TVI Express cannot deliver its own promise on travel

One of the reasons TVI Express proponents cite to "legitimize" TVI Express is what you get for $250... "7-day 6-night accommodations at a 5-star hotel for two, AND return ticket". Says so right on this TVI recruiting site. (Incidentally, press Ctrl-A, and see how much keyword and link spamming this site uses... most of the links are not visible!)

It is very interesting to note that there is NO LONGER ANY MENTION of this 7-day 6-night thing on TVI Express's own website. If you can find a link to it, please let me know.

I found the link the the 7-day 6-night thing. It's actually right on the front page, at the bottom. However, it has been updated to say 3- to 5-star hotel. Here's what it would have looked like BEFORE the change:

http://www.tviexpressinfo.com/sitebuilder/images/tviexpress_products-277x172.png

It appears that TVI Express cannot even deliver on that promise. What you actually get apparently, is just an e-mail with a PICTURE of a certificate (that you can printout), that says you're a member, and the code on the certificate is redeemable for accommodations at a 3 to 5-star property. That's right, you have been DOWNGRADED. And there's no mention of the "return tickets" at all.

And how do you redeem this? You have to go on the TVI Express website on the redeem section. It's NOT just anything that you can book. It had to be something they had a deal with. So who can you book with? You will need to check their own announcement: booking status update. They use some Javascript tricks to prevent direct linking and hid the URL. I'll reproduce the pop-up here:

Booking Status Update

Monday, February 01 2010

Dear Members,

We are pleased to announce the launch date of our much awaited standalone booking portal on 1st March, 2010. The initial booking system we launched couldn't support booking requests of masses and hence, laid the foundation for the development of a fully online booking system to ensure speedy processing.

Not just that, the upcoming portal will enable you to have live access to a real-time inventory of thousands of hotels and resorts in over 200 countries. The portal has been developed in order to establish a booking processing time of 72 working hours and to ensure that all members enjoy a superb vacation experience.

We are conducting final implementations and stringent tests so that there is no scope for glitches once we make the systems live. Our extensive database of hotels and resorts will have more than six thousand,  3 - 5 star properties listed so that our members have a wide range of options to choose from and new locations will be added from time to time.

Many members across the globe have cherished their dream vacations through TVI Express and since 1st January, 2010 a handful of Indian destinations have also been made available for availing our exuberant vacation packages.

As an endeavour to satisfy as many requests as possible we facilitated an offline booking system through our India office establishment. Following is the list of resorts in India where accommodations can be booked from 25th February once our India operations go live.


1) Cambay Grand, Ahmedabad
2) Cambay Sapphire,  Ahmedabad
3) Cambay Spa & Golf Resort, Gandhinagar
4) Cambay Spa & Golf Resort, Kukas, Jaipur
5) Cambay Golf Resort, Jamdoli, Jaipur
6) Cambay Spa & Resort Udaipur
7) Cambay Palm Lagoon, Kerela
8) Cambay Beach Resort, Goa
9) Cambay Boutique Apartments, Gurgaon
10) Fair Stay Resort ,Ooty
11) Fair Stay Resort, Kodaikanal

Click here to download fact sheets of the resorts mentioned above.


This destination list in India will be topped up with another 30 resorts in the month of March as the contractual agreements are already being processed. Hundreds of members have enjoyed their stays at our above listed 5 star properties and you can be a part of their lifetime experience by going through their testimonials on our website. The bookings in India will be open for global member-base from 25th February, 2010 onwards as the Bangalore office Customer service goes live.

P.S. Bookings already initiated in the past will be reset with a refreshed validity so that the certificate can be redeemed using the new portal and the validity of accounts will be increased by 6 months to compensate for the delays happened so far in making accommodations available.

Your patience in this regard is highly appreciated. Hope your stay at our associated properties will make all the wait worth it! Have a great stay!

Regards,

The TVI Express Team
Touching Lives Globally!

So what does that all mean? Read the sentence carefully:

"Hundreds of members have enjoyed their stays at our above listed 5 star properties"

Wait a minute... For a company that claims 600,000 members, each of which got one of these redeemable certificates, only hundreds of members have actually enjoyed ANY sort of a trip? And they are all in INDIA? WTF?!?!?!

"The bookings in India will be open for global member-base from 25th February, 2010 onwards"

In other words, for those of you NOT in India, you can come visit the 5-star hotels in India "soon".

Who the **** would want to redeem hotel vouchers in INDIA (except those already living there or live close by?)

Also, let's check the rates. Here's the rate given for Cambay Grand Hotel Ahmedabad, the first on the list. Click on the $ sign to convert that to dollars, and you get the cheapest room at $112 USD. Heck, you can't even get a Holiday Inn room for that price in San Francisco!

So *that* is how TVI Express can afford to give you 7-day 6-night accommodations: by offering them in places you don't want to go and price is terribly cheap!

And you STILL think TVI Express is a legit venture? You need serious head-shrinking.