Are they afraid it will somehow de-legitimize the business?


3. What do I actually get when I pay that $250 or $275 membership fee?

First, a clarification: you can join by paying TVI Express directly (but you still need a sponsor, who becomes your upline) via an outfit called Liberty Reserve in Costa Rica, and a company called Solid Trust Pay which seems to be based on Canada. You have to pay $275. You can also pay $250 to a existing member (probably your sponsor) and buy an e-voucher code from him which you can use to join as well. With wire transfer fees and exchange fees, it's more like $300.

NOTE: this is very troubling, because it's basically a way to force the sponsor to recruit more, by NOT paying him in real money, but instead with these e-vouchers which he's forced to sell by recruiting more people.

Second, the recruiting speech used to say "7-day 6-night accommodations at a 5-star hotel for 2, and return plane ticket". However, it has since been changed to "... a three to five-star hotel". Also, there's absolutely NO MENTION of what hotels in the world would this offer apply to. A list published on TVIExpress.com's announcements section seems to imply that the 11 properties open so far are all in India, and the redemption was so troublesome that only hundreds, out of the alleged 600,000 members, have actually gone on such trips. And there has been no mention of this "downgrade" on the website.


4. How exactly are you getting paid?

Let's just say that you were able to cycle out of the traveller board/matrix by finding the right people who will find more people, and you get your $250. How exactly are you getting PAID?

Members are reporting that it is nearly impossible to get paid without paying exorbitant fees (read page 3 of comments, at the bottom, esp. the one made by IronSkyDesign), as much as 20%, in order to convert that supposedly $250 into real money in a bank account. Then there are the random "pause in redemption" by either Liberty Reserve or SolidTrustPay. So, are you actually getting paid, when they say you are? Or is it just a number in your virtual "eWallet"?


5. What are you distributing / selling / providing?

Every business provides SOMETHING: either a product, or a service. When TVI Express says in its own FAQ that you do NOT need to sell anything, the only thing they have to sell is itself, which is just another word for recruiting. And that, makes it a pyramid scheme, according to the FTC.

And why would a company says that you would become an online distributor of travel, but then tell you that you don't need to sell anything, and be compensated solely for recruiting (i.e. cycling the matrix)?


6. Why are so many TVI Express members spreading false information and using bogus arguments?

Just read the TVI recruiting sites out there, and it's soon clear that most of them have NO IDEA what they're talking about. They're just repeating the stuff on the company website, and many even posted information that are simply bogus. One presented a bogus example of a Ponzi scheme, another presented some completely unrelated info, a third presented a bogus definition of pyramid scheme. Some members even resorted to making up business relationships using weasel words like "third-party relationships" or "associated with". Why? Are they in self-denial? Or are they lying to their readers?

A bigger question: are you expected to lie as well after you join, just to score more recruits? 


7. Why are the compensation package details so fuzzy?

Read the TVI Express website itself. How are you getting paid? Please, find it. You'd think that's important information, right? Apparently not. That link is actually hidden very well. And even then, the only thing defined is you can make $10000 by cycling out of two matrices (of 15 people each). There's some mumbling about "residual income" (never defined, though in a different FAQ there's something about "commission", no idea if it is the same thing), something about a "power pool" based on sales revenue (again, never defined), and something about bonuses involving yachts, vacations, luxury cars, and so on. Again, no details. Why? Wouldn't you want people to know right away HOW they can get all that stuff?

Also, the payment details gets very fuzzy. If you search on the Internet, you'll see that cycling out of the first board is $250 (in your eWallet, not cash), and $250 eVoucher (which you then sell to a new recruit). If you cycle out of the second board, you originally get $10000 + $5000 in eVouchers. However, the mention of that extra $5000 evoucher is now GONE from TVI Express website. (It can be found on some recruiter websites though, and often, people just say you get paid $15000, when in fact, you don't, and you have to sell the eVouchers to 20 people to get that $5000)


So, there you go. Seven questions you should ask yourself before you join TVI Express. They not only hinge on TVI's credibility and legitimacy, it also affects you as a participant. Remember, it's YOUR money, and do you really get paid what they claim? If you willingly participate in a fraud, and to perpetuate it by recruiting more people, you can be held responsible as well.