Before I start my story I want to add a note that if you have never attended any of the licensing classes (not even an hour of one class) you can get most of your initial $200 back, they charge a $40 or $60 processing fee so you'll either get $140 or $160 back. You just write a letter to the RVP (Regional Vice President) of the center where you were recruited, if you don't know their name, just address it to RVP at the address you went for your "interview" and say that you've changed your mind and never attended any classes and would like your $200 IBA fee returned to you. Make sure to give your name and return address in the letter itself and say who recruited you, etc. This way they have no way of saying "We didn't know who you were" or whatever. I do know that people do get this money back if they follow those steps.
OK, now for my Primerica experience...
Like many of you, I too was contacted out of the blue for a job I didn't apply for. They not only use Monster but also local newspaper sites where you might register for job searches. That's how they got my info.
So I attended their meeting and bought into the whole idea. My husband was deployed in Iraq and I had just moved to a new city. I wanted the extra income but more than that, I wanted to do something rewarding that could help others. So I gave them my $200 and the classes started right away. I did very well in the classes and studied like crazy then immediately went for my license. (Side note, not only do you pay the $200 for the classes but there's also a fee for getting fingerprinted and a fee for taking the state test, in Ohio it was $35 fingerprinting and $65 for the test) Once I passed my state licensing test both of the extra fees were reimbursed to me by Primerica. It did take a few weeks to get that reimbursement, I think 3 weeks.
This part of my story isn't typical for what happens to others which leaves an even more bitter taste in my mouth regarding my Primerica experience but it's my experience so I'm sharing it. I didn't receive any training prior to becoming licensed; therefore, I wasn't eligible for the reimbursement of my initial $200. See the way it works is, before you're licensed, your training comes from giving your upline a list of all of your friends and family members and their addresses and phone numbers and info about them. You and your upline go to see them and if they decide they need one of Citibank's many insurances or loans, your upline gets the commission on those products and they reimburse your $200 out of those commissions. The idea behind it is, you train in your warm market (those that know you best) because they will be the most likely to doubt your abilities and ask questions that you haven't learned to side step yet. Each friend and family member you see should give you 10-15 names, addresses and phone numbers of people they know and these are the people that you contact once you're licensed.
It was some time before I actually received any training whatsoever. I spent 15 hours a day at the office Monday thru Saturday for 3 weeks.in that time I went out with someone on my same upline team and we went to malls and stuff (to get nametag names) so that we could call those people later and say "I was in your store on such and such a day and you gave such excellent customer service that I would like to share a career opportunity with you". We would also go out and place "fishbowls" in restaurants and stuff. You know those bowls at restaurants that say "Drop in your business card for a chance to win a free meal"? This is how they get your contact info to call and try to recruit you. They figure that if you already have a job, you will have less problem coming up with the $200 they need from you up front. Most of my time was spent calling names from a sheet that my upline (Marie Fuentes) had already exhausted calling people that hadn't shown up for the "Opportunity Meeting" or had already blown her off, which was a complete waste of my time and efforts. But I was constantly told that if I worked the system, it would work for me. Meanwhile I'm driving 100 miles round trip just to get there everyday, I come home to clean up dog poop in the floor because I lived alone and no one was there to let them out and I was exhausted and had seen no return on my initial investment, let alone the $30,000 - $100,000 a year that the "Opportunity Meeting" dangled in front of me.
So now, since I had gotten licensed before I was trained, even though there was 3 weeks in between me giving my $200 and actually getting licensed so I SHOULD have received training, my upline (Marie Fuentes) finally (at my complete aggravated insistence) took me out for training in my warm market. My brother has a large family (his wife and 5 children) and he was the only one working and they had no life insurance so it was a definite need and they bought a policy. I received $192 in commission.
Even though I had given Marie a list of 10 people, we only saw 3 of the families, 2 of them were in the same house so it was actually only 2 presentations, and she didn't make sure that I got any referrals of other families from the people we saw. She basically had the attitude of "it's your family, you make sure they give them to you later" even though she had told me before we began that we go through the initial presentation and they are told that they have "homework" before we come back with their completed financial analysis and that to gather the names, etc for my referrals and that when we come back we ask for their "homework" before we read back their analysis and that the "homework" is payment in exchange for getting the free analysis.
So back to the office I go, spending 15 hours a day for 2 more months. I also went on a few road trips for seminars and stuff (and paid transportation, lodging and admittance fees for) that wasn't a requirement but they kept saying "your business will grow if you attend these meetings" or "You'll be hearing from people that have succeeded and they will show you the way to success". So I do everything that I'm told to do that will "ensure my success" and I was "coachable" (this is one of their favorite words). But still the only money I have seen is the $192 commission and the reimbursement of $100 for the fingerprinting and test fees.
I should note that in 1 day's time at the office, there were 3 meetings each day that we had to attend, in addition to the "Opportunity Meetings" to bring in new recruits. At these meetings, headed by the RVP, Mike Koehler and/or his wife Rhonda, they rarely pushed going out and meeting with clients. It was always "Recruit Recruit RECRUIT!!!" I guess this is partially why I failed with Primerica. How can I recruit people stating they can make all of this money when I was going on 3 months and hadn't seen any myself? I had purchased Primerica literature and pamphlets to hand out at businesses (which I did do and ended up giving the remainder to a friend still with the company when I moved to Georgia. Although he's completely into Primerica so if he reads this, I doubt he'll still be my friend afterwards.) and spent a fortune on gas going back and forth and countless amounts of money setting myself up for the dangled success. The friend I mentioned earlier has been with Primerica for 2 years. No one there works harder than he does to achieve success and he's been evicted twice because he can't afford to pay his rent and bills and all he can afford to eat is ramen noodles and he's been promoted 3 times. He has made money there, don't get me wrong. He'll have a couple good months then nothing for 6 or 7 months and he never gets his finances caught up. But he hasn't made nearly the amount he has spent time trying to make. I bet he still doesn't make $8000 a year.
Shortly before I gave up on the opportunity Primerica dangled before me, my brother (the only commission I had seen of $192) fell on hard times and had to cancel his policy. So all of a sudden I get a notice in the mail that says I owe Primerica $238. I had only received $192 but they penalize you in 3 different ways with fees for chargebacks. So not only did I not get reimbursed for my initial $200 (but I did make $192 leaving me only $8 and lots of time and gas money, other expenses, etc in the hole) but now they want more than they gave me in the first place. I had until this past November to pay the $238 or my appointment with Primerica would be terminated. So now it is terminated and they can try to scrape that $238 away from what the worms and bugs don't eat once I'm dead and buried because that's the only way they're getting it.
I'm sure if I'd kept at it, spending 15 hours a day at the office for another 6 months or so I'd have made another $192 or so. It's completely laughable. I'm hoping the mileage and equipment and meals out add up to enough for me to get some of it back on my taxes since I was considered independently employed but who knows. Luckily, I didn't really need the money and the time away from home helped the year that my husband was deployed go by a little faster. And if my story helps one person not give Primerica $200, it will be worth everything I am out.
It is my honest opinion that the only clients Primerica people see are when they are first training and then when they are training recruits. There are a few out there who genuinely see clients and try to help them out of debt, like my friend does. I don't see how you're expected to see clients when you spend 15 hours a day at the office doing recruiting and attending meetings that preach recruiting.
It's really sad that you are also encouraged to push people out of your life that are negative (meaning the people that aren't saying "Primerica" or "Citibank" every other word or that question how much money you are making, since you aren't making any or the ones that haven't bought in to the Primerica way of life.) I know people from the Columbus, OH office on Busch Blvd (where I was recruited) that have stopped speaking to friends and family because they either wouldn't agree to the presentation or because they said Primerica was a ripoff/scam/pyramid scheme. They really do try to brainwash you to live and breathe Primerica. Don't get sucked in.
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