TVI Express: messing with your mind even as they con you

TVI Express loves to use language with multiple meanings. Just look at their slogan:

"Touching Lives Globally".

So, what is the definition of "touching"?

touch - affect: have an effect upon; "Will the new rules affect me?"

The effect is neither positive nor negative. Yet because it had an exclamation mark at the end, most people assume that the effect is positive. 

Most Spanish translation of the slogan is "Cambiando Vidas Globalmente", or "changing lives globally".

They assumed.

“Assumption is the mother of the screw-up” -- Angelo Donghia (from thinkexist.com)

Those who assumed that TVI Express is "benevolent", had already screwed up. What was the other expression? Ah, yes...


"Do NOT assume. ASSUME makes an ASS out of U and ME."


Yes, a very American English joke this is. 


Here's another case... TVI Express contracted with some Phillipines outfit for net streaming for their "pre-launched" in the Phillipines. Guess what outfit they used?


pimps.ws


No, I am NOT kidding. See for yourself. For those who are not familiar with English, here's definition for "pimp". 


That was a very unfortunate acronym.


What other "doublespeak" have you found with TVI Express?
 

TVI Express has some cult characteristics

Image by Viktor Kaposi via Flickr

What is a cult? Definition varies, but most people assume it has to do with religion.

No, I am not suggesting that TVI Express is a religion. I am saying that TVI Express shares SOME characteristics with a cult.

Which ones? Very simple. Those who demand blind obedience from their people are cult leaders.

Yet that is what some TVI Express distributors are demanding of their prospective members. Look at no outside information. Ignore criticism. DO NOT THINK. Only TVI Express is okay. It is us against them.

Don't believe me? Look at what this Indonesia TVI Express member wrote, when responding to people who found some criticism of TVI Express, and ask him to explain the criticisms.

" Immediately stop analyzing, stop worrying, stop suspicious."

This is known as "Aura of Sacred Silence" in cult studies.

"The aura of Sacred Silence - Prohibiting any questioning of the basic dogma, the cult’s laws, regulations and rules are absolute and must be followed."

 In fact, the further you look, the more cult characteristics you will find. Here's another one...

"The Demand for Purity - The world is sharply divided between pure and impure with the group in the role of ultimate judge. "

In TVI Express terms, those who criticize TVI Express are the enemy, probably some sort of conspiracy with their "ulterior motives", such as evil bosses out to exploit the poor, and keep them poor (whereas TVI Express can enrich the poor, so they claim). Or perhaps we are competitors of MLM, out to "salt the earth" and stunt the growth of TVI Express.

Guess that would make them a cult of paranoia, like the 2012 doomsday cults.

What other cultish characteristics do you see in TVI Express?

TVI Express website down for more than 24 hours. The end?

TVI Express was down yesterday as "under scheduled maintainence"

Then today the screen changed to "under technical audit"

Now it is gone completely, with "502 Bad Gateway" error.

EDIT: Wait, it's back to "technical audit"

But what's interesting is the fine print...

"Website is scheduled to be back shortly, however, new sign ups and member area will remain inaccessible until further notice". 

Is this the end of TVI Express? One can wish!

EDIT: They're back, as of 10-AUG-2010. Any one notice if their sign ups and member area is working?

TVI Express Indonesia uses the Borg argument

Image via Wikipedia

Read the following Indonesian website FAQ from http://tviexpressjakarta.wordpress.com/faqs/ as rendered through Google Translate. (Slightly edited for formatting, no words were changed)

Q:TVI Express I was interested in this, that's what I was looking for as much info about this Express TVI. Well, here are some websites that I found, that tells about the "lies" TVI Express this business:

http://90recruits.blogspot.com/2009/09/tvi-express-scam.html

http://www.mreload.com/TVI/

http://kschang.blogspot.com/

Please could give an explanation.

Thank you.

A: Yes I also have studied the web-site. TVI Express is purely business and there is no element of deception at all. In case of movement of TVI Express would lie in Indonesia even the WORLD will stop, but the reality is not, TVI Express is getting larger and more powerful?.

You spend time and energy with worry, anxiety that really hurt. While the Member TVI Express with extraordinary spirit who is building their business empire. Immediately stop analyzing, stop worrying, stop suspicious. Immediately take part in this business "while" very good momentum.

So this guy basically says

"Objections are irrelevant. Concerns are irrelevant. You will join us."

Just like the Borg, aren't they?  The only difference is they don't inject nanoprobe into you.

I hate to say this, but whoever joins this guy needs his or her brains checked.

Another TVI Express member realized he'd been suckered

He was so excited, he joined, then he realized the whole thing went nowhere. Nothing happened. Nobody had the same enthusiasm he did. He was blinded by greed, but sucked in by his friend "Bob", and joined without "due diligence". 

http://scottwagstaffonline.com/tvi-express-touching-lives-globally/

"I tried the same approach as everyone else and had no luck getting people to sign up into my business.  It seemed that everyone I talked too had the same concern, it just sounds too good to be true!"

TVI Express member says "you have to lie to earn"

Read what Mr. Cosens, a TVI Express member (or ex-member) says about TVI Express:

http://www.alancosens.com/tvi-express-experience-not-so-good/

"Yes, you can make money with  TVI Express, but you have to mislead to do so."

7 key traits of MLM analysis applied to TVI Express

Raymond Fong on betternetworker wrote an article on 7 traits of MLM for you to consider. Let's apply his "system" to TVI Express, and see how it turns out:

http://www.betternetworker.com/articles/view/mlm-news/companies/christina-aguilera-7-tell-tale-signs-of-mlm

1. Does the Company Allow Its Distributors to Use Its Brand Name?

Simply put, do you get in trouble if you so much as publicly mention the company’s name and announce that you are a distributor?  Does their legal police come knocking and threatening you with a lawsuit on the basis of trademark infringement?

TVI Express supposedly has limits in the terms and conditions, and disclaimer sections of their website, that says your right to use their content is limited. However, nobody thus far has EVER been punished in public for violating any of those limits or restrictions. 

2. Analyze the RISK Factor

Welcome to the business world where risk is an inherent aspect of our daily lives 

Ask yourself what you are/will be giving up to be a part of this business opportunity - give up in terms of money, time, effort, etc.  Then ask yourself... do the (potential) rewards justify these things you are giving up?

About TVI Express... the risk is you are recruiting family and friends, as well as a lot of making stuff up, and/or telling a lot of half-lies. For example, will you tell your friends and family that "TVI Express is a company headquartered in London UK" when it is in based based in India and Cyprus?  Who will you recruit once you ran out of family and friends? Will you risk only $250+fees for ONE membership, or will you go for multiple memberships? What will you tell your friends and family if this turned out to be a scam?

3. How Good is the Product?

If a product blows, is overpriced, and/or undesirable, that makes for a pretty tough business model to build on eh?  Examine the product carefully, don't get sucked in by the razzle-dazzle compensation plan, that comp plan means jack if you can't sell the product and can't get anyone excited about selling the product.

As there is no product to sell to the outside, there is no business model. The compensation plan is all razzle-dazzle. Nobody even know what the product is.  

4. What’s the Compensation Plan Like?

This is simple... WILL you get paid and WILL you get paid enough within the timeframe you want? 

Some MLM companies have compensation plans that pay you well while others have compensation plans that only PRETEND to pay you.  Get me?

Before you claim you got paid $10000 or whatever about TVI Express, you *did* read that they only pay you via eWallet, right? If you want REAL money in your pocket, you have to transfer that eWallet to somebody like LibertyReserve, THEN from there to your bank, paying fees and taxes and other at EACH STEP. So, do you really get paid? NOT EXACTLY. 

5. Is the Training All Just “Hoo-Rah-Rah”?

You know how this goes... when you show up for functions, meeting, and live events, are they all just “hoo-rah-rah” or do they actually have any substance? 

If they are all just about pumping you up, then how do you expect to grow as business person trying to grow a sizable business?  Find a company that is interested in developing you as a person, entrepreneur, and marketer.

Any training is strictly unofficial, and mostly hoo-rah-rah.  How many ways can you recruit somebody?

6. Does It Allow You to Market the Way YOU Want to Market?

It’s called network/multi level MARKETING for a reason.. because the idea is that you are suppose to MARKET your business/those products – I know, what a concept right?

Technically there is no limit on how you can market in TVI Express, but how many ways are really there? All the videos have been copied. All the webcam-style appeals already done. Email is boring. TV ads and Radio Ads are expensive, and returns are nebulous, and draws attention from the authorities.  You *could* set up a booth at a flea market, but you risk too much face time in uncontrolled location. There is a reason why TVI Express thrives on the Internet... virtual anonymity, and virtual lawlessness.

7. Personal Experience… So Far

You may not have had much experience with that specific company but maybe you’ve had SOME.  From what you’ve seen and know so far, how do they make you feel?

How did/does your upline and team make you feel?  At the end of the day, if, for whatever reason, you have some negative feelings toward this opportunity, you ought to examine why and perhaps even considering something else that makes you feel better.

That, is up to you. I can't speak for you, I can only speak for myself. 

I know a LOT about TVI Express, and I can tell you that I wouldn't touch TVI Express with a 10-foot pole. You are virtually REQUIRED to tell half-lies or outright lies to people ("it is headquartered in London!"), use logical fallacies to prove your point ("it pays, therefore it is legitimate!"), and so on. If you can actually sleep well at night after telling so many lies, I would suggest a career in politics, not TVI Express.

The SHOCKING TRUTH TVI Express members do not realize

No, it's NOT that it is a scam. That's obvious, and irrelevant to most members.

The fact is your chance of getting that $10000 credited to your eWallet (and let's NOT EVEN talk about getting that money OUT of your eWallet and into your REAL wallet), is roughly, 0.48%.

And there are NOTHING you can do to improve your odds of earning money.

Why? Let us take a look again at TVI Express compensation package.

1) You have to cycle out of the traveller's board/matrix/whatever. That's like 14 people below you, right?

2) You have to then cycle out of the express board/matrix/whatever. Again, 14 people below you.

Now, do the math. How many people below you TOTAL? It's NOT 14. It's 14 squared. Why? Everybody below you also needed 14 below each of them to cycle THEM out of their own traveller's board/matrix/whatever.

Add that to your original 14, and you get 15x14 = 210.

Invert that, and you get 0.00476, or roughly 0.48%. That is your chance of success.

Or in other words: out of every 200 people in TVI Express, less than 1 will get that $10000.

And you CANNOT improve your odds at all. Because there is NOTHING that you actually sell to make money. All you do is recruit. The only thing you can do is accelerate the process, by recruiting more people. But that does NOT improve your odds.

Remember TVI Express FAQ: "you do not need to sell any products." "You need to recruit two people, and tech each how to recruit two more people."

The odds are fixed. All you can do is expand the pool of losers, to enlarge the pool of winners.

Think about that.

"The Voice" again warns people about TVI Express, a pyramid scheme

Read it yourself in its entirety if you wish, but here's an excerpt:

" it’s worth repeating the advice we gave again as a warning to all readers of The Voice.
TVI describe themselves as a Direct Selling company which is just another way of describing Multi-Level or Network Marketing schemes. Others would just describe them as a pyramid-structured selling scheme."

TVI Express Members: very good at leaving out facts

TVI Express members seem to be very good at leaving out facts. Either they are ignorant (simply unaware of these facts) or they are willfully developing a blindspot toward the facts. Here's Mr. John Piro's website, and how he neglected to mention a lot of acts.

You can see Mr. Piro's website at http://tvioptin.weebly.com/  It's just a couple videos he borrowed from TVI Express (hey, where DID they say you can copy this?) plus a webcam style appeal to you. However, we'll concentrate on the text. I'll put my comments in RED.

So lets recap on the key facts here

what you get for your $250 :

* private club wholesale travel membership
(wrapped in a compensation plan, so its members will literally travel for free and earn a considerable amount of money at the same time!)

Except this "private wholesale club travel membership" is exactly the same as Travelocity.com, which is FREE TO USE. And remember, "you don't need to sell any products" from the FAQ. So where does "earn considerable amount of money" come from?

* A top team helping you to succeed

So you have a bunch of people who wants to "inspire" you to recruit more people, not to actually sell something

* $250 3-5 star hotel travel voucher

Which you can't redeem without paying another $150 as "taxes and processing fees".

* low risk / high return

Low risk? If you ONLY buy ONE position, sure. $250. But often you are encouraged to buy multiple positions. And where is the high return coming from, if you sell nothing?

* TVI Express is verified by Trust Guard which is one of the top Compliance Companies in the US. Address, phone number and legalilties have been successfully verified and you can find a proof of the same by going to the footer of TVI's official website.

TVI Express is one of the few companies what as DISENROLLED by Trust-Guard, back in 2009. There is no Trust-Guard badge on TVI Express website now, and you can verify this yourself by going to trust-guard.com or click on link below
https://secure.trust-guard.com/certificates/www.tviexpress.com

* TVI is duly incorporated and is managing its financial operations wonderfully well. Many people have got their payouts transferred to their Bank Accounts which shows that TVI is not just a website and is a properly managed International Company.

TVI Express is duly incorporated in INDIA and CYPRUS, yet claims to be "headquartered in London, UK" when it has no office in London at all.
Pyramids can pay for a while before it collapses.

* TVI's office is on the Business listing of Google and if any business has to be listed on google, they need to get themselves verified. This is another fact that count towards the legitimacy of the Organization.

TVI Express's listing on Google is "owner-verified", which means they verified it themselves, NOT by Google. See for yourself... says "photo provided by owner"  

* They have been backed by World Choice Travel to provide Travel inventory to its members which is also the backing company of two more Multi Millionaire Brands.
Yet what exactly *does* TVI Express sell through distributors to outside? Memberships, NOT travel. Their FAQ says very clearly: "you do not need to sell any products." "You need to recruit two people, and teach each to recruit two more people."  As you need to sell nothing, having a reliable provider of travel to sell also means nothing. 

So what has Mr. John Piro proved? 

1. He either doesn't understand TVI Express, or doesn't care that it sells nothing
2. He works with outdated facts (Trust-Guard Customer Support told me that TVI Express was dis-enrolled back in Fall 2009)
3. He does absolutely NO fact checking of his own statements (about Google business listing as "verified by Google" when it is actually owner-verified)
4. He dangles $$$ in front of you three times, yet has no idea where does the money come from
5. He used logical fallacy "if it pays, it must be legit" to "prove" TVI Express is legit. He failed to consider that pyramid scheme will pay for a while, until the scheme collapses due to lack of new victims.

 Sorry, but he's not very convincing.