Bladeforums mentioned in the NYTimes magazine,

I might have felt insulted if I was termed a "freak" by a publication that I held an iota of respect for. I give as much credence to the NY Times as I would to a raving drunk shouting epithets on a street corner. :rolleyes:
 
The problem with the indoctrination the young, potential sales associates receive is that when they are done with it, they actually think they know something -- the truth.

I've had two encounters with Cutco sales "kids" where I was practically required to sit through their presentation. One was the neighbor's kid and I was trying to stay on good terms with them. The other was from the step-daughter of a woman at work who presented the whole pitch to a captive audience -- the department -- where I couldn't get out of it.

Both times I challenged some of the things they said and did. I refuted their points with facts, showed that my hand sharpened Benchmade AFCK without serrations could cut as much hemp rope as their "Double D" edged knife. I did buy a standard chef's knife from the neighbors kid because I needed a new chefs knife and I still have and use it. I was able to get the department head to think twice before buying a few hundred dollars worth of knives for the department. I bought Forschners instead.

Bruce
 
My wife was tricked into hosting a Cutco sales rep; the individual claimed it was a marketing survey (it sure was: which set do you like best?), name dropped a co-worker, and figured she'd help out.

When it was clear it was a Cutco sales slam, she took offense and the offensive.

- After the penny cutting demo, she demanded the girl refund the penny (she did).

- After the rope cutting demo, my wife pointed out that she doesn't cut much rope in the kitchen. Hardly ever.

- After the "made of surgical steel, just like doctors use!" speech, my wife said she doesn't do much surgery in the kitchen anymore. Hence, we don't need the rope.

- When asked for a tomato, my wife asked WTF kind of test is a tomato? You can cut a tomato with a plastic knife.

- After the leather cutting demo, my wife wanted to know where the girl got off now claiming my wife's cooking was like leather.

After fifteen minutes, and rebuking her for a misleading approach, cutting our money up, and making fun of her cooking, my wife threw out the girl and stated she would get NO referrals.

The poor thing was in tears. :rolleyes:
 
wow is right....


wow that after 20 years...the sales pitch is exactly the same:

penny
rope
surgical steel
tomato
leather

and referrals....:rolleyes:


guess it's working....:( :mad: :grumpy:
 
Part of the thing that really ticked off my wife was the way she was tricked.

Throughout the entire setup, the girl never once mentioned this would be a sales call, but clearly identified it as a marketing research survey, and that she was a college student.

I think anybody would conclude--as I did, hearing about the phone calls in the week or two leading up to the visit--that this is just some student needing some help in a marketing course. Great--glad to help.

Name-dropping a co-worker of hers helped fuel the setup. And even then, it wasn't revealed to be a Cutco demo until she was in our kitchen: as my wife let her in, the girl kept stating this is just a 30 minute market survey. When they sat down, surprise: here's some knives, and you have to buy one.

Why, your friend bought a whole set, and it can be paid for in these monumental installments. My wife did the math and it was significantly higher than the listed price--meaning there was like a 50% interest payment on the whole thing.

Holy cats. My wife? WRONG customer to try to double-talk.
 
Years ago my first wife was swayed by a rep. and ripped off. Then my wife now almost was done the same way. Someone she met was selling them. They came over and then after their "spiele" I kindly informed the person about what I thought about cutco and what decent proced cutlery is out there. The person stopped the sales pitch. It seemed they knew the "power" lines they were to use, but nothing about knives.
 
rev_jch said:
It seemed they knew the "power" lines they were to use, but nothing about knives.
Click to expand...
I almost envy Bruce for having the opportunity to quiz his sales people on what constitutes good cutlery. Part of me wishes I could have been there! It could have been sporting... :D
 
LOL, I have two friends selling them as we speak. It's kind of funny, but they're exactly the sort of uber salespeople that can do it. One of them made about $1400 a week at the height of her powers, but then, she could probably sell someone the muck off of her shoes. I don't know about the quality, just that I wouldn't buy them, and won't let either friend over because if they did show up, I'd probably end up with a set and much less money then when I started. I'm told that it's not quite door-to-door, Vector sets you up with appointments for people who are interested, though I find it difficult to believe that THAT many people are interested in direct-marketed kitchen knives.
 
lol, I have a friend whos dad has the whole set. My friend likes em alot, but yeat, I can tell they are not great from the website. He thinks their pocket knife is a good deal because it can cut wire without getting dull (dull is a relative term).
This Cutco stuff reminds me of a story I have heard about my great grandfather (or some ancient relation) durring the depression. He went door to door to rich people selling vacuums. He would bring in his vacuum and ask the people to take their vac and run it over the carpet, then he would run his over the same spot and show how much dirt was in the bag. Of course what he didnt tell them was that it would take hundereds of passes to get all the dirt up.
Might not have had alot of integrity, but it was the depression and he managed to survive by doing it.
 
I for one like the term "knife freak"-as my wife likes to say "you have a problem." I also like the NYT magazine- and I really don't think the term was used pejoratively- I mean come on- anyone who spends multiple hours a week posting and reading on-line about knives does warrant being labelled as obsessive... (guilty as charged)


I believe "we" were included in order to show that those who REALLY know knives do not buy cutco...
 
also the magazine isn't always as liberal as you might think- I still regret losing an issue in which there was an article entitled "the big bad fun gun" and featured a two page spread of a Barrett 50 cal...an article which was unbvelievably even balanced (the bottom line of the article seemed to be "yes you COULD use them to attack a presidential motorcade...but thats pretty unlikely and they are a hell of a lot of fun")
 
New York Times? Isn't that the paper that had all that turmoil because of reporters making up stories? I recall one in particular that made national news but that was not the only one.

So how credible is a story from a paper where the reporters have to make up $hit just to have something to write about?
 
As someone who has firsthand experience with Vector and Cutco, I'd like to say that I despise them more than I can put into words. Last year, as an unemployed teenager, I showed interest for an interview and received one. Well, said interview was definitely not how it was described to be. Over the phone, I was led to believe that I would come in and fill out some paperwork and then talk to a person with the authority to hire me. I'd be in and out in 20-30 minutes at most.

I ended up being there for close to 3 hours. First, there was the paperwork...which I was fine with. Then, they made all 30+ of us wait until they went over all of the paperwork. After that, they singled out the people that they thought wouldn't make "good sellers" and kicked them out right then and there, at least 90% of those who were kicked out were over the age of 30. Unfortunately, I was one of the ones who they wanted to stay. To say that I was merely upset with them after the disrespect they showed some of the people minutes earlier would be like me saying that David Berkowitz is a normal, well-rounded individual. I showed no interest throughout the entire orientation process, stared down the workers that had kicked out the people earlier (and made sure they noticed it), and didn't say a single word to any of the people that worked there besides the actual interview, during which I made it clear to the main guy down there that I wasn't interested. And after all of that, I was still offered a position. All they care about is making money. They don't care about how the money gets there, they have no morals and I honestly hope they go bankrupt but unfortunately what goes around doesn't always come around.

So yeah, I really dislike Vector and Cutco.
 
That's interesting. I was under the assumption that anyone who shows up gets the "job" since that is what I've heard from people who sold Cutco. Usually companies selling business opportunities take anyone in who can afford the start-up fee/sales kit/whatever. My guess is that the older people were dismissed because they would probably have more experience and see through their deception and manipulation easier than younger people. They are not really looking for salespeople, just people easy to manipulate. The average rep will do demos for family and friends and people will usually buy at least a small thing to help them out, something they won't do for older people.
 
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