Hey, remember way back when you had to use your own phoneline to connect to the internet? And listen to those stupid noises for a few seconds every time it connected?
Those were the days. I remember that too.
The internet sure has come a long way since then. I actually made my first few affiliate marketing bucks back in those days. I like to call them the Wild West days of the internet. It wasn’t ’til I started making bank with my new Local Lead Generation business that I started to love the NEW internet.
There was one other benefit to those old-school internet times. When you were surfing, your phoneline was blocked from annoying cold calls.
Yeah—I know those cold calls have kinda just been replaced by spam emails, but I really used to hate those things.
Since we live in the 21st Century—I’ve got a separate internet connection and phoneline. So I’ve started getting annoyed by those cold calls again. I don’t know why these guys bother.
No, I did NOT have any problems with my computer.
And no, I did NOT recently have a car accident. What is it with these people?
Then one day I got a call. These guys asked me if I’d heard about Team National and if I wanted a place.
I was like: wait… Me?
You want me to join the national team? Awesome!
Which sport?!
I know I’d played a bit of basketball in college. But I was never THAT good. I know they’re struggling for players these days. But come on. Surely you don’t want me to play for Team USA?
No, they didn’t want me to play any sport for the national team. The USA national team or anyone else. Bummer.
They wanted me to sign up to some sort of sales network. I was gonna make loads of money. Or so they said.
Naturally, I thanked them for their time and hung up. Or, I just hung up.
I don’t get involved with ANYTHING that’s pitched over the phone like that. I don’t even know if it was the guys from Team National itself or someone else who’d got involved with the scheme. As I soon learned, that’s kinda how it works.
So I quickly forgot about Team National. A few months went by when I heard a colleague mention them too. He’d had a similar call, and was taking it a bit more seriously than I did.
I decided I needed to do a bit more research. I didn’t want this guy to lose any money. The more I heard about Team National, the more fishy this “money-making opportunity sounded.”
So if you’re looking for one of the best Team National reviews you can find—then keep reading to see what I found out after a bit more investigation. Check out my Team National review.
Team National Review
The first think you obviously wanna know is what exactly is Team National? That’s what I wanted to know too. The name doesn’t really help much, does it?
So what exactly IS Team National?
Let’s have a look…
So Team National is what they call a “membership savings company”. They offer a range of discounts on regular retail purchases and from a range of different retailers.
To get these discounts, you gotta sign up.
And it ain’t cheap.
$795 for a 2-year membership.
Woah.
That’s a LOT more than most other discount clubs I’ve seen. You can get tons of different discounts these days for FREE.
But even for the discount schemes you DO have to pay for (like Coscto), we’re talking MUCH lower fees.
So that’s the first thing that jumps out about Team National.
I had a closer look at the actual specific retailers and discounts they were offering—and nothing was particularly groundbreaking. In my opinion.
But wait a minute. I know what you’re thinking.
What about Team National as a money-making opportunity? After all, that’s what you’re here for, right?
Okay, so the real way Team National affiliates make money out of this is by convincing OTHER people to sign up to the discount membership. Team National agents get a cut every time they get someone to sign up to the main offer.
That’s generally how Multi-Level Marketing networks like this work. They’ve taken a lot of flak in recent years. Some people still call them pyramid schemes, which MLM has become a byword for in some quarters.
Personally, I don’t think ALL MLM schemes are pyramid schemes. I don’t think they’re ALL scams. The way I look at is like this: is the actual product (in this case discount membership) ACTUALLY worth it? If it is, then there’s nothing wrong with people marketing it and taking a cut. The problem is, the Team National discount scheme looks a bit scammy. And it’s super-expensive for what you get. That’s where I think there’s a problem when you get highly-motivated (sometimes desperate) salespeople pushing worthless products ONLY for personal gain.
But what about Team National? Where do they fit in all this?
It’s not looking good so far, but we need a bit more detail.
I first heard about the Better Business Bureau a while back when I was researching another venture. They’ve normally got the low-down on things.
Let’s be real here, their BBB page isn’t that bad. I’ve seen a LOT worse. They’ve actually got a 5-Star A+ Rating.
There ARE quit a few complaints though. And they don’t look good.
I’ve seen some other Team National complaints elsewhere too. People complaining about not being able to even get any discounts, or simply being charged far too much for stuff that isn’t actually that much value.
One big negative for Team National here is that they only offer a THREE DAY refund policy. That’s hardly any time at all to really evaluate what you’ve just spent money on. What if you’d been working all week and didn’t have time to check until the weekend? It seems like a cut-and-run attempt.
There’s also some noise about pushy salespeople and a lot of hard-sell pitches.
That’s another problem with Team National. They use a few questionable tactics, and these create sales agents that are arguably forced to push pretty hard for the sale. Let’s have a look at them:
Sales agents have to make two sales a year in order to qualify for payouts. That’s already forcing them to make sales before they’ll even get any money. They’ve also gotta pay for things like a starter kit ($55) and more. This puts them out of pocket before things have even started. It looks like another way for Sales National to make even more money off the people who’re SUPPOSED to be helping them make money.
That first sale? You’re not gonna see any commission from it.
So how have the sales agents actually done? Not great.
The income figures aren’t too appetizing. Over 85% of Team National Agents aren’t making any money at all. Average earnings weren’t much more than $600.
What’s the most anyone made as a Team National agent? $5,435. That’s the top earner. Hardly a get-rich-quick scheme. Get poor slowly, more like.
One important thing to remember with Team National is that you don’t ACTUALLY have to buy the discount membership plan yourself in order to become an agent and sell it. That reduces costs a bit. But you might have a hard time selling the product if you don’t even have it yourself. Or maybe not.
So if you DID buy the plan before becoming an agent, the average earnings don’t even cover the cost of it. It looks like barely anyone is even making any money from Team National. Apart from Team National themselves, naturally.
There are other tiers to the sales agent system. Like a pyramid. You’ll get more money if you recruit your own set of sales agents. This is how those pyramid schemes work. It’s not just about getting people to sign up to the discount membership product. That’s the ACTUAL Team National product. It’s also about getting more AGENTS to sign up under you. And who keeps making money from this? Team National. You got it.
Team National Scam—Yes or No?
Okay, to answer this we gotta look at Team National on two levels. Is the discount membership a scam, and is the sales agent scheme a scam? I’m gonna answer both of these questions.
If you want discount stuff, there are much better places to go. Especially with the internet these days. There are plenty of places to get cool discounts for free. There are also discount clubs that are legit and charge WAY less than Team National.
However, it’s gonna be hard for me to outright say that the discount club is a complete scam. There are national retailers on there offering legit discounts. Nobody is running off with your money.
BUT. And that’s a big but…. It’s still a bit scammy. That price. The TWO year plan (WHY?!). And most of all… the refund policy. There’s no reason a legit business like this should be offering a THREE DAY cancellation policy on something that costs so much and is for a two-year membership. It simply doesn’t add up.
Now we come onto Team National as a money-making opportunity for sales agents. I’d say: Steer clear. It’s a bit scammy too.
You don’t get commission straight away. You have to keep making sales to make any money. You’ve gotta pay a fair whack to even be an agent and most of all: barely anyone is making any money with this. Are those enough reasons to NOT wanna join Team National as either a discount member OR a sales agent?! I think so.
Now I don’t wanna rat out the entire Multi-Level Marketing industry. It gets a bad rap already. Many people think ANY MLM scheme is automatically a pyramid scheme. Again, it the product is good at the base of the pyramid, I don’t see a problem with different levels of marketing and agents making money off of it. The problem REALLY starts when the actual thing people are selling is a load of crap, but people are still pushing it anyway.
So what’s my verdict? Steer clear of Team National. It is possible to make a bit of cash, but it’s not easy. You’ll also be promoting a product that simply isn’t that great.
So you’ve read this entire article looking for a money making opportunity, and I’ve told you to avoid one? What next? Easy. You need to try something where you really can make money, and that’s what I’ve been doing with my own Local Lead Generation business. It’s legit, and it’s making me good money for a while now. Check it out.
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