Global Coonections, Inc., Global Advantage, Global Discovery, Global Gold Connections

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Network Direct International, BOOKATEAM.COM, CONDOWEEKS.COM, GEXPRESSWAY.COM, GHOTLINE.COM, TRAVELGCI.COM

Has anyone heard of these affiliated companies or purchased travel club memberships with them?

PS: I meant Global Connections, Inc.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Network Direct International, BOOKATEAM.COM, CONDOWEEKS.COM, GEXPRESSWAY.COM, GHOTLINE.COM, TRAVELGCI.COM

Has anyone heard of these affiliated companies or purchased travel club memberships with them?

PS: I meant Global Connections, Inc.

Yes.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

How are they regarded? I've seen mixed reviews from members but glorious reports on the company(ies) and it's founder.

My interest in them is really quite funny, a "road not taken" story.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

How are they regarded? I've seen mixed reviews from members but glorious reports on the company(ies) and it's founder.

My interest in them is really quite funny, a "road not taken" story.

Everything I have ever heard has been positive.

I ran into a very happy member of TAN about a month ago.

There are happy people with good experiences. We know that for a fact. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, in this industry particularly.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

OK, here goes.

In 1971 my wife and I were house parents at a fraternity and we sat through a presentation for a buying service. It was one of those typical things with the promise of a free vacation and so forth. Well, we bought a membership, used it a bit, and then I lobbied the company to hire me. They did and I wound up with a half dozen sales offices and some other non-office operations. I hired and trained a very productive staff and some of them advanced within the company. It was the typical "shady", boiler-room, mail-out, free-prize-to-listen-to-us operation.

That company was started by a vice president of Grolliers, the book company, when they offered the buying service membership as an incentive to buy books. He just dropped the books part out of it. Toward the end of our business relationship I had been his National Marketing Director and we were racketball partners and so forth.

The other day I googled him, and learned that he had died in 2009, he and his wife having moved to the Orlando area. In his obituary it mentioned that he had parted with his business partner, mentioning him by name, in something like 2001.

Well, this "business partner" is a guy I used to work with selling the buying service back in the 70's. He had been working for them in Ohio, and I elsewhere, and we were both promoted, relocated to the Kansas City area, and we both bought company-built houses in a new subdivision. They were the first houses there, and he and his wife a me and my wife, did everything together.

He and I, and others, were in competition with each other. He would win some contests, but I won most of them, Top Personal Producer, Top Regional Manager, Top Divisional Manager . . . At one point he and another owner of the firm split off and opened a sister company in Venice, Florida (go figure), which did not go so well, so they both came back.

After a decade of the direct-selling lifestyle, I couldn't stomach it, and moved on. Some of the managers stayed, each forming their own sales company. I had hired and trained some of those who stayed. Eventually, the buying service that was our fulfillment company went by the wayside, and I assumed those in that company had, too, until the other day when that obituary showed he and my buddy had stayed in business together.

So, next I googled the guy who had been my business and non business buddy back in the 70's, and sure enough, he had kept plugging away at the same type of operation, direct sales with the promise of free vacations and other prizes. When you look at the background of his company, there is a brief mention of this, the 1971 and buying service stuff:

http://www.exploregci.com/press-release-gci-15.asp

When I googled reviews of the operation, I found many mentions of "shady", "used car salesmen" type, high pressure sales tactics with those doing the marketing, but mixed reviews of the fulfillment end. What I saw was that at some point a "travel club" had been added as an incentive to join "the buying service", and much as the "buying service" incentive had replaced the "Grolliers books" part of the sales back in the 70's, the travel club had become the main part of the sales.

Of course, the short of it is that the travel club led to timeshare resorts and one of the leading companies, or group of companies, in the industry.

And my former buddy has been recognized for his outstanding achievements:

https://plus.google.com/+GlobalConne...ts/GJnwcFvuWiC

Yeah, that's him.

Go figure.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Funny, I still have the stereo with 8-track, the space-age titanium stainless steel cookware, the Echo Arrowhead cutlery, and the Echo Prudence fine china, that I got from the company in the 70's. They were offered as incentives, and I got stuff that had been returned from accounts that had gone bad.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

It seems they are regarded highly:

http://www.resorttrades.com/articles...ct=view&id=118

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Sounds like a great guy.
Maybe they'll take your timeshares off your hands.
Just tell them you know the founder.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

He is a great guy. Always has been.

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

Network Direct International, BOOKATEAM.COM, CONDOWEEKS.COM, GEXPRESSWAY.COM, GHOTLINE.COM, TRAVELGCI.COM

Has anyone heard of these affiliated companies or purchased travel club memberships with them?

PS: I meant Global Connections, Inc.

Global Connections is a big player in the Travel Club world and has a good reputation in C.A.R.E., Cooperative Association of Resort Exchangers.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I looked the other day and they seem to be running afoul of some states . . . Florida, Illinois and Ohio have filed lawsuits. Mostly for sleazy sales tactics.

https://www.google.com/#q=global+connections+lawsuits

[buzglyd Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close buzglyd]

I know Tom as well. Nice guy. The whole executive team is.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I know Tom as well.

I knew him first.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I see I failed to mention that I reached out to Tom, and we had some nice re-memories. He invited me to his resort in Florida, not far from where we live in Florida, and not far from where he and the "President" of our 1970's company ran their business back then. The "President" also had relocated to Florida, and he also is deceased.