World Ventures unfair, deceptive and abusive practices in Romania

For more than two years in Romania perpetuates a dangerous and deceptive situation created on the tourism and direct sales market by an American company activating through an alleged multi-level-marketing (MLM) under the name World Ventures, a company that uses intermediaries to sell their so called products and services here, but without being registered as a legal entity in this country and without a legal and commercial collaboration agreement with those people through which it operates.

General overview

This company sells to romanians the membership in a private travel club, saying that they offer luxury holidays at low prices to those who affiliate to the club as well as commissions for promoting the enrollment of new members.

World Ventures already has in Romania a network of over 5,000 members - some of them are service users, others are services / concept / business sellers. Membership dues to the company are composed not only from an initial enrollment fee, but also from monthly fees, considering that the parent company and its entities are not fiscally registered and do not pay taxes to the Romanian state for this work, so in documents neither one, nor the other do exist.

Having no idea or previous experience about the deceptive way things are going in this company, I joined as a member in October 2014, after I was told at a public presentation that in our country World Ventures is offering the possibility to join the club only as individual, but not yet as a company or legal entity. Even more, every single enrollment was made using the same foreign unique address provided by the presenters / hosts / sponsors to every single new member, saying that some guys inside World Ventures agreed to provide their own addresses for temporary registration of the people located in those countries where World Ventures is in its early stages of activity and development. The address that World Ventures hosts used to enroll me and all the other people being present at that meeting was a Hungarian address. I didn’t understand quite well the procedure involved but since we were talking about a company operating at that time in about 20 countries, I considered this as a good and safe enough reason to enroll myself as a traveler and also as a business representative by paying during 6 months about $ 700 as a deposit-fee for future holidays, as well as for the right to promote at some point the club as a marketing representative.

The problem arose when I made a website talking about the availability of this concept to Romanians and providing information about the the mechanisms of this club, as well as the possibility of enrollment.

Just before beginning the website building, I asked those who showed me the business - but also official employees of the company - if it is possible to own a website that promotes this business differently than as face to face meetings or within presentation rooms (the old methods from MLM that I personally do not agree because of the pressure involved and the general public reluctance regarding the good intentions of those presenting business concepts this way). Initially I was told that there is no problem, except following some rules of site construction. I took for granted the answer and I created the website addressing to the Romanians from around the world through a detailed online presentation of the concept. Once it was ready I sent another informational email to the company for a final approval. The answer I received from Heather Vincent (company specialist for the relation with the members regarding policies and practices) left me speechless:

The website will need to be removed immediately. This website is a Romanian website. WorldVentures is not open for business in Romania. Therefore, we will need you to provide us with proof of your residency in Hungary. The requirements to become a WorldVentures Representative states that you must reside in a country in which WorldVentures conducts business and accept new Representatives. Failure remove the website and provide us with your Hungarian identification within three (3) business days may result in Suspension of your Representative Agreement ID #: 63088902.

Not only I did not conduct any World Ventures business until that date, but I never imagined that I will not be able to make it otherwise than "underground” as long as the company – through the leaders from Romania - systematically organizes presentation meetings in public places across the country, asking people to enroll and cashing huge amounts of money. Moreover, the contents presented by the leaders from Romania – supervised from time to time by the company leaders from outside - was the same main information as that displayed by me on my website. Therefore, I considered that banning the written internet promotion and encouraging the spoken one is disadvantaging me and has a discriminatory character, also raising serious doubts on the legitimacy and legality of this business here.

Considering all these facts, I told to the staff that I’m out of this scheme anyway, but I want my money back (membership fees paid up that time in value of which I didn’t receive any product or service, a basic requirement for including a commercial act at the MLM category or direct selling and not at the enrichment pyramid scheme). The did not want to return but only $ 60 of the $ 730 spent by me for NOTHING, inviting me to contest their decision within 14 days if I do not agree with it. Although I challenged it immediately, I have not received any response from the staff and, after a week of waiting, I wrote a second letter, asking them if I should consider the silence as an answer. What I got back was an email that disregarded any dialogue on this issue and in which I received a hollow reproduce of the first message, claiming again that I violated company’s policies concerning business development in national unopened markets, for which reason the case is considered closed.

We have terminated your WorldVentures membership ID #: 63088902 since you were marketing the WorldVentures Products and Services in an unopened country. Currently, we do not have a timeline set for opening WorldVentures in Romania. We have strict criteria and a firm strategy in place for launching the business in any new country.

How should I you call such a treatment? Unfair? Deceptive? Abusive? Imoral? Illegal? I’d say ALL OF THEM.

But the World Ventures story in Romania is not an isolated one and is not about me. It is the story of a rich company which believes can conduct activity anywhere, anytime, anyway, by adopting undisturbed abusive policies and practicies. My wish is to expose the illegality, hypocrisy and absurdity of the organizational culture named World Ventures Marketing LLC, which choose to worship the profit and flagrantly disregard the human.



How things happen

The board of directors of World Ventures know very well what they do and are highly skilled in the attempt to stay safe from all possible consequences of the deceitful way in which they carry out their activities. The company owns several websites from which manages the business: registrations of new members in business and virtual office of each independent collaborator (www.worldventures.biz), booking holidays (www.dreamtrips.com), staff recruitment and presentation (www.worldventures.com). Payments for registration as a collaborator with the status of tourist or business partner are made exclusively online by credit card using www.worldventures.biz. The list of countries of residence of those who can enter the club counts now about 28 countries. Romania has not been and is not even today (December 2016) among them because "it’s in pre-launch", this is what they say in their very well organized presentations all around the country.



Therefore you are given to understand that here it operates with some restrictions but the business has already started to function and grow widely. And because World Ventures is in this pre-release stage from years, nobody from Romania can register with a Romanian address and therefore they must indicate an address belonging to one of the countries from the official list. Therefore, at presentations you receive a specific address of one representative or employee from Hungary or Cyprus under which new members from Romania are singning for many days in a row. As I already mentioned, registrations can be made only for individuals. When I asked why it is not possible to register as a company, a legal entity, those who were presenting spoke about the „pre-release” state and the legislation that restrains the things at this stage.

When I communicated the Hungarian address I saw the money taken from the card without any further identification filters. Although I have never done an electronic payment in which I communicated others’ address as billing address, completely different of the registration address from my personal card (or card address), the payment was considered valid despite the country delimitation criteria. When I saw it worked perfectly I imagined that the registration form where my data were required in order to enroll in World Ventures is nothing but a mere formality, in the same way you create, using whatever information you want, a Hotmail email account or an Yahoo Messenger account.

However, the next legal aspect that I noticed later was very curious: if that form served as a certification of the individuals as being from a country where World Ventures company carries out its activity and, therefore, it is legitimated to enroll new members and to collect money from them, why the communicated address – at least in the "billing address" section – isn’t compared to the card address from which the payment is made, facing also the nationaity of the cardholder, so that, if they don’t correspond, both the payment and registration to be invalidated (hence the money migration in the World Ventures accounts)? As I know so far, any legitimate processor of electronic payment asks you to mention some VERIFIABLE identification data, which later takes into account the transaction’s validation or invalidation. Normally you should not to be able to provide an address from Greece for services payable via electronic payment which operates only in Greece but take advantage of this service in Romania after you've paid using as a means of identification and payment a card from Romania (without any aditional documents required as long as the payment processor allows that).

Those from World Ventures falsify in this way the tie breaker criteria by country, ensuring that they can charge money from everywhere, but shouting that they only operate in 20 countries or so, of which Romania does not belong, but from where they have earned millions of dollars so far, untaxed money.

In addition, if they really want to use a criteria of tie breaker of country, as additional measures aplicable at enrollment they may require either an ID of the new member or a document of property or a utility bill or the constitutive act of the personal company. How any of this is not part of the application form, the tie breaker criteria of country is a simple story without any legal or contractual value.

Further, for any person to be able to SELL in the name of a company (the product in this case being the membership in a traveling club, not the actual holidays) needs lo legalize in terms of a contractual relationship between the juridical person (legal entity) World Ventures Marketing LLC and juridical person (legal entity) George&Company. As long as George&Company performs marketing services for World Ventures and collects money for these services from World Ventures, and the two entities don’t have a collaboration contract with legal and commercial value initialed for marketing services on one hand and payment of related fees on the other hand, both parts have a big problem: they are illegal. That is exactly how World Ventures and associates operate in our country.

And when we talk about World Ventures, we are talking about a company that we find enlisted in charts and international magazines, a company that in 2014 appeared on the 47th place in the ranking of most profitable direct selling companies in the world. A company that organizes presentations in front of dozens of thousands of people. Would someone think that this company acts like a mafia structure wherever they have the opportunity?



I attach two photos showing how World Ventures operates here through one of his base men..


1. Facebook page of Wes Melcher, official trainer and speaker of World Ventures company, as he presents himself (catch made in mid 2015).




2. The poster from a local presentation announcing the coming of Wes Melcher in Romania to train the Romanian team on how to develop the business.

 

While I have no clue about WorldVentures, except that ANY MLM-company should be avoided like the plague, I wouldn't necessarily go as far as to say it's the company that have stiffed you. It might very likely be so, of course, but I'm suspecting that it might also be people affiliated with the company that have gone beyond their ability and allowance and made some "quick cash" by luring in gullible people from an undeveloped country (for WorldVentures). That they have used an address in a country where the company has a precense, should be quite telling. That means that they are very well aware that sign-ups from Romania won't be accepted, and that is also what I read out of the communcation with the company after the fact - they have something that says you live in Hungary, and you contest that, and say you live in Romania. I dunno if that was communicated in the beginning when you asked about the website the first time around, but if not, that might be a legitimate reason why you didn't get that warning in the beginning.

 

I decided to attach what I call indisputable proofs of the very well known misaligned manner from every rule in which the company conceives to make its "business" available in virtually any country.

These are screenshots that captured the confirmation provided by World Ventures of some Romanians enrollments using several times the same fictious physical address, which the electronic payments processor used by World Ventures validates every time, cashing payment after payment, although Billing Address field is filled in the same way by everybody and without any correspondence with the real identification data on credit / debit card or on other identification document, even Shipping and Mailing Address fields having the same regime..


-> Enrollments of 4 people from Romania using the same address of Cyprus, within the time April 20, 2015 to September 21, 2015:











Many other screen captures I have shows how mass-enrollment in World Ventures happened in Romania during almost three (3) years using the same specific addresses from Greece, Hungary, Cyprus, etc.

Here is a screen-capture from my account's virtual office in 2015 showing the World Ventures IMD leader from Romania - Razvan Dinca - co-optated by World Ventures (who say they do not deal with anyone from Romania) to sustain a training seminar in Sweden based on his experience of building a big netowork here:





What I have done..

The ways I’ve approached regarding how World Ventures conducts its business here - the false offer, discrimination and manipulation practiced by the representatives of this company - are the following:

1. I went to the tax authorities. They don’t have someone to hold accountable, the entity is not registered in our country and therefore it doesn’t exist.

2. I approached the juridical way: the lawyer filed an official interpellation where he asked from the World Ventures Marketing LLC 17,000 $ damage, both material and moral, on grounds of: fruitless personal investments, unfounded / misleading communications from the company related to the legitimacy of the site and entire activity here, decisions taken in a discriminatory manner and without cause, compromising of personal image and credibility towards the public to whom I addressed, each of these things in a certain amount. What did the World Ventures staff? They chose to completely ignore lawyer’s interpellation. An eventual process carried out in Hungary, the country the address I communicated in my enrollment process belongs to and where the company is registered, was excluded because it is not at first hand.

3. When they heard that it came to a legal procedure, the leaders from Romania offered me a mediation meeting. I agreed and we met in the lawyer's office, each side accompanied by a witness. From the World Ventures Romania leaders came Geta Voinea (actually IMD – International Marketing Director - together with her partner Razvand Dinca). Immediately as she entered in the office she greeted me with an aggressive and hostile attitude. She told me that the World Ventures staff will never give me an answer, because this would mean to recognize what are they doing in Romania, which is excluded. Also, she has made the statement that she can repay by herself the amount World Ventures owes me, a fact that I rejected from the begining, because basically she was asking me to give up all the values in the name of which I don’t accept organization’s donkeries, and for a fee of $ 700 to shut up and endure. Which is also excluded. I was surprised that she considered this compromise as perfectly normal and was terribly angry when I rejected it, telling me that we need such compromises in life and posing her as an example. So sad but true! Also she made reference to her colleague Razvan Dinca, telling to her witness: „You see? Razvan said that we should never register this one!”. Skipping Geta’s behavior of low prestige, probably sick of my decision not to accept anything but the official version involving a response to my lawyer’s interpellation from the World Ventures company, she stood up and left, but it seems that on the way she made some phone-calls „in the right place”, because she sent back the man who accompanied her, with the idea to make me new proposals in order to not escalate the conflict, on this time from World Ventures, because the proposals sounded like this: the company reactivates your membership, pays your monthly fee, offers you the position you had in the system and will approve your website when the company will officialy register in Romania. It is the only time someone from World Ventures, through the intermediary Geta Voinea, reacted in any way. Clearly, I rejected their proposals, firstly because they weren’t assumed, and were thrown as a bait by some obscures without any identity, secondly because not my return in the system was discussed, but the payment of damages, and in addition, those from World Ventures disconsidered (again) human values, by not having apologized, not having assumed anything, not having provided any feedback to my lawyer’s interpellation (not even a general answer) and did not changed anything in the way they operate in Romania. At the end I was being told that if a scandal will start in Romania, along with the network of several thousand people here, World Ventures will continue to act underground and never register officially here in the country.

4. The last step was when we decided, together with the lawyer, to appeal to investigative journalism, informing one or more journalists who currently deal with unclean affairs investigation about this ghost entity - World Ventures in Romania. But here I encountered an even bigger surprise, which showed me the criminal dimension at all levels of the entire troubled branch.. from approximative 12 leading journalists contacted by mail or by phone, 5 of which initially showed interest in the subject, all finally refused the cooperation without any expressed reason.

The case of two of them is worth mentioning especially:

- Ovidiu Vanghele (founder of www.investigatiimedia.ro) invited me at a personal meeting to discuss in detail the subject (of which by phone he declared himself extremely interested and for which he thanked me), but, when I called him the day before the established date to clarify the place and time of the meeting, he did not answer the phone nor the message, and since then he gave no sign.

- Paul Radu Cristian (founder of www.riseproject.ro) replied to the email I sent to the editorial address and personally came at a meeting with me, showing his interest on making preliminary research about this company and to inform me within two weeks what he managed to discover and in what way he is expected to continue. Affter those two weeks, when I searched for him according to our established agreement, nor this journalist bothered to answer the phone, messages, email, pretending to be lost forever.

I should mention that Rise Project is a project and an online platform mainly dedicated to investigation of cross border illegal business and ilegally entered product on the Easern European markets. I wonder how you can be a public figure of such position, you meet in a public place with someone who reports an abuse in precisely those areas you investigate, you declare that you are going to investigate everything, at least preliminary, you give a deadline for a new meeting which would be much more enlightening, after which you no longer appear at all, and moreover, you completely ignore the one who was your interlocutor. In a civilized world, DISOBEDIENT to lobbyists, interest groups and political corruption, such things simply would not happen.

This character’s hypocrisy and pettiness is seen better when we analyze some of his public statements at the conferences he sustained over the years that he published online, statements like: „we militate for a good quality journalism”, „we fight to have a very fair investigative journalism”, „we teach others how to do investigations”, „we organize courses for activists”, „we write investigation books”, „we try to make the message to reach more people”, „I realized that what I do is not enough because I need you to work with me”. Is it one and the same individual who after the meeting we had he promised at least a formal response and after that he disappeared completely ignoring the man who sat in front on himf?


My conclusion on these data, and I think of any person with common sense, is that everything is deliberately orchestrated from the inside of the administrative and governance structures, individuals with certain influence regarding triggering investigations or removing them, acting under their own interest (perhaps propotion of World Ventures earnings), facilitating for almost 3 years the presence of this mafia entity in Romania.

 

I've been told a few times how reputable and awesome these guys from World Ventures are. But I guess the more you defend a company's reputation, the less reputable it becomes.

The above facts rise serious suspicions about the people behind the company: were they aware from the beginning of what they are doing and how? I think they were.

 

There are two kind of deceptions widely staged by World Ventures from the beginning up to the present:

1. One in regard to their public image or "international reputation"
2. The other one in relation to their so called "touristic product"

I will describe each one according to my personal experience and research..


1. The reputation

One of the key element of the presentations from the hall is the information according to which, in 2010, the co-founders of this business - Wayne Nugent and Mike Azcue – were named finalists in Ernst&Young "Entrepreneur of the Year" award.

Passage of the mentioned statement made by Matt Morris – official promoter and speaker – can be viewed at the link below:



The above video is part of an official presentation, copyrighted by World Ventures itself:



Due to the spectacular nature of information and image benefits resulting from such a combination of names, I decided to check if this recognition is true precisely at Ernst & Young.

Shortly after I contacted through email a person from the top of the Romanian subsidiary of the audit company, I have received the denial fact that Ernst & Young would have ever given the distinction as entrepreneurs of the year to the World Ventures founders. I attach the screenshot with my request and the answer received:



Translation of the above exchange of messages:

Me addressing to Ernst&Young' Head of Branding:

"
Hello,
Some time ago I was at a presentation in Bucharest supported by representatives of the American company World Ventures LLC (worldventures.com), a company that sells membership in a travel club. At some point during the presentation, the statement was made that in 2010 the co-founders of this business have been designated by the auditing company Ernst&Young as entrepreneurs of the year.

As I noticed discrepancies about such a potential nomination between the statements from the World Ventures and other sources of information, I need a confirmation or a denial from your part if the event in question happened or not.

I look forward for an explanation.

All the best!
"

The answer received from the Associate Director and Head of Branding ELENA BADEA:

"
Good evening - I DON’T have any confirmation in this regard from the EOY team. Please make your conclusion. Thank you for verification approach. A good evening!
"

Stupefied by this proof of diversion, I decided to understand better what "Entrepreneur of the Year" means, how this distinction is offered and whether the World Ventures lie is a total invention or a lie by avoidance / omission / misleading words intentionally „sneaked”. In witness whereof I called the audit representative from Romania and talked on the phone with Head of Branding of company Ernst & Young Romania, the same Elena Badea. This time it was clearly described to me how the competition for this title unfolds and what means the awarding of the prize, the distinction.

I was told that there are three stages: regional stage, national stage and the international stage, all of which resulted in the designation and awarding of one winner.
Regional stage has only one winner for each of the participanting regions. If you win here, you are the entrepreneur of the year for this region. The winners from the regional stage go in the contest at country level, which has only one winner. Then the winners of each country participate at the World Finals, where also is designated only one winner, basically the supreme winner.

To be able to participate in the regional stage, you have to submit a dossier together with a request of analysis. If the REQUEST of dossier’s analysis is taken into account, then it is said that you NOMINATED yourself (yes, you alone!) for participation in the "Entrepreneur of the Year – regional stage" contest. If following the analysis of the dossier appears that you don’t have a provable compromising history and that your business has some market share and some expansion perspectives, the jury accepts your registration in the competition, offering you the quality of PARTICIPANT, also called FINALIST of the stage of analysing files and admission in regional contest (thus the very first stage). Therefore the quality of "nominated" as well as that of "finalist" does not mean anything by point of view of the constest itself and of the reconnaissances offered this way.

After enrolling in the contest as PARTICIPANT (synonymous with "FINALIST"), follows the judging of participants designating the winner of the title "Entrepreneur of the Year" in that very region. The regional winner will be communicated to the public in a festive gala.

The two co-founders of the World Ventures company never won such a title, they only have nominated themselves and then were allowed to take part in the regional contest in Texas (for which they were called "finalists")!

Now it is obvious the manipulative game..

Basically is inoculated to the public the false impression that these false business leaders from top of World Ventures were part of an extremely rare contest held between the best business people that Ernst & Young company has ever seen (obviously at international level, it operates on this radius), contest whose finalists were these two and after which they received the great distinction. How can you say such a thing, when you are nothing more than a quasi-unknown Texas sales man who filled a dossier, and your only merit is that you, paying for a competitional fee, probably not small, were included on an initial list of selection of the most representative business from Texas – and even that wasn’t you.

For something like this they should pay moral damages to all the members the company ever had in its structure, to whom they served the misleading statement as a reason to enroll and who never earned money by promoting the lie side by side with those from the top of the pyramid!

Basically the co-founders, people with some experience in marketing, have guessed, of course, the gain that the misleading image association of the World Ventures name with Ernst & Young could bring, no matter how irrelevant and counterfeiting could be the association! If the public had been trained to believe that this association means something, then the shield of good image, credibility and authority under which those from World Ventures could have run their deception would have been consistent! And that's exactly what they did: they created a legend around this distinction that actually never existed and means nothing in reality.

The way itself regarding how presentations in Romania are made, reinforces the line on which those from World Ventures have chosen to go. They speak so much at their presentations about the great distinction received from Ernst&Young that you start to think they are talking about a public recognition of a new Bill Gates and a new Steve Jobs, not about two cunning sales men who play for tips all sorts of manipulative games with people they know nothing about.

The slide displayed on overhead projector at romanian World Ventures presentations (by Razvan Dinca and Geta Vonea - actual IMDs) looked like this:



"Premii Globale" means "Global Awards", so it's more than obvious the illegitimate association of World Ventures’ logo with "Ernst & Young - Entrepreneur of the Year" Award logo, a prize that World Ventures leaders never won - not just globally but even locally.

Here is a public comment made in 2012 by a World Ventures fan, opposing the public criticism with the Ernst&Young argument (so a very old and very popular marketing lie in World Ventures):

 

2. The product

Once enrolled as a member, there are two sections of World Ventures platform for online bookings: Individual travels (MAKE A RESERVATION) and Already prepared trips (BOOK A DREAMTRIP). I attached a picture for each situation..

2.1 Individual reservations:



2.2 Dreamtrip reservation:



2.1 Individual travels: such usage of the platform offers the possibility of booking places in hotels, planes, boats, if you want to travel punctually, when and where you need, but for this kind of trip you pay the full price, there are not taken into account the dues paid to the club up to that time. Reservations are made automatically through their tourism agency – ROVIA – which works as a normal agency, unrelated to the club’s personal activity, hence without the possibility to use your monthly deposed money and those from the registering (equivant of your enrollment fee) to finance your reservations in this way. Therefore I consider that such a feature is falsely presented as part of the touristic club's benefits package, because it is not a benefit that they offer you, but one that you offer them. Specifically, reserving this way, you create additional sales to the agency, independent of the contributions already made to the club, those remaining still untouched, therefore uncovered in products and services.


2.2 In order to PARTIALLY use the money you paid to the company (in the form of those initial and monthly fees) to finance your trips, you should only travel in a DreamTrip (those already prepaired trips) and, moreover, it is required to use an expensive trip, not a cheap one (cheap trips are paid integrally with money from home, not from the contributions you already made). Basically only by going in expensive trips is possible to use SOME of the paid money as contributions to cover A PART from the cost of the trip (usually 25-30%). There are no trips which you can fully fund from the money that you deposited in your club account, you always have to come with extra money from home, even if you've already contributed to the club with much more than the trip’s price. So, if you have chosen a cheap DreamTrip, you have to fully pay your vacation and you don’t get any facility from the contributions you’ve made to the club, while, if you choose an expensive DreamTrip, you can use some of your dues, but also you have to bring a significant part of money from home.


Here are two DreamTrip examples (displayed prices in photos don’t include the transport by plane and are the trip prices per person according to the above mentioned facilities):

A. Cheaper holiday in Malta in October, that is entirely paid with money from home (4 nights, 320$ for two persons in double room):




B. More expensive holiday in Bucharest, Romania, for the New Year’s Eve, for which you can use 250$ of the contributed money to reduce the total cost of staying from 800$ to 550$ (5 nights, 2 persons in a double room).




LET’S SUPPOSE that at the moment when you decided to book such a trip you had in your account 500$. From these, 200$ are from the initial membership fee (the deposit made when you enrolled in the club) and 300$ are money from the monthly subscriptions (50$ monthly for 6 months).

A. If you book the trip in Malta, you still have 500$ blocked and in addition you will come with extra 320$ cash to fully pay for the trip.

B. If you book the New Year’s Eve trip to Romania, you use as a discount those 200$ from your initial deposit (in margin of 250$ as you are allowed for this vacation), and you can’t touch the remaining 300$ resulted from monthly subscriptions (to complete those 50$ remained from the total discount offered) because the company conditions you the possibility of using them only by paying a continue 1 year subscription fee, so basically 300$ get trapped and, in addition, you have to come with extra 600$ cash from home. Assuming that you want to do such an investment and then terminate your collaboration with them, then you stay with a net loss of 300$ because of this money the company does not provide you any product or tour service and no longer returns you the money. Which is nothing else than a grossly abuse and fiscal illegality, because this „Shell Game” with people’s money places the World Ventures company in the enrichment Pyramid Scheme sector of so-called businesses.


And after all this circus, after all these acts (equally immoral and illegal) comitted here since the beginning of its presence (under the gaze of the protective authorities), World Ventures gloriously announces its official launching in Romania on 22 January 2017:

 

Just to comment on the "finalist" in the World Entrepeneur-series blah blah - they didn't actually lie. They used the correct wording (they were participants, also named "finalists"), and didn't claim to have won. Yes, of course it's sleazy, but it's not illegal to be sleazy, and they haven't claimed anything that is untrue. So, while it's not entirely "white-hat", it's at worst "gray-hat" - and while it might not be ethically sound, that has never been a real staple for most big businesses. As long as it's not illegal, by definition/law, it's legal. That is wise to remember.

 

After Matt Morris misleadingly presented World Ventures' founders as some kind of world wide recognized values for being successfully involved in that world-wide competition called "Ernst&Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award", he and the founders pushed their deception to a higher level, by letting the top sales-leaders of the company spread the full lie of a so called INTERNATIONAL EARNED PRIZE. In Romania the two IMDs (International Marketing Directors, the highest position in the World Ventures sales pyramid) - Razvan Dinca and Geta Voinea - claimed in virtually every public presentation that the World Ventures founders received the highest distinction Ernst&Young could possibly give to someone: the Ernst&Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Their claims were: "After a 3 year audit of the company World Ventures, Ernst&Young has nominated the founders of this business as the entrepreneurs of the year on a global scale". I selected this part of a recorded presentation where the affirmation is made by Razvan Dinca (it's in romanian but it's a proof):

.

In the background you can see the slide I already posted here (showing the association between World Ventures and Ernst&Young Award) projected on the wall while Razvan speaks about the distinction.

Of course, one can say that such claims made by some speakers are just erroneous, some occasional mistakes anybody could do and that these Romanian guys do not pay attention precisely at what they are telling to their audience. Well.. it could be unintentional at the beginning but when you already spend your Christmas holidays in the World Ventures Godfather's house (il capo del tutti capi) you can't say that anymore.

 

"After a 3 year audit of the company World Ventures, Ernst&Young has nominated the founders of this business as the entrepreneurs of the year on a global scale".

Misleading? Perhaps. Have they actually said they won? No. Been nominated. That's not the same as saying they won, even though of course they're implying that - however, implying something, which is then interpreted by the listener, is not actually fraud, as long as they don't go right out and claim that the assumptions are true.

 

I repeat the leaders' claim: "After a 3 year audit of the company World Ventures, Ernst&Young has nominated the founders of this business as the entrepreneurs of the year on a global scale". There was not a global scale involved. There was not even national scale. There was not a NOMINATION as the "Entrepreneur of the year". And there was not a competition involved for these so-called recognized World Ventures leaders. All these claims are lies and that qualify World Ventures as a world fraud because they purposefully tell lies, including but not limited to those made by omission, not just once but many times, not just one omission, but many. Besides, the Ernst&Young award is not the only fraud involved when it comes to World Ventures. There are many others, and I already mentioned here those which I faced personally.

 

Lying by ommission are very very seldom an offense of any sort. It might be morally ambigous, but very rarely is it illegal, or fraudulent. I'm not condoning what they said or did, I'm just pointing out that claiming somthing is "global" or "national", even if the event is limited to one city might be perfectly legal (none of the statements "national" or "global" are exact amounts/areas, and can be interpreted as one sees fit). While I have no doubt that the company does behave shadily, the legal implications might not at all be as clear cut. There are a lot of ways to circumvent laws, and most laws are open for interpretation - which is one of the things I love about laws - they're always possible to twist to fit what you need.

 

For me it was and it is a matter of ethics and sticking to my values which are UNIVERSAL and totally different from those of the leaders of this company.

I suspect that for every 100 people who sign up and never use the product, nearly 90 percent loose their money. It is not their fault, but World Ventures policy to screw as many people as possible. Even worse than that, there is no loss for WorldVentures since realistically there is no product, or nicely stated a virtual product. Imagine, they got your money for nothing, why return it?

I have noticed that the company attracts people who are desperate and in need of a savior, or in need to "belong" somewhere and make new friends and WorldVentures presents itself as the solution to all their problems and a way to socialize with other people and take trainings on personal development (out of which the company makes a good extra income for its top-reps).

Many members admit that there may be less “discount” on “dreamtrips” than the company advertises. Yet they don't care, they chooses “valuable friendships” with “like minded people” over a silly, stupid, non-existent benefit. Besides, in Dreamtrips most people are so focused on meeting with their team, doing mini-trainings and strategy sessions on expanding the team that I don’t find it a relaxing environment for a vacation at all.

What they actually preach is that you should buy a Sams Club membership, yet expect no savings, just go tell everyone else to sign up for the membership. A pyramid scheme offers no product, just sells others on the idea. World Ventures offers basically nothing of real value, yet “sells” it to anyone who will listen. Bottom line, Booking, Agoda, Expedia, Hotwire, Kayak, Orbitz are free, and offer better deals most of the time. Imagine if Sams Club offered very little or no savings, but told all their members they could be independently wealthy by signing up enough others for the non-existent “savings club”! WorldVentures fires people when they stop letting themselves be opinion-less sheep and keeps the cheerleaders who follow the "coach" and don’t ask questions. That is World Ventures in a nutshell!

Their new tag line is “we’re not for everyone” making one believe they are the chosen ones that “get it”. But any company that has one go to so many trainings, presentations, motivational meetings to remind you of how amazing they are and how you made the right decision to be part of them, should be at least red-flagged for brainwashing and fraud. There is a general culture that the company develops among its devoted reps, that they are the only ones who "can see the light", they are "the chosen ones" who can see clearly and all the rest of the people "miss the bus" or are "losers" and "losers never win", etc.

Wayne Nugent, Mike Azcue, Mark Accetta, Matt Morris and other officials from the top-management encourage the most successful sales-leaders to perform under false pretense and in countries where World Ventures has no license. Romania is not a singular situation. Every new member, many of them enrolled under false data, sign an agreement (electronically checked) that covers ONLY the interests of the company, and they are expected to act as employees. Yes, the owners of World Ventures are S P E C I A L I Z E D in making big money based on big lies. Unethical, fraudulent and dishonest by all means!

 

How much did you actually lose?

 

About 700$ in 6 months of membership. No products or services provided by World Ventures for these money.

 

You can't "lose" money! it's not a casino Assuming you signed up signing an agreement, having read the terms and conditions, you would've known that you have 14 days to cancel your membership. Worldventures is present in 34 countries now if I remember well.

The Direct Selling News Global 100 is the most prestigious ranking for direct selling companies in the world. Where do you think WorldVentures is placed?
in 2015 was 47 http://directsellingnews.com/index.php/view/2015_dsn_global_100_list#.WWf96YjysuU
2016 was 32 http://directsellingnews.com/index.php/view/2016_dsn_global_100_list#.WWf-QIjysuU
2017 is 25! http://directsellingnews.com/index.php/view/dsn_announces_the_2017_global_100#.WWf-QYjysuU

Networking Marketing is a huge industry. You may not personally like it, but it doesn't mean it's illegitimate. You may not understand, but it doesn't mean it doesn't work I agree, some/most people in NM are a bit dodgy, but that doesn't mean all people in network marketing are.

In 2017 WorldVentures has been launched officially in Romania. There are thousands of happy members who enjoy VIP holidays on a budget. These can be abroad or even in Romania (Brasov, Bran, Delta Dunarii, Maramures, Mamaia) etc
The way it works, Rovia, the travel agency, negotiates the prices so well and passes the savings to the members.

As with all businesses, it takes time, knowledge and consistency to see profit from any business, not just network marketing. At the beginning, you are overworked and underpaid and later you are underworked and overpaid. It sure beats the 9-5 system that keeps you broke for 40 years and then gives you a pension that barely covers your living costs.

I always say, go to valid sources of information like the world travel awards https://www.worldtravelawards.com/profile-31023-rovia https://www.worldtravelawards.com/profile-36039-dreamtrips

Once you realised this actually works and you can create another income stream, why not join the family! we are in around 34 countries already and quickly expanding! If you can't beat them, join them! <3

 

Seriously?!

- People lose money with World Ventures. It's already proven.

- 14 days to cancel is not an excuse for stealing money by performing under false claims and promises.

- The sales volume is not an indicator of prestige. The complaints volume is. The lower the better. Which is not the case with WorldVentures.



- I didn't say "Network Marketing". I said World Ventures Marketing. We talk about certain entities and their behavior.

- Don't take me with "the industry" or how I don't get it. I get it very well. Do you?

- I already mentioned that launch of World Ventures in Romania. What's the big news? How does this change the ugly things?

- When you talk about how great this business is, stay with the facts (like I did) and cut the marketing part of network marketing.

- Valid sources of information you say you go for? What about this one in the first instance?

- From my very experience with WorldVentures, this company sells an illusion based on false promises and deceptive / illegal practices. Their promotional logo saying "Make a living living" should literally say "Stay away from the fake living! Brought to you by the fake people we are."