I've been hearing about Motor Club of America for months now and wanted to reveiew and either debunk or validate this business opportunity.
MCA makes some interesting claims about their business opportunity. There's all the usual hype, don't miss the boat on this one, everyone is going to get rich, etc., but a lot of that can be attributed to the Motor Club of America reps not necessarily the company itself.
Motor Club of America - A Scam or Just Business as Usual for an MLM?
Some of the MCA promotions do appear to say things like "Turn $40 into $80 in 10 minutes" and that you can earn 200 percent commissions ( not sure how that's possible, but let's explore ).
Motor Club of America's product is essentially their "MCA Total Security" package. The cost for the package is roughly $340 dollar for seventeen months coverage. When you resell the package to another "member" you earn an $80 commission.
The big question is, how many people are buying the MCA Total Security package just to participate in the business, vs how many end users/customers are there using the product who are not also actively participating in the Motor Club of America business opportunity. The reason I make this point is the concept of frontloading and retail customers, key elements when the FTC decides to take an interest in the business. If you are selling the business opportunity under the guise of a product, when in reality no one is buying the product except as the price of admission to MCA, the FTC and Attorney General's tend to look on those practices as a money game.
What does MCA offer for purchasing their Total Security Package?
Essentially, the Motor Club of America Total Security Package is similar to what AAA and other motor clubs offer. Towing, roadside assistance, etc. Since commission fees are padded into the package, MCA's Total Security Package of course comes out pricier and seemingly less attractive for purchase than brand name roadside assistance packages. But that's par for the course with an MLM.
The commission has to be factored into the price because of the direct sale commission of $80, plus the multilevel component that pays $6.00 for every 2nd generation MCA referral and so on. The multitiered commission is a matrix, which is beyond the scope I want to cover in this blog, but it is a style of comp plan that seems incredibly lucrative on the face of it, but that involves a 100% matrix fill which just never happens in the real world.
A couple of other notes on the Motor Club of America commission - you may make a sale, and then expect to get your full $80 commission - that's often not the case. On the FAQ for the company they address just this scenario, basically saying that if someone doesn't pay with a method that makes chargebacks difficult if not impossible, they only make a partial payment to you against the sale. That sort of makes is sound like they are very accustomed to chargebacks on their product.
Also, if your sale cancels before the end of the seventeen months, you are charged back against your future commissions. Not an uncommon sales practice, so nothing sketchy there.
So, is Motor Club of America ( MCA ) a Scam?
Nothing about the deal jumps out and screams "Scam" but at the same time there are several aspects of the product and business opportunity that raise red flags for me. This is no TelexFREE or Zeekler that's going to get shut down next week by the FTC with warrants going out for CEO's and CFO's, but my personal feelings are this is an overpriced product with a markup only justified by the commissions paid, which means it's going to potentially come under scrutiny in the future.
