Complaint Review: Team Travel - Las Vegas Nevada

1-800-960-8326 or 702-248-8838 Fax # 702248-8874

Owners name Art Bond

[email protected] (email address)

..................VICTIM LETTER # 1...................

I am Monica Mallow. My husband, Keith, and I were former members of Team Travel. We are very unhappy with the behaviors and actions of Art Bond and thus Team Travel. Because of their ill practices, we were forced to dissolve our corporation. It's long and very involved but you requested a list of things with which we were unhappy and some follow... I hope I'm clear, but I'm open to questions if you have any. Contact me any time via email or phone.

Art was verbally abusive and ill tempered during phone conversations. When asked a question that he should have been able to answer or learn the answer to, he became defensive and accusatory as well as demeaning and angry. Since I am a Florida resident, there is a Florida ID required for operation. This must be requested by the home office (ie: Team Travel) and must include the correct IATA and licensing information.

May 5 of 1998 we requested such a number from Team Travel. All forms from the state were sent to them (by me) and followed up with a fax and phone call to confirm the receipt of that fax. In July, as I heard no response from either Team Travel or from the state of FL, I called Art Bond. His reply was that the forms that I had faxed were never received by fax or mail and thus nothing was done. He accused me of being negligent and was hostile when I informed him that I confirmed the receipt of the fax with a phone call. He then hung up on me after having a very unprofessional few sentences which included the deformation of my character. I refaxed the information and confirmed with a follow up phone call that they had been received. I requested that Art Bond be so informed.

In September, there was still no response. (Please keep in mind that I cannot work as an independent contractor without this information and licensing). I again called Art Bond who stated again that the information was not sent. I suggested he check with his staff. He agreed and a few moments later informed me that the faxed information was not allowable. (This was contrary to his original reassurances that the faxed forms were acceptable - that's why I faxed the original set). When I explained to him that I had also mailed this information to him, he denied it and again became hostile. He again told me that I was negligent. I told him I didn't like what was happening here and that it was HIS office that lost those documents. He told me to quit and hung up the phone.

A later phone call to another Team staff member disclosed that the forms had been located at Team's headquarters and they would be dealt with right away. In November, I still heard nothing so I again called Art Bond. He stated that they were awaiting information from Costa Travel and that I had to be patient. I became angry and stated that I had given him this information last MAY, why was it taking so long? He reiterated that I needed to be patient but did not offer any explanation or apology. When I insisted on having an explanation, he again became hostile and hung up on me. January 30, 1999, I was given this information. I still don't know why it took 9 months to get this completed or why Art Bond was so resistant or hostile.

When we arranged for training for Team Travel, we were promised access to the BEST and MOST UP-TO-DATE or "real time" travel information via the SABRE system (though no level of SABRE was indicated and none of us knew that there were different levels of membership through SABRE). At no time during our affiliation with Team Travel were we ever given this kind of information. We had access to some level of SABRE but not to the most up-to-date or BEST rates. Our customers were finding better rates than we were by using the Internet travel sites.

Art Bond promised to provide us with support and assistance whenever we needed it as "we are a TEAM". Whenever we had a problem or questions, we were left with either NO help or inadequate, uninformed 'help'. We were told that they would support us in trying to recover unpaid commissions. This NEVER happened. The advice we got was 'write a letter'. (Note: this had been done SEVERAL times prior to requesting assistance. It was only when we ran into a situation we could not overcome that we asked for help.) When we told Team that this was already done several times, they simply said, "There's nothing we can tell you" and refused to help. Only one person in the organization was able to be of any help at all and they fired her. I asked for information on Las Vegas (where they are located) and got nothing from Team or Art Bond though this information was promised during training. I asked for information in locating a catalog of Hotels, and was told to "look it up" on the Internet. I asked for information on places that home staff had traveled to and was told this information was not available to me, that it was too much work to give me all that information.

There were several times that Airlines did not honor E-tickets and my passengers were stranded. Several were double charged tickets due to a foul up in ticketing that Art Bond stated was our fault. (We did not do any ticketing). He refused to help us correct any situation. As my office did not do any ticketing, we did not have the necessary information to solve the problem ourselves. We required the office information from the base office of Team in Las Vegas to resolve the issue due to the information necessary for the Airline's forms. It was EXTREMELY difficult to work with Team to get that information. Team said we were not allowed to have it or that it was not necessary for us to have - the airlines stated it was necessary and couldn't do anything until we got it. Team would not contact the airline. There was NO support there.

Art Bond claimed to be a great salesman. He stated that if we had any questions regarding sales, and promotional ideas, he would be there to help. When I asked for some advice to drum up business, his suggestion to me was to sell Incentive Travel. We tried that with NO success. When I asked for a different idea, he stated that it was because we were doing it wrong and that he wouldn't waste his time. He said that he couldn't tell us anything else. He got angry and hung up the phone when I reminded him of his promise to us.

I tried to use the Internet to talk to some other Team Travel members. There was a talk site which I was unfamiliar with so avoided, but rather I used email addresses. I asked for assistance with many things including sales. I NEVER spoke about anything problematic when it came to Team Travel. I NEVER asked for advice on filling out forms, collection of commissions, or any other issue that I had with Team. I ONLY asked for good places for trips etc. Since this was tedious to do repetitively, I finally requested some information on Australia using Team's talk page. Shortly thereafter, I received a scathing letter from Art Bond accusing me of bad mouthing him and of using the talk page for things other than advice on trips. I NEVER did this. SEVERAL times Art Bond admonished me even when I had been away and had no access to a computer. He told me I was misusing the talk page and that I would be terminated if I continued. I wrote back that I had no idea what he meant since I was not even on the computer let alone Team's site. There was no retraction and no appology afterward but he did cease admonishing me for that particular infraction.

Commissions were frequently late if given at all. Commissions were frequently incorrect. Art Bond blamed us for EVERYTHING. He refused to take any responsibility and repetitively told us to quit if we didn't like it.

We could not keep our clientele as we could not obtain the best fares and rates, could not resolve problems professionally and quickly, could not obtain accurate information on travel locations, hotels, cars, cruises etc. We were censored in what we said and to whom. There were frequent foul ups in licensing, commissions, ticketing, and other charges. There was no support (contrary to what was promised by Art Bond), and there was excessive hostility on Mr. Bond's part. The promised training was ineffective and insufficient.

All in all, I'd say this was a pretty negative experience.

Thanks for your help.

Monica Mallow

Pompano Beach, FL 33060

................ VICTIM Letter # 2 .................

My complaint is that I booked 2 clients on Tauck Tours Canadian Rockies Plus British Columbia on 6-22-99 and to return 7-3-99.

I had so many problems with Team Travel. They kept saying that I never made final payment. So I kept faxing over the info that I did.

I never received my commission for the Tour. The commission was supposed to be paid on the insurance and the trip.

After this I decided to go to another company.

I advised Art Bond about my problem with his company and all he could tell me is that I am not entitled to any commission from his company because I am leaving.

I think that is rude of him to keep the money after all I did for my clients.

I am very annoyed and I would like something don about this.

Thank you.

Dayna Ferro

.............VICTIM LETTER # 3 ..........................

Subj: Team Travel

Date: 8/17/00 10:41:00 AM US Mountain Standard Time

To: [email protected]

Dear Consumer Advocates:

After our business contract was terminated by Mr. Art Bond, without cause, he has refused to pay our earned commissions. His pattern is to threaten and intimidate members. We have tried several times to collect our earned commissions which fell on deaf ears. Team Travel's headquarters has had frequent employee turn over which has led to poor staffing support at best. (You ought to hear what some of his past employees had to say) It seems like Mr. Bond makes tons of money off of the up front fees that he charges ($6,995.00) and inturn couldn't care less about his members or whether they make money selling travel. I wonder how many people have actually recouped their up front fees in the way of commissions? We have since joined another home based travel agency and what a difference -- and no up front fees.

PLEASE BE AWARE OF MR. ART BOND/TEAM TRAVEL'S DECEPTIVE BUSINESS BUSINESS PRACTICES!!!

Chuck / Connie Brook

Medford, Oregon

..................VICTIM LETTER # 4 ....................

From: (victim was threatened, fears retaliation)

To: [email protected]

Team Travel and Art Bond had a policy in writing regarding FedEx charges. They over charged. Art Bond refused to credit back the amount over charged rather than honor the amount that was in writing at the time.. After complaining the written amount was changed. This company should be terminated from doing business and those who have invested in it should be refunded all their money. A criminal investigation should begin. BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!!

.................VICTIM # 5 ............................

Subj: Team Travel This lady was afraid to include her name

From: This lady was afraid to include her name

To: [email protected]

I have continually asked for my commissions to be paid and have tried to follow up with each one. I get rerouted and disconnected; or put on hold; or told the computers were down; try the company you purchased the tickets from and other excuses as well.

When I couldn't afford the services any longer and decided to quit I never received another commission check even though I was told that I would.

..................VICTIM Letter #6 ......................

Hello, I did have problems with Team concerning ticketing. The first one the fixed, ( they had failed to ticket one of 15) the second time they said they never received the form that I had emailed. My records showed that I had sent an attachment, they said they never received it and that I should have contacted them sooner, about not receiving a response. (I don't know

that I still have the record of any of this because I discontinued working with team soon after this incident) I lost confidence in the system. (I had to pay over $200.00 for the error, because I had told my client that she had a certain rate.) It was a mess! A lot of stress and sadness. We have taken

the cost for our association with team and wrote it off. I am interested to know if anything comes out of your investigation. Thanks for your time.

Mary de Waal

....................VICTIM # 7 ........................

I am a former Team Travel member who left Team at the end of April/99. I have never received the balance of commissions that I felt were due to me which is approximately $5000.00. I had worked through the host agency in Toronto, K. Walsh & ssociates, and was recently informed that any outstanding commissions due me when I left, they were required to forward to Team Travel.

When I left Team - K. Walsh, I had Mr. Bond call and tell me I was in breach of my contract and then threaten to sue me if I tried to take other members with me. He was yelling loud enough on the telephone that the woman who works for me in the office could hear his voice on the other side of the room. I could hardly believe the way he was behaving and did not even try to reply after the first couple of minutes of this.

I am replying to your message because as you stated I have not known how to go about trying resolve this mess and at least retrieve some of the outstanding commissions. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The reply to last email I sent to Mr. Bond regarding these commissions was only that he was shocked to hear from me in light of the ongoing attempts by a local agency to recruit his people. This same agency bought and/or amalgamated with at least six agencies in the area last year, so I don't think that they were singling out Team members alone. Mr. Bond also called the agency and threatened to sue them as well. I know we all signed contracts with Team but I didn't think that we gave him ownership of our minds or anything else for that matter.

Debby Fogal

Formerly T0601

...................VICTIM Letter # 8 ......................

I have not been working thru Team travel anymore, after contacting the state of Florida about a year ago about the situation with art. I filed a complaint that was not resolved after the state talked to art about the whole situation he told them no refund and he still was providing a service to me. I understand he has transferred all his assets to Janette Bond, so he can declare bankruptcy should there be a class action suit. He has lost all his accreditation's as far as I know and I have just written this off as a loss of 5995.00.

Any help or impute in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

I have moved on to an agency here in FL that I book travel through and did not have to pay a large start up cost. I understand there are several travel franchises being looked into for fraud.

Thanks for any info

Rick Ponath

..................VICTIM LETTER # 9 .....................

My colleague forwarded your message onto me regarding your doing a story on Art Bond and Team Travel. I have several opinions of Art and not many of them are good. On MANY occasions I have been slighted in my commissions, or not received them at all. I have had to follow up for months in order to get them to pay me for services rendered. On top of that, they are now working in conjunction with CTC Travel and are charging Team members $10

fees, of which cannot be explained.

On the occasions where I have had to contact Art because of some mistake on their part, he's been hard to get a hold of, doesn't relpy immediately, and takes forever to get the situation resolved, and is often quite rude.

One quick example: I was on vacation for three weeks in July. Prior to my departure I was supposed to receive a commission check for close to $1000. I called him because I had not received it and was counting on the money.

Consequently, he sent me emails saying that he was having Susan at Costa look into the matter. Well, Susan never got back to me. It took many emails to get Art to respond to me to let me know that she was actually on vacation and he was now having someone else look into the matter.

To make a long story short, I ended my vacation without having a resolution to the matter. I came home and called the vendor to find out that the check had been deposited by Costa on May 24, 2000. I then proceeded to call Art (of course had to leave a voice mail message) and told him that I better receive

my check by that Saturday. I received it by Fed X the next day.

Isn't it funny that it took me a two minute phone call on the day after my arrival home from vacation to get a resolution to the problem, and Art, the President of Team Travel, took over a month and never got the situation resolved.

I have many grievances with Team and Art Bond and would love to follow up with you regarding these. If you would like to speak in person, I can be reached at 970-282-8616. I hope this helps you form your story.

Thank you for your time and the opportunity to let off a little steam.

Tami Monheiser

Get Outta Town Travel

2915 Sunstone Dr.

Ft. Collins, CO 80525

970-282-8616

......................VICTIM # 10 ........................

My wife are no longer with Team Travel. Art Bond decided on his own initiative that it would be better for the agents he claims he owns to be removed without consultation from their contracted host agencies and their servitude sold to a firm called Travel Professionals International (TPI) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

During some of my email conversations with Mr. Bond I was advised on several occasions I was in breach of my contract (he was wrong) by simply communicating with my host agency. I never got any straight answers to a multitude of questions I had regarding his abrupt change of host agencies, how a company in Winnipeg would be better for my business since I operate in Ontario, etc. Subsequently, my wife and I terminated our agreement with Team Travel.

I have heard all the stories about the withholding of commissions when an agent leaves their host agency and Team Travel. My understanding of this procedure is that we often sell travel that is months in advance. If the commissions would not be payable for several months when the client has completed their travel and I decided to resign from Team Travel today...I would not be paid the commissions for this client or any such clients traveling after the date of my termination.

Mr. Bond has supposedly (and this only a rumor as I have never been involved) used the terminology in the contract an agent signs that states more or less the following "an agent must be in good standing at the time commissions are payable to receive such commissions." This would seem to allow Mr. Bond to pocket the commissions that had been earned due to the efforts of the agent when they resign in advance of the travel time.

While I do not agree with the "free money" that Mr. Bond is supposedly pocketing and is the basis of some of the complaints, there would seem to be a legal contract signed by the former agent that allows him to take and keep the money they earned from their efforts and would have received if they had stayed with Team Travel.

I do not have any proof of such practices as there have only be stories within the Team Travel family from time to time. I hold no ill will against either Mr. Bond or Team Travel. I wished Mr. Bond continued success when I resigned and he informed me that I was making a serious mistake....loosing my substantial investment..but, he would honor my desire to leave Team Travel.

Sincerely.....Jim Heatlie

......................VICTIM # 11 .......................

I would love to complain about Team Travel! They don't pay their commissions out to their outside agents. I am a former outside Team Travel agent and they won't send me commissions that I have done prior to leaving. So yes, I have COMPLAINTS. I think that Team Travel sucks up your $7k and then dumps you off gladly to a Cossta. And no one ever answers your questions about the commissions. I've got about $500 they haven't paid yet and I am looking to hire an attorney to get the matter cleared up.

Marilyn Low

X-TT member

..................... VICTIM # 12 .......................

Hi! I don't have anything specifically to say....other than I did totally feel ripped off and misled. I wrote that money off as a huge loss and thought about going to the Better Business Bureau. Good Luck with your mission. Keep me posted.

Bets 504

..........................VICTIM # 13 ...................

I too had a lot of problems with TT and art bond. I filed a complaint with the state of fl. over his biz op and travel problems. They contacted him and he threatened to sue me. That is his usual practice, trying to scare people off. He is a Nevada corporation and not much hope of recouping any money. I have moved on a put the experience behind me. He now farms out all his travel to costa and ctc companies. Unless you can get enough people to file a class action suit against TT and Art Bond then I think you are wasting your time.

Rick Ponath

.....................VICTIM # 14 .........................

Subj: Team Travel

Date: 8/17/00

To: badbusinessbureau.com

Hello,

When I signed up for Team Traveling November 98 at a "Own Your Business" seminar in Austin they made theTravel industry sound too good. Use fam trips as family vacations and that sort of things. Me and my husband have two children and thought that would-be a good way to take our family vacations over the next several years.

They took all of us that were interested to the Embassy Suites and did their sales pitch and told us to call all of these references and find out about them. I did call 4 of them and got answering machines but none every called back. Being really too interested we went back to the sales couple "Barry Cohen and his wife" and they told us it would cost $7k to join the Team

Travel but we would have Travel business insurance and access to all of their ARC numbers and then just $199 per year for upkeep in membership dues.

I told them I couldn't afford $7 so they said OK just put money or so down and when you decide to take the training in Las Vegas you can pay the rest.

So I put the money on our credit card hoping that in a year's time I could pay off my low interest card with the commissions I'd make.

I took the training in Feb. 99 and they did train me but there was nothing in those 5 days worth $7k. I could have read a book and done the same thing. Then I found out I could have got into this Team Travel for $500!!!! They didn't even mention that the seminar. They took our money then dumped us in to Matlock Travel until May then they dumped us into Costa Travel and NOW they

are called Aloha Travel when you called. Until they changed to Costa I was really happy with the service but when they changed to Costa their service went down hill from there. You never got the same person on the phone and they were in San Diego instead of Las Vegas. They lost commissions and couldn't find them; they had employee turn overs all the time;

I sent Art an email and told him I haven't gotten some of my commissions starting in September 99 and it took until May or June 2000 to get them paid to me.

I think Art is a car salesman in the Travel industry and a crooked one at that. If you ever meet him you'll see it to. Got to a seminar and you will feel very uplifted and feel like a car salesman who can sale all the cars you want in one day and when you get home from the sale you know you will never be able to sell that many cars.

In January 2000 I quit Team travel because they went up on what it was going to cost to operate my business using their Internet connections. My cost per year used to be $300 or so per year; this year it doubled to $600 or so per year and that wasn't all the cost. You got charged per use. I didn't

make but $500 in commissions last year and decided it wasn't worth it anymore.

I was an idiot to believe I could make a home business from Travel industry when all they had to do is go online and get the same stuff as me.

I admit mistake and now I have a real job at night away from kids for 4 hours a night 5 days a week to pay off the rest of this credit card that was this business. So yeah I'm mad too but not for the same reason. Art will worm his way out of it any way he can because he is a sneaky snake taking peoples hard earned money and shaking them off to another travel agency so he won't be responsible. He's just the money getter then he dumps you off to a travel agency and never sees you again.

Thanks for your time and I hope something can be done to prevent scam ARTists from doing this to other unsuspecting people.

Marilyn Low

....................VICTIM LETTER # 15 ..................

Oh believe me, I have had problems! Not the least of which is that man calling me at my corporate job and screaming at me over the phone. Waiting 3 years to get on the IATAN list. Over a year after qualifying to get my card - still don't have it.

I recently joined another host agency (still a member of Team for now........... commissions you know) that I am TOTALLY HAPPY WITH. I LOVE THEM!!!!!!

What is coming up on your side?

Signe Mackey

.....................VICTIM # 16 .......................

What part of the country are you in? I would like to phone you

and talk about a couple of things. Art threatened me about a lawsuit after I complained to the state of Florida about the problems. Most of my commissions were eaten up by postage. I asked for a few give away items for junk and charged me $20.00 to Ups it to me. Some support from your host agency!!!!!! Do you have several people that are complaining about Team?

Rick Ponath

[email protected] (Rick)

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