Vector Marketing: a scam?

Well, I've just got a job at Vector Marketing, but now I'm hearing rumors that the whole thing is a scam.

So tell it to me straight, tropers. Do you know anyone who worked for Vector? Is it really a scam?

I would be very careful, and read any documents or paperwork they send you with a keen eye.

Hm, when I put "Vector Marketing" into Google, the first suggested completion was "scam". Hearsay, but a bad sign.

Seems rather shady besides.

I worked for them for a while. Things that make it scam like: you have to buy your sample kit, it's hard to get sales if you don't have a bunch of people looking to buy knives.

Leigh: Another troper "got a job" working for them but soon decided it was too shady.

It looks a lot like a legalized pyramid scheme.

This line sets off all kinds of alarm bells, for me:

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it unless you know a lot of people in the market for some knives. Unless you run into somebody willing to drop a thousand dollars on these knives, you're not going to break even.

^^ That raises all manner of red flags for me.

edited 2nd Jun '11 8:21:35 PM by MajorTom

Yeah crooked snakes. Reminds me of those magazine sales guys and a number of other similar business "scams" that involve you recruiting more people into the "business"

Yeah I had a friend from high school who worked for them briefly, and his quote on the experience was, and word for word:

" Dude, being a street pimp or drug dealer is a less shady line of work than that company."

He was exaggerating, though.

You sure about that mark? Has he ever done telemarketing for magazine companies ? lol.

How do we let people like this continue to "run a business" like this. It sounds more like limited slave labor.

...no longer hires in the state of Wisconsin? That's... hard to believe since I got an offer from them.

But yeah, I'd stay away.

Enkufka: The information could be out of date.

My gf used to work for them, but said eventually it made her feel too creepy and she dropped out.

True... flerglblergle...

But she didn't cite anything so I can't check...

I almost went with them, but ultimately decided not to do it.

At the training session I went to, their sales plan is basically this: You buy (or borrow for a deposit) their knife set, sell a set to your parents or somebody you know, and they have to refer you to somebody they know, and so on. Basically you're selling it to your friends. If none of your friends want knife sets then I guess you don't make a profit.

Enkufka: "No longer recruits in the state of Wisconsin". That means they don't put out ads actively looking for people in Wisconsin anymore, not that they won't hire someone from Wisconsin if the person asks first.

edited 2nd Jun '11 9:28:30 PM by Madrugada

Ah... what about unsolicited direct mailing?

That, and they advertise it like a desk job where you earn fifteen/sixteen dollars an hour.

Yeah, I (a Wisconsinite) have gotten lots of unsolicited direct mailings from them.

Basically Leigh. "Run, run whilst you still have time" seems to be the prevailing idea.

I worked for them briefly one summer, years ago. The commission system was pretty good, but you've got to know a lot of people who would want to buy a bunch of knives. I did pretty well to start with, but soon ran out of potential customers. A lot of them had already been solicited.

As far as the "hourly" thing, it was misleading. They said $13.00 per hour. The way it worked was, you reported how many sales presentations you made each week. At the end of the week, if your commission was less than the hourly rate multiplied by the number of presentations, the company would pay you the difference. If you made more in commissions, then you kept the commission.

I just got burned out trying to hustle sales, but I knew some people who made a nice little bit of money over the summer. And you do buy your own sample kit, and I still have mine. They are good knives, for what it's worth.

edited 6th Jun '11 8:21:15 AM by Lawyerdude

Any door-to-door sales thing where you have to buy your product from them is a scam.

If you get hired for a real sales position, you ought to have some kind of office somewhere. And they give you the product, or the papers that you need to sell your product. And you are likely to get a salary under the commission.

It's not door to door.

Door-to-door as in you sell to individual people. Like school candy sales. (Which are, incidentally, the only non-scam way this is ever done.)