I also once fell for the Primerica pipedream. A friend of mine recommended me to a recruiter and before I knew it they brainwashed me into giving them $200 to "start my new life". (They said you got your 200 back once you went to 6 appointments)
I knew immediately I was being taken advantage of, so when my husband came home I asked him to speak to the recruiter to see if I could get my money back. Needless to say it was 3 hours until they got $200 from my husband as well.
We tried recruiting our friends to see if we could make a business out of this. We come from a VERY poor area and almost everyone we knew couldn't afford the start-up fee, so we tried to help them by putting up the money for them with our credit card. (After all we would get our money back, right?) Well, soon we had given Primerica a total of $1,200, which they assured us we would earn in no time.
We went to the meetings, took the classes, booked appointments, we even all got licensed. I sold my parents life insurance thinking I was helping them out, and they bought it thinking I would make a commission. Well, my upline got the commission from them, just like every other deal I closed. I never saw a penny.
When I was finally reimbursed my 2oo dollars, the check bounced, costing me even more in bank fees. And it wasn't until the friends I had recruited made their first 6 appointments that I found out that when you get reimbursed the check comes from your upline. In other words, since I recruited them, I was responsible for their reimbursement. I was the one who put up the money for them in the first place!!! Where is my money?
When I was pregnant and on bedrest, they couldn't make any money off of me, so the calls and friendships I thought I had built with my co-workers ceased.
All commissions went to the people above us. We spent more than 2 thousand dollars and a year and a half of our time, and when it was all said and done, the people who were "helping us start our own business" made a profit on our loss. When I finally cut all ties with Primerica, they had the nerve to send me a bill for $15. Not sure for what, but they'll see that money when they tear it from my cold, dead hands.
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