im 19 male, and i lost my job at the library in march. i live independently, and am really desperate now for a job.well, i looked in the employment guide newspaper, and found the job there for high school grads. the base salary is $15 per vector appointment with client selling cutco cutlery, houseware items, and they said gardening items. well, i called and they had an interview same day i called at 6:45pm. i went there in formal attire, but 2 other applicants wasnt. all 3 of us in group interview age 19. well, the interviewer did this scissor demonstration with a penny i let her borrow, and she ruined my penny w them things, n i neva got it back! well, i been through a couple scam meetings b4, but this one didnt seem like them, so i felt ok with it. all 3 of us got the job, and theirs a 3 day training. well, im now suspicious of the job, and should i back down? my mom told me if i join a scam, shes done w/ me. well, i never asked her about vector. but is vector a scam? should i do it?
~Mom to be 2 my Princess 81909~2007-05-01T00:09:41Z
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Hi there From someone with past experience with vector and I have had friends who worked there, I would tell you not to go for it. It is not necessarily a scam but it is a lot of hard work to sell expensive knifes costing about $650 door to door and they only pay you for every appointment you make and commission which is highly unlikely selling things that expensive. Trust me not a lot of people are going to buy knifes and kitchen utensils costing that much. I had the exact same interview that you had with the scissors and there were plenty of other applicants that made it. Why?? Because they are so desperate for people, and will hire anyone. I'm also out of a job myself, I'm 21 and I'm in college and I have lots of experience but it’s so hard to find a job. Everyday I look on the internet and newspapers for jobs Vector is always advertising for the same job, that’s because no one wants to work there and everyone quits after they realize how ridiculous the job is. They usually advertise the job to college students and high school graduates because they know they will take anything that comes their way. The training is not even paid and you will sit there for eight hours listening to people teach you how to sell knifes and cook ware not to mention the training is unpaid. I attended one day of training and I never weren’t back again.
One of my friends got a job there and worked for a week and made $16 by the end of the week 8 people out of the 25 that were hired were left.. It’s not worth the hustle if you ask me. If you think you can go door to door and convince people to buy knifes and whatever else they sell then go ahead and take it. No matter how desperate I am I will never work there. I would keep looking for another position else where cause it’s not worth it. Keep looking and don’t give up, something will come up. Just don’t do Vector!!! Good Luck
The job itself isn't a "scam" since they are generally up-front about the pay system and a good deal of what the position requires (you set up appointments, go to them, do the demo, and hand in the forms at the end of their work-week). They provide a free sample kit, free supplies (leather and rope, but not pennies), and at least try to act both friendly and professional most of the time.
I mean, your one complaint is that they ruined a penny and you never got it back. They most likely asked if you think they could cut a penny with the scissors. And even if they didn't it's just a single penny.
That said, it could be considered a "scam" that they try to guilt-trip you to continue working for them. "Oh, we have a contest coming up. See it out and then you can quit." "No, see, when this contest ends there's another one. Let's see if you can beat your goal twice!" "Oh, you got bitten by a dog and can't fill out the forms? Use your other hand." "Keep selling while in school. Show your friends and teachers and make some money on the side."
But any company(especially temporary working experiences) would try to do this, since having an employee who is making them money leave ends up having them make less money. Anyone who has done part-time retail and full-time college at the same time has most likely experienced these claims from their perfectly-legitimate bosses as the next semester is coming up.
For those who will claim "tl;dr": * They don't (usually) hide anything about the job. Ergo, not a scam. * They pay for meeting the criteria established. Ergo, not a scam. * They pay the higher of two possible salaries (either commission or base-pay). Ergo, not a scam. * Their business practices and the way they want you to carry out the job may be sneaky and underhanded, but they are actually perfectly legitimate sales practices. Ergo, not a scam. * They try to get you to keep working for them, but use the same sneaky-yet-legitimate techniques to do this. Ergo, not a scam.
In short, it's not a scam. It sucks and most people make a net of minimum wage, but that's beside the point of whether it's a scam or not.
I worked there for months and made about $8000.. that was doing 4-5 appointments 4 days a week. The knives are really expensive but there is a market for expensive knives. Their main competition is Henckel out of Germany, ebay the prices for a nice set and you will see. These knives are premium and come with a lifetime no b.s guarantee. People do buy them, especially upper-middle class, i sold lots to lower middle class families too tho. It all depends on how you approach it, for an outgoing, semi suave college student there is the potential to make decent money.. definitely not for everyone tho..it's definitely not a scam as they will pay you 14$ plus ( a few years ago) jus for doing an appointment..the person jus signs saying you did it and boom you are paid.. you do hafta pay like $200 for your kit (they give you like $700 worth of stuff) but you'll make that back after a couple sales as the commission rates are also very good, and only go up with the more you sell (again, the way it was a few years ago anyway, i havn't kept up with it) i was looking for vector cereal for a micro economics class and stumbled across this post haha cheers
So it's not a scam....but it is direct marketing. I've worked for them for the past couple of months since I haven't been able to find any other job, and some paycheck is better than no paycheck at all. Agreed it's not for everyone, but they're up front about pay and what's expected of you and what the job requires (ergo, not a scam).
- you get paid $17.00 per appointment OR commission, whichever is higher. - if you quit after your fast start (the first 10 days) then sure, you'll feel like it's a scam because the only people you've spoken to are people you know or vaguely know. If you paid attention in training though you should've memorized how to ask for recommendations so you can try to give demos to people you don't know as soon as possible. Like every job you need to stick with it for a little bit first before being able to decide whether it's a good fit. - if you don't make appointments then you can't get paid, end of story. Like any job, you need to actually do the job. In my experience the people who end up quitting and complaining are the ones who didn't actually set any appointments, or they set one and were upset they got paid the $17 for that /one/ appointment ($17/appt is what you get if you don't sell anything) -you don't have to buy your demo kit -it /feels/ door-to-door, but it's not. You're only allowed to call people you've been recommended to and only if the person who recommended them gives them a heads up first. -they do target students, which I can understand for the context of the job (could you imagine middle-aged knife salesmen? scary), but I don't agree with how most advertisements are vague and leave out what the job actually is. -training is unpaid, that's true, but if you actually do your job the time spent in training will pay itself off pretty quickly. -all money spent on the job can be written off in taxes. Your manager should tell you how to do this in training. Keep all your receipts for gas or anything even vaguely relevant to work!
Vector marketing is not a scam however their strategy in making sales is stupid. They expect a student to work for a job that pays you $16 per appointment. How many appointments do you think the average person can get? Like 3-5 maybe. And then you get commissions off of sales. IF you make a sale at all. Trust me the knives are phenominal but they are too damn expensive. I mean who in their right mind would pay $800 for a set of knives? Even Bill Clinton spends only $300 on a haircut (and for that he gets the haircut plus a high calonic administered by Barbara Streisand). Glad I was talked out of going further with this job. I mean I went to the interview and they automatically hired me and wanted to see me the next day. They didn't even give me a chance to give notice to my other job. I hate jobs like that where they don't give you time to plan. I suddenly felt satisfied with my current job. So yeah if you know what you're doing and you think you know tons of nice rich people go on ahead for this job. But if you're an average person that doesn't know much about the real world do not apply for vector or really any marketing job in general.