NOTICE: *UPDATE December 1. Consumer complaints recently discovered that all but 2 consumer complaintss about The David Zophin Agency of American Income Life were posted by the same person. A competitor no doubt. Consumer complaints has the evidence that shows the same person filed every one of the Reports. Complaint will go after anyone found posting Reports like this. This type of behavior will not be tolerated. Either way, The David Zophin Agency still stands by their comitments made to consumer complaints. Just like people can file ridiculous and frivolous lawsuits every day, we do realize consumers might try and take advantage using the Internet / consumer complaints to do the same thing. THE REPORT BELOW IS BOGUS! =
*note - the names have been withheld to protect the innocent
Since I last posted here, I have been hearing through the grapevine some things that I need to get off my chest.
I left my position at AIL about a 6 months ago, at which time the office had about 20 agents in the field, and about another 15 in training.
You would think that an SGA worth half a shit would be able to at least maintain a half way decent agency, but instead of rewarding good agents for their hard work, Mr Zophin thought it was a better business decision to make his agents work 80 hrs a week. Mon - Fri, 7am - 9pm and 8am - 6pm on Saturdays.
I couldn't seem to get past the fact that I was an independent agent contracted to the company, but I was being FORCED to work that many hours with NO SALARY! Commission only is fine, but telling these agents when the have to work is wrong. (to any ail agent reading this, look at your contract, and it says that no agent shall be made to work set hours... Hmmm, this doesnt seem right, especially when you have a week that you don't make a sale, and you work 80 hrs for $0.
Sooo, summer rolls around, time to be laid back, enjoy the nice weather, at least I have 1 day to myself. No, wait, Now Zophin wants us to work on Sundays too. OK, so now i'm working MORE hours, EVERY day of the week (my summer consisted of the 4th of July off and Labor day off)
The leads in RI are pretty much nonexistant now, the company actually does get quality leads, but the agency burns through agents like Zophin burns through Menorah's, so it's safe to say that these quality leads have been harassed to the point that they don't want anything to do with the company anymore.
Again, i believe it comes down to awful business decisions made by Zophin. Hire quality agents, give them the good leads, they're making $, Zophin is making $, managers are making $, the consumer is getting to sit down with agents who actually know something about insurance, everyone is happy, right?
Wrong
Guess Zophin is more concerned with his renewals than representing the company in a positive way
Leads are running out in RI, what do we do?
Hire another PR rep? Get out to more unions, get more leads?
No, we are going to send as many agents as possible to the failing Framingham office. The opportunity there is incredible. *hint* - there are no leads there either
2 months later, the heat is turned off, cell phones are off, nobody can pay their bills, yeah, this was an amazing opportunity. Now these poor bastards are locked into a lease and stuck in Mass for a year. And what kills me, is that i know Zophin could care less about what he does to these people.
Sooner or later, everyone is gone, I dont think there is 1 person left in that office that I actually know.
Now what? Ok we'll make our MGA from another office move to RI to get that back up and going, sell your house and move to RI where there are STILL no leads. Smart move? Doubt it.
Don't believe me? Get back to me in 6 months
I have seen this guy treat GOOD agents like slave labor and force them to quit, and for the life of me, i can't let it go. How can you knowingly set good people up for disaster like that for your own financial gain?
I dont know if every agency at AIL is run like this, but it is a good company, it doesnt have to be run like a sweat shop.
Making agents work that many hrs w / no base salary, hiring recruiters and not paying them (ask Debbie), hiring cleaning women and not paying them (ask Ida) - see a trend here?
Remember bricks? Those turned into $5 gas cards that we never got either. Hey Dave, do you still have the bricks up in the RI office? Are any of those agents still there? Hey Dave, remember the time that our phones didn't work and you said that there was a problem with Verizon? Well we called Verizon to try to fix it ourselves and they said that it wasn't a tech problem, it was a billing problem.
BobProvidence, Rhode Island
U.S.A.
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