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Cutco knives

T

tontod

Diamond Member
I've been doing a bit of research and it appears that Vector Marketing hires college kids to sell cutco knives to people they know. Its legal, but seems like shady/unethical practices are used, tends to brainwash kids (at least those that are easily brainwashed). One of these kids (son of my parents friends) came over to my parents place by saying that it wasnt a sales call and it would take only 30 minutes. Not only did it end up being a sales call, he ended up spending 2 hours and was reluctant to leave until he made a sale. My father eventually agreed to buy a $48 knife, but wanted regular shipping. The kid ended up selecting 2-day priority on the form despite my father insisting he wanted regular shipping. My father got disgusted by the whole thing and called the company up to cancel the order (2 days later), the order had not even been placed, how was he going to get the knife when the order hadnt even been placed? 😕

Basically, this is a good kid, intelligent, goes to Cornell, my father didnt think anything of it when he asked to come over. This is a kid with rich parents (recently divorced though), staying with his mother, who is a oncologist, is pretty well to do.

Anyone had this sort of experience? Seems like they hit up friends/relatives that they know and trust that wouldnt say no to their coming in, they lie to get in the door, then its a sales pitch.
 
Originally posted by: tontod
I've been doing a bit of research and it appears that Vector Marketing hires college kids to sell cutco knives to people they know. Its legal, but seems like shady/unethical practices are used, tends to brainwash kids (at least those that are easily brainwashed). One of these kids (son of my parents friends) came over to my parents place by saying that it wasnt a sales call and it would take only 30 minutes. Not only did it end up being a sales call, he ended up spending 2 hours and was reluctant to leave until he made a sale. My father eventually agreed to buy a $48 knife, but wanted regular shipping. The kid ended up selecting 2-day priority on the form despite my father insisting he wanted regular shipping. My father got disgusted by the whole thing and called the company up to cancel the order (2 days later), the order had not even been placed, how was he going to get the knife when the order hadnt even been placed? 😕

Basically, this is a good kid, intelligent, goes to Cornell, my father didnt think anything of it when he asked to come over. This is a kid with rich parents (recently divorced though), staying with his mother, who is a oncologist, is pretty well to do.

Anyone had this sort of experience? Seems like they hit up friends/relatives that they know and trust that wouldnt say no to their coming in, they lie to get in the door, then its a sales pitch.
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You hit the nail on the head but every college kid will have a brush with VM during their college days.
 
Originally posted by: minendo
Of course it's a sales pitch. Why else would someone want to drop by to discuss knives?
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Yeah, but being very pushy and lying seems pretty shady to me. I was wondering if this was actually legit or a pyramid scheme.
 
Originally posted by: tontod
Originally posted by: minendo
Of course it's a sales pitch. Why else would someone want to drop by to discuss knives?
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Yeah, but being very pushy and lying seems pretty shady to me. I was wondering if this was actually legit or a pyramid scheme.
Click to expand...

Legit and pyramid scheme.
 
I did that one summer during college. While yes, of course its a sales call, I, nor anyone I know, was pushy about demanding a sale before I'd leave. I'd say I did make a sale of some kind the vast majority of the time because, in reality, they're ridiculously good knives (though overpriced). I still have a bunch of them and use them all the time.

So, sounds like this person you know is the shady one if he's refusing to leave without making a sale.
 
I've sat through tons of these, since I live in an upscale suburb and have kids. It's pretty easy to tell after a while who paid attention during the training sessions, and who has some sales skill. I've never bought anything from them, but have picked up a couple of cutco knives cheap at garage sales.

Don't the kids get some kind of credit or payment for getting someone to listen to their sales blurb?
 
Originally posted by: Slick5150
I did that one summer during college. While yes, of course its a sales call, I, nor anyone I know, was pushy about demanding a sale before I'd leave. I'd say I did make a sale of some kind the vast majority of the time because, in reality, they're ridiculously good knives (though overpriced). I still have a bunch of them and use them all the time.

So, sounds like this person you know is the shady one if he's refusing to leave without making a sale.
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yeah, my mom bought some from my sister's friend's sister, sorta to help her out. They are actually really good. Just.. really damn expensive. Tho, my mom loves the mother of pearl handles.. so that doesn't help trying to find a cheaper alternative.
 
My folks got a set maybe 10 years ago if not more and they have been really good. I've often thought about getting a set for myself.
 
It's not really shady, but it is a typical sales job; one of my friends tried it and quit after a week

basically, you get paid a fixed rate per appointment you set (something like $12 per appiontment). Then you get a commission for each product you sell. It's encouraged to visit family and friends, etc etc.

A few years after my friend quit, he inquired about a job he saw in the paper for a sales job. It was listed under a different company name, and the job description was different as well. He showed up to an interview meeting and sono realized it was the same company and same business.
 
i worked for Cutco 2 years ago. Don't do it unless you are really really REALLy good at talking to complete strangers, getting hung up on, and convincing people to buy things they dont want. I only lasted about one month before I ran out of customers. Its cool for the first few weeks but after that it gets pretty hard. Cutco is very very expensive for most people, and they won't buy it unless they really need it, or somehow you convince them they need it. You either will make a lot of money.. or barely any.
 
Originally posted by: alkemyst

It's not a pyramid scheme!
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Yeah, it is. They bring in large numbers of college kids and get them to sell knives to their friends and family. It cannot possibly be sustainable employment for all the kids they bring in, there just aren't enough customers.

If they were providing more intensive training and had their employees making sales calls on actual leads, then maybe it wouldn't be.

It's very similar to Amway: multi level marketing
 
My kid got caught up in this scam. I call it so because the people who get involved have to

1. Attend (I believe) three (3) days of unpaid training.
2. Purchase their own sales kit which is prohibitively expensive.
3. Do a sales pitch to their own friends/family and yes, someone almost always feel so bad for them that they buy something.

Of all the things that are wrong with this world IMHO Cutco is one of biggest. Most of their sales (again, IMHO) are to a very small market: the kid who is selling (the kit) and their friends/family. I almost cried when I finally learned that my son had gotten involved in this scheme.

Don't let you kids smoke, do drugs ... or do Cutco.
 
Originally posted by: Blackjack200
Originally posted by: alkemyst

It's not a pyramid scheme!
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is. They bring in large numbers of college kids and get them to sell knives to their friends and family. It cannot possibly be sustainable employment for all the kids they bring in, there just aren't enough customers.

If they were providing more intensive training and had their employees making sales calls on actual leads, then maybe it wouldn't be.

It's very similar to Amway: multi level marketing
Click to expand...

Do those salesman try to convince other people to sell knives too? No? Then it's not multi-level marketing.
 
Originally posted by: zerocool1
i went to one of their things to get a job. i realized it was bs so i didn't do it.
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Me too. I got hired after an interview, but never showed up for the training. once I realized what they were about, decided not to.

They recruited a lot of people from the student union on campus, did pair interviews, hired 1 out of every pair.
 
When I was naive right after HS, I went to one of these training sessions. They required us to pay like $200 for a sale bundle which included some knives for us to use to make sales.

Anyways, I ended up purchasing the kit, thought the whole thing was a scam and quit, and sold the sale kit on Ebay for $100 profit.
 
Originally posted by: BoberFett
Originally posted by: Blackjack200
Originally posted by: alkemyst

It's not a pyramid scheme!
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is. They bring in large numbers of college kids and get them to sell knives to their friends and family. It cannot possibly be sustainable employment for all the kids they bring in, there just aren't enough customers.

If they were providing more intensive training and had their employees making sales calls on actual leads, then maybe it wouldn't be.

It's very similar to Amway: multi level marketing
Click to expand...

Do those salesman try to convince other people to sell knives too? No? Then it's not multi-level marketing.
Click to expand...

Yes, they do. They get a commission on all "downstream" sales. I remember one of my friends in college had a big ad for Vector marketing in his AOL profile.
 
I was involved in a hiring process for this sham. They basically huddle you together as a presenter explains what's involved while at the same time sizing the kids up and asking people to "step outside" if he thinks they won't "cut it". Screw that, I left 10 minutes in (over 5 people were already asked to leave). It was by far the oddest, most obtrusive hiring experience of my life. No way I'll ever get into sales unless I had to.
 
I did something similar, sold Filter Queen Vacuums one summer in College. I hated the job, but made good enough money to not want to quit. We got paid straight commission, but you'd e surprised after showing someone how dirty their floor was, or how crappy their vacuum was, how fast they would bust out that check book or credit card to drop $2100 on a vacuum and air filter...did about $700 a week (2 sales avg. a week) for about 4-6 hours of work a day.

I hated it. We offered a payment plan, and I would have to sit down with people to discuss their finances to see if they would qualify (if they owned their home they would qualify 99% of the time, but we had a from to fill out anyway). Most families were so far in debt...mainly on furnishing their home...that adding $2K on top of their $40K in furniture debt wasn't that big of a deal...

Sat in one house for 4 hours while the husband and wife argued over getting the vacuum. Husband wanted it, Wife wanted Thomas Kincaid paintings. Wife stormed out of the house after the presentation and 2 hours of fighting... Me and the husband drew up the sales contract and he purchased a new vacuum...

I'm sure most people on this forum are not sale material (hence the IT careers). It's not for everyone...I'm good at it, and I hate sales jobs...
 
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