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Most college students face mediocre jobs because they lack the ever-so-crucial employment history and experience to land a decent paying job. They usually end up working for six bucks an hour at the local sandwich shop where anybody can be hired. However, most college students will take any job that promises large amounts of money with little or no experience necessary. No matter how ridiculous the job may sound, young people, more times than not, let the money cloud their judgement. One such company that thrives on this mentality is known as Cutco Cutlery aka Vector Marketing, a multi-level marketing company that sells high-quality (?) knife sets.
Vector Marketing has pissed off students nationwide with its deceptive recruiting and employment-related practices. The vague job listings for Vector Marketing and Cutco Cutlery products advertise great pay and flexible hours with no experience necessary for college-age youths. Nicholas Inabnit stated, “There’s a reason that all of Vector’s ads/flyers are so incredibly vague. Vector doesn’t tell you about the job until after you’re hired, because if they told you about it before-hand, you’d walk out the door laughing.” Students who accept positions with Vector Marketing attend three half-days of unpaid training, during which they are taught how to present and sell the Cutco Cutlery products. Further, they are told to list out their friends and relatives who are 25 years or older and have full-time jobs. New hires are encouraged to set up their initial appointments with their friends and relatives in order to create a reference list. After selling knives to their friends and relatives, sales representatives are expected to request at least three referrals that they may contact for future sales.
It’s important to highlight that Vector does not reimburse for the time it takes to make telephone calls and travel to appointments. Also, previous sales representatives stated they were required to give a $145 deposit for the cutlery products they use in their sales presentations. Most sales representatives quit within the first few days on the job because they quickly learn that selling knife sets that cost between $200 to $2,000 isn’t that easy.
Having been sued by the Arizona attorney general in 1990 and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in 1999, Vector Marketing and Cutco Cutlery have been ordered not to not deceive recruits. However, year after year I see their annoying flyers all over my campus trying to recruit naive college students. Therefore, last year I decided to take a more active role in eliminating their grip on my campus. Every time I see a flyer, I tear it down. And every time I see a note about Cutco Cutlery on a chalkboard in a classroom, I erase it. It’s time to step up and drown them.
Reid Morrow is a young entrepreneur looking for various creative opportunities to generate wealth. He is a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Information Systems seeking a Master’s degree in Telecommunications. Reid Morrow works at a large IT company and owns three Internet startups. Reid Morrow’s blog primarily discusses the Web 2.0 community, startup companies, trends, his personal business ventures, and his experiences in the business world.
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Great post Reid! Definitely gotta shut these scammers down and let them know a little about what ethics are.
To start things off I agree that I think Vector Marketing and Cutco Cutlery is a joke in and of itself, but the fact that people find it difficult might be because they are not good sales people or they just give up too early.
One of my housemates works for Vector Marketing / Cutco Cutlery. He’s stuck with it long enough that now he gets paid for doing nothing. He’s considered a supervisor of some sort, so that he gets a cut of all the sales in the region. Because he stuck through their bullshit for a month or two he now gets a check every month and hasn’t set up any demonstrations or gone to meetings in 3 months.
I guess some of the stories have to be success stories otherwise they wouldn’t be able to recruit anyone.
I just know that when I went in for an interview, it was unbelievably shady. I still remember the whole incident. They called me up and said I must come in on a Friday night to be interviewed. To my surprise, there were several other people in the room. The office was bare and ratty looking. I walked in and some guy came out and did a demo for everyone. While others were “oohhing,” I wasn’t impressed. Then they brought us into the manager’s office in pairs where some slimeball asked me the dumbest questions. “How would you rate your selling skills on a scale from 1 to 10…10 being the highest?” I said probably a 7 because I am not familiar with knives but I can sell anything I’m passionate about. The idiot next to me gave himself a 10. After he asked a couple more idiotic questions, he sent us out to the lobby to wait. While I waited, I watched the candidates come out of the office with a big smile on their face. There must have been over twenty people in the room. When they called my name, I went into the ratty office. Not to my surprise, he offered me the job after saying what a great addition I’d make to the company. This vampire had the nerve to tell me that he was DOING ME A FAVOR by giving me a chance to work at Cutco Cutlery. By this time, I told him “Thanks but no thanks!”
Interesting post. I don’t know about the recruiting process of Cutco Cutlery, but what I do know is that it takes a certain type of person to be a door-to-door salesman, and if you have this personality, you can make a shit load of money selling these knives. I know a few kids that have made thousands of dollars a month selling these.
Door to door sales is extremely difficult. People expect to go out and just sell. It’s not that easy. It’s a skill, just like anything else. You have to study it, practice it, etc.
If they have shady recruiting practices that’s one thing, but the fact remains that for a good door-to-door salesman, there is a lot of opportunity with Cutco Cutlery.
I dig your blog Rohail. I too am a young entrepreneur (21 years old) and have recently started a blog focused on my entrepreneurial venture. I think our blogs would appeal to the same type of reader so I’ve decided to link to you. I’d really appreciate it if you checked out mine and considered linking to me as well.
http://runcothinksbig.blogspot.com/
Thanks and goodluck with everything.
Thanks Greg! I checked out your blog and it looks great. I can’t wait to hear more about the launch of your slipper company. It’s good to know there are other college entrepreneurs out there. Thanks for the link, I’ve added you as well.
-Rohail
Greg-
How can you be so sure that your friends made so much money selling these knives? Did they personally show you their paystubs? A lot of people boast about money they don’t truly make. Besides, a real salesman would sell for a respectable company…not some shady multi-level marketing company.
hello everyone i recently had a interview with vector marketing and at first i was nieve and curious about the whole thing.i kind of figured there was something strang going on because the people they targeted were not only very young but also very unexpirenced.the exact same thing happened to me that happened to reid morrow it was a trip they actually think their fooling somebody i caught on when i went into the office in pairs for the second time that day.she told me i was hied and to come to some unpaid traing seminar,she gave me a book and a sheet of paper telling me about the positon requierments. all bullshit,during the seminar it was never mentioned that i had to pay to sell their products.WARNING DON’T FALL FOR THE VECTOR MARKETING SCAM.someone should raise the attention of other potential victems.
I tried Vector Marketing for a few weeks, tried to sell the products, etc. and quit. But I quit only because I found that this is just not the way I want to make a living. I totally defend those who say that a lot of people who slam Vector are mad because they didn’t put the time and effort it takes to be successful in Vector. Dont’ knock the company just because you couldn’t succeed at it. Like me, maybe it just wasn’t for you, so stop complaining and move onto something that IS for you.
I’m not knocking the concept of selling overly priced knifes. I’m knocking the company behind the concept. They lie, cheat, and steal from college students. I personally don’t like any company that tricks people. Vector Marketing is just a pyramid scheme…and I hate pyramid schemes.
Check out this link to a video on you tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oflS3VDr8Ew
It shows that Vector has reps constantly handing out flyers. More than that, the fliers always look different and contain different website names like: holidaywork.com, or summerwork.com, or workforstudents.com. If they were legitimate and didn’t need to hide who they are, wouldn’t they use the same website?
Why do you think they want “students”? Because they know that most students (not all) get money from their parents while in school, and coincidentally, your family members are the first ones they tell you to sell to.
I had gone on an interview and when I found out the cost of buying the knives for demo, I asked if there was another way to maybe only “borrow” them. The manager just plainly said to ask my parents to pay for them. How ridiculous.
They make their money by having hopeful college students come in, not know what’s going on, and buying these demo knives. They make a lot of money just that way. Basically they are trying to sell to kids by way of preying on their parents.
I’m a Branch Manager within the Vector Marketing Corporation. I’m also going into my senior year at Princeton University as an economics major. I think its absurd that you people put this out there on the web when its just a skewed perception of the position since it didn’t work out for you. Most of my sales haven’t been to my family, and the sales that have been I’m proud of because its the best cutlery made. How come you don’t list that even though you think it’s a “scam” you don’t talk about the actual quality of the product and how it is better than any of the competitors at a lower price? As for pyramid schemes… you’re an idiot. Pyramid schemes are illegal so look up the definition of what they are before you try to talk about them. If any of you want to come check out my “comma” paychecks (for those of you not intelligent to understand that I mean weekly paychecks over $1,000) I’d be more than happy to share. To knock a company you know nothing about is immature and just plain old stupid. You’re right, an established university such as Purdue would teach about our marketing program and have their students enroll as part of a 400 level class because it’s a scam… get a clue…
Come on Stephen. We do know about the company, that’s why we know it’s a “scam”. Any company that refuses to tell you about the position before you go for an “interview” is a scam. It’s nice that you make money, really it is. It doesn’t hide the fact that you were conned into the position though. Last time I checked, an interview for a legitimate job doesn’t involve being herded around with 50 other candidates who all get hired for the “position”. As far as Purdue teaching their marketing program (if I even believe it), it’s probably to teach business students how to run a “business” that teeters on the edge of being a “total” scam. I guess Vector just makes it inside of the scam scale because they actually offer a product to sell and are not a pyramid scheme. THE END DOESN’T JUSTIFY THE MEANS.
[...] Jun. 16th, 2007 at 7:19 PM Well, well, well, as you might know, I’m searching for a job. A while ago, I found a website that seemed pretty good. They often hire college students and people like me, fresh out of high school, for jobs. Now when I visited their website, I read practically everything and it sounded mighty suspicious to me. Since they don’t really tell you what they do or what positions are available. Now, I can understand how some people don’t post up positions available, because it’s a hassle to update and it also said that it’d give training. Training where you don’t get paid, but supposedly it is extensive. From what I’ve read, it seems that they are a marketing company, and so they sell stuff. What do they sell? They don’t say a thing. The only information is through a link to CUTCO.com, which is their partner or whatever. Apparently they sold knives and kitchenware. Well, that that turned me off, but since I was desperate for a job and figured it’d be better than Wendy’s I decided to apply. I should be getting a call within a day or two. Whoopee. I’m so elated. NOT.The website is extremely lacking in details too if you ask me. Want to know who this company is? Well, to prevent you from making the same mistake as many others, it’s Vector Marketing. I didn’t bother memorizing the URL, but it’s probably something like VectorMarketing.com or whatever. Just search for it, and it’ll probably be the first thing to pop up. Well it did for me anyway. Anyway, since I got suspicious, I decided to look for further information, like what else they sold, because to be honest, I didn’t want to be selling knives. I had a flashback to back when I was a kid, where the son of one of my dad’s coworkers came into our house to do a demonstration with these knives he was selling. I believe that was probably Vector Marketing’s doing. Then to the side, I noticed other similar searches with the keywords, “Vector Marketing Scam”. Well this was interesting…I clicked on the link and there were many numerous links to articles and forum topic/threads about how Vector Marketing is just scamming students for their labor and money. The main problems that Vector Marketing seems to cause is that students must buy their own knives in order to sell to others. That they encourage students to sell to neighbors and family first. Well isn’t that cute? They want students to become door to door salespeople like the people at Sally Hansen who wanted us to do the same thing with gift wrap materials during our middle school and elementary years. How quaint.If you want to check this out yourself, just type in “Vector Marketing Scam” and you’ll find stuff. Oh believe me. You’ll find stuff. So this is a shout out and warning to everyone. DO NOT WORK FOR VECTOR MARKETING! Not unless you do want to sell some unnecessary knives, waste a lot of time on job training without being paid, and pay for the knives yourself. Or if you just like self-punishment. Though I tend to like punishing myself by making life harder, I will definitely not go to this far an extent.Oh and just for further reference/interesting stuff: http://www.419legal.org/frauds/vectormarketingscam.phphttp://www.dracolich.com/?p=15http://www.rohailrizvi.com/avoid-campus-scams.htm^-^ Happy job searching to all those who are searching for a job su! I hope I’ve been somewhat helpful in directing you guys AWAY from the wrong direction. *waves* [...]
i sold cutco cutlery products while attending a junior college in san diego during the 70s. i became a manager and eventially went full time. i agree with those who have issues selling their relatives and friends, however it is a way to get practice,knowledge, and experience. my manager mr. jack post taught me how to gift card prospective customers for cutco/wear-ever products, a technique that i fear is lost today. anyway i recruited and trained a mr. don hosmer to sell using gift carding, and he became the number one seller/trainer in 75. for those students who want to learn how to gift card ask your manager, if he doesnt know contact me.
I worked for Vector for about four days, and sold relatively well on all my appointments, even though they were to simpathetic friend’s parents. Granted the product is good, it’s the fact that you guys (Stephen for example) keep going on these websites to promote vector. After feelings extremely uncomfortable morally and the fact I didn’t like the overly “postive” attitude the employees had, I was curious in seeing others opinions. I happened to see “successful” employees of vector trying to promote vector as if it was a GREAT oppurnity to a SEA of people who felt the same way i did. PLus most of the stories have a connection. Secretaries are required to convince you too come in that day speicifically. The poeple at my interview seemed really smart, yet the people in my training (including myself) seemed distant and had social problems….AHHHH i hate fucking vector, you guys are a large clump of former naive students spitting out the marketing ways…Bill Hicks said…..if you are in marketing or business, do us a favor…Kill yourselves…you are the producers of evil…
Thanks for the heads up. I just graduated a couple days ago, and at our graduation ceremony, there were bunches of people handing out these envelopes that had towere from Vector Marketing. I called the next day, and My interview was almost exactly the same as yours. I got a weird feeling about it, because like you stated, the area as unbelievelably bare and ratty, and to me, seemed very unprofessional. However, I wanted to wait to reserve judgement until I went through the training and see what goes on with my own two eyes. Thanks to you though, I will be much more cautious and more analytical when going there.
I don’t feel that Vector is a scam by any means. I admit that a job at Vector is not for everyone. Some people are able to work in sales and some are not. From my experience I do feel that they do try to give a lot of people chances to succeed with the company, and it’s up to them after the training process if they want to stick with it or not to try and give up. This is a funny video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9xcthpzXCY
[...] Avoiding Campus Scams [...]
This is a very old post…but nonetheless I need to tell this story. About two or three years ago I went to one of these ridiculous “interviews” where about 10 other people plus myself were herded into a group interview session where this man who could not have been older than 19 began telling us that we were soon to become knife salesmen and women (if we were lucky enough). I began to sense what a scam this was at this moment, or at least how ridiculous it was. Throughout the talk, he rambled on about how Vector has been the top sales company for however long and blah blah blah. Anyway, when he asked this kid who was sitting next to me (who I had said a few words to…clearly as confused about the whole ordeal as I was) about “who has been the number one sales company for (this many years),” the kid simply replied “I don’t know,” clearly not paying any attention. So the 19-something year old tool-bag tells him “Cut-Co…” to the kid’s astonishment he says “Cut-Co…Who?” Turns to me and asks “what the fuck is Cut-Co.” At this point I just lost it. All hell broke loose and I could not stop laughing for the life of me. I finally drew my laughter to a stop for the tool-bag to present his products for about 30 more seconds until the tidal wave hit one more time and once again I lost it. To wrap it up, I was kicked out of the interview and I laughed my way all the way back to my car. CUTCO IS A RIPOFF DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME. Hahahaahaha it still makes me laugh.
i have tried selling different products from Multi Level Marketing and i can earn a decent amount of money from them.;-”