The Traveling Vineyard The Traveling Vineyard is a ripoff. Don't let them fool you! You will make money for no one but them! Canton Massachusetts

First...I'd like to comment that no matter waht, a wine guide has the option of drinking any wone they do not use for a tasting.  So, in the  case of the person filing the compalint saying she was stuck with wine...if your husband loves wone as you say...then you should have no problem getting your monies worth.  Secondly, if tasting participants purchase a minimum amount of wine, the tasting sets used during the event are replaced by the company at no charge.  I'm new and even I know that.  In fact, I just got five free bottles after my first tasting.  As with all direct market buisnesses, yu will only get out what you put in.  Admittidly, it's not the best plan as far as paying reps.  But because it's sooooo easy to find peopel willing to host, and join...I feel I'll make more than I might had I been trying to promote a less desirable product.  

 I'm just commenting on the permits. The lawyer that was consulted was incorrect. You do not need a permit as you aren't serving the wine, nor selling it. You are giving it to a host for them to host the party. They keep what's left. The wine guide just teaches you about it. Also, guests buy directly from the company, and commissions get paid separately. Wine guides don't keep and sell inventory. No permits needed.

The purpose of Wine Guides is to sell wine and accessories.  Tasting sets can become useless to a Wine Guide if the wines are no longer available for sale.

Independent Wine Consultants are not 'sellers' of wine.  We are Wine Educators and we market the wines to Free In Home Wine Tasting Parties.

Our wine tasting sets NEVER expire - the only thing that could come close to 'expiring' is inventory running low.  Which is why we check the current inventory before each party.

Maybe you need to do better and more informed research on The Traveling Vineyard.

I was going to try to do Travelling Vinyard in the state of Texas.  I consulted an attorney to see about getting set up with a DBA and other legalites of a business when he pointed out one huge loophole in the plan, according to at least Texas state law, as an contractor for TTV, you must get several Alcohol Permits.  First is the non resident sellers permit for your business which is $676 per year, then for your work facilitating parties there is the Promotions Permit at $976 per year, plus you need to have the servers education card at $25 every 2 years, then at your option you might want to get liability insurance to cover yourself if anyone has say an allergic reaction to the wine or has a bit too much to drink and gets charged with dui or wrecks. 



TTV won't tell you any of this, but one stop at any attorney will set you straight.  TTV is banking on the majority of thier people not seeing an attorney.

To say that TTV is a ripoff is a bit overstated. It is a legit business opportunity that requires WORK. If anyone is hoping to just sign up and hope that money will fall into their pockets they are dead wrong.

My wife recently signed up and she has had great success. She has a full time job as well. It appears to me that it is a matter of networking. My wife simple told people what she does without any pushing and the tasting sign-ups just started to flow in. Considering she signed up about 3 weeks ago and is booked solid through August I'd say she has done well without really trying. In fact, we were talk about the ease of it all the other night. She sold Mary Kay a few years back just to fund a vacation. She sold for about 3-4 months, paid for the vacation, and quit. Her Mary Kay venture had a specific purpose and when she had reached the goal she wated she stopped.

The thing with TTV and other MLM businesses is, you need to expose your business to people just like you would with any other business. If people don't know what you do they will never buy and you will be bitter. I will say this about the difference between TTV and some others, many people seem to like wine. They like hosting little social get-togethers at their home. My wife has never sold a single bottle of wine nor asked anyone to buy wine......she presents and they buy. So in essence she is selling herself and her personality.

For now we like TTV. Maybe something down the road will change our minds but for now were having a great time.

While apparently, you feel ripped off, as someone who has been a consultant with TTV for 5 years you have a very distorted view and also some incorrect information. You have incorrectly stated the reimbursement for the wines sets, so I'm guessing you didn't read your policies and procedures manual to see how you are paid. Which leads me to believe that you didn't do a lot of research before starting this business. Not only do you get an event bonus of $65 you also get 20% on the cost of the sample set as well. So,if he spent $75 and got an event bonus of $65, he also got 20% of the cost of the SS which is an extra $15you made more money than you SS cost you! That is $80 on a $75 set plus commission on the $680. The kits don't expire after several weeks it's 4 months, obviously he wasn't doing much if he had a sample set that expired. But you can always attach it to a party and then it lasts forever! And nothing sells it self. People sell things, which is why some people are good at it and some aren't. TTV is a business and you must work your business. If you think that the world should be handed to you, things should sell themselves and you shouldn't have to work hard, this business is not for you. Yes, it's wine, its a fun business but, it's called a business and a business has expenses related to it. We have a website not only for ordering but for having a presence online, a place for hosts to go, potential consultants, a place for you to advertise yourself! Drum up your own leads, your own business. Don't rely on someone else to hand you leads. If you did this without TTV covering some of the cost, it would cost you way more than 9.98 a month plus with a webstore, your more like $100/month, plus you had to pay someone to design it etc.
We have to buy the sample sets or scammers would just keep and drink the wine! Which used to happen, so they can't just give us wine for parties. We don't carry inventory which a lot of other companies do, so you don't have your money tied up there waiting to sell your product. There is always going to be someone out there that wants something for nothing, doesn't want to work and think they should be making a TON of money for it. Nothing is free, nothing comes without work. The other option is to have the hosts pay for the wine like another company does, how many parties do you think you are going to get that way? I'm not going to focus on those who were obviously too lazy to even read how they are being paid and didn't have a party in 4 months so there sample set expired, I chose to focus on those who are making it happen. That is the kind of person I would want to listen to. Reading this I just wasted 10 minutes of my life (LOL!) when I could have been working on my business!