Front Door Visit From New Edward Jones Representative

[captain3d]

Side note: SBF just found guilt on all seven counts. Nothing to do with crypto just old school fraud of taking customer money and using it for other purposes.

 

[CRLLS]

I do have to say that when I was downsized and my resume was out on the 'net, I got a few hits from at least one investment company to work for them. I did not respond. Maybe it was EJ.

Perhaps if I had responded, by now I would be hosting lots of parties on my yacht.

 

[indiajust]

i like to stretch cold calls out and explore the territory. i view it as practice with predators, a useful skill to cultivate.

 

[jazz4cash]

We had this happen about 4 years ago. Also told him we were self-directed and very comfortable.

Yeah-4 yrs ago is not a surprise. Covid, social distancing, etc changed things and many have not gone back. We used to get door knockers for home improvement but that ended with Covid and has not restarted.

 

[Tranquility Base]

The problem is the young man needs guidance and leadership. Finding prospects knocking on a door is virtually useless and will only burn him out.
I was in sales most of my life, owning my own business for a good chunk of that time. There is working hard and there is working smart. I blame the management for this charade.

I have been thinking about your comments because for some reason I keep thinking about this front door visit. It was a "cold call", literally and figuratively speaking. There isn't much sense in knocking on doors in that kind of weather unless you are just going to be handing someone a card or a flyer. But when I asked him if he had any such thing he said he didn't.



As I recall, when I asked him where his office would be, he gave me a vague description of the general area (it is many square blocks in size) and not a specific street address or even a street name. It was just as vague as if someone had said "downtown." Well, where the hell downtown? After asking lots of questions (don't ask why I even cared), I finally figured out where his office would be. I think it was going to be in a small strip of offices built where an old motel was.


It was on a major street in town (about 130,000 people) but one of those streets that people just whiz up down to go to and from work downtown, to get to the highways looping around town, or to get to some large box stores a few miles away. It has good visibility, but that street is mostly populated with gas stations, 4 auto parts stores, Subways, Dominos, and further out a Walmart and a larger strip mall (with vacancy issues). I said to myself "why the hell would anyone want to have an office there." Again, there is decent visibility, but most people driving by are commuters heading to or from work. It is a bit of a pain in the butt to try to get to any of the businesses located on that 4 lane divided street.


Most importantly, although the office is fairly close to one of the more prosperous quadrants of the city, it is located on the edge of the least prosperous quadrant of the city. In addition, if I were to drive there, I'd probably drive by, or fairly close to, 10 other Edward Jones offices. So I wondered to myself (1) why EJ would even have an office in an area where most residents probably don't have enough money to handle a $500 emergency and (2) why he was knocking on doors in a neighborhood located 4-5 miles away from the office. Granted, I wouldn't want to knock on doors in the area surrounding that office myself or by myself. But I could literally walk to the EJ office that is closest to my house.


As you said, "There is working hard and there is working smart." This isn't working smart in my opinion. (In the old days, they used to hand you their business card with a shiny penny attached to the card. No more.) I wonder if any of these trainees ever ask the manager (or even just ask themselves) whether this is a good use of their time.

 

[GrayHare]

No card and no apparent industry knowledge makes me wonder if he was a scammer of some type.

 

[jazz4cash]

No card and no apparent industry knowledge makes me wonder if he was a scammer of some type.

My reaction, also. I had no idea EJ offices were so abundant.

Edit: Went back and read the OP. Lots of red flags screaming that something is not quite right. Asking about the house next door. Late 30's/early 40's, etc. I guess I must've read the OP quickly at first because I pictured a baby faced greenhorn that was forced to cold call door to door.

 

[OldShooter]

... I had no idea EJ offices were so abundant.

My understanding is that their policy is that each rep had his/her own office space. CHatGPT just confirmed this for me. Serious waste or money and it all comes, of course, from the marks ... err, clients. In the small town near our lake home, population 11,200 Fast Eddy has 9 separate offices. Many are only a few blocks apart.

I can't see the rationale for wanting to do this rather than taking all those overhead costs to the bottom line.

 

[Aerides]

My reaction, also. I had no idea EJ offices were so abundant.

Edit: Went back and read the OP. Lots of red flags screaming that something is not quite right. Asking about the house next door. Late 30's/early 40's, etc. I guess I must've read the OP quickly at first because I pictured a baby faced greenhorn that was forced to cold call door to door.

Or maybe, he was a prospective buyer for the house next door, and wanted to ask around about the neighborhood - and the OP says himself he "pulled out of him" that he worked nearby at EJ. And that the door-knocker said he wasn't there to sell anything, and was asking about the house next door. Maybe he pretended not to know about SBF because he really didn't want to have that conversation.

Coulda been someone casing the joint. Coulda been a potential home buyer. But I'm less convinced it was a solicitation from EJ.

 

[OldShooter]

... But I'm less convinced it was a solicitation from EJ.

We'll never know. But Occam's Razor makes me think he probably was working for Fast Eddy. If someone wanted to concoct a story, how many would know that Eddy sends his newbies out to do this kind of thing?

These retail reps can be amazingly dumb. I had some dealings with USBank a couple of years ago and they gave a rep my contact info. Rep called and wanted to chitchat and show off her knowledge, so she commented that she was worried about Janet Yellen's plans for interest rates. She became very subdued when I pointed out that Yellen was at Treasury and didn't have much to do with interest rates any more. Rep thanked me for my time and faded into the woodwork.

 

[Tranquility Base]

Edit: Went back and read the OP. Lots of red flags screaming that something is not quite right. Asking about the house next door. Late 30's/early 40's, etc. I guess I must've read the OP quickly at first because I pictured a baby faced greenhorn that was forced to cold call door to door.

The house next door is for sale and had a real estate agent's For Sale sign in the front yard - very visible. His comment was the he knew the real estate agent. That house and yard used to be one of the best cared for houses on our block until the owners sold to a real estate agent about 18 years ago. Since then the house has become run down. So after he mentioned he knew the agent, I told him that his friend had his work cut out for him because (1) the house was overpriced, (2) the house was a dump, at least on the outside, (3) the interior photos posted online were doctored (not my original comment; another neighbor told me that), and (4) whoever buys the house basically would be buying 18 years of neglect and would need about $100,000 of liquidity, in addition to the purchase price, to fix up the problems. I wonder if he concluded at that point that I wouldn't be a very good prospect. All of that was before I told him what I really thought about EJ.

 

[Tranquility Base]

My understanding is that their policy is that each rep had his/her own office space. CHatGPT just confirmed this for me. Serious waste or money and it all comes, of course, from the marks ... err, clients. In the small town near our lake home, population 11,200 Fast Eddy has 9 separate offices. Many are only a few blocks apart.

I can't see the rationale for wanting to do this rather than taking all those overhead costs to the bottom line.

They must get a lot of money from their marks/clients because I don't recall ever seeing any EJ office close (other than one where the EJ rep got into some criminal sexual difficulties) and I don't recall reading about EJ layoffs. Contrast that to the news earlier this week or last week that Schwab was laying off people nationally. I've heard of some EJ reps owning the real estate where their office is located and then EJ rents the office from them. That wouldn't be my cup of tea and seems like it is full of conflicts and potential problems.

 

[Tranquility Base]

Coulda been someone casing the joint. Coulda been a potential home buyer. But I'm less convinced it was a solicitation from EJ.

I am not sure about someone casing the joint. The house is empty and it is pretty clear from the outside (just peek in the windows) that it is empty. But your post made me realize that I SHOULD HAVE ASKED FOR SOME IDENTIFICATION! Duh!

 

[Tranquility Base]

These retail reps can be amazingly dumb. I had some dealings with USBank a couple of years ago and they gave a rep my contact info. Rep called and wanted to chitchat and show off her knowledge, so she commented that she was worried about Janet Yellen's plans for interest rates. She became very subdued when I pointed out that Yellen was at Treasury and didn't have much to do with interest rates any more. Rep thanked me for my time and faded into the woodwork.

The rep could have gone to Wells Fargo although they can be just as dumb or worse. I had a client who was a conservator and wanted to close the conservatee's checking account and transfer the funds to another account at a different bank. I think he was consolidating accounts. The teller at the WF drive-in told my client/conservator that he couldn't close the account until the conservatee had died. My brilliant legal advice to my client was to tell him to go to another Wells Fargo bank to conduct this business and hopefully he would encounter someone who was a little less stupid.

 

[jazz4cash]

My understanding is that their policy is that each rep had his/her own office space. CHatGPT just confirmed this for me.

I had used the locator tool on their website to see how many offices were nearby. They are not as concentrated here as other areas. I noticed some offices with multiple reps sharing an address and phone # as well. Could be an exception for HCOL area.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

The problem is the young man needs guidance and leadership. Finding prospects knocking on a door is virtually useless and will only burn him out.
I was in sales most of my life, owning my own business for a good chunk of that time. There is working hard and there is working smart. I blame the management for this charade.

Fresh out of graduate school, naive and in my mid-twenties, I got a job with a small consulting firm in our large American city. How small? I had two business cards: one with Marketing Director on it and the other with a programming/analyst title. Two phone lines as well.

We developed the world's first ever desktop mapping software (we had a ten year lead on most companies, back in 1982) and we also did management information systems consulting. These were interesting projects and I learned a lot.

However, the president would send me out to the monthly evening cocktail hours of local business groups (bankers, architects, like that) at local hotels. My job was to get into the event (through hook or crook) and push our company and its services to attendees. I can still feel viscerally how I was perceived when walking up to a group of people in conversation, having them introduce themselves (thinking I was a new banker guy, for example) and then fleeing my presence (slowly and politely) as I moved into my pitch. I went home after these unproductive forays thinking that I could take two showers and it still wouldn't be enough to wash away how I felt

Lucky for me the boss saw that this was an utterly useless endeavor and eventually stopped the practice, allowing me to focus on digital mapping, computer conversions in offices, and more conventional marketing activities.

-BB

 

[tryan]

I avoided an EJ shark attack shortly after leaving mega-corp. At a neighborhood BBQ and explained I left work. An EJ rep lived down the street and was with in ear shot. Next morning he's in a suit banging on my door.

Wanted me to move a 401k to EJ .... "what's the FRONT END LOAD to move the funds" I asked .... "5%". Closed the door. Never saw him again.