odd time signatures - Latest Comments in GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Kateters — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:54:58 -0000

my little brother just started doing this. he's worked a month and has only made $200. that's 13 hours a day for 6 days a week. for $200. and when he thought about quitting, his manager had the gall to tell him that he could be in the top 100 sellers because of his technique. i want to kick someone in the teeth! how is this legal??????

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

David — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:21:09 -0000

It seems everyone has a different opinion about summer door-to-door sales. The thing I don't get about this post is how her son spent 1800 dollars on cell phone bills. If he needed to talk that much he should have upgraded to an unlimited plan. I was just on Verizon's site yesterday and I think it is about 80 dollars a month.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Colton Cuny — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:56:54 -0000

You people that wrote this have no idea what you are talking about... You obviously have no experience in the sales industry. I did this for a summer last year and in my first summer made over 20 grand. It is 100% the effort that you put in that will determine your success. And another thing, you must not know how the interview process goes because we explain there just how difficult it will prove to be for them. It is not a scam but a great opportunity for those who are willing to take it on and take it seriously. So in closing, please do your own research on what ACTUALLY happened instead of googling opinionated blogs, thanks...
Colton Cuny

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Aaron — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:04:05 -0000

One thing I never saw mentioned here is worker's compensation insurance. Employers are required by law to carry it for employees. If salesmen for the company are considered "independent contractors" instead of "employees," then that saves a truckload of money on worker's comp insurance. It also means the employer doesn't have to meet minimum wage requirements. Couple that with the supposed insulation from litigation and it's a pretty slick setup.

I sold Dish Network door-to-door in and around Fresno in early 2004 and made $500 in a month and a half, from a classified ad that promised $1,500-$2,500 a month to start. In the setup I was in, the salesman knocks on the door, sells a dish setup (although we weren't paid any extra for, say, selling the customer on a DVR system or the America's Top 180 programming package instead of the America's Top 60, even though those resulted in higher monthly revenues for EchoStar), then during the close, gets the customer's order information, address, social security number and $5 (the salesman could waive it but it would be deducted from his commission... I hardly ever had cash on me to make change so I was notorious for coming back with baggies filled with $5 in nickels and pennies). Then, at the end of the night, all the sales people that went out together would head back to the office in the third floor of the old control tower at the Chandler Airport, and one of the two or three people that did office work would run each order's name, address and SSN for a credit check. If a customer didn't pass the credit check, a rejection letter was sent out, including contact info for the credit bureaus. If the customer's credit was OK, someone working the phones would call to set up an install appointment. That's where the risk of buyer's remorse was most dangerous (the wife told me to cancel, or some other excuse, usually). The customer could also BR on us when the installer would show up, and sales staff weren't paid until the install was final and the paperwork was all signed, including the one-year commitment at a time when Dish itself was advertising no commitment. So from all that, I only made $500, and I had the built-in advantages of having no tattoos, having a normal haircut (with regular showers) and not smoking. When it comes to money, most people respond better to someone who doesn't look like he just got out of prison, who doesn't have unkempt, greasy hair and who doesn't reek of cigarette smoke.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

blank — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:09:08 -0000

inexcusable--

it is absolutely inexcusable the deceit and lies they used on these kids. unfortunately my friend got caught up in this scam and came back in debt. i dare you to say that he's "whining" and pointing fingers at other people. he's a hard working person who is now working the debt off as many hours as possible, and going to school. So come to me with stupid quotes, insults and heres what i say:

Those people deliberately scammed these kids, wagging a reality show prize in their faces, used them, and threw them away. If you call them personally stupid and not taking responsibility for their actions, then you are an arrogant fool. Get over yourself.

but you know what, Firstline? heres what i say--
if anything i thank you for one thing, you taught my friend to go and pick himself up again when he gets knocked down and kicked with insults. hes going to get on with his life and when he's out of school and has a good job he's going to look back and know that when all is said and done, he won.

Thank you Firstline, (not the sales people, the people who saw it fitting to lie others for business) for benefiting our society and showing us there are people low enough to twist and use the dreams of kids to their own benefit, leaving them to pick up the mess, congratulations.

Karoli, i'm sorry your son got caught up in it, though if anything I hope he picks himself up again and perseveres through this tough time to a better one.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

karoli — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:03:02 -0000

Spencer,

As I said before and will repeat for the last time -- you can aim at me here on the site, but your gratuitous slams on someone you do not know are not going to be tolerated.

Read this carefully: When you tell someone they are a reality show contestant, the idea of being 'self-employed' goes completely away. Again -- it's the filter and the deception that matters.

As I've said before, it's his bad for letting himself be deceived, but the many, many who were speaks more to the quality of the lie than the lie itself.

They could've just said it's a summer sales job. But they didn't. They even made pretty and flashy DVDs and fed those out regularly to convince people it was part of a larger production called "The Prodigy".

It was sneaky, deceptive recruiting and intentionally so. Save your Teddy Roosevelt-isms for someone who cares. This is, as far as I'm concerned, a dead discussion, given Firstline's bankruptcy and the impending public exposure of the deception.

If you haven't served in the military, keep your hopes to yourself. He was honorably discharged and served the likes of you for four years.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Spencer — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:48:29 -0000

Well I have already posted but here it goes again. None of these kids work as employees for first line. They work for themsleves. Thier sales pitch is at there discretion. As does any buisness they must use thier own resources such as a cellphone, buisness cards, information sheets, etc to stay in buisness. Any time one buisness does buisness with another company thier is a contract invloved which is very detailed. If the whole prodigy thing was suposed to be a part of the deal it should have been in a contract with all its contigencies and promises. When a company relises that they are provideing services for a bad or dishonest company they can quit. No one was forced into fresno, they signed in thier contract were there sales ares would be. I mean if any company finds another company to do thier sales they tell them were they want sales made. If a comapny had its place of buisness in fresno they dont want people selling in Miami. This is common sense. As for those people who may or may not be getting thier paychecks they can do what is called a "Class Action Suit" and if they were smart enough to have contracts they can win. If they didn't have clear contracts that entailed what service they would provide and what they would recive then they deserve what they get. Who cares if Firstline is good or bad all of these people who worked as independant contractors for them took a calculated risk and signed a contract. People do this every day and things dont always go good. Buisnees deals go bad for some and great for other, this is life. Lets just be honest you dont see the succesfull people pointing fingers and crying about what other people did to them. You see them acting for them selves and finding the way to become succesfull in a way that suites them. I feel bad for the poor souls who always look to find who did them wrong and why nothing is there fault. We see these people in lots places, some even end up holding card board on the side of the roads.

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
-Teddy Roosevelt

I hope your son was a better soldier than he is a buisness man. I hope he took responsibility for his own actions and accepted the consequences. When I think of Military men I think of men of great Inegrity, honor, and hard work. I hope that an alarm system company couldnt take this away from our fine soldiers just by telling them "Here is the pitch and this is how its done."

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

karoli — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:20:11 -0000

No ma'am, not making the comparison. My son is a partially disabled veteran of the United States Army who was attending college last year on the GI bill when he was recruited to go to to Fresno. No comparison, just extending the timeline.

Also, I think you are attributing some comments to me that I did not make. Here are some direct quotes from me:

My criticism isn’t directed toward those of you out there knocking on the doors. I don’t think you’re unethical, but I do think you’ve been taught some deceptive sales techniques, including slamming residents who have another security system. (I am using the term ’slamming’ in the telecommunications sense of a smooth and subtle pitch where the customer doesn’t realize they’re switching companies until after the fact, even with the confirmation of their ‘information’ on the phone.)
The problem isn’t the concept of direct sales. It’s this concept of direct sales, where students are dropped into areas that have already been heavily saturated with this type of approach and left to their own devices to make that quota using a hard-sell approach that involves entry into the homes of the people they’re selling to.

Others here have made far more sweeping indictments than I -- I think they're really the ones who you're angry with.

I hope your child is better and that your husband continues to succeed -- I truly do.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Brooke — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:57:39 -0000

I think that comparing selling door to door in Fresno, CA to serving in a war zone is a little extreme, but that is neither here nor there. The thing is that you have personally attacked my husband because he worked for Firstline in their summer sales program for 7 years. All I was trying to say is that everyone uses their own pitch and some are honest and some are not. Thankfully, neither Wright nor Trevor are my husbands. And while I still wholeheartedly disagree with your views. They are just that, your views. And I have my own. I know what kind of man my husband is, and so it doesn't really matter what anyone else might think of him. And, I'm sorry for being rude. That is not the person I normally am. I offer my apology for being less than curteous I hope you'll understand that I just spent a stressful day spent taking my 4 month old baby daughter to doctors to try to find out why she won't eat. I came home and read this and it was the straw that broke the camels back. I hope your son has a better experience in another job.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

karoli — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:48:42 -0000

Brooke,

<ol><li>Re: Cell Phones -- yes, he has a cell phone which he just finished paying off the $1,800 bill on for using in connection with his Firstline gig and which, when dropped into Fresno, went on permanent roam. Why would any employer expect employees to use their own cell phones for business? Just sayin'.</li>
<li>This post should clear the air about my opinion of summer sales versus Firstline's version of summer sales. Nowhere in this post did I denounce summer sales as a general thing -- my friend Liz has no use for them but I did not denounce it in anyway. I do, however, have nothing but contempt for the way students were 'recruited' and forced into areas that were not open to the sales of security alarm systems</li>
<li>With regard to your "free weekend" analogy, I rest my case. Only this "free weekend" went on for nearly four weeks, until the contracts were produced. I challenge you to look at that contract through the filter of believing you are part of a reality show like The Apprentice while sitting in a group with a high-pressure sales pitch going on saying just initial here, here and here, sign here and you're on the "show". What the folks selling The Prodigy understood was that by putting the lens of a 'reality show' around what they were really selling, the context changed just enough to close the deal with few questions. I suppose we can thank Donald Trump and "The Apprentice" for that, too.</li>
<li>See this post for my reasons for saying the Firstline sales pitch is deceptive. It's self-explanatory.</li>
<li>I have not personally attacked your husband, unless his name is Wright Thurston or Trevor Keyes, in which case your defense has just become indefensible. Why do you insist on assuming I have, and further assuming that you are therefore given license to attack me? You don't know me and you don't know my son, but would you really attack a veteran who spent four years in the Army? No? Then quit hacking on my kid...and hope yours never has to spend time on active military duty or in Fresno selling alarm systems.</li></ol>

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Brooke — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:49:04 -0000

Did "these kids" you mentioned not have cell phones? My husband puts his cell phone number on the top of each contract. He doesn't care if customers can call him because he has nothing to hide. The number to Firstline is on just about every singe piece of paper that the customer signs. And how is it that I know so many more people (in almost 8 yrs) that have had a good experience in summer sales as compared to those who have had a bad one? You take your son's one year and the people he met and suddenly his experience is the norm? I think my husband and I have much more information with which to base our opinion off of. As for the official material: Firstline provided contracts, signs, and welcome packets for all of their sales reps. Business cards are a waste of time. People who want your business card just want a quick way to get you gone. They will never "call you back". So, why would any door to door company waste the time and money to print out thousands of business cards that are just going to be thrown away. Your son should have read the contract he signed better to know what he was getting into. Why should a company have employees living off them when they are not producing any revenue for the company? That just doesn't make any fiscal sense. As for the Prodigy being deceptive. Haven't you ever seen "a free weekend in so and so" advertised on T.V. and all you have to do is attend a meeting. It's obviously to sell you something and I would hope most people are smart enough to know that. Millions of companies use tactics like that to generate interest. I'm not saying I agree with it, but it's not like Firstline made this approach up. And, anyone with any street sense can see that it is more than what's at face value. I also know for a fact that Firstline was dead serious about the Prodigy when they rolled it out to their employees. Sure it was to generate interest in the company, but it was also to find a prodigy. How is "advertising director" deceptive. Waitresses and waiters now call themselves "servers" now but they still do that same thing. "Server" just sounds a little nicer. So are they being deceptive? The customers are advertising for the company and they are getting a free alarm system for it. If they were just to go out and buy the equitment, they would have to pay for it. And, even if you got a totally dishonest sales guy you would have to be a complete idiot not to see that you have to pay for the monitoring. It's everywhere on the contract and you have to answer "yes" to the customer service respresentive that you understand that (did you gloss over that in my intial post?). And, finally, my husband isn't a liar. Never has been and never will be. His approach isn't based on deception. He is a good man who is doing his best to provide for his family. You don't know him or anyone else in this industry so shame on you for your uneducated generalization. I'm not a cheerleader for Firstline. They do some things I don't like, but you seriously don't have clue when you start talking "summer sales" companies in gereral or the people that work in the industry. I have a little boy who I plan to raise to take responsibility for his own actions and experiences instead of being acted upon and blaming others.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

karoli — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:48:33 -0000

A PS to Brooke:

A "job" which leaves the employee in debt is no job at all. It's indentured servitude.

And to this comment:
It unfortunate that your son didn’t have a good experience and now he has to find somewhere else to point the finger for his failure.

Please. Give me at least a little credit for having a brain cell of my own. For example, are you aware that Fresno had a horrible experience with alarm sales and as a result, passed laws preventing door-to-door sales of alarm systems? Yet, that was where Firstline placed a group of kids. Was that something he had control over?

Why weren't the sales people given official sales material? Brochures explaining the service, access to business cards? Why were they called "advertising directors" when you clearly state that they were in fact door-to-door salespeople? Why were these kids dropped into neighborhoods where not one of them had ever lived and had no ties? YOUR husband may have customers calling to thank him, but these kids' customers were intentionally NOT given a way to reach them again.

Again, it's wonderful that your spouse did so well and I can only hope he was paid all that he was owed. Don't assume his experience is the same as others', including those who sold lots of systems and now will not receive their full pay for that.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

karoli — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:06:20 -0000

Brooke,

Thank you for your comments. Please note that the focus of this post was the framing of the "marketing director" position as a reality show. It was deceptive -- intentionally deceptive -- in order to recruit college students to sell door-to-door.

In other comments, I explain why I believe the sales technique is deceptive. It is, particularly the part where the effort is made to switch customers from an existing contract to a new contract.

I've heard the 'hard-working self-motivated" spiel over and over again, but the fact is that unless you can bring yourself to take the approach that is based on deception, there is very little hope of success.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Brooke — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:57:36 -0000

Karoli,
I'm going to have to take offense to your characterization of summer sales guys as liars and cheats. My husband has been in sales for going on 8 yrs now and worked for Firstline for 7 of those years. He is the most honest and hardworking guy I know. He never lies to customers and always leaves his sales with a good relationship with the customer. In fact, he often calls me to let me know that his customer has invited him to dinner and so he may be a little late getting home. At the end of each sale, sales reps are required to have the customers they sign up talk to someone in customer service who asks them point blank if they know the length of the contract is 36 months and that they know the specific price that they are required to pay each month. How exactly is that deceptive? Alarms save people's lives. Period. He's selling people something that could save their valuables at the least and more importantly, save their lives and the lives of their family members. Why do you buckle up when you drive? Your chances of getting in a car wreck are not seriously high. You do it so that in that unlikely event, you are protected. Same with health insurance, life insurance, and alarms. I personally love my kids too much to even take a chance that someone could break into my house and hurt or kidnap them. It unfortunate that your son didn't have a good experience and now he has to find somewhere else to point the finger for his failure. Certainly, there are sales reps, managers, etc.. that are dishonest, but your son is the only one that decides what he's going to say to customers on the doors. No one makes anyone sell their soul, it's a choice that the indvidual makes. My husband choses every summer to go out and work extremely hard to provide for his family in an honest and upfront way. He has had his share of success but he knows he could sell more if he lied. He just choses to work that much harder than the guys who take the easy way out by cheating. So, it sounds like Starbucks or MacDonalds or whatever would be a good fit for your son. That way he can have someone tell him to work and take no intiative for his own success. But, if you are hardworking and self motivated you can have a lot of success selling alarms door to door and still maintain your integrity. By the way, how on any level do you think you have any real knowledge of summer sales. The only people your son has associated with and that you listen to are the guys that did the same thing he did and are now playing the blame game. This is a job that separates the men from the boys and some guys just aren't ready to see that they are boys. I have no problem with guys that quit and have the personal insight to say, "hey, I just couldn't cut it; it's not something I want to do". But the whiners who blame their experiece on everyone but themselves just irritate me to no end.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Theo — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:54:38 -0000

Anon,

There are many great summer sales opportunities out there, its just that non of them include working for Security companies. People can be successful, but at what cost. Personal integrity...not worth it. Using Fear as a tool for your personal gain...you must be proud. The lives of so many kids you deceive by promising the world knowing that few will succeed...not something I'd be proud of.

Firstline's down, who's next? Apex, Pinnicle? Both? We can only hope.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

karoli — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:51:16 -0000

Anon,

I guess you missed all the comments about Firstline declaring bankruptcy, failing to make payroll last Friday and of course, not making the payoff to their "prodigy".

Bitter? Nah. Just tired of people profiteering off the backs of hard-working students. The one who should be bitter is "The Prodigy".

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Anon — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:59:25 -0000

Wow, It sounds like someone is a little bitter. Just because your son had a bad experience doesn't mean that this is all a scam. There are thousands of college students that go out for the summer and make a lot of money, do your research. Don't be bitter, let it go, you are wasting your time trying to "debunk" all these security companies because the industry is a huge market. Just accept the fact that your son had a bad experience, and don't try to make it the companies fault

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Theo — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:19:51 -0000

Back in 1998 my brother first worked for a Pest Control company. He was being offered a job back home that paid $12.50 per hour, and walked away from that to experience selling Pest Control...ending the summer earning over $30K his first year. But that was a different era, the one before the dark age of Alarms. These alarm companies are ruining the market by all their deceit and overpromising. To understand the motivation, you need to see all the pieces... 1. The Actual Alarm company hires a marketing company like Firstline to get them new accounts. To understand that the Alarm company can monitor 10's of thousands of people with a small monitoring office, and all those customers are paying $30 to $40 per month, it is easy to see why the Alarm company would pay Firstline $2000 per account. 2. The less a sales rep sells, the less of this $2000 that Firstline needs to pay out based on their payscale. It would be in their best interest to hire twice as many people per office who sell 1/2 as much as promised, thus helping Firstline keep more of their $2000 commission from the actual alarm company. Even their experienced sales reps typically only earn $500 per sale, making it easy to see why corporate people can flash their money so abundantly. As firstline corporate people truly earn crazy money off the backs of the masses, they invest in full-page color advertising, recruiting buildings that show off their 'success' that include swimming pools, video games, lounges, pool tables, everything you can imagine to get people to buy in to their mirage of success that awaits the un-knowing victim. 3. Due to the managers being paid really well, they flash their new cars and talk about how much money they made, and lure the unsuspecting victim to their fate. Some will earn good money, but the majority will end up hating summer sales forever, even though there are real honest opportunities for them to earn $15K+...just like the good ole days.

There are plenty of good summer opportunities out there for people to find. Pest Control is a great opportunity, as is 'Garbage', which is my industry. We have been in business for 7 years, and have a great niche in the summer job industry saving people money on their subscription garbage service. Garbage is a service that everyone needs, and our whole 'sale' is switching them to another company to save them money. Alarms is not a necessary/essencial service, and people can usually live their entire lives without it, unlike garbage. Everyone needs a garage service. Ask people at Firstline how many people use their own product and I'm sure it will be hard to find a soul. If people have bugs, they need pest control. If people want to watch TV, they can choose from Cable and Dish. But the bottom line is Alarms are a luxury item that people who don't live in harder parts of town don't need...unless someone comes to their door to tell them that their live is in danger unless you buy their product...Firstline

Stay away, far away. That goes for all Alarm marketing companies, not just Firstline.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Other — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:08:21 -0000

Apparently some creditor put a hold on firstline that has to be lifted to make payroll. We were told not to come in today or tomorrow. The owners were in court this morning. I guess ill be sending out my resume!

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

karoli — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:38:37 -0000

Other,

I'm so sorry to hear that. What will you do now?

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Other — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:33:12 -0000

No work for us today - firstline didnt make payroll for their call center

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

YouWishYouKnew — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 16:40:42 -0000

I've lived with a bunch of guys that did summer sales for various companies for the past year now. Nice frickin houses, by the way. Sweet cars, great clothes, etc.

I never even considered doing this because it always sounded way too good to be true, but the allure of big money is hard to escape when you're surrounded by it for so long. Still, if anything was going to keep me away from the familiarity of home for the summer, it was going to be school and not some pipe-dream of a job that offers much more to lose than to gain. After learning that there was definitely going to be an office in my hometown in Summer of 2008, however, I decided to at least let myself check it out. After all, I figured, I have nothing to lose. Right?

Let me make something perfectly clear before going on: I'm a very skeptical person by nature. I don't accept anything at face value. Blame it on the genes; fault my pursuit of a degree in Psychology; whatever. My point is, I have doubted and questioned this whole operation from day one, but had yet to consult a reputable source of sure-fire information until last week when I agreed to at least "sign" with a guy who I live with. I read over every line of the contract, and that's where I discovered that I did, in fact, have plenty to lose. I essentially uncovered the same story that many people like you, Karoli, have seen for yourselves or from the perspective of close friends and family. They list several ways, hidden amongst more-than-typically-deceptive lawyerspeak, that one can get screwed. They set up every possible barrier of defense (understandable to a point) to prevent themselves from being sued in any way (like the independent contractor bit which has been discussed quite extensively here), as well as numerous ways to say they will find any opportunity to sue you if possible(they try their best to scare you by demanding you never try to dissuade anyone from selling in the future).

These people are good. Real good. You can tell by statements like those given by Paul, who is clearly chest-deep in denial and has completely bought into these sales company's cult-like followings. It's creepy and sad to see so many people convince themselves that, despite how shady and unrealistic these dreams may seem, they can end up living the life they've always wanted at only 18-26 years old. Hope if an extremely powerful tool, as is the universal desire for "something more; something better to life" and these businesses know how to manipulate these raw human emotions to the greatest extent. It's the American Dream at its very worst.

Just an interesting thought: In neither of these homes I've lived in, as well as the homes of others I've seen who work for similar parties (which are owned, operated and touted by [generally good] people who are higher-ups in the organization) has there been one of these systems installed. There were no other alarm systems of any kind being used at all, in fact. If these little miracle boxes really did so much, saved so many lives, and prevented so much danger from happening, then why haven't the very people who should believe in them the most installed their own product in their homes? Can you see members of the Ferrari family NOT having one of their own cars in their garage? When I met Bob Hurley, do you think he was wearing a Volcom shirt, or one with his name on it??

All I'm saying is that it's interesting to see them put logos and statements like "Make $xxxx in 3 months!" on the back of their vehicles, yet they don't even have an actual system in their own homes. That alone speaks volumes to me about their confidence in the very product they push on thousands of hapless consumers every summer.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

wtf — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:38:18 -0000

to jared

how long this year did you work for firstline, Is that really true you and hundreds others didnt get your backend. why is that? because you didnt get licensed? or what happened. i did get my backend but on february 14 we are supposed to get end of the year check that they withhold supposedly to help you out with taxes but i dont know. oh yeah and screw pinnacle..

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Jared — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:32:50 -0000

I cant believe how many people fall for this crap. So supposibly Firstline is now partnering up with Pinnacle another summer sales company; what a lie. Firstline is Bankrupt they screwed me and hundreds of others on their backend. Pinnacle in my eyes is just as full of crap as Firstline.

Re: GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:24:35 -0000

Firstline is Bankrupt!!! Finally justice is served. I worked for Firstline for 3 years and continually saw everyone around me get screwed. I guess the saying what comes around goes around. By the way when you have people like Wright Thurston, Trevor Keyes, Lee Papa, and Jared Taggart running things run run run...