Shady pyramid schemes - I'm sick of them...
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:19 pm
Three quick stories... and then share yours.
1. A few years back, this hot woman (I had a summer romance with but she moved away and we lost touch) we reconnected on social media. She is a "independent saleswoman" for one of those miracle products you often see. It's a total pyramid scheme. She tried to convince me to do it, sent me samples, etc. But stressed very important for me to sign up under her name, of course, and buy lots of products. Anyway, I declined and she was so mad she unfriended me because I called her out on the pyramid scheme.
2. Last year an old former veteran coworker lured me into some 1 hour online sales call so she could meet some quota, and thereafter I was guilted into becoming a representative, which I declined.
3. About a year ago, I met a veteran in the course of handing out my business card. My sales pitch is 30 seconds. Hey, if you ever filed for a VA claim and got wrongly denied, and want to appeal, I can help you. If you lose, you owe me zero $. If you win, I get a low 20% of the recovery, paid straight from the VA out of your recovery amount. Anyway, a year later, this guy calls me with his new get rich quick scheme he and his wife have "paid off $600,000 in debt" by smarter money management, downsizing, blah blah blah. Well, I'm smart enough to know that coupon clipping and selling some of your stuff at a garage sale isn't going to make $600,000. In fact, moving into a smaller house and similar actions can sometimes cost you money due to the moving and transaction costs. Anyway, he was forceful about sitting down for a Starbucks coffee (again, that's poor money management right there...since a cup of coffee at home is 20 cents vs. 10-20 times that at Starbucks, as an example of his illogic). We discussed a host of financial topics (I have my MBA, have studied economics a lot in my life, taken econ classes in college and grad school, run a business, and was a stock broker, financial adviser, and briefly sold insurance). Yet in the 28 minute phone call, in spite of me directly asking him what he does or sells, he ultimately just refused to tell me. Finally, giving in, he said, "I can tell you're not interested in financial security," and "You seem to busy to listen to what I have to say," and similar nonsense. I responded by saying, "If you can't just tell me what you do or sell or market, that's pretty odd, and you need to work on your 30 second elevator sales pitch." I mean, nobody is going to think they can save their way to paying off a half million dollars in debt in a year since that's about 10-20 times what most folks earn in a year.
Aggggghhhh.... these pyramid folks are annoying.
1. A few years back, this hot woman (I had a summer romance with but she moved away and we lost touch) we reconnected on social media. She is a "independent saleswoman" for one of those miracle products you often see. It's a total pyramid scheme. She tried to convince me to do it, sent me samples, etc. But stressed very important for me to sign up under her name, of course, and buy lots of products. Anyway, I declined and she was so mad she unfriended me because I called her out on the pyramid scheme.
2. Last year an old former veteran coworker lured me into some 1 hour online sales call so she could meet some quota, and thereafter I was guilted into becoming a representative, which I declined.
3. About a year ago, I met a veteran in the course of handing out my business card. My sales pitch is 30 seconds. Hey, if you ever filed for a VA claim and got wrongly denied, and want to appeal, I can help you. If you lose, you owe me zero $. If you win, I get a low 20% of the recovery, paid straight from the VA out of your recovery amount. Anyway, a year later, this guy calls me with his new get rich quick scheme he and his wife have "paid off $600,000 in debt" by smarter money management, downsizing, blah blah blah. Well, I'm smart enough to know that coupon clipping and selling some of your stuff at a garage sale isn't going to make $600,000. In fact, moving into a smaller house and similar actions can sometimes cost you money due to the moving and transaction costs. Anyway, he was forceful about sitting down for a Starbucks coffee (again, that's poor money management right there...since a cup of coffee at home is 20 cents vs. 10-20 times that at Starbucks, as an example of his illogic). We discussed a host of financial topics (I have my MBA, have studied economics a lot in my life, taken econ classes in college and grad school, run a business, and was a stock broker, financial adviser, and briefly sold insurance). Yet in the 28 minute phone call, in spite of me directly asking him what he does or sells, he ultimately just refused to tell me. Finally, giving in, he said, "I can tell you're not interested in financial security," and "You seem to busy to listen to what I have to say," and similar nonsense. I responded by saying, "If you can't just tell me what you do or sell or market, that's pretty odd, and you need to work on your 30 second elevator sales pitch." I mean, nobody is going to think they can save their way to paying off a half million dollars in debt in a year since that's about 10-20 times what most folks earn in a year.
Aggggghhhh.... these pyramid folks are annoying.
One of them got my cell number, which I never give out and they call me to the point I tell them I sold the house, currently living in Arizona in my brothers trailer on the reservation and living off disability. I am gong to start forwarding all the calls to Madpick and Massivedesign. After all, they got all the time in the world just to manage an online gun forum. 