# offered a sales position with acorn life. Pay is €500 for first 13 weeks training.



## gailey (19 Feb 2009)

Just being offered a sales position with acorn life. Pay is 500euro for first 13 weeks training.
After that commision based. 

Anyone familiar with them or worked for them? What are they like? 

Should I go for it, even for first 13 weeks and see how it goes. 

I am unemployed at the moment. If it doesn't work out ie if I don't earn much commission can I claim benefit again.


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## ninsaga (19 Feb 2009)

*Re: Any one ever worked for acorn life*

Some people have had bad experiences with Acorn Life.... myself included...see  and


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## Exclaim (21 Feb 2009)

*Re: Any one ever worked for acorn life*

Hi Gailey, 
I ve just been offered the same. I m not unemployed so my circumstances are different. They have got a reputation in the past for having pushy sales people. I do have a little sales in my work experience and in my view they were people who were in it for the commissio. Remember you are going to be dealing with life ins, pensions and inv. Peoples savings. So in my view to be successfull you must be in it for the long haul. 
However your unemployed if i were you i would go fot it and take all the free training see how you fair out at the end and if its nt for you then say goodbye. Check that they will not penalise you and definitly check with your Social welfare office hw it effects you BEFORE you start.
On saying that I m looking at it from a Long Term and i m 44 so i ve nothing to lose. I like the model and how it works, rewards are good. I am now investigating the products. If the product is right then I ll get on board. If not I wont.


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## Exclaim (27 Jul 2009)

*Re: offered a sales position with acorn life. Pay is 500euro for first 13 weeks train*

Hi Gailey
I replied to you in March re Acorn Life Job. Did You ever take it up and if so how did you get on ?


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## DCon (23 Mar 2011)

Hi Exclaim /Gailey just wondering if you guys went ahead with the training?


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## gailey (24 Mar 2011)

Hi Dcon 
I sent you a pm


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## Bronte (25 Mar 2011)

Isn't that awful Gailey that you won't post in the open ?


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## DCon (25 Mar 2011)

Hey Gaileythanks for sending the pm but for some reason I didn't receive it? Would appreciate if you could re-send and thanks for reply


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## ajapale (25 Mar 2011)

gailey said:


> Hi Dcon
> I sent you a pm



Offline discussions via pm are very much against the spirit of askaboutmoney.

We encourage posters to share information while abiding by the posting guidelines.


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## gailey (6 Apr 2011)

I wasnt sure if I was allowed to post and badmouth but I did work for a couple of months with Acorn Life and it was a disaster. 

I would not advise anyone to join them to be honest it is a hard sell and cold calling after you have used all of your family and friends. 

After giving them quotes they may have to go for medicals and the policy is returned with a higher premium. 

I did go for 4 weeks training in Galway and you are paid for the first couple of weeks 500 euro a week but in return you do have to sign up 6 policies and this is reduced from your commission so when I left because of policies falling through they then sent me a bill looking for this back. I never returned it and never heard from them since. 

It is similar to pyramid selling and the idea is to get anyone in and let them sell to there families and friends. Sorry to burst your bubble but I think selling insurance is a hard sell and we were cold calling, often 50 doors a night and no appointments made. Very soul destroying


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## Bronte (6 Apr 2011)

Gailey thank you for the details on the hard sell life is working on commission.  Excellent post on the pitfalls of this kind of work.


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## NorfBank (6 Apr 2011)

I see a lot of Acorn clients as their sales force seems to be more prevalent "down the country".

Their main/only(?) product is the much maligned reviewable whole of life insurance. 

Such policies start out cheap but get prohibitively expensive as the clients get older.

Combined and Acorn seem to be the hard sell insurance companies from all accounts.

On a side note, isn't it a crazy situation where the minimum competency for anyone in the financial services industry is the QFA but Acorn can give anyone 4 weeks training and off they go selling life insurance door to door to the most vulnerable in society.


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## gailey (6 Apr 2011)

NorfBank said:


> On a side note, isn't it a crazy situation where the minimum competency for anyone in the financial services industry is the QFA but Acorn can give anyone 4 weeks training and off they go selling life insurance door to door to the most vulnerable in society.



I agree completely. I had intended at the time to sit the qfa exams but changed my mind and decided it was not for me.The training involved was only learning about Acorn Life Products.The only ones making real money out of it are the ones at the top who advertise themselves for salespeople and then sit back and wait for their commission to roll in. When you sell a policy they receive too so the more they have runniing around for them the more they make. It is a pyramid scheme and it is an American company and very americanised.


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## NorfBank (6 Apr 2011)

gailey said:


> I agree completely. I had intended at the time to sit the qfa exams but changed my mind and decided it was not for me.The training involved was only learning about Acorn Life Products.The only ones making real money out of it are the ones at the top who advertise themselves for salespeople and then sit back and wait for their commission to roll in. When you sell a policy they receive too so the more they have runniing around for them the more they make. It is a pyramid scheme and it is an American company and very americanised.



I can see your blurred face in a Prime Time special report gailey 

I love the way Acorn got free airtime on the RTE News with their claim of creating 150 "jobs". Nice PR I must admit. Only 149 more to go eh?


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## gailey (6 Apr 2011)

sorry i didn't see the primetime report. What was that about??


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## NorfBank (6 Apr 2011)

I mean a future report (joking!)


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## gailey (6 Apr 2011)

hah I thought I never miss primetime. Well I wish I read this before I started with that crowd. I hope this deters others too.
Luckily I didnt really lose financially just my pride and a couple of friends


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## DCon (10 May 2011)

So glad I didnt go ahead with position I was offered goin on posts from Gailey. Just had a bad feeling about the place that I coudnt shake.


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