Lessons Learned From Coastal Vacations Scams

Coastal Vacations is the kind of business you love to see: great deals, expert customer service, well trained representatives, and even if you are not a tourist in search of a great travel deal, you can profit from the company by becoming a network marketer. Unfortunately it is this concept that has led to the mushrooming of scam artists who have been so successful in fleecing vacationers that not only the travel industry and Coastal Vacations, but the businesses involved in multi level marketing (MLM) have all suffered black eyes in the process. As a matter of fact, Coastal Vacations scams in some cases may be used as an object lesson for how easy it is to get take online, and how little a company is able to do to protect naive and consumers from scam artists who are misusing the name and logo of said business.

Lessons learned from Coastal Vacations scams are legion, but the most important ones for both businesses and consumers are quickly summarized:

* Consumers need to take the time to check out a company before doing business with it. A logo is easy to cut and paste onto a rogue website and one of the most commonly used logos is the Better Business Bureau sign. Check out the company with the BBB, enter the name into the search engines to find out what the online buzz is, and also find consumer watchdog groups for the travel industry, or any other industry where you are looking to do business with, and do your fact finding. Never take a company’s word at face value. Just like you would not buy a tomato without lightly squeezing it, you also should not do business online without lightly testing.

* Businesses need to be on the forefront of ridding the ‘Net from scammers who are taking advantage of their customers. Periodically run a search on your own company and see what the buzz is. If forums are discussing how they have been taken advantage of by an agent, especially if you are actively engaged in network marketing, you need to strive to immediately shut down that person’s operation while you investigate the claims.

* Consumers need to use common sense and understand that offers which sound too good to be true will not be genuine. Similarly, if the main company offers the package at $1,000 and the individual reseller offers it for $500 you will need to question the drop in price. More often than not your funds will be received and the website suddenly becomes unavailable.

* Businesses need to keep a close eye on their network marketers and ensure that pricing policies are followed in detail. Even as you give a bit of leeway to your agents, glaring deals that simply cannot work and make the agent any money need to be researched. There is nothing wrong with running your own sting operations! In brick and mortar business operations this is known as the mystery shopper; use this concept and adapt it to your needs!

Jeff W Albert
http://jeffalbert.teachingyouwealth.com