What Is Vantel Pearls? Will This Jewelry MLM Make You Money?

Greetings! Did you know there is a multi-level marketing company that sells pearls?  This may sound like an exciting way to generate some income at first, but what is the truth behind the business opportunity?  What is Vantel Pearls and will this jewelry MLM make you money?

I am not an Independent Consultant for Vantel Pearls.  My mission is to research companies such as this one and open them up to discover if there is a pearl inside that can help you supplement your retirement funds.  We have all worked hard and have made it to this stage of our lives.  I don’t want you to waste your energy or invest money in scams or rip-offs.  We just don’t have time for that.

So, let’s see what this is all about.

What Is Vantel Pearls?

Vantel Pearls, based in Mansfield Massachusetts and founded by Joan Hartel Cabral, is a multi-level marketing company that sells jewelry featuring freshwater cultured pearls.  Since 2016 the company has seen an increase in popularity by holding Facebook live parties as opposed to traditional home-based parties.  Oysters are opened on-camera, by Independent Consultants, in front of customers, creating anticipation and excitement.  The customer chooses the jewelry piece in which to imbed their pearl and the company hand-mounts the pearl and ships it to the customer.

Who Is Vantel Pearls For?

The company verbiage states that Vantel Pearls can offer you the following:

• the ability to contribute to the family finances (and I guess your retirement income too)
• a social outlet
• lifelong friendships and connections
• a boost of self-confidence
• mentorship

As with most MLM’s, the target audience here is stay-at-home moms (and dads).  But there is also some appeal to retirees because you can run this business from home holding Facebook Live parties if you enjoy being on-camera and putting on what amounts to a  home shopping network presentation.

Brief Details and Price

website:  vantelpearls.com

founder and CEO: Joan Hartel Cabral

price to join and what’s included:

$99 Starter Kit includes:

• a getting started guide
• 20 Vantel Pearls Catalogs
• a necklace easel display
• earring stand
• ring stand
• 10 Host Planners
• 10 Opportunity Brochures
• 100 Pearl Bags
• 100 Pearl Envelopes
• a Pearl Palette Card
• a ring sizer
• 25 Invoices
• an Oyster Jug
• *40 Oysters (with a $100 Oyster deposit)

*This is a deferred payment. Vantel Pearls supplies the Consultant with their first load of Oysters on a consignment basis.  The $100 deposit is deducted from your initial commission checks until it is paid in full.

• your replicated website is free for the first 3 months. Thereafter, the price is $12.95 per month to maintain your website

guarantee:  there is no income guarantee

CRIO rating (out of 10): 0

My Review Of Vantel Pearls

Joan Hartel Cabral, the founder, and CEO of Vantel Pearls took a trip to Hawaii in 1987.  There, she picked up a souvenir of an oyster with a pearl inside which so delighted her young niece that she was inspired to share this exciting miracle of nature with others, thus the birth of Vantel Pearls using a direct selling business model in 1990.

Since 2016, when the Live Facebook parties started to become the new way to sell in place of in-home parties, Vantel Pearls saw a huge spike in popularity.

products

A word about pearls.  There is no industry-wide grading system when it comes to pearls. So, anyone can make up their own grading system and give a value to a pearl because there are no set values.  Basically, a pearl is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Vantel Pearls sells a wide variety of jewelry on their website including:

• necklaces
• pendants
• earrings
• bracelets
• charms
• rings
• key rings

The big ‘reveal’ marketing strategy featured with Vantel Pearls is their “Oyster Opening” which can happen at either an in-home party, or anywhere else you choose to promote your business, such as at a tradeshow, or on the Facebook Live Pearl Party.

oyster opening

The way it works is, you pick a setting that you would like for your pearl or pearls.  A necklace, bracelet ring, etc.  You purchase that via your Independent Consultants website.  When they receive notification that your purchase has gone through, they can then ‘shuck’ an oyster in front of you on a Facebook Live Party, or at an in-home party, whichever you are participating in.  The pearl that comes out of that oyster is then sent to the company where it is mounted and then mailed to you.

There is also what they call the Pearl Discovery Kit that you can purchase which is the whole show-in-a-box.  You get the oyster, which is in a pull-top can, and a pendant necklace in which you insert the pearl in the cage pendant, that you can give as a gift to yourself or to others.  The cost is $49.

how to join

To join the Vantel Pearls business opportunity, you must be enrolled by an Independent Consultant.  If you do not know one, the website will put you in touch with one in your area.  You must be a legal resident of one of the 50 United States or District of Columbia to be accepted as a Vantel Pearl Independent Consultant and you may not solicit customers from outside the United States, including the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico.

Once you have filled out your application fee and purchased the mandatory Vantel Pearls Consultant Starter kit for $99 (plus the $100 for your first batch of oysters), you are ready to go.  You can promote your new business at expos, trade shows, booth events, home parties, or the very popular Facebook Live parties.  Holding a party is essential in promoting the Vantel Pearls business.  You will also need to be recruiting family and friends to join you because this is how the direct selling model works.  Personal sponsoring and training your recruits is fundamental to your success.  You may enroll new recruits on your replicated website.

Vantel Pearls compensation plan

If you are an active Vantel Pearls Independent Consultant, you are eligible to receive commissions.  Remaining active requires that you submit $500 in personal TSV or Total Sales Volume, over a 2 month period starting with the first day of the month.  This TSV requirement will increase as you start to climb the ranks.

Some terms to know:

Personally Sponsored Active Consultant – this is anyone you yourself recruited (such as a family member or friend) into the Vantel Pearls business opportunity who submits $500 or more personal TSV over a 2 month period.

Downline – this is the organization that you build when you recruit people into your business who in turn recruit others below them and so on down to the last recruited or sponsored person.  This is termed a “genealogy” in your business organization.

CV – Commissionable Volume – All jewelry retail sales are commissionable

Override – this is a sales commission on the monthly jewelry sales, or  CV (Commissionable Volume) submitted by you and those below you in your downline team.

Qualifications at rank levels and Income:

Consultant Commissions:

• may earn 25% Commissionable Volume of jewelry sales (does not need to be in ‘active’ status to earn this).
• 2% sponsorship override on the monthly jewelry sales of personally sponsored consultants (that you have recruited)
• 2% override on level 1 consultants you have not personally recruited
• a 40% discount on personal jewelry purchases

Star Consultant: To reach this level, you must have achieved:

• $500 or more personal TSV
• $4000 or more team TSV
• Have acquired at least 2 personally sponsored recruits in your level 1.  You can see here that to obtain this level you really have to recruit others into your business to have any hope of earning some kind of income

You may then be eligible to receive:

• 25% commission on your personal CV
• 4% override on monthly personal CV
• 4% override on your level 1 monthly CV
• 40% discount on personal jewelry purchases

Silver Leader:  monthly requirements are:

• $1000 or more in your personal TSV
• $8000 team TSV
• have at least 5 personally sponsored consultants in your level 1

You may then be eligible to receive:

• 25% commission on personal CV
• 5% additional override on monthly personal CV
• 5% override on 1st level monthly CV
• 2% override on 2nd level monthly CV
• 40% discount on personal jewelry purchases

Gold Leader:  This is where it starts to get complicated, as it always does with MLM compensation plans.  At this level, and those above, i.e. Platinum Director and Pearl Director, you will need to acquire many more recruits and Qualified Leaders below you.

A Qualified Leader is someone who has at least 5 Personally Sponsored Active Consultants, has met the $1000 monthly personal TSV and the minimum monthly group TSV of $8000.  These Qualified Leaders have to be on specific levels in your organization.  Suffice to say, you will need to constantly be bringing new recruits into your business, push them to recruit and sell and so on and so on.  There is always a huge dropout rate in multi-level marketing so a great deal of your energy will be on finding a wider and wider circle of people to bring into your business.

You can view the entire Vantel Pearls Compensation Plan here, but don’t be dismayed if you are confused.  This is deliberate.  

Network marketing can be a successful business model for some people, but not many.  You need to have an exceptional skill-set that includes boundless energy, a tough skin, the ability to recruit others who are trainable that you can place into your organization, and funds which you will need to set-up either in-home parties or Facebook live feeds.  I created a checklist that covers the points you need to consider to determine if you are honestly the type of person that can succeed in multi-level marketing.

The unfortunate truth is that over 97% of people who become involved in MLM either make very little income or actually lose money.  You have to consider the cost of doing business such as attending trade shows or expos and Vantel Pearl Events.  This will cost you money in the way of fuel and possibly hotel expenses.  If you have an in-home party, you need to offer snacks and beverages to your guests and have a lot of jewelry displayed to entice them to purchase.  Remember, you are not an employee when you are in a network marketing company.  But you don’t need to take my word for the high failure rate in this type of business model.  Just take a look at this document from the Consumer Awareness Institute which goes into great detail.

Vantel Pearls income disclosure statement

I searched high and low and could not find an income disclosure statement for Vantel Pearls.  This is very concerning and is a red flag warning.  This does not show transparency on the part of the company.  How do you know you might be interested in joining if you cannot see what others have earned?  Forget it!

lawsuits

I found a very interesting article that details a class action that was started against Vantel Pearls but had to be closed due to the financial instability of the company.  There is a lot more information here which you may find interesting.

complaints

There are so many complaints about this company.  Here are just two I found on the Better Business Bureau website, and there are many more…

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• no pros with this company for me

Cons:

• unethical business practices
• fake pearls and low-quality jewelry
• the flawed MLM business model

Final Thoughts About Vantel Pearls

Is Vantel Pearls a scam? After all my research I have to come out and say yes.  I think Vantel Pearls is scamming both their customers and the Independent Consultants that are trying so hard to earn an income.

There is a lot of organization, preparation, and expense required to put on a successful ‘live show’ including investing in a decent microphone and proper lighting.  There is also the need for displays and a special magnifying lens to put on the camera to show people close-up how the pearls look.  Added to this the need to expend a lot of energy being upbeat and talking constantly, engaging with your attendees.  Having viewed the live feeds for hours, I saw that the Consultants need to be constantly entertaining their audience with drawings, raffles, competitions, and prizes and giveaways.  Many of the Consultants I viewed were not prepared for their Facebook live and appeared indifferent and bored.  Not very engaging to the audience.

No matter how hard you see these people on Facebook ‘working it’, I promise you only the top 1-2% of Independent Consultants are making the big bucks.  You (or me) at entry-level will be making very little if anything.  Not until we start recruiting and get an active organization selling below us.  Your family and friends may want to help you at first but when they see how tough it is you may find yourself in the NFL club (no friends left).

My big concern is that there is a great deal of controversy about the quality of the pearls and the jewelry sold by Vantel Pearls.  The perfectly round pearls are so fake.  These oysters have had pearls inserted into them and resealed.  Jeremy Shepherd, who is the marketing director and treasurer of the Cultured Pearl Association of America, or CPAA.ORG, viewed these Vantel Pearls Facebook Live Pearl Parties himself.  He said it was clear to him that the hosts are selling commercially farmed, cheap freshwater pearls which have then been inserted into saltwater oyster shells.  Here is a link to the entire article on BuzzFeed.

Finally, there is the issue of overharvesting and cruelty involved with exploiting oysters.  This eye-opening article from PETA was the final nail in the coffin for me.  I just cannot find a pearl in this business opportunity, therefore I do not recommend Vantel Pearls as a way to generate income in your retirement.

Our Recommendation

Multi-level marketing is not the way to go if you are trying to improve your bottom line, in my opinion.  When Philip and I realized that we needed to supplement our retirement income, we did a lot of research and discovered Affiliate Marketing, which you can read all about here in Philip’s article.

There is no need to recruit family and friends with affiliate marketing, nor do you need to join in a complicated compensation plan structure with downlines and overrides and monthly sales quotas.  When we were doing our research, we came upon a friendly Canadian company that has been teaching people this business since 2005.  It’s called Wealthy Affiliate and Philip has written a detailed article about it that may interest you.

If you would like to come on in and see the Wealthy Affiliate platform, you can do so for FREE.  No credit card, no obligation.  You will see us in there, saying hello and ready to help you!

Thank you for taking the time to read this review and I hope you stay safe out there on the internet.  I wish you health, happiness, and success,

Your friend,

Colette