Before you get involved with WorldVentures, you should take the time to check out our detailed WorldVentures review. This makes it possible to determine if there is a WorldVentures scam.
This WorldVentures review will cover everything you need to know about this company and the direct selling opportunity. This information will aid you in making the right choice for yourself about whether to join this business opportunity.
What is WorldVentures?
WorldVentures is a multi-level marketing company that offers travel services and a discount vacation club. You can pay a fee to get the opportunity to sell their services and products.
The people who join the company are called independent representatives. They can work to earn a profit based on the services and products that they sell using a direct selling approach.
History of WorldVentures
Knowing more about the history of the company helps you to determine if there is a possible WorldVentures scam.
Wayne Nugent and Mike Azcue founded this company in 2005. They referred to the company as the “Mary Kay of travel.”
In 2006, their revenue was $15 million By 2009, the company’s revenue increased to $90 million. This success resulted in Nugent being nominated in 2010 for the Ernst and Young entrepreneur of the year.
Company Problems
In 2014, the Norwegian government sued the company. They said that the company was a pyramid scheme, and this forced WorldVentures to close their operations in this country.
In 2016, some of the company’s top earners filed several lawsuits against WorldVentures. They said that the company ended their contracts so that they could send the money that they earned to the executive team.
The company also did not disclose the revenue earned for 2017. It is believed that this is because the revenue declined significantly but it’s not clear.
Are WorldVentures Products Good?
This company sells memberships to people that allow them to get deals on hotels, cruises, day trips, activities and car rentals. They say that they receive discounts when they pay a monthly fee.
The locations and vacation packages are limited, and at specific times, only certain ones are available. This means that if people want to take a certain vacation, they have to wait until the company offers it.
People can earn points to use toward vacation packages. However, you have to be a member for at least one year before you can use your points. You also might not be able to use all of your points at the same time.
How Does WorldVentures Work?
Independent representatives earn money when they sell memberships to people. They can also earn money based on the sales that their downline makes. The compensation plan also talks about bonuses and the ability to win trips and similar incentives as someone increases their sales.
To earn sales credits, you do have to be active. If you become inactive, you are not able to earn sales credits. The company does not allow for retroactive crediting of sales points either. To earn weekly bonuses, you have to at least be at the Qualified Representative rank.
It appears that the amount of money someone can earn depends on their rank. The higher the rank, the higher the income potential. However, the compensation information is unclear regarding exact figures or even examples of what people can earn.
The company says that they give their representatives their commissions on the fifteenth of each month. The company also has a maximum payout amount per rank. So, if you earn more than the maximum payout for your rank, you will not receive everything you earned. You will only get the maximum payout amount.
The following information is about the maximum amount per rank:
- Senior representative: $500
- Director: $2,000
- Marketing director: $5,000
- Regional marketing director: $10,000
- National marketing director: $20,000
- International marketing director: $50,000
You can read more about their compensation plan here.
How Much Does WorldVentures Cost?
To become an independent representative the cost is $99.95. There is also an additional fee of $10.99, so the total cost is $110.94. To remain active, you have to continue to pay the $10.99 per month. When you become a representative, the company says that they provide the following:
- Free training videos
- Weekly newsletters
- Product and business presentation
- User-friendly app
How Much Money Can Be Made with WorldVentures?
Getting information about income potential is important. The following information is from the company’s 2017 revenue report:
- Enrolled Representative: $245.11
- Active representative: $243.44
- Qualified representative: $1,125.34
- Senior representative: $7,666.09
- Director: $24,759.27
- Marketing director: $56,479.59
- Regional marketing director: $128,325.51
- National marketing director: $251,389.62
- International marketing director: $586,614.56
These figures are the average commission earnings per rank. This is from representatives who were with WorldVentures in 2016 in the United States. This information only considers people who actually earned at least some commission with the company during 2016.
The company did not put out an income statement for 2017. They also did not provide information about income other than commissions that their representatives might have earned during 2016.
According to the Better Business Bureau website:
“79.95% of WorldVentures’ independent representatives did not earn a commission or override between January 2016 and December 2016. Of the 20.05% of independent representatives that did earn a commission or override, the median earned was $200.”
What Other People Are Saying in Their WorldVentures Review
This element of this WorldVentures review will look at how people involved with the company feel about them. It also helps you to see if there is a potential WorldVentures scam. The following sources have a variety of reviews from people involved in WorldVentures:
- Better Business Bureau
- Glassdoor.com
- SiteJabber
- Indeed.com
- TrustPilot
- Blog comments
Better Business Bureau
The company is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau. They have a C+ rating on this website. Out of 107 customer reviews, they have four stars at the time we compiled this WorldVentures review.
In the last three years, they have closed 269 complaints on the Better Business Bureau website at the time this review was written. In the last 12 months, they have closed 79 complaints. The complaints summary is as follows:
- 63 complaints about sales and advertising
- One complaint about a warranty or guarantee
- 39 complaints about billing and collections
- 166 complaints about issues with the service or product
The reviews that people left are mixed on this website. Some reviewers say that they did not receive the residual income that the company owed them in a timely manner. At least one reviewer says that they did not receive their money at all.
There were also some positive reviews. Most of these are from people who say that the services and products are good. One reviewer says that they are pleased with the training that they received after becoming a representative.
Glassdoor.com
On this website, they have 2.8 stars out of five at the time this WorldVentures review was written. This is based on 175 reviews. The reviews seem to be from a mixture of employees of the company and independent representatives who are part of the direct selling program.
The employees who left good reviews say that they are happy with the company’s culture and work environment. The negative reviews are largely associated with management. These reviews say that the company lays people off frequently and they are sued often.
The company does not have a review section on Facebook. Their community section on Facebook has photos and posts from independent representatives. Most of the people posting comments appear happy, but at the same time, they are also trying to recruit people to sign up under them.
SiteJabber
On this website, the company has five stars at the time this WorldVentures review was written. This is from two reviews. The reviews are from two representatives that appear to be promoting their business so that they can try to recruit new people to sell the memberships under them.
These reviewers say that they happy with the compensation plan and that they are earning money with WorldVentures. They also praise the membership opportunities that the company has to offer.
Indeed.com
This company has several pages on Indeed. Most of the pages and reviews are from people who worked for the corporate office. They have an average of 4.5 stars on this website at the time of this writing.
The people who work for the corporate office appear mostly happy with their experience with WorldVentures. These reviewers seem to be largely happy with their benefits and pay, work-life balance, company management and culture and advancement and job security.
There are a few reviews from representatives. These are mixed. Some say that the opportunity is a good one while others feel that they could not earn nearly what the company made it seem like they could.
TrustPilot
On this website, this company has two stars out of five at the time of this writing. This is based on 32 reviews. These reviews are from a mixture of people who bought memberships and those who became representatives to sell the memberships.
Several people say that the company has poor customer service. One review says that they would spend hours on hold just to ask a simple question. This same reviewer says that they had sent multiple emails that went unanswered by the company.
Blog Comments
There are several blog posts about this company and the independent representative opportunity. They are a mixed bag and so are the comments left on the blogs.
It appears that a large percentage of the blogs and the associated comments about this company are negative. Some people went as far as to call it a scam and a pyramid scheme. One commenter talked about the Norwegian lawsuit to back up his claim that this company is a pyramid scheme.
Many commenters say that it is just too hard to make any real money with this company. Several people remarked that they were not paid on time when they did earn commissions from the memberships that they sold.
The positive comments appeared to be mostly from people who were representatives trying to sell memberships or build their downline with the company. They praised the opportunity and then invited people to contact them so that they could join.
Our WorldVentures Review Verdict
From our research to write this WorldVentures review, we cannot say WorldVentures is a scam. We do not believe it is a scam. We can say there are a lot of negative comments about the company and that they have had legal troubles. However, they may be working on rectifying these things.
We cannot fully recommend becoming a representative for WorldVentures at this time. This may change in the future as more info comes in.
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