Last week, YTB released yet another website, www.TheFactsAboutYTB.com (not to be confused with www.TheFactsAboutYTB.net) which purports to explain the truth about YTB. Sort of. As the title of this post suggests, it is full of half-truths and over the next few posts we will point them out. We will not even get into the discussion about why YTB needs a site such as this to justify their scam--that's a whole different topic. So let's start at the very beginning:
The Home Page
Well, considering that YTB has been touting that they are "all" about travel, apparently their founder did not get the message. Direct from Scott Tomer, "The purpose of the information in this site is to recruit you into the YTB business." Of course being the reactionary company that they are, this has been changed already to something more benign.
Scott proposed you ask the following questions of any travel company...as if these have anything to do with any type of legitimacy:
1. How long has the company been in business? (Valid question)
2. Is the company publicly traded? If not, do they have audited financial statements available for review? (Irrelevant. YTB was reverse merged and did not undergo any SEC scrutiny. Most successful travel companies are indeed private.)
3. How much travel have they sold in the last year? (Legitimate question. It is unfortunate that YTB cannot answer this themselves. Was it $414M, or $211M, or is their President still "gleaning" the numbers?)
4. Is the company a member of the Direct Sellers Association? (Who cares. The DSA is merely a lobbying organization for MLM companies and has NOTHING to do with travel.)
5. Do they have a protected compensation plan? (Again, irrelevant. And it is ironic that the "copyrighted" compensation plan that can "never be changed" and is on "file" with all of the "Attorneys General in all states" has indeed been changed numerous times--most recently when they eliminated the Rep override commission on travel sales.
6. Do they have online travel training available? (Perhaps legitimate. The question to ask is how valid is the training and what do you REQUIRE of your employees and to what level of achievement do you hold them.)
7. How large is their operation (corporate office and support staff size)? (This is irrelevant. 99% of the travel agencies and travel suppliers in the industry are smaller than YTB and are 100 times more reputable.)
8. Is their corporate office open to the public? (Again, irrelevant. As a matter of security, most offices (excepting retail locations) are not open to the public. And YTB promotes working from home, so this is sort of a dichotomy isn't it?)
9. Does the company provide an income disclosure statement? (This is irrelevant. To be honest, what an agent makes is not really anyone's business. But since YTB is public and they are operating a MLM company they are required to provide this. It is a shame that more people will not read it and realize that the average Rep in YTB earned $97 in 2007 and that only 163 people out of 305,055 earned more than $20,000 last year.)
10. Has the company won any travel-related awards or recognition? (Perhaps a legitimate question.)
But, what about a few more questions:
1. What is your litigation history?
2. Have you ever been charged with a crime?
3. Do you vet any of your agents?
4. How much of your money comes from travel versus recruiting?
5. How much travel industry experience does your Executive Team and Board have?
6. How do you control the information that is passed out by all of your Reps
and RTAs?
7. Can you give me the phone number of Dr. Seligman?
8. Can you explain the "irregular accounting practices" that caused you to
be dis listed from the OTC?
9. Can you substantiate any of Candi May's industry awards?
10. Why has your stock fallen from $9 to almost a quarter in little more than a
year?
11. Do you believe in insider deals and to what extent do you enter into them?
YTB-INTEGRITY is anything but,Integrity as defined by Mr. Webster. How can one
find themselves involved with a company what a track record like YTB Travel International Inc.?
