All very Horatio Alger, eh?

Excuse me, I'll be right back, I just threw up a little....

I can say without hesitation that I have never had any question about whether or not I should do business with the geniuses at Primerica.  But then, I follow the business news pretty closely....

THANK GOODNESS I checked it out, the audacity. He was so pleasant from the start, and his script seemed so perfectly rehearsed that a mini red flag went up in my head, but then he continued to talk and talk about the opportunity, how no financial background is required, and that all I need was a love for people, good interpersonal and communication skills, and pretty much all of the other laundry terms that job seekers put on their resumes. So, it was hard to accept the interview because he made me feel so confident and optimistic about being a "leader" and a part of "the biggest financial institution in the world". My sister and her close friend both attended the first interview and confirmed that it was highly unprofessional. The questions that they asked were basic personality questions, hardly the grilling that one would expect from a solid company. I am supposed to go to my interview tomorrow, and if "Tal Grossman" had left a number to contact them if anything should arise, I would've had the courtesy to let them know I wasn't interested, but they didn't. So? Again, thank goodness I did my research!Also, for those genuinely looking for the "truth", just keep doing your research, go with your instincts, and be weary of  the super positive comments such as the ones below, because they too might be hired by Primerica or similar companies, doing damage control on helpful and informative sites such as these.Good luck to those still looking for employment!Stay positive!!!

called today on my cell phone.

Received a call from this number today, the guy said his name was Tal Grossman and he was calling from Primerica and then he said Citi Group.  He said they have job available in the finance department for someone with no finance experience (weird)! Then he said "I don't think you have finance experience", when I actually do have a lot of finance experience, but he did know my name and my number, so I think he got it from workopolis or something like that.He talk really fast.He called me last year and did the same sales pitch.My friend went to the interview and said its a company that tries to lure you in for insurance sales.I asked him if it was sales and he said no.  Oh well I'm not going to this stupid interview, waste of time.

While a Primerica rep has yet to cross my path, I am commenting here as is my federally protected right and as permitted by this site's terms of service. You keep harping on the appearance of comments from people your office has never heard of ..... and this is something you can apparently divine in the absence of actual legal names and addresses. I will not speak of Primerica as though I have firsthand knowledge of its practices, nor would I, with or without the controversy which hangs over the firm. This will hopefully satisfy your criteria for people you, a non-site administrator, personally feel are qualified to contribute to Primerica discussion threads.

I *can* talk about experiences I've had in commissioned sales. Different names, different products, but similarities in my story and of those reporting on Primerica are striking. It starts out with big-dollar promises for the "motivated". A couple of managers with firm hand grips turn up the flattery and paint a picture of all the trophy goods you'll be buying in a few months when you've seized your dream. They don't seem at all concerned for your actual aptitude or professional background. In fact, they make this dazzling offer to anyone with a pulse and a good pair of shoes.

Then comes an intensive "training" period which is really just glorified orientation, teaching very little. They make you an "independent agent", yet enforce your dependence on the home office with yet more dubious "training" and cheerleading meetings, keeping you generally on a short leash. You're told to ignore people who question your new pursuit, because "THEY" don't understand how the "real world" works. You endure this because the product is actually very good and unique, and should halfway sell itself.

You spend a ridiculous amount of time and fuel finding leads while scoring few if any real sales. This of course is always the greenhorn seller's fault, not the fact he was sent out to the street without being taught the job. Despite your miserable performance you are given new trainees to work the field with, who just joined maybe two weeks behind you, and you're told you have to be their sherpas.

A cycle forms of browbeating and cheerleading from management, your deepening poverty from lack of sales, and a constant influx of new employees who are illiterate, or have stage fright, or who are otherwise completely wrong for the job and sabotage everyone who really wants the work. This continues until you self-destruct from exhaustion or finally wise up and leave the handcuffs of promise for some other victim. On your way out they're still trying to convert you away from a rational decision with emotional arguments. They react with rehearsed surprise, call you a "quitter", yet praise your hard work and "keep the door open".


In reviewing comments for and against your firm I can hypothesize if not conclude that all of the above disadvantages to commissioned sales at dysfunctional companies are shouldered by the Primerica reps, then turned up another ten points on the Annoy-ometer. Detractors of Primerica speaking from their own experience often have richly detailed stories, the kind which are difficult to fabricate. Often their author's voices are not shrill and come from a posture of reason and a willingness to work hard at a worthy goal.

Meanwhile, supporters of Primerica show a consistent disdain for those people, their former brothers and sisters in the labor force. From their view, anyone who parachuted away from a plane with clipped wings was obviously lazy and stupid, needs to "grow up", "smell coffee", and other bullying cliches. Then they beat their breasts and laud Mother Primerica for its annual earnings, number of office footprints, and business affiliations, like somehow that will directly help all the skilled talent going unemployed.

In short, I believe the former sales reps a lot sooner than I believe you and your shill patrol, especially given that your own response to the conflict has been more of the same juvenile sputtering and denigration, seen dozens of times before from guardians of fruadulent businesses. Maybe we skeptical types don't understand how your world or "the real world" works, but you and your kind understand even less how the internet works. Negative comments appear, in your words "numberous times", because caring and distinct and geographically separate personalities put them there simply to help others. There is no conspiracy, no star chamber for the disgruntled.


You complain repeatedly in all caps that people have beefed whom your office "DID NOT CALL". Well, plenty of commentors in this thread do claim to be call recipients, apparently not given the benefit of transparency. One is not required to be a call recipient through a single given phone number to contribute here. One *is* prompted to submit accurate reports, and sometimes good collective knowledge must come from persons without a horse in a particular race. The whole point of these caller sites is to help identify callers AND their motives for placing calls. If those motives prove innocent, the callers have little to worry about from negative remarks. Readers can in fact and should make up their own minds.

You of course discourage such independent judgment, and prefer to strip comments of their context. The person from May 2011 who you find objectionable because s/he "couldn't resist throwing in [an] opinion" said in the very next sentence s/he "had been involved with Primerica full-time for about 2.5 years." You're quick to deny affiliation with a job hunting site (per "Scammed" from 12 Sep) but have nothing to say about business practices which sound poised to destroy that woman's husband and her marriage. Perhaps you personally never set foot in Missouri or met any young man like "Punch", but surely you don't meet with each trainee yourself. Isn't that what all the manic recruitment is for?

You act as if censoring one mystery caller site will be enough to solve your problem. Multiple sites in many directions echo this conversation. You fuming reputation repairmen throw hissy fits the moment you realize you have no tight control over your message in this medium, as you enjoy in broadcast and print. The pipes here carry flow in TWO directions and content can irrigate many fields beyond its source; the sooner you embrace that fact the better your relationship will be with visitors to the virtual town square.

You might have had a more constructive response than pointing blaming fingers at the victims and making threats you can't seriously carry out, but you insist on playing the wounded bird. The fact is, you were given an olive branch here, and you slapped it away. The animosity against your firm will only grow, not shrink. Whatever happens next in your campaign of spite will be all your doing, and please don't expect your fractured logic or your toady lawyers to help.