He said either way hed be expecting me tomorrow at 3:30pm. So I looked up pyramid scam and found out its an unsustainable business in which the higher ups make money by recruiting poor unfortunate souls like ourselves. Investment Adviser Firm Visit SEC Site. For only $99 you can be licensed to sell insurance to others with us. Are there good people in this business? *Money.USNews.com, "How to Find A Financial Advisor if You're . I was also applying for jobs but for some reason I had chose not to go with this company. Then again two days later. The red flags popped up when she mentioned what the massive amounts of money people save, from paying 14 years of loans in 5 years is mathematically impossible for the average middle class consumer. Deep down I felt angry.. what part of this was training to help ME? Sizing up the interviewees professional attire I again looked around, feeling self-conscious as I really noticed for the first time how cheap and tacky the office looked with its random motivational decorations and big scoreboard marking sales and recruits. They both return later that same evening and buy more merchandise. Now what?! Made $100 in a single month. I told her I was looking for a salary based job opportunity and if she couldnt offer that, then I was cancelling the interview because her job offer didnt fit my current needs or interest. My father passed away in May. After hanging up with him, I found this wonderfully put together article and took the time to go through most of the comments as well and found pretty much everybody in agreement that this is a scam. Thanks for the heads up! mail in a letter with your info, we will give you a call. Suddenly a laminated informational booklet comes out for PRIMERICA. I went to the interview and we just hire anyone. They kept touting how much of a hard worker I am and how valuable I would be to them. Anyways, being a young, naive college student I listened to him and eagerly tried out the company thinking I could use them to get my Series 6 and Securities licenses and quit. Wow I just spent $99 on nothing!!!!!!! I immediately searched the company and came across this page. BBB encourages you to check with the appropriate agency to be certain any requirements are currently being met. Additionally, the MLM structure sucks for the Primerica representatives. Surely a man that professional-looking would be deterred by someone as inexperienced as me in the room, I rationalized to myself. It came off exactly as I anticipated, money, money, money, completely scripted and complete with props and pictures. I had started in 1984 and it took me until 1990 (six years) to make RVP. 5. opening up a store or a chain of stores with their very own factory. I made to RVP , sold alots of policies yes made money but when my comminity questioned 35 year term beeng level term company simply forced me to step down . MLMs are legalized pyramid schemes. Those who participate have bought into the lie that they own their own business. I wouldnt say I was victimized. How BBB Processes Complaints and Reviews. He then had a slide showing the tiers and potential earnings. Proceeded with a few more questions before telling me she and her husband ran a small business. I already know about Prime, as this isnt my first go around with them or companies like them, so I am just going to humor them and then as gently as possible (not) let them know this is not for me. The 'Private Investment Club' conference had everything: a host demanding people pay for 'VIP' access, weird pyramid diagrams, "plerking," and a celebrity guest who clearly didn't read the memo. I mumbled something about Ill see what I can do said my goodbyes, and bowed out. Why would you not want to help your friends, family, and referrals with this information? I suffered through the classes only to never hear about my financial planning budget ever again because my reps had no idea how to put one together. However, Im wondering if that might be an acceptable trade-off for me, if this setting offers the gradual training and the part-time opportunity (at first) that Im seeking? He knew that I lived in close proximity to his company and asked me if I was still interested in finding a job. Turns out that of the top 25 life insurance companies out there, Primerica is at number 22, and they have a very small share of the entire life insurance market to begin with, even though they have more agents than every other life insurance combined. There are two levels of people in the business, not infinite levels. There was a Prime America in the office building I currently work in, and I cant tell you how many young, eager, looking people would pull up looking nervous right before their big job interview. Louisiana Primerica I was livid but had to go along so as to get out of there. Ive just arrived in America from overseas. I told him i was not looking to sell door to door or force anyone to sign up for gimmicks, which He reassured me that i would not be doing. Legit MLMs and pyramid scams have a few key differences. I showed up for the interview and no one knew who I was supposed to be speaking with. Personally I have been in the company for 4 months and I have seen what a scam it is. I would advise this company to improve its product and recruiting tactics to avoid getting continued poor publicity. It is mostly about convincing them to but term life insurance of which, the first yr. payment is split among his upline. I didnt want to be rude to him with my best friend trying to work there but it just didnt sit right with me. I ended up getting out of it last minute once I found this blog I had to SEARCH HARD to find out that she worked for Primerica, it pretty much boiled down to me searching the address she gave me and finding that its registered to Primerica. They provide financial education and sell products through a network of individual associates. I finally ended it telling her Im sorry but no and she said thank you and turned her back on me. This is a good money maker for Primerica and the finance industry in general- all on the backs of reps. Any conclusions drawn by myself are opinions. I call in two weeks ago to get some assistance in lowering my policy, and I get the run around. I asked for a job description. There is no selling of opportunity because all we do is find out what peoples dreams and goals are in life (youve got to know what they are first) give them a game plan and tell them to act on it. I then googled Prime America and this site was the first thing that popped up. Replied that I was actively seeking a second job opportunity, so without disclosing a last name I wrote down my given name and phone number. At least i can say i tried on something that could have worked. Ever since I graduated my undergrad Ive gotten random phone calls from shady looking companies that I never applied to. So consumers are overpaying, and likely buying the wrong products. What a waste of human DNA both of them ! Why? Hello Tracey, If your comfortable with just getting by (paycheck to paycheck) then by all means continue with what you are currently doing. I sold Cutco like ten years ago and while I had a fun summer doing it and actually made some decent sales, I would never do it again. Her jewelry looked awful nice for a receptionist. Sorry, I am not signing any employees up for any more pay deductions if theyre not getting the services. The place where we met was super creepy, also. If you want to sell insurance or investments, you are much better off with a company OTHER than Primerica. Multi-level marketing is not entrepreneurship. After realizing her main focus was getting recruits I began to question this whole Primerica thing. A man named Jack has recently added me on Facebook, first thing I check for with people I dont know adding me is their friends list, their About section and the consistency and validity of their posts to make sure theyre real and not some spam account. Very glad I googled this company and found this blog. OMG This is soooo true. When I ask again what is the role of being a customer service to the company, all that he is saying was that I will be talking to their clients. So then i asked him thru Facebook and he said no and now im here and im so glad i am. Im still researching the fact, yet still smell pyramid. She also asked me if it was true that I had management experience, which I thought was a strange question because if she had actually reviewed my resume, she would find that I indeed have about 7 years of management experience in both sales and customer service. I called her back to be polite but she didnt answer. http://www.sequenceinc.com/fraudfiles/2015/03/multi-level-marketing-is-not-a-business-its-a-pyramid-scheme/. He hasnt paid in 3 months! A former agent at It Works, an MLM selling beauty and weight loss supplements, told her firsthand experience of the flawed structure: "We were negative $1,000 after 18 months. Sucker Me Not At This Time When I stated that this was just short of a pyramid scheme and that my last interview with the company (5 years ago) resulted in someone wanting me to buy over $100 worth of licenses, they had nothing to say. FINRA reports that this firm has 21 total disclosures on its record, including 17 regulatory events and 2 arbitration awards. Needless to say, Im glad I got out of that one. What would happen if I cancelled the whole thing? She also said if I fit for the position I would need to plan on staying longer to go over more information. He asked if I have ever heard of Prime America (looking at this site at the same time) I said yes, he sounded surprised oh you have Yes I said. but that neither here or there.) Third, my agent told us that he much preferred to bring in people to work just part-time, and he had for his first 18 months with the company, because it takes a while to support oneself in this or any commissioned sales position. After attending a couple of the information sessions myself. lol He went on to tell me that they were moving their business from Milwaukee to Chicago and are looking for people to help run a couple businesses here, here I thought oh boy, a sales position, no thank you I thought in my mind. As shes leaving, she stops and says, You know, I never do this because its disrespectful to approach people at their jobs. You need to pay 99.00 for a background check and need my sos and license. Her choice of language, and orientation rather than an interview, and the location of it (nowhere downtown but rather in a rented space in the outskirts I mapped it out) caused me to beg off, using the excuse that the location was too far for me to attend. Again why have they not been charged if they are doing something illegal? Why didnt I say, when he was at the bottom of page 1 that I didnt think it was the right fit and move on??? Only said that his company was part of the stock exchange and made more money than Yahoo -_-. I would seriously consider investing in the company since, realistically, their pitch is great for the uninitiated and their motivational tactics (weekly motivational conference calls and meetings at fancy/lavish venues) work on those that take what they pitch at face value. The stock in Avon has dropped as well, below $10 a share. My Lyft driver actually was the one who told me I should come by his office but didnt mention what he actually did (broken record much lol). Primerica is a SCAM period. Everyone gets invited to stay for the informational session, and everyone will be strong-armed into signing up as a representative. My niece received a call for a job interview yesterday. I thought oh boy! I googled psfl darmouth (included in the e-mail) and the first link was primerica is a pyramid scheme/scam so that was enough for me. Today I received a phone call today from a recruiter who found my resume on Careerbuilder. Apparently, his company helped a lot of families who couldnt afford such help otherwise. No, Primerica does not offer services that justify a higher price. I realized, for the tenth time that night, that this guy was an asshole, and that was most likely what had halted his progress in his business. Our two conversations over the phone were all about me my background, who I was, what I was looking to do he barely said anything about what he was offering, just that he was interested in taking me on if I was the right person for a company that was looking to expand. I sat through the whole thing and, unfortunately, was actually pumped up about it & ready to start making money! To those who have met up with someone who promised to help them financially, the supervisor was there to help you if the rep quit because, as I said, this takes work and if you cant stand the heat you need to stay out of the kitchen. A pyramid scheme is a fraudulent system of making money based on recruiting an ever-increasing number of "investors." The initial promoters recruit investors, who in turn recruit more investors, and so on. Possibility of excellent income. A lot of people here who are unapologetic in their refusal to show up to a meeting they said they would go to after doing research, coming down on agents about ethics. He keeps insisting to do it that day but I firmly said i will think about it. Im a 22 year old student working as a sales associate in an Office store when I was ringing up a customer (Kristen Dunn). I googled ahead of time, but only really to find the place, which, like everyone elses experience around here, was on the outskirts of town in a rented building. He invited me to go to an event of some kind, and I agreed. Many of them, have a question mark still attached, which makes me wonder if any resolutions were achieved in those cases. * Also, if someone wasnt college material, and all they were qualified for is a $10-15/hr job, but they really loved their family and wanted to do more to provide for them, to where, other than another MLM type jobs, could they go? I got a call from somebody in Primerica named Curtis. My Primerica Regional Vice President (RVP) well call John offered to teach me how to call them, to build my team. Went well. BBB Business Profiles generally cover a three-year reporting period. John breezed through the door and introduced himself then instructed the man to sit down for a few moments; hed be right with him. I got a call around noon from a company called PFS Investments. I thought the man I was working one on one with , who was soooo nice was helping me set up online banking , which is what he said , but in reality he was going into my account taking money out which he said they were not gonna do unless I signed up for the classes at a later date. Okay, made perfect sense. It has been at least 15 years. LOL Alex. Then he spent the next 5-10 minutes telling me that the company is called Primerica and what they do is sell life insurance, auto insurance, and help people with debt. Later found out this company had sold my sister, whos a single mom, a massive EXPENSIVE insurance policy. I did go to an interview with him his office was eerily empty, a dark, one-floor building that looked more like a conference center than an office space. Naturally, none of this sounded normal. We sell legit insurance, that either you already have, or might need at a price that is same or lower, with same or better customer service. Good thing they never call me again. The meeting starts after like 30 minutes past I still dont understand what I would be doing so I start asking questions about the company and I was told the company name is Prime America and how there is no website but that the company is one of the biggest companies in the world. I knew that a job selling insurance wasnt really up my alley, and my intention was to leave the first opportunity I got, but that opportunity came when they asked me to put down $99 for an investment licensing class. My own confidence in my judgment is severely shaken. not something good to be involved in. and is refundable but most people dont know that, You can get your own credit check and if not hired, you can get a refund. Question: Does anyone feel ripped off in their current situation? I received a call from Primerica just a few hours ago. Im 18 Im not looking to make that type if money like that, Im looking for something simply to get me through college. Well, okay Atlantis it is. I decided to see if Id be sucked into doing sales but it wasnt mentionedthough a lot of hinky things were. That is why the poor get poorer and the richer who work there ass off get richer! (The Primerica reps will tell you their payment structure is no different. As of 7 hours i have been in Primerica, I do understand what everyone is saying about it. Unlimited income potential. MLMs are legitimate but a prospectus or other similar vehicle should be required for prospective recruits just like a stock or mutual fund offering, identifying exactly what fees are involved and what is specifically required of the representative. He said Id love to have you come and work for me etc. I looked him up a few months ago. God am I hungover. This other guy was pleasant enough, introduced himself and politely shook my hand. She then proceeds to pitch to me what Primerica does and how important life insurance is. Obviously the other side of this coin is that reps/and recruits dont benefit, and dont find enough value to stay. New faces=new prospects=new recruits=new sales. This is a pre-paid legal services plan that provides members with access to attorneys for a variety of legal needs. old-fashioned pyramid scheme and the line between the two is blurry at best. Thank you for the heads up!!! Have no doubt they will be in contact with me again (as they are salesmen), but polite as I am, Im just going to be blunt, as closure is important. She went thru a 45 minute pitch for their pyramid scheme. I dont mean any disrespect to the author of this blog but I wonder if he/she thinks about real estate brokers, is real estate a scam or pyramid scheme as well? I advised that I am not looking for a sales job, as all the cold calls about my resume have been for sales positions of one sort or another, and I really do not like selling. Well talk about me and what I do later. Um, alright. good looking into this before going to my interview today. THATs owning your own business not this MLM stuff. Good thing I have learned from Dr Phil! I got an email from Mark that hed like to set up an interview. From what Ive read, I think I am passing on my interview this week. PFS Investments Inc. (aka) Primerica Financial Services. Just went to one of these sad displays lst night got dragged in by a friend. Recruiters lie to get people to join, because if they told hte truth about the almost guaranteed failure, no one would ever sign up. Shame. Nice to know people are exposing this company! Hes spending more time getting me to do all this than he did explaining the actual job.. I wasted time I dint have wasted my energy got myself siked up for NOTHING! Those are games we leave for the devil. Puffing up a business opportunity does not translate into real business skill. I will not be going Monday. Its not what you are told that is important, but rather what they arent telling you that really matters. I have been invited to go to their local stoughton office for the meeting where i would be taught getting out of debt tactics while making $$; spoke about how his son was making 37k a month, his other son having a house built blah blah blah. As I still had about 10 minutes to spare, I drove around the parking lot to make sure I had the right address. All the money being made in the quick amount of time. She gave me this speech about how she is the General Manager and that she was opening various locations and needed people. Anyways, Im cancelling that visit and now im off to the bank to change my debit card number to be safe. Now this guy (who knows if he actually works at Primerica) has my SOC. By the time he is licensed, he has alienated many of his friends, made some money for his upline, and is now expected to trick others into doing what he was duped into doing. I was there in the bulding today just asking ppl some jobs & met a young lady going for interview & I ask her if I can follow her to know more about the job & she was nice to me to let me follow her. OMG thanks for this website!!!!!!!!! It is a pyramid scheme. Last week I was approached at my job by two people. He couldnt have known that I am a three time college graduate, having obtained both a diploma and honours degree, in the fields of law and computers respectively, so why on earth was this happening? Term insurance gets expensive if you have to buy it each year, and investing in mutual funds is OK if you can ride out a bear market. What might those be? I emailed Mark back asking if 10 am worked for him. Then she laid it on the table: I needed to go out and start recruiting. I then told him Im not interested. I just got a call from them today 3:19pm 6/14/16 for a job interviewim ill and cant work right now and its sad to see this is still going on in 2016but im happy for this site to help spread the newsthe caller left a message i did not answer i looked them up and ended up here.thank you all for your helpful info! He asked if I had heard of Primerica. I didnt have time to listen to the whole message at first and wanted to Google the company before I returned his 1 and a half minute message. But upon going there I saw a completely different picture. But still a very nice person . . I felt paralyzed with indecisiveness. I am suppose to have an interview tomorrow as well. Also, to those who think its a pyramid scam, we are a NYSE company and have an A+ rating with the BBB. They guy even scratched his back while slumped into his chair. And I was like a job description of what Ill be doing and how the company works. It seems the main issue was the lack of transparency by the Primerica reps when discussing the opportunity and the tactics used to get in front of the prospect. A pyramid scheme does not refer to the layers of management that you see. He finally emailed me back saying that 10 works great but I would be speaking with David because he was busy busy busy! Will do anything to hire people. She had once had an office in an actual storefront on a mixed commercial/residential street in the neighborhood, but now ran her business with no outside marker out of her husbands auto body shop. I am now on the A-TEAM, she says, a daring-do group of financial managers that will change the world. BBB Business Profiles are provided solely to assist you in exercising your own best judgment. 3. I go back into the bar and ask the bartender if a half-blind bartender named Mariah works there. However, when I suggested that my previous experience would leave me worthy of positions like Business Analyst, I was informed that those positions were only available in the corporate office located in Georgia. I was contacted by someone from Freedom Financial Services out of Charlotte, NC. She said they were just getting established here. I will not be invited back even though the host is consider me a friend and wants me to be on her team (her words). People do real research before you blow an opportunity and not this Google cap where anyone can post anything on it. Hey Alex, this isnt the first time and wont be the last time a crooked company has rung the NYSE closing bell. * Finally, does it have to have an hourly salary to be job? A huge amount of life insurance agents have their life insurance with Primerica because we sell the best product for the least amount of money and we know how to show you what you are getting so you wont be fooled by a scammer. Sell any and all medications over the world. A former classmate of mine saw my Facebook post that I was looking for part-time work and called me. No one ever said it was going to be easy, and if you thought it was, then i dont know what to tell you. They tried to get me to come to a meeting next Monday with the VP, but with my work schedule and doctors appointments for my two disabled children, that wasnt in the cards, so they tried to get me to show early for work tonight and I again said no, so they set up a meeting at 1:30 am tonight after I finish work. The first inkling of a warning flag went off in my brain. I already work full time. Needless to say I didnt invest the time and effort to go back there for the presentation that night. There were 10 or so young men dressed nicely milling around. My only piece of advise. Of course, now looking back and seeing it for what it was, I see why he wanted to hide behind secrecy. Primerica is an insurance company. When they first came I noticed his wife was wearing a dte coat, I asked jokingly what company is this opportunity with, Primerica or Dte? I had an interview scheduled for tomorrow, but something was really fishy about the entire thing. Now thats a successful company, but many fail. Like the other RVPs were worse off for working with people who didnt have it. It is a shame that there are companies out there who still make money off these scams. No rebuttal, just got off the phone. I was leary of it so I didn`t go to meet her . I search my memory and finally remember who she is. Ive read a ton of comments on other sites as well, and this is just not cool! These offers do not represent all available deposit, investment, loan or credit products. Awesome reviews everyone! A pyramid scheme is an investment fraud in which new participants' fees are typically used to pay money to existing participants for recruiting new members. I couldnt make out the muffled answer but saw his demeanor change to become a bit more aggressive. Now of course I realize that I was probably the only one who wanted to learn. Suck my ass. Im here because i need a different job and it sounds more like he needs me. Well, all insurance agencies and brokerages have the pyramid payment style. We walked out to our cars, him telling me about how successful the evening had been. What Primerica does, is after they sign up a new trainer, they get their list of friends, and the new trainer and his upline trainer go down the list of friends and make appts. I will be calling them in the morning to say that I will not be participating in this ridiculously insidious scam after all. after hearing these non descriptive answers at this point Im like yea, ok very high chance I will not be showing up. One person wrote that she heard people cheering YES we do that because we support the people who are working and we give accolades to them. MLM jobs are not jobs at all. They need to bring in new people all the time to train them, when all they are really doing is using up their warm market to write business. If you join Primerica your commission schedule is ridiculously LOW. I wasnt really looking forward to more training in the morning, but figured with the scared-looking new teenage recruit coming, John would at least be in his jovial, upbeat mood. I listened to all the BS coming out of everyones mouth. After a day, Curtis called me for the second interview. Auto & Homeowners Insurance 4. I told her that I would tell my friends about it but she kept pestering ME to work for her. And if your not going to show up to an appointment just say so, dont be a child and say ill be there and not show. Something was definitely off. Jeb- If you read most of these comments then you should already know that half of them was approached at their job like myself. * Isnt it true that a lot of consumers arent sophisticated when it comes to insurance, which is why there are so many scam artist out there taking advantage of them? The company's main product is Term Life Insurance. I had really lost interest by the time he had gotten to the bottom of the first page. I dont go to unnecessary meetings or bother my warm market because its a legit service. She assured me, as the regional vice president of the Dayton area, she is looking to agressively expand her reach and will be opening up 5 new offices in the next 2 years, so she needs all the help she can get. We set up an interview for this Friday at 1:00. Ive had group sort of discussions before, but this seemed to be more of them trying to sell me on a position (it almost felt like they were trying to sell me the products themselves) They didnt ask me many questions about myself, so it felt like they were looking for whoever will take their job, not who wants it. Reed Slatkin - $593 million. B . They didnt get my credit card info but they have my social security number and my other info. Primerica, Inc. is a financial services company serving the middle-income market offering term life insurance and strategy for investments. Primerica multi-level marketing system offers the following advantages 1. I wasnt about to put my plans aside for something as ambiguous as that, and seeing other people talk about their experiences, Im glad I didnt. needless to say I got undressed put on my gym clothes and went to the gym . I went to the orientation before with Primerica and discovered that it was a MLM. Long story short I didnt fill out the employee application because I knew right away this wasnt for me. I asked his name, he says Fitzgerald, refused to give a last name. To the last comment, the most draining 2 months?? they called me yesterday afternoon while I was at one of my jobs. Was this review helpful? The rep asked my questions, saw I am a good person who likes helping people, and told about Primericas business of helping people. I am bewildered that a casual lunch chat turned into an application, job interview, explanation of the job (in that order), and finally my being hired.