Complaint Review: Mutual of Omaha Paul Bustard

I was hired to work for an agent of Mutual Of Omaha in the Parsipany NJ office in July of 2010.  Initially, I told the recruiting individual that I had had some old red flags concerning a client complaint from my past that had occurred some 15-20 years previously.  She mentioned that that situation should NOT be a problem and we agreed to the initial interview.  After the initial interview, I met with the General Agent, Paul Bustard as well as the office manager of the Parsippany NJ office.  We were all in agreement that I should start work and complete the initial training for a week and a half in the main office in Monroe Twp, NJ.  All was well until the start of the 2nd week.  I was told to see Mr. Bustard who informed me that the company could not move fwd with the hiring process again, because of an old accusation from a client in the past.  However, 3 days later, my office manager called me to tell me that they were speaking with the general agent, Mr. Bustard and they agreed to hire me again.

So, at the end of that week, I went to the office in Parsippany, NJ where I was ramping up and telephoning prospective clients for 3 weeks.  In fact, I just spent money on postage to mail out postcards to clients, a new day timer and client organization filing box and the gas and tolls for training.  All total of $160.00 in good faith.  The following Monday morning, I was at the office and I spoke with my office manager who again informed me, that Mutual of Omaha and the general agent Mr. Paul Bustard had decided to severe the terms of employment with me.  At that point, working with this "organization" was not something that I wanted to pursue.  They were totally unorganized and they were treating me very poorly.  Most importantly, while I was at training, the person training me informed me about the pay schedule and the fact that I was to be compensated for selling the Mutual of Omaha products as a W-2 employee.  Any product outside of the Mutual of Omaha family that I sold, I would be compensated as a 1099 indepndant contractor.

As I wrote several times to the main office in Omaha, NE in attempts to settle this matter quietly with the President of the company, I received e-mails from HR person saying that I would NOT be compensated for the $160.00 I was out due to the fact that I was a 100% independant contractor.  This information was erroneous and was a blatant lie.  In fact, I have copies of the emails that were sent to me in which I have saved them offline and already printed them for future use.

All I can say to you, the general public, be very aware of anyone who calls you from Mutual of Omaha from any office as you can see that they are trained by people who from my experience, have NOT been 100% forthcoming with the truth!  Good luck to you Mr. Paul Bustard, was it worth ripping me off and having me chronicle my stories on this website?  Also, I intend to tell my story on many other similar websites with the intention of warning other prospective employees about misrepresentations and blatant lies regarding compensation from your agency and from Mutual of Omaha itself!