Vector Marketing Company AKA Cutco Knives AKA Alcas Corporation ripoff, WATCH OUT COLLEGE STUDENTS!!!!! ripoff swindler Amherst New York

I worked as a Cutco receptionist for five months in 2003, out of Huntington, WV. I think I was paid $8.00/hr, which was good at the time, for the area.

I made a 10 cent hourly raise for every week that 85% of the people who signed up for the job actually showed up for the recruitment meeting. Other than that, I recieved no other incentive.

I competed against all the other receptionists on the East coast for our percentages, and was in the top three every week, but there were no bonuses or anything.

The receptionists never made commision on anything that the sales reps sold. Why should they? All they do is set up appointments for people who are answering an ad.

Also, "concerned college student" never worked there, so how would he know if Cutco pays? As far as I know, camplaints always center around having to get referrals, not around the company being cheap. I was always paid on time, and as promised, both as a receptionist and a sales rep. I haven't been affliated with the company for four years, but I DO still own and love the knives!

Cutco is a snake in the grass. Not because they sell bad products or lie to there employees, but becuase they never tell the WHOLE truth. Cutco is built on sleazy salesmen who don't give you important information unless you ask the RIGHT question.

Your customer base will be solely made up of Family Members and there friends. Cutco targets College students and makes them feel as if they are fighting for a very sought-after job.
You start out at 10% commision until you reach a point in your sales. After that point you are bumped up to 15 and so on. It takes about 2 weeks after your unpaid training to start getting bumped up. This depends on how willing your family members are to have you try to sell something to them and how much money they want to spend on your product.

During the first 2 weeks of employment I noticed that most people sold anywhere from 500 to 1500 dollars worth of Cutco products to there friends and family. I also noticed that all of the people that I had trained with had quit before the end of the two weeks except for me. There was 8 people in my class. That means that Cutco made anywhere from 4000 to 16000 dollars in profit and only had to pay there employees about 800 dollars of that. This is a trend that I had noticed for every training group until I quit after 2 months.

There is many more things to complain about with this company but I've only got a couple minutes so, lastly, I'd like to mention there "BUSINESS" meetings. These meetings are nothing more than boring partys orchistrated to make there employees feel as if they have an important job. They say that these meetings are important and help you advance your selling skills but the truth hurts. These do nothing but praise people for selling there product and make them feel like they're doing a real job.

If you are the sleazy salesman type, you might be good at this job and you might even enjoy it. I learned a lot about salespeople working for cutco. I learned that I don't like them and I never want to be one.

My friend told me about Vector. We had an interview on the same day, and we both got the job. Unlike him I went back for the training, and what a mistake.

After trainging, I was told to attend numerous meetings, and told to check at various times in the day to verify my appointments.

After three days, I told the boss that I wanted to quit and he did his best to get me to stay. He went as far as to bring in another sales rep, who talked to me back his experience. Needless to say I never returned after that night.

Definitely stay away from Vector marketing and Cutco.

Receptionist either get bonuses or reprimanded depeding on their show up rate. Their whole incentive system is based on how many people show up far an interview compared to how many called in to find out about the job, Of course receptionists are going to be pressured to mislead jobseekers. It happens all the time at Vector Marketing, this report is a prime example.

As far as the pay for the receptionist that work for this company, their paycheck is not based on the sales of the representitive they are paid regardless of what the rep sells. I am very sorry someone mislead you about our company however if you would like to see what the company is really about I would suggest coming in for an interview and training and try it out for a week. Then make your decision based on your own experiences not whats you have been told. [DELETED]

Like everyone who works for Vector Marketing in a sales capacity, I am an independent contractor, not technically an employee, my response above notwithstanding -- that was just the response that most nearly fitted my status. At the end of the tax year, I get a Form 1099.

What Concerned College Student is rather fuzzily describing is Vector's Minimum Profit program: it is a guarantee that for every presentation you do before a customer, you will get paid either $12.00 for your hour's work, or your commission on what you sold, whichever is the greater. It is possible to make a commission on a single piece, if that's all the customer wants, that is less than the $12.00 guaranteed. In that case, the sales rep's manager cuts the rep a check for enough to bring that lesser commission up to the $12.00.

Since these payouts on the Minimum Profit program come out of the manager's pocket, the manager has a strong incentive to teach the new sales rep who just sold somebody, say, one $41.00 knife for an entry-level commission of four dollars and ten cents and obliged the manager to pay out $7.90 to get the rep his $12.00 -- to get good at selling sets of knives, for then the commission the rep gets is greater than the $12 guaranteed, and the rep keeps the entire amount of the commission he just made. If the rep does the presentation (and presents his paperwork showing he's done so) but makes no sale, the manager cuts him a check for the entire, guaranteed, twelve dollars -- and works with the rep some more to help him at selling. This program gives our new (and nervous) sales reps a solid floor to stand on -- and there's no ceiling to bump up against.

The amount guaranteed per presentation varies a bit from year to year, and may vary from region to region -- bustling urban areas tend to guarantee higher figures.