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Be Careful with World Ventures! — Guess why they changed their name to ROVIA? Please read. I joined World Ventures around June 2007 and have spent a lot of money on marketing materials to promote my site. I had thousands of business cards, brochures, flyers, postcards, T-shirts made. I send out mailing using a mailing list that I bought, I enclosed business cards in all the bills that I send out (I pay for the postage already anyway), I left business cards on restaurant tables, advertised in Google, etcetera. Why did I join World Ventures? Well, because I needed to replace the income that I lost when I got laid off on December 31, 2006 and I needed to find multiple sources of income to do so while I'm looking for a company that does not hire only younger, underpaid employees. So, why World ventures? Because I believed in it and was telling myself that if I can imagine myself using this, I don't see any reason why other people won't. Plus, I was approached by a person who I trust and she seemed to be enjoying what she was doing and was very eager to help people succeed in this business, and she was very helpful and still is. So why did I stop doing this? The answer is because World Ventures does not care about their Referring Travel Agents (RTA's). They leave it up to those people who recruited you to take care of you. And that's fine, but the problem is, these people who recruit you do not always have the answer, so they have to contact World Ventures, wait for someone to get back to them and then to us. It just takes too long. I tried calling them several times even though they do not have a toll-free number (maybe they make money when you call them, maybe they get a commission from their phone carrier or something like that) and had the most difficult time navigating through their phone system it feels like they did it on purpose so that you won't ever call again. It seems this way because it's hard to imagine that with today's technology, there still exists an entity that can not make it easy for callers. Every time I call I also try sending an email through their Web site, did I get any response? No. If you have been paying attention, you could conclude that I have had several problems that I needed to call and send emails a lot and you would be right. I think they do not care because they already got your $400 upfront and then charged you monthly fees. I got so frustrated so I filled out online inquiries several times asking World Ventures to cancel the Dreamtrips part of my membership - this membership allows you to take dream vacations at a fraction of the price (if you ever get to book one, they're always sold out). Of course I did not get any response. After that, I did not give up calling until I got a hold of someone. A very nice lady was on the other end (probably underpaid). I told her of all my frustrations, but at the same time I made sure she was aware that none of those were directed towards her. I asked that the Dreamtrips part of my membership be cancelled because we're not ready to take any of those at the time anyway. I explained that I have been trying to do so online for at least 3 months already because I wanted something in writing. She was trying to save me from cancelling, but I was determined. She made sure their records had my correct phone number and email address and assured me that someone will contact me and I told her I doubt it. Needless to say, no one called me. Poor lady, she truly, honestly believed that the company she's working for got her back, she had no idea. I tried to log-in to my ".biz" site which is the one that keeps track of all the people who have been recruited - it shows you Binary Tree, your commissions, etcetera and I couldn't as the log-in was already disabled. Thats good news, at least they are fast when it comes to cancellations. I tried loggin-in to my .com site - this is the part that people go into to book their travel, which I kept because I was still passing out materials that would take people to my site. I was able to log-in successfully. I thought to myself, finally they did something right. I even thought maybe they wait until someone gets mad before they do something, which is definitely not the way to run your business in my opinion. Recently, our friends told us that they just booked a 10-day trip to Rome. Airfare and hotel. They told us how happy they were because not only was the site easy to use once you are fmailiar with it, but that they also saved hundreds of dollars (they compared the rate they got with the more popular sites). So I was happy for them, and at the same time felt very excited. I had that deep feeling inside of me that is brought about by the thought that we have been planting seeds and it is now starting to pay off. They even told me that they will be endorsing my site. I know these people because we go to the same TaKownDo school and a lot of people who go to that school travel a lot because they go all over the country competing in TaeKwonDo tournaments. I started seeing a lot of people being happy about their new-found savings. A few days after, I saw the lady who recruited me and told her how excited I was and told her about the booking and how this could be the start of my income coming in. She told me that she does not think I will get any commissions on bookings from my site. She's giving me this answer based on what she saw in her .biz site; she believes that my status was completely cancelled bith Dreamtrips part (.biz) and Referring Travel Agent (.com) part. I asked her why when I only did what she suggested to me, which is to cancel the .biz part so I don't hav to pay the $40 a month when I was not ready to use Dreamtrips anyway. I aslo told her, that I am not able to log-in to the .biz site but am able to do so in the .com site, which tells me they did what I have requested them to do. She said she will confirm and get back to me. I got a voicemail from the lady who recruited me saying that I was completely cancelled - both parts. I tried to log-in to my .com site and I got an "oops page" (see below) instead of the usual page where I could log-in and do all sorts of stuff that the page offers to their RTA's just a few days ago. I think they actually cancelled both parts even though I only requested one but did not disable my log-in so that I will think that it's still working. They knew that people work hard to promote their sites and refer it to family and friends and that I am no exception. I think they did not disable my log-in so that I would think that they were able to carry out my request and then I would continue promoting my site and whatever bookings I will make they will just keep everything to themselves. Do I know that this is true? No, because there's no way for me to know what's on their mind and in their hearts when they did what they did. But here's what I do know: this should not bother me. Why should I be bothered by this when they themselves seem to be not bothered by it at all? Those of you who got to this page via one of my business cards or brochures or internet ads, I apologize if you felt you were tricked. This is not a trick. I just thought I'd let people know of what happened to me and how World Ventures treated me. This way you'll be well-informed before you make any decisions - whether it's joining World Ventures as an RTA or booking your next vacation/travel through World Ventures. My friends got a very good rate and they were very happy with it and are looking forward to their trip, so if any of you want to give it a try, I'd rather you go to my upstream's (the lady who recuited me) web site than anybody else's. Click here. Of course, you could also try YTB. Links that might be of interest to you: Learn how you can save money on travel and get tax deduction on it! Apparel and accessories for girls, women, boys and men Get cash for your real estate cash flows Name-Brand Kidswear at 50-70% off retail Copyright © Joel Javan, REALTOR ® www.YourNotSoSecretAgent.com