odd time signatures - Latest Comments in Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

intheknow — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:24:13 -0000

Obviously you've never dealth with these people...

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

shoulda known — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:24:05 -0000

They screwed a lot of people all the way down the line. I was a manager for them in the early going and it seem a little fishy at the time. I couldnt put my finger on anything in particular but everything there was on the "hush hush". Very secretive, so I'm not suprised at this at all. I saw lot of wierd crap go on while i was there.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

???!!! — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:00:20 -0000

An old Firstline employee told me that Wright and Trevor have now started a broadband company in SLC and that many sales reps are going to peddle it door2door. Can anyone verify this?

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Seth — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:29:22 -0000

If you want to read about the lawsuit between Firstline and Pinnacle check out alarmsales.org The two were apparently seeking a merger around the same time as the bankruptcy, but it fell apart and there is now a $450 million dollar lawsuit.

Check it out at: http://www.alarmsales.org/2008/07/firstline-sec...

Wow, sounds pretty deep.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

An insider — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:47:07 -0000

Trevor and Wright have been messing with people for a while now. This is not the first time! Their business model is to build a pyrimid and pull out before it crashes. These two are the best salesmen I have ever met. They know how to motivate people and fill them with false hopes. Unless you are in their circle you will be screwed big time. Futurephones, the internet phone, Neoskin, now Firstline. If history repeats itself they already have something else lined up. It is sad they selected to walk down this path. When you keep burning people, things fire back on you! Their names and reputations are ruined, but they have made enough money in the process to not have to work anymore. I will give it to them; they are two smart individuals!

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

of corse! — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:24:45 -0000

Hello, i recently just watched your clip of the "the prodigy" with firstline. I can tell you now i was shocked. I worked for the company firstline security in the call center for over 2 years. they didn't find it important to tell us employees that firstline had gone bankrupt the last week in january, than calling us to a meeting and letting us know that everyone was fired in 1 day . This company is FULL of lies and deseption, We recived a letter from the bank that firstline was working with 3 weeks after everyone was let go from the company, explaining, yes they were no longer working with fristline to provid checks to employee's 2 months pervious to us acuatlly letting go of all empolyee's. But yet fristline had us work for 4 weeks knowing they would NOT be paying any empolyees a check for the time worked, Any empolyees have yet to see it.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/channel?section=news... watch this!

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

ame — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:40:26 -0000

Firstline did not cancel my ADT account and I ended up paying 6 months and at the same time paying them too. Firstline has a very poor customer service and sales people. After a while, sales people ended up quiting after they convince you to buy their security.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

HUFFDAHL = LAWSUITS — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:30:16 -0000

just one sentence is allowed at this time...... tomio huffman firstline security (google it and you will find a nice news story) more to update soon...

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

1 month and done — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:46:44 -0000

hustlers know a hustle. thank god i only did installs so i got all my money upfront and not in the "back-end"

cheers to the other 8 people who quit the same day i did. good thing we didnt wait to get it in the back-end.

sorry to those who failed to filter through the bullshit

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Shelly — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:09:35 -0000

And I am one of those customers that is disgruntled about the lack of customer service from then when you need them. AND being promised a credit due and never receiving it.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

All of Us — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:51:24 -0000

Does Mark & Adam sound a lot like Trevor and Wright to anybody else but me? Lets be honest here they are 2 guys that have lied, stolen, cheated, and somehow still feel good taking the sacrament? They should get down on there knees and repent. Then get in front of some cameras not the Prodigy cameras and ask for everyone's forgivness on public TV. Because they obviously dont realize how many great families are hurting.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Pete — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:11:56 -0000

As someone who has been scammed by a summer sales company (I was recruited and sold Dish), it was great to see ABC 4's coverage of the Firstline fiasco. Thurston and his cronies got what was coming to them, and if they are in personal debt as well, all the better. I hope the same goes for most of these fly-by-night summer sales scams.

Where is your Inc. 500, now? Inc. 500 one year...bankruptcy the next...that takes some special sort of business acumen right there. Nice job, guys.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Lisa Thomas — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 02:07:30 -0000

Although the Prodigy ended up a failed dream, it truly began as a real show with the best intentions. I actually participated as a judge in one of the casting calls that took place in our town. During the summer, there was a camera man in our office several times who filmed our correlation meetings, went out in the vans with the reps and actually lived in one of our corporate apartments. Our particular cameraman traveled between the northern CA offices and did extensive filming in several offices. There were weekly videos sent from the production company with the different challenges and ways to further your progress to become the Prodigy. One of the reps in our office actually made it to the final 3 contestants and was flown to Utah for the final challenge. So YES, the Prodigy was real. But along with the rest of the concepts of Firstline that fell apart at the end, the winner of the Prodigy and the completion of the filming, editting, producing and broadcasting of the show was brought to a halt with the bankruptcy proceedings. No one intended for it to happen. If the company was so shady and money hungry, why would they spend the thousands and thousands of dollars they did to recruit, perform casting calls, transport and house camera crews and spend the money on the video challenges if they were just trying to scam everyone. So it wasn't the best idea as we see it now. But as they say... 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Karoli — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:49:01 -0000

Lisa,

Thanks for your comment. I didn't point fingers. I told the truth as I saw
it, and still see it. Others have made comments that point fingers and
that's their option -- they've been pointed both ways. You can disagree
with me, but you at least have standing to file your claim with the
bankruptcy trustee. Many, many others do not. Also, my objection from the
beginning was The Prodigy lure, which hurt many students out our way.
Perhaps things were different in Texas, though I had plenty of comments back
in the summer, including one from Texas who also felt misled.

This is about concocting a scheme that deceived students into thinking they
were competitors in a reality show when they weren't. Spin it any way you
want but it's still just not true, nor was it intended to be true.

It's wrong and it should be exposed and pointed out, if for no other reason
than to offer information that other students can use to keep from falling
into similar traps.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Lisa Thomas — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:20:01 -0000

I was an office manager for Firstline for 2 years. Melissa worked in my division although not in my office. I am grateful to her for telling her story. The lead tech who gave her the information about the equipment was partly correct. Firstline was actually the only company last summer given the opportunity to sell the Simon XT panel, a state of the art, highly technological system by GE Security. The equipment, the people who sold it, the technicians who installed them, and the people behind the scenes in the offices are to be commended and applauded for their hard work and effort. It is unfortunate it ended up the way it did. I, too, am owed not only my last paycheck, but my year end bonus. I will file my claim along with the hundreds of others in the bankruptcy proceedings. But I l, like many others, don't feel it's necessary to bash and degrade people and situations I know nothing about. Maybe if you took a look inside your own world, you could find something else to concentrate your efforts on in a positive way. Enough with the finger pointing. Let's grow up and move on. There are going to be a lot bigger disappointments in your life. Trust me!

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Karoli — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:34:01 -0000

Melissa D.,

Thank you for telling your story here. I'm sorry you ended up with nothing
for your summer but debt, but I really appreciate your reasoned telling of
the story. For what it's worth, i believe the people who recruited you
probably really did believe in what they were doing. I've always been
convinced that the fault lay with the folks at the top, who preyed on
people's trusting natures.

The equipment wasn't as much the problem as the monitoring service, as far
as I can tell, but the equipment and service could be had for less. Of
course, if a customer is buying it from you instead of hunting it down on
the Internet and self-installing they should expect a padding to pay you.
My problem was exactly what you describe -- YOU didn't get paid.

Good luck with your studies and career -- you sound like a success in the
making.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Melissa D. — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:44:18 -0000

I was an "Advertising Director" with Firstline Security this summer, working in the Fort Worth office, and I am grateful for the comments from other employees/"contractors" who have mentioned their bad experiences. Our office began the summer, we were told, as one of the largest in the company with 35 representatives. By the end of the summer, we had less than 20.

I was recruited by a church friend (I'm not mormon, nor was he), knew a couple of months in advance what my location would be, and was never encouraged to be part of the Prodigy. In that respect, my experience was much better than others about which I have read. We even had a cameraman show up at the beginning of the summer to do "initial interviews", but nearly all the people in our office were not interested in being on a reality TV show and signed statements to that effect.

The summer begain well, and everyone was selling about an account a day for the first two weeks. Then a couple people hit slumps, and then a few more, and suddenly a good day was 7 sales in an office of 35 people. We were told that the problem was our "area", and kept being taken to lower and lower credit neighborhoods because they are easy sells. Still, no improvement. I went effectively three weeks without a sale.

Midway through, our division vice-president (Riley Edwards) came down and took over as manager of the office, and managed to give all of us the impression that this sort of thing (a failing office) was an anomaly and that we should be ashamed of ourselves for our miserable performance. He held long meetings every morning, rallying the troops with stories of the guys he knew who sold 5 or 6 accounts in a day, or had 20 installations in a week, and telling us we could be like them if we just set our minds to it. We read his favorite book, "As A Man Thinketh", which is full of self-help pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-without-falling-flat-on-your-back encouragements to think positively and visualize the goal. It worked, temporarily.

When I was recruited, I was told that even the merely average sales reps sold 65 to 75 accounts in a summer, but the best rep in our office only made it to 65. I and several of my classmates barely made it to 25 accounts (the minimum to have your $400/month per person rent paid back), and I know several others who didn't even make that much.

In my office, we were never directly instructed to lie to customers -- we engaged in deceptive practices, and allowed the homeowners to draw their own conclusions, but we weren't told to lie. On the other hand, when our best reps (and one guy in particular) would come back and tell war stories about how they got a sale, they would often mention the lies they told. Rarely were these stories met with any kind of criticism from the management, especially after the office was taken over in July.

I knew the contract was favorable to the company (in fact, I was signing away just about everything except my soul), but I trusted the people who recruited me. The only problem wasthat they had been sold a bill of goods, and didn't realize it until the end of the summer.

As far as I know, we were selling a quality product. Land-line based security systems are vulnerable, and what we were selling was in that way more secure. Admittedly, wireless sensors inside the house are not as stable as wired ones; so we weren't selling the absolute best out there. But the system itself was not a piece of junk. (My roommate's fiancee was our lead technician, no friend of the company, and had worked with other companies as well. This information comes from him.)

I admit, I was naive. In September,I expected to at least get some money. When my backend came out to -$2000, I called my manager and made sure I understood all the details. Doing the math the way they said they were (only counting 90% of accounts, etc.) it looked correct. Since I had been counting on that money to pay my tuition, I was force to take out a student loan (the whole reason I signed on with this summer job was so I wouldn't have to go into debt for school).

Still, I could expect at least $300 in February, they said. I was even arguing that I earned the "tuition bonus" of $1000, and that would have been a nice addition to my bank account. I still trusted the company, and still expected to be paid, right up until about three hours ago. That's when I tried to go online to see what my February backend check was supposed to be, and was informed that my login name was no longer valid. So I called my old manager, and he told me that we had all been deleted from the system and that FirstLine had declared bankruptcy.

My google search turned up this blog, and that's why I am telling you my story. I'm not bitter, and I still think that the people I directly worked with were honorable. We were all duped together by a company run by people accustomed to manipulating others to achieve their own ends.

I'm still grateful that I got to spend a summer working outdoors and talking to people; I'm a liberal arts major, and spend nine months out of the year reading thick dusty books or writing long papers, so it was a pleasant change for me. But I would not recommend any kind of summer securty sales to someone who doesn't have the capacity to absorb a disastrous experience, and I regret spending my summer not getting paid.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:37:10 -0000

Adam,

We are all stupider for having read your posts.
You have poured out a plauge upon humanity.
May G*d have mercy on your soul.

You are definetely not a lawyer, & more then likely a top dawgizzle fraud up line & connected at FirstLine.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:29:23 -0000

Well sweetheart, I'm glad you're just another interwebs tough guy.

I'll stand by everything I've said.
Too bad you won't.

You fit in really well with T-Rev-Dawg & Wrightizzle, homie.

Firstline went bankrupt due to their unethical & dishonest business practices. These practices came from the top down in Firstline, & I won't feel bad for "men" who made dishonest decisions that impacted the lives of so many in such a brutal way.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

i worked for firstline — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:05:29 -0000

i just want every one i talk to, to know the truth because thats what God put us on this earth for, to bear his witness and to praise him. Little off the subject but I dont care. Every head will bow and every tongue shall confess.not saying im perfect were all sinners, this is the endtimes. just remember that and know that God loves you and you have a second chance. even after the second coming. i love all you guys.

I read up and can appreciate were your coming from a little better.
I am sorry karoli you brother was duped and was chased by dogs and had guns pointed at him, and had to work extremely hard over the summer. alot of people including myself have had the same thing happen to them maybe worse things, but i also know people in the industry that are very successful

Look at it positively. Hey well i guess your bro knows hes not good at door to door selling, hey you know what,? its hard . BOO HOO Get a better job. And now he knows to research things, read contracts and see if he agrees with them. there are shady sales reps no matter what your selling,it all comes with sales.
firstline is over and done with. there are Alot more things you can do career wise or for work for different companies that are more profesional. you people be hating too much

you know what i would talk to my mother that way, if my mom was to this degree of obsession.
but no hard feelings, i know i dont have any, just a friendly little conversation and I mean this with all sincerity.
I hope i get my feb. paycheck lol.

peace out fool

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Karoli — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:40:43 -0000

You can ask. You could answer your own question with just a little bit of reading, but start here

http://www.drumsnwhistles.com/2007/07/21/pure-b...

Would you talk to your mother the way you're talking to me? No? Then think before you type or the next time you use the tone you did above you'll just find yourself ...

deleted.

Love ya. Your witness is just so...compelling.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

i worked for firstline — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:09:42 -0000

dude that is a screwed up thing to say to somebody I hope you dont mean that.

ohh i got soul alright. and i'll pray for for yours
and mine.

ONLY THROUGH JESUS WILL YOU BE SAVED
GOD BLESS YOU
'
'
'
'
But if may humbly ask BLOGMASTER KAROLI.......ha..ha
why are you so obessed with firstline security did you work for them or what.
or do you know someone that had a bad experience or do you have nothing better to do.

karoli freakin grow up dude...

hey I know its hot but, all summer sales leaders should open year round offices in phoenix,az.
You can sell a buttload of systems out here.

this is funny stuff if youve worked for firstline
http://www.abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=ne...

peace out fool

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Karoli — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:08:24 -0000

dear "i worked for firstline",

get a soul.

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

i worked for firstline — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:09:47 -0000

get a life karoli

Re: Firstline Pyramid Collapses in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Karoli — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:03:43 -0000

I'm sorry for their hardships. I am. But keep in mind that for the past six months some of the folks you see commenting here are also going through hardships, and their hardships were caused by the misleading sales pitch you all threw at them.

Forgive me, but it's really hard to feel their hardships when I've had to see the results of the hardships they inflicted with not even one apology.