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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My criticism isn’t directed toward those of you out there knocking on the doors. I don’t think you’re unethical, but I do think you’ve been taught some deceptive sales techniques, including slamming residents who have another security system. (I am using the term ’slamming’ in the telecommunications sense of a smooth and subtle pitch where the customer doesn’t realize they’re switching companies until after the fact, even with the confirmation of their ‘information’ on the phone.)

The problem isn’t the concept of direct sales. It’s this concept of direct sales, where students are dropped into areas that have already been heavily saturated with this type of approach and left to their own devices to make that quota using a hard-sell approach that involves entry into the homes of the people they’re selling to.

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

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