Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc 1% Successful, 99% Not, Spent More than can make. Orlando Florida
I was a PPL associate for more than two years. I worked parttime trying to build the business, make it big, etc. It was an observation I made while at the convention in Oklahoma City. I had some materials that had been given to me by my mentor from several years previous at the time claiming that PPL had 100,000 associates, that was 5 years ago. Today they still claim to have the same number of associates, hmmm. zero percent growth?
As I looked around the convention center room at the 33,000 reps present there I counted the number of people on stage receiving awards for "making it big". It was the same one hundred people every night. but let's be generous and give them 300 "successful" people. That's still less than one percent of them who are successful enough to make a full time living at this.
That isn't counting the missing 67,000 reps who apparently didn't make enough money, "building their business" to make it to the convention. I spent way more money on this business than I ever made. And I was out every weekend and some nights after work trying to "generate leads"
I had every tape I was told to get, and then some. It always seemed to be that there was always one other thing that I could do this business without that always seemed to put money into PPL's company. I did the two tapes a day every day for a year, I didn't miss one meeting, I invited and had dozens of people to these meetings and special events and still lost hundreds of dollars on televox, the internet site for marketing purposes, books, tapes, signs, a PPL schedule book, and all the while attempting to simply get to some kind of steady income. It never happened.
When I actually used my membership it did little for me as people seemed to know that with PPL the first letter of complaint is free and chances are little to none that there would be a follow up as that wouldn't be free for the member to try. So even after receiving letters from "my attorney" I still ended up being responsible for a bill that wasn't mine and still didn't receive a paycheck for work I was doing. It was a joke.
I tried all the positive thinking crap they spewed but it's hard to keep grinning as one after another of my paid members cancelled their plan leaving me trying to sell memberships just to keep up with the charge-offs. The law firm in Orlando was known among the top associates as providing pretty poor results, and worse customer service.
There were several very influential people in the company who confided in me the struggles they were having and I learned that all the talk of successful income was just that, talk. Most of the associates must lie in order to get people interested in the business believing that one day the lie would come true like it did for those two guys up front. It's also sold well and they will always pull that "why work for someone else's dream" crap.
This is what I have to say to that. Your boss at your job cannot come back to you a week or two later and claim to be unsatisfied with work already done and make you work for free for a week just to make up for the work that he didn't like. And that's exactly what happens when someone (50% mind you) cancel their plans within the first year.
David
Orlando, Florida
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Steven
Pine Hill,New Jersey,
U.S.A.
You are NOT an employee of PPL....Second, all businesses are pyramid schemes
#3Consumer Comment
Sat, July 28, 2007
Okay. I was a VP of Sales for a company. I received an "OVERRIDE" on all business generated in my region. talk about a pyramid!
I was a member of PPL for 3 years before becoming an associate. I believed in the service because I saved thousands of dollars over the three years from using the service.
As an associate, I have not done much, but I am copying and pasting my residual income so that you can see that this business works if you sell it right. I don't think anyone on this site has done this yet. Reserve balance means that I "assumed" that memberships would cancel, so I protected myself from that situation." As you can see, I still have over $192.00 in my reserve balance, which means memeberships can cancel, but I will not receive a chargeback unless the number is above the $192.
Cash Accrued United States: $0.0
Cash Accrued Canada: $0.0
Last Three Commissions
Check Date Check Amt Location
7/24/2007 $144.76 USA
7/19/2007 $103.36 USA
1/29/2007 $166.24 USA
Monthly Commission Totals
Check Date Check Amt Location
2/2006 $75.36 USA
3/2006 $62.34 USA
4/2006 $99.40 USA
5/2006 $97.18 USA
1/2007 $166.24 USA
7/2007 $248.12 USA
Reserve Balance
Balance : 192.91
Withhold %: 0.250
Limit Amount: 10000.00
Account Location: USA
Balance : 0.00
Withhold %: 0.250
Limit Amount: 10000.00
Account Location: Canada
Tax Info
Current Year: 2006
1099: $353.23
Tax Reporting
Jon
Breckenridge,Colorado,
U.S.A.
Your numbers just don't add up
#3UPDATE Employee
Tue, January 09, 2007
David,
I am sorry to hear that your business did not work for you. But I must say, your business numbers just don't add up.
First of all 100,000 associates. There are more. 33,000 associates at a convention, there are much fewer. The Cox Center in OKC doesn't hold 33k, as no basketball type area does. The number is more like 12K. There were more than 300 new executive director that walk the stage, not to mention everything else. Did you want to see everyone in the arena walk the stage? The number is probably more close to 1,500 individuals that walk the stage.
Most people that start a business, don't succeed at first. And if you only gave a business two years and complain like this well then... no wonder. My first two businesses Paint Contracting, and website development did not succeed either. At the time I could have blamed alot of outside sources... And did. Now looking back, it was just me and my lack of knowledge and skill.
I have been working with PPL part-time as an independent associate for 5 years. And while they don't do everything perfect, and even take missteps. They do try to constantly improve. I have never lied or stretched the truth about what the service can do or the income it can provide. I don't know of the %50 cancellation rate, I just know my rate of satisfied members is 91.8% at the time of this writing. There are people who do much more business than I. I typically write about 100 memberships per year.
There is little doubt left that the business model and the product will succeed massively. Attorney Generals and former AGs have spoke to this effect.
Again, I am sorry to hear of your troubles with your business. But underlying numbers suggest there has been corporate growth for the past 14 years. I hope that rather than "poo pooing" the product and company, you discover what you can take away from the experience. For me it has been to grow 2 other companies into profitability, as well as my PPL business.
to your success,