My Mom is a retired IRS agent with her own accounting practice in the Denver Metro area. I figure she has her head on straight but once in a while she will do something to make me wonder.
A couple of weeks ago I got a big envelope in the mail with a bunch of stuff from PrePaid Legal Service- http://www.prepaidlegal.com/ . I didn't order it and figured I must have gotten on some mailing list.
The next day I get a call from my Mom telling me to look for said envelope and that she had signed me and my Lady, Tena, up as members of this program and tried to tell me how we can make money selling memberships to this program.
I had done some research and tried to tell her that I appreciated her wanting to help me make money but I was afraid she had been conned into a pyramid scam. She replied "It's not a pyramid. There are only 4 levels."
Ok, so it's a short pyramid.
She paid for our memberships which were $36 each for a total of $72. Also, they are drafting $26 a month out of her checking account in fees as a "Associate".
There's plenty of info at wickipedia on this business including several lawsuits and complaints for deceptive marketing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Paid_Legal_Services
Basically what you do is you sell memberships and move up in rank and each time someone below you sells a membership you get a cut. A pyramid in other words. Like Amway or Tupperware, there are sales goals and regional confrences to go to and sales seminars to attend. You know, pep rallies to get you to sell more of their stuff and you get to pay to go to these events.
To be fair, even if I never even try to sell a single membership, I've looked at the packet of legal service offered with membership. It's got membership cards with the name of a lawyer partnership out of Alexandria, La (Provosty, Sadler, DeLaunay, Fiorenza & Sobel) and, like health insurance, breakdowns of services offered for free or at discount.
Just like Tupperware has some nice containers and Amway has some nice products, I don't have a problem with them from that angle. I just don't want to be a salesman for them and I hate that someone (a cousin I havn't seen in 20 years) sucked my Mom into this.
My question to everyone here is, Do you know of this company and if so what are your opinions of them?
I'd especially be interested in hearing from those who are lawyers, like Dan Dzelenka, and what they think.
I'm going to have the packets of stuff they sent me when I go to the LOCAL breakfast meetup at the Hammond IHOP Sunday morning if anyone actually wants to see what they sent.
Thanks for any advice and opinions.
Steve
A couple of weeks ago I got a big envelope in the mail with a bunch of stuff from PrePaid Legal Service- http://www.prepaidlegal.com/ . I didn't order it and figured I must have gotten on some mailing list.
The next day I get a call from my Mom telling me to look for said envelope and that she had signed me and my Lady, Tena, up as members of this program and tried to tell me how we can make money selling memberships to this program.
I had done some research and tried to tell her that I appreciated her wanting to help me make money but I was afraid she had been conned into a pyramid scam. She replied "It's not a pyramid. There are only 4 levels."
Ok, so it's a short pyramid. She paid for our memberships which were $36 each for a total of $72. Also, they are drafting $26 a month out of her checking account in fees as a "Associate".
There's plenty of info at wickipedia on this business including several lawsuits and complaints for deceptive marketing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Paid_Legal_Services
Basically what you do is you sell memberships and move up in rank and each time someone below you sells a membership you get a cut. A pyramid in other words. Like Amway or Tupperware, there are sales goals and regional confrences to go to and sales seminars to attend. You know, pep rallies to get you to sell more of their stuff and you get to pay to go to these events.
To be fair, even if I never even try to sell a single membership, I've looked at the packet of legal service offered with membership. It's got membership cards with the name of a lawyer partnership out of Alexandria, La (Provosty, Sadler, DeLaunay, Fiorenza & Sobel) and, like health insurance, breakdowns of services offered for free or at discount.
Just like Tupperware has some nice containers and Amway has some nice products, I don't have a problem with them from that angle. I just don't want to be a salesman for them and I hate that someone (a cousin I havn't seen in 20 years) sucked my Mom into this.
My question to everyone here is, Do you know of this company and if so what are your opinions of them?
I'd especially be interested in hearing from those who are lawyers, like Dan Dzelenka, and what they think.
I'm going to have the packets of stuff they sent me when I go to the LOCAL breakfast meetup at the Hammond IHOP Sunday morning if anyone actually wants to see what they sent.
Thanks for any advice and opinions.
Steve
