Scattered on bulletin boards, tables and phone booths across campus are various fliers and postings for employment, one of which is for workforstudents.com, a flier advertising $12 to $16 per base/appointment. The flier promises students real work experience and the possibility for a highly sought after internship.
Workforstudents.com is a Web site for Vector Marketing, the selling arm for CUTCO Cutlery, aimed at recruiting potential salespeople. The Web site has some brief informational pages giving background on the company, mostly boasting its successes.
“I found them in the newspaper and I think the ad was like ‘customer service rep,'” Portland resident Ashley Simpson said of her experience interviewing for Vector Marketing in an e-mail. “I called the number that was listed and spoke to someone over the phone. They were so eager to have me interview right away, and I do admit I was naive about the situation.”
Simpson accepted the opportunity to interview and went down to Vector Marketing’s local Portland office.
“They said it was nothing door-to-door over the telephone, however, at the interview they said that we would have to set up appointments over the phone and hand out advertisements door-to-door. It was all very odd,” Simpson said.
She added that the interview included 20 to 25 other interested applicants, and a knife demonstration from a salesman intended to illustrate the strength of the cutlery’s knives.
As Simpson found out, the basic structure of Vector Marketing’s selling strategy is sending out salespeople into the field who then do in-home demonstrations for CUTCO products. Usually, additional contacts are gained through these demonstrations for future sales opportunities.
The base/appointment is in reference to these house calls. Sellers get whatever base pay is offered for each demonstration appointment. However, if the commission from the sale is greater than the base pay for the appointment, salespeople receive the commission instead of the base pay, not in addition to it.
Misleading ads spark ire in job seekers
Vector Marketing has gathered a large storm of criticism and opposition over the Internet and by word-of-mouth from potential hires and former employees speaking out on what they view as deceptive business and hiring practices.
Among the various Web sites speaking out against Vector Marketing is an online petition, which has been assembling signatures from those felt scorned by Vector and ripoffreport.com, a consumer reporting Web site that has kept an ongoing account of experiences with the company.
Of the many grievances against Vector, misleading wage claims, false job descriptions and employees losing money as a result of encountering the company seem to be common.
Steve Enos, a former salesperson for Vector, said the company definitely uses misleading tactics to get workers in the door.
“Over the phone they said, ‘Pretty much what you’d be doing is coming in to the office once a week and we’ll be giving you a list of names to call that we had set up appointments with prior, and you’re just calling to schedule the appointment.'” Enos said. “They made it sound like they had already talked to people and had got their OK for you to show up, but that was not the case,”
Private contractors learn company techniques on their own dime
One example of a misleading tactic charged against the company is the misconception that they are hiring employees.
Though a person applies and trains for a Vector Marketing position and receives a manager upon accepting a position, the workers are actually considered private contractors, and not employees of the company. In doing this, the company is not required to pay for its many mandatory training sessions for workers.
“It’s very difficult to present CUTCO if you’re not trained to do so,” said Sarah Baker Andrus, campus relations for Vector Marketing. “They’re not paid [for the training], absolutely, and that is covered in the interview. It’s considered time well spent in investing in yourself.”
Baker Andrus added that CUTCO’s training course has been implemented in college-level sales courses at universities around the country, such as Purdue University and North Carolina State.
Another common criticism of the company stems from Vector Marketing requiring its new salespeople to purchase their own set of CUTCO knifes for their work in demonstrating the product. According to several reports, this can generally cost from $137 to $150.
Baker Andrus said this money is actually a security deposit held on the company’s merchandise that a salesperson would have to use in their demonstrations.
Despite the mounting skepticism of Vector Marketing, the local Portland office holds a “satisfactory” rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), which states that they have received no complaints within the last 36-month standard reporting period against the company.
In addition, the BBB reports that no government actions have been taken against the company within the last 12 months.
Enos said his eight months with Vector was both a positive and a negative experience.
“The way they deceive you at first is one of the negatives,” Enos said, “but it taught me some useful skills as far as sales goes.”