Like most of you who got the "call" I did too. I had posted my resume on Monster and received a call from a "Fortune 500" company interested in hiring me. I was excited to say the least. Curious thought was that I had no experience that would lead me to comprehend why a "Fortune 500" company would want to hire me. My lucky day or so I thought.
Like all the other poor suckers that fell into this so did I. I went for the proverbial "field interview" with one of their top sellers. I rode around with him for several hours in which he sold no policies and renewed only one. I asked if this was typical and my "mentor" said no, it was an unusually slow day for him. I went back to the "office" (a hotel) and was give the song and dance about how great the company was, how much money I would make, the great trips that I would earn, blah, blah, blah.
Ok so at this point I was stoked. Seriously, I was so desperate for a job that I had complete blinders on. This is how they get you. Promises, promises and people so in need of employment that they don't see the giant joke the company is.
I went for three weeks training in Harrisburg Pa. I was not told I would not be getting paid, and that any reimbursement I would be receiving for food would not be given until after the first week. I went for training with no money... Thinking all of my expenses would be taken care of. For the first week I ate the free breakfast provided and stashed left overs from breakfast in hotel fridge to eat later. If it wasn't for some of the other "students" I would have starved. The instructor and Combined officials knew of my predicament and did nothing to help. I was one of two "students" who passed the licensing test out of a class of ten or twelve students. SHOCKING!
There were people there for six weeks who still had not passed..
After spending three weeks away from my family for training I came back and was put with the top seller for the region. Whoot! Not. This individual did nothing to train me, after two days of "training" I was put out on my own. I had no clue what I was doing. After repeated complaints I was again attached to someone else were I saw some of the most unethical shit one could ever imagine.
The selling of policies to individuals on Medicaid, knowing these people would never see a dime of the payouts. Seasoned agents would purposefully look for trailer parks, they said they were "gold mines". Agents selling policies to friends and family members to make sales quotas. Having current clients cancel old policies with agents no longer with the company and rewriting them, again to make sales quotas. Agents smoking pot with clients to loosen them up to buy policies. Agents paying for clients policies just to make the sale.
To top off the unethical garbage, I was paying for my own gas, food, and wear and tear on my vehicle. But hey that can be written off on your taxes right... Sadly even when I tried to write off expenses it was still under the government standard deduction. It nearly cost me my relationship because I was gone so much.
You work up to twelve hours a day most days and you spend countless weeks on the road for business trips. The business trips are a joke. Its half wasting your time, half a college frat party. The DM and RM spent most nights on these business trips in the hotel bar drinking. Participation was promoted to build "team spirit" among the agents. I saw Combined big wigs partying it up with agents and lots and lots of inappropriate sexual advances being made.
Like many of the agents I was drowning in financial debt by the end of my employment with Combined. I was so tapped out because of gas and food expenses that I could barely keep my head above water. My relationship with my significant other was in shambles. When I resigned I was given a guilt trip. I tried to explain that I was drowning in debt and was told I wasn't working hard enough. When I said it was not the right job for me I was berated for all of the equity the company had put into me.in the end I left the office in tears.
For weeks after my resignation I received calls from policy holders wanting to know what was going on with claims, etc. I would give them the hotline number and they still call back complaining about the lack of customer service. Not only did I receive calls from customers but other managers trying to get me to return to Combine. I had to get a new cell number to stop the calls.
This company is a joke, a sham, and they take advantage of the poor. Stay far away from them. The few and I say few agents who make money there do it off the backs of the poor and uneducated. They do not care how they make the money as long as they make it.
Anonymous
somewhere, Florida
U.S.A.
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