Me and the 20 ppl who started in my training group in July 2023 pretty much all agreed we had been lied to about various matters since day 1. I told the manager I interviewed with that I had a book of business from Life insurance sales and that I intended to still sell that and service existing clients. She said that was fine, no conflict of interest since they only have Medicare products. LIE! I then found out I was CAPTIVE and the same manager even used that word in a later meeting, “Well you guys are captive agents so…” She lied just to get me to accept the job knowing full well I couldn’t sell life insurance too. I found out a few weeks into training that had contacted my other company I was contracted with and told them they needed to take over my license hierarchy. So that was how my company of many years found out I was trying to add Medicare sales to my portfolio. Cost me thousands as my clients called me regularly to upgrade or refer others over the next several months and I couldn’t offer them anything. Had to send them to other agents. I asked several times before accepting the job and ETQ deliberately lied! Also be fully aware ETQ WILL HOLD all your Medicare carrier appointments hostage for 3 months after you leave them so you can’t easily switch to another Medicare outfit.
While working there, I buckled down and stayed 7 months despite the lies and chaos. For example they released us into the field without proper support. My manager wasn’t even on duty the first day we actually started. By January I was only 1 of 3 left of the whole 21 in our original training class. They cannibalized our leads and had our lines dialing recently sold clients of EXISTING AGENTS in the company. They lied about the quality and quantity of leads we would get, didn’t give practical training on how to approach them either. They will route you calls with people who don’t even have eligibility for Medicare and expect you to make miracles. They false advertise and have people calling to receive “Food Cards” the government is giving out to all seniors not even knowing it’s about Medicare health insurance. These are just a couple examples.
Your management will switch constantly and no one will properly support you, or let you know when to attend meetings as your management shifts unpredictably. I had 5 different Team Leads in 7 months. However they will micromanage and harass you about being back 1 minute after your 15 minute break or your meager 30 minute lunch. Or taking it at the wrong time. I had a manager threaten me in my first couple weeks because I took a ten minute break at 5pm (my end time was 6:00). He told me, “Well if you want to play games then I’m your huckleberry.” (What? Threatening me with a movie reference to a duel because I had to use the bathroom after 5:00?!) He then said he would get yelled at because someone on his team took a break after 5:00pm and it’s against the rules. You read that right.
You will have people spontaneously pop into your ear while you’re in conversation with clients and they will expect you to hear and communicate properly with both sides. Trying to tell you what to say.
You have to constantly be in a “productive” call mode or they will ask what you’re doing and threaten you. Many threats at this place in general.
I actually did much better than most of my team because during the busy Annual Enrollment Period where they lied and said you’ll be getting so many leads, calls, easy sales, it’d be “like shooting fish in a barrel”. I managed 1-2 sales per day on average. Most people couldn’t attain that. I expected to be able to do 10 per day but their leads were awful because of the false advertising and the fact that they refused to pay for more leads. We found out in October right before the busy season that the company wasn’t buying any new leads. Even other Sales Agents who had participated in training us newbies didn’t put up daily sales when it came time for AEP. So why couldn’t they do better if they had been selling with the company for years and participating in training?
If you’re sick and miss even a day or two your lead quality and call volume will drop, making it harder for you to produce. Then you will get coached daily and micromanaged with every call monitored in addition to being scored and reviewed by Quality Assurance - who changed the rules in the time I was there. Then your team lead will ask you to take time to review and acknowledge every message from them and from QA as well as then expecting you to be aware of new company documents, scripts, and protocols without even directly providing them to you or discussing them with you. I was told I was “educating clients too much” when I was explaining to them Medicare and how it worked. They just wanted me to bulldoze and confuse senior citizens into more sales. When I had clients who were so confused because they told me they had memory loss or early dementia and needed me to keep explaining and repeating things until they felt comfortable enrolling, I was told I should’ve gotten more sales in that time instead of talking to one person for hours. My clients would admit they were difficult and thank me profusely for being patient with them and taking the time to make sure they understood. ETQ doesn’t want seniors treated with the respect they deserve because they are a money-hungry organization and all the managers function by hierarchical intimidation - only obsessed with their team’s sales numbers and minutes of “productivity”.
It was such a disappointing experience to work there - the worst place I have worked in my life - and I’ve worked in other countries. So many of my colleagues were thrown under the bus within months of hire and tried to improve but didn’t get the training or attention they needed. Experienced insurance sales agents too. They didn’t care about firing all these people right before the holidays because they didn’t hit their numbers.
They will also threaten, intimidate, and lie about the Attendance policy too. You’d have PTO and they’d still mark you absent just to get you a Warning status. If you or your kid wakes up sick - they chalk that up to an unexcused absence. How evil!
TAKE HEED & AVOID ETQ NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY! You’ve been warned.
