LifeTel - Update

[jdeasy]

Oh my god, John. I want to be very careful with this, because I honestly want to be as kind as possible. First of all, I obviously don't know Scott, I don't know Travis and I don't know you. Although, I do feel like I have a better understanding of you, now that I listened to your "interview" on their website. Without comment, I'm curious to know your honest opinion of that interview and it being on the website like that. I promise, NO attitude or mocking at all, do you think the presentation of that is very professional? Anyway, for a "real" IMO, speaking strictly from a professionalism standpoint, it might be helpful if they scrubbed the various pages of their site for typos and the phone didn't ring right to somebody's cell phone sounding voicemail. Regardless, it's about the contract levels. I get it. So, final expense is all they do, strictly final expense, right? And, you're super tight and buddies with the owners, maybe even a partner of theirs, recruiter, etc. and promoting them and their agency? Bottom line, the question I was asked was about the actual agency this thread is referencing and that agency, again, is not a final expense agency. Foresters isn't even listed on FEX's website as one of their carriers, but sure they may have them. It appears all their really promoting of Trans, as well as the other carriers on there, is all final expense. The question I was attempting to answer was about term and UL levels.

Ughhh... Final expense. Is there even a rank and file final expense producer walking around, literally walking around knocking on old folks doors, who's been in the business more than six months and not carrying a truck load of agent debt because of all of the replacing and other garbage that happens out there in that market? It's such a problem that apparently even FEX agrees with me, because they have a whole area of their site devoted towards cautioning against even taking a fairly normal 9 month advance, so the agent won't get themselves "saddled" with too much debt. No thanks. More power to you guys. That market's all yours. I'll sit in my warm, cozy home office and sell term and UL plans on the phone and have more cross-selling opportunities than a companion urn.

That's OK. You pompous ass phonies can look down on us lowly FE agents all you want. We will beat you to the bank.

I am not a partner with FEX. Nor a recruiter for FEX. They are my IMO. And I think they are the best FE IMO out there.

Are you a recruiter for lifetel?

You bust on FEX while promoting a churn and burn MLM organization that charges agents to give them below street contracts and won't release them once they wake up and smell the coffee.

As for the presentation, I don't if it meet the definition of professional to you nor do I care. I do know that it works. I've been fulltime FE for a little over 9 years and have written over $2 mil in ap. My persistency with my number company is over 90% so I'm not concerned about how you view it. Or any of your ilk.

You getting a better understanding now?

 

[broncos12]

That's OK. You pompous ass phonies can look down on us lowly FE agents all you want. We will beat you to the bank.

I am not a partner with FEX. Nor a recruiter for FEX. They are my IMO. And I think they are the best FE IMO out there.

Are you a recruiter for lifetel?

You bust on FEX while promoting a churn and burn MLM organization that charges agents to give them below street contracts and won't release them once they wake up and smell the coffee.

As for the presentation, I don't if it meet the definition of professional to you nor do I care. I do know that it works. I've been fulltime FE for a little over 9 years and have written over $2 mil in ap. My persistency with my number company is over 90% so I'm not concerned about how you view it. Or any of your ilk.

You getting a better understanding now?

Well... So much for being nice. Guess you don't have it in you. Sir, I'm nobody's recruiter and I haven't promoted anything. I simply answered a question I was directly asked to answer. YOU and your 3 man outfit are the ones doing the promoting, clearly. And, again for your information, I'm above street on the products that were actually being inquired about and I doubt you know anyone's releasing policy. Except for FEX, of course. After all, you think they're the best FE IMO in the world. Shocking.

And, since trying to be nice doesn't work for you, let me tell you what I really think. That "interview" of yours was by far the dumbest, most ridiculous, most cringe-worthy nonsense anyone's ever heard. Frankly, I was embarrassed for you. You two buck-toothed hillbillies. Did you skin a rat for dinner and drink some 'shine after making that laughable sh%^? I especially like the part where the one guy (spoken in heavy hillbilly) introduces you as the "star of the Insurance Forums", yada, yada. Hilarious. Thanks for the laugh.

 

[fortunf]

Steer clear.

I answered a post on Craigslist for a life insurance agent tele-sales position.

I was contacted by Mr. Elly Weatherby president of Life-Tel (contact information follows this post.)
Mr. Weatherby claimed the fee for becoming an agent with the company was 595.00 which was to include one-on-one support (from Mr. Weatherby himself) training and client leads.

After reviewing the position and a general overview of the company, I explained to Mr. Weatherby I felt unqualified for the position based on my lack of experience. (I have been a licensed life/health agent in good standing in the State of Washington since 2000 but have little to no experience with life insurance sales or in particular, tele-sales.) I also indicated the requested fee was excessive and beyond what I was willing and able to invest in startup costs.

Mr. Weatherby offered to reduce the fee to 300.00 indicating he felt I'd enough experience to perform well and that he would train me (directly if needed), in order to bring me to a proficient level of production.

I accepted the offer and paid the company 300.00 via Paypal on August 10th, 2018.

Upon receipt of the fee I received via email several .pdf documents and pre-recorded webinars.
I am able to provide copies of all documents, webinars and correspondence upon request.

The .pdf documents are nothing more than commission schedules and generalized product information on various types of policies each carrier provides and readily available to any agent upon contracting with that particular carrier.

These are standard documents denoting coverage specifics and commmision schedules.

There is no inherent training in any of these items.

The webinars provided are general overviews of different term and whole life products offered by each carrier along with general information on phone-calling, working client leads and utilizing online and localized quoting software.

As an existing, (and successful), health agent, I am quite familiar with the above and there was nothing new provided here with respect to product specific training or direct tele-sales training.

The webinars are informational at best and can in no way shape or form be construed as training, (particularly the one-on-one training Mr. Weatherby alluded to.)

The last communication from Mr. Weatherby was via email on August 28th, 2018. He sent .pdf files and a list of essential products necessary to be well versed in, claiming knowledge / proficiency in the 'base' products would be sufficient in order for me to begin placing outbound calls.
He indicated in the email I should him with any questions.

Upon review, I had a host of questions several items. Being in no way prepared to call actual clients, I contacted Mr. Weatherby in an attempt to gain clarity on specific product application, tele-sales-specific training for the promoted products and quoting procedures, hoping to take advantage of the 'direct training' which Mr.Weatherby had offered.

Emailed Mr. Weatherby several times subsequent to August 28th, with no response.

Called several times and was directed to voicemail and left two voicemails with no response.

Texted his direct number stating that I wished to withdraw from the entire process and wanted a refund of my 300.00.

I received no response from him or the company.

This operation is a complete and utter sham.
Don't waste your time or money.

Below is the contact information Mr. Weatherby lists in his communications:


Elly Weatherby
President
CA Corporate License No. 0K56565
(909) 786-2514 Direct/VM
(888) 898-7334 Toll-Free
(866) 422-1921 Fax
[email protected]
Visit our website at www.LifeTelInsure.com

UPDATE, 09/22/2018:

Response from LifeTel via Ontario, CA BBB:

MESSAGE FROM BUSINESS:

On September 3rd, our President and founder, Elly Weatherby, suffered a serious medical emergency and was hospitalized. As a result, some communication and requests for service, direct to Mr. Weatherby, were admittedly delayed. This customer claiming to have been in contact with and expecting direct training and service from/with Mr. Weatherby was obviously affected by Mr. Weatherby's medical situation. I/we cannot speak to this customer's supposed dissatisfaction with materials he was sent, but, expecting direct training with Mr. Weatherby, which Mr. Weatherby routinely does with ALL of his direct producers, he being out does of course lend merit to this complaint. Regarding this customer's claims of repeated emails and calls, etc., this claim has proven to be entirely erroneous. We have scoured, during the course of his being out, Mr. Weatherby's calls and emails, as well as calls and messages from our toll free messaging. There was ONE email from this customer mentioning he was using a new cell service and was concerned that AN email he sent may have been unretrieved. Outside of that, there are unequivocably NO additional emails, NO additional voicemails or ANYTHING else. In separate comment, this customer claims to be texting a landline phone number that does not receive text messages and whatever calls he may have made, according to his claims only, NO voice messages were left for anyone. NO request for refund or anything else was ever made and/or received by anyone and, outside of this complaint, information and details of this customer's supposed complaint have been extremely hard to come by. Further, this customer filed a charge dispute before anyone knew anything about ANY dissatisfaction he had of any kind at all on anything. As a result of Mr. Weatherby of course being out and knowing this customer was a producer direct to Mr. Weathrby, we approved the refund notification sent to us by our merchant provider. At this point, the refund request has been granted and approved by us and now it's just a matter of the merchant provider processing that refund, according to their normal procedure. In short, the refund has been granted and approved on our end and, according to our merchant relationship, we've done everything asked and all that we can possibly do on our end for this customer to be refunded. Thank you.

My response to LifeTel via Ontario, CA BBB:

I am rejecting this response because:

It's interesting to me that the author of this response 'can’t speak' to my dissatisfaction with the materials I was sent - Indeed, neither Mr. Weatherby nor his associates were able to 'speak' after 28 August. Though he became ill on September 3rd, there would have been approximately a 5 day period between these dates for him to provide a response to my mail.

With respect to 'satisfaction', should I have been 'satisfied' to be 300.00 in the negative with no feedback from the company or its representatives after several repeated attempts to contact? (Not to mention personal time spent dealing with and detailing this nonsense.)

While it's quite true I had been having difficulty transitioning devices it's difficult to understand how the author of the report claims I had been texting a landline that 'does not accept texts'.
I show delivered text messages on my device from August 10th, August 25th and August 28th, with the last one on September 5th showing 'not delivered'. The number is 909-786-2514. I can easily show proof of earlier messages. Since they had been on my previous device they were deleted during transfer but are easily obtainable.

Relating to disputes I recently located this one, (oddly similar to mine) filed on September 1st, 2018:

Ripoff Report | Lifetel Financial & Insurance Services, LLC - Jim Hendry Complaint Review Ontario, California

(Mr. Hendrys' name appears often with Mr. Weatherbys when viewing reports such as mine and there exist several web-based complaints regarding this companies 'agent recruiting' practices.)

While there's little doubt the aforementioned complaint is again purely coincidental, it seems relevant to note the author of this response seems more devoted to semantic tirade/deflection, than resolution.

Mr. Weatherbys serious medical emergency was disclosed only subsequent to copy of this complaint on the 'Insurance-Forum.com' website the same day, September 12th.
Here is a copy of my post / LifeTels response:

https://insurance-forums.com/community/threads/lifetel-update.90037/page-4#post-1263229

The author refers to 'we' insinuating multiple people involved in the company's structure, yet the author offers no direct name/contact information at the end of their response.
A well-established company such as LifeTel, (not to mention with a separate billing department / having held license since 2015) would have a direct contact name/email for communication. Assuming the primary contact is Mr. Weatherby it seems plausible that there be a delegated person to 'take over' at least temporarily, in the event of such an emergency.
This begs the question- why did LifeTel wait 9 days before posting the news about Mr. Weatherbys condition? LifeTels post regarding Mr. Weatherbys health occurred the same day on the same website only after I posted copy of this complaint.

It seems one of his staff might have reached out to agents and informed us, (particularly new-hires such as myself) of Mr. Weatherbys poor health significantly sooner.

While the timing of my complaint and Mr. Weatherbys duress I'm sure is perfectly coincidental, as of this posting my 300.00 fee has not been refunded, nor has there been any notification of pending refund.

I have heard nothing from PayPal since my escalation of this incident on September 18th.
To my knowledge, there has been no response provided to PayPal from LifeTel.
I noted a different email contact located within the PayPal resolution center. The PayPal indicated contact is ‘[email protected]’. I sent email to that address indicating my issue/complaint.

I did receive an email response from LifeTel Billing on September 18th, (only after sending my own email.)

Previously, the email for Mr. Weatherby had been working perfectly. Since the author states they were 'scouring' Mr. Weatherbys emails it seems they would have responded. Another unfortunate coincidence, I'm certain.

After I sent the email to Mr. Abbott, I received this response from LifeTel:

From: LifeTel Billing <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2018 10:54
To: Unlisted Name
Subject: PayPal claim PP-D-********

Per your note yesterday regarding the charge dispute claim made on this transaction, we have approved the refund notification sent to us from PayPal.
Thank you and please accept our sincere best wishes for success in your next endeavor.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m not entirely sure how to interpret this... have they approved notification of the refund or approved the refund itself?
LifeTel would have been made aware of this complaint from PayPal on 11 September.
PayPal would have sent the complaint alert to the same email address I found for Mr. Abbott.
It was only after my initial contact via personal email that I received the above response from LifeTel Billing.

The money was paid via PayPal credit. PayPal notifies the customer immediately of any refund in process, whether anticipated or real-time. To date, I have received no contact from PayPal indicating a refund or anticipated refund.
In addition, when a refund has been sent through PayPal, money is immediately credited to the consumers' account. There is no 'processing'. If a hold or delay of funding is in place, the PayPal system immediately notifies the buyer.
The PayPal complaint was filed on Sept 11th. LifeTel / Mr. Weatherby would have been made aware of the issue immediately. As his associates were 'scouring' his mail, they certainly would have seen the alert from PayPal on September 11th.

LifeTel has not refunded my 300.00, despite the contact from their ‘Billing’ Department.
I want my 300.00 refunded forthwith.

 

[LifeTel]

Official LifeTel Company Memo:

On or about September 3rd, our President and founder, Elly Weatherby, suffered a serious medical emergency and was hospitalized. As a result, some communication and requests for service, direct to Mr. Weatherby, were admittedly delayed. As a staff, we have done our best to retrieve and attend to such matters, in his absence. To all LifeTel producers, we appreciate your patience and please note that all will be addressed and given the proper attention, as expeditiously as possible.

Due to concerns expressed from multiple individuals, it is extremely important for all to understand the following:

1. We work/call off a phone system that does not receive text messages. Please do not text any direct numbers for any LifeTel employees, as these numbers are not cell phone numbers.
   
   
2. Due to the number of producers under contract with us and the sheer volume of calls in to our phone system, it is not possible for us to determine calls from individual producers by number only. In order to receive a response from anyone in the LifeTel staff, you MUST leave a clear voice message including your full name and return telephone number.
   
   
3. If unable to receive a response from any calls made to any LifeTel employees, please then call our toll-free number at 888-898-7334. When calling that number, again, please leave a clear voice message including your full name and return contact phone number.

Finally, to all who have expressed concern and given their well wishes, Mr. Weatherby, his family, and the entire LifeTel family, would like to express our sincere gratitude. Thank you.

 

[VolAgent]

S

Mr. Weatherby offered to reduce the fee to 300.00 indicating he felt I'd enough experience to perform well and that he would train me (directly if needed), in order to bring me to a proficient level of production.

I accepted the offer and paid the company 300.00 via Paypal on August 10th, 2018.

You should dispute the transaction with Paypal if you feel he did not provide what was promised. Now, if you simply were unable or unwilling to do it, that is one thing and part of life. But if you truly believe he did not deliver what was promised for your money, then that is definitely a valid reason to dispute the transaction.

 

[myinsurebiz]

Dude - are you really shocked you were scammed? I mean you been licensed for 18 years and you fell for this? Sorry - but, you received what you deserved . . .

Steer clear.

I answered a post on Craigslist for a life insurance agent tele-sales position.

I was contacted by Mr. Elly Weatherby president of Life-Tel (contact information follows this post.)
Mr. Weatherby claimed the fee for becoming an agent with the company was 595.00 which was to include one-on-one support (from Mr. Weatherby himself) training and client leads.

After reviewing the position and a general overview of the company, I explained to Mr. Weatherby I felt unqualified for the position based on my lack of experience. (I have been a licensed life/health agent in good standing in the State of Washington since 2000 but have little to no experience with life insurance sales or in particular, tele-sales.) I also indicated the requested fee was excessive and beyond what I was willing and able to invest in startup costs.

Mr. Weatherby offered to reduce the fee to 300.00 indicating he felt I'd enough experience to perform well and that he would train me (directly if needed), in order to bring me to a proficient level of production.

I accepted the offer and paid the company 300.00 via Paypal on August 10th, 2018.

Upon receipt of the fee I received via email several .pdf documents and pre-recorded webinars.
I am able to provide copies of all documents, webinars and correspondence upon request.

The .pdf documents are nothing more than commission schedules and generalized product information on various types of policies each carrier provides and readily available to any agent upon contracting with that particular carrier.

These are standard documents denoting coverage specifics and commmision schedules.

There is no inherent training in any of these items.

The webinars provided are general overviews of different term and whole life products offered by each carrier along with general information on phone-calling, working client leads and utilizing online and localized quoting software.

As an existing, (and successful), health agent, I am quite familiar with the above and there was nothing new provided here with respect to product specific training or direct tele-sales training.

The webinars are informational at best and can in no way shape or form be construed as training, (particularly the one-on-one training Mr. Weatherby alluded to.)

The last communication from Mr. Weatherby was via email on August 28th, 2018. He sent .pdf files and a list of essential products necessary to be well versed in, claiming knowledge / proficiency in the 'base' products would be sufficient in order for me to begin placing outbound calls.
He indicated in the email I should him with any questions.

Upon review, I had a host of questions several items. Being in no way prepared to call actual clients, I contacted Mr. Weatherby in an attempt to gain clarity on specific product application, tele-sales-specific training for the promoted products and quoting procedures, hoping to take advantage of the 'direct training' which Mr.Weatherby had offered.

Emailed Mr. Weatherby several times subsequent to August 28th, with no response.

Called several times and was directed to voicemail and left two voicemails with no response.

Texted his direct number stating that I wished to withdraw from the entire process and wanted a refund of my 300.00.

I received no response from him or the company.

This operation is a complete and utter sham.
Don't waste your time or money.

Below is the contact information Mr. Weatherby lists in his communications:


Elly Weatherby
President
CA Corporate License No. 0K56565
(909) 786-2514 Direct/VM
(888) 898-7334 Toll-Free
(866) 422-1921 Fax
[email protected]
Visit our website at www.LifeTelInsure.com

 

[myinsurebiz]

Official LifeTel Company Memo:

On or about September 3rd, our President and founder, Elly Weatherby, suffered a serious medical emergency and was hospitalized. As a result, some communication and requests for service, direct to Mr. Weatherby, were admittedly delayed. As a staff, we have done our best to retrieve and attend to such matters, in his absence. To all LifeTel producers, we appreciate your patience and please note that all will be addressed and given the proper attention, as expeditiously as possible.

Due to concerns expressed from multiple individuals, it is extremely important for all to understand the following:

1. We work/call off a phone system that does not receive text messages. Please do not text any direct numbers for any LifeTel employees, as these numbers are not cell phone numbers.
   
   
2. Due to the number of producers under contract with us and the sheer volume of calls in to our phone system, it is not possible for us to determine calls from individual producers by number only. In order to receive a response from anyone in the LifeTel staff, you MUST leave a clear voice message including your full name and return telephone number.
   
   
3. If unable to receive a response from any calls made to any LifeTel employees, please then call our toll-free number at 888-898-7334. When calling that number, again, please leave a clear voice message including your full name and return contact phone number.

Finally, to all who have expressed concern and given their well wishes, Mr. Weatherby, his family, and the entire LifeTel family, would like to express our sincere gratitude. Thank you.

What a bunch of crap . . .

Was it on September 3rd or another day? Not hard to pin point the "day" he supposedly got sick.

The dude sent several emails to Elly in August - not texts and before the supposed illness . . .

Why don't you reach out and refund this guys money?

 

[broncos12]

I mentioned near the start of this thread that I'm a LifeTel agent. I have been now for some time. I actually know Elly personally. I'm not going to say we're golfing buddies or anything, but I've met him now a few times, have had the opportunity to spend some time with him and of course I've worked with him quite a bit on the telephone. Nicest, most professional, most knowledgeable guy you'd ever want to meet.

The "illness", as you say, was quite serious, actually. Of course, it's not my place to divulge someone's medical situation, but just think of a potential "drowning in your own blood" kind of scenario. Elly's married and has a young daughter and frankly the guy could have died.

You have to remember that there are real people and families on the other end of these "handles" and sometimes just the slightest bit of respect and compassion could be extended. I'm just saying.

 

[Snapdragon422]

Is anyone writing the Ameritas non med term plan? I think it's called the "FLX". Has anyone written it, how was the underwriting process, were they quick... Any information on this would be appreciated. I'm looking for an additional non med term alternative. Thank you in advance!

 

[goillini52]

Is anyone writing the Ameritas non med term plan? I think it's called the "FLX". Has anyone written it, how was the underwriting process, were they quick... Any information on this would be appreciated. I'm looking for an additional non med term alternative. Thank you in advance!

myinsurebiz <<< He is.