I’m putting an “editorial” or “opinion” stamp on this post. I wanted to tell you that right up front so I can avoid the “I Love Solavei” comments below – since they are always from the same 5 people that make $100k a year off people that they sucker into the ‘life changing program’ just long enough to collect before they run back to their former cell companies. So, that said – here is my look at “What’s New At Solavei?”
A few days ago, I received an email from a ticked off Solavei member, which was nothing new, but this one was a bit different. This person was actually trying to call me out on what I had been posting about the purple and orange carrier, saying that I was being too harsh and that the company is 100% stable after emerging from their bankruptcy last year. Of course this made me wonder how much truth there was in the defensive position that the user had presented, so I started my digging…
1) Has Solavei emerged from bankruptcy and is back better than ever?
Sort of… Yes, in March of this year, ASPIDER, a privately held global services provider, purchased an interest in Solavei which will allow it to meet its restructuring plan. The addition of a global player like ASPIDER will definitely help the brand.
2) Solavei has paid out over $40 million to their members over the life of the company. It’s a great move for anyone wanting to start making money, right?
I’ll disagree with this one. Anything that requires a $298 buy in to get started isn’t a great move for anyone. First off, you are dealing with the T-Mobile network and resale. Let’s just say you can convince your friends to come over from Verizon or AT&T. You get them to spend $500-750 on a new unlocked phone. They then need to pump an additional $300 in to get started with their business. At this point, after racking up 6 people, you get free service.
That’s when the money truly starts rolling in, right? Well, wait a minute… People getting free service – READ: those that are doing it as a business – DON’T COUNT towards your total. Ok, so, that free service isn’t all that easy to get if you are building a down line is it? But let’s just say you do get that $40 service plan for free. That saves you $500 a year, but after that the payment system is so hard to understand that you can barely figure out if you are supposed to get paid or not. Here seems to be the simple way to look at it.
I’m going to skip over the Fast Action Bonus thing here because I’ve covered it 100 times before. But from what I see on the new compensation setup is the following: If you sign up 3 people in a month, you get $30, 5 is $60, 8 is $120 and 12 nets you $200. Other than that, the ‘residual chart’ above shows something that is very telling – notice who makes the cash in the program – the far right side of the chart, right? Yeah, those are the guys that got in on the ground floor and are collecting the lion’s share of that $40 million that has been paid out.
Overall, can you make some money and get free service with Solavei… Sure, but it will literally cost you about $1500 to get started. You’ll need that fancy new phone, $300 to get started, some business cards to pass around and a ton of people to talk to about it. Good luck with that, I think I’d sooner create an Amazon store to refer my friends too.
3) Not to beat a dead horse, but aren’t people making real money with this program?
You bet they are! When you reach the level of National Director, you get a base salary of $6000 a year. Once you hit the Double Diamond Presidential rank, you rake in $36000 a year. That’s enough right there for some to quit their day jobs and pursue this full time. And unfortunately for you, they already did and already have been marketing this for about 3 years now. When the payment structure changed from the first $20 per trio mark, they built out each subsequent change to favor the founding members.
Sure, the FAB is great and it will infuse you with the false sense of confidence needed to dump more money into marketing materials, websites and lead generation, but once those people get bit with the bug to earn their own free service, you lose them in your ‘cash flow’ line and have to recruit more to get your free service back. Did I mention you needed to spend cash to get started here – again…
4) Come on, the support level isn’t that bad is it?
Uh, can I pass on this or do you really want an answer? I mean when you ask your cellular company if you can call Canada, you should get a simple yes or no answer. Instead, the support agent points out that, “The Solavei service includes unlimited service when inside the U.S. (including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). At the present time, Canada is not included.” Which doesn’t even answer the question. The answer is, “NO, YOU CAN’T CALL INTERNATIONALLY WITHOUT AN ADD ON PACKAGE FROM US.”
That said, this agent goes on to give the poor user the ideas to use Google Voice, Skype, Tango or WhatsApp to call their Canadian friends. Guess what, you can do that from a FREE FreedomPop phone instead if you want. Best part, the user asking the question is a senior ambassador and didn’t know he needed an add on to call Canada! Ouch!
5) Wait, how much more is the Solavei Phone Store selling that device for?
This is just painful. It is a problem that many MVNO’s suffer from, but this is downright terrible. Currently, the Microsoft Lumia 635 is for sale in the Solavei Phone Store for $179.00. That’s not a terrible price for a new phone, is it? Well, for starters, the list price on the 635 is only $129.99. Second, it’s a discontinued model that can be had for $75.99 on Amazon – with free Prime shipping!
If you ask me, $50 for including a SIM card and typing in an APN setting is a bit steep, don’t you think?
So, is Solavei back? Nah, they never really left. They will be around as long as Ryan Wuerch keeps people pumped up about the product and the ‘value’ of the service. Unfortunately, Mr. Wuerch is no Mr. Legere and the latter is starting to create plans that are a much better value than what Solavei is offering. More data, more countries, more of everything and it all costs less.
There will only be room for a few major money makers at the top for Solavei, and they are already in place. They’ll keep recruiting and keep pushing the service to everyone that will listen. They will get the referrals and cash in while they can. With the influx of cash from ASPIDER, they will live to fight another day, but how long will they continue to let the company bleed money? That’s the real question.
Thanks for reading… More real news soon!
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