Do You Kiss Your Mother With That Mouth?

The subject line read, "whats the fuck yor problem??" I could not use that as a post title, but there you have it! Anyhow, I received the following from a prospective RTA over the weekend and wanted to share the original and my response. In light of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (and his beliefs), I decided to hold off on posting this till today.

My friend just sent me your bullshit artical.
I went to a meeting and LOVED IT..get that LOVED IT! I am gonna take my children (they are growed up) and sign them up too because it is a good deal and they can use the money too. We all like to travel and who dont want the perks? Then a personal website ontop of that!!!! You dont know what your talking about asshole!

Tell me one real reason YTB is a scam...you cant't there i knew it. fucking idiot!!!! Now who is bogus and not??

Well after running it through Google Translator, I offered the following reply. And for those that do not know, when someone writes me about a column, it is my policy to respond to everyone. My position is if you took the time and effort to contact me, I owe it to you to respond.

Thanks for your opinion. After deciphering it all and getting through the harsh language, I am guessing you are looking for me to provide my reasoning as to why I believe YTB to be a scam. While I believe they are a legitimate company, I do not feel they are a legitimate travel agency. The main focus is on selling the business opportunity. Approximately 75% of their revenues come from monthly fees and sign up fees. A meager 15% comes from travel commissions.

In addition over the past 4 months, they have had their account terminated with Royal Caribbean Cruises, Azamara Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Perrillo Tours, and Carnival just implemented a more stringent policy on perks requiring the sale of 5 cruises prior to being eligible to receive any perk or benefit. Additionally, IATA also revoked their accreditation which resulted in the loss of the IATAN cards which are an industry credential which you may have been told was included.

One of their larger shareholders (also their former attorney) has threatened legal action and claimed that company is not in compliance with many state laws as well as non compliance with federal law. But now he seems not so sure. Do they employ wish washy legal teams?

Their stock was trading at $9.50 in August and is hovering around $1.00 right now and the top dog has essentially sold off all of his stock and the other larger shareholders are selling theirs as well. They were demoted from the Amex (?) and are traded on the pink sheets because of past accounting irregularities and for failing to file the required SEC filings.

You can make your decision, but those seem like some pretty big red flags to me. Good luck with your travel career and thanks for contacting me.

Best-
John

PS..you might want to work on your "presentation" before you are actually dealing with a customer!

This email, while a bit more vulgar than the rest, unfortunately is fairly typical of the emails I get from the pro-MLM point of view. There seems to be no room for discussion or common ground (which I believe there is), so I have to wonder the intent of sending it in the first place.
Is it to make sure I know someone else disagrees with my opinion? Get in line, I have 150,000 that disagree with my opinion. Is it to show off their mastery of the English language? Maybe it is to demonstrate a certain level of professionalism? Maybe it is just as simple as there is no logical argument for many of the issues. I just don't know!

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