Complaint Review: Living Scriptures - Ogden, Utah

Shortly after I joined the church and got married, I found a classified ad to work for Living Scriptures.  I thought "wow", this could be something I could do for the rest of my life.  

The local area supervisor told us that if we completed the training in Utah, then we would be placed on a weekly salary that would be charged against our future commissions.  Never having done any sales before, I thought this would be a good chance to learn some skills, provide a product that I believed in, and make some money for my new family.

There was a small group of us who jumped in a car and drove to Utah for training.  I did not have to pay for anything, and the training was basically 2 days.  I got a chance to meet Jared Brown.  On the last day there was a retired general authority from the church who told us upon our return to our home chapel wards to "Never give a boring Sacrament talk".  I have remembered that for all these years.

Upon my return, the area supervisor asked me to join a handful of other new recruits and drive to West Los Angeles where we would all share a small apartment (2 beds to a room), and then go home for the weekend, and return the following Monday.   From the apartment we would go out to the nearby neighborhood and call upon LDS members who had confirmed on the phone they wanted to listen to our presentation.  This was definitely a sales job and I was green.  But I was sold on the product, especially the Dramatized Church History recordings.

In the beginning the sales manager gave us few leads to call on.  But after two weeks of no sales, I decided it was time for me to stand on my feet near the kitchen table, phone in hand, and just start calling every member on the membership list I was given.  My whole phone purpose was to give away a special free recording of the history of the wife of the prophet in exchange for just allowing us (me) to present some product ideas to the member.  After about 5 phone calls, I started to get a lot of appointments (I became more confident) and the sales team could not believe that by the end of the day I had 24 appointments lined up for the week.

My area supervisor already knew if I presented the products to 24 people, that I would obtain a closing ratio (1 out of 3?)  So he already knew I was going to earn some good money to pay for the past two weeks of advanced salary.

After about a month of doing what I loved and making some good money, politics began to sneak into our little shared apartment of recruits.  Soon some of the local managers were taking some of the member names and phone numbers for themselves and leaving the rest of us to fend on our own.  Soon, there was a mutiny.  I stayed out of it, and simply gave them notice and drove back home.

I have some fond memories of my time with Living Scriptures.  I learned a ton about overcoming fear and sharing a story of how wonderful I liked a product, and I made some money.  The politics could never take that away from me.

But I did learn that Living Scriptures is a business, not a church.  They have sales quotas, and they will use every legal method to protect their business, no matter if someone or some vendor gets hurt.  I suspect if I were to become involved with any company, I would work my business relationship on either a retainer, deposit, or I would sell the credit application to a factor (companies that are in the business of buying purchase orders at a discount) so that I was covered.  Going in blind is like trusting and not verifying.  

I am sorry to hear your company got hurt financially.  But it was not because Living Scriptures has a lousy product.  It's "business".  And we may very well have a US President in the next 2 weeks that has used the same legal methods in the past to protect his companies.

Get street-smart, and watch the famous movie titled "Back to School" starring Rodney Dangerfield.

I wish you well.

I HAVE SOME LDS FRIENDS, INDEED, HAVE DONE FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH IN MANYH LDS FAMILY CENTERS... THEY ARE GOOD PEOPLE. YUPPIES ARE NOT GOOD PEOPLE. THEY ARE ALL ARROGANCE AND CONS AND SMOKE AND MIRRORS AND THE ONLY THING THEY BRING TO A BUSINESS IS A RIP OFF, INTIMIDATION, THEFT AND LIES. SOUNDS LIKE TO ME THAT YOUR COMPANY GOT IN A DEAL WITH SOME YUPPIES. THEY CAN PRETEND TO BE ANYBODY OF ANY FAITH BUT THE ONLY THING THEY REALLY WORSHIP IS MONEY AND AS MUCH OF IT AS THEY CAN GET BY WHATEVER MEANS AND THEN THEY LIKE TO BRAG TO THEIR COLD-BLOODED COMPATRIOTS ABOUT HOW THEY RIPPED THE MONEY OFF FROM THEIR VICTIMS. SOUNDS LIKE YOUR COMPANY WAS VICTIMIZED. ALL YOU CAN DO IS COMPLAIN TO YOUR ELDERS AND SEE IF YOU CAN GET THE CHURCH TO STOP DOING BUSINESS WITH THESE YUPPIES AND TO TELL OTHERS NOT TO DO BUSINESS WITH THEM EITHER. THEY ARE OBVIOUSLY NOT LDS OR ONLY IN NAME AND ONLY WHEN IT SUITS THEM AND ONLY WHEN THEY CAN CON MONEY OR STEAL IT.

I wrote what I wrote, and there is faith in it. We all know, that the real world exists. We either have, faith, in what is real, or faith in fiction, yet we call that real. That explains why people disagree, or agree, they either know, or expect to mislead, or will not learn what is real, there are many reasons to disagree, or agree, yet things happen the way they did. I could read what I wrote, every day, and see where I should of wrote something different, or be pleased what I wrote. You will find, that I am not the only one effected, or affected by this place, LDS Mingle, or any other place, or LDS Church, it happend to them too, and the LDS Church, is only what is, people make the church what is, people can, or can not be blind to everything, if a person thinks they can force people to believe a lie, they may accomplish your task, yet there is too many people that know, what is happening, to silence.them. Where did the word, "Saints", in "Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" come from, was it to hid a lie, pretend to be, something there not, or find self-esteem, for trying to do better, I have seen both, you will find others that know that truth too. If Schools are about learning, and Churches about learning too, where is truth, honesty, and forgiveness. There is no progress without knowledge, would not be possible without the truth. What do people expect, a world of fiction, or a world of facts and knowledge. Without forgiveness, would be hard to learn anything, how can learning to lie, well, be knowledge we agree with, someone one is affected, if someone explains what should be or what was, someone would understands, or someone would complain. What happens, someone learns how to lie and get faith, or someone learn how to get help. Thanks for explaining your problem, I hope you have better success with others.