One of the most persistent questions about TVI Express is just where exactly it is located.
THEY SAY: TVI Express itself claims to be headquartered in London, UK. It even uses a London UK area code as their primary contact number. It claims to also have office in Cyprus (island off Turkey), and India. It displayed a 55 Bryanston st. London address for most of 2009 then changed to the Cyprus address. Later a new address that claims to be in Heathrow, UK was published.
TRUTH #1: TVI Express used to display an address of Marble Arch Tower, 55 Bryanston Street, London, UK. address. The problem is, the building is way too big to house ONLY TVI Express. Further more, people have called the front desk and found no mention of TVI Express. However, that was their registered address, as proven by Google Maps. In fact, according to Google Maps, it is still there.
So what is a virtual office? A virtual office is a way to get an address at a place you could not hope to afford the rent. If you have seen the picture from the link above of Marble Arch Tower, you would be impressed, right? So business sprung up in various cities offering to get you an address at a prestigious location, such as Marble Arch Tower, and will forward your mail and phone received there to anywhere you want in the world. With VOIP, you can be physically anywhere in the world, and still answer phone calls as if you are in London, UK.
TRUTH #2: if you analyze the new Heathrow address given on the TVI Express website with a similar process, you'll find something very surprising... That address is INVALID! Google Maps gave the address as located in Uxbridge, NOT Heathrow (though it is near Heathrow) And it's almost 20 miles from London.
Which begs the question: if they are NOT in London, can they still claim to be "headquartered" in London? If their office "near" London is a virtual office, then why are they lying about "headquartered in London", and just WHERE is TVI Express headquartered in?
TRUTH #3: The Cyprus address at Limasool has the same problem as the two UK addresses. It has at least three different companies at that exact location. Plug the address into Google and see for yourself. I found at least three companies at that exact same address: a Forex trading company, an on-line casino, and a technical writing firm.
Apparently, the Cyprus office is a virtual office as well. That leaves the only real office in India.
TRUTH #4: A reading of Cyprus law and company registrars in Europe show that Cyprus has long allowed what's known as "offshore companies". Basically a company can pay an agent to register the company in Cyprus, and thus, become a Cyprus company, without having any officer ever set foot in Cyprus, and it does not need to operate in Cyprus, or even sell to any citizens of Cyprus. Why? Cyprus has one of the lowest business tax rates in the European Union, and one of the laxest business laws in the E.U. as well.
While this is completely legitimate, it is highly suspicious. Can you claim to be headquartered in London UK, if you are actually registered in Cyprus, and your closest office is actually almost 20 miles from London? And that office is highly suspect of being a mere virtual office?
TRUTH #5: In the disclaimer on TVIexpress.com, TVI Express claim to be only subject to India and Cyprus laws.
This would imply that they are registered in India and Cyprus as businesses, but NOT London. As they only showed the Cyprus address in LATE and they have been operating since February does that mean they have been operating several months in UK unregistered, and thus, operated illegally?
TRUTH #6: TVI Express actually used a different company name in its website "terms of use", namely "TVI Services Limited". There is a company registered in UK by that name, but its relation to TVI Express was never explained. Its legal address is in Surrey, not London. The office address, under Google Search, turns out to be the company registrar's address as well, which makes it another virtual office. This however, was apparently revised after the publication of the Cyprus office address.
TRUTH #7: Repeated questions about this issue has been ignored by various TVI Express members, including alleged reps of TVI Express India, on voiceofsikkim.com. This question, along with a dozen others, were posted three times, and ignored three times.
CONCLUSION: TVI Express's is saaammmm, STAY AWAY .for further details: [email protected]
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