Life Quotes Geico Geico Darien, Illinois

To Whom It May Concern:
 
This is my resignation from GEICO Insurance affiliate/ Life Quotes. Per our conversation, I want to restate my opinion of your appalling business tactics. Let me first summarize my complaints:
1.      You stated in your advertisement for the sales position that it pays '$23 per hour'. THIS IS COMPLETELY MISLEADING. The real pay is '$23/ hour of Talk Time', of which on any given shift an agent is working, 'talk time' is usually only half of the time worked. For example, if I work a 8 hour shift (of which I must be logged in and in front of the computer for 8 hours), I on average will only be 'talking' approximately 4 hours, of which I receive $23/ hour.  So the real pay is approximately $11 hour.
Why do you not advertise the position stating this fact? Are you hiding this very important fact? Is this a bait and switch tactic?
 
2.      In addition, to receive the '$23/ hour of talk time' an agent must also achieve 3 different 'ratios' (submissions ratio, talk time ratio, issued ratios).  Now, if only one of these 'ratios' are not met, an agent does not receive his or her '$23/ of talk time' OR any commissions earned! THIS IS NOT CLEAR IN THE CONTRACT AND WAS NOT CLEARLY COMMUNICATED TO ME BEFORE I SIGNED UP. For example, an agent can work a 2 week shift, work 40-80 hours on average, sell 'X' amount of policies and receive $00.00 at the end of the pay period!  This is completely absurd. 
How can you expect people to work for 2 weeks, then find out at the end of the 2 weeks they will not receive ANYTHING???  Why is this very critical point not emphasized in the contract? And why was this not clearly communicated to me?  Again, are you trying to hide something? Do you not think that knowing this fact would be a decisive factor for an agent considering the position?
 
I can honestly say that had I known this, I definitely would not have signed up and invested over $1,000.  In addition, I had tried to address this issue, and have email documentation, with upper management, including CEO Bob Bland and President Drew Gregory, and my issues would not be directly addressed. Each time the issue was diverted and I would not receive a direct answer.
 
GEICO Insurance affiliate/ Life Quotes is able to get away with this because most agents, like myself, need to invest approximately $1,000 to obtain various state licenses to start the program. Obviously, after investing such a large sum of money, an agent is committed to the program, although critical points of the pay plan stated above are NOT made aware to the agent until AFTER the investment is made!  This puts the agent in an uncompromising position, as you can image.
 
I have wasted over month of work (of which I have sold over $20,000 in annual premium!) and wasted an investment of over $1,000, due to your lack of transparency and unethical practices and now I have almost nothing to show for it. I think your business practices are appalling and it is amazing to me that a reputable company like GEICO, whom I personally have auto insurance with, would knowingly participate in the these unethical, bait and switch business tactics. Furthermore, I would think the public would be just as appalled, especially under the current economic environment, to learn that a household name company like GEICO would be involved in such practices. I am sure that the Insurance Commissioner's Office of Maryland and Illinois would also be very interested in your business practices, as well as the insurance companies you represent such as Transamerica, Genworth, MetLife, Lincoln Financial, etc
 
I would hope now that you would think it would only be fair and reasonable to reimburse me of my $1,000 investment and commissions on all the policies I have written and sold, of which I am the writing agent on, and the $23 per hour of the hours I have worked.  Further, I suggest you change your job advertisements so no one in the future needlessly has goes through the same ordeal.