Is it safe to use the DTV visa service advertised for Muay Thai training?

@Stephen *******

I'm more inclined towards your goal now that you've explained it a bit more, though I reserve the right to still be a bit skeptical.

Concerning the Muay Thai Gym in question, the people there have only shown me a super positive attitude. They've also got excellent trainers and very good equipment.

I've been to quite a few gyms in Chiangmai.

I'm really just as impartial an observer as you're likely to get in this matter and my initial thoughts were that your business model came across as a bit extortionate. Now that I know what you're trying to do I can appreciate your perspective a bit more.

I would imagine that the people in the gym were trying to guard potential customers against any fraud or agencies trying to charge extra. Afterall, there are visa agencies out there who, rather than just point potential customers to the gym in question, charge a hefty sum for minimal haphazardly done paperwork.

You also didn't introduce yourself to them before, for the reasons you've now outlined. You can see where and how misunderstandings can occur.

Anyway, I suggest that you pop over to the gym and just have a chat over a cuppa. Great guys and great atmosphere there and you'll have more in-person knowledge of the place. Good luck with your efforts, sincerely.

@Imran **************

Appreciate your input though, thanks man. anything which improves the performance of the site is my goal. I want it to be ‘cool’. Like lighting fast, top security, fraud and performance protocols. Our key metrics currently are site speed, search performance and accuracy of listing data. Was just thinking totally different. Need to take others points of view and concerns into account too though. So thanks.

@Imran **************

I can appreciate the concern a bit more now. Seems like an understanding guy.

Will action next week to try to understand the issues service providers are facing not just from the nomad’s point of view as I have been doing.

But it is one of the core goals of the site and me personally, to help and highlight legitimate services and empower them. While filtering out and detecting fraud. So the goal’s are aligned.

Need to somehow make that more clear and articulate though.

@Stephen *******

Empowering legitimate services and filtering out fraud sounds like a commendable mission statement for a useful service 👍.

And for commissions will of course be a balance, based on how much they refer for and how good they are. But on a basis of reputation, there is absolutely no incentive to refer bad agents. For example, if you want to lower tax I would be recommending Get Started HK, can find them on the site along with multiple others in HK. They give us no commission, but if we refer enough, I’m sure they will be happy to over time.

This Muay Thai gym, for now. I don’t like, just purely based on their attitude. But if they’re the best in Chiang Mai, need to put my personal opinions aside and refer.

But you can see above where they recommend someone to get a membership when they live in Chiang Rai and I wouldn’t support that.

So is personal integrity at the end of the day. What is important to me is truth above all irrespective of if it offends, just personally. Will not be selling out my principles for 100 baht. No way.

@Keith ***********

I would plan for immigration at the airport eventually asking.

@Stephen *******

it's possible. But do they check to see if you're still enrolled for an ED visa? Do they check your bank balance for a 'retirement' or 'marriage' visa? I think it's beyond their capabilities at the airports and border crossings.

@Alessandro ********

Yeah, but airbnb had to start somewhere. My goal is not to promote visa agencies. It is to prevent fraud and collate all the visa options globally. And I am not competition for them or passing their services off as my own as least not attempting to. If that’s not clear is a design flaw which will be addressed.

I am giving them a free service by making the listing and of course then plan to contact them as to whether they want to use it or not.

I don’t see any down side for them, the listing directs straight to their website and they pay nothing, so is purely just free advertising (for now as that is obviously unsustainable).

But if I have nothing to show, they’re just simply going to say: “why? what’s the point” more effectively to just show: “here it is”. Not the cheapest/fastest way, but at least they can see exactly the point immediately and decide.

Airbnb used to offer something similar and actually took your photos for you and help you make the listing, then stopped as they got bigger and didn’t need to.

There is of course a tipping point where people find you as opposed to you finding them.

So I mean, yeah, could take your timid: “ask and beg” approach. But I just don’t really care. They’re not going to see value until they have had a few referrals anyway and I clearly say: “unverified, if you own this, send us a message” so we are not and not attempting to pass of like we own listings that have not confirmed their details.

Dude, this is a huge project and even how much time to allocate to each visa agency when we have hundreds, soon probably thousands and dozens of countries will need to be figured out. Especially as we are pre revenue.

But I appreciate the feedback. Have actioned making sure all unverified listings are linking to the owners website as a current top priority.

And ch om pu is no longer listed so we no longer recommend her services as she is unverified and we can’t confirm if they are a legitimate business which is totally fine. We will stick to the normal verification process moving forward.

@Alessandro ********

This comment is completely correct 👍, and there is no link on his website that leads people to the legitimate (real) website. Additionally, as you mentioned, the "Book Now" button also does not lead me to the real website. 😄