Gaming World Forums
General Category => General Talk => Topic started by: VinceP on June 19, 2009, 02:43:33 am
-
I just graduated high school. I got a letter in the mail to "selected graduates" from Vector Marketing. It's a U.S company that markets Cutco knives. They offered me a sales rep job. So I went to the interview and got hired. The job pays $14.25 per appointment.
So here's the deal. I do sales demonstrations in people's homes for these Cutco knives. I just cut pennies in half with them and stupid shit like that. Whether or not I make a sale, I still get paid $14.25 for every presentation I do. There's a 10% commission bonus. So if I sold $200 worth of products, I'd get $20 instead of $14.25. Sounds great, right? But here's the thing. I need to pay $135, before I even start making money, to the company. This is a security deposit for my own demonstration set of knives to take on my presentations. They say that the deposit is fully refundable and I'll get the money back if I quit.
It would take me roughly 9 appointments to break even for the security deposit. The thing is, I am responsible for making appointments. In a sense, I control my own paycheck. I have to ask each customer, or whoever hears my presentation, to give me a few referrals of other people who would be interested in hearing my demo. My manager claims that employees average 25-30 appointments a week. And the employees there that I've seen seem to like their jobs and have no complaints.
So I don't know. I NEED money. Badly. What should I do? Is this some kind of scam? I have my second training seminar tomorrow. I really hope I can count on this job to be a legit source of income, but I need some advice or suggestions. Thanks guys. :welp:
-
it's a door-to-door sale and only if you can make the effort to personally seek out people to do presentations for is it ever worth it. i'd just get a shitty part-time retail job anywhere if i were you and have the benefit or a secure income.
-
dude i saw the word KNIVES in your post
you aint makin shit man. SELL KNIVES is like the universal SCAM COLLEGE STUDENTS phrase, i'm pretty sure
edit: just to clarify, i have no personal experience with this situation but I have vaguely heard only bad things about this from acquaintances/ the internet
-
If anything, I'm thinking I'll just do the Vector job on the side. Then get another part time summer job. But seriously, it's so hard trying to find a decent job anymore for a teen. I've applied to dozens of places and got called but ONCE for an interview. And that was over a year ago.
-
Yes this seem like a scam and if it's not it's not going to be easy. these are knives we are talking about here.
-
i've known a few kids that have made some money doing the whole CutCo door-to-door salesman knives thing, but its not for everyone and unless you do a lot of it, you aren't going to make enough to make it worth your while. On the plus side though, you do get to play and handle some very nice knives, but this is only if the company that you do it through is actually one of the decent ones (does more companies than CutCo do this? If not, then nevermind the previous statement because the knives that my one friend sold from them were in fact pretty decent knives for the most part and aside from the fact that I had no need for a kitchen knife at the time, I would have considered purchasing one (minus the fact that I was at the time also poor/am still poor)
-
the moral of this story is that yes you can make some money doing this and its pretty decent money if you can get enough of a revenue going but if you don't want to put forth the effort its going to be more shit that you gonna wanna deal with at the moment in your period of life
-
I almost did this. basically you have to exploit your own relationships-- friends, family-- and try to branch out from there, sell shit to their friends and family. I just felt shitty and annoying asking friends to let me do presentations to them so I dropped it.
Apparently some folks make damn good money for it, but you have to be sorta soulless.
-
I almost did this. basically you have to exploit your own relationships-- friends, family-- and try to branch out from there, sell shit to their friends and family. I just felt shitty and annoying asking friends to let me do presentations to them so I dropped it.
Apparently some folks make damn good money for it, but you have to be sorta soulless.
lol this sounds like the shit primerica was trying to get me sucked in to
-
how do they know you've done the presentation? i'm not interested in buying knives but i'd sure like to watch you cut pennies, i'm sure there's plenty of college kids like me. bring them round to parties etc.
jobs like these have the 'potential' to make you a lot of money. don't fool yourself and think you're one of the few over achievers that could sell knives to every man woman and child in your state though. if you're confident enough you could probably make some money doing something interesting for a while though.
-
how do they know you've done the presentation? i'm not interested in buying knives but i'd sure like to watch you cut pennies, i'm sure there's plenty of college kids like me. bring them round to parties etc.
jobs like these have the 'potential' to make you a lot of money. don't fool yourself and think you're one of the few over achievers that could sell knives to every man woman and child in your state though. if you're confident enough you could probably make some money doing something interesting for a while though.
This is a really good idea. Find different things to cut and then go to parties and cut them. Take requests. Cut everything. It doesn't really matter if you sell anything, so long as the appointment is less than an hour (effectively meaning you get paid 14.25 an hour!).
My friend did get suckered in by Primerica. The thing is, they actually do have a legitimate branch of insurance brokers, which is what my friend read up on. He paid them a fair bit of money. The thing about Primerica is, though, that you don't make your own contracts. You HAVE TO get people to sign up for bullshit programs, otherwise you don't get to the stage where you can do any actual work. On the plus side, Primerica does give out financial licenses which you need to work anywhere else in the economics sector, and he was able to turn those licenses into a job, eventually.
Pretty much anyone who offers you a job out of the blue is out to get your money/naked pictures of you. Sometimes it can be worth it for the life experiences, though. Or something.
-
how do they know you've done the presentation? i'm not interested in buying knives but i'd sure like to watch you cut pennies, i'm sure there's plenty of college kids like me. bring them round to parties etc.
jobs like these have the 'potential' to make you a lot of money. don't fool yourself and think you're one of the few over achievers that could sell knives to every man woman and child in your state though. if you're confident enough you could probably make some money doing something interesting for a while though.
Exactly. See, I could extort this as much as possible. It seems too good to be true! I could just call up my friends who are 18+ and say "Hey man, wanna help me make some cash?" I don't really have to be a telemarketer and talk to people I don't know. I just still get a horrible feeling about this though.
-
I just graduated high school. I got a letter in the mail to "selected graduates" from Vector Marketing. It's a U.S company that markets Cutco knives. They offered me a sales rep job. So I went to the interview and got hired. The job pays $14.25 per appointment.
just an FYI, they send out those letters to everybody and hire everyone who shows up. I know several people who did this and it's a joke.
it's not a scam, it's just a high pressure sales job where it's pretty much up to you to sell a bunch of overpriced knives to your friends and family and the unfortunate people who you pressure them to refer to you. Go find a job in landscaping or something.
EDIT: the way they know you've done the presentation is that the people have to call and schedule their appointments through vector. They will fire you or send someone along with you to your appointments if they think you're scamming by having all your buds sign up for bullshit appointments and you're getting no sales.
-
two of my friends did this. both of them quit before they made any money. they were in it for a few months.
-
what I'm gonna say is. If you're really broke and need the cash then hell give it a shot. But the economy is still doing pretty shitilly right now and imo people aren't going to want to fuck with a salesman in the first place. If you gotta get money, try it but don't hope or expect for much and if you're doing shit after two weeks or so then drop it and move to something else.
-
nevermind dietcoke is probably right fuck this shit
-
Anywhere that you "pay to work" is a scam right from the start.
Trust me. Go to your next seminar, keep all your money, and punch that guy right in the face just for me. Then kick him in the balls.
-
I'm not going. I'm done with those bastards. I've decided. I have an appointment today with Job and Family Services about getting a new job. I was going to miss it for training.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
-
Haha yeah door to door knife salesman should have probably rung some alarm bells
-
Well it wasn't even door-to-door, as they promised me it wouldn't be. It's more like psuedo-telemarketting and being an infomercial that comes to your house and won't leave.
-
Free snake oil with your first purchase of 30 knives for only 99.95
-
I actually applied for this very company, not knowing it. They handed out fliers on my campus all the time, so I figured I'd check out their website. I filled in the information about myself thinking it was part of some kind of job search agency, but it never said anything about it being the application itself. There was no information on the VectorMarketing site about what the company actually does until AFTER I did the application.
Yes, this company is a scam. You should never have to give the company you're working for any money. A deposit should be taken out of your paycheck at the very most (and this is still pretty shitty for the company to do).
Also, if you apply, they will call you incessantly until you tell them to stop.
-
yeah any place that's hiring that asks you for money is a goddamn scam. don't fall for it. especially if it's something you find on the internet.
-
15 bucks to recite a bunch of shit while CUTTING PENNIES IN HALF???
where do i sign?
-
15 bucks to recite a bunch of shit while CUTTING PENNIES IN HALF???
where do i sign?
send your $10000 check to my house and i'll send you the paperwork
-
Somehow this makes me imagine Billy Mays coming to my door, shoving his way inside and performing an infomercial right on the spot. LET ME SHOW YOU SOMETHING SON. OXY-KNIVES. CUTS WITH THE SCIENTIFIC POWER OF OXYGEN. CUTS THROUGH BANANAS! ACORNS! DOGS! FOR JUST 29.95 YOU CAN BE CUTTING WITH THE POWER OF OXY-KNIVES. BUT WAIT! ...
-
Billy Mays 90% of the time his price point will be 19.99 so get it right.
-
yeah they had this at my college once
I like how they're not even subtle with the corporate logo, Vector Marketing so it's like this triangle thing PYRAMID SCHEME
wasn't there an episode of King of the Hill exactly like this
-
I actually encountered them recently. An old classmate of mine works for them or something and she gave them my name and phone number as a referral or something. They called me up and it sounded a bit fishy so I declined.
-
id buy anything billy mays sells me
-
id buy anything billy mays sells me
What if I'm Billy Mays and I happen to be selling 5 magic pennies for the low asking price of $19.99.
-
could this happen and if ithis is the case can you get me his autograph (do you know Billy!?!?)
-
anyway as a good general rule any job that does not clearly delineate what it is or even really list a company name is probably not that great
like for example SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT MAKE $$$$$$$$ SUMMER JOB LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE and then they do not mention that they are all canvassing jobs, or in the case of vector's online recruitment,
Our Company is expanding for the Summer with a unique student work program
We have multiple customer representative positions availalbe throughout Massachusetts.
www.summerworknow.com
Great Pay- $18 base/appt
Ideal for Students!
• Training provided
• Flexible schedules
• Scholarships/Internships available
• Valuable resume experience
• All majors welcome
• Sales/Service - no experience necessary
• Opportunity to advance
Positions filling fast, call now for next available interview
Medford, Cambridge, Revere, Everett---617-639-0343
Braintree, Dorchester, Milton, Quincy---781-353-2415
Brighton, Arlington, Boston, Roxbury---617-202-9032
Or Apply Online at SUMMERWORKNOW.com
which is pretty much the same as its form letter except that also says that you are very smart and handsome (: such sales potential in that finely sculpted frame
-
No. It isn't a scam. I don't work for them but my girlfriend does. It's something you don't depend on as a steady job unless you get promoted to receptionist or something for the the office like she did. Your appointments get preset by you making calls I think. And you do get appointments. You don't always get sales but you do get paid for the appointments. However up and quitting may jepordize your pay. To have to pay a "deposit" isn't always a scam. If you have a job where the company loans you merchandise they just want to make sure you wont run away with it.
BTW i saw that king of the hill episode, and it was a joke on herbalife. a multilevel marketing scheme, not necessarily a scam. I used to do AMWAY/QUIXTAR and I quit, but I still don't thinks its a scam. Its just a pain in the ass and you need to be careful with your investments in their "materials." Theres a system to them, and it works, if you are successfull in going along with it.
In any rate, sales these days is just HARD. because companys like that try to push top of the line products that I personally would never buy because I am piss broke. But some people like nice things and that makes these people money.
-
Man . . . bummer that you (almost) got roped in. As a general rule of thumb, I think that anyone who isn't willing to pay you a decent wage up-front probably doesn't value you as an employee and is trying to screw you in the long run.
-
I got a letter the other day from Vector. I hadn't heard from them since I went to the first day of training. I thought they'd call or something and ask where the hell I was, but nope. Instead, 2 weeks later (the other day. i think) they sent me this letter. THE SAME LETTER THEY SENT ME THE FIRST TIME. I just don't get it.
-
I almost did this. basically you have to exploit your own relationships-- friends, family-- and try to branch out from there, sell shit to their friends and family. I just felt shitty and annoying asking friends to let me do presentations to them so I dropped it.
Apparently some folks make damn good money for it, but you have to be sorta soulless.
he hit the nail on the head
-
speaking of shit like this liberty national keeps fucking calling me trying to get me a management position or something because "they found my resume online" and when I asked the dude if he even saw my resume he said, "no, but I was told you had prior finance experience" or some stupid shit like that and when I told him no I never have in my life he told me it was a good time to start and I hung up on him.