I acknowledge some of the rebuttals on this website choose to call true criticisms of Prepaid legal "bashing", but the reality is that it isn't bashing. I'm simply posting this to tell the truth in as comprehensively detailed a fashion as possible.
PPLSI does offer a good legal service plan in and of itself. Unfortunately, it's money obviously comes form its associates, who either need to enroll in the plan and maintain it to stay associates or sell 6 plans within a quarter, which by PPLSI regulation, is nearly impossible to do. The terms of the associate agreement are various and many, and are never spelled out clearly to you until such time as you agree to the terms of it and actually get the cd with the pdf file in the mail.
First, the PPLSI agreement requires that you not give out any information about the provider law firm to a prospective enrollee until they have actually pruchased the plan. This may violate "state and bar" regulations, and for whatever reason, it leads me to believe something about PPLSI is illegal or questionable at best. They also kindly request that you not contact any state insurance agency as it may ruin any "good standing" they may have in that particular state. For whatever reason thay ask that, it would be good to know about it before you agree to be an associate and pay the fee.
PPLSI also has stringent guidelines for advertising your "home based business" and all ads must sent to the corporate office for approval before you actually run them in any media of any kind. Website guidelines forbid you from using any URLs, links or web pages containing the words "court, law, legal, justice, attorney, lawyer, defense, defender, Pre-paid, prepaid, affordable, advice, docket, aide, paralegal, legal, IDT, ID, identity, shield, theft, Kroll, protect, name, any derivitive or the Pre Paid Legal Services, Inc., name or any subsidiary (including initials)" This strictly limits you to markting this as a home based business opportunity with any advertising you do online. You are also bound to not provide, sell, or solicit any other product or service aside from PPLSI products and services per the associate agreement.
Tha agreement also states that if you have a group or are within a sales group of 300 or more, PPLSI may dictate commission precentages of its own choosing for sales. According to the associate agreement which you never see until you sign up, PPLSI also may terminate any associate agreement at any time for any reason by 30 days notification in writing. PPLSI, through the associate agreement, also gets the right to change commissions and incentives at any time for any reason without notifiying associates. They also reserve the right to not inform an associate of their associate status. PPLSI also can choose, per the terms of the contract that you sign, to not accept any applications for associates that you attempt to recruit or plans that you attempt to sell. If you terminate your associate agreement, you stop making commission on the plans you sold and would otherwise be entitled to. PPLSI also spells out, very explicityly that it can terminate your agreement immediately for any reason at its own discretion for any action or statement the associate makes.
The associate agreement further inserts many clauses completely availing PPLSI of any responsibility for what their associates say or what PPLSI may itself do or misrepresent. It's a relationship of minimal overhead and phenomenal profit due to the convenience the associate agreement. Again, you never see the associate agreement in its entirety until you enroll as an associate.
Also, my wife responded to an employment ad, which led us to PPLSI. We were encouraged to use two training websites. Employment ads and training sites for PPLSI are strictly prohibited and grounds for immediate termination per the associate agreement. The unfortunate reality is that PPLSI wants the advantage of a large sales force and captive market without all the corporate responsibility and full disclosure of a normal insurance company. Further, they'd like to have employees to do this, but they simply aren't willing to be responsible for their actions or provide benefits and insurances.
The same goes for Kirby, a publicly traded company which has been in business for more than 30 years, whose sales and MLM practices are equally an aberation. The argument that it is publicly traded and has been in business for decades means that they either sell a good product, run a good scam operation, or both. To be fair, it's both.
Given the misrepresentation and near complete lack of disclosure of the agreement we were bound by, which I duly terminated, I have no problem giving my name upon request.in fact, PPLSI marketing has failed to remove the URL for the website with my wife's name, even though this was clearly requested of them. Two days ago, it was to be removed "within 24 hours", and it still remains active. I plan on using my ability as a freelance writer and author to communicate this to the world in a very detailed, comprehensive fashion so as to spare others the experience my wife and I have had. Thankfully it was less than a hundred dollars, but this still has consequences on a collective economic level as well as being a bad and increasingly common example of business. That just makes life harder for all of us and makes the self employed even more unfairly frowned upon than they currently are.
Daniel
Plainfield, Connecticut
U.S.A.
0 comments