Vector Marketing and their misleading letters
Alright, this is what Google is all about. Hopefully some other sucker doesn’t follow up on the “job offer” letter I just got. This letter was from a company that only has the name “Vector” on it. Nothing more. NO return address. It is from the ‘District Manager’ Kevin Hanna. It says for me to call 262 789 6966 to setup an appointment. Nice. So now I have a letter with no return address from a company that just describes itself as ‘Vector’ .
Turns out it is actually the company: Vector Marketing, a firm that requires recent high school graduates and college students to pay approx $120 for a demo set of knives and tells you to go sell the knives to others for next to nothing. Check out this Wikipedia article. They say that there is a nice base pay, but this is misleading. There is no base pay, no benefits, and you operate as an independent contractor. A study by the Wisconsin Consumer Protection Department found that out of 940 recruits, almost half either made no money or lost money selling knives for Vector.
Great business idea. Turns out that Wisconsin is their big market.
So, lets sum it up. If you get a letter in the mail offering you a job that comes from a company that identifies itself simply as Vector , the return number is 262 789 6966, and the “District manager” is Kevin Hanna , ignore it, you are in for a rough ride.
Watch me get told to take this down… teehehehehe. Lets make this easy for the wonderful people at Vector: nickcatal@gmail.com is my email address, I am hosted by Steadfast Networks, a Wisconsin Corporation, who owns the IP block that I am on. The abuse email for the isp is abuse@steadfastnetworks.com. Tell them Nick sent you. Asshats.
Update: June 29th 2006 First of all, thank you for your kind comments and emails, I am happy that I can be of service.
Vector Marketing has sent me not one, not two, but THREE letters, IN A ROW. Basically the same letter as I got before. The words are a bit different, but I’m glad they are keeping me in the loop about their wonderful employment opportunities.
Mailed from New Albany, Indiana. But references a local manager. Makes sense, I guess, but is definitely interesting.
Update: June 1 2007 Thanks again, I got another one
Update: May 27 2008 My sister is getting them now. They call her ‘Sam.’ She doesn’t go by ‘Sam’ anymore.
July 19th, 2005 at 10:30 am
I worked here for 5 months Cutco Cutlery rofl what a shamm only let you sell them to your family and friends then they decide if your good enuff to sell it to the general public i could go on and on about how shitty this job was but i have to go play some world of warcraft :>
*theez rivvits are made out of spaceship steel* lol
May 19th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Just wanted to thank you for saving me from wasting my time. Your’s was the only site with any info on Vector. If I didn’t see this, I probably would’ve went ahead and set up an interview.
Thanks again.
June 21st, 2006 at 5:31 pm
Thanks - I’m glad I did my homework.
I guess it’s just another case of what is too good to be true probably is.
PS- Wikipedia has a fairly comprehensive article on Vector Marketing now as well.
May 26th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Hey,
I must say that I am really upset that all of yall are so aggravated with Vector. I am a Branch Manager in Texas and I honestly really love my job.
With God as my witness, I run an honest and ethical business and it is a great opportunity. I will be the first to tell you that there are some managers in our company that are selfish and did bad things….but don’t you think it is a little harsh to say the entire opportunity is a scam.
I’ll tell you right now that it is not a scam.
Just requires hard work and dedication.
Write me with questions or comments.
May 27th, 2007 at 2:30 am
SOME MANAGERS!?!?!?!?
I’ve got 30 letters here from your company each telling me bullshit about “job opportunities”
Only you don’t find out that you are really just selling kitchen wares to your family until you bite on one of the letters.
It is 10000x easier and way more profitable if you just went down to the local McDonalds and submitted an application. That is a “summer job”
Oh, and if you are full time they actually offer somewhat decent benefits.
Here is my new plan: Send a bunch of letters in the mail and show up at university job fairs and offer “jobs” and have people resell hammers from Sears to their family. Only you have to buy a “hammer set” first, so no matter what I sold at least 1 set of hammers. Sure, they are really nice hammers… Craftsman hammers have a lifetime warranty. And I’ll give you a bunch of nice booklets to give to people. But have a good time out there!
June 1st, 2007 at 5:03 am
I JUST GOT ANOTHER ONE
June 8th, 2007 at 7:49 am
Just got one letter for each of my sons. They are in the Madison area with a new contact number 608-663-3846. The letter is also from KEvin Hanna.
June 18th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
screw all you people who call this shit a scam without ever doing it yourself, grow a set and actually think for yourself for once…you may be suprised
June 18th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Yes, I have thought about it myself… and done quite a bit of research… and yes, it is a scam.
I wouldn’t have that big of a deal with it if they were upfront in their letters.
August 9th, 2007 at 1:58 am
hey guys.. i have actually been working with the company for a year…. and i can see that you are very disgruntuled.. you have reason to be.. but wether by luck or hard work, i have done well with the compnay.. i couldnt sell to any family so started with one neighbor and the recommendations took off from there.. i am business major so it did give me real life experiece especially cause i am a branch manager now.. i must say i worked hard this summer but my income of 20k this summer also shows for it.. if this job was like anything else i would have made about 3k.. i understand all of you guys dont have what it takes to necessarily do sales but at the same time all of you probably cant get into harvard. i am not saying i am better than you guys but just because only 20 percent of college students gradute in 4 years even though they advertise it to be so doesnt mean all colleges are scams.. if vector is a scam i say so is my college (Harvard).. give me an email for questions.. would love to help you out …. {{removed email address -nick}}
August 10th, 2007 at 4:13 am
It appears you are using the fact that you go to harvard to promote the company…
Name dropping isn’t going to get you anywhere on the internet buddy…
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:41 pm
In reply to asim,
Love the smug response. You have one good point. If you are a business major, this might be an opportunity to network, sharpen your people skills, and I suppose your business skills. For most kids (including business majors with better job opportunities), this job is a collosal waste of time with the only lesson being hard knocks.
I sold Cutco 9 years ago through the Milwaukee area branch and worked directly with Kevin Hanna; actually made assistant manager for a summer.
No doubt, Vector relies on big numbers in recruiting debt-ridden college kids. They don’t care about the throngs of who waste their limited time and money on a venture that usually fails. I saw so many of my colleagues who couldn’t make the gas money to drive all over the Milwaukee area to see their next prospective clients. I also recall many inner city teens roped into this “opportunity” to try to sell the expensive knives to their relatives and acquaintances who were likely in the same boat. I’m sure there were very few rich uncles that rescued these representatives.
There were at least 3 expensive “manditory” meetings usually held in Chicago where they blew the same hot air at you. Driving from Milwaukee was bad enough, but I couldn’t believe that kids drove all the way from Omaha just to hear the same pep-rally gone awry. Seriously, the meetings were nearly carbon copies of each other and it was only a few ticks away from being brainwashing. Fortunately, most of the lowly representatives who stayed long enough to barely make it into the black would resist the pressure to attend these retarded meetings.
Despite some of the earlier responses on this thread, the drawbacks to working Cutco are well documented. I am replying on the fly, but I seem to recall an organization called SAVE (Students Against Vector Exploitation). If that effort no longer exists, I’m sure many others have taken it’s place.
Asim, if you are going to Harvard, then you very likely come from wealth. You also likely live near that neighbor who was wealthy and had wealthy referrals for you. If you were like most of the representatives without these connections, you would probably have failed or given up like the rest of the lot. Cutco relies on hard-working students such as yourself to help cook its books. It can then point to you and the few other success stories.
You see, part of the sales pitch to get reps into the role quotes figures I doubt are true. It’s like Fox news–they just tell you selecitive factoids without a discernible source. For instance you are just expected to believe and you’re going to sell 3 out of 5 times. I was the top seller in my branch for several months and easily can say I didn’t sell 3 out of 5. My average sale was not $300 or whatever bullshit number they threw at you, either. Maybe 2 out of 5, maybe $200.
It doesn’t matter if you sell or not, you bought the kit, and Vector still turns a profit!!
Finally, asim you must admit you busted your ass to get that 20K talking to a bunch of middle age douchebags that often dealth with you as if you were some sort of insect, where you could have saved yourself the frustration and wear on your car by taking the 3K job at McDonald’s for shift work and getting high all summer.
Although I did not go to Harvard, I am now a successful full-fledged medical doctor. I hope that is enough qualification to answer you, oh great clownpenis asim. You arrogant sack of shit. If Cutco didn’t survive by sucking the blood of all those less talented kids (as you imply), then you wouldn’t have had a job either.
Kevin, if you’re reading this message, then you have probably figured out who I am. Sorry about the backstabbing, but Generation X does not deal in personal loyalties. This job is a scam. If the company is not outright lying to the people, then it certainly obscures important facts to its potential applicants.
Don’t worry though Kevin, although Generation Y isn’t quite as naive due to their saavy internet utilization, at least they are shaping up to be another Eichman douchebag cut-throat generation easily be swayed into servitude of the free-market Jesus. At least until they are too old for your job and realize that all the corporate douchebag jobs they’re chasing have all been moved to more tax-friendly nations.
December 16th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
I also knew Kevin Hanna. when he moved from ohio to milwaukee right away he gets a Green Bay Packers liscence plate. At one of the first vector meetings we were discussing the packers, and Kevin admitted he didn’t know who brett favre was.
he was the full nine yards a cliche. jesus jumper, ostensibly idealizing personal responsibility, telling the same goddamn story about his government job and how unfulfilled he felt on that job. how government shouldn’t support welfare. in addition to being a vector marketing manager, he was also a full time indoctrinator for the republican party. i’m sure he is one of those 28% of AMericans that still believes Bush isn’t lying sack of shit failure of a president.
kevin hanna was about the biggest tool i ever met. i hear the kids now call him “the godfather,” which is sickening. these Vector knife geeks are so fucking serious about their shit, like so many misguided youth, whose energy and passion are too often used to make money for shrivel dicks like kevin hanna and his brood. (consistent with his stupid ideology, his wife tricia stays at home squeezing out kid after conservative kid. you, santorum, and my ass hair kevbo.)
so college kids if you live in wisconsin and get the flyer for $10 bucks an hour, watch out. it’s likely to be a scam.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Thanks, my so too would have probably set up an interview. You saved him from a scam
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 pm
I got a Vector letter this week. I’m 44 years old and I’ve never enrolled in college. What mailing list did my info crawl off of?
May 25th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Much appreciated Nick. These fuckers had actually called me on my cell phone today. It seems as if one of my friends had tried to sell me out into this bullshit scheme by giving Vector my freaking cell phone number. I’ve developed my skepticisms upon this corporation the minute they called me to tell me that they’re paying 18 dollars an hour and are hiring college students like myself. They didn’t even thoroughly explain what exactly is that they do over there. I’ve tracked down their phone number on the caller ID and searched it over the internet and their numbers didn’t lead to any company except for a few sales management companies which had their names kept “Confidential”. Then they sent me an email which had a link to their website (which was a huge mistake in their part). From then on I’ve researched everything about the corporation and its connection to Cutco Cutlery and discovered nothing but negative criticisms upon the corporation from prior workers. It was so obvious to tell that Vector was a scam according to my instincts. They keep everything very secretive and vague when they approached me for this job offer. They’ve managed to set an interview with me but I’m probably going to attend the interview just to tell them that they’re a group of degenerate pricks. Just wanted to say thanks for letting everyone know ahead of time what this corporation is really about.
Regards.
May 25th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Job Description
Part Time
COLLEGE STUDENT
$18.25
BASE-APPT
Summer work, great for resume, sales/service, all ages 17+ conds apply, call now, start ASAP!
Eastern Qns 718-321-1194
Western Qns 718-777-2094
South Queens 718-887-7904
Bensonhurst, Bklyn 718-766-9343
Park Slope, Bklyn 718-701-4357
Sheepshead Bay Bklyn 718-887-3928
A benefit package may or may not be available. Request specific information from the employer.
Job Summary
Company Job ID: JGK3WF3VAJB
Job Title: sales
Company: Confidential
Location: US - NY, Flushing, 11351
AJE Reference Number: 512949605
Job Start/End Date: not provided
Job Type: Regular
Job Classification: Full Time
Hours/Week: not provided
Salary Range: not provided N/A
Education: None Selected
Required Degree/
Formal Training: not provided
Required Licenses/
Certificates : not provided
Experience: not provided
Company
Homepage: not provided
Very vague, don’t you think?
June 4th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Shit. you know, it sounded too damn good to be true. More’s the pity i already set up an interview. Goddamn. Glad i was doing my homework on this one. THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR THIS POST! you just saved me the gas money it would have taken to get out there and back. needless to say i’m going to have a ’sudden inconvienent emergency’ and sit at home looking for a real job.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
LOL i just got my second letter!!!!!! thankz tho man i really was about to call and set up an appointment, i was a door to door sales man for the s.f newspaper and it sucked ass they had me working in the rain i am never going to work for a company like that again
June 7th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
i just tried to seach for any comments about VECTOR Summer Work Opportunities through the internet, and found Nick’s post.
Here i live in San Jose, CA, and VECTOR sent the same kind of letter to my son. He made a phone call to the manager, and made an appointment for the interview.
Nick’s this post helps many people who doesn’t know much about VECTOR. Now, i found that this company is scam, and i’d tell my son not to go for the interview.
Thanks Nick.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
WOw i never would have thought this company was nation wide i thought it was a new company in Texas. but the district manager is Cara Fenger not the other guy. I’ve been getting this letter since i was a junior in high school now that i graduated I was actully thinking of setting up an interview. The letter makes the job sound too good to be true and I guess it is. Thanks so much for your post.
June 18th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Ah Ha! They are everywhere. My son just got one of those letters in Olympia, Washington and the manager is Kevin Elbert, of course with a local number to call for an interveiw. As it happens, I have some (not a full set mind you - too expensive) Cutco Cutlery that I bought at a county fair last summer for my husband who always gripes about the condition of our kitchen knives. He is happy with Cutco that he sets aside only for him to use and I am happy that I ran into Nick’s on line posts so I can save my son the bother. He is working hard doing summer yard work and making decent money at it. He doesn’t need this aggravation at all. Thanks Nick and all the others who replied with their information.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:13 am
haha, i just got two letters from VECTOR today. Two letters in one day. one, using my first name “David” and the other one using my middle name “Mason”. I’m glad the people at VECTOR are so personal with their letters to address me twice in one day. this is not the first time i’ve heard from the company. i recieved a phone call about a month ago, set up an appt, had a day to think and without any research, i knew it was a scam. but here is a warning, if you talk to anyone on the phone working with VECTOR, they are amazing at their job and make this summer work opportunity sounds incredible. by the way, they expanded to columbia, sc. the number being (803) 771-6680. branch manager-Anthony Mercer. I’m looking forward to my next personalized letter from the good folks at VECTOR
June 20th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Vector is now senting out letters here. Palm Springs, CA to the High School Grads. Thanks for the Post. $17.25 per appt. Gas is about $4.55 Gal
June 24th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Anyone that defends this company needs their heads examined. I fell for this letter. I went to college in Tampa and received a letter from Vector. They promised great pay, great experience, yadda yadda. Wow was I taken for a fool. It is a scam plain and simple. They don’t tell you anything until you actually show up there. They do not care about the people they hire and they work on a volume basis. Vector sends millions of letters and count on a percent of responses. The ones stupid enough to work there sell the products and make zero money at it, but Vector gets fat bonuses on merchandise sold, millions worth of it. Some people actually lose money with this piss poor piece of shit wanna be company. I was there for 3 days, and ran! I finished my degree in business and now have a REAL job. The person that went to Harvard…please! No self respecting true business grad, whether it be Harvard, Princeton, or Bob’s school of business would ever defend such companies. They are bottom feeders that will make money regardless because of people not doing their research and getting snagged by their web of deception. My question is, where the hell are the parents of these kids that are getting used by these jackholes???
June 24th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Ha ha I just got a letter like this in the mail today June 24 2008. Have to thank my business class for this I was always told to do a back up check on a company before applying for any positions. Well it is ironic that three out of three of their sites have a problem loading the page when every other site works. Good thing I found your forum. My letter differed from yours in the way that the District Manager’s name was Mollie Innocent… nice name I thought that was just a little odd at first. And the return number is 732-597-5380. I also found it odd that they were offering job opportunities in the town right next to mine but I never heard of it. Well thanks.
July 1st, 2008 at 7:00 am
When I first received a letter from Vector in the mail (a few days ago), I was very skeptical, but in need of a job desperately. I made an appointment and went for my interview yesterday. I’ve never been to such a huge interview before. People younger than me, fresh out of high school. I’ll be a Senior in College this term.
Plus it was 2 hrs long! Who does that? It was a waste. I got “hired” and the manager seemed so real. I suppose I’m glad I learned from this experience and learned it’s a scam. I’m still impressed by the knives set and scissors! I’m sure not going to support the company at all. I really wish to contact all the people who are about to get the job and make them aware of this. I should print out a copy of this scam story and put them on cars in that parking lot. I want to do something about this!
August 1st, 2008 at 11:05 am
Hi there,
I completely fell for the scam like 5 yrs ago. I was a college sophomore and needed some extra cash. All I needed to hear was $13.75/hr. A lot of kids I went to high sch w/ ended up doing it and we were in a small town w/ a lot of rich families. I busted my a** for vector for about a month and then I got tired. It just didn’t make sense after a while comparing the money I was making to what it was costing me in gas and time. Though I did make a few sales that boosted my confidence a little.
It gave me a little sales experience and taught me about Independent contracting, but as far as a summer job for $$, it was a complete joke. My branch manager was Adam something. He had an interesting last name and he was the cutest, most charming guy you ever met. He did sooo much “team building” stuff it wasn’t even funny. Like volleyball, pizza parties. I even fell for the conference thing and spent money going to Chicago with my branch.
I got tired though and stopped making appts and going to meetings. By the end of the summer, the office had disappeared as if it was never there. I think the purpose of branch offices is to seek out towns with enough wealthy people and college kids. makes a good market. I did love the knives though.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Hey everyone, I’m not defending Vector nor am I bashing it. I recently started and made about $200 in my first week and I’m now at 15% commission but the only problem is I’m having trouble getting referrals to get appointments. I need money but right now I would not want to work a normal job like most high school kids(I recently graduated) making about 8 an hour.