Pre-paid Legal Services never paid for services provided

Check your facts

Paul Meyer

Then there's Pre-Paid's tie-in to the L-K Marketing Group of Waco, Tex., run by Paul J. Meyer. Pre-Paid hooked up with Meyer in 1998, when it bought The People's Network, a marketer of self-help programs where Meyer was a principal, for $19 million in Pre-Paid shares. L-K claimed two years ago to have recruited 53% of the Pre-Paid agents brought on board in North America in the first six months of 2000. But Meyer has been charged three times by the FTC with using deceptive business practices, the last in 1995. That June he agreed (along with other executives and another company he runs, SMI/USA) to settle the charges by paying a total of $320,000, one of the FTC's largest civil penalties at that time, for overstating to prospective agents the income potential and ease of selling self-improvement products.

Kiyosaki

Smart Money story
The 2/03 Smart Money magazine did a story about Kiyosaki. They turned up a few details I had not dug up.

Kiyosaki is chameleonlike, changing his speech radically to pander to each audience. I said he was a financial demagogue. That would be what a demagogue would do. To a religious audience, he's a preacher. To entrepreneurs, he's a Marine drill sergeant and combat veteran. To Amway distributors he's an MLM guy, and so forth.

It's called telling people what they want to hear.

Component depreciation
At the end of a seminar to a religious group, he says he recently did a real estate deal where he got a 17% cash-on-cash return and that “there's 24% component depreciation on the property.” Really? Gee, and I thought component depreciation was explicitly outlawed by the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. Actually, I'm sure of it. It's right there in Section 168(f)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Smart Money cannot find his deals
Kiyosaki claims to have done many highly profitable real estate deals. But Smart Money could not find them in the Maricopa County (Phoenix) records. He claimed to have bought one property for $20,000 and sold it immediately for $60,000. Smart Money could find no purchase for which he paid less than $40,000 (one had no price) and no property which he sold in less than 20 months. When asked about the discrepancy, Kiyosaki said, “I don't pay attention to those things.”

Huh?

This may explain why Kiyosaki does not seem fond of going to court. Give an answer like that in a court room and the judge will say, “Answer the question, Mr. Kiyosaki. The court is not interesting in what you pay attention to. Nor are you going to get away with evading answering a question by giving an unresponsive answer like that.”

Kiyosaki tried to claim the deal in question was done in a partnership. Smart Money could find no evidence of such a partnership. Kiyosaki refused to provide the information or documents that would prove his claim.

Took Yamana Resources public?
Kiyosaki claims he has taken a number of businesses public. When asked to name them, he could only cite Yamana Resources, a Toronto Stock Exchange corporation. The CEO and founder of that corporation, Victor Bradley, told Smart Money that Kiyosaki's only connection with Yamana is that he owned some shares of Platero Resources, a privately held corporation that Yamana acquired in 2001—six years after Yamana went public.

Helicopter pilot
Smart Money apparently takes Kiyosaki's word for it that he was really a helicopter pilot. Since his military records show no flight school or wings (see above), I'm still skeptical.

Desertion?
The melodramatic incident Kiyosaki relates about refusing to return to ship as a Marine officer in Hong Kong changes in Smart Money. Now he says he was one of 480 guys who got left behind when the ship left early. In his first book, described above, he seems to nominate himself for the Nobel Peace Prize as an active-duty, Marine, anti-war protestor. Now we learn he just missed the boat.

Wanted—dead or alive?
As to the whereabouts of Rich Dad—at one point, Kiyosaki tells Smart Money that he died in 1992. Poor man.

Later, he says Rich Dad is still alive, but a reclusive invalid. Uh huh. So how to explain Kiyosaki applying for a trademark on Rich Dad Poor Dad and telling the U.S. government under penalty of prison that the phrase refers to no living persons?

Later, he tells Smart Money that Rich Dad was a composite of several persons.

Finally, he gets angry at Smart Money. “Is Harry Potter real? Why don't you let Rich Dad be a myth, like Harry Potter?”

That would be fine, Robert, just as soon as you remove Rich Dad from the non-fiction best seller list and go over and compete with Harry Potter on the fiction best-seller list.

So I guess the final word is that Rich Dad is as real as Harry Potter. I suppose that, in turn, means that the way to become financially independent is to get a magic wand—or to write book about fictional characters who did.

Kiyosaki was a seminar instructor
Almost all of the bad real estate gurus got their real start as pitchmen or instructors for other bad gurus. Kiyosaki was an instructor for attorney and real estate investor Marshall Thurber for nine years. I know nothing about Thurber other than that Kiyosaki loved him when he wrote his first book and failed to mention him at all when he wrote his second.

Here is what one unlucky got when she paid for Pre-paid legal.

NOTHING read below case of a woman in need of counsel.

The truth us, PPL does NOT COVER many types of cases, including criminal, but they do not tell you that when you join. Only the lucky and few who read the fine print find out before-hand.

READ BELOW:

Wrongful Termination, Discrimination & Violation of my Civil Rights.

Please if "anyone" can help me to locate an attorney that will take my case on a contingency or Pro-Bono. I don't have much time left to go and have been working very hard to find a Labor & Employment Law attorney to assist me.

My situation is very intricate and I truly don't know where to begin. Several months back I was involved in a FRAUD BY DECEPTION scheme, which caused me to be arrested on a felony charge of forgery. I received a check in the mail from a Canadian businessman in the amount of $38,000. I had received several bad checks prior, so I made a decision to go to the bank that the check was drawn on to get a cashiers check rather than depositing the check into my bank account and the check not clearing. The people I was doing business with had some trouble with their private financiers and were sending bad checks to me, which had caused my account to close twice, so I did not want to risk that happening again and that is why I decided to go to the payee bank.

It was a work day for me and I went into work early that day and later decided to go to the bank before it closed. I informed my coworker and asked that he let my boss know that I went to the bank and will be right back. My boss was in a meeting at the time and I had to get to the bank before it closed. It was not uncommon for us to take off for an early break or early lunch to take care of our personal business as such. While at the bank, they were doing their security check and I was never alarmed of anything wrong because I did not and was not doing anything wrong. I arrived at the bank at 3:30 PM and at 5:00 PM a police officer entered the bank, but I never thought anything of it. He called me over and by 5:30 PM I was arrested. When I got to the Detention Center to be booked, that's when I learned of what I was arrested for on the booking paper-works, which stating I was arrested for "forgery." I never got the opportunity to endorse the check.

From 3:30PM until 11:30PM when I made bail and was released from the Detention Center. Since I had never been in any sort of trouble before, I never knew what to do or what to expect. My family got me an attorney immediately. While incarcerated I had a friend contact my employer and told her to tell them something, but not of my being arrested, because I was so afraid of losing my job if they found out. My friend left a voice message for my boss explaining that I was involved in a car accident and was hospitalized. I tried to clean up the story with my boss by explaining that it was not me that was in the accident, but that it was a family member rather. I was so embarrassed and was afraid if they'd found out that I would lose my job and so I tried to handle it without them ever finding out that I was arrested when i should have been at work. While I was at the bank and being detained there, I was so concerned about my job and getting back late, so I asked the police officers if I can call my job to let them know that I would not be returning back for the evening. That's when the officer asked where did I worked, so I openly told then who I worked for and not knowing that it would ultimately harm me later. One of the officers said to me that "where she is concerned that I should not be working there, and that it's where I must have gotten the account number from." Several days later, the bank then notified the Vice President of Security and I was called into work while on PTO (paid Time Off/Vacation) to come and talk with the VP of Security and the Sr. VP of Human Resources. When my boss called me to tell me to come in and talk with them, that is when I went apologized and told him what really happened to me on that day I did not return to work.

My attorney advised me not to talk about the case with anyone including my employer. I expressed that to the executive officers of my former company and told them that I did nothing wrong and that I was completely innocent of what their client (the bank) had expressed to them. In closing our talk, they explained that I was being placed under suspension for 2 weeks without pay while they conduct their own internal investigation, at which time, they would notify me. A day after the suspension period I received a letter in the mail stating that I was effectively terminated on the end-date of the suspension, that I posed a risk to the company and the fact that I was not honest with them about the day of my arrest. The letter said noting about my violating company policy. A few days later, I received a package from the HR Generalist, it had my separation notice, stating I was terminated due to my absences on the date of my arrest including a documents regarding their company policy.

I went on to apply for my unemployment claim and was denied benefits. I filed an appeal and my attorney who is handling the criminal case represented me in that matter also. I won the appeal, and per the Unemployment Administrative Hearing Office's final report, my former employer did not provide the burden of proof that I "forged" the check per their client's complaint (the bank). During the appeal hearing, the Sr. VP of Human Resources stated that they terminated my employment because I was absence from work for an entire week which was not true. I was scheduled for PTO (vacation time).

After the appeal hearing, my attorney said that I should immediately file this case with the EEOC, that my Civil Rights were violated by former employer. As of October 25, 2004, I submitted my Request for Notice of Right to Sue. I tried calling my attorney immediately after the submittal but he was constantly in court and did not return my calls. My last visit with him he did express to me that he did not like practicing Employment Law. I needed his help on where to look and how to get help since I am unemployed and did not have the funds. I contacted an associate they were affiliated with Pre-Paid Legal Service. I joined the network, but they referred me to an attorney that wanted $125 for the consultation fee. I had already explained to the Pre-Paid Legal head attorney my financial situation and that I needed a free consultation. I asked that they referred me to someone else and they said they could not refer me to anyone else. I wasted all of November 2004 on this matter with Pre-Paid Legal Service.

I went on to make contact with the Georgia Legal Aid Society and the Georgia Bar Association Pro-Bono Program and they both said they could not help me with my Employment Law issues. During the December month and holiday in the midst, I was lead to contact the Georgia Law Schools, which I contacted and left a voice message for the Dean heading the Pro-Bono Program. She did try to return my call while she was on vacation and left me a message asking that I call her after January 10th when she returned back to school, which I did, but still have not heard from her upon leaving my second message. My time is drawing near and will end as of January 25, 2005, at which point, I will have no other recourse to do anything regarding this situation ever again.

I desperately need help from any attorney that will take my case. I don't have the funds until I can find a job, so I need someone who is willing to take my case on a contingency basis or for a very small or by Pro-Bono. I am a decent person who is not a criminal although I am being charged as one. I've always helped others and I pretty much gave away all that I have to helping others. I am deeply saddened by all of this and I was not looking for trouble when it found me, but nonetheless, I am here now in the lion's den. I don't know what my future will be with all of this hanging over my head. I look back and only wish that the WBE (World Business Exchange) would have told me about these scams that were coming from out of Africa and some of the African citizens of London, England. They later asked me if my trainer and coach had not warned me about doing business with the people of the African continent. I later found out from the WBE that many of their student/members have gotten into trouble as well. Today, I believe that they are now warning their students/members of this. I am asking that someone help me by referring me to an attorney that will take my case, or does anyone have any suggestion for me that will help me.

Thank you!

I've said this before Robin

EVERYONE who sells this crap says it's great.

EVERYONE who bought it says it's useless.

There is no better way to explain it.

My experience

I found PPL useless! They did nothing for us when our house was in foreclosure, except say, the mortgage company did nothing wrong. And that was just after reading one letter from the mortgage company. After, they said, "we're closing your case, unless you think we need to do something else".

I think?? Was I the lawyer?

Useless organization....remember, you get what you pay for. If you really need a lawyer in your corner, get one that's available to you when you need him/her....and that is actually going to do some work for YOU, not them.

Two more cents

Some general comments first. I have engaged in many of these little debates with supporters of various MLMs. I come to each of them with the notion that MLM, or whatever you would like to call it, is a business model built on failure. It provides great success for those at the top, and for the bottom line of the company, at the expense of those at the bottom.

In only one other case, however, was the following observation necessitated: the supporters far outnumber the detractors. When I see a particular report against a prticular company, one of the things I look at in making a final judgment is the sheer volume of the defenders versus the naysayers. Here, as far as the opportunity is concerned, there are few complaints. In fact, I have been virtually alone in a sea of defenders. Compare this to Primerica, IXP.net, Quixtar, etc., where those claiming that the opportunity is rotten far outnumber those who would praise it. Logic tells me that, if a certain "opportunity" systematically victimizes those who take advantage of it, that there will be good chunk of complaints (most people will jump on the opportunity to complain about comething that has done them wrong). In the absence of said complaints my preconceptions must yield, somewhat, to the possibility that this may in fact be a viable opportunity.

I have never been one to stick with an argument that may be flawed. Don't take that as an admission of my own error, however. There are still a number of things that trouble me about PPL. I have repeatedly asked for hard, verifiable evidence supporting the value of the opportunity and have instead been told of a book full of success stories. This is sheer anecdote, not verifiable, and when the math is done, not that impressive even if it were true (800 people breaking the six figure mark in the 30 year history of a nationwide corporation? For a sales force that has had hundreds of thousands of agents, that's not such a great figure).

And I will stick to my guns and advise skepticism of current agents and potential recruits. PPL may be marketing what I consider to be a quality product at a good price, there may be few complainants, but the hallmarks of shoddy MLMs are still present. The "get rich quick" mentality, recruiting by fear (see comments by Jay above, who repeatedly refers to me as a dream stealer, and is convinced that PPL is the sole avenue for success), the mere use of the term "dream stealer" which was contrived by Amway bigwigs to prevent naive reps from listening to the warranted cautions of their loved ones, the indorsement of Robert Kiyosaki, the list goes on.

So then, would I ever jump on this "opportunity?" Actually, I don't think that the ethics of my profession would allow it, and even if they did, I would not. Nonetheless, if you must be an MLMer, you're probably better off in PPL than in most others I have seen, and my mind remains open to the viability of the plan. I still would like to see some hard, verifiable numbers, however.

Next I would like to again some to the defense of the PPL product (yes, it is possible to simaltaneously believe that a company has a solid product and a bad business model, if your reasoning capacities are sound).

An above rebuttal decries te failure of PPL to assist a woman in dire straits. Notice, however, that this woman became a PPL member AFTER her legal troubles had begun. PPL is a business, marketing a type of "legal insurance." As a business, PPL must make good business decisions. To do otherwise would be a violation of duties owed to the shareholders. Covering pre-existing claims would not be a good business decision. The viability, and profitability, of an insurance plan depends on non-use. In other words, harsh as it may seem, an insurance company depends on its services not being utilized by the majority of its policy holders. Its simple business.

At first glance this seems like a moral quagmire, but it really isn't. If you wrecked your uninsured vehicle one day, would you then go to an inurance agency, purchase a policy, and expect that they would cover the existing damage to your vehicle? Nobody would ever think of doing that. Insurance policies cover those matters that arise while the policy is in effect, not pre-existing conditions. As a function of the duty of care owed to shareholders, the law all but expressly prohibits what the above rebuttal is demanding.

If working out is sogreat how come everybody isn't in shape?

If working out is so great,how come everybody isn't in shape? This is a question that a naysayer would ask? answer: Because it's on a volunteer basis. The same with Pre-Paid Legal. Naysayers:If Pre-Paid Legal is so great,how come everybody isn't successful? Answer: because it's on a volunteer basis. I say to all the Naysayers who complain about a start up fee. About spending money running a Business. 1. It's a whopping $249 to start your own Business. Where else in America can you start a Business for $249...($249) Now lets examine the big challenge that the Smart naysayers have pointed out. They complain about the major cost for materials and books or DVD's and loss of joining this terrible MLM. When you sell a PPL membership,you send in $35+ a $10 dollar enrollment fee to the company. The company PPL sends you $103.00 to $252.35 the next day direct deposit into your account.(who's trusting who) And oh ...you can sell as many memberships as you want. Unlimited income potential. (sounds like a good dream to me)Ok if you can't find 2 people that have a Legal situation or want Identity theft protection out of the million+ people in your state.(35million in California) you've got alot of problems. 2. 30 Attorney Generals have the Pre-Paid Legal membership. 3. over 400+ attorneys are now PPL associates on one team alone in California. Several closed their practise to do PPL full time. 4. The owner of PPL spoke at the Whitehouse twice. 5. The owner of PPL spoke at a National Attorney Generals Conference infront of all the Attorney Generals of the United States of America 6.Multi level Marketing has created more millionaires than any other industry. 7.Pre-Paid Legal has no competition 8."The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell 9.Bottled water industry's been around for 100 years 1998 hit 2% 9.July,17th 2000 Business Week came out with their Retirement issue.They said "If you want to retire in the next 20 years there are 9 stocks you might want to consider". Out of 10,000+ publicly Traded Companies Pre-Paid Legal was one of 9 stocks you might want to consider. 10. Standard & Poor said "we can see Legal insurance as a future Standard employee Benefit". 11. March 18th 2002 Investors Business Daily. There are 3 Branches of Government. The Executive Branch - The Legislative Branch and The Judicial Legal Branch. "Pre_Paid Legal is changing the way an entire Branch of Government is accessed". 12. National average from Allstate insurance per month. Fire $93.00 - Health $382.00 - Auto $210.00 - Life $145.00 Who are you going to call if one of the insurance companies doesn't want to pay the amount they were obligated to pay? Right an Attorney... $26 a month PPL membership to make the other policies work. PPL associates we have a purpose....we're giving people access to a system that they are simply frozen out of. We not only get success but we can get significance by providing an opportunity for people to build their dreams and at the same time help those who can not help themselves. When a naysayer helps as many people as this company does,maybe ...and I say maybe listen to them. A wise man said "Never take advice from somebody more screwed up than you". Another wise man said" I'd rather have 1% of 100 peoples efforts rather than 100% of my own. "Think". PPL Associate Jay

PPL and suing your employer

In regards to the lady who was trying to sue her employer, and the feller above who said:

"An above rebuttal decries te failure of PPL to assist a woman in dire straits. Notice, however, that this woman became a PPL member AFTER her legal troubles had begun. PPL is a business, marketing a type of "legal insurance." As a business, PPL must make good business decisions. To do otherwise would be a violation of duties owed to the shareholders. Covering pre-existing claims would not be a good business decision. The viability, and profitability, of an insurance plan depends on non-use. In other words, harsh as it may seem, an insurance company depends on its services not being utilized by the majority of its policy holders. Its simple business."

I submit the following:

PPL actually *does* cover pre-existing conditions in many cases. The only ones I'm not aware of are speeding tickets, divorce/child custody, and, of course, suing other people.

As has been explained already, PPL is a *defensive* plan, meaning that if someone is suing YOU or criminally prosecuting YOU, then you get free coverage in the amount of xxx hours. If you want to sue OTHER parties, PPL will still hook you up with an attorney (theoretically a hand-selected one, though I wonder sometimes), and you will receive a DISCOUNT from his usual rate. This should have been clearly and strongly relayed before our damsel in distress bought her policy, but apparently the Associate wasn't doing his job.

In my "Quick Start" training, I was advised, strongly advised, to "under-promise and over-deliver", meaning that if someone had a borderline or weird situation, I should not tell them that they would have legal representation for free from PPL. The home office would make the determination, and in most cases they would provide free legal defense, even for the weirdos.

As far as what PPL offers and what it provides the Associate, when you sign up with PPL, you get:

1) A free will for yourself.

2) A free will for your spouse.

3) A free living will.

4) A free power of attorney.

5) Free contract and document review. You can fax over any contracts or documents that people (say, cel phone providers or landlords) want you to sign up to a limit of (I think) 11 pages, and PPL lawyers will review them and give you their opinion. I believe this service is unlimited.

6) Unlimited free questions on legal topics (I think the "free" limit is 2 phone calls per related topic). Yeah, I know, most lawyers offer free "initial consulatations", but if you're calling them 3 times a week and it's pretty clear they're not going to make money off of you, they'll stop taking your calls.

7) Free court and prep time representation if you are sued, up to a limit of xxx hours (in my case, about 300 hours--goes up like 25 hours every year).

8) Free court and prep time represenation if you are accused of a criminal offense, up to a limit of xxx hours (I don't know what my hours are up to, as it's more likely that I'll get sued than arrested).

9) Free attorney letters, one per subject. My PPL attorneys will write a threatening letter to anyone of my choosing, but only one letter per dispute unless I want to pay more.

10) Legal Shield. Legal Shield costs $1 extra per month, but I always make my customers take it. If you are pulled over and being interrogated, or are accused of a crime in the middle of the night, you can have a lawyer on the phone within like 10 minutes, no matter what time, day or night. Does not cover DWI or drug-related offenses. Not much use for me, but useful for some of my minority customers (f'r instance, being pulled over by Border Patrol and having to prove they're a citizen or whatever).

11) Speeding tickets and other moving violations. PPL will send a lawyer ANYWHERE in the country, for free, to defend you on a moving violations charge. DWIs are not free, but are covered at a reduced rate. You don't even have to show up in court--your lawyer will appear for you.

12) IRS audit protection--free. If you are audited by the IRS, PPL will send a lawyer to appear at the audit in your behalf, up to a limit of xxx hours.

13) Your whole family is covered under this policy, even kids in college--don't tell me college kids don't get into legal trouble.

Cost: As low as $19 per month, max I think is $26 for a personal (family policy).

So what do I get when I sell a policy? Basically, I get $100 direct-deposited into my bank account within 24-48 hours after the paperwork is received in Ada, OK. You start out at getting $75 per policy, sell 5 and you're up to $100. Sell a few more, and you're at $125. Sell a group policy, and you get $60 per person in that group. So if I sold, say, the City of Minneapolis, I'd get maybe 5,000 employees times $60 = $300,000.

Personally, I hate MLM, and I can't understand why PPL is set up that way. But I recognize money in my pocket. I don't go out of my way to sell policies, as I'm not a pushy guy. But I'd guess I've sold 6 or 7. Given that I signed up as an associate, my out-of-pocket expense was $99, compared to an income of $475-575.

But I haven't tried very hard. I could, very easily, invite a bunch of friends and business associates to a little meeting and sign up 15-20 people for policies in one night. If I sign on others as Associates, I get an *additional* $125.

It's not rocket science. It's a good product at a reasonable price, with no competition.

The Pre-Paid Game

I wanteveryonehereto know the truth aboutpre-paid legal and you are being taken advantage of.

How are you beingtaken advantage. Pre-paid looks for people who are not goingto do any investigation work at all into what they are buying.

All of the following information is from the FTC report that PPL does use themselves. These statements are not debateable they are factual.

Per the report the average person spent only 30 hours taking care of ID Theft. Not the 175 hours quoted on the web site at Pre-paid legal.

67% People who discovered the ID Theft within 5 months have no cost to them at all. the average out-of-pocket expense was %500 and $1200 for those who are New accounts. This is not what the Pre-paid legal website says. It says that thethe cost is highter.

So, my question is this. Why are they pumping up the numbers. I also ask why would anyone pay 26$ a month plus another $9.95 which equals 36$ a month plus another 9.95 for a website that you have no control over so your at 46$ a month x 12 = over $400 a year. For that amount you could save and if you are even the 43% of those who this happens to then you can take care of it at the average $500.00 cost.

I see this whole thing a waste of money. to say the least as I will re-itterate in here Credit card companies will be at work after you report the theft to them. they will be working at finding the criminals along with the FBI and or state police etc. All you have to do is file an affidavit on your credit card(s) and relax. You are not responsible for debt you did not make yourself. If they try to unlegally make you pay you can get a pro-bono lawyer who will sue the company under your name. These lawyers are plentiful since they know they can win against a credit card company.

Point I finally make here is also the likelyhood of being sucessfull as a distributor. I read the quarterly report and seen that if you took all new membership sales then divided them by the total number of associates then you have like .03 associates per person. this means that per the average not one person makes a yearly signup. But what I can tell you is that what is happening is that there is a definae warped sided recuiting here where only a few people are making all the signups. Interesting to me.

What if everybody thought like "Dave" and the naysayers.

Let's "think" people. What if all the great thinkers of the world thought like "know it all Dave"and the rest of the negative naysayers? What if Thomas Edison - Henry Ford - Theodore Roosevelt- Luther Burbank - George Eastman- Charles M. Schwab and Harland Stonecipher thought that it couldn't be done. If they listened to their friends and families and other losers who weren't doing anything with their lives,where would the world be? People like "Dave" and the negative naysayers on this board would never pick up a book like "Think and Grow Rich", "Rich Dad Poor Dad" "Unlimited Power" "I Can" "7 Habits of Highly Successful people" "Your Subconcious Power" - "Awaken the Giant within" " How to win friends and Influence people" "Eat That Frog". Tim complains because we dream. Should we stop dreaming? Should we give up trying because of these "Dream Stealers"? Should we tuck our tails between hour legs and not help people and head back to a desk in the corner at work? Should we return to trading time for dollars? Should we give up our freedom and head back to being bullied by our boss? At a job somebody tells you how much money you can make...when to go to lunch..when you come to work...when you go home ...when you can take a break...Freedom means you have more choices.... This notion of Job security is a joke! If the company you work for is mismanaged or it gets in trouble they just downsize you. (fun huh) Dave and naysayers, "WE DON'T WANT SOMEBODY TELLING US HOW MUCH MONEY WE CAN MAKE! OR WHETHER OR NOT WE HAVE A JOB TOMORROW OR NOT! (see post: 1-13-2005) We're in the information age...The richest people in the world build Networks! Television Network - Telephone Network - A Network of service stations. The rich Build Networks...everybody else looks for work. Naysayers don't understand that a Business is an asset."If you're not leveraging somebody, Somebody is leveraging you". None of you geniuses have explained the failier rate of starting a traditional Business (95% of Businesses fail in the first 3 years). Shouild all small Businesses stop trying? "Think"

You can't handle the facts

Jay,
It appears to me that you can not handle the facts that I have quoted for you from the SEC filings. These are not my words but the words from the company you represent and defend. It isa pitty that you put down your own company. You write in complete oxymoronic statements. I am not a know it all. But I am a person who can read the facts of SEC filiings and also FTC reports that your company refers to. I am sorry that you can not read these items and make any realizations. All I am doing is stating factoid statemensts.

Jay I challenge you to show me where the hours and out-of-pocket numbers on the Pre-paid legal site come from. Certainly they are not from the FTC report that they quote from in the video about the product. To me that is misleading. I feel that the correct info needs to be put out instead of hyped up numbers that areway out of line so that you can make someone feel as though they need the Identity theft Shield Product.

So, I will look for your next post with the rebuttal about the numbers. Since I am quoting from the same text your company does.

I qoute from another associate "Ignorance is Bliss" this is the from an associate with the same mentality as you have.

Naysayers serve a purpose

What if there were no naysayers? We all would have gone along with Naziism, Communism, Slavery, Segregation, etc. Jay is using an ad hominem attack and attacking the messengers since he knows the facts support the nay sayers. There's nothing wrong with saying NAY to something that's a sham. Just because you oppose some mickey mouse product doesn't mean you oppose every bit of progress that exists. If you really need Legal Services heck out Hyatt and ARAG Direct's plans. You get the same or more for your money and you don't have to go through a brainwashed MLM cult to the plans that are available.

It's A CHOICE...!!

It is a CHOICE to purchase the PPL Membership and/or Identity Theft Shield. So, be that as it may, I would like to know whether or not, the "Daves" and "Jamals" have protected themselves and their families with another form of legal/identity theft protection? If, so what is it?

Hint: if you REALLY believe your bank and/or credit union is going to help YOU with YOUR identity theft problem, you're WRONG..!! Ever use Goggle? Try doing a search for identity theft and see how many articles destroy the ridiculous garbarge being spouted here. Check what the FTC says about Identity Theft!!

Jamal says that with Hyatt and ARAG Direct plans, "you get the same or more for your money". What he fails to say is that he HAS one of these plans in place. He starts off by saying "if you really need legal services." My question to him is, when is THAT??? It's better to have the services and not need them than to need them and not have them...WHEN a problem occurs...!! It's isn't IF but WHEN a problem occurs...!!

Also, do those other services (ARAG and HYATT) use AV-rated attorneys? Do YOU even know what an AV-rated attorney is?? Is it a closed-panel or open-panel network that these other companies are using? Do those plans provide nationwide AND Canadian coverage?? Is there UNLIMITED telephone calls and document reviews and UNLIMITED letters written on your behalf? Do they provide a WILL and updates at no additional cost? Do YOU have YOUR Will done?

Is there a waiting period with those other companies such as 6 months BEFORE someone can access the service and/or do they lock you into a two-year contract?? Better check that out...!!

Pre-Paid Legal's memberships are activated the same day with only the Motor Vehicle section requiring a 15-day waiting period and the membership is MONTH-to-MONTH...!! Gee...I guess you "experts" forgot to mention that..!!

Does the majority of you "experts" on this message board have some form of medical, automobile, and home-owners insurance? Why do you have that, hopefully it's not because its the law..??

Again, having the PPL Membership as well as the Identity Theft Shield is being PROACTIVE...!! See, when a legal and/or identity theft problem happens, I have the piece of mind of knowing, I put these plans in place regardless of what other people think or do. In most cases, other people DON'T DO ANYTHING or try and handle it themselves.

As for the Business Opportunity, Dave, Jamal, DON'T DO IT!! No one is going to beg you nor convince you of anything otherwise and that's because we don't have to..!! If you enjoy what you are doing and love working for someone else so that THEY can leverage your time and efforts, then that's great!! Keep doing it, they'll be living their dreams soon if they aren't already!! They appreciate you!! Either get a leveraged income or BE leveraged..!! It's THAT simple..!!

Here are some important facts for you "experts" on this message board:

"The Company's total active membership premium in force increased approximately 7% during 2004 and represents the 12th consecutive year of increasing its membership base and membership fees. Additionally, the membership persistency rate (defined as the number of memberships in force at the end of a 12 month period as a percentage of the total of memberships in force at the beginning of such period, plus new memberships sold during such period) has increased for six consecutive quarters from 67.6% as of June 30, 2003 to 71.0% for the latest 12 month period ended December 31, 2004."

"12 consecutive years of increasing membership revenue! Not bad at all. 6 consecutive quarters of increasing persistancy up to 71%."

BAD NEWS FOR "EXPERTS"

There was no mass run by longs (long-term investors) to close out shares after membership announcement=

1) Share price will remain high and probably will go higher = Some nice interest payments to make

2) 50 cent dividend is coming due 1/14/05 (got mine!!)

3) PPD cash flow should be good for qtr = expect another nice qtrly dividend soon

4) New law makes it tougher to short shares = SEC is watching you

5) PPD's victory on counter claim, with backing of Chamber of Commerce, may be announced soon

6) It doesn't appear that any lawsuit cases against PPD will come into play in the near future

7) And finally= PPD CASH FLOW, PPD CASH FLOW, PPD CASH FLOW


12/31/03 total active members were 1,418,997

12/31/04 total active members were 1,451,700

Almost a 33,000 membership INCREASE

"EXPERTS" WANT YOU TO BELIEVE PPD IS NOT GROWING!!

Sure the active legal service membership base only grew by about 10 thousand members in the year 2004!!

NOTE- "EXPERTS" would like you to believe that everybody that quit this year just signed up but every business especially sales organizations run into time periods where they are losing business from some customers while gaining business from other customers.

HOWEVER, "EXPERTS" don't want to talk about the fact that Prepaid Legal has added a whole new service since 10/1/03 which has had phenomenal growth. That date was the first date that anyone could sell the new Theft ID add on or stand alone product. Kroll has to be ecstatic with the growth that Prepaid Legal has provided them with. At 12/31/04 there were-

283,889 Active "add on" IDT memberships

26,993 Active "stand-alone" IDT memberships

ALL ADDED WITHIN THE LAST 15 MONTHS

Let's look at what this alone adds to annual revenues-

283,889 X $9.95 monthly fee X 12 months = $33,896,346 in annual revenue

26,993 X $12.95 monthly fee X 12 months = $4,194,712 in annual revenue

OVER $38 MILLION in revenue growth just from adding one additional product.

Since commissions are paid up front, this has to have made a lot of the PRODUCTIVE sales associates very happy but has had the effect of actually reducing 2003 & 2004 net income as well as cash flow.

Company Overview:
*1.4 million ACTIVE members
*Audited by Grant Thornton
*51.8 percent - Year 1 Retention rate for ALL members.
*60.0 percent - Members used their service.
*80.0 percent - Free Will workbook completion.
*12 Years of continued growth in membership fees.
*12 Years of continued growth in active membership base.
*$119 million in gross revenue in 1997
*$160 million in gross revenue in 1998
*$196 million in gross revenue in 1999
*$255 million in gross revenue in 2000
*$303 million in gross revenue in 2001
*$350 million in gross revenue in 2002
*$360 million in gross revenue in 2003

Maybe Thomas Edison says it best - "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like WORK."

Remember it's a choice to have Pre-Paid Legal, Kroll Worldwide and about 2,700 attorneys nationwide in your back pocket!! I'm always reminded of that when I go to the courthouse and see the long line of "experts" paying traffic tickets. Yep, it's better to plead guilty and acknowledge those points on insurance and of course the increased rates. Yes, THAT is a much better option.

People that SEE the need for this membership and/or business opportunity are generally those that are trying to go places, like UP in their lives AND generally those that don't see the need for this membership and/or business opportunity are going nowhere but DOWN in life....or are comfortable at where they and their 5 friends are in life......

BROKE!!

More Nonsense Comparisons

Here I will go over a nonsense claim that Pre-Paid is doing. The comparison of the legal plan vs. my car or medical insurance.

lets look at what you pay
Car insurance: Cost of car insurance varies but for being in a state where you have no fault and you are a good driver no points for 2 cars newer ones in Detroit area it costs about 2,400 a year or less if you shop for it. this is about $200 a month. So, do you need an attorney most of the time no. I just had a accident with someone that pulled out infront of us and we hit them on the side thier fault. Though we needed to get the deductable from the other side. We did a mini tort with the other insurance company and got paid. There were no out of pocket expenses over my monthly cost.

Medical insurance; I work for an employer but I am in a union. We pay nothing for medical cost. I get drugs at 10$ a prescription and most everything I need is free with a cheep 10-25 co-pay. Nothing expensive at all.

Pre-paid; 26 a month covers very little for free andmost at 25% off an attorneys non-regulated non-contractual hourly wage. So could be like 250 an hour -25% is 200 an hour. So what! If you are going to court and you are poor like the video says your bill will still be high.

So, what is this evening out the legal system making it affordable to all with a 26$ an month plan so everyone can get legal help. This is rather a false hope to make people think they are getting some free services. What is not covered for free is Criminal, Family, bankruptcy law. What is free is Civil suits that you are being sue by someone else. Hmmmm, a civil suit. Most of them you are a self defendant in small claims. Would you win with a lawyer? Maybe, maybe not. But I have never been sued by someone else in a civil suit. So, unless you are a trouble maker where you caused grief to someone else then a civil suit would be not needed. So where does this woolly bully start. I know now.

Stonecipher, He was sued in a civil case over his car accident. Well lets see. If you are being sued over your car accident there are attorneys the insurance company has. But what if it was over the amount insurance covers then. then you will go to court over that.

Other exagerations
1. I need to pay $26.00 to talk to an attorney?
2. They only review for free 1 document a year.
what could you have more than that unless you are a buisness.
3. two letters sent for free. You can write your own letter. Letters from lawyers me only one thing to the other side. We will Sue. That means you will need money. Why Sue because letters sometimes don't get you to get the actions of others to change until they are sued.

In final thought. Is it worth $26.00 a month. No. why becuase you get not much that a regular person can't get for free. Plus in comparison to other insurances with pre-paid you will have large costs for uncovered things unlike medical ins where most everything is covered. You might say well, you get your traffic offenses a lawyer shows up for you. Let me ask you. If you are speeding and get caught pay the fine. live up to your getting caught. Don't sham the system. What you are doing is saying I can commit a offense against a law and never worry about it I have a lawyer. To me that is not a great person.

$26.00 a month for talking?

One last comment then I will stand by for rebuttals.

They are saying "Equal Justice for all" Thecompany says that for equal access to happen the cost has to be lower so that people can afford the attorneys and that most people can not afford to even talk to them. Saying that attorneys charge for consultations.

I personally know that if you used the phone book you can find in your local area about 12 layers that will give you a free consultation face to face to talk to you about your situation before you retain them. This is done so the attorney can review your information to see if he/she wants to represent you and or also if you want them representing you. There is NO charge at that time. The movie on the web site is stating that most people never even visit an attorney because of the cost. Does that mean the cost of the consultation? No, it means that the costan hour of the services. I will state again that $200.00 is alot of money. That is about the 25% discount for cases that most of us will have since Pre-paid only gets you a 25% discount for the most typical cases Family law, bankruptcy and Crimnial cases and also Sueing others.

So the high cost of a retainer and hourly rates is still there plus the costof $26.00 a month. Is this really evening out the ability of a richer person to get an attorney vs. a person with no money up front? NO. I suppose that is why there are Pro-Bono and other lawyers who like helping out financially strapped people.

What this whole Pre-Paid is about is getting you to pay $26.00 a month for services that you might not need. like Reviewing Documents. like have you ever did a home mortage. I paid attention and did not pay for hidden cost. That is why they have the "Truth in lending act form".

Thing is here Pre-paid takes advantage of the people who never seem to research or comprehend reallity. This proves itself true but the associates who seem to never have any common sense of reallity. They make statesments without thinking them out and call others names like a know it all or ignorant person etc. Well you know I am certain that you can fool some of the poeple some all of the time but I am not being fooled here. I will defendmy stance to openly show how this company works so people are not wasting money.

OH My....

Alright, I have read through the majority of the comments on this mesage board and thought I would impart some knowledge of the company itself, the associates involved with Preaid Legal and the comsumers paying for the company's services. There has been much talk on this page about the pros and cons of being an associate and of being a customer, perhaps I can clearify some of the misconceptions I've noticed.

1. To the former associates who feel as though they have been taken and wronged -- It is each individual's responsibity to ensure their own success in the business market. If a business is failing then it must be evaluated, the problem recognized and through whatever means rectified. As an independant associate you are the founder, CEO, and President of your own company and therefore the responsibility for making changes to adapt to your marketplace falls to you, not the coorperation under which you write business.
--- On a side note - perhaps the people who sponsered you into this business did wrong you, but again that situation needs to be corrected by them, not the company for which they are a subsidary. I am sorry for you pains, but i'm sure that in the long run with that type of business philosophy they will soon fail.

2. To the former Prepaid Legal members who feel the services they recieved were in contradiction to what the company originally told them were available -- The company does what it says. If someone approaches you with a product will you buy it without seeing it? That is exactly what it sounds like you have done. The services that will be rendered to you as a member of Prepaid Legal are clearly laid out in several different forms of documentation as well as media tools from the company. You will recieve unlimited phone consultation on any number of matters. If you want to call your attorney to ask them how the weather is you may do so. Unlimited means just that. You will have the availability of contract and document review on an unlimited number of subject up to ten pages per document. The number of documents you can have reviewed is also unlimited. You may also have 1 business document reviewed each year. The attorneys will write letters and make phone calls on your behalf if they see that a letter or phone call will rectify the situation(2 business letter or calls per year). A will is prepared and updated annually for you and your spouse at no additional cost, and $20 for every additional family member covered by the plan. A Living will is also provided with durable power of attorney. You recieve motor vehicle services for moving traffic violations not involving drugs or alcohol(i.e. this portion covers traffic tickets not stupidity). You will also be covered for certain motor vehicle criminal charges in case the worst should happen in an accident and someone die, you will be protected in the event of a law suit or charges of negligent homicide, vehicular homicide, involuntary manslaughter, of manslaughter. Should you be name respondant or defendant in a covered civil suit or job related criminal charges you will recieve a preset number of hours to work with an attorney prior to court and in court proceedings. There is no mention of classification between out of court hours and in court hours only the hours available to you prior to the trial commenses. IRS audit legal services will be accessible if you recieve notice of a personal audit. This does not apply to business taxes as that would be covered under on of our business plans. For everything not covered so far Prepaid legal also offeres a 25% discount on the hourly rate of your provider law firm. The reasoning for this is simple this coverage is meant to protect people when bad things happen, not help criminals get off the hook.

3. To those who mentioned fine print in their agreement -- I am truley sorry that you fell into a conversation with someone who would fraudulantly represent their company. There is, however, nothing hidden from the consumer where the services offered by Prepaid Legal are concerned. You simply had a bad experience with a liar. Please refer to a different associate, or the company policies for a complete overveiw of the services offered and their costs. You may also contact the coorperate headquaters at 1-800-654-7757in order to address any questions or concerns you may have and speak with a customer care consultant.

4. To Those who claim Prepaid Legal is a Pyramid Scheme -- I feel for you becuase you are clearly undereducated in common business models. Throughout any industry in the world there are different levels at which employees or associates perform their duties and they are compensated in accordance with their level of achievement. Yes we do follow the MLM/network marketing business model, no Prepaid Legal is not a Pyramid Scheme. Recruiting helps to spread the word and open the market for the services, it works by using networks or circles of people to find new clients. No not everyone needs to be an associate and if everyone were then there would be no opportunity for anyone. But you can move up through the ranks of the company's compensation plan without having ever recruited a single person, and you can still make a considerable income in that manner. You may also surpass the associate who sponsered you into the company and that associate's overrides are immediately cut off.

5. To those who are upset that Prepaid Legal does not cover the most common legal situations(i.e. DUI, DWI, Divorce, Bankruptcy, Domestic dispute, assault, Drugs, ect.) completely -- Again Prepaid Legal was not set up as a way for criminals to recieve top level representation for a low monthly cost. The fact is there are more divorces going on now than ever before, drugs are out of control, drunk drivers kill people, bakruptcy has become an excuse for people to spend more than they could ever make and suffer no repricutions for it. These areas are not covered because they feed off of the destruction of unsuspecting people and the country as a whole. Find some values please. If you are a criminal hoping for an easy way out I suggest you find a new lifestyle because the easy way out is not there!

6. To those complaining about law suits not being covered fully -- I PITY YOU! The legal feild in America is shattered! People litterally walk through stores hoping shelves will fall on them so that they can sue. There was a study done a while ago stating the top 10 ways for Americans to get rich some of the results are as follows:
1. Sue Someone
2. Hit The Lottery
8. WORK HARD

Again get some values! If all you want this service for is to save money when you sue someone, I had rather you not have this membership because you would only disgrace the company, and I definantly would not have you on my sales team! Outside of that most attorneys charge a percentage of the frinal settlement on lawsuits anyway, and you don't have to pay them if you don't win.

7. To those who think identity theft relates to Credit cards -- This is not entirely true. In fact by definition indentity theft relating through finances is actually considered fraud, not identity theft. It is covered under our ID Theft plan but realize that it only makes up about 26% of all identity theft.

8. To those who think Identity Theft is not a viable threat -- Recently a women was admitted to a hospital for massive trauma and was given a blood transfusion, unbeknownst to her, her family our the doctors, she had had her medical identity stolen. The person who stole her identity had blood testss ran and had a different blood type. This resulted in her recieveing the wrong blood type in the transfusion and she died as a result. Tell her identity theft is not serious. Ask citibank, or your homeowners insurance what they will do in that case.

9. To those who say "my Credit is already bad, I don't need protection" -- I only have one thing to say to you... It can get ALOT WORSE!

10. Pertaining to the stock market -- No, stocks do not tell the story of how sound a comany is and i cite the case of Enron as a perfect example of this. Generally the net value of the stock for a publically traded company amounts to about 3 times the net worth of the company itself. The fact that the company is publically traded, however, does means that the company is regulated and monitered by government agencies. Stocks do not tell the story of Prepaid Legal, The success the individuals have had in Prepaid Legal DOES! Those who have had their legal rights enforced, those who have avoided financial ruin by marketing a membership tell the story! Does the company that you work for boast the claim that over 250 people in that particular company make $100,000 a year or more?

11. Pertaining to those who claim they were not compensated for membership that they marketed -- Did you contact the company? The people working in the financial and marketing department are just that - people - and are therefore subject to the same downfalls as the rest of us. They make mistakes. Did you keep your reciepts to prove that you did infact market these services? Again failure or success is the responsibility of the individual.

12. To those that blame the company because they were unable to make money -- Step up and own the responsibility for your lack of work. If you were at one time an associate you are then over 18 years of age. You are a grown person. Own up to your downfalls, and accept the fact that it was your fault alone. To place blame on a different entity for you shortcomings is to empower that entity, and undermine yourself.

This post is long enough in my opinion or i would carry on, but if you have any concern or questions that were not addressed feel free to contact me at jeremyd_33@prepaidlegal.com I would be glad to address these matters. If I cannot fully explain the situation and offer some type of answer via e-mail I will then give you my personal contact number and speak with you personally over the phone. I will not shrink down from any questions you raise about my company! You may attack me for what I have said, and you may continue to attack my company, and, in fact I'm sure there will always be someone who just can't accept blame, and must point fingers and naysay, and express ignorant opinion without the proper information, but this is their right, and I would not strip them of this right. I will, however, Dispute any negative comments about my company until I have drawn my last breath!

Here's to your succes, and I'll see you at the top!

Jeremy

There is a Not a huge need for the Pre-Paid Legal membership and the Identity Theft Shield...!!

I am not an expert in Pyramid Schemes. What I do know is factual and put out in the Companies Financial reports to the SEC.

Pre-paid legal heavily relies on its marketing force for income from becomming an associate and also selling training materials. without this income they would be at a great loss, probably go bankrupt.

I am not a MLM person. I know that some people own buisness who are resellers of products or disrubutors of products. But, what you make money on here is signing people up to be associates and also sell memberships to legal discount/coverages that are almost meaningless.

I say meaning less because they do not cover the usual type of trouble a person has like family matters etc. You can never sue anyone they have to sue you first to use the 100% covered benifit. So what you are only getting is 25% off of some lawyer. You never choose an attorney you have to use their attorney. What if you dislike that one. Then you are stuck.

Identity theft shield. As if they are protecting you, shielding you from something happening. Not one person can stop 100% Identity theft from occuring all you can due is monitor your bills and credit reports. This is already available from the 3 credit agencies themselves. There is also fraud alert you can put oon your credit file for free yourself.

So lets say you have a Identity theft happen do I need the PPL lawyers and the service. No! you call the police and file a report. Call all your credit cards, and also let the FTC know in a report online that takes like 10 mins. You are not responsible for money charged up on the cards. The credit cards, banks etc. all have their own attorneys working for them to catch the thief. This is Fraud on them also not just you. So, as you think you are alone a victim the victim is also your credit accounts.

You may say what if someone is using my name to commit a crime. The police should protect you and if they don't there are plenty of FREE lawyers who will sue the City for arresting you without doing their homework.

With this all said. Is this worth 26 or more a month. No. Go pay your credit cards off.

Re: Unlike other pyramid schemes you are actually marketing a good product that is a good value.

Tim, first and foremost, the Pre-Paid Legal Business Opportunity is NOT a pyramid scheme. I would suggest finding out what is the difference between a pyramid scheme and a legitimate network marketing opportunity. Pre-Paid Legal is a legitimate network marketing opportunity, regardless of what ANYONE theorizes, analyzes or feels...!!

Those court cases in my previous post illustrate that as well as the simple fact that pyramid schemes generally DON'T win court cases and then stay in business afterwards. Also, Pre-Paid Legal (as stated previously) works with about 2600 lawyers and law firms nationwide and in Canada. Pyramid schemes also DON'T garner the support of the National Chamber Litigation Center, the public policy legal arm of the United States Chamber of Commerce, and the National Black Chamber of Commerce in seeking attorney's fees and expenses after court cases either. Also, there are many lawyers who are Pre-Paid Legal Associates as well...!!

I've found that most people simply don't know the difference between the two and will throw up their "pyramid scheme" force-field when presented an opportunity as a means of defense. Most simply have low regard for salespeople and don't want to become one because they feel they "can't sell anyting." They don't realize that they have to sell THEMSELVES in just about anything in life! I didn't think I could sell anything either 3 years ago, but that didn't stop me from HAVING to do it for someone else on a job that I hated. I also didn't totally believe in the product, nor own it, nor use it (except on the job), nor did I profit from selling it either. Now I totally, 100 percent believe in this product and I own it and have used it and I profit from sharing it with others something I didn't do at my previous job. There is a HUGE need for the Pre-Paid Legal membership and the Identity Theft Shield...!!

If you SERIOUSLY want to KNOW what the company is all about, why not go to the corporate website and/or email an Associate and FIND OUT instead of posting on a message board?

Simply put, there are MANY millionaires in this company and there will be many many more to come. I intend to be one of them. This company made $119 million in 1997, $160 million in 1998, $196 million in 1999, $255 million in 2000, $303 million in 2001, $350 million in 2002 and $361 million in 2003 in gross revenues without needing just about everyone on this message board.

So if ANYONE has to honestly THINK about becoming a part of this company then it is NOT for them. There is no other company with our compensation plan, paying out as much as this company. If ANYONE has to THINK about getting involved for as low as the initial investment fee is (and its an investment in themselves AND their business) then they'll have to THINK about doing some WORK towards THEIR business and then they'll be focusing on the people who failed and they'll become one of them!!

Tim, the business model you have for yourself is great (for you). Stick with it and much success to you and yours in the years to come!

This business opportunity is for everyone but not for everyone. We only want people who are SERIOUSLY wanting to make a change in their lives and their families for the better and who are tired of being sick and tired. We also want people who are willing to help, teach and encourage others to do the same thing.

We are NOT trying to convince anyone nor are we begging anyone to get involved with us....at all!!

The bottom line is when and if you ever help over 50 people become Millionaires then you can "Dream Steal" and offer your negative opinion.

Tim Valaparaiso a.k.a "Dream Stealer" I was right. You haven't done anything that is as great as a Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. Ok you've overcome some mental challenges that could have been avoided if you stayed away from drugs. It was your choice. Did you help anybody? No...It was all about yourself wasn't it? To say we have a great product and turn around and bash the Business model doesn't make a bit of sense does it?. The Business wouldn't work if they weren't both great together. Do you think a great pioneer in the Legal industry like Harland Stonecipher would create a Business plan that doesn't help people when the only way the product will survive is by the Sales force? It doesn't make any sense does it? The bottom line is when and if you ever help over 50 people become Millionaires then you can "Dream Steal" and offer your negative opinion. Tim you compare us to a Mcdonalds employee's that cap out at 8 or 9 bucks an hour? That's a joke. Our income potential is unlimited!! There is no cap. Which makes it a better opportunity than even being a Lawyer who has to spend 12+ hours a day for $60,000 a year. After Taxes $3,500 a month with no Free time. The problem I see with you Tim is that New people who are just now trying to see if they could have some hope for a change in their life may listen to your negativity and therefore close their eyes to posabilities of succeeding and changing the quality of their lives. Thus you become a "dream stealer"! You stole their Dreams without anything that you can offer them to replace what you stole. Not a thing. Do you have unlimited income potemtial as an Attorney? You don't do you? Your income is based on how many poor souls can fork out $200 to $400 an hour and that''s the exact reason why Pre-Paid Legal services Inc. was formed. " To help people". Proof: Have an associate with Pre-Paid Legal give you a Profiles of Success Book. It's a Phone book size book with over800+ people earning between $100,000 & $3,000,000 a year. I think that's proof.

Calm down Jay. Unlike other pyramid schemes you are actually marketing a good product that is a good value.

Jay, you've fallen prey to the very reasoning that troubles me so much about the defenses of PPL.

First of all, what I have done with my life is completely irrelevant, but as you are curious about my "business model," here it is: 1) Start out a homeless drug addict at the age of 19; 2) Get a string of crappy jobs; 3) Have a few (3) unplanned children; 4) Realize that you can't raise three kids on a waiter's income; 5) Work full time to get an education while raising three kids; 6) Graduate in four years with a dual cum laude BA; 7) Get a full tuition scholarship to the top-ranked regional law school in the Midwest; 8) Bust your way into the top 10% of your class, make Law Review; 9) Get an offer with most established law firm in Northwest Indiana.

OK, so it's a bit more complicated than your business model, and I'll probably never make it into Forbes, but chances are pretty good that I'll have a million dollars some day. Needless to say, I have a great deal of faith in my plan.

And now let me reiterate my position on PPL. Product: good, as long as the providers keep up their end of the deal; Opportunity: not quite sure, it's basically a pyramid scheme, which have enormous failure rates, but I haven't seen any raw data to suggest either way.

Calling me a "dream stealer" puts me on notice that you have closed your mind to critical thinking. Is your doctor a "dream stealer" when he tells you that you may have a disease? Is your accountant a "dream stealer" when he tells you that you can't deduct all that stuff you thought you could? All I'm trying to do here is open your eyes. If the only defense you can give to my comments is to ignore them by calling me a "dream stealer" then you need to take a long hard look at the people who told you to close your eyes.

Sure, I'll never make it into Forbes. But neither will you. Your company may, but what does that say about the viability of your commissioned position within that company? Nothing! How many times has McDonald's been in Forbes? Did they get in there because their employees are all millionaires?

If PPL has created some millionaires then I say great. The question you must ask, however, is not how many millionaires have there been, but what proportion of the sales force actually makes a viable income. I have asked that question a few times and have yet to be given anything but anecdotal responses.

Again, my mind is not made up per PPL. Unlike other pyramid schemes you are actually marketing a good product that is a good value. Also, most of the defenders have acted in a professional manner not normally found among pyramid scheme promoters (kudos to those of you). However, the fact remains that PPL is a MLM, and that MLMs have enormous failure rates, with most people actually losing money (i.e. spending more on start-up fees and motivational materials than they will ever earn).

Jay, be a "dream defender" and show me that my preconceptions are wrong. Give me some hard, verifiable data that tells me people aren't wasting their time (or worse, money) with PPL.

I am not trying to steal your dreams. I do what I do because I hate to see people being used as unpaid marketing devices and receptacles for bogus motivational materials. Unfortunately some dreams don't come true.

A little less rebuttling and Tim and Jay could be spending more time making money!

I stopped by tonight to check out RoR view of PPL.

I have recently been offered an opportunity.
I am not new to Network Marketing or MLM. Been there done that and never spent more than I could afford. Never made much either.
One thing I will say is this, all the tongue lashing going on in here has not helped me make a decision at all. I feel I know a little more about the company and feel a less naive about it all. However I also see something going on here. Jay and Tim - I think you both spend way too much time in RoR trying to convince who knows who about who knows what! State what facts there are to be stated and GIVE IT UP!
Jay it's awesome that you have so much confidence in PPL, but think of the energy you are wasting arguing with Tim, you could be using it make a sale!

Tim - It's pretty obvious you like to argue as well. What exactly is your argument?
Are you or are you not for PPL? If you are good go make some sales focus on making money and you may actually do it, if not move on and forget about it !

As for anyone else (that means not JAY OR TIM )
if you can say anything to help me make up my mind to join or not to join , please do.

I do understand the amount of work and money you must invest in this type of work. I am more than willing to do this. I just want to know, if you are willing to work will you make money?
The area I live in is very limited in work unless you are satisfied with evenings at McD's and with children to raise that just is not acceptable to me, so would I be wrong to at least give this a shot.

Sincerely,
Jennifer

P.S. Thanks for the hours of reading material Jay and Tim.

Once again I am still being rip off by Pre- Paid illegal!!!

Here we go again... I have writing Pre-Paid for almost 3 months trying to cancel the service but they still steal money off my account. I will close the account to stop this maddness and I will continue to expose Pre Paid for the Scam it is.

If Pre paid is doing so well the why steal money from my account each month? Why steal money for my other members who quit the services? Who can challege me on this?

I am been an assoicate with this fake company for over two years and now that I want to leave it alone they resort to stealing from my account. Thanks Pre-Paid Legal (I mean Illegal). They even have the nerve to charge me for the web service I can no longer use.

To hell with this fake company, I regret EVER doing business with them. I will tell each and every person I know about the and the dirt that they do not what people to know about them. Every month they steal from me I will post another story about the shady pratices.

So here's my first story... I signed up a member in california with a ID Theft Shield and Expanded Family Plan. She signed up on my web site but she accidently pressed the Business plan while signing up. Simple mistake right... How about a lady at the home office stole my sale because I was did not have my buisness plan license at the time.

I did not even know that home office employees can be assoicates, but I found out the hard way. Even after I complained I only got credit for the ID theft membership. I should have follow my first mind and walked away then.

Pre Paid is a company that is so deperate to stay afloat that they will steal money off your account. Think I am lying... quit the membership and see what happens... EVERY month I will post more stories until they quit stealing from me. Selling a fake dream and stealing money from members right? What a waste of 6,000+ dollars!!!

Prepaid legal-you get what you put in

I too tried to make a go of Prepaid Legal. I was told that I could make a decent part-time income with little effort. It is not true. I went to many meetings, special trainging, and spent about $500.00 on promotional items.

It did not work for me. However, I did "break-even" on my "investment" due to the 1/2 dozen memberships I sold. I still have the product. It does what it is suppose to do. The "turn and burn" mentality is very applicable to this company. (as evidenced by the ebb and flow of the stock price).

Even with all that against it, you can "make it work" but much time and money needs to be spent.

The 2003 Annual report numbers

According to the 2003 Annual reportwhich is on Yahoo.com the retention rate is 49% for members the first year meaning if you are an associate 1/2 of your recuits will quit for the average associate. this might not be you but this is the statistics.

Again more falsehoods

As you know posting happens midnightish Pacific so when I post I have to wait 24 hours to see a rebuttal. So I wrote just about the claim that they are comparing medical insurance to PPD. There is no comparison.

To answer the associate Lajon:

I suppose that Lajon has never had anyone fraudently use his credit card. I suppose those fraudulent chargesare just written off and the criminals that frauded you and the credit card companies, Banks, DMV's etc. are not going to ever be chased. A line that associates use is that the police have no time. But I know for a fact that I have had someone use my card fraudulently which is a ID theft. There was no out of pocket expense and my banks fraud department gave me back my money after I signed an affidavit and they went investigating.

What these so salesmen and women want you to think is that nobody but them are going take care of you. But I would remind them that the money charged up on your credit report/card is not yours but credit card or bank "X"'s. That is a federal crime. Also after you report the incident you are not responsible for the amount and in most cases a new account number with your old balance will be made.

The Identity theft shield plan is not Proactive. Proactive means that you are doing something now all the time. Also this plan will not stop the theft. See what you are paying for is a service of Kroll to help you not spend time on your ownbut instead you sign a power of attorney to them to act in your case to sign on your behalfand file paperwork such as affidavits and do name searches in the database for duplicate names. Even though to me that is a waste since there could be many people with your same name out there ligitamately living.

You get credit monitoring. "Monitoring" is waiting for something to occur or watching. then when something occurs the time it takes you to find out is less and less damage is done. This is like a security guard who can not arrest you but call the police.

My question next is about memberships. The number of memberships is not growing at all in reality.

" For the year 2004, new sales associates enrolled remained consistent at 107,552 compared to 108,557 enrolled during 2003 "-(This means that that there are less associates this last year)
" new memberships produced decreased 7% to 624,525 from 671,857" -(These numbers also account for IDT only members so as we see there is a downslope now.)

Here is some inflated numbers...

"The Company's active memberships increased 2% during 2004 from 1,418,997 to 1,451,700."- (in reallity there were only 1,424,707 but the company adds IDT stand alone actives to this to make it the larger number.)

Here is the kicker. Which Lajon and Jay must have skipped out on math class.

I have in 2003 ending 1,414,746 active members. I sign up 624,525 + 2,039,271. But the 2004 end total active members is 1,451,700 total. What happened to 587,571 memberships? Did they quit? that is like 25% of the whole people or what would be the amount almost of for every one person you sign up almost one person quits before the end of the year. Yet you call this growth?

You compare the falsehoods made

This is the link to the following; http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050104/datu043_1.html

"Pre-Paid Announces 4th Quarter & Year-End Membership and Recruiting Results
Tuesday January 4, 5:11 pm ET
4th Quarter Membership Sales Up 2%; 4th Quarter Sales Associates Recruited Up 26%; 2004 Active Memberships Up 2%

ADA, Okla., Jan. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. (NYSE: PPD - News): today reported new memberships produced and new sales associates enrolled for the fourth quarter and for the year ended December 31, 2004. During the 4th quarter of 2004, new sales associates enrolled increased 26% to 41,829 from the 33,068 enrolled in the 4th quarter of 2003 and new memberships produced increased 2% to 156,896 from 153,501. For the year 2004, new sales associates enrolled remained consistent at 107,552 compared to 108,557 enrolled during 2003 while new memberships produced decreased 7% to 624,525 from 671,857. The Company's active memberships increased 2% during 2004 from 1,418,997 to 1,451,700. From the 3rd quarter of 2004 to the 4th quarter of 2004, the Company's active memberships increased by 7,954 memberships.

Now read lajons:

"The Company's total active membership premium in force increased approximately 7% during 2004 and represents the 12th consecutive year of increasing its membership base and membership fees. Additionally, the membership persistency rate (defined as the number of memberships in force at the end of a 12 month period as a percentage of the total of memberships in force at the beginning of such period, plus new memberships sold during such period) has increased for six consecutive quarters from 67.6% as of June 30, 2003 to 71.0% for the latest 12 month period ended December 31, 2004."

Lajon do you read the news? Common man get with it. get your statistics right.

Pre-Paid Legal vs. the Truth

Lajon, you need some serious schooling.

1- You're right, having Pre-Paid is a choice. And for 33 years now, America has overwhelmingly chosen to deem it as unworthy of their money, whether they never bought it, or bought then cancelled as pretty much everyone who buys the membership does.

2-It's Google, not Goggle.

3-You associates continue to hide behind IDT. Identity Theft is underwritten by Kroll and can be purchased without purchasing Pre-Paid Legal membership. Kroll simply realized that Pre-Paid Legal has a huge body of associates marketing a worthless membership and saw the potential in allowing them to market a membership actually worth something.

4-ARAG Direct's plan costs less than Pre-Paid's and gives you more. It also includes some IDT. Of course, if you must have IDT there's nothing stopping someone from purchasing IDT and ARAG's plan. And for the record, when Pre-Paid associates drone on about how 80% of Europe has some form of legal membership, it's ARAG they're mostly talking about. For the record I don't have a membership nor am I affiliated with ARAG. But go to their website and compare for yourself.

5-Isn't it lovely how these associates like to think that the only option outside of marketing this service is to work a minimum wage job? What about all of the professionals out there earning a great income and doing whatever it is they've dreamed of becoming (doctor, lawyer, mechanic, pilot, etc)? Few of us ever dreamed of becoming a salesman trying to convince people they need something when they really don't.

6-You can drone on about the stock all you want but this message board discusses the lack of need for the membership and the joke of an opportunity it provides. No one questions that a company who has several hundred thousand associates paying to sell their service and covering all of the advertising costs is going to make a profit.

7-While the memberships did increase from 1.41 mil to 1.45, what you leave out is the fact that over 600,000 memberships were sold in this time frame meaning that 560,000 members cancelled their plans. This proves that Pre-Paid depends on this style of marketing. This is why they were hurting before becoming an MLM.

8-When I went to court to fight a ticket on my own and left without having to pay a dime, the first thing on my mind was “wow I really need Pre-Paid Legal.” That was sarcasm.

9-Dave has some great points. And what these associates often leave out is the fact that you only get a basic will with Pre-Paid. Adding to it costs money, so why not just but software that will allow you to make an unlimited number of wills for you and your friends and family, all of which can be updated at your leisure, all for the price of 2 months worth of daily cups of coffee.

Lajons Numbers ..what about the 1/2 million that quit?

Lajon posted This statement quoted from the SEC filing;

"The Company's total active membership premium in force increased approximately 7% during 2004 and represents the 12th consecutive year of increasing its membership base and membership fees. Additionally, the membership persistency rate (defined as the number of memberships in force at the end of a 12 month period as a percentage of the total of memberships in force at the beginning of such period, plus new memberships sold during such period) has increased for six consecutive quarters from 67.6% as of June 30, 2003 to 71.0% for the latest 12 month period ended December 31, 2004."

The 7% is the membership fee not membership growth. Also Lajon says active add-on IDT memberships ended totaling 283,889. This means only about 10% of the people signing up get it. Not to remember another tensof thousands drop it as they quit everything all together. This I pointed out before. For every new member they get another member leaves.

It is interesting for the company to quote you that the who new memberships and actives equal a 71% increase. Whoooooopppppieeeeee. So what! what about the 1/2 million that quit?

They do not count this. All I can say is I am a Nay sayer and this company is a RIPOFF that is why it is is at www.ripoffreport.com

Rebuttals for "EXPERT" Dave

Yes, Dave let's look at your car insurance - Does your car insurance cover Manslaughter, Involuntary Manslaughter, Negligent Homicide or Vehicular Homicide? What happens when they will not pay your claim? Explain "Mini-Tort".

Oh, just for the record - Your Provider Attorney will defend YOU or YOUR COVERED family members when you are charged with Manslaughter, Involuntary Manslaughter, Negligent Homicide or Vehicular Homicide at NO ADDED COST to you! As a Pre-Paid Legal member, YOU AND YOUR COVERED family members will receive advice and assistance with moving traffic violations - ANYWHERE IN THE U.S.

Medical Insurance - Since you don't like a $26 a month attorney, what does your "cheap $10 - $25 co-pay" doctor look like? How much due diligence did you do on THIS doctor PRIOR to choosing him or her? Is there a message board with your findings that we can all review?

Lawsuits cause tremendous emotional and financial stress. The PPL membership offers assistance when you need it most. Unfortunately guilt or innocence isn't the issue - you still have to DEFEND yourself if a lawsuit is brought against you (and you don't have to be a "trouble-maker" to get one). Ever hear of frivlous lawsuits??

Let's look at some situations that happen everyday and since Dave is our resident "EXPERT", let's ask him how he would resolve these issues without the use of an attorney and WHY? Dave, what if you were involved in one of the following situations and you were a defendent in a civil lawsuit?
- Damages from your car wreck EXCEED the coverage under your automobile policy coverage.
- You're involved in a landlorde-tenant or property line dispute.
- Your tree limb crashes onto the neighbor's house.
- You're responsible for your aging parents and a dispute arises with family members or others.

What's next,....oh let's see what someone in the state of Michigan DOES receive with our membership in regards to phone calls and letters but first let deal with some things first:

Dave says "I need to pay $26.00 to talk to a lawyer." It never ceases to amaze me how these "EXPERTS" want the BEST lawyer for their situation and they never ever have BEST lawyer funds..ANYWHERE! But when presented with a $26/month membership and 25 percent discount off of an attorney's fees...it isn't enough?? NONE of these "EXPERTS" EVER have any other legal and/or identity theft protection in place either because they weren't PROACTIVE in getting it AND they think these same $200+/hour attorneys with mortgages and bills to pay are going to spend time with someone who has never used an attorney before over the phone (taking all the time in the world) - FREE OF CHARGE..!!Why are they even talking about a pro-bono or "other attorneys?" What exactly does one get with these pro-bono or "other attorneys"? I'll take an AV-RATED LAW FIRM ANYDAY...but then again I was PROACTIVE in getting the memberships.

PREVENTATIVE LEGAL SERVICES IN MICHIGAN.
(Dave, grab a dictionary and look up the word: UNLIMITED).

Phone Consultations on UNLIMITED Matters

As a member, you can consult with your Provider Law Firm toll free by phone on any personal or business-related matter. Just call your Provider's toll-free number during regular business hours when you have a legal problem or question. UNLIMITED!

Phone Calls and Letters...

A phone call or letter from your Provider Lawyer can get you the results you want fast. Your Provider Lawyer will recommend a letter or phone call when that is the best step for you. One call or letter PER SUBJECT related matter is FREE with your membership (UNLIMITED). Plus, you'll receive two business letters each year at no additional cost! Additional assistance for same subject at 25% discount. Dave says "you could write a letter yourself." What do you think happens to the letter you write as opposed to one written by an attorney, with an AV-RATED LAW FIRM, on your behalf on the LAW FIRM's letterhead? Try it..!! Without our membership, these same letters cost around $200 or more AND there are charges for the number of pages in the letter too. So THAT on top of the attorney's hourly fee (at 100 percent)....costly!!

Contract and Document Review...

You can have an UNLIMITED number of personal legal documents, up to ten pages each, reviewed by your Provider Lawyer. Included each year is one business document review at no additional cost! Your Provider Lawyer will analyze the documents and suggest changes for YOUR benefit before you sign. When you sign ANYTHING, you are using an attorney...just not yours!! Those contracts and documents were drafted by THAT individual's or company's attorney on THEIR behalf to protect THEM!! Dave, how is it that you were able to UNDERSTAND what your mortgage company's attorney drafted up? Have you been to law school and are you an expert in all 26 areas of the law, in all 50 states as well? Tell us exactly what the "Truth In Lending Act Form" is! "Paying attention" and "Being careful" is not better than having YOUR attorney review any and all documents prior to signing. If "being careful" and "paying attention" were all that is required, why do the rich and famous, successful people use attorneys before they sign anything?

Wills for You and Your Family...

A Will for you at no additional charge, not just a "simple" Will, but one that meets most Americans' needs - with free yearly reviews and updates. Wills for covered family members are just $20 each; changes and updates $20. Trust preparation is available at a 25% discount. Dave, do YOU have your will done? Regardless of the stage of life you're in married, single, divorced, it's a wise decision to have your will prepared. Without one, for example, it's impossible to leave gifts to friends, organizations or charities. Wills are usually $500 or more without our membership, just so you know.

ALL OF THIS ALONE IS WELL WORTH $26.00 A MONTH, but then again this is the sort of thing that the wealthy have in place AND they are paying alot more!! Again, people that SEE the need for this membership and/or business opportunity are generally those that are trying to go places, like UP in their lives AND generally those that don't see the need for this membership and/or business opportunity are going nowhere but DOWN in life. It's THAT simple..!!

This company doesn't take advantage of anyone and doesn't have to. No one is begging nor convincing anyone to purchase these memberships. If ANYONE wants to pay FULL PRICE for an attorney because they feel that a 25 percent discount isn't enough....I LET THEM..!!

As I've said, it's a CHOICE....!!

Dave, how are you protecting your family against legal and/or identity theft issues without our membership?

Expert Rebuttal

Again, the Pre-Paid Legal Membership, Identity Theft Shield and the Business Opportunity ARE CHOICES..!! Focusing on the number of people that cancelled the memberships AND especially being on this forum is NOT an excuse for NOT protecting your families against legal and/or identity theft problems when they happen!!! Unless your "school of thought" is to do what other people do because other people do it...!!

In his book The Total Money Makeover, Dave Ramsey cites the Wall Street Journal as reporting that 70 percent of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck. He also cites a poll from Parenting magazine which found that 49 percent of Americans could cover less than one month's expenses if they lost their income. The 2003 MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends bears this out, reporting that 52 percent of employees live paycheck-to-paycheck. The surprise? Among high-earners ($75,000 or more), an alarming 34 percent claim this distinction. The survey found that 87 percent of low earners ($30,000 or less) do so.

More than 7 million Americans already have second jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly three out of every 10 people who hold more than one job say they do so to meet household expenses or pay off debt. [Chatzky, J. (2004, September). Weapons of mass debt destruction. Money, p. 57.]

This is the CHOICE that I was speaking of. It's smarter to work several jobs and take time away from important things like family and still live paycheck to paycheck and still not be able to keep $26 or $35.95 in a checking account to pay for a membership(s). People cancel this service because (1) they don't use it so they feel they don't need it or (2) it's to take care of their immediate issue - and then cancel because they feel don't need it. They also NEED the money to pay for other bills. Either case THAT is their CHOICE as it is a month-to-month membership with no lock-in contract like "other legal services." One STILL needs to have these memberships in place regardless of their financial situation. It's a CHOICE to keep these memberships OR pay for drugs, porn, alcohol, cigarettes and unused gym memberships.

"Expert" Jamal at least goes to the ARAG website for comparisons but STILL doesn't say whether or not he is using their services...!! What's the problem?? I sure hope there is no "lock-in" contract language there.

I STILL haven't gotten an answer from either "Expert" Jamal or "Expert" Dave on how they are being proactive protecting themselves and their families against legal and/or identity theft issues without our memberships?

Oh, and let's define PROACTIVE - Acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty; anticipatory:

Here's another question - What did "Expert" Jamal and "Expert" Dave have in place to protect their families against legal and/or identity theft PRIOR to Pre-Paid Legal Services...???

I love this statement from "Expert" Jamal - "Isn't it lovely how these associates like to think that the only option outside of marketing this service is to work a minimum wage job? What about all of the professionals out there earning a great income and doing whatever it is they've dreamed of becoming (doctor, lawyer, mechanic, pilot, etc)? Few of us ever dreamed of becoming a salesman trying to convince people they need something when they really don't."

Being in sales is an honorable profession. You may or may not realize it but you have to sell yourself to someone each and everyday in some endeavor. Do you pay for and drink bottled water? Why? Water is FREE!! Who told you tap water was bad?

I have yet to see one naysayer say, "I don't need to market your service or get into network marketing because I already have a leveraged income from multiple streams of income and make millions of dollars already." Or "I used to market your service but found another way to get a leveraged income by creating multiple streams of income, you should try this instead because I've been able to help others achieve the same thing."

I talked to a woman yesterday, who had 3 franchises going AND still wanted to know about Pre-Paid Legal Services, as in her words, "my husband and I are always looking for more ways to get multiple streams of income." What about THESE professionals marketing our services, a former lawyer who made $224,000 in 2003 or a former US Federal Marshal who made $176,000 in 2003. There are many more like these individuals!!

How about it "Expert" Jamal, what are you doing now besides trolling message boards trying to find people who agree with you about this company. Naysayers don't really like to reveal tooo much about what they do for a living either...!! "Expert" Dave you want to take that question?

Statistics from Examining the Work of State Courts and Hospital Statistics and the American Hospital Association illustrate the need for legal services in America.

I think the American Bar Association says it best though - "Americans have come to view legal assistance as a necessity. The best way for the majority of Americans to be able to assure themselves of legal assistance when they need it... is through a prepaid legal plan."

Basically, who cares what a couple of "EXPERTS" have to say about anything in regards to this company, when you have THIRD-PARTY CREDIBILTY from individuals and organizations with more credibilty and resources to throughly check out the company and its leadership....backing you. Who you ask...well try the National Black Chamber of Commerce and the US Chamber of Commerce for starters.

Their opinion means more to me than a couple of "Experts" trolling the message boards all day, but you guys keep up the good fight...I'll keep marketing the services in an ethical and professional manner and be compensated for it..!!

What is a better use of time???

Rebuttal to Lajon ..Does Pre-Paid cover you when you are guilty for a crime.

Yes, Dave let's look at your car insurance - Does your car insurance cover Manslaughter, Involuntary Manslaughter, Negligent Homicide or Vehicular Homicide? What happens when they will not pay your claim? Explain "Mini-Tort".

Does Pre-Paid cover you when you are guilty for a crime. Remember This Lajon all of those above are criminal law which only goves you a 25% discount. as I said before that means that you will need a retainer and pay the large hourly rate. Pre-paid is suppose to even out your abilityto afford an attorney by only payiing $26.00 a month not make you still have to pay for a large retainer and hourly rate most of us can not afford.

Lajon I ask you can you afford for payng for an attorney without the plan? can you afford a 3,000 retainer now?

I suppose lajon has no medical HMO or PPO plan.
but after reading this. "Medical Insurance - Since you don't like a $26 a month attorney, what does your "cheap $10 - $25 co-pay" doctor look like? How much due diligence did you do on THIS doctor PRIOR to choosing him or her? Is there a message board with your findings that we can all review?" I ask him how much does he pay for seeing his doctor. Must ben othing because he has none. Lajon most employees of large companies have medical benifits that charge co-pays for office visits. My wife's and my doctor are on the board of William Beumont Hospital. Look the hoispital up. One of the top 10 in the nation. Who is your Doctor? As if this matters.
Point is lost doctor cost has nothing to do with the type of doctor you have.

Lajon, why would a lawsuit be braught against you.tell me? for what have you been sued for recently. Most people get sued in small claims court where lawyers are not needed and the average joe defends themself.
let look at your examples
"Damages from your car wreck EXCEED the coverage under your automobile policy coverage." -
In michigan you have no fault. Also what car insurance do you have that does not cover what your driving? If you can afford car insurace you have coverage that covers cost of car wreck and property damage and also your medical. I think Lajon you should visit a car insurance agent for a better understanding.

"- You're involved in a landlorde-tenant or property line dispute." property lines? Depends on surveys that are older than us probably lajon. You get anew survey actually the person who is complaining gets one done. But all surveys are at the city records. But usually in a fenced in area fences have been there a long time and there are city ordances you must look into.

"Your tree limb crashes onto the neighbor's house" Your tree? You own that tree? That is why they have home insurance. Ever hear of a winds knocking down a healthy tree?

Sure you get unlimited letters but as you stated they are not free. Anyhow as I said before how many letters a year are you going to review. Unless you have severe legal issues or have a buisness.

"Again, people that SEE the need for this membership and/or business opportunity are generally those that are trying to go places, like UP in their lives AND generally those that don't see the need for this membership and/or business opportunity are going nowhere but DOWN in life. It's THAT simple..!!" Your being rather ridiculous.

finally
"Dave, how are you protecting your family against legal and/or identity theft issues without our membership?" I pay for attorneys Because I can afford them and also I know credit card companies will take care of my credit report and not faslely report balances that are not mine or else they will be sued by me and pay my attorney fees too.

Lajon tell me will a credit card company follow up on afraud of your account and will they fix your account to be right?

Also If the police look you up for someone using your name "John Doe" as an alias is that a crime?

RE: Rebuttal to Lajon...

I asked Dave if his car insurance covered Manslaughter, Involuntary Manslaughter, Negligent Homicide or Vehicular Homicide. To which "Expert" Dave, wanted to know if our plan will cover you if you are guilty of a crime.

Let's help "Expert" Dave out here, Under Title II of the PPL membership, "Your Provider Attorney will defend you or your covered family members when you are charged with Manslaughter, Involuntary Manslaughter, Negligent Homicide, or Vehicular Homicide AT NO ADDED COST TO YOU." Umm, "Expert" Dave in layman's terms or the English language, it's COVERED FREE OF CHARGE in our membership, as it is NOT COVERED in auto insurances. Check and see if your No-Fault insurance covers that??

"Expert" Dave also wanted to know if I could pay 100 percent of an attorney's fees without the PPL Plan. NO, that's why I have the PPL Membership and WHY would I want to pay 100 percent anyway?? I thought THAT was crystal clear...!!

Since, I no longer work at a company being leveraged by someone else. I don't have Medical Insurance but since I was in the military I have the VA. However, my wife has the PPO coverage from my former employer. Now "Expert" Dave, wants to imply that he did some due diligence when selecting his current doctor. Sure. But who would "Expert" Dave call if his medical provider didn't want to pay for something they should pay for.

My wife needed an operation that was deemed better for her situation by the top doctor in the country performing that operation than the one our medical provider performed and because we were PROACTIVE in having this membership we just got a check today from that medical provider for $30,000+ just because of a letter from our Provider Law Firm. YES, the letter (2 pages) was FREE and didn't cost anymore than our monthly premium for the membership unlike the letters people have to get without the membership.

Getting your documents reviewed is HUGE and that can be from purchasing a car or a home or a cellphone!! But you,"Expert" Dave have it down to a science right, "just being careful and paying attention." Too bad the Donald Trumps, Bill Gates or other highly successful people aren't as gifted as you are..!! You don't NEED to have a business or serious legal matter to get your documents reviewed!!

"Expert" Dave, now wants to know what lawsuits could be brought up against him, Oh, I dunno job-related or civil or frivlous. No,"Expert" Dave I haven't been sued before but WHEN I am, I have the PPL membership and 335 total hours (295.5 hours of trial time and 39.5 hours of pretrial time). Got a calculator "Expert" Dave, do the math at $200 - $300 an hour for attorneys fees. I'm glad you have that type of money around in the event of a legal and/or identity theft situation. Oh, and THAT's covered FREE with our membership.

"Expert" Dave, if a tree on your property is responsible for crashing into a neighbor's house you are correct in saying that's why one should have home owner's insurance BUT suppose your homeowner's insurance will NOT pay your claim, THEN who do you call?

"Again, people that SEE the need for this membership and/or business opportunity are generally those that are trying to go places, like UP in their lives AND generally those that don't see the need for this membership and/or business opportunity are going nowhere but DOWN in life. It's THAT simple..!!" No, this is not a ridiculous statement, I see it all the time.

"Expert" Dave says he can afford to pay attorney's fees at 100 percent, and I respect that and I agree to LET HIM..!! The attorneys he's paying will definitely appreciate that. Me, I'll take the over 50 Provider Law Firms, with their 990 dedicated attorneys at AV-RATED law firms NATIONWIDE, EXPERTS IN ALL 26 AREAS OF THE LAW, for the low cost of a cup of coffee a day, but THAT'S my CHOICE...!!

"Expert" Dave feels that his credit union will take care of his credit report and not falsely report balances that are not his or else he'll sue then and get them to pay his attorney's fees too. Well, I sure hope he gets that service from that credit union. Those account(s) are protected but what about everything else, that identifies "DAVE"??

Brings to mind a story, where a family I know was having Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant and it was later discovered that the waitress recreated the receipt and gave herself a $100 tip, and then forged the wife's signature. The wife called THE BANK after seeing the charges online, who told her they would hold the charge while they investigated the issue. THE BANK called the restaurant who told the BANK they had a signed receipt. The BANK called the wife and told her the restaurant had a signed receipt and to honor the charges. The wife and husband went to the restaurant and compared the signature on the receipt with the wife's driver's license signature and the restaurant STILL said, "we have a signed receipt." Well, it took another FREE letter from our AV-RATED PROVIDER LAW FIRM to that BANK and restaurant to clear the matter up. The restaurant promptly fired the waitress and gave the couple a free dinner, a %50 gift certificate and $60 in cash.

"Expert" Dave, for the record, that couple was me and my wife. Better check and see what your credit union will do for you in regards to protecting your identity there. I'm looking at a brochure for one I'm with and it only gives TIPS AGAINST ID THEFT, not at all what our Identity Theft Shield provides. It's great to have peace of mind with these memberships..!!

But again, it is a CHOICE..!

Lajon Lies

Lajon, if you can please tell me. Was this Federal marshall making this 176,000 from one income of being a federal marshall?

I will wait for your response. The way itis written you are making it soundas if he left his 176,000 a year federal marshall job for pre-paid.

If you tell us the truth here It might bring you more trust with us. Becuase if you don't the next time I rebuttal here you will be exposed with the right numbers about federal salaries of federal marshalls IE your friend could never make that much.

As far as your IDT shield goes. Ihave confindence in the process in place where I will call my credit card company and bank to resolve frauds on credit cards. They do havefraud departments.

Why would you not try this route?

Lajon from Fairfield is an advid poster on message boards.

I found lajon trolling the yahoo web. interestinghecallsus online trolling. He is an advid poster on message boards. It is interesting how some people like to label others while they are doing the same thing. Lajon I get on the message boards because I am someone wanting to a expose ripoffs like yourself.

Interesting that if you are making so much money You are living in a place where has these status;

Median household income: $51,151 (year 2000)
Median house value: $174,700 (year 2000)

Hereis where I live at lajon since you think people who are not selling Pre-paid are low income losers going down. Pssss. I amcertain Jesus a man of the poor would not let people of your thought into heaven.

Median household income: $42,326 (year 2000)
Median house value: $110,600 (year 2000)


So the point I make is I make 75,000 a year and a family income of 100,000. thatis double of where you live. so, if your going upandmaking so much money why not live in a lush neighborhood.

Lajon you have been exposed again I say you trolling rich wannabe.

About the Opportunity & Product

First, Robert... you clearly haven't read through all the posts. There are many people who have purchased and found the product USEFUL who are NOT associates. Look before you post such ridiculous statements... it'll only help you.

The pros and cons were already mentioned about the "Opportunity." To quickly find it, press and hold the CTRL key on your keyboard. While holding that key down, press the letter F. A "Find" box will appear. In that box, type (without quotation marks) "West Haven" and press the ENTER key. You will find two or three posts from me. Press the "Find Next" button until you come to the pros and cons post I made many moons ago. There are both good and bad points about PPL's Business Opportunity. Check it out for yourself. Sorry for the instructing, but some people may not know.

No offense at all... but the post regarding the home foreclosure, while sad and disappointing... maybe the lawyer was just being honest with you or maybe the lawyer wasn't the best available for your situation. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as customers, don't we have the ability to call PPL and get their assistance when it comes to poor service? I think we do.

Sometimes though, we just don't like what they have to say because it's not in our favor. It's kind of like when the referee rules that an interception wasn't an interception (you Steeler fans know exactly what I mean). Your post is purely emotional, and rightfully so, but I think at that point, you could have said to the lawyer, "Okay, they did nothing wrong, but how can we be sure based on the one page you're looking at? What can I send you that might help me?" Granted... the lawyer could have returned that same solution to you as well. Perhaps a communication problem? I don't know... that's only for you and the lawyer to know since you were the only ones involved. I'm just pointing out that this is not typical service based on my experiences and your sole experience doesn't make the service a waste of money. You simply had a situation that might have been able to be handled differently and costs you a lot emotionally, not to mention the other ways it might have affected you.

About cancellations... again, using the CTRL-F method, go find my post about that. None of us have the data necessary to determine how many cancellations were voluntary vs involuntary. And the same goes for the average amount of money that is made by PPL associates. So quit using those as an argument to support the detractors. They're invalid.

Being completely honest... wouldn't it be more accurate to say that PPL has that "Pyramid" stink to it because of three letters... MLM? It doesn't matter how legitimate the company is... once you hear MLM or Network Marketing or anything similar, "It's a scam!" Be honest and unbiased for a moment, you know I'm right. But the fact is that network marketing is a legal and profitable method of distribution. But just like any other form of distribution, it can be and is abused. It doesn't mean they're all illegal or a scam though. Common sense again!

For anybody who thinks PPL is a pyramid scheme, you're actually undermining the legal minds of not only our provider attorneys, but highly reputable organizations and attorney generals to name a few examples. I'm sure we could agree that the lawyers know more about the legal legitmacy of the opportunity than the non-lawyers. What lawyer (or in this case, group of lawyers throughout North America) are going to risk being associated with an illegal legal company? Am I starting to get through to anybody yet? Never mind, your minds are already made up.

This isn't rocket science. It's so incredibly straight forward. In terms of product value, it all depends on how often you use it. Use it a lot, and it's a great value. Oh yea, and again, you can find a post from me about the product value by using the CTRL-F method. If you don't use it a lot, then it's not for you and that's alright. I wish it covered more things, but for what it costs, it is a really great bargain IF YOU'LL USE IT!

The bottom line... anybody who has ever had a bad experience with any product, service, industry, opportunity, job, etc., is going to have ill feelings towards it. It's very difficult to convince those individuals to change their minds because there's already a bad taste in their mouths. For example, how many people here can't stand car sales people? Or how about working in the sales profession? I can't stand either one of those. Bad things happen and you're never going to please everybody no matter how hard you try.

For all the detractors, why is that you blanket statement the company and service with negative comments? To say I had a very specific bad experience is one thing, to make your general negative comments because of one bad experience that you or somebody you knew had, isn't enough to justify or support your comments. It's enough to raise concern, but not enough to come to outright conclusions. I have come to the conclusion that people are increasingly becoming professional complainers... but then maybe I'm wrong. Where does it stop?

every truck driver at the company I worked for bought it. And what did it actually provide? Nothing...not a damn thing.

Very Nice Michael, And yet, your post was completely irrelevant. I'll just assume you sell this Volcano Insurance, since you think it's so great. I bought it for one purpose...the same reason every truck driver at the company I worked for bought it. And what did it actually provide? Nothing...not a damn thing.

You will find many posts from other people who bought it to provide legal assistance in problems related to their employment. Not one has said it helped. Only the guys selling it.

I repair cars for a living. If I tell a customer their car is repaired and will be there when they need it, they expect that to be true. If they try using their car and it won't work, they get mad. If it's due to something I was supposed to have fixed, then it's my fault, and the customer has been ripped off. That is the perfect analogy for your Volcano Insurance you sell.

I can't even imagine how long I would be in business if EVERY SINGLE TIME a customer had a problem with what I sold them, I told them "NO, that's not covered".

You just keep living in your magic world of PPL Make-Believe. Keep selling that Volcano Insurance too. Maybe one day, you'll need your car fixed, and the mechanic will have been one of your customers. Happy motoring!

RE: Lajon Lies....???

"Expert" Dave, I'm not lying to you because I don't have to...!!

The document I'm looking at says, "he was a FORMER US Federal Marshall. In 2003, his Pre-Paid Legal income was $176,000.

See, third-party credibility always beats conversation AND especially naysaying experts, who THINK they know what they're talking about. Guess what "Expert" Dave, there are far more examples of individuals such as this making money with our Business Opportunity and helping alot of people. We don't have to beg nor convince anyone of anything about this company.

"Expert" Dave, I don't know what the salaries are of federal marshalls nor do I care. However, this particular gentleman MADE $176,000 in 2003 FROM his Pre-Paid Legal income. THAT is important to me and anyone else wanting to go UP in life using the PPL Business Opportunity as a vehicle to do so..!! If he could do it, anyone can do it..!!

The Big Question, "Expert" Dave is WHY would this individual LEAVE his employer or even consider being an Associate with Pre-Paid Legal Services PART-TIME while already employed?? Perhaps, THAT is the question YOU should have asked...!! I mean WHY would a former attorney with 6 law offices become a PPL Associate, or a real estate agent or medical manager or postal carrier or former Pro athlete(s) or someone who's recognized as a "celebrated trailblazer and leader of the multibillion-dollar self-improvement industry."

See, it's really NOT important what ANYONE thinks who exclusively "speaks" from a message board all the while being vague about who they are and what they do to for a living...!!

As for your identity theft question, I'm happy that you have protected your CREDIT CARD from identity theft and you have the utmost confidence in the fraud department of your bank and/or credit union. I'll take my chances with my TOTAL identity and NOT just my credit cards by having the backing of experienced professionals (former agents of CIA, FBI and other authorities) from a division of the world's LEADING risk consulting company. Besides the fraud department didn't listen to my wife when we cried "identity theft." But once they got that letter from my AV-RATED Provider Law Firm somehow things CHANGED..!!

"Expert" Dave, I'm going to define identity theft for you. Identity Theft is a multi-faceted crime packaged in countless shapes and forms. At its core, it occurs when someone uses information they acquire about an individual without permission -- such as a SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER -- to represent themselves as that person for fraudulent purposes. For example, the criminal might obtain credit cards and loans in someone else's name with no intention of paying the bills. They might open utility accounts, rent an apartment, get a cell phone, get medical benefits, even purchase a car or home in their name. Identity thieves can even commit the unthinkable as in one example: commit a crime in someone else's name, leaving the innocent, unsuspecting victim saddled with a criminal record.

See, "Expert" Dave, being "careful and paying attention may not be enough"...even for you..!!

Since, you think I'm lying to you -- Google identity theft and see what comes up. Educate yourself on identity theft. Pre-Paid Legal has a solution for this insideous crime, but remember having these memberships AND peace of mind is a CHOICE...!!

Lajon W

Get a grip on the reality, naysayers!

I joined PPL as an Associate, specifically to sell the services as a plan to employee groups, just as medical insurance is. I've been an independent business owner for the past 15 years, with 25 years total in business. I guarantee I am not a naive person, and have a reputation of high integrity and honesty.

I do NOT lie to make a living!

What does make me sit down to write this rebuttal is knowing for a fact that most of the naysayers - concerning PPL existing benefits and performance - are inaccurate, uninformed and probably (personal opinion on this comment) some of the more negative personalities that most of us try avoid at all costs during our everyday lives.

I'm not some "woo-woo" whacko spreading magic dust around... I'm quite the cynic myself on many subjects, so I thoroughly researched PPL before getting involved.

1.5 million members (and steadily growing), many of whom are well educated, many enroll through their government jobs (including police officers and firemen), and understand the value of the services, are not an indicator of bad service.

Just the opposite.

Those who have tried to be an Associate and are not happy with the experience, very likely never should have tried in the first place. An opportunity that can be highly profitable is going to take a highly motivated and well performing individual. Ain't nothing easy about trying to be a successful business person!!
>> Anyone selling the PPL services have a choice of how they wish to be paid their commissions. And those commissions ARE paid within 48 hours once the confirming paperwork for new customers - a responsibility of the Associate, and NOT the customer - is recieved via fax by the home office. The choice to be paid in this manner, or by regular check by mail, is SOLELY the choice of the Associate.

>> If someone believes they were misled about what their membership gains them, there are three possiblities that come to mind:



1. They were intentionally lied to.


2. The Associate presenting the service was not properly trained.


3. The customer did not listen, made assumptions, and/or didn't bother to ask questions.

For number 1: Lying can happen - but my exposure to PPL personnel, and their training, indicate this is not only UNACCEPTABLE to the PPL leaders I've met, but results in that Associate being released if it's intentional. And I believe it's much rarer than the naysayers would like the World to believe - one bad story always overshadows a thousand good ones.



For number 2: Poor training is most likely the biggest cause of disgruntled customers. It is also an area that PPL is aggressively addressing, and some major changes in training system and acceptance requirements are in the near future. But again, I do not believe the vast majority of Associates are ill-trained - just not supported as needed. To be honest, some of them shouldn't be allowed to sell this type of service, in my opinion. But any intelligent person should be able to decide whether they can likely trust the individual speaking to them.

For number 3: I myself have witnessed potential customers make completely unfounded assumptions, statements and assertions, and completely ignore what was being explained to them. At the same time, I realize this can also be in part because of Reason #2 (poor training). But it is sometimes amazing what customers want for $25/month.

>> The service works. Some issues are not covered, but many, MANY more are! I personally could have used a couple of the standard coverages - I had my identity stolen AND was threatened with a bogus billing after one incident. One call to the attorney, one call to the ID protection service, and ALL OF IT WOULD HAVE BEEN HANDLED, AND PAID FOR, WITHOUT MY DIRECT INVOLVMENT WITH THE COMPANY THAT WAS MESSING WITH ME. Instead I had to fight with three creditors, two credit reporting agencies and a nasty collection agency for the bogus billing. Many hours, $800 in attorney fees(eventually recovered but still out of my pocket for weeks), lots of stress, and an incredible amount of frustrations and anger over being so horribly abused "by the system" and one business.

I eventually got it all straightened out, after months. All of it would have been covered by my PPL service. And I could still be working on other legal issues, such as a will, living will, credit card abuse, some idiot threatening to sue me because my dog crapped in his yard, etc, etc, etc.

Amazing what one letter or phone call from your attorney firm can do to shut people down when they're screwing with you.

Bottom line is:

If you refuse to pick up the phone and use the various legal services, and don't think you'll be the one in three Americans that needs legal services in the next 5 years, then don't sign on.

But PPL is still the most popular and effective legal assitance program in the nation. And growing, and becoming even more effective.

Where the company is now in it's organization and training, is a quantum leap in performance from just 3 or 4 years ago.

Guess that's my rebuttal, and I'll pass the soapbox to the next person so they take their shot. Take it or leave it is all I can say about PPL - I'm sure most who visit this website will leave it since this is a negative-feedback oriented website... that's the very reason for it's existance.

I'm sure the webmaster is quite happy with our visits - it helps them sell advertising and generate income for themselves.

No better way to do that than encourage people to vent, LOL!

Oh so wrong

In the last post it was written that divorces, bankruptcy, and domestic disputes are
Criminal acts in the opinion of the writer. This to me shows that this person is highly uneducated. These are not crimes at all. So not one person is a criminal.

The Whole matter here is that Pre-Paid legal only gives a person a 25% discount
To those types of cases. Along with civil suits. Which in some cases might be needed if your dispute can not be solved with a letter.

The question not one associate I have talked to can tell me is what is their opinion of
Affordable attorney fees per hour. Is it $100, $150, $200?

The company straight out lies about the fact that it is providing affordable law services to it's members when there is only a 25% discount. Affordable has not been
Defined and not one person has said what is. Also it could be debatable to what is.

According to the company, their stated, written stand point is that the lowest income
Will receive services from the public defender. For what I ask. The only services you will receive from them are for criminal acts. You can try to find a Pro Bono or someone who will accept payments over a course of time.

The middle income earner the 80% of people who seem to be the meat and potatoes of all cases in America seem to already afford attorneys somehow. Since there are thousands of them working thousands of cases filed by the 80%. And If you notice this 80% is a lot that do not have pre-paid services and the attorneys ae still getting paid. Or is it that there are many broke attorneys that are really waiting on their poor 80% of middle income wage earners to pay.

Nonetheless, not one pre-paid associate has ever tried to talk about that issue.

While I read the story written. I read a story about a woman in a hospital who had her medical records stolen. Yet the story is incomplete. As I hear only incomplete stories from associates all the time. They mostly sound unfetched. Lets look at this one, “Recently a women was admitted to a hospital for massive trauma and was given a blood transfusion, unbeknownst to her, her family our the doctors, she had had her medical identity stolen. The person who stole her identity had blood tests ran and had a different blood type. This resulted in her receiving the wrong blood type in the transfusion and she died as a result. Tell her identity theft is not serious. Ask citibank, or your homeowners insurance what they will do in that case.”

1. Who was it that stole her chart from the room and why?
2. The patient has many records, computer and a chart that is kept up daily.
3. This would be a case of accidental Homicide by the hospital no matter how the records were stolen. They were unprotected by hospital staff.
4. Your story Is somewhat sketchy. Was the record switched with by another person? What happened. This is one of the worst stories because I can make no sense out of it. To me this makes it that it never happened. How did a woman steal a medical record from another person and use it for themselves? This would not be beneficial to any of them at all.
5. Your comment of Citibank in the end what does that have to do about this at all? Why mention it. Pre-paid legal is not going to help you in this situation either because as you stated you would be a discrace to sue the hospital for not protecting someones medical records. Of course if you did not know you might be able to also get an attorney for free that would not charge you up front if you had a solid case. Since the defendant would pay you fees.


What I see all the time here are associates that think they are attorneys. I am not one either but I know the law and I know what is possible.

I hope you do not tell stories like this to your possible recruits.

It's a GREAT FUTURE for those that EARN IT.

Well, tommorrow I will be Joining PPL as a member and associate. I believe I am learning my first lesson today. DO NOT SELL TO PEOPLE WHO "NO COMPRENDE" If they don't "GET IT" don't bother.....finish your water and walk out backwards.





I know of many opportunities out there like PPL but after extensive research I am Choosing PPL. IT ALMOST ALWAYS TAKES MONEY TO MAKE MONEY. This just takes less, makes more, and effort is key.



I'll see you on the cover of Forbes? Maybe. Worse case scenario.......I'll quit, grow through it, and never put blame on a proven, succesful company (in which others have made it) instead of my lack of effort.

"Persistance is failing 19 times and succeeding the twentieth."



"The biggest failures in life, always try to MAKE a living.........while the successful EARN one."

me 1-25-06

Prepaid legal, truth be told, most will do anything for a buck these days to push up the bottomline.

Nice that these folks are happy with PPL. But most of you who support it, are in it as associates. I'm guessing like agents. But the truth be told, most will do anything for a buck these days to push up the bottomline.

I was told(as was my wife) that the services of the attorney would be like an exclusive club membership. pay my $35/month and get access to an attorney. So I had an issue with my Disablility from my military service and possible discrimination via the Americans with disabilities act. But the attorney wanted a $2,000 dollar retainer fee. hmm, PPL doesn't tell you what you need to be told. plus now in hind site, why would a attorney represent me paying $35/month when they can make thousands from a non PPL member?

Good if you associates are doing well, but don't screw anyone thinking to make it big. it will catch up to you.

pre legal scam

Anyone having a problem with pre legal i would contact Joel Sansone a lawyer in Pittsburgh Pa, he cleaned them out once before in Arizona

Prepaid Legal or the Social Trap of Society? You choose.

People keep referring to Prepaid Legal as Pyramid Scheme. Prepaid is a legitimate business.

I would so encourage the non-believers, the people with doubt about Prepaid Legal to attend a FREE presentation in their area to learn all the facts about Prepaid Legal's business opportunity and membership.

There was a book written called "In their own words", pages and pages of people that the Membership helped.

I remember before I obtained the membership, thinking that this membership is like a cell phone. If you don't have one you don't use it. But after you have it you tend to use it all the time and wonder how you were living with out it.

Prepaid Legal offers such a great opportunity for people that have drive and passion to make something happen in their lives.

The Trap of Society doesn't offer much relief. If it did I am sure people like me and countless others on this page wouldn't have sought refuge in PPL.

The trap: Go to school. Graduate. Get a JUB (Just Under Broke) working for someone else for 50-60 hours per week. Being forced to retire at age 65. Ending up at Wal-Mart to work the rest of your life.

If you want to be poor - follow the masses. If you want to be Rich - follow the wealthy.

You think Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Robert Kyosaki follow the masses? These people and many more are our trainers at PPL.

Each month PPL has a presenter give a 4 hour wealth building presentation. We learn from the best so we can be the best.

What do the masses learn?

PPL is not the only Network Marketing company out there, but I do believe it's one of the best. And the best part about that is.. I am not the only one.

Money Magazine, Success, Fortune, WallStreet Journal, USA Today and many others have written articles about us saying we are the trend to follow.

Prepaid Legal is not for everyone though - there are many who like working for someone else - as they do not have the drive to make something happen for themselves. Their hope is that someday their ship will come in. Perhaps investing a dollar a day into the lottery they will hit the big time.

I wish the best for everyone! God Bless you all!

In a nut shell - it works IF you are willing to work!

The naysayers on this post remind me of the people on Amazon giving their movie reviews without seeing the movie first and then giving the movie ONE star ???

The start up cost to get started in PPL is $249. How many business can you start today with such a low investment? I don't know of any.

How many businesses will train you with wealth building seminars to help you improve your sales and your life?

There is so many reasons to join PPL and get off the couch and out of the comfort zone.

That's the real trick though isn't it? These naysayers aren't really going after PPL as a business they just fear the unknown. They prefer working for someone else. They like the fact that when they hit their prime (retirment age) they will be cast out. They like having more month at the end of the money. The enjoy paying the minimum on their credit cards. The like living in debt. They like all these things. Why? They are comfortable with them.

It's HARD to break free, to be on your own and make something HAPPEN in your life.

It's much easier to complain, blame the system and argue that PPL doesn't work rather than working and making your dreams come true.

Re: There is a Not a huge need for the Pre-Paid Legal membership and the Identity Theft Shield...!!

"Identity Theft occurs when someone gets ANY of your personal information and fraudulently uses it to get access to your Credit, Financial Accounts or obtain Employment. It is an Equal Opportunity Crime affecting victims of all races, income and ages" - Privacy & American Business publication by Center for Social & Legal Research.

Dave, is absolutely correct when saying one can choose to do it themselves, when Identity Theft occurs. Initially, they can HOPE it never happens to them and not get protected but when it happens...Sure, they can call their bank and/or credit card company, contact the three major credit repositories, go through the helpful but extensive steps recommended by the Federal Trade Commission in its 30-page consumer support publication, fill out and submit the affidavit form supplied by the FTC to dispute new, unauthorized accounts and spend countless hours and an average of $1,500 in out-of-pocket expenses in your efforts to resolve the many problems caused by identity thieves.

"The costs of Identity Theft - Average amount fraudulently charged: $39,000 per victim...Up 216 percent since 2000, average out-of-pocket costs averaged $1,500 per victim...Up 187 percent since 2000, average personal time resolving case: 600 hours per victim...Up 342 percent since 2000" - survey by the Identity Theft Resource Center.

That is the "Plan" most people have (if any) while maintaining employment at a job that they can just take off from work and afford to do so at any time. Right? Sure, one can dispute credit card charges all the time and get them off of their credit report and scream identity theft and these companies will actually believe you! Try it! Maybe even put your complaint in writing along with the receipt and that will provide a better chance of getting the charges off.

"The toll of Identity Theft - it takes a long time to eliminate negative information from our credit reports: 41 percent of victims are wrestling with the problem after 2 years. 27 percent of victims continue to battle the problem after 3 years" - Survey by the Identity Theft Resource Center. So doing it yourself, how much time are YOU willing to invest?

Anyone know what happens when these companies receive a letter from YOU instead of a letter from your attorney? Oh, that's right - YOU DON'T HAVE AN ATTORNEY!! Well, they're only $200 per hour or more and that letter should cost about $200 or more and there's also a charge for the number of pages too. I've never heard of a FREE lawyer and I'd wonder why they are FREE when the BEST lawyer is charging for their services and time. Seems like everyone wants the BEST attorney when they feel they are owed something or when someone is trying to make them pay for something. Incredible as it seems, those are the only times people even think to consult an attorney outside of divorce. However, when faced with making a decision to get an attorney, that wallet or purse speaks loudly against it.

According to Dave, these "FREE" lawyers are all around us. Does it go without saying that these "FREE" lawyers don't have to pay bills and are just going around winning cases for people without being compensated for their efforts? Perhaps Dave, should give us the names and addresses and telephone numbers of these "FREE" lawyers since there are sooo many of them.

Also, if the police are swamped with other crimes, what makes ANYONE think your identity theft problem is going to go to get top priority??

Here is something illustrating the need for the Identity Theft Shield - Identity theft is a booming business. The Federal Trade Commission reported 86,000 complaints in 2001, growing to 152,000 in 2002. In 2002, more than $47 billion in losses were reported. Just as shocking, it is estimated that more than 50 percent of victims do not notify police. So just WHO are these people calling to resolve this matter???

If you notice, there are OTHER companies and financial institutions offering identity theft protection, as well as Pre-Paid Legal. The Identity Theft Shield will not stop identity theft from happening to others. But it will stop it from happening to YOU because of the REGULAR MONITORING of your credit report and IDENTITY RESTORATION, which is something NO ONE ELSE BUT PPL OFFERS!

I don't know you tell me...Kroll Worldwide, the World Leaders in Independent Risk Consulting, 30+ years of experience, over 1,600 former FBI, CIA, law enforcement and other agents, 9/11 - recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for the Bank of Nova Scotia from the World Trade Center, hired by the Kuwaiti government to recover assets hidden by Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf War, chosen by SEC to restructure Enron and monitoring of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Detroit Police Department..ya think these guys could actually help protect YOU?

Dave, not being a MLM person is okay. However, Not knowing what you are talking about is NOT okay. No one gets paid for recruiting Associates, only on the membership(s) sold. Pre-Paid Legal is also a debt-free company (something most people aren't)and is not going bankrupt anytime soon. Associates get paid in overrides on the sales of their organizations just as brokers in real estate and insurance do and they've been doing it for years and no one cares about that.

The PPL membership is a PREVENTATIVE plan, meaning you have it in place BEFORE something happens, not just WHEN it happens. It's just like your car insurance and home-owners insurance. It's best to have the PPL Plan and not need it than need it and not have it. Family matters such as divorce are covered under the 25 percent discount but phone calls and letters are FREE. Again, if someone WANTS to pay 100 percent of an attorney's fees...I LET THEM!

I encourage people to READ their contracts to see what exactly is covered in the memberships. For informational purposes, the Identity Theft Shield provides access to your credit report so as you can evaluate your credit standing, continuous credit monitoring so as suspicious activity will be brought to your attention, providing you with early detection AND identity restoration, where a trained expert will take the steps to restore your good name and credit for you.

>Dave - "So lets say you have a Identity theft happen do I need the PPL lawyers and the service.."

Here's a quick story and I'll close with this, My family and I were at a restaurant enjoying Thanksgiving in 2003. The waitress came over with our bill in a billfold. We thought she did a great job serving us so we tipped her $20. The bill was $100. A few days later my wife was doing some online banking and noticed the charge was for $180. My wife wanted to know if we gave the waitress more than $20. I couldn't remember and said maybe since it was a holiday. Well, we didn't call the police, we called the bank. The bank stopped the charge and contacted the restaurant who told them "we have a signed receipt." The bank called us back and informed us what the restaurant said and told us to honor the charge. We went to the restaurant and was shown a receipt that showed a falsified signature and a tip of $80. We tried using my wife's driver's license to prove the signature was false to no avail. The restaurant simply said "we have a signed receipt." The bank DID NOTHING but want us to honor the charge! We then called our law firm, who wrote a letter on our behalf to both the bank and the restaurant. Upon receiving the letter, both parties were more cooperative in wanting to investigate further and resolve the issue. The restaurant manager then and only then acknowledged that he suspected foul-play and promptly fired the waitress, and paid for a free dinner for us, gave us a $50 gift certificate and $65 in cash. Because of the letter from a law firm with a strong reputation in the statewide legal community for hard work, integrity and passionate representation of its clients, we were able to resolve this issue. This firm also enjoys an "AV" rating.

The "A" rating is for legal ability and takes into consideration experience, nature of practice and qualifications relevant to the profession. It places the firm in the very high to preeminent class. The "V" rating is for general ethical standards based upon embracing faithful adherence to professional standards of conduct and ethics of the legal profession, professional reliability and diligence, and standards relevant to the attorney's discharge of his or her professional responsibilities.

Remember, it's a CHOICE to have this type of law firm on your side, no one is begging nor convincing anyone to do this. If you have something better...stick with it!!

$35.95 to cover your assets!! Most people on this message board pay more than that for cable, alcohol. cigarettes, gym memberships (which most don't use yet still pay for), and bottled water on a monthly basis. How are you protecting yourselves against legal issues and identity theft without these memberships? Having these memberships gives us peace of mind. When legal problems and/or identity theft problems occur most people DO NOT know who to call. Having these memberships, I KNOW exactly who to call..but again, that's my CHOICE..!!

Lajon - Fairfield, CA
USA

It works and it works well

Dave,
I can usually be pretty patient with folks ignorance. Some folks just don't know and that's okay. I've had my membership for 2 years and I've been an Associate for just a little under that. You're wrong, and that's really all there is to say.
Sorry you don't "get it"... Got health Insurance? What a rip off that is..huh?..why don't you go pay off your credit cards with it instead.
PPL Associate... I don't DO credit. PPL pays me Money...really good passive income cash money...wooo hooo I like OWNING what I buy...Thanks!
Don't insult my company, because you really have NO clue what you're talking about.

Listen to Tim , let me reiterate my position on PPL

With all of the rhetoric and bluser I have seen on all sides here, I thought I would refocus the discussing by point out Tim's very appropriate commentary on PPL:

"And now let me reiterate my position on PPL. Product: good, as long as the providers keep up their end of the deal; Opportunity: not quite sure, it's basically a pyramid scheme, which have enormous failure rates, but I haven't seen any raw data to suggest either way."

The value of any PPL plan is related directly the quality of the plans. It might be beneficials for some people and others might be able to get the same or better details searching for an attorney on their own. In some case, I can offer services at the same or better price than you could get on a PPL plan. In some cases, you can't get any decent quality for what you might be charges on a PPL plan. In other cases, you might not be able to beat the price of legal services under a PPL plan.

It's a little like buying a car. I'm partial to Ford myself and I've never had anything but good experiences with Ford vehicles. But Ford can make a lemon and there are people who have had very frustrating experiences with Ford. Do I have any hard data that Ford is better then Chevy or Chrysler beyond my personal experiences? No. I just like Fords better and I think Ford's vehicles are more styish than the others.

The bottom line: be a cautious, skeptical consumer and do lots of comparison shopping.

The truth (to Jay and all)

In response to Jay. I said that there are credit monitoring services available for less money than PPL is offering it to. Obviously you are nit picking my writing and putting writing about things that I did not say.

Equifax offers credit monitoring with $20,000 ins. for $99.00 a year.

Experian has this for 9.95

compared to PPL; " the cost for the Identity Theft Shield is just $9.95 per month if you have a Pre-Paid Legal membership, or $12.95 per month if you prefer to enroll in the Identity Theft Shield without the legal service plan benefits"

You are not the only service in town.

So, You say they make no money on associates sign up fee of $249.00.

Here is an interesting note from the SEC filing. "Since approximately 95% of membership fees are collected on a monthly basis, a significant cash flow deficit loss is created at the time a membership is sold. This deficit is reduced as monthly membership fees are remitted and no additional commissions are paid on the membership until all previous unearned advance commission balances have been fully recovered."

Herer is a point I must make that is borderline pyramid. The company uses assocaties to sell memberships. You can not sign up withuot an associate selling you a membership. So without the sales force of associates PPL would have to find a new way to sell memberships like a call center.

Now what about nor revenue from assocates? What about this statement made to the SEC; "Associate services revenue decreased 13% from $7.5 million for the first three months of 2003 to $6.6 million during the comparable period of 2004 primarily as a result of approximately 50% fewer new associates recruited. Total new associates enrolled during the first quarter of 2004 were 14,774 compared to 29,755 for the same period of 2003. As a result of the 50% lower overall recruiting, associate fees decreased 16% from $4.5 million for the first three months of 2003 to $3.8 million during the comparable period of 2004. Future revenues from associate services will depend primarily on the number of new associates enrolled, the price charged for the Fast Start program and the number who choose to participate in the Company's eService program, but the Company expects that such revenues will continue to be largely offset by the direct and indirect cost to the Company of training providing associate services and other direct marketing expenses."

Finally I end with this note from last years annual report; "The Company is dependent upon the success of its marketing force. The Company's principal method of product distribution is through multi-level marketing. The success of a multi-level marketing force is highly dependent upon the Company's ability to offer a commission and organizational structure and sales training and incentive program that enable sales associates to recruit and develop other sales associates to create an organization. There are a number of other products and services that use multi-level marketing as a distribution method and the Company must compete with these organizations to recruit, maintain and grow its multi-level marketing force. In order to do so, the Company may be required to increase its marketing costs through increases in commissions, sales incentives or other features, all of which could adversely affect the Company's future earnings. In addition, the level of confidence of the sales associates in the Company's ability to perform is an important factor in maintaining and growing a multi-level marketing force. Adverse financial developments concerning the Company, including negative publicity or common stock price declines, could adversely affect the ability of the Company to maintain the confidence of its sales force."

So, I ask you all now what. These are not words but the words of the company.

To put it blantly they can not operate with out associate.

To Jay I think it is time to be quiet because this is the truth.

Another know it all "Dave"

If you own a Business Dave you have to buy supplies don't you? I here so many experts complaining about business expenses of buying materials. Sorry Dave with any business you have to spend some money. That doesn't make it bad does it? PPL doesn't make money on the start up Fee...have you seen what you get in your New Associate package? You haven't have you? Well until you actually see the CD's DVD's Training Material and Books and tapes that you get,you can't pretend to know it all. As for "there's no need for The Pre-Paid Legal Membership and Identity Theft Shield". You should tell that Mr. Dave to the 1.6+ Million and I say Million Members who pay their membership on a Volunteer basis. No contracts. The second largest requested employee Benefit in the USA. Dave are you starting to see how little you know? Several States have PPL as an Employee Benefit and tons of Major corporations do too. (They said the same thing about health care when it first came out)Our Identity Theft Shield is provided by KROLL Worldwide. The leading risk Management Company in the world. Over 2,000 employees and 61 offices in 19 countries.Credit is Monitored everyday.(Everyday) How often are you going to check your credit. Once a month? Dave a professional thief can assume your Identity in just a few hours. How is your once a year credit checking going to help? If someone tries to open an account under your name you will be contacted. $25,000 worth of insurance on the back end provided by AIG. (No deductable) for any expenses you have as a result of the theft.Dave it's only $9.95 with your PPL membership or $12.95 stand alone. 27.3 million number of victoms in the U.S.A in the last 5 years

Jennifer, maybe I can help you

Feel free to Skype me at questarthews and I will see if I can answer any questions you may have or point you in a direction that can help. Don't worry, I won't try to recruit you, but I may be able to help you decide.

As you see, this company isn't for everyone, but for those who are serious, and enjoy helping others, it can be great.

As for the above point about stealing your sale LaMonte, they cannot steal something you were not entitled to. Now once they put that customer under the correct plan, they should have put her under you.

I have given sales away to people that are not on my team because I am not licensed in their state, but because the customer needed help NOW, it was far better to get them that help then to worry about how I could profit from it.

As far as the cancellation issues, I haven't had those problems. That type of problem does exist in many places, that does not make it a scam. By the way, have you sent in the cancellation form? You may have already said it above, but if not, you may want to ask about it. You generally need to send in a cancellation request.

Good luck.

Tracy

Next time just ask

Okay. While the personal attack might be a bit much, I will gladly share more information with you all to clearify these new issues.

1. On the grounds that I stated divorce, bankruptcy and domestic disputes are criminal acts -- This was NEVER stated in ANY of my comments. "To those who are upset that Prepaid Legal does not cover the most common legal situations(i.e. DUI, DWI, Divorce, Bankruptcy, Domestic dispute, assault, Drugs, ect.) completely" This is addressing the people who were concerned with these particular legal problems. "Again Prepaid Legal was not set up as a way for criminals to recieve top level representation for a low monthly cost." This, the beginning of this portion of my comment is a statement that does not point out any individual crime, and was not meant to imply that divorces, bankruptcy or other common legal problems are criminal in any way. "The fact is there are more divorces going on now than ever before, drugs are out of control, drunk drivers kill people, bakruptcy has become an excuse for people to spend more than they could ever make and suffer no repricutions for it." This comment was meant to explain VERY BRIEFLY why I BELIEVE - me; myself; why I believe; I am not speaking for the entire company here - that these areas are not fully covered under the plan. The simple fact is that people who get divorces and file for bankruptcy might have made mistakes, as I said, as people we are all prone to them, and may be trying to correct themselves. However, with the bankruptcy and divorce rates being the highest they've been in thirty years there are simply too many people who are playing the system. It's sad and I wish we would cover these areas, but until we, as a country stop abusing these areas of law it is not feasible. Now, as for domestic disputes, if the situation has gone far enough to require legal council, outside of a restraining order, or the police are involved typically, they are criminal offense, and people do go to jail. This isn't always the case, as there are always exeptions to the rule, but MOST of the time they do end with criminal charges being pressed.

2. Concerning the 25% discount -- I NEVER hid the fact that Prepaid Legal only gives a 25% discount in legal situations that fall outside the other areas of coverage. As for civil suits, however, please refer to my previous statement to view the coverage in that area. If you are talking about you personally filing a civil suit please refer to my previous statement, its a mute point, many attorneys will take the case under the condition that they only recieve compensation if they win, unless, of course, they believe the case to be frivolous. Moving on!

3. Concerning AFFORDABLE legal representation -- The word affordable should not even be paired with "legal representation" unless the prefix "un-" is applied. However, on average one should consider anything between $150 an hour to $200 an hour affordable in MOST situations. Now prices do vary according to the severity of the situation and what area of law the that particular situation falls under. Working at a private law school, I have found that attorneys tend to charge upwards of $200 to $250 an hour, and these are not the best attorneys you can get. 92% of Prepaid Legal's provider attorney's are AV rated which means they are at the top of their field and cannot get any better. so to rebut the question of what affordable legal representation would cost I would like to know how much you would have paid to have Johnny Cochran (a member of our Tennessee firm before passing away), or Michael Moore (a current member of our Mississippi firm, and the lead negotiator in the tobacco settlement) defending you and your family? $150 to $200 for people like this is as affordable as it gets!

4. Concering the statement that the company lies about affordable legal coverage under its 25% discount -- No. The company does not lie, it is the responsibility of every associate to make sure that this is clearly pointed out as people will not be fully covered for areas not outlined under the other titles of the plans. It is right there for you in black and white on every flier and brochure, the web page, and is stated on every recorded media that the company produces. Also, the is no arguing that the cost of an attorney will still be high even with 25% off, but the question is: "would you rather find your own attorney and pay full price or have the best for less?" It's a simple matter of opinion, if it was your mother, or your son going to trial you would do everything in your power, sell off everything you own in order to make sure that they had legal representation this discount is only there to help in those situations. It's just like a copay with your health insurance, if you need a medical procedure, whether it be setting a bone in your arm or open heart surgery, you're going to pay, and you're going to pay big. No insurance of any kind anywhere will cover everything completely, if you find one that does, let me know, I'll be at the front row of your meeting. Most insurance is of a preventitive nature, just like Prepaid Legal, it's meant to stop the fire before it gets out of control. Same as Healthcare, you need a consultation or need to go to readicare then it's covered, but there are some areas of coverage that you have to flip the biggest part of the bill for, sorry it's life, people want to get paid and professionals that have been in school for 7+ years REALLY want to get paid.

5. Concerning public defenders, pro-bono attorneys and payment plans -- There is a ratio that I have learned from working at the law school and speaking with the attorneys teaching the courses: 80% of their income comes from 20% of their clients. The very wealthy can afford to pay their attorneys, everyone knows it. The very poor can recieve public defender and the attorney will recieve his/her pay from the government, however be prepared to review your case with the attorney 10 minutes before your case starts because this is the common practice. No, you will not recieve a public defender for any areas outside of criminal charges, however, you can find pro-bono attorneys for most other areas, check in your community and on the web, there are several different programs to help the lower income families find cheap or free representation. Payment plans are set up by the attorney and whether or not to practice giving clients payment plans options is completely up to the law firm, these can be hard to find in some areas, other areas, not so hard. For middle class income earners, however, forget it! There is no legal aid, you have to fend for yourselves, take out loans, sell off everything you own, ect. Prepaid Legal is only trying to alleviate some of the hardship you will have to endure in situations not covered under the other areas of coverage.(I hope I addressed the concerns in this particular area please ask a more clearly defined question if I did not, I'd be happy to Explain more if you need it.)

6. In regards to the poor lady that was involved in a fatal case of Medical Identity Theft -- Perhaps I did not clearly state what happened. I appologize. As I DID say the lady's medical identity was stolen and the person responsible for her stealing her medical ID had blood test done on themselves in the woman's name. This would stand to imply that her medical ID was stolen long before she was admitted as it can take several weeks for results to come back on blood tests. She had her medical insurance card stolen, not her clipboard in the hospital, hospital staff did not tamper with her files, a criminal STOLE her identity, did not tamper with it or switch it for someone else's STOLE it and used it in a malicious crime that ended the lady's life. When something is added to your medical file, it follows you wherever you go. It is entered into a national database and any hospital that you are admitted to can access it. That is why the doctors gave her the wrong blood type. It is not the fault of the hospital as an entity or of the doctors involved it is in fact the fault of the person who stole and used the lady's medical insurance. The can be charges filed against the hospital for negligent homicide and law suits filed naming the doctors involved and the hospital as defendants, while the suits might hold ground, I doubt the plaintiff could win that particular case, and the charges would also probably be dropped as it was the activity of an individual functioning outside the hospital with no known connection to it or its employees who caused the death of the young lady. " Why mention it. Pre-paid legal is not going to help you in this situation either because as you stated you would be a discrace to sue the hospital for not protecting someones medical records." This comment, of course was made in connection to the one I had previously made about CITIBank. First I would like to point out that I mean no disrespect to that company, I respect its practices and hope it goes forward to have obtain the utmost success. Second I would like to agree with you. Prepaid Legal would not be the one to help you in this particular case, instead it would be an affiliate company, Kroll,INC. This is the company that deals with the side of our plan covering Identity Theft, they would help in this situation.

7. Concerning the final parts of the statement to which this rebuttal is directed -- "Of course if you did not know you might be able to also get an attorney for free that would not charge you up front if you had a solid case. Since the defendant would pay you fees." Please see my previous comment and note that I stated this exact argument there, and whole heartedly agree. Prepaid Legal will not press a suit for you, but, as I stated in my last comment, Most attorneys will work on the basis that you only pay if the case is decided in your favor. Good call on that Dave but please take the time to read the ENTIRE comment next time just to be sure that you are not reitterating what I've already said.(I mean for absolutely no offense to be taken on your part, I am mearly making a statement and do not mean to insult you, I value the opinions of everyone who has something to say and you certainly raise some good points that should be addressed and I thank you for giving me that opportunity to do just that. I just hope I am answering any questions you all may have clearly, and I appologize if I am not.)--- "What I see all the time here are associates that think they are attorneys. I am not one either but I know the law and I know what is possible." Please... Allow me to clearify. I AM NOT AN ATTORNEY. I am an indepentant associate of Prepaid Legal Services, INC. I do, however, know the law as well, Dave, and, though I could be wrong, I am willing to bet I probably know more about it, and have more insight into it than most who are not attorneys. Again I work at a law school, I am an associate of Prepaid Legal, my life is filled with legal jargin on a daily basis, and I do study the law in my down time at the office. Please, I am asking you, as a matter of personal respect for others, not to personalize your comments in order to insult or degrade the associates of Prepaid Legal simply because you have a personal vendetta against our company. As for Prepaid Legal's associates: those of us who are not attorneys say that proudly, and simply say that we are brokers for the people who DO have their Juris Doctorates.

I appreciate the opportunity to address these issues and urge anyone with questions of concerns about the company that have not been addressed previously to contact me via e-mail at jeremyd_33@prepaidlegal.com to carry on further correspondance. I will gladly answer anything I can and try to find the answers to anything I don't know about, or that I am unsure about. Again, thank you for you time.

Here's to YOUR success!
Jeremy

The Facts are actually stacked against Pre-Paid Legal being something that everyone needs.

Close to half of the memberships that are sold are cancelled within a year's time. How many associates are told this when they are recruited, considering they'll have to pay a chargeback if they are making advance commission?

Pre-Paid Legal has been around for 33 years and still has yet to become a mainstream product.

Pre-Paid legal sells about 750,000 plans every year, but almost as many plans are cancelled in the same time, which is why the 1.6 million members Jay brags about, isn't as impressive when you realize that this number has been about the same for years now.

If Pre-Paid Legal were to suddenly stop marketing memberships the number of scale down to about 500,000 within 2-3 year's time.

It's a numbers game with Pre-Paid. The reason they use Network Marketing is because this allows them to recruit salespeople in bucketloads. The more they recruit, the higher number of gifted salespeople they will find in the mix. Those cream of the crop top 10% salespeople will sell about 90% of the memberships. The majority will never make a sale, and a small minority will turn up with mixed results, often times selling it to their friends and family—that's the idea behind using warm leads.

In fact, Pre-Paid was actually struggling until switching over to Network marketing.

The advantages of being a Network Marketing company include but are not limited to;
-Associates are not entitled to the same rights as employees as they are contractors and in many cases, including this one, unlike the associate, the company can change the terms of the contract at their discretion.
-Associates cover the costs that the company would typically have to cover ie. Not having to pay for advertising as you have hundreds of thousands of associates doing all of the footwork
-Pre-Paid does not have to pay the associates who can't or don't sell. Despite what the Network Marketing Robots will tell you, not everyone can be a salesperson. We each have our own individual talents and weaknesses.
-The more associates there are, the more warm leads (friends, family, acquaintances, co-workers) the company has at their disposal. It's easier to sell to a warm market than a cold one.
-The associate takes on the brunt of the chargeback on cancelled memberships. So even if someone cancelled because they decided the service was lacking, unneeded, or were disappointed by the customer support, the associate takes the financial blame for the cancellation (and there are many).

The bottom line is CHECK YOUR FACTS!

If someone tells you that “the former vice president of prestigious company X says Pre-Paid is a great company” as what this person's name is and where you can verify the endorsement.

If someone gives a vague paraphrase of a supposed endorsement in a publication, ask to see a copy of the column or article.

And remember, many seemingly prestigious positions are something that can be paid for.

Do your due diligence on Robert Kiyosaki. The Network Marketing drones tout his book but some questions have been raised as to how the man came to money. Some have gone as far to say that he made his money from the books he has sold, which tell people how to make money, and that until he aligned himself with Network Marketing companies, his books were going nowhere. Think about the obvious relationship: Kiyosaki endorses NWM every chance he gets; he speaks up at their conventions, and mentions them in his book. The NWM companies themselves recommend his book to their bodies of salespeople which is easily in the millions, and when they purchase the book, they read about his endorsement of NWM. It's a symbiotic relationship.

Here are some more facts regarding misstatements that have been made;

Pre-Paid is similar to the HMO, whereby it was scarcely accepted until hitting that 2% penetration mark, whereupon it met with great success and became a widely used service.

But HMOs hit their 2% within 15 years on the market. After 33 years on the market, Pre-Paid is still struggling to reach that mark.

I've also heard it said that new technology always takes awhile before gaining wide acceptance. Again, what ‘new' technology took more than 30 years to gain widespread acceptance?

USAToday article stating that Pre-Paid Legal looks like the HMO industry before becoming what it is now. What does that mean? Has anyone read the actual article and read it in context?

Enron was also on the NYSE

There have been as many negative articles on Pre-Paid as there have been positive ones.

One attorney made the accusation that the average associate only makes about $2 a week after paying for sales materials. If you take the total money associates earn in sales and divide it by the number of associates and then subtract it by the amount associates paid in sign up and marketing tools, that just might be correct. If anyone has access to these numbers, it may be worth your while to do this math and post it.

The idea that people really need the service but don't know it flies in the face of all of the services that are being successfully sold. Why did it only take 15 years for people to KNOW they needed HMOs yet after 33 years people still don't realize how much they need Pre-Paid Legal?

Does Pre-Paid giive you real legal power

While I have checked into this service, I wonder to myself what if I have to go to court. What will I be paying and an I afford it.

For instance, if I want to go further than a letter that is written to someone and I have to take action in court.

Can I myself or anyone reading this afford the $100.00 or more an hour plus the retainer downpayment for attorney to even begin to work for you.

Letters can only get you so far. Then there is the thought to myself. If I stop using attorneys to write a letter to places where I could accomplish this all myself I would save 26$ a month. For instace the faulty reporting of a credit card. There are laws in place to make them report the correct info.

It just kind of makes me wonder what the... when I read stories that I used the pre-paid attorney to do "X" when you could have done it yourself for free. An attorney is a big step and should be your last resort not a first.

Further more. Pre-Paid legal wants consumers to belive that many people are spending countless hours on taking care of ID theft.

First, they are using a 2003 statistics. Which is from a survey of a few hundred people whom had some bad situations that were extreem.

there are newer recent serveys from Javelin strategies that can be found on the web or ordered from them that continue a survey of people. These numbers show that most people do not have no expense and if there is one it is very small. The information contained in the survey is very interesting.

What you are paying for with the ID theft is 2 things a credit monitoring service which is not a service that is a one of a kind as pre-paid feels it is. And also a service that you fill out a power of attorney to pay someone else to manage your case of ID theft. So instead of you spending the time if any needed to call your credit cards etc. Then they do it all for you. They call everywhere and also they do some other checks trying make sure your ID was not compromised.

There are many companies that noww provide the same services together as pre-paid does. So they are not a one of a kind.

More resposes

Tracey stated" In the last several months millions of ID's have been stolen. 17 (or 27) million at one time if I remember correctly."

Just because that information from a company was stolen does not mean that an ID theft has occured against you. If it did then you should be able to sue that company.

All it means is that the information was obtained not used yet.

Furthermore, as we look at this from the company 10K.

"However, a substantial number of vested associates do not continue to market the Membership, as they are not required to do so in order to continue to be vested. During 2005, we had 103,248 sales associates who personally sold at least one Membership, of which 61,238 (59%) made first time sales. During 2004 and 2003 we had 79,716 and 84,207 sales associates producing at least one Membership sale, respectively, of which 41,699 (52%) and 45,920 (55%), respectively, made first time sales. During 2005, we had 11,221 sales associates who personally sold more than ten Memberships compared to 9,895 and 10,685 in 2004 and 2003, respectively. A substantial number of our sales associates market our Memberships on a part-time basis only. For the year 2005, new sales associates enrolled increased 125% to 242,223 with an average enrollment fee of $57 from the 107,552 enrolled in 2004 with an average enrollment fee of $142."

If this is true. They is it for the most part a buisness opprotunity. I have seen some posters here make claims of incomes for instance 700$ a month by one person. This would be at more than one sale a month atleast. So, what I am being told is that the people on this board are part of the 11,221 sales associates who personally sold more than ten Memberships in 2005? Who knows.

Over One Million Families will Sleep Better Tonight

All of THIS over, $35.95 per month, with a one-time $10.00 enrollment fee...!!

Naysayers are going to the 10k reports (which the company INVITES people to do), to justify their position on WHY they will not spend that amount of money and WHY they don't need the membership(s) nor get involved as an Associate. It's better to focus on the negative aspects on network marketing, so as to justify being afraid of trying something new and working out of their comfort zone. One thing I do know is that naysayers against network marketing don't know the law which is why they are SLOW to mention what THEY do for a living and they don't know the difference between a pyramid scheme and a legitimate network marketing company. Also, what makes these people such experts at reading a 10k report or financial statement? Contrary to what naysayers argue, after years of skepticism, the investment community is finally waking up to the viability of direct selling as a good investment opportunity. Also, the direct selling force is huge; it is now a legion of 49 million individuals GLOBALLY. And those ranks are swelling rapidly as 475,000 enlist each week. THAT article was in Fortune Magazine, August 9, 2004!

Automobile Insurance, Home-Owners Insurance, Life Insurance and Health Insurance.

Did anyone of the naysayers, go to those company's 10k reports, look for positive and/or negative articles or message boards PRIOR to buying these plans OR did they simply take the word of the salesperson because they HAVE to have these insurances as it is the law AND the companies are well-known.

PPL is held under such a microscope and shouldn't have to justify WHY people need its products and services beyond what other companies offering similiar products do, people trying to get ahead in life SEE the need for these products and services and quite simply those not trying to get ahead in life DO NOT. However, since PPL is the Market Leader and Pioneer in this arena, PPL knows it will come under fire by naysayers/short-sellers and welcomes the challenge! Some people still don't have all of those insurances (auto, home, life, health) and are operating outside of the law, especially when it comes to automobile insurance. Not, having automobile insurance is not stopping some people from driving! However, NOT having medical insurance is seen as being not too smart. WHY? If no one needs these insurance plans AND people cancel them as well, YET people STILL get them. WHY? Soon, having some form of legal insurance will be law.

The Timing - History shows that when an industry hits a 2 percent market penetration, critical mass can be achieved. The growth of HMO's - It took 10 years for HMO's to reach 2 percent market penetration. After that, it took just seven more years to reach 52 percent market penetration. Less than 2 percent of North Americans have a Pre-Paid Legal Services Membership and approximately 80 percent of Europeans have legal coverage! WHY IS THAT???

Would having the USAToday article in hand, make anyone purchase the PPL membership(s)?? I doubt it!

Since the naysayers on this message board have so much to say against PPL, I would like to know just how they are protecting themselves, their families and businesses against legal problems and/or identity theft. Have they asked their employers whether or not they have these types of benefits available to employees? Just how proactive are these naysayers/shortsellers on protecting themselves, families and businesses against legal and/or identity theft problems?

Remember it is a CHOICE to have these memberships, if you have something BETTER, then stick with it!!

Dave

Dave,

You're right, that doesn't mean your ID has been stolen. However when, in your opinion, is it best to get yourself some protection? Before, or after you have been made a victim?

The thing that generally distinguishes our service from the rest is that in one package, you get the monitoring as well as the restoration services.

The great thing about it is that you have a choice. You can use our service, you can use another service, or you can do it on your own. But that is pretty much true of everything else out there in this world.

For example, I have a background in restaurants. I can make my favorite dishes should I choose to do so and have the same experience (as far as taste) at home as I would in a restaurant. However I prefer to actually go out and pay someone else to do it for me. I'm a bit on the lazy side so not needing to do all the grunt work is a benefit I am willing to pay for.

Now I am sure you are aware that I can go out and pay more for one meal for my wife and I then I would pay for a whole year worth of this service and many would not blink an eye. Yet people continue to come here and question the value of paying for a service that can save them plenty of time and potentially money.

By the way, I digested that meal already in the time it took me to write this out.

As far as those who get in the business and do not sell anything, that is going to be true for most as well. You can't make someone work once they sign up. For those who have jobs, doing this business, no matter how beneficial in the long run, is something most just will not bring themselves to do.

Many if not most, seem to keep their membership though, because although they didn't actually get started, they seem to see the value of the service.

That is of course except for those who only joined because of big money dreams.


The trouble as I see it is that too many get in thinking about recruiting. While that is a good way to build a passive income, most people are not good or willing at recruiting. I am one of them.

I have however found that their are many people looking for the service. As I mentioned before, I work from leads and I let the people know exactly what the membership will do for them in relation to their current need.

If it is only going to get them a consultation and then the discount, they know that up front. They also know that they are able to ask specific questions to find out what they can do themselves.

I just received an email from a member who is very happy. She was happy because although the letter did not help, it took her to the next step and the law firm told her exactly what to expect next and what to do in response.

She has qualified advice to get her through her problem, and should she need it and choose to go that route, she will have discounted services.

Again, her choice, just as it is everyone else's as to whether they want or need to service.

Just as the business is not for everyone, neither is the service.

To address the pay, well that was sorta covered above, most don't take the time to work it, so why would they get paid? That's the beauty of the MLM system. Those who work, get paid, and those who don't, don't.

I am not making tons of money, but since I found how to work focused on the customer, I have made as much last month as I did all last year. To be clear, I made as much in PPL income last month as I made in PPL income last year.

This will only compound, and now that I know how, will compound pretty quickly. All my own work and customers, not any down line.

Maybe this will make you more comfortable with the associate to member ratio. But give me a year or two, it will take me time to change that ;)

That is why I put my Skype name up, because I know many new associates read this as well. I am more then happy to point them in the right direction if they need it. It may help them, or it may not. But the info is there.

Tracy

Use your common sense

I have to laugh as I read many of these postings claiming that Prepaid Legal is a rip off, both the business and the membership.

I wish I could dispel much of the angry rubbish that is being strewn about, but hey there will always be folks who complain. That's just what they do.

Here's my view. If you think that you are going to start your own business and then sit back and watch the money roll in as you sip margaritas and swing in your hammock, then you are dreaming. Starting any business takes hard work, determination and an investment of time and money. If you aren't willing to do that, then fine go get a job, but don't blame the company for your failure. Stop pointing the finger and start jerking the thumb.

As far as the membership goes...again a bunch of folks complaining wanting something for nothing.
Do you expect to use your medical insurance for brain surgery and not have to pay anything out of pocket? Please people, come on. The membership covers most preventive legal services under the membership for no extra cost. In some states trial services are covered as well. Anyone who thinks that anything will cover them entirely for every thing under the sun again is dreaming.

The service works great for most things and has helped my wife and I out many times. If I needed to hire an attorney, I would expect to have to pay for one and I would feel better knowing I was using a good lawyer and getting a discount instead of using my uncle Bob or the guy out of the phone book.

Pre-paid is not an only type of buisness

I have searched the web for credit restoral services. I found these sites to have the same bundle. Credit monitoring and restoral service.

(((link ROR redacted))) $69.95 per person, per year cheaper than PPD. There are others if you look.

Also you stated most people keep thier membership. If this is so what percentage is "most".

Per the companies 10K 50% of members are canceling thier membership every year. I would at the end of a 3yr. period you are left with about 20% of those people who started thier membership 3yrs ago. Meaning that Most people do not keep thier membership.

Lets look at this. will pre-paid legal really defend my speeding ticket if, these exemptions exist.

Under Motor Vehicles it says,
-"unmeritorious cases are excluded."
-"do not include the filing of a lawsuit"

What do these mean?

But I also ask this, the attorney might give you advice but they are not going to go to court with you. For instance, They can not represent you in small claims. So if you are suing for less than a few thousand that is small claims. Then there is the fact that because most people can not afford a huge retainer up front most of the time. Or they save up for it. They put off things.

It seems to me that Pre-Paid's claim to that fact that they are making access to attorneys just as if you have one working 24hours a day for you like they are on staff for you is somewhat skewed. I can ask my attorney friends for advice all the time. Will they go to court unless I pay them maybe, but probably not. Same here.

You do get what you get for 26$ free consultation over the phone. Most attorneys will see you for free up front for free so you can meet them and they can make an assesment of your case and meet you.

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

ID theft info for the record

Here is more information per the javelin report for 2006 ID theft.

Major Findings
For the second year in succession the occurrences of identity fraud continue to decline. In the last twelve months, 8.9 million American adults (4.0% of US adult population)
became victims of identity fraud, an 11.9% decrease from 2003. Meanwhile, the average
fraud amount per victim has increased substantially (21.6%) to $6,383 since 2003. As a
result of fewer victims but larger average costs, the annual amount of identity fraud has
remained essentially unchanged at $56.6 billion, a 6.4% (statistically non-significant1)
increase from 2003. Because the majority of financial institutions do not hold victims
responsible for identity fraud, there is a substantial difference between average fraud
amounts and average consumer costs. Most victims (68%) continue to incur no costs
related to their fraud cases, while average consumer costs have declined by 24% to
$422. The average resolution time for resolving fraud cases has increased substantially,
from 33 hours in 2003 to 40 hours in 2006.Stolen paper mail and fraudulent address changes
Represent 8% of cases where the identity fraud victim can categorize how their
Information was obtained.


information stolen from the garbage is
the least costly at $0 to the consumer

A new survey category shows that the use of credit reports and credit monitoring
services was successful in uncovering fraud in 11% of cases. The average detection
time of 172 days indicates that more consumers are taking advantage of free legally
mandated annual reports, rather than utilizing credit monitoring services which would be
expected to have shorter detection times. The average consumer cost for resolving this
category of fraud is $264.


Lost or stolen wallet,
checkbook, or credit
card, 30%

By friends,
acquaintances,
relatives or in-home
employees, 15%

For the third consecutive year, most victims (68%) continue to incur no consumer costs
related to their fraud cases7. Furthermore, in the last 12 months, the average consumer
cost has declined by 37% to $422. These costs, which are directly paid by the
consumer, may include such items as postage, photocopying, fees (e.g., notary, legal)
and the payment of fraudulent debts.

In all, 5,000 consumers, representative of the U.S. population, were interviewed via a
standardized 44-question telephone survey to develop more accurate and actionable
insight into this pervasive and costly crime.
The polling yielded interviews with 529 fraud victims. For comparison, the Javelin's 2005
Identity Fraud Survey Report reached 507 victims and the FTC's 2003 Identity Theft
Survey Report reached approximately 433 fraud victims. After weighting the responses
to standardize to national demographics,8 the 2006 survey's computed number of victims
interviewed was 505 compared to the 2005 survey's 509 victims and 2003 survey's 514
victims.


So this is all information that is something to think about.

Credit Monitoring VS Prepaid Legal ID Theft

Yes people are right there are many services that monitor your credit and then report back to you if something is unlawful. However these companies such as Discover, Amex, Sears, etc offering MONITORING services.

MONITORING EXAMPLE: You are at work. A call is made from your Monitoring service. Hello Sir, we are monitoring your house now and we can see that burglars have entered your home and are stealing everything. We can see them doing it as I am talking to you. You say: Well.. can you call the police? Can you catch them? MONITORING SERVICE? Sir, no? We don't catch them we MONITOR them. We will send you a kit in the mail to take care of it. Good Luck Sir, have a good day.

Prepaid Legal & ID Theft: You are at work. A call is made from your monitoring and restoration service. Sir, just wanted to let you know someone was doing something unlawful to your credit report. Sir, we caught them. Sir, let us help you and walk you through the procedure on how to get your ID restored.

Which do you prefer a kit or a licensed ID Theft agent helping you?

the independant associates who practice unscupulous recruiting are the ones who give the company a bad name

I have read numerous reports about the company, what I have come to realize is that the independant associates who practice unscupulous recruiting are the ones who give the company a bad name. The Associate that has not paid you for your service is the one who you should go after and not prepaidlegal. We are independant from the company. The product is a good product unfortuately it is the geed of some people that hurt the company. Personally I don't care about the money, I am more interested in helping people. I am sorry for the single mother who did not have proper transportation, if she was in my group we would have assited her until she got on her feet. If someone tells you that you can make money with little or no effort, that is scam. success can only come through hard work and determination. Also, read, read, read.

Re: Prepaid Legal Ripoff

First, let me start out by stating that I am a pawnbroker. People try to sell me things every day, and everybody has got a story. When a 20-something kid came in to my pawn shop and asked whether I needed a Pre-Paid Legal policy, I was skeptical, to say the least, but I didn't have any customers standing around, so what the heck?

To make a long story short, I bought a policy, then signed up to sell it myself. I have found that Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. does a great job in what they say they will provide. As my trainer told me, "Is everything covered? Yes. Is everything free? No." If you get yourself in a situation with divorce, child support, drugs or alcohol, your coverage is not free and that should have been explicitly pointed out when you signed up for the policy.

Do I like the fact that PPLS is multi-level marketing? No. Do I like having "big-city lawyers" in my pocket? Yes. Anybody who is in business for themselves, or who has a concealed-carry permit for a gun, NEEDS this policy.

I've sold a few policies to friends and family members, those who I thought could use it, but have generally not tried to sign up other associates under me. Heck, I get paid $100 every time I sell a policy anyway, so I'd rather just sit back and collect my money rather than diddling with the whole "upline, downline" sort of thing. I'm not a big one for the "hooraw, you could be a millionaire next year" type of line, but I know what puts money in my pocket, and I know that, in a small town, I cannot afford to sell my customers a junk policy--I'd be out of business in a couple of months.

Know it all Dave

I ask you Dave....What company do you own that all of us PPL Associates can critique???? You own nothing do you? John Adison said "never take advice from anyone more screwed up than you"! Makes sense doesn't it? Paul J. Myer is a Billionaire and PPL Associate. Who should we listen to? Dave,Tim..... or Paul J Myer? hmmmm

Comment on Pre-paid Legal

I was introduced to Pre-paid Legal last June. I attended a Private Buisness Reception for a friend to support him in his new "buisness." I was skeptical when we, the guests, were shown a video of how other people (from all aspects of life) were now millionaires from becoming involved in this network marketing buisness. Very little of the reception explained how pre-paid legal works for the consumer. Most of the attention was focused on how to get rich. After the video was over, another pre-paid legal associate passed out the applications and we were asked to get out our checkbooks so that we too could get on the road to success. (We would be crazy to pass up this opportunity.) I politely passed the application back and simply said I was not interested but I witnessed other guests, who are not as out spoken as myself, felt pushed into it.

Several days later, after looking deeper into the company and how it could work for the average person, I signed up for the pre-paid legal services only. I must admit, I am extremely satisfied with what my $17.00 a month has provided me. I have been in sales for many years.

Although I am an experienced salesperson, I am not one to go out looking to make sales on my PERSONAL time. I am not cut from that cloth, but some people are.

The services that Pre-Paid Legal provides are 100% worth the money you pay for it...IF YOU USE IT!!! READ the literature provided! It has paid for itself over & over since I've had it.

You Grow or you Vanish

I have read all of these comments and see both sides... so to speak. Pre-paid Legal is a Company that has already proven itself. Anyone that thinks it to be magical and all you do is pay 249.00 and viola you're rich I have a beatiful plot of property I'd like to sell you for cheap in FL in the beatiful Everglades. Any business venture has it's risks plain and simple but Pre-Paid Legal is risk free. YOU HAVE 30 DAYS TO GET YOUR MONEY BACK RISK FREE. When you have opportunity before you you must work and work hard to make a huge sum of money or you can just look at your kit let it collect dust and blame everyone but yourself. If there is no market for the product in your area (hard to imagine) then get your money back period and live pay check to paycheck... do your training read your material and follow the instructions and make 2 or 5x what you originally invested in 2 weeks or one month. I love the monies I've received and I've met the greatest men in PPL... I am fortunate to be in such an organization and any day I can go out and make 125.00 250.00 or 1,000 Bucks or do nothing and make nothing. I'm from NJ so I choose to make money... What would you like to do?

Regarding PPL Issues

As for the company that filed this report against Pre Paid Legal Services, Inc. - it will go no where as ALL sales associates are Independent Contractors - therefore they are individually responsible for their actions. If the company contacted PPL I can assure you they took actions (probably termination) of this individual. There are strict rules as to what we are allowed to do and it is a very ethical company.

As you can see I said I was an Individual, that is the correct way to respond in this situation. I am not an Employee but and Independent Sales Associate. They have allowed me to represent their products and pay me for sales of such. I am liable for my representation of this company and it's products! I will only make money when I actively inform the public and they purchase a plan! If I sit at home and do nothing, I make nothing. That makes sense to me! I have always received payment immediately without a problem.

As for sales tools, you do not have to spend a ton of money for them. For every sale you are sent 10 items (brochures, etc...)of your choice. Your initial fee pays for the person training you , your materials and the location. Not to mention the startup material so that you can make your money back quickly! It is not free and frankly if people don't have money invested they usually don't put out the effort.

The remarks about Mr. Stonecipher starting this company because he sued someone over an accident is hillarious. If anyone had done their homework they would have seen that he was THE VICTIM in the accident, the other person was cited and yet she decided to sue him which cost him an abundant amount of money! He was innocent and still had to spend money to defend himself!!! I find that scarey! That is why he founded this company, not because HE wanted to sue people. He is a very honest man of the utmost integrity.

PrePaid Legal has many attorneys (now associates) as well as other highly respected politicians that are happy to be involved with PPL.

I am sorry for the single mom. I myself (although not a single mom) had my upline disappear but I went above them and even though I am in Ohio my upliine is now in CA and I can honestly say that she is always available to me! You gave up too soon. I signed someone on that was in MO and she needed support. I called the Associate nearest her and she was glad to help her learn as well as talk to people. I can honestly say this is the first company I have ever sold for that truly has an unbelievable support system in it's associates! I have not met one yet that would turn down helping another associate, especially a new one!

Work is always required for success in any endeavor! It is hard and scarey when you first start out because you are unsure of your own skills but with time and persistence it is the most rewarding job I've had.

As for those that think it's not worth the low monthly fee, your choice. I have personally already saved over $5000.00 thru my membership and that will soon be increasing as I had another incidence that they are handling to get a repair done that should be covered and is being refused.

Good luck to all.

PPL IS AN EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY- ANYWHERE!!

Very well said Gregory... PPL is an amazing opportunity and their products are excellent. I have had nothing but very good experiences with PPL, my provider law firm, and the identity theft shield.

Yesterday PPL sent me a questionnaire to fill out asking me questions about my experiences with my provider law firm. The questionnaire listed every person that I had spoken with from the law firm, from the secretaries to customer service to the attorneys themselves. I also have never waited anymore then 30mins for a lawyer to call me back and if they don't reach me they keep calling me back! I am very happy with the service provided by PPL and my attorneys. They saved me $650 on an $800 phone bill just by sending a letter to MCI. And that was after I called MCI myself over 5 times getting nowhere with them. Not to mention the tons of legal advice I have received, and help with a traffic ticket, and help with the IRS, etc.

Because I was so satisfied with the service I decided to become an independent associate. I made 16x my initial investment back the very first month in the business. PPL is one of the best opportunities out there! The main reason that I have done so well with my PPL business is because I understand that is what it is "A BUSINESS". And to make a business successful it will take a lot of work and there will be plenty of ups and downs. I have my bad days and even weeks, but when that happens I don't go blaming the company or the service, etc. I figure out what is wrong and I fix it. PPL offers so much help, training courses, marketing tools, etc. that it is almost impossible to fail (if you work it and follow the system). The people who do fail are the ones who expect to make thousands of dollars right from the start with no effort of their own. Then when they do fail they come on a forum like this and call PPL a "scam" and cry about getting ripped-off. Almost every negative report about PPL is from people like that.

Like I said; I made 16x my initial investment back my first month. Show me a "conventional" business where you are going to make a profit at all your first 3 years in business, never mind your first month. Also, it's very hard to believe that there isn't a market for PPL services in any particular area. Everyone has legal issues, and identity theft is happening to everyone everywhere. Anyone with a social security number is vulnerable and will be an I.D. theft victim eventually, all you can do is protect yourself. But the great thing about this business is that you can reach people to be clients and/or prospects anywhere in north America and Canada. 80% of their business from every associate that I know is outside their own state. So my point is- there being no market in someones area is a very poor excuse.

Enough said! Now I need to go send out a bunch of long distance packages to people in other states, because Connecticut is a tough market... lol.

Response to a couple of Pam's issues

Pam, I wanted to touch on a couple of issues that you raised. I found your rebuttal thoughtful and professional, and as a detractor I will try to respond in kind.

First, you eluded to the idea that, as PPL associates are independent contractors rather than employees, PPL is not responsible for their mis-statements.

I couldn't disagree more, and the law does not support your position. The question of whether PPL is responsible for the statements of its associates is answered by agency law, not master-servant (or "employment") law. Whether an associate is an employee vs. an independent contractor has very little bearing on his ability to contractually bind the company.

In terms of torts, the ACTS of an independent contractor are generally not imputed to his master, whereas the ACTS of an employee often are. But when analyzing whether a product lives up to the promises of its seller we look not to the law of torts but to the law of contracts. In that regard, the law isn't concerned with whether the employer had control over the employee/independent contractor, but whether the employee/independent contractor had actual or apparent authority to make the statements at issue.

So the issue isn't whether the associate was under the control of PPL (where the employee vs. independent contractor question would be at issue), but whether the consumer has reason to believe that the associate has the authority to contractually bind the company (where the distinction is pretty much irrelevant).

As the associates have the actual authority to market the product, the law would likely find that they have apparent authority to contractually bind the company, even with the use of unauthorized statements, so long as such statements aren't so absurd as to be unworthy of credence.

And sheer morality and ethics supports this result. PPL is in a FAR better position than the consumer to ensure that it contracts only with associates that won't overstate the quality of the product. PPL chooses to engage in mass, indiscriminate recruiting of its associates, and it must therefore bear the liability that goes hand in hand with such a reckless paradigm.

The second issue I have is with the statement that several attorneys are themselves associates. We saw, several rebuttals ago, an associate who claimed to be an attorney.

However, when I confronted this purported attorney with the fact that the professional rules governing lawyers place severe restrictions on marketing activities, we never heard from him/her again.

All of my colleagues who I have discussed the matter with agree that an attorney who acts as a PPL associate would be in violation of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (the code that governs the legal profession). And no decent attorney would act as a PPL associate without first checking the rules and, most likely, coming to the same conclusion as me. Furthermore, I haven't been able to get a PPL associate to identify any actual attorneys who are also associates.

So I have to conlude that there aren't really any practicing attorneys acting as PPL associates. Until I see otherwise, I'm sticking to that conclusion. If I do see otherwise, I'd sure like to ask such an attorney how he squares his PPL gig with the Model Rules.

My 2 cents

After reading everyone's messages here, I had to throw in my 2 cents. I am an ex-employee of PrePaid Legal but a long time customer. I guess the main reason I am responding is that, although I am no longer an associate (due to reasons of my own making and not the result of the company itself or my mentors)I have been a long time user of the service. Wills, speeding tickets (oops, not paying attention)and the discount portion of the service (self-employeed). And I must admit it is the best $26.00 per month I spend.

My family and I are currently experiencing some financial changes and during this process we evaluated every aspect of our spending. The one thing the entire family agreed on is that the PPL policy STAYS!!!! I am self employed, my husband drives for a living and we have a child who will soon be getting her drivers license. So to our minds letting this policy go would be stupid.

While I read through the previous posts, I was stunned at the number of people who are trying to rip off PPL. One poster wrote that she wanted the service for one legal issue and was pissed when she was billed the next month. Kudos, to PPL for charging. Were it a full priced attorney it would have cost you a lot more and if you didn't pay, they would sue you. One of the reasons I left PPL was because of pepole like that. All they want is a free ride.

To those people who are employed by PPL, ROCK ON!! You do a great service to the good ol' USA. To those long time users, Ain't you glad you got it. And to those who post crap complaints, cancel your service and PRAY you never have a bad thing happen to you. Because it will cost you A LOT of money to get legal assistance.

Take Care!!

Hey Paul, Rinse Your Mouth Out With Some Soap. Obviously Your Mother Didn't Raise You Right

First off, this thread has been going on for about 4 years and quite frankly, it bores the heck out of me as it originally had to do with a telemarketing company that was cheated by an associate . So I'm going to make a few points.

1. I can care less about how many associates sold 10 memberships in a year. I've sold more than that in 45 minutes from doing one ID Theft Seminar. Being an Independent Associates is just that, being independant and being responsible for your OWN SUCCESS OR FAILURE. Its called being self-employed.

2. Pre-Paid Legal Services takes care of the most common legal issues and provides a 25% discount for stuff it doesn't cover. All of that information is in every brochure or DVD. There is no insurance that covers everything, not medical, care, home or life insurance but people still have it to reduce the expenses if and when it happens. 25% is better than nothing and that's what most people have to settle with unfortunately.

3. Residual income is for real but for only the people who are truly doing the footwork...see number one

4. ID Theft is a major issue and whether its our service or Lifelock or whatever, people still need ID Theft Protection. However, if your ID is stolen then more than likely you'll need some assistance from an attorney. People have died from ID Theft but people have died from taking aspirin, eating a hamburger or drinking a bottle of water. Its important to make valid points about ID theft but its better to leave out the very rare consequences of it

5. Despite the bickering, people can make their own decisions about Pre-Paid Legal Services from the information they gather about it. I'd rather spend time with those who are willing to listen than the close-minded.





That's all and hopefully this thread will be put out of its misery

reply from ohio

I have tryed to over come those obsticals it's hard when your a single mother you have no car and you weren't informed you had to travel before you got into the buisness. I have done everything imaginable to sell ppls but no body in my area wants it. the training class is an hour and a half away from me and i do not know anyone that will take me nor do i know anyone who will take my kid so don't tell me about ruff roads ahead because i know what that is all about. I have worked "outside" of my comfort zone and where did it get me broke and still looking for a stinkin job and yes i had actaully perchased the service but because i wasn't getting paid i had to get rid of it so i could feed my kid.

RE: Lawyers as associates

I just wanted to say that I also had wondered about this as I have seen some lawyers on PPL videos speaking about representing as an associate as well.

I believe it is ok simply because although the lawyer is an assoiciate, the lawyer is not a PPL provider lawyer. Meaning that if the lawyer/associate signs someone up as a member, they will benefit financialy from the associate commission, but cannot also benefit from being assigned that member as a future customer.

Provider lawyers come from one firm (sometimes 2 I believe) in a state who have won the contract with PPL and are the only people getting paid by PPL.

I suppose it is possible that the associate/lawyer could be assigned as the refferal lawyer, but I imagine that PPL would not want to place themselves in a position that could potentialy set them up for that type of conflict.

Those are my thoughts, and I cannot say if they are valid, but that is how I think it works.

Melvin, can you provide what you sell?

Melvin,

As a self employed individual I (like you) am responsible for delivering a product that I sell. I was 'sold' on first the BK discount and then the ability to help with traffic tickets. PPL did not do either. So congratulations on your multiple ID Theft Protections sales and hopefully your lagging company will be able to help any actual victims. Here is a cancellation letter that I sent to PPL which was ignored. It took numerous badgering to have the auto-debit finally stopped.

To Whom It May Concern:

I would like to cancel my membership to PrePaid Legal Services, Inc and request a refund for all monies spent for this service. I will assume you will find my following reasons for refund valid:

Prepaid Legal has never provided a service although I have requested their services on numerous occassions. Some occasion descriptions are as follows-

1) The reason I purchased the services in 2000 was because I was going through a Bankruptcy. I was told that I would save 25% on my proceedings by using PrePaid Legal. That was in fact false. I was charged the same amount as any client by the PrePaid Legal referred attorney. (I was assured by my Rep that it was still worth keeping for speeding tickets etc.)
2) I again tried to use your services this year for help on a collection account. Abigail and myself were outside my office when approached by an individual who claimed he could fix a dent on the front quarter panel of my car. He asked only to hold a check which he would return if we were not 100% satisfied with his work. When we came out of my office to check his progress he had already left without fixing the dent. We promptly stopped payment on the check due to this obvious fraud. We later received a notice from a collection agency for the collection of the check monies. The man who committed the fraud had cashed the check at a Check Cashing center. I sent all the info to Sandra Tang (ref #287852). The response was sorry we can't do anything. That's it. If your company can't help with something as obvious as this fraud, what can you help with?
3) Still being apathetic and not canceling I continued to pay PrePaid Legal Services. I soon received a speeding ticket. I again called in to PPLS and faxed in my ticket. The response “there's nothing we can help with.
4) Another speeding ticket- this time the response was well were you going that fast? We can't help you. Great legal advice and help.
5) A third speeding ticket (all of these within 1.5 months and my first for the past 10 years). This PPLS response was my favorite.you should slow down and you won't get so many tickets Great thanks for all the help I've paid for monthly over the past 5 years.
6)

Finally I asked advice regarding the short sale of a home and was given incorrect information. Fortunately an attorney friend of mine caught the mistake right before I would have lost tens of thousands of tax dollars. So it appears that even if I get an answer, I cannot trust it.

I would like a refund and this debacle to be ended. Obviously any threats of legal action would be empty and useless since you know as well as I do how inept my prepaid attorneys are.

Please call with any questions or further clarification or intake numbers.

Thanks and Regards,

Pre-Paid Legal Not all what it is cracked up to be

As I was looking over the 185 pages of this post. Some to contain my arguements with some others. I see that I am actually more knowledgable since then.

Here are somethings I noticed.

Denise- Mesa AZ.
Her comment "we monitor the entire identity through contracts with the Social security administration, the DMV, and the postal service to make sure no change of address are being submitted for you."
This comment is a false claim. She is the second associate to claim this while talking to me.

Secondly, Public Defenders only defend criminals not people going to civil court. If you are going to court in a civil suit against you that you are being sued for. you will have to find an attorney that will take your case Pro-Bono or one that will take payments.

I am also not sure what people think is an affordable attorney. But here I ask anyone here in this forum to answer this question. Is an attorney charging $100.00 an hour affordable to you?

This is what you would be paying for one with the discount lets say.

Third. Is this insurance or not? In some states you are an insurance angent and in others you are not. This makes no sense to me at all why it is different all over.

Something I said before and will say again about ID Theft is that Credit cards will take care of your credit reporting. Part of the things Credit Card companies do is make you fill out an affidavit saying the claim is true. Then you are dimissed of your charges or a new account if made and the previous charges are in a state of investigation. They are liable for reporting accurate information to credit bureau. If not they can be sued. There are many consumer law attorney who will take your case for free in this case.

more to come...

it's just a sales job

i did PPL for literally a week, and i realize that i'm not commited to work the hours for the job
-first of all there all bunch of meetings where u pay to go, and many of them are during weekends (i'm not willing to sacrifice my weekend for a job)
-you have to sell them to your friends, and you have to make sure you feed your friend with new customers to ensure their continual support and also your survival. Therefore, sometimes friendship will be hurt due to money issues
-not everyone is made to do sales, esp when PPL is selling an idea and confidence (no doubt that the product is good, but it's more like an insurance that is not as important as medical insurance (not life and death)

PPL is definately a legit company with some good people doing it, while some who are only money driven... however it's just like a job, when u divide down the time u spent and the money u got OVER TIME... it's just a pretty average (for some well paid) job

RESPECT FOR DEE...

Dee, I have to say that I respect the fact that you can just admit that PPL isn't for you, without claiming that PPL "doesn't work" or it's a "scam". Also without having to resort to negative, false comments that are usually just people's opinions- like most people do who couldn't make it work.

Being an independent associate with PPL isn't like having a job, although it is work, which isn't always the same. Having a PPL business, unlike having a job; there is no punching a time clock, no boss to answer to, you start your day when you want, and work as much or little as you wish, and your not trading hours for money.

But to be successful in any business there are sacrifices to be made. Anyone who is truly successful didn't just work mon - fri 9-5, they worked their a$$es off at first- weekends, nights, etc. The price of success isn't cheap or easy.

Wrong idea about identity theft.

Holy crackers Dave. Are you for real? When was the last time you had your identity stolen? I will surmise never would be the answer.

I had my identity stolen in 1999, Guess what? I am STILL dealing with the repercussions. I had my FICO plunge from 722 to a horrific 560 in less than a year. Each of my three credit reports has had to be deal with individually, as they are not mandated by law to exchange information.

Then I had to deal with the OC's as well as the innumerable collection agencies that purchased or were assigned the different fraudulant accounts. I spent the better part of a year dealing with one agency in particular. I had to get the Attorney Generals office involved before they cleared my credit reports of their listing. Yes you are right is stating that creditors are mandated to report factual information.

The funny part is, most collection agencies don't give a rat's butt about the law. You know why? Because the punishiment for violation your rights as a consumer is laughable. There is no punishment! Unless you take them to court, which is usually limited to small claims. They take their chances that most people won't or can't. Even if you win, the compensation is limited.

As for you naive assumption that a consumer Attorney will take your case for free. That is so far beyond the truth, it's delusional. Firstly finding an attorney who specializes in FCRA cases is next to impossible. Secondly if you can find one, they will most certainly not take the case for free.

Please I beg you to stop giving out distorted advice. Educate yourself first about credit reporting law before you cause someone harm with your misguided information.

It is foolish to think that the credit card companies are the guardians of your good name. For your sake I hope you never have to find out how that assumption is simply wrong. Yes I now subscribe to a credit monitoring service. Unless you are very young or have little credit, you'd be suprised as to how many errors you will find on most credit reports. I would suggest credit monitoring even if you haven't been a victim of ID theft. As an aside I am in no way affiliated with PPL. I was here researching their services and felt compelled to comment on this one issue.

ID Theft

Allory,
I have never had my identity stolen. All three credit agencies do operate individually you are correct. The only person you Have to really talk to in the case that your ID was stolen is the original credit company to In which you have a true debt owed to.

Any other company IMHO can figure it all out themselves and I am not showing up to court nor would stand to be harassed after telling Accounts made in my name fraudulently that I am not responsible for them. It is their own responsibility to do their own homework.

The credit card companies themselves Have the responsibility to report the correct information about your account to the credit reporting agencies. Accurate and true information. If they do not do this you can sue the Credit card Company.

If you owe a balance it is possible your debt could be erased depending on the amount you owe. Those collection Agencies as you state do not care about the law, are the ones I would never talk to.

Actually if they are harassing you that much you could sue them also. Yes this would all be in small claims or a district court. That is where I had one of my cases held that I won with a consumer attorney who did not charge me. A consumer Attorney would take FCRA or a FDCA case for free because the defendant being the other company when they lose will have to pay your attorney the fees due to him.

I am very knowledgeable about this subject and will not stop giving out great truthful advice. Credit cards companies are not the people protecting your good name. But you are. The credit card companies though as I stated have due responsibility to report the correct info about your name and social security number and credit card debts.

Re: ID Theft.

Dave
On one hand you say we are the guardians of our good names, then you discourage people from monitoring their own credit reports. How does that work in your world?

Don't you think credit monitoring is a tool that enables consumers to be proactive in their own credit health? It is obvious that you have a very narrow perspective on the subject of ID Theft.

You keep alluding to Credit Cards as if they were the end all be all of ID Theft. In fact the majority of ID Theft does not involve credit cards. I know in my case it constituted less than 30% of the fraudulant listings on my credit reports.

All that being said, I'm sure you will not budge one inch on your perspective. My sole purpose was to perhaps add a different point of view, one that comes with real life experience.

I'm more than happy to answer your questions

First off, I was watching WWE RAW and I thought I'd answer your questions while they were going through some boring interview. Been a very long day for me. Some idiot was



1. You may have been sold the wrong policy, if you were self-employed at the time I would have recommended the Legal Plan For Self-Employed. The discount would have been the same however there could have been more options available for you. I cannot answer your question about the rates quoted simply because I don't know what amount where you quoted, which attorneys quoted the prices, and what were their credentials. that's referring both to the PPL attorney and the competitor. however when choosing a lawyer, you should be more worried about the credentials than the amounts. There is always someone that will beat any price that's quoted. That's with any business. I should tell you about My Cousin Vinny one of these days, he'll defend you for free.

2. It wasn't a legal matter at the time, its a criminal matter and should have been reported to the authorities immediately. Its also not identity theft because you gave him the check for the rendering of services whether they were given or not. Unless he started writing bad checks in your name and opening up credits cards then that's a different case. Now you could have gotten consultation for free on taking him to small claims court. Did you consider that?? Nevertheless, you shouldn't give some stranger a check. That's crazy you friend.



3,4 & 5. Check your ticket. I garrantee you were charged with something else other than speeding such as reckless driving or aggressive driving. If that was the case, than its still a 25% discount but trial defense would have been invalid. And the best way to avoid speeding tickets is to stay the speed limit. Are you name Richard Petty or something??? Take your lead foot off the peddle. Dang nabbit.

6.?? Not enough information.




Pre-Paid Legal Services can provide the services but your complaints for the most part have nothing to do with the membership benefits and number 2 wasn't even close to being a legal issue.

Being a PrePaid Legal Associate is NOT for everyone!

PPL is for people that really want to have their own business helping people with legal issues and work at making it a ssuccess. Most people when they look for a business they can work from home are looking for a get rich fast opportunity.You just don't sit back and think the money is going to roll in on it's own it takes hard work and determination to to get up the latter. I've been in PrePaid Legal as a member and an associate for 5 years now and love it. As for the stay at home mom that is disapointed with PPL I will help you and I am not even in your upline. The person that got you in should have helped you get started.

It's not to my surprise they didn't some get in and think all they have to do is recruit and sell memberships but that is not how it works. When you recruit someone you are suppose to help them start their business. I feel sorry for you that they didn't but don't give up. My membership alone has saved my husbands butt 3 times with a dui no court cost, fine or jail time which I myself thought he should have got to be that stupid and drive in his line of work. He swears by it now he has CDL's to protect. As for training there are sizzle calls and a new web site that does all the work for you.

The only material I buy are the magizines which speak for themself. If you or anyone else that needs help email me and I will be more then happy to help in anyway I can.

Reponse to Susan and allory

Allory,
I never discourage anyone from getting a credit report or monitoring service that is something good to get. Please point it out to me where I said one should not get the monitoring service. Credit Cards are not the end all to ID theft. What I did say is that the credit card companies the ones that are reporting falsely onto your report have the responsibility to correct the information that that are reporting and report correct info to the credit reporting agencies once you tell them the debt is not yours and you sign the legal affidavit saying you are telling the truth.

Susan,

One of the largest troubles with PPLSI is that within the first year 50% of all your sales will quit by the years end. So if you can not really for about a year out say your ½ of your
Commission is clear because it is not. You will have a 50% chargeback. I know this is not all 50% for one person but 50% across the entire board of associates that have made sales. So some people might have no charge backs while some will have many.

Also Susan the website has out of date ID theft numbers. Those statistics are from a 2003 survey. The numbers have gone down actually. So, your husband had a DUI and he paid no costs? How is that possible when in exclusions it says the following:


Trial Defense Services: This coverage applies only to the named member and spouse. Divorce, separation, annulment, child custody or other divorce-related matters, bankruptcy, charges of DUI/DWI, drug-related matters (whether prescribed or not), hit and run, leaving the scene of an accident and civil or criminal charges occurring as a result of operating a commercial vehicles with more than two axles are not covered under this benefit, but are covered by the preferred member discount

Motor Vehicle Legal Services: Pre-existing conditions, charges of DUI/DWI related matters, drug-related matters, hit-and-run related charges, leaving the scene of an accident, and unmeritorious cases are excluded.
Preferred Member Discount: Depending on your legal needs, a retainer may be required by your Provider Law Firm prior to services being rendered under this discount. Your Provider Law Firm is responsible for determining the amount of the retainer and any other anticipated costs. Other costs you may incur include fines, court costs, penalties, expert witness fees, bonds, bail bonds, and any out-of-pocket expenses. These costs are your responsibility and are not included as part of membership benefits. Your Provider Law Firm cannot provide any legal services until payment of the retainer and other costs have been made. If you need representation in court, you must notify your Provider Law Firm at least five business days in advance so they may prepare for your case.
Please inform us about how you had no cost for defending his dui cost.

For Susan in VA

Susan,
This morning I called Pre-paid Legal. First thing is that it great that people say they are associates but they never give their full name and contact info when defending the company.

I called and asked if a DUI would be covered they said yes but only under the classification of using the title 5 where you have to pay all your attorney fees etc at a discounted cost.

I am not sure how it is your husband received full representation free from an attorney from PPLSI. Some how his charge must had been changed from being a DUI from the police department.

You tell people a story about you this when your story is questionable when it is lacking details.

Pre-Paid Legal Is a Rip Off - hell to cancel the membership and they will continue to withdraw money from your bank account

Once you join Pre-Paid Legal, it is hell to cancel the membership and they will continue to withdraw money from your bank account.

I joined Pre-Paid Legal because I thought I needed Legal Council. It turned out I was able to resolve my issue on my own without legal help. At that time I was paying Pre-Paid Legal a monthly rate. They told me I could cancel anytime.

So I notified Pre-Paid to cancel. The postal mail me this form to sign and fax back to them to cancel. They do indeed have my cancelled form signed and they have stopped drafting $24.00 a month, yet for the past 2-months after I cancelled, I still see this $16.00 a month charge that is hell to stop.

Pre-Paid continues to automatically draft that $16.00 a month from my checking account, after I have signed the required form 3-times to cancel any and all services with them.

I am sure there are others out there where Pre-Paid is taking $16.00 a month from them also.

Never ever pay for any monthly services with Pre-Paid from your checking account, because if you cancel, they will still draft your checking account every month automatically.

Pre-Paid Legal is a Rip-Off to steal $16.00 a month.

ALAN AND JULIE SHUT THE F* UP!

You people that work for them, are idiots! I had used PPL, oh wait, i tried too and i got denied. They said that was no attorneys in my area. Hmm...i was living in the same place as i was when i had that service. It was a joke. I was robbed! I tried to cancel that membership for like six months. It was before i started making threats and contacting other attorneys that i was told that were non-existant at that time. Hmm, funny how irony works with your company. Does cheat and steal work there too? Low and behold, WITH ALL THESE COMPLAINTS, that should tell you something, this company is a joke they take peoples money like they are an insurance company, but its legal services? Isn't that an oxymoron? I think so, you idiots don't know how to keep a company clean. I'll tell you one thing, if i EVER see anyone out there promoting or advertising, oh hell, working for them, you see me face to face; i will make your life a living hell!

Understanding PPL

Pre-Paid Legal a rip off?

I hardly think so.

First you must understand the product.
If you are an individual that purchases anything or enrolls in anything without understanding and reading what your signing - then you should not be an independent associate or self employed at all. You need to be working for someone else because you lack the skills to be self sufficient.

Second, Pre-Paid legal memberships are designed for individuals who fall under the catagory of "victim" not "offender". If you are a criminal looking for a cheap lawyer then forget it.
If you are an honest person who desires preventative protection and direction, then a PPL membership is for you.

I just don't understand why people always want something for nothing.

WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT

Tim,

It's about DISCLOSURE. An atty could be a rep for pre paid legal and sell the membership and it is legit. You are selling a service, not another atty.

I am not an atty, I am not a seller of Pre Paid, I have been in Network Marketing for over 10 years, but not currently.

Pre Paid is one of the better companies out there.

I have and am still considering it. Check out the team of the person introducing you. Don't make a snap decision as far as the business end of it.

Go to a meeting as a guest and meet people that are doing things right and learn from them. If you are not getting the help from your team leaders, call PPL up and ask to be put on a different team for the support.

Rebuttal to the Employee's claims above ..I would encourage any potential members to do their homework

To the above defenders of PPL, I must add my voice to the legion of detractors who remain critical of this company despite its many "redeeming values".

First: To employees whose anecdotes claim this company is legitimate simply because it is listed on the NYSE: Enron was likewise once listed here; its business practices (as the nation has found) were ignoble and quite disreputable.

Second: Please do click on the following link: http://www.wesh.com/money/2263426/detail.html
It is a relatively current article critical of PPL and similar services. Those who are looking for current proof of fraudulent behavior on the part of this enterprise need look no further. Forthwith, no claim should be made that the matter of lawsuits leveled agains the company are obscelescent and no longer a relevant matter.

Third: I am a lawyer working in Southern California, and from the materials my 18 year old daughter (an ex- "independent associate") brought home, I can say with certainty that PPL is in fact, a pyramid scheme. For those who seek to downplay this claim, I would recommend "Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say", by Douglas Rushkoff. PPL fits all the prerequisites of a pyramid scheme, and further analysis will find that PPL is guilty of the many sins associated with a company fronting for a scam.

Irrespective of your agreement or lack thereof with regards to my own findings, I would encourage any potential members to do their homework, and to perform their own research regarding this company.

You're overlooking a major factor

I've kept an open mind reading all of the comments on this page, but one thing that I am seeing a lot of, is mis-communication. The one key factor that makes a mulit-level network like this so easy to bash is the fact that there are millions of people involved.

It's like that game we played in grade school, where 10 students sit down in a straight line.. and the teacher whispers a sentance into the first kid's ear.. that kid turns to the next kid and whispers it in their ear, and so on until it gets to the last kid.. and by the time it gets there and they say the sentance outloud, it's nothing at all like to original phrase told by the teacher.

There are a LOT of people who get mixed up in this business that have no business being their. A lot are expecting something for nothing, and you're not gonna get that. It's not your fault, I'd be $100 that it's the guy or girl who got you signed up that made it all sound so perfect, but didn't tell you what you had to do to get it.

As for putting money into it, you shouldn't be doing that. The method of promoting this product says NOTHING about going out and spending all kinds of money on tools. It says that the tools are available. If you need videos to show people, buy a few, and GET THEM BACK.. don't give them away.

If you need material, your local group should all chip in so you can purchase a large order and divide them equally.

Get mad at me all you want, but a lot of the negativity on this forum is coming from people who aren't thinking. You just threw in your towel before the fight even started. And for those of you who have been there for a long time who are making complaints... did you ever stop to re-evaluate what you've been doing wrong?

If you get into a car and drive it, but don' put gas into it, then the car dies... is that the cars fault? NO.

If somethings wrong, there is a reason it's wrong, so stop blaming the big car for all of your problems.

EXTREMELY SATISFIED
INDEPENDANT DIRECTOR ASSOCIATE of PrePaid Legal

Pre-Paid Legal Doesn't Pay for Services performed

Sir/Ma'am

You contracted with an independent associate not Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. Therefore, Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. has no obligation to pay for services you say you performed. Suggest you edit your report to show the independent associate did not pay not Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.

Not a pyramid scheme

All of this talk about pre-paid being a scam and such is crazy to me. Of course there have been unhappy associates and unhappy members for whatever reason. Some valid, some not valid. Yes there have been lawsuits against the company and accusations of fraudulent behavoir. But I want to ask if some can find me a large cormporation that is doing something of significance that has NOT had those similar lawsuits, unhappy employees and customers, etc. No one will be able to respond because there are none, unless the company started today. So to all of the folks who have stated that it has not been working out for them here two options, move on cause it's just not for you, or stop sweating the small stuff that really does not effect you and just get to work. That's why we have a corporate office so that we as independent associates do not have to deal with all those issues. Just keep the main thing the main thing and stay consistent, and keep your job, building pre-paid part time, it can and will work for you.
By the way, the true definition of a pyramid scheme is when money is being exchanged without a product or service being rendered. So clearly there is a valid service being provided and no one is compensated unless that service is sold. Because we do not get paid simply for recruiting people and thats it. Only when you or someone else market a membership. And that is clear. I wish everyone much success in your future endevours.

What a Joke, people who are gutless to rip people off are always the ones to go whinning like sissies..."oh..its legit!!"

Some people who are gutless to rip people off are always the ones to go whinning like sissies..."oh..its legit!!" What complete tards!! Still, the product is a joke...and a big one! "Legal Insurance!!" ???? Are you kidding me?? HAHAHA...To the ones who got ripped..shame on you for believing..but I also feel bad for you..to the one's applauding the BS or claim to no longer work with them but have the "product" ....?? Do we need to go there..nahh...their sad rumblings should be pinched out like a day after lactose poop!!

It's really how you use it... upsetting when folks feel burned

I'm sorry to hear these negative stories about Pre-Paid Legal- even though the initial complaint as pointed out above has nothing to do with that company, it is upsetting when folks feel burned.

I am an Independant Associate, have been for two months, and have not found fault with a single one of their claims to date... I've use the service several times here in Illinois, I've gotten every penny due me in advance commissions in a timely fashion, I've gotten every questions answered, and I've invested a grand sum total of $38 into promotional materials to support the 14 memberships that I've sold to date, from which I've earned roughly $2,800. The system sells itself, if you target the right audience, show the video, and then let your Team work with you to make the service clear- then if folks want it, they become members, if they don't- that's cool too... it just wasn't the right service at the right time for them, and so be it. There is no need to "sell" this service, just present it and let it prove itself.

For Nichole in Courtland- it sounds like this probably wasn't the best move for you to make at this time, but since you've made it, you should have demanded better coaching from your Team. I'm sure there was someone up there who would have put the right package of teaching, coaching and support behind you

Pre-Paid Legal Is For Everyone, but it isn't for everyone!!

I've read everything that you all have said about Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. and you all have the right to your opinion. But to me Pre-paid legal is the best thing that has ever happened to me. When they say they pay you EVERYDAY, they MEAN IT, when they say the membership does what they say it does, THEY MEAN IT. Now if you've had trouble with the service then contact the person that signed you up for the service that way they can report it to Pre-Paid Legal Corporate Office, and an investigation can start, because Pre-Paid legal Services has gotten rid of Plenty lawfirms for mistreating and misrepresenting their customers. And also let's remember that there are bad people in everything. I mean even Jesus recruited 12 disciples and one of them went crazy, so don't let the negative comments affect your business, we all know what Pre-paid legal is about. And network marketing is a business of performance, and that means if you perform then you get paid, and if you don't perform then you don't get paid, and if you don't like that then the business is not for you, because Pre-Paid Legal isn't looking for everyone, we're only looking for those people that are looking for us. So if you don't like it, it's ok, the company is still gonna get big, because we have a need and a demand for what we're doing. So to everyone that think pre-paid legal is a scam, think that and just leave it alone, but get all the facts first. And do all my pre-paid legal family members, remember Mr. Stonecipher said that we're on a Crusade and when your on a crusade you're going to have attacks, but we will still stand tall in the end. God Bless

We Don't Want Everyone...!!

The Pre-Paid Legal Business Opportunity is for everyone but not everyone is wanted. Read it twice if you must. We're not begging or convincing anyone to take advantage of this business opportunity. I've read these rebuttals from time to time and it's amazing how many people can find fault with this business. I actually attend the regular business briefings in my area and I can point to the young men and women who actually went to WORK and became successful on their own merits or with the help of a team and most importantly through personal development. The Internet is full of people who got into network marketing and failed as well as people who got into network marketing and succeeded. That word WORK is involved in each and every case or testimony whether there be alot of work done towards success or no work done which induced failure. Let's remember the company has a system in place that one wanting success should follow as well as 10 core committments. Anything outside of those things can also induce failure or a little success for a little while.

Also, alot of men and women are not too fond of the word WORK as well.

Here is the "homework" that I've done...paid $249 and got my investment and more back in two days from the comfort of my own living room (there's that system again). That was 3 years ago and during that time I've heard all the excuses from people who let others talk them out of the business. The company has paid for my wife and I to go to Cancun, Mx three times during the last 3 years. How many of you who work at someone else's dream had your company do that for you??? Did they even WANT to do that for you??

Since someone talks about Enron, Pre-Paid Legal just WON (2) court cases. There are those who say the company is a pyramid scheme and full of deception and half-truths...yet they chose to DEFEND THEMSELVES instead of settling the cases outside of the courtroom. How stupid is that?? One of the court cases was in a county that has a reputation for being a good place to file lawsuits against large corporations. The juries there, history proves, have been particularly friendly to even the most frivolous plaintiffs' complaints. Despite this, Pre-Paid Legal refused to be intimidated, fought the good fight and came up with a well-deserved victory. In fact, it was a SHUT OUT. As the jury announced its verdict it became clear that the count was 12 jurors to 0 in favor of dismissing the suit. DO CLICK ON THIS LINK:

http://www.adaeveningnews.com/Adanewswebpages/editorial.htm

So I say instead of arguing with these people who say Pre-Paid Legal is a scam or pyramid scheme, Associates just do your business!!

Pyramid schemes are not traded on the NYSE!! Do you honestly think a company that works with a national network of attorneys as well as attorneys in Canada, various state regulatory agencies and various Attorney Generals have all been made a fool of for 32 years because none of them could see a scam right under their very noses??? How ridiculous is that??? Why haven't these law firms and Attorney Generals found the company to be a pyramid scheme??

This company has also provided the membership as an employee benefit since its inception, so they've also hookwinked a bunch of CEO's and HR managers too right...???

Until you actually know the difference between a pyramid scheme and a LEGITIMATE network marketing company, perhaps it would be best to refrain from calling this company a pyramid
scheme. This company is a LEGITIMATE network marketing company and it made $361 million in gross revenue last year with 11 Years Straight of continued growth without the help of alot of people on this ripoffreport board...and it will continue to do so....!!

Pre-Paid Legal Information

Why the stark contrast between Pre-Paid Legal detractors and supporters? Because some really have had positive experiences with the company, while others have paid for the service, and found no use for it. Furthermore, the anecdotal evidence of those who have benefited from their Pre-Paid Legal tells a different story than the overall perspective that a researcher may have.

Almost half of the members who sign up for the service cancel within their first year. Associates who sold the plans on “advanced commission” then owe that “unearned” portion of their commission back to Pre-Paid Legal. So associates who decide to market Pre-Paid Legal services would be well advised to brush up on their ability to retain customers or choose to “as earned” commission, where they are paid monthly percentages of what their sold memberships are paying.

Another interesting fact is that Pre-Paid Legal Inc has been around for about 32 years now, and seems to have trouble breaking the 1.5 million membership mark as memberships are being cancelled almost as fast as they are being sold. The problem with growth here appears to be retaining members, not selling to them. Somewhere in the league of 700,000 Pre-Paid Legal memberships are sold yearly, and this has led many detractors to claim that the service simply doesn't offer what it's supposed to.

Detractors will also point out that, in stark contrast to Pre-Paid Legal, HMO's broke through the roof within 10-15 years. Supporters however, will note that there are other providers of such services (though some offer little more than referral services) which cumulatively amount to an impressive ‘Legal Services' market. Such companies include Hyatt, ARAG, and Link2Legal.

Third party articles on Pre-Paid Legal range from testimonials of its greatness and its necessity in everyday life, to columns claiming or at least implying that is a pyramid scheme. Despite some of these claims however, Pre-Paid Legal has been extremely successful in fending off lawsuits from former associates and members claiming they were somehow ripped off.

At one point in time, Pre-Paid Legal was one of the most highly shorted (possibly the highest) companies in the NYSE. To detractors, the fact that short sellers saw this as a company worth shorting (meaning they saw a downfall to the company that would allow them to profit from shorting the stock) provided further evidence that the company was a scam. Pre-Paid's supporters saw it the other way around however. They believed that the short sellers were responsible for much of its negative publicity. Fresh off of a victory against some of it's lawsuits in Mississippi, Pre-Paid Legal's (PPD) stock just jumped significantly. It will be interesting to see where the company goes from here.

To sum it all up, Pre-Paid Legal has helped a lot of people, but this would seem to be more of an exception than a rule. On the flip-side, those who don't benefit from the service aren't typically harmed by it either.

Not quite, Steven

Steven, I am an attorney, and I had to pass a rather rigorous examination regarding the rules I'm speaking of before I was admitted to practice.

Disclosure is but one facet of attorney advertising. There are a host of other interests implicated. One thing that we REALLY look out for in this profession is the "appearance of impropriety." Something that may seem harmless at first blush and to a layman could turn out to be embarassing down the road. So, in formulating the rules, the drafters thought of the indirect effects of certain activities.

You state that the attorney is selling the membership, not the provider attorney. This is a fallacy, however, because the membership inherently refers the client to a particular law office. So, even as there is a step in the middle, the attorney is pragmatically taking money in return for referring clients to another lawyer, which is a big no-no.

If someone could lead me to an actual attorney who works a PPL gig, and if that attorney could effectively rebut my presumptions, then I will concede my error. But as of yet, I haven't seen it. So I have to assume that the "attorneys as associates" assertion is a lie OR that, if there are attorneys acting as associates, that they are in violation of the rules of professional conduct.

A mix match of responses

For Dave RE: Chargebacks.

It's great you bring that up because it is an important thing for new (and old) associates to think about.

50% dropping out by years end is a large number and can be offset in several ways, some of which are not really discussed by a persons upline because I don't think they are aware of them.

To start with, every event/training I have been to, it is stressed to UNDER sell the membership. Unfortunately too many people either do not get themselves properly informed before selling it, or are just looking for the quick buck. Let the tools do the job if ned be.

Second, follow up with your members and encourage them to use it. Even if it just means having them fill out the free will. It has been shown retention goes up to around 78% for those who do this. Any additional use only builds the retention.

Fourth, most people know you can choose advance commissions and as earned commissions. What most do NOT know, is that you can use a combination of that same thing. For example, you can get say 50% up front, and after 6 months, you will be paid the remaining commissions as earned. This will do away with most chargebacks that may still happen, and will in effect create a residual income for the business you still have on the books after the up front commissions have been paid.

Another option is to choose the 3 year pay plan which effectively spreads the chargebacks over 3 years rather then all at once. The best bet, in my opinion is to put good business on the books first, follow up with members and encourage them to use the service, and of course choose the partial pay option.

For those people I sign up as associates who are doing it part time and can afford it, I will be encouraging them to do that.

One more point about the 50% dropout bit. That is at the 12 month point. Meaning thatyou are not neccessarily getting 50% charged back, but a portion of that depending on what point the member dropped out. It is still a chargeback either way, and should be avoided whenever possible, but I wanted to throw that in there.

This is also something done in any career that pays advance commissions such as insurence BTW. Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread, I can't remember. But it is not something that only PPL has to worry about.

As far as the ID Theft numbers being from 2003 and out iof date, I am not sure what site you were refering to, however there is no way it could have gone down. In the last several months millions of ID's have been stolen. 17 (or 27) million at one time if I remember correctly.

Although more people are becoming aware of it, it is only getting worse.

I'm with you on the DUI thing though. Don't understand that one.

@ Tim,

I am not very literate in the law so really cannot comment further on the legalities of lawyers being associates, but it would seem to me that if there was a problem, PPL would have had to dis-allow this by now.

Of course for all I know, the lawyers could very well no longer be practicing, but leave that pasrt out of their story.

I know one of our local Executive Directors used to be a lawyer, but stopped after 12 years when she had kids. She went to PPL instead and has become very successful. Of course how could you not, with a story like that :)

@ Steven

Good luck with your decision. I am working with a few potential associates in Florida right now. So far they are all people who will be new to NM, so are taking their time deciding. I keep finding people there but have not gotten myself licensed, so will be passing all my Florida business to whoever I sign up there. I can live with the overrides while helping to build their busness as well :)

I've Been Prospected by Pre-Paid This Week

A few days ago a letter popped into my email. It was a sales letter describing the pay scale for people who may enjoy phone sales. The money looked decent so I phoned the person back and left a message. When he called back and left me a message he referred me to his Upline for further details in case I couldn't catch him. He is east coast, and I'm on the west coast so that was understandable; his Upline is also on the west coast.

So I called his Upline to ask for more details. Specificially I wanted to know what the conversion statistics are. That is, out of 10 people I call, how many will buy and how many of those will stay with the service for one year. That is important to me because I want to be able to gauge how successful I will need to be to reach a certain income goal. The stats were somewhat daunting unless you're willing to treat this strictly as a numbers game. Two out of every ten will join and one of them has a high probability of dropping off. So 1 out of 10 is a sure-bet. So then the question is: is it worth it to me financially to give 10 people a call... in order to make a sale?

In the beginning the answer is no. If it were a $1000 sale the answer would be yes but it's not. The first five sales, in fact, go to the house. That is, you don't get to keep any of the money. The next set of sales pay over $100; then there are advancements.

What astonished me was this: right now I belong to one of the most successful MLMs out there in terms of pure compensation. My current MLM only requires 340-350 team members to reach 10K/ month. That, in the MLM world, is truly excellent in terms of compensation. Most require 500 plus team members. This Upline fellow I spoke with signed up in August but didn't work this as a biz until September. Wtihin about three months he is already at 10K/mo and only has 130 associates. This floored me completely. I have never heard of this kind of compensation.

My goal is 20K/ in six months. He feels this is more than doable based on his own results coupled with the training he is doing and his availability to speak to anybody I refer to him and get them started. But he let me in on a little strategy he has used to get there and if I were to join, you better believe I would take advantage of it for all it's worth.

I would LOVE to hear from another associate of PPL on this site as to whether 130 associates can indeed get you to that $1oK/month mark. Please confirm that if you are able.

Lastly, he mentioned that there is currently a lead-generation program provided for us (for the sales end which we still have to pay for) but that the business opportunity leads we would have to get creative with ourselves. BUT the first fifteen leads are provided to us free of charge to get the ball rolling in terms of sales... The three hour training online is really about all it takes to get started, he said. Plus, the Monday through Thursday training calls help to understand just what to say when you call a lead who has a legal situation they'd like to resolve.

If this is a solid company providing a valuable service, I would be helping people to help themselves. If the compensation is half of what this guy says it is, I don't understand why I shouldn't strongly consider joining as an Associate. The only hestiation right now is that the conversion statistics are not strong (2 our of 10) and a 50% drop off rate seems awfully high. Nevertheless, results don't lie. I have no reason to believe this gentleman on the west coast is lying. Not that people don't lie. But it does not pay to lie in business because it always comes back to bite you in the end (no pun intended.) It's stupid-- It ALWAYS catches up to you. In which case his profits are extremely short-lived.

If I join, I'll post my progress. So far, the negative posts do not seem substantive enough to dissuade me.

Taking your TEST William....

Hi William,
I've been an Independent Associate with Pre Paid Legal Services Inc for a little more than 2 years and Well I just LOVE the Company, and the Product. It is without a doubt the best thing I have ever purchased and gives me a sense of "Peace of Mind" that money just can't buy. I will NEVER be ripped off again. In the last 2 years just using my membership has saved me more than I would pay for it for AT LEAST the next 20 years.
It helps me protect my rights and there are a couple little things that have been stated over the years in regards to this product that burn in my soul..."In this country it's better to be rich and guilty, than poor and innocent." Just pick up your daily paper and you'll know that's a FACT. "Equal Justice Under Law is etched in granite on the front facade of the Supreme Courthouse building and it's a LIE because in this country you only get as much justice as you can afford"...and that's a FACT.

When I was 26 I lent my girlfriend my car, she accidentally drove it off a dock and a young man who was with her in the front seat drown. We were in the Navy at the time and she was Court Martialed and found INNOCENT...It was a true accident, they had cut the lights off on the dock and you couldn't see where the edge was AT ALL. 2 days before a year was up. I was served with a lawsuit suing ME for 1 MILLION dollars, the collective suit was for $10 MILLION...a deep pocket attempt to get anything from anyone. I had to defend myself to the tune of a $4 THOUSAND dollar retainer, afterward I still owed another $500 after I was released from the suit...I was 27, a single mom with a 7 year old daughter, serving my country and making less than $900 a month. I can't even begin to tell you what effects this had on me mentally...it was definitely more injurous than my out of pocket expenses.... Think about how you would feel knowing someone had DIED in your car when your sole purpose in life was to SAVE lives.

IF I had had a Pre Paid Legal plan it would have cost me NO MORE than my meesly $26 a month. I had to borrow the money, because the Navy wouldn't help me AT ALL, which dropped my income from $900 a month to $700 a month for almost 2 years...How's that for a BIG screw job?...Who gained anything from this?...the Lawyers PERIOD. It didn't bring him back to life and added insult to an already very emotionally trying injury to ALL involved....

I KNOW what Pre Paid Legal Services Inc is about...It means to me that the above will NEVER happen to anyone I love...EVER!

So I'll take your challenge...here goes...

#1 YES the structure is more new Associates than the one Founder & CEO... and I believe that's true of ANY job.
Let's take my hospital.. The Janitor earns less than the Certified Nursing Attendant who earns less than the LVN who earns less than the RN who earns less than Nursing Manager who earns less than the Nursing Supervisor who earns less than the Nursing Administator who earns less than the Doctor who earns less than the Surgeon who earns less than the Medical Director who earns less than the COO who earns less than the CEO...So that's what 12 levels deep ?...hmmm ..so there goes question #5 because when you get to Director and someone on your team hits Director the commission is at a Director "Breakaway" level and the pay is commesurate with the VALUE YOU bring to the marketplace...That's why the RN makes so much more than the Janitor. The janitor is valuable, but the RN is more valuable hence...earns more..ie.. If I personally market say 300 memberships...I become a Director WITHOUT the neccesity of a downline, because in this company you can get to the top on your efforts alone, it's ALOT of efforts, but it's possible. I have a company right now I'm in negotiations with 650 employees...so it's VERY DOable.

Also in regards to question #5..there is NO retail markup. I get to offer my friends the exact SAME BARGAIN I get.
So #5 is YES and NO

#2 YES, but with less than 2% memberships in the country satuation really isn't an issue right now, 5 years from now I may have to ammend that statement. Where I live folks take cards off the side of my car and call me.."I had a membership and let it lapse.. I need it" or " I have a (friend, family member or other) who has this and I want it"..or "I talked to an Attorney and it's going to cost me $200 for the first hour"...So saturation isn't an issue...yet.. and I think we may have a ways to go..which is cool for me...because that means $$$$ in MY pocket for providing a membership that I KNOW everyone needs and CAn afford, but they just don't know that fact yet.

#3 NO I don't have to buy ANYTHING else...ever and it would cost me more not to have the membership than it does to have it.

#4 NO due to the No markup in selling a membership and YES to the increased value an Associate brings to the marketplace.

#5 which I already answered but will answer again for conformity YES more than 4 levels and NO Director Breakaway...And in regards to this statement "making sales at a competitive and retail markup unprofitable and unrealsistic" NO markup..What I pay is what everyone I market to pays.

So I hope I kept them in order. The notes I made on my desktop were in my typical nursey scribble.

So that's what I think MHO...actually I can't say that, because I don't feel humble about Pre Paid Legal Services Inc...I feel PRIDE, yeah in caps. It pains me to see some of the detractor's statements, because who I am IS a Nurse. I take care of people it's just what I do...somewhere along the line they got the wrong message and I would so love to fix it... especially for the folks whose upline just didn't quite get the company's policies. Being an Associate has changed my entire LIFE. It is such a PERFECT vehicle for the folks who have lost their dreams who struggle everyday just to get through the day...Oh man it brings tears to my eyes, I wish someone had shared this with me when I was a young single mother trying to make ends meet...but they never meet that's why their called "ends".

I know what it's like to be on Welfare to take your kid to the babysitter's so they can eat because you have NO food in the house...been there done that. And it will NEVER happen to my children because I'm already grooming them to be Associates, because I don't think this market will hit saturation. There will always be some naysayers who just don't "Get It" and that's cool with me. Because I'm building the American Dreams my parents had, but never achieved.

So there you go ..I hope it made sense and I was able to verbalize my convictions to my business...Yes MY business, success or failure..It's all up to just one person and that's ME.
Take Care and thanks for your post it feels so good to let this out of my heart.

Pyramid scheme, or not, take the test to decide.

Hello to all,

I couldn't resist adding my two cents, because of the ongoing debate of whether PPL is a pyramid scheme, or not.

This test comes from the Pyramid Scheme Alert website, and I believe everyone should use the guidelines provided, to come to an informed decision.

To those who believe that because PPL sells a service, and therefore doesn't qualify as a pyramid scheme, I strongly urge you to read on.

The key to identifying the potential harm of a MLM program is to look for elements in the compensation system that creat extremely high leverage for the top persons in the hierarchy of participants. MLM leverage refers to the concentration of payments from the company to founding and other top-level distributors, who profit hugely from the efforts and purchases of a multitude of distributors beneath them, the vast majority of whom lose both time and money.

CHAINING

Question 1 : Does a participating distributor advance through a chain of multiple levels of distributors by recruiting other distributors, who in turn recruit distributors under them, etc. ?

Answer: (NO) - If there is no chaining of participants into levels based upon recruiting, and if a participant does not progress through those levels by recruiting others, then the program would not qualify as a pyramid scheme and is probably harmless.


Answer: (YES) - All MLM programs, as well as illegal pyramid schemes, and chain letters have this multi-level chaining characteristic in common. But be cautious about joining programs in which you are recruited into a chain of distributors (agents, representatives, etc.) which are organized into multiple levels, especially where the position of the chain is determined by timing of entrance into the program and by success at recruiting others. while a few earn substantial profits, most participants lose both time and money.

In theory, the use of person-to-person referrals is a very powerful maketing strategy. And with outstanding products, fast-talking promoters, and/or connections with famous persons or notable experts, it is easy to be taken in by their appeal.

It should also be noted that quality of products or services often becomes questionable when incentives are tied to recruitment. This would apply to such products and services as health products, investments, or internet services.
For most MLM's, income is dependant primarily on downline recruiting. As a general guideline, if you must recruit to be successful, or if a program's emphasis is on building a downline, it is a de facto pyramid scheme, whether or not it has been declared illegal by authorities. You may just be setting yourself up for wasting much precious time and money, depending on factors that can be identified by answering the following questions.

UNLIMITED RECRUITING

Question 2 : In any area, is unlimited recruiting of distributors allowed--and even encouraged?

Answer: (NO) - If reasonable territorial protection is offered to participants in a given area, the program would not soon collapse from market saturation. Recruiters would not be as likely to promote the illusion of an ever-expanding market and of the potential for very large incomes for vitually all new recruits.
Answer: (YES) - With unlimited recruiting, new recruits find it increasingly difficult to recruit more participants into the system. This is due to market saturation, wherein prospects perceive a diminishing opportunity to profit from participation.

To illustrate an approach more in line with maket realities, suppose the program were limited to one distributor for each 10,000 population in a given area or to one distributor within each one mile radius - much like the territorial protectionn of a retail franchise. The problem of saturation would not be significant.

But limiting the amount of recruiting or the number of distributors in a given area is uncharacteristic of MLM because that would lessen the illusion of the potential for very large incomes for new recruits. Such limitations would render a pyramid scheme impotent.

PAY TO PLAY

Question 3 : Are participants expected to make a significant investment, or to make ongoing purchases in order to continue qualifying for bonuses, purchase discounts, etc.?

Answer: (NO) - If the investment in the scheme is minimal and repeat investments are not expected, it may still be a pyramid scheme, but the harmful effects will be minimized.

Answer: (YES) - If you have to pay a fee or to buy products to get into a program -- and are then expected to keep on purchasing products, services, training, etc., in order to progress in the orginization, be wary. You paying ongoing fees to "play the Game",one of the earmarks of a product-based pyramid scheme. If you add the operating costs of selling and recruiting to the cost of purchases from the company, total expenses will generally exceed any payments to you from the MLM company.

Pyramid schemes masquerading as MLM's are often allowed to grow and flourish unchecked because they do not require a large up-front enrollment fee to sign up. Because recruiters generally do not profit from the initial enrollment fee of a recruit, it is often assumed the program is not a pyramid scheme.

In fact, nothing may be further from the truth. MLM programs typically incorporate escalating incentives to purchase products (some at initial signup, some later) to qualify for ever-higher levels in the distributorship hierarchy and/or for larger discounts on product purchases. As a result, MLM "distributors" often overuse products or give away a lot of samples. Others fill their garages with products they don't need, in spite of policies to the contrary. The argument that participants would have purchased the products from another source anyway, and that these purchases should not be considered an expense of doing business, simply does not hold water.

Also, because some compensation systems offer incentives for recruiting and retaining a certain number of distributors (or escalating incentives to recruit more and more distributors), many participants will recruit "dummy distributors" from friends and family members and buy products in their names. They are led to believe this will then qualify them for "the really big bucks". It is not until they leave the system that the more astute among them realize that they have in effect paid a very large fee (in the form of product purchases) for participation in a pyramid scheme. Often this amounts to many thousands of dollars over a period of months or years.

Such an amount paid at the start into a no-product pyramid scheme would immediately arouse suspicions by the public and by regulators of its constituting an illegal pyramid scheme. But since the money paid into an MLM program is paid for legitimate products and over a period of time, most participants (and many regulators) fail to see it as an investment in a pyramid scheme. However this "pay to play" feature of a product based distribution system should be seen as a red flag signaling an illegal pyramid scheme.

Many observers believe that MLM products are sold at a premium to support a large downline. If an MLM product were to be sold at a premium of $20 more than competitve products sold thru other outlets, the $20 premium could be considered the pyramid premium portion of the price, which would flow to the top of the distributor Hierarchy in typical pyramid fashion.

As suggested earlier, what is often not factored in to projections made at opportunity meetings is the expenses of conducting the business. In most programs, if products purchased from the company (which would not likely have been purchased if the person had not been a participant in the program) and operating expenses were subtracted from commissions, few-except for those at the top levels-would be making any profits. The vast majority would actually be losing money, only to enrich the MLM company and fatten the bank accounts of the top upline distributors, in the form of overrides from product purchases by downline participants.

DISPROPORTIONAL PAYMENTS

Question 4 : Would a distributor receive about the same payment from the company for a wholesale purchase--or for a retail sale--as distibutors several levels above him/her who had nothing to do with it?

Answer: (NO) - If the pay is spread out to all participants, or if no pay is received at all, it may be a pyramid scheme, but probably not harmful or worth enforcement action against it as an illegal pyramid scheme.

Answer: (YES) - MLM plans typically offer very small rewards to front line distributors who actually sell the products and services of the company. So the only way to achieve significant income is to rise to the top of the distributor hierarchy by recruiting a large downline of distributors.

Many MLM compensation systems lead to extreme inequality in payout (money paid by the company) to distributors, which means there are few "winners" --but a high loss rate (after subtracting all expenses) for the rest of the participants. Often these "losers" will invest considerable amounts of time and money and then quit, blaming themselves. But their "failure" is not due so much to lack of effort on their part as to a SYSTEM which is stacked infavor of a few at the expense of the many.
In other direct sales settings, it is not unusal for a successful commissioned sales person to receive more income than sales managers at local or even regional levels. this is because the person making the sale makes more in commissions per sale (often 20-40%) than managers two or three levels above him/her. But in many MLM programs, upline distributors several layers removed from the actual sale receive as much or more in total payments per sale (including commissions and bonuses) from the company as the person who actually sold the product - who may get only five or ten % from the company.

EXCEPTIONS: In some cases, MLM's depart from this pattern of paying front-line distributors no more per sale than upline distrbutors several levels removed from the sale. For example, for MLM's which provide financial services, companies have to meet certain commission requierments for sales by their agents. In cases such as these, one should look at the overrides beyond the agent commissions, which are paid to upline participants in the hierarchy. If overrides for participants several levels above the agent making the sale are the same as for the person who recruited the agent, the result will be an undue emphasis on recruiting and extreme inequality in company payout to participants.

As mentioned earlier, since the total payout per sale is limited, when upline distributors receive substantial overrides from the sale by downline distributors,this limits the percentage of commissions to the person making the sale. so the income of the front line distributors is extremely limited, forcing them to recruit a large downline to realize a significant income. Powerful incentives may then be at work to recruit a downline in order to "make the really big bucks" collecting small overrides on hundreds even thousands of downline participants. MLM promoters call this "leverage". When the leverage is extreme, the program should be considered an illegal pyramid scheme.

MLM companies usually suggest that distributors who buy at wholesale prices from the company can then sell them at an elevated retail price, such as happens in more conventional retail outlets, thus allowing a significant profit margin for the distributor. The problem is that suggested retail prices for MLM products are generally too high to be competitve with other outlets. So MLM distributors wind up purchasing large quantities for themselves and their families and/or selling most products at wholesale prices to downline participants in order to meet volume requirements for bonus or discount levels.

Also, extreme incentives to recruit a downline often lead to many of the attendant deceptions for which such programs are notorious - overstating income potential and/or product effectiveness, deceptive recruiting practices,etc. Doing less may not produce any significant income. This explains why many otherwise honest persons eventually mimic the deceptions of their upline and either rationalize or fail to see the fraudulence of their actions.

EXCESSIVE LEVELS

Question 5: Does the company pay overrides or commissions on more than four levels above the distributor making a sale or purchase?
Answer: (NO) - If no more than four upline levels are allowed above the distributor buying or selling the product, then the system may be quite harmless, since customers may be served without excessive upline remuneration. No upline distributors are likely to receive exhorbitant incomes at the expense of their respective downliners.

In fact, with a maximum of four levels, most systems would die out for lack of opportunity for top distributors to receive extremely large override checks. Blatant appeals to greed would be minimized.

Answer: (YES) - More than 5 levels in the distributor hierarchy enriches those at the top, at the expense of a multitude of downline participants, the vast majority of whom lose money.

For even the largest of conventional distributor arrangements, the entire U.S. can be covered by a maximum of four supervisory levels in the distributorship hierarchy; e.g. branch managers, district mgrs., regional mngrs., and national sales manager -plus an international manager if one is needed for foreign markets. More than that is superflous and bloated, driving up product prices and making sales at a competitive retail markup unprofitable and unrealistic.

When several levels are allowed in an MLM hierarchy of distributors, there is seldom any functional justification for doing so other than to encourage recruiting and the illusion of very large potential incomes to more participants than is mathmatically possible -- a hallmark of many pyramid schemes. Only those distributors at the top of the hierarchy of the participants realize any significant income.

Also, with an upline of many levels, the top-level distributors may be profiting to an extreme degree from the losses (including products that would not have been puchased had the investing distributors not gotten involved) of those beneath them. Such exorbitant incomes result from reaping of huge commissions, overrides and bonuses from the combined efforts and investments (in the form of product purchases) fo the hundreds or even thousands of downline participants.

This is what MLM enthusiasts often refer to as "leverage" or "residual income" -- large company payouts disproportionate to effort expended, resulting primarily from the purchases of downline participant. Leverage can be illustrated by adding up a downline of participants that is extended to six levels -- although many programs allow for many more levels. But for the purpose of illustration, assume that a "distributor" recruits five active distributors,each of whom recruits five more, and so on through six levels of distributors. Lets assume a $5 commission on each sale. The exponential growth of the pyramid becomes evident:

LEVEL 1: 5 distributors X $5 in commissions & bonuses = $25 a month

LEVEL 2: 25 + 5 = 30 total Distributors X $5 in commissions & bonuses = $150 a month

LEVEL 3: 125 + 30 = 155 total distributors X $5 in commissions & bonuses = $775/month

LEVEL 4: 625 + 155 = 780 total distributors X $5 in comm. & bonus =$3,900/month
LEVEL 5: 3,125 + 780 = 3,905 distributors X $5 in comm. & bonus = $19,525/month

LEVEL 6: 15,625 + 3,905 = 19,530 distributors X $5 in comm. & bonus = $97,650/month!!!

If each "distributor" (or "participating consumer") were to buy enough products each month to yield an override of $5 in commissions and bonuses to the original upline distributor, then with a five-level downline, the upline distributor gets $19,525 per month, while with a complete six-level downline the same distributor gets $96,650 per month. The incentive to recruit to move up a level becomes very great.

Of course it seldom works out that way, but these are the type of figures that are often presented to prospective new recruits at MLM opportunity meetings. This example illustrates why so much emphasis is placed on recruiting, as opposed to selling products to persons outside the pyramid. $97,650 is much more appealing than $100 that might be earned by a level 1 distributor for selling the products at the full retail price (assuming $20 markup on products sold to each of five customers - before expenses). In comparison with recruiting, retailing products at full retail price becomes a waste of time.

WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!!

If the answer to all five questions is "yes" then the MLM program should be considered a harmful pyramid scheme in concept, structure, and effects -- regardless of quality of products offered, type of compensation system (binary, breakaway, matrix, unilevel, etc.), company policy regarding recruiting, or any other efforts by company officials to make its program appear to be legitimate. The primary emphasis will be on deriving income from recruiting with insufficient incentive to retail products or services.

Also -- if all five of the above are true, then the likelihood of a distributor earning a significant income is so infinitessimally small that it would be misleading to say that any significant income could be realized from it, even with dilligent effort. If a recruiter then suggests that a high percentage of participants can earn a significant income from such a program, a case can be made for misrepresention of earnings or deceptive sales practices. And if a sizable investment of products is encouraged to "jump start" the business, it may be appropriate to ask if the recruiter has registered as a broker-dealer of securities.

While none of the above five yes responses in and of themselves costitutes a pyramid scheme, a combination of four(the first four) or all five most certainly indicates a high enough degree of exploitation to be considered very harmful(and probably illegal) pyramid scheme, if properly understood. In actuality many participants are not "distributors" at all, but unwitting investors in a pyramid scheme.

The effects of such a system can be measured by requiring existing MLM companies to release data on payout to all participants (not just active ones) by percentiles after subtracting average purchases for gross income before operating expenses. It will then be seen that very large incomes accruing to the top distributors in the hierarchy are financed by the losses on the part of the vast majority of participants.

Is PPL a pyramid scheme? Will any representatives of PPL take the test, and answer the questions honestly? It will be interesting to see, yes?

Best regards,

PPL IN THE FUTURE...

Calling legal insurance a joke is like calling health insurance a joke years ago when it was first thought of. People did call health insurance a joke and those same people are the ones now kicking themselves in the @ss, cause they could of cashed in on the idea instead of being negative, ignorant, naysayers who just think that everything is a scam. But look at it now, it's a multi-million dollar industry. It's going to be the same situation within the next 5 to 10yrs from now with legal [insurance] protection.

I guess we could see who is going to be the "tards" then, huh? It's to bad Steve that there is people like yourself who just have no vision of the future or foresight what so ever; I guess common sense isn't very common these days.

The bottom line, regardless of what anyone says, is that PPL has been around and will be around for a very long time. They offer an excellent legal service and are the only company teamed up with the world's leading risk management company (Kroll,INC)to offer identity theft protection; real identity protection not "credit" protection like everyone else offers and claims is I.D. protection. Also, PPL is personally responsible for the recent legal paradigm shift. Thanks to PPL everyone can afford legal services.

For Judith

Judith,

Although I do believe the results quoted are possible, I cannot personaly confirm it.

If that size of a team is working, then you should be able to get those numbers.

Some of the other info is wrong or misunderstood though.

Your first 5 memberships do not "go to the house".

You get paid (I'm not going to quote numbers here) for each sale you make no matter what level you are at. The only thing is, you need to get a few membership sales to get paid in advance. Until then, you are paid as earned, and they will only pay you as you make a certain amount (I think $75).

It sounds as if your potential upline wants you to make 5 full membership sales (PPL and IDT) which will get you promoted to manager and get you about 65% of the full commissions paid on a membership.

But, you can get there quicker if you recruit. Recruit 3 associates and you make manager. This gets you more commission for those same 5 sales, but gets your upline less.

The lead program he is reffering to must be from his own team, as PPL does NOT provide them for you.

You can purchase both membership leads and business opp. leads from various sources though.

My Skype name is questarthews, if you would like to talk.

Good luck in your business.

About spelling

I requested to visit the (or a) Pre-Paid Legal training site even though I'm not an Assoc. yet just to see if this was something I felt was easy to understand, easy to duplicate, a site I could pass on to others without hestitation.

I realize that when you're blogging and typing fast you can easily misspell words. But when a training site and especially the phone scripts, have terrible grammar, punctuation and spelling I lose respect. There is no excuse for this from supposed professionals and it actually makes me mad. What makes me even more mad is the fact that these people who can't seem to speak their own language, have a monthly income that exceeds my annual income with a college degree.

In anybody's opinion, should I just ignore this sloppy communication when it quite frankly embarrasses me? (It drops the image of Pre-Paid Legal from classy, the way you might think of any reputatable legal service, to a shoddy, careless, fast-bucks, slap-it-together type of opportunity. What a shame.)

I would be embarrassed to have an intelligent person read the training site and ESPECIALLY the phone script. (it advises you to develop an emotional "report" with your prospect... instead of the correct word which is "rapport" with a silent "t" at the end. There is no such thing as an emotional report, do-do head. What are you supposed to do? Ask the prospect to "report" to you their feelings so you can write each of them down and send them in to the company? Paleeeze!)

PLUS, this training site is absolutely FILLED with advertising! Yeah, like that's real helpful (a total distraction) when you're first starting out. Just what I need. To get distracted by a bunch of online ads while I'm trying to learn a brand new business. Very poor taste, in my opinion, and very opportunistic. I'm sure those spots sell for a pretty penny. But they make it very difficult to navigate the site and zero in on just what you need to get trained. Amazing.

I liked the concept of PPL in the beginning. But checking out the training has me scratching my head. I've encountered this same phenomenon in a couple of other opportunities online. I just wonder. Are the people making the big bux generally uneducated? Are they just street smart and know how to turn a buck, but don't ask them to write a letter...? Are they corporate flunkies because of their atrocious communication skills, drop out of the so-called real world and come to the internet because it's the only place they can survive? Just ask them to sell something, and boom, they can sell vacuum cleaner bags at the North Pole--with no vacuum in site? I'm beginning to wonder.

BTW, I'm no genius, OK? But at least I know what a rapport is! If pointed in the right direction, I think I could quickly pick up skills such as: how to build a landing page, how to create effective sales promotions and letters, etc. I have a great imagination and given the right tools and opportunity I think I could do very well. Should I just go with PPL while holding my nose at the nasty training site... make the big bux myself, and then do something creative with it later? Just because other sales people don't speak English, should I let that stand in my way?

Have you done/are you doing something, part of which embarrasses or irritates you, deep down where you don't want to think about it, but you keep on cuz it pays well?

Judith again

Hi Judith,

If you use Skype, could you send me the link?

PPL is supposed to approve ALL sites having anything to do with them, however that doesn't always happen.

I am sure if you were to look at official company sites you would get another opinion of them. The problem is, there are so many associates out there doing their own thing, unless it is brought to corporates attention, almost anything can happen.

Again, if you would like to talk, feel free to Skype me. I will not try to recruit you, but it would be much easier to help you in somewhat more real time.

I cannot post my phone number or email (I don't think) so again, my Skype name is questarthews if you are interested.

I would hate for you to pass up a good thing because of some well intentioned, but miss-informed associate scares you off.

Regarding the PPL Attorneys

A question for PPL Associates: Is the PPL attorney supposed to be located in the nearest geographical area of the member? How does that work? Is the member offered more than one option or are members specifically assigned to a particular PPL atty or law firm? Thanks for responding, somebody! : )

TIM

Tim,

You may be 100% right. I'm just stepping back and just looking at it on the face of it; more of a logical approach rather than a legal approach.

Kinda like Real Estate and Mortgages. As a Realtor in the state of Fla, if you are recomending a mortgage company such as an inhouse one where the company stands to make $$$, it just merely has to be disclosed. Or if you recomend to someone who is in return paying you, which would be illegal, but hypothetically, you have to disclose it to the customer.

On a side note, during the day, I work in the court system in Florida as a Court Reporter in criminal court. A defendant, unrepresented at the moment approaches and when asked if he was going to get an attorney, he said yes, he has pre paid legal. Judge too the not guilty plea, he left and we went off the record and all the attorneys who were in there had a big laugh. Basically calling it a joke. Now, I think they may have been directing the comments towards the law firm that PPL uses down here as opposed to the service itself, but it had made me think.

As far as a sponsor goes, I am involved in the pro. wrestling community and there are some past workers on a team that I will be joining up with if and when I do, but thanks for the offer.

It is an expensive business to have down here in Florida as far as the licensing and what not.

Best of Luck to all.

Lawfirms

You are assigned to a particular lawfirm. That is who you call whenever you have a question, or need representation.

If for some reason that lawfirm cannot handle your case you are reffered to another lawfirm by your provider lawfirm.

They send you to whoever is best able to represent you within their network of lawfirms.

You guys are missing out!!

Wow I am overwhelmed by all the negativity. I have been in sales for 20 years but I have never made any money because my title was sales associate. I made money because I got out there and worked. I look at sales as the truth of what all employees are really worth. The problem is that most people don't work. Just because you are there on the job for 8 hours doesn't mean you earned it. When people who have bad work habits get involved with a company like Pre-Paid Legal Services the typically fall off the rainbow because they still are not working. I have been in this business for 7 years full-time. I work 5 hours daily and earn, yes EARN between $400 & $1000 daily. Because I work. I sell these services to people and business owners properly. Too many people claim to work this business those are the liars. If you are stuck in your house everyday then you are not working your business. Everybody in your home should have a membership so who are you going to sell to. You need to get out of the house because this business is belly to belly. Statistically, not Pre-Paid Legal's research but statistically over 50% of the people living in this country have a need for legal help. Yes the kind of help that our services provide. So unless your home is incredibly huge fitting millions in then you need to get out and in the face of people. Yes you need to work.

Some people argue about our membership and its coverage. Saying I could have gone here or there and they where cheaper than you guys. Duh, McDonalds is cheaper than a 5 star restaurant. Food is not the same and neither is the coverage we offer. This service works. It is better than anything out there. Some say PPL charged $5000 while other attorneys would charge $500. I don't believe you. Simply put. I had a member say the same thing. When I asked her well, what did you say to the other attorney she said she had only mentioned to him the same things. But because our attorneys would listen to her completely they priced her accordingly with no funny business. The other attorney didn't practice in all those phases of law so he only priced for her what he could do. So she cancelled believing that this attorney could help her. Six months later she called me back and wanted to reinstate her membership explaining that the $500 attorney was billing her $2000 more than he originally quoted. I said really. And she says he sent me to other attorneys that want me to pay even more for services that he doesn't cover. Well you can figure the rest of the story out using your own imagination. My point is if you are going to tell your story try telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. PPL is an honest company but ignorance and the choice to dramatize in order to save face is very sad even less than pathetic.

Some folks get in this business and think that just because they paid for a license that the money is going to come chase them and they are going to be rich. When I bring in new associates I always ask them to do two things. One, make a list. Two, come to the meetings. I didn't say go build a house. I didn't say fix my twin turbine engine. I said to write and show up. Most don't do it. Then they wonder why they don't make any money in the business. You have to work. You must do something. You must find a system to follow, there are many. Leave your ego at the door. Those that make a list and come to meetings sell memberships. Too many people want to make this business complicated saying they didn't tell me how the service works. I say did you see a DVD they say yes I then say, "Did you take notes", they say no. I just nod my head. I figured out that if people are not going to take care of themselves then why should they take notes, wouldn't that help.

Ever had a great idea and forgot about it? Sure you have. Ever tried to remember something then forgot? Sure you have. The problem is that most people don't help themselves. People don't take enough care of themselves. If the average person were paid commission for the job that they are doing right now for their employer most people would go broke. If you don't believe me just ask the 30 thousand plus general motors employees who are soon to be laid off. On a job you get paid what the job is worth for most that is a bonus. When you are in sales and you really have to work you get paid what you are worth. If you don't work then you don't get paid. It's as simple as that.

So what about the people who say that they have done all of that work stuff but they have still not made any money in Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. I say you guys are missing the point. PPL is about exposure not selling. People may not buy today from you but in time they will. You don't come into this world walking and running. All of us must go through a process first and then in 9-15 months we walk. This business is the same way. It depends on your level of commitment not anyone else's. I work my business without sponsor support. I go to my meetings to learn so that I can earn. Sure it's the same thing every week but so is my income. The money is real the opportunity is real. Like I started off with, the problem is that most people are not very good employees if paid a commission rather than a salary most would be in financial ruins. In order to make a success out of PPL you must not sell it because it sells itself. If you try to sell it you will kill it. You just want to let people know that this service exist and what it does, then ask them what they liked best about what they heard, pull out an application and say, great lets get started. I do this 3- 5 times daily not because I have special talent because I don't. But because I am persistent, I work and I never give up but above all I work my business everyday the same way but I guess the bottom line is that.... I WORK!!!

Pre-Paid Legal NOT a rip off!!

I have been a member and representative of Pre-Paid Legal for over 5 years and know for fact they provide excellent service and never shirk on their bills.

You were merely dealing with an individual who didn't pay their bills for whatever reason. A representative is NOT Pre-Paid Legal and they do not have the authority to contract for the company.

In the future I would strongly suggest you want ALWAYS consider it a private matter unless you have gone directly to the company, NOT the representative, and confirmed who is the actual person or company you are doing business with. This is just a matter of common sense. CONFIRM WHO YOU ARE DOING BUSINESS WITH. A representative can not open an office using a company name, logo, etc and if you had done an inspection of their premises you would have know you are NOT dealing with the company.

Had the INDIVIDUAL over for collection and report them to the credit bureau and stop bad mouthing a company with a sparkling reputation.

It's not hard to tell

A couple of my friends got involved in PPL a few years back. I let them sell me their pitch and politely declined. If anything is more dependant on getting more independent distributors than actually selling the product then it's not hard to tell what it is. It is looks like a pyramid scheme...you get the picture. References to stocks are quite irrelevant too.

I feel bad for people who buy into the dream of working for themselves when in fact they are working to get people above them rich, more so than in a salary paying company.

Also you associates might want to mind your manners on here as you are not representing yourself in the image of a legitimate company by attacking (sophmorically) anyone who disagrees with PPL. It exposes the associates for what they really are...uneducated, greedy, lazy, ignorant and frustrated people obsessed with the visions of cars and money and like to use other people's success stories as validation for shady operating procedures.

Oh but I forgot, you like to help people right? That's why you're doing this...not to make fast money. Well then I guess that makes mine and everyone else's accomplishments and goals in life inferior to any associate who gets involved in a company that "has the # 1 stock", "has millionaire" etc., when in fact associates require no credentials and actual legitimate work.

Guys like the Navy E-5 (why would you put your pay grade when military service has nothing to do with this argument and as a military member you should never attach your title in endorsement of anything without a disclaimer?? Come on, you should know that. I was in the military too, and I wouldn't be bragging about an E-5 grade) endorse it as well as Jay from California...it's a good idea to throw your money away I guess.

By the way, I KNEW about 15 people that were all about PPL...and guess where they are now???? Jail, Military, Other Jobs BESIDES PPL. Why??? Because it's a scam. Why else would associates have to unveil their earnings to get people to sign up? Because people respond to getting money and that is the only leg they stand on.

Other companies (who have actual hiring procedures) wouldn't have the boss or whoever tell you how much he makes and how many cars he has to get you on board.