Complaint Review: Primerica - St Paul Minnesota

I am a nanny. I have worked child care or retail since high school. I am now out of college (Child Care Specialist - no BA degree, just some college courses in Theology & Art) and wanted to get a "real" job. So I posted my resume on Monster.com, and the next day I got an email from "Sarah" (I am changing all the names here so I don't get sued) saying who she was and the following.

"We have seen information in your resume that leads us to conclude that you have the skills and experience that would benefit our company. I definitely would like to talk to you about opportunities with us."

Now, why would a "Senior Personal Financial Analyst with Primerica, a division of Citigroup, the largest financial services company in the world" want me to come work from them. All I know about is children and folding clothes. But I called "Sarah" anyway, and left a message. She called me back later that day from her cell phone and asked me to come to an "Overveiw" meeting the next day. I asked her twice to make sure she knew that I didn't have a degree and she said yes, they train you. Then I asked if it was telemarketing and she said no. So she asked for my email address, which I didn't understand because she has already emailed me to start with, and she would email how to get to the office. The next morning she emailed me and then called (again from a cell phone) to make sure I was coming. And I said yes, and she said I didn't need to dress up.

So I went, took forever to get into the building and had to pay $4 just to park my car for this one hour session. I got there it looked like it was in a store, you could see right into the place from the hall outside in the mall. But it had Primerica on the window so I went inside. And there was a guy and a girl and they asked me to sign my name, phone number and who invited me. Now "Sarah" was wrong, everyone there looked like they worked in Wall Street or something. And at 26 years old, I think I was by far the youngest person there.

I listened to "Tom" talk for an hour about how great the company was and how much money they all make and about Money Magazine...ect. I was thinking this is great but what is the job and why do you think a nanny would be "prefect" for this sort of job. "Sarah" wasn't there because she was at her real job but her boss "Butch" greeted me as I left and asked if I would come the next morning (Saturday) to the next step of the meeting and I said sure and left.

Got home and looked up Primerica on the web and found this site and read all the 94 posting about this company. Then I started to panic a little, because this all sounded a little bit suspicious. I still didn't even know what I was apply for. So I started to write an email to "Sarah" about some questions I had to "Sarah" and while I was writing she called me (from her house this time) and asked me how I liked the "Overview" and was I coming in the morning. I told her about this site and she said she has seen it too but most of the people are here just wanted to whine about something. So I said I was emailing her some questions and she said ok, to send them to her boss "Butch" as well because she has only been with the company since April.

So I wrote my questions and decided that I didn't want to go until I got some answers. "Butch" wrote me back saying that he was worried when he started working there but loves it and if I come to the meeting in the morning he would answer all my questions then. "Sarah" also wrote me back and tried to answer them the best she could (I will post some at the bottom with her answers). But she went around a lot of the questions and repeated things alot. I wrote "Butch & Sarah" back and said that I won't come to the next "step" until I had these questions answered for me in writing (email). I wanted to be able to show them to someone else, and I would come back when they did that. If they didn't then I said I didn't want to work for a company that couldn't even explain things and thanked them for their time. I didn't get an email back yet.

What in detail, not just title would I be doing for your company?: "This will be explained at the orientation. It is really up to you what you want to do. A personal financial analyst who just goes out and helps clients or you can climb up the ladder into a leadership position as a manager or you can focus on training new hires, you can stay part time or full time."

Are you an EOE? How many people have you hired that are women under the age of 30? What is the turnover rare, meaning what is the average amount of time they stay working? Do you hire people with disabilities (learning, physical..ect)? If so, what kinds and what do you do to help them?: "We ARE an equal opportunity employer; we actually do have a women's seminar targeted specifically for providing women business opportunities."

Would you take me on some of your own appointments (contacts done without my assistance) to see if I like the business? Would you do this without me paying $199 first, and without me providing you a list of my friends and relatives, also known as a "warm-market list"? If I decide to join, would you be willing to train me by bringing me on your own personally-generated appointments, so that I can use my "warm market list" for myself when I am licensed?: "Unfortunately you cannot go on any appointments until you become part of the company. We DO NOT take anyone's warm market list. Our branch does not practice that as some branches do."

What are your business-related expenses (car, gas, etc), so that I can have an idea of what I can expect to spend to generate income.: No answer

How many Primerica agents quit each year, and how is this expressed as a percentage of the sales force?: No answer

Is this Multi-Level Marketing or Network Marketing?: No answer

Do you requires me to sign a contracts (rumored to be 73 pages) which gives Primerica the right to take my business, to terminate me without cause, and to confiscate my past business earnings?: "There is no 73 page contract (at least I didn't have one) to sign. You will get an Independent Business Agreement at the end of the Orientation."

Is it true that you do not guarantee any earnings, compensation plans or employee benefits? If no, what are the benefits, are they for full time, part time or both? What is the average take home income for your agents and at what levels are they for? Is there a minium I need to bring in each month otherwise you will fire me?: "The average take home income would be dependent on what kind of business you build, again more in-depth details about how we get paid is in the Orientation."

Do I need to go into people's homes or would they be coming to a branch I worked at? Do I find my own work or does everyone split up the people that come into the branch? : "You can do business in peoples' homes, your home, out of one of our offices, or meet at a public place like a restaurant or coffee house, etc."

I've read a lot of complaints about aggressive, high pressure recruiters from this company. I did not find this to be true but I am wondering if you except that from your salespeople/ agents?: "As far as aggressive, high pressure recruiters, most personal financial analysts don't practice this. We generally contact anywhere from 2 to 4 times (whatever that individual is comfortable with) and then that's it."

Those were a few of the main ones. It's a little suspicious that she couldn't answer then and he won't answer them. I went through 3 emails, 2 phone calls and an "Overview" before I even found out what they wanted me to do and I still don't totally know. Why would I want to spend another 2-3 hours of my time at an "Orientation", when I didn't learn anything at the "Overview".

I want to stress that while "Sarah" didn't really have many details or anything for me she was really nice to me the whole time. If I get all my questions answers I might go back to the "Orientation" but at of right now I don't think I would want to work for a company that seems to be hiding behind how great their parent company, Citigroup, is.

Why would they want to train a nanny to manage other people's money?! I know if I was going to get into the stock market or get an IRA, that I would want someone that knew what they were doing, not going to school/training for two hours a night for 1-3 months. I would want someone with a degree dealing with my money. I am not saying that Primerica is evil or doing anything wrong. I just think it all didn't sound on the up and up, you know like it wasn't on the level.

So mainly, they didn't answer my questions, kept trying to push me to come to this "Orientation" like the person running it was the only one that knew what was going on or something (I am sure that isn't true). I don't know if it is a scam. I don't think how you gotta pay the $199 for a background check, in child care world you have pretty deep checks down on you including finger prints and I have never had to pay for one before. I didn't like the fact that you have to pay for your clases and the $65 to take this test. Why would I work for them, they aren't going to pay me, there is no benifits. It just doesn't add up to me.

I wish someone would have been able to explain things to me. I know there is a lot of bad stuff about this company posted on this site and I am not saying their are a bad company. There was no chanting at my "Overview", they didn't ask me for a list of my friends and family, but they also didn't explain things clearly, they danced around a lot of the issues and things.

I would like to know if anyone else went to one of these that was totally out of the blue and it do or did not work for them. Did anyone ever get all the answers clearly they wanted. I would love to know! Thank you.

Jennifer

Minneapolis, Minnesota

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