They Once Were Lost...But Now Are Found...
I’m sure it’s no secret that YTB isn’t the only Travel MLM in the industry. With all the attention YTB has been getting you’d be hard pressed to find anything out there about any other company.
While I do like to keep tabs on some of the others in the industry, none of them have really amounted to much, although one company certainly wants to amount to something much more than YTB.
I’ve heard it said that those of us in YTB happen to be an extremely arrogant bunch. I’ve often laughed at that notion because from my experience, YTB doesn’t hold a candle to the arrogance of a young, little known startup in the industry known as TraVerus.With some of the “press” YTB has had over the last 6 months I have been inundated with offers from members of this particular company to make the switch to a (cough) “Real Travel Company”. There was a time when one out of every two or three leads I generated was from someone in this particular company. They would fill out their information in hopes that I would call or e-mail and when I offered up features, advantages, and benefits of YTB, I’d instead got a TraVerus pitch to come on over.
Some were quite shocked at my response.
Uncontrolled laughter.
Of course this would put many on the other end of the phone or e-mail on the defensive and while many attempted to educate me about the key differences between YTB and this little known “Wanna Be” in Travel it was always to no avail. I even had offers from some to actually pay my way into the business, just to bring me aboard.
That however was only followed by more uncontrolled laughter.
Knowing what I’ve seen from some of the members, so called “leadership”, of this company, I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole. Some of the mud and false accusations I’ve seen from this group make Traditionalists look like child’s play.
I can’t say the strategy of going after YTB RTA’s was all that unsuccessful, especially with what arose some 6 months ago. For many new RTA’s who don’t have the type of experience I do with YTB some were easily swayed over, including one of my own teams.
You really never miss what you don’t have until it’s gone. I got a call late last week from this same Team Member who once was lost, but has now been found and is now done with this “Wanna Be” travel company after only a few short months of giving it a go. While I only suspected what was going on before, my suspicions have now been confirmed and I wanted to share with the rest of the YTB Team that you too made the right choice in sticking with true Leadership in YTB. More on “Leadership” a little later.
While I’m not comfortable with a simple copy and paste of the e-mails forwarded to me, due to my friendship with this Team Member, I will however highlight many of the complaints and shortcomings that I was told never existed with this great and powerful company that will dominate the Travel Industry.
- Who is operating the new website? Some say its Travelocity while others say the new website is no longer Travelocity. It seems that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. Since nobody over there knows, it is a Travelocity web site. They even use Travelocity’s SOT numbers. (All except Cruise Bookings…more on that below.)
- Ticketing problems with travel booked on the new website. Bookings were mysteriously lost in the system, not just with the CTA, but more importantly with the Client! It’s not a good thing when a client tries to get home and the airline has no record of the Client’s existence, and is forced to pay $1000 out of pocket just to get home.
- Commission tracking on the new website. How do they know when travel is booked? And by whom? They changed Cruise Vendors a month or two ago because the field figured out that NOBODY was getting credit for cruises!
- And what’s with charging $9.95 for the new Cruise Website? TraVerus Agents already pay $99.95 and/or $49.95 a month, for what??? While YTB offers an all inclusive package for its $49.95 if you want to sell cruises, that’ll be another $10?
- Support tickets were none existent or at the very least extremely long, resulting in even more frustration and the promise of a Newsletter with company updates never became a reality.
- Nobody knows the CLIA approval process. No one seems to know the official process? All that training they claim and nobody seems to know how to qualify for a simple CLIA credential?
- Nor does anyone seem to know what Travel vendor website registration is. Most travel vendors require you to obtain an official registration from your agency. (YTB does in most cases.) However, when a support ticket was submitted to TraVerus they were told to do it themselves, but the vendors won’t always accept that. It could result in Travel Commission being sent to a CTA’s home instead of the Home Office when the CTA changes the Agency address to my home USA. (Lucky CTA!)
- The Global Money Card was announced in December, and with the deposit last month, the CTA was charged twice for a card, and still no card. The reply from TraVerus, "Hello You should have your card in a week or so."
- When completing the CTA training almost 2 months ago and sent in the requested photo and info, no travel card and the replies on the "support tickets" are about the same as the Money Card, "I apologize for the delay, I had the card put in the mail yesterday”.
These Team Members had faith, full of promises made by their up line, that Traverus was this awesome company with a much better compensation plan. Well, the up line has now quit. In addition, the issues stated above have made it impossible to market the company and encourage the rest of the team to endure the same frustration and runaround. Seems the problems keep growing, with no resolutions in sight.
But wait…it get’s better. These same Team Members sent these issues right to the top, David Manning himself in one last ditch effort to try to salvage what they truly wanted to believe in.
And here is David Manning’s response:
“From the sarcastic tone of your email, I suggest you go back to YTB. Obviously you are new to networking or there would be no comparison to the two programs. TraVerus is the long term company with huge things happening around the world. I tell my staff to tell anyone who threatens to go back to YTB, goodbye.
David”
Are you kidding me?
I can’t complain too much however, because they all took David’s advice and said “Buh-Bye” to this joke of a leader and travel company.
While I wanted to tell the team “I told you so”, why add insult to injury? I’m just glad they figured it out as quickly as they did, and with so many problems swirling around that I heard about, I knew it wouldn’t take very long. Besides, I’ve made plenty of mistakes myself, just ask my parents.
So it looks like the cats out of the bag now, and what goes around comes around. While there are some that may try to make the same claims about YTB, the difference is, YTB is still growing and expanding, and we can document it. With TraVerus being “private” with their proud, short history in this industry, to my knowledge they only have some 10,000 CTA’s world wide after some 16 months. I don’t feel as comfortable about them.
Mama always told me, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” I’ve never mentioned TraVerus here because of that. But there comes a time, just like I have with the Traditionalists who think they somehow have some control over the direction of my life and my company, that I have to stand up and tell you all.
Save it. We ain’t going anywhere.
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Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
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Labels: Travel Agent, Travel MLM, TraVerus, YTB International
Looks like you "borrowed" all of this info from another site - this must be your friend...
http://aboutytb.blogspot.com/2008/04/ytb-vs-traverus.html
Posted by
Anonymous |
Monday, April 14, 2008
Not that it really matters to me, Regina did give credit where she obtained this information.
“You can read more about how this whole fiasco came about at one of my favorite blogs:
http://travel-pro.blogspot.com/”
While Regina and I happen to be friends, she is not part of my group. (Wish she was!)
Now shoo!
Posted by
TravelPro |
Monday, April 14, 2008
They once were lost...But Now Are Found...."
You must have watched that "Amazing Grace" DVD.
Posted by
Anonymous |
Tuesday, April 15, 2008