DISQUS

Hi Francine,

I agree, no argument. But keep in mind, they wrote those back in late August, when there was no indication that the company was going bankrupt. I doubt there would be too many defending it at this point, though I have had a few on an earlier post of mine.

GuyHass:

At the time I wrote this post, there were only two posts on the Internet that were negative. I couldn't find any articles in the mainstream press or anything that came up on a Google search. That's one of the reasons I wrote it...to warn off other kids who might have been sucked in by the scam.

Francine,

There was a website, but it appears to have been taken down. It was there a week ago, so I'm guessing it was pulled down as part of their bankruptcy proceedings.

The folks who worked for Firstline thought they were selling a good product. I think blaming them really gives a pass to the folks at the top who not only deceived customers, but also employees.

Hi Chuck,

I'm sad for the folks who won't receive the payments they expect to receive on 2/1 -- the final 'backend' pay. And it's not even payroll, so won't have priority like the others at the service center, because they were all 'independent contractors'.

Grrr.

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.

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.

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>

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.

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.

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".

To all:

I generally remove comments that are personal attacks on others. I am going to leave "someone's" comment simply because it has had a response that would appear out of context without the original comment posted.

However, it's worth remembering that while the Firstline outcome is horrible, it was inevitable and shouldn't be pinned on people who worked there and believed in what they were doing. I'm sure Jake sold those accounts because he was a good salesman who believed what he'd been told, and also believed he was helping others in their success.

To me, this is the real ugly in luring students to sell systems unter the subterfuge of a reality show. It changes the filters everyone views their actions through, masking the pyramid under a pie in the sky.

Firstline's business model was headed for failure because it presumed that many solid contracts would be sold, and that they would then resell those contracts to a third party, re-infusing the company with cash to begin recruiting anew. The pyramid collapsed when the contracts couldn't be sold, and the ones who are paying are the customers and the students, particularly those who were recruited at this time last year, asked to recruit their friends, sent into territories that were already saturated, and ultimately ended the summer owing Firstline money instead of making any.

At any rate, feel free to comment, but do keep it free of personal attacks on others. I will delete those.

Other,

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

swingshift,

The scenario you describe makes a ton of sense. It's the first one that gives some legs to the rumors posted here and I'll keep watching for some news about it. You'd think that if checks are bouncing and payments aren't made to folks who worked all summer long for nothing there will be some press play somewhere about it.

BTW, there are two facebook groups around this if you're not already aware -- here and here.

To Upgrade Scheduled Out: They don't have to mail them until 1/31, so watch for it to arrive in early February.

I still can't find anything confirming that there's a merger or a bankruptcy. If they follow what they've done in past years, they'll be selling the contracts to someone like ADT or Pinnacle and starting again with the current recruiting season. No bankruptcy, just a nice clean slate with no past obligations. Of course, in the current economy they might have trouble finding buyers for those contracts.

Okay, so now we have the rumor that they filed for bankruptcy today and the second rumor that they were acquired by Pinnacle.

Here's what I'm guessing, and it's just speculation based on past history. They did exactly what they did a couple of years ago -- they sold their contracts to Pinnacle to get out from under the requirement to service them so they would have liquid assets to start the recruiting cycle for this year's fresh-faced group of newly-sold summer recruits.

They did it in 2002 or 2003. It's a lovely deal for them -- none of the obligations, all of the liquidity.

But someone, please...if you're going to post rumors, at least link back to something or copy an excerpt of an email or whatever, because right now it's all rumor and/or speculation.

Charlie, when I ran the whois last year the administrative contact was premierhmc.com -- it was less about the server IP and more about the common named contacts.

Hope that helps...I just had a look and they've changed server contacts several times, so it may no longer read that way.

Renee,

I was shocked when she was able to sign herself out. I thought 72 hours was 72 hours, but in California, it's not mandatory if she went voluntarily.

I don't doubt my own moods and behavior with respect to bipolar -- I know my ADHD is as ADHD as it gets, no more, no less.

When I wrote this post nearly a year ago, the press was pillorying Brittney for not being a better mother and being a gadfly. They practically celebrated when she shaved her head in full view of the paparazzi.

To me, it was a clear signal that something was not right. My point in speculating here that it was possibly something like bipolar disorder was to express the view that this behavior went far beyond self-centeredness or attention-seeking, and rather than pick on her, maybe some compassion was in order.

Here's my post on her possible 72-hour hold, the night she was taken in.

Had her family and Dr. Phil not been so anxious to intervene, perhaps the real doctors might have done her some good.

anonymous who commented here and said this:
think i have the same symptoms except i’m not showing it unless someone figures it out by himself, i admit i might be bipolar but there’s no one who can help me to get out of this mental illness i don’t know what to do with my self i’m just living and waiting to see what will happen in the future…if someone can give me help or advice he’s welcome.

Read Renee's comment above. Call a psychiatrist. If you don't have money for a psychiatrist, go to a clinic. Tell them your situation, be brutally honest. Above all, seek help. Please.

And come back and tell us how you're doing, okay?

Renee,

Here's the problem: She was already been put on a 72-hour hold 2 weeks ago, to which she promptly signed herself out after 24-hours. I'm assuming she agreed to the hold in order to reserve the right to sign herself out early at any time.

She doesn't trust her family, she doesn't trust her friends, she doesn't have anyone she really trusts, she has had custody privileges revoked and there doesn't appear to be any way at this point to stop her from self-destructing.

I find that to be really, really sad. I'm concerned for her. She's an adult, so her parents can't force a psychiatrist on her. They would actually have to get guardianship (good luck with THAT) in order to force any kind of treatment on her for whatever her problem might be.

It drives me crazy to see the media just lather up in a feeding frenzy over her. Clearly something is not right, but there seems to be no way to help make it right, and the constant dogging by paparazzi is certainly no help.

Someone said that she's an attention seeker. Maybe, but her behavior now goes far beyond attention-seeking...she needs real help. I'm sad for her.

Jeremy,

You're the second person to say that Firstline has gone out of business, but I can't find anything in the news, business or legal areas that confirm that. Do you have a supporting link or is this rumor, especially given that you're working for a competitor.

Sorry folks, but I do delete posts that are nothing more than gratuitous slams on people participating in the conversation. If your comment is missing, that's why.

Roon,

I'd like to think we're not feasting on her. If she didn't constantly have public meltdowns she wouldn't even be a blip on my radar, but in her case they're so extreme that it worries me.

Thinking back to other celebrities who died because of their disorders and their addictions (Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, etc...) I'd like to hope this could have a different outcome.

Mike,

It's pretty difficult to throw away a postcard that looks like the one up above. Keep in mind that these cards always come right after someone has purchased a car, and in our case, a brand-new car with a full 5-year/100K warranty on it.

My first question was: Did Toyota screw up the warranty?

Since I could find no answers to my questions, my options were to discover what this company was and how it had information about my warranty, or call them.

As you can see from the majority of the comments here, most opted to call, finding themselves in another deceptive sales loop.

Sorry, but your advice to just "throw away the cards and get a life" doesn't fly this time around. This advertising is as false as anything I've ever seen and people should know what it's really about.

Spencer,

I didn't take offense, but I have answered this objection elsewhere. I have copies of the contracts and agreements. But just like the product itself, the devil's in the very, very fine print, which they don't want anyone to read at the time because reading it would kill the sale. The key to the Firstline sales technique is to get the customer/prospect so excited about the product/opportunity that they ignore the fine print. It's intentional. I would argue that reading the contract has very little to do with the success or failure of any individual. Some people are gifted with sales acumen, and could sell someone an ice cube in hell. That doesn't make it ethical or moral. Just successful.

With that said, keep in mind that the recruitment was ostensibly for a "reality show", not a summer sales job hawking security systems door-to-door. At the time of the so-called audition, the paperwork was intentionally vague about what exactly would be expected of these new recruits, and the followup paperwork was glossed over like a newly-minted ice rink.

Even reading the fine print doesn't give a full picture of the reality. Nothing in the fine print said "we can move you to a different territory 150 miles away with no notice whatsoever." (Nor did it say that the territory they move to would suck). The contract is vague about the employer/employee/contractor relationship, and even an expert like me in these matters had to really dig under the legalese to discover how an independent contractor can be such when their hours, living arrangements, and territories are defined by Firstline rather than the contractor.

The vagueness is on purpose. If they came out and said "Students, we want you to commit your summer to door-to-door sales of security systems that are readily available online at lower costs", they wouldn't recruit many, would they?

Here are some of my other, later posts on Firstline -- they explain more of the flaws I found in the contract and the product.

Comments are still open for the "other side" to present their case. I made mine as I saw fit.

As to the cell bill, I agree. It was outrageous and Alltel should be fined for allowing such travesties to continue on a daily basis.