And Kirby vacuums.
Was it credit card processing terminals, by any chance? One of the first jobs I applied to after college one of these scams. Part of their script was to say they were there on behalf of Visa and Mastercard. Their definition of “on behalf of” differed quite a bit from mine.
Re: Cutco. Am I the only one who made any money selling those overpriced knives? I still remember half the products, and I sold those during the summer between high school and college, which was some years ago. The homemaker set was like $800. My mom still has Cutco cutlery. She didn’t buy the whole set, but she bought some individual pieces from me. I will concede that it is, of course, a load of shit to pretend like it’s some great business/marketing job, when really it’s just selling expensive crap to people, but if you’re good at sales, you can pocket some decent scratch. Not everyone is good at it, and even so, I’d imagine there are a good deal of sales people who don’t want to hock knives. In any case, I was game, and figured if it sucked, I would stop. Turned out all right. I have no idea why, but people like buying crap from me, so it was a good summer.
Heh. One of the complaints I heard a lot during our meetings, which were just trophy sessions for sellers, and prep talks for everyone else, was that it was hard to generate references. Presumably this was so because the person wasn’t sold on the product and didn’t want to bother their friends, the sales rep didn’t approach the request for references correctly, or (most likely) both. I realized after a few sales that regardless of whether or not you sold anything, if you told people to give you X amount of references, they would. I remember originally telling people to please give me five references, and they would quickly rattle off the five people they talk to the most. Then I bumped it to ten, and it was kind of funny how often they’d scramble off to their phone books to make sure they could list ten references. Whatever number I told them to give me, they’d make a point of giving me. People like reaching benchmarks; it’s the strangest thing.
I did the whole Cutco thing too. I was referred to it by a friend who was doing very well at the time, and I figured I’d give it a shot. I remember feeling instantly uneasy and suspicious the minute I walked in to the place. It was --I swear to you-- an office building on top of a used car dealership. Like some sort of caricatured nexus of hell. But I was pretty desperate for something that paid so I went through it. They made the show of a group interview, and told me I was very fortunate to be one of few selected from the group to be offered a position. (Another red flag was when every person there started work the next Monday… )
They made you buy your own display set. This is where I nearly walked out, but having no other real experience, and knowing my friend had done well, I decided to try it out. After all, if nothing else, I was at least getting something for my money, and the quality of the knives was pretty good. (I still have them and still love them).
I was never comfortable with the sales presentations, and I never did well. I made a couple of small sales (and I *was *paid for them, and paid for my time when I didn’t sell), but I had trouble with asking for references. It felt wrong to me.
The entire thing felt wrong to me, actually. The office was kind of a dump and looked like it had been put together in a day. The bosses literally did nothing all day (a common refrain, but I mean literally), and yet pocketed tons of cash. One guy, their “superstar,” was used as an example of what we could do if we tried hard enough. He supposedly made 15+ presentations a day (never seemed to leave the office though…) and had tons of cash. But he was a haggard, stressed out dude who couldn’t seem to ever relax or enjoy himself. The meetings were a bad impression of an upbeat, modern cult shindig. There was a lot of effort put into cheap group psychology and motivation in order to keep you from ever thinking you were being cheated. There wasn’t a thing about this place that made it seem legit, except the products.
The final straw was when they started trying to dictate my life to me. I was pressured into becoming some sort of specialist (I don’t remember their name for the “supervisor” council position, which I was selected for despite being terrible at everything). They started calling me at home at earlier and earlier times, demanding that I get up and get started or I would never succeed, even though I was told I could set my own hours. The calls started at 9am and eventually got to 6am before I quit.
I’m positive those managers were siphoning off part of our commission. There’s no other way they could have gotten any money. I’m still not sure if that superstar guy was in on it because he certainly seemed like he was trying hard enough, but I imagine he was. The office building was vacant within a couple months of me leaving, and nobody I met was actually able to make anything significant there. I came out a little better than even, after buying my own presentation set. So while I feel like a fool and am embarrassed for ever falling into the scheme, I think I came out all right.
It’s the boobs. Seriously. I work in a hospital and 9 out of 10 drug reps I encounter have $5000 boob jobs or truly knockout naturals.
A friend of my son’s worked for them, all four years he was in college, and he made a bunch of money. We even bought a couple of knives, and they are GREAT knives.
But they are also overpriced, because, yes, the managers do take a big cut.
My son’s friend knew this, because he became a manager. He then got a bigger commission on his own sales, plus a commission on all the sales people in his territory. Making about $50K, as a full-time college student.
Every once in awhile I call him up and tell him my knives need sharpening.
Or they otherwise look like models. I read an article online that said that a lot of pharma sales reps are recruited from college cheerleading groups, that kind of thing. You need someone perky (cough) and upbeat for the job.
Middle aged suburban women bought ludicrously overpriced knives from me because I have boobs? Could be.
If MeanOldLady was standing before me with a box of knives, you bet I’d do whatever she told me! 
I’ve heard the same thing elsewhere, too - that Cutco knives actually aren’t bad. Which raises a question - why do they bother with this very elaborate, strange MLM business model? If you’ve got a genuinely decent product, and you’re willing to sell it at a reasonable price - why not just put it in stores, like everyone else?
It depends on what you consider “bad.” The knives – upon arrival – are very, very sharp. I’m religious about honing my knives at home and taking them to be sharpened when needed. From the pure sharpness standpoint, then, Cutco knives really, really are supurb.
Consider also that they place a heavy emphasis on their serrated knives. Only, they insist that they’re not serrated, but in the end, they really are. Also consider that all knives get dull with regular use, especially if you’re not prone to steeling them. The thing about a serrate knife, though, is that a really sharp serrated knife is more difficult to get dull, because the sharpness lies in the valleys and not the peaks. Sure, the peaks can wear, and get out of alignment, but the knife will still feel sharp for a long time.
Cutco does offer “free” sharpening for life (I quote free for emphasis, because you have to pay a significant S&H charge).
There’s more to a knife than its sharpness, though. The construction, balance, hand feel, blade construction, and durability are all important considerations. I don’t want to say that Cutco is absolute crap in this regard, but they’re not really much better than the Made In China knives you can get at Target for under $60 bucks per set. Except, they’re sharp, and the serrated ones especially tend to stay sharp. My opinion is that a Cutco set is a waste of money, and that the price for all but a very few of their knives is a waste of money. You don’t need a $90 bread knife. Bread knives aren’t used the same as chef’s knives.
As I said above, I have two Cutco knives that I carefully selected (and one that appealed to my wife), and a Chef’s knife isn’t one of them (the quality is poor, but I don’t mean that it’s not sharp!). Consider what you need and use in the kitchen, especially if you’re somewhat serious about cooking.
There’s nothing reasonable about the price, either, and if you take a high quality German or Japanese knife side-by-side with a Cutco, you’ll easily pick out the quality differences, even if you don’t know a lot about knives, but especially if you do know something about knives. The Cutco knives cost virtually the same as the good German and Japanese stuff. Their marketing system works because (a) you can’t compare them side by side at home unless you already have good knives, and (b) most people don’t already have good knives.
I’ve run into several of these but I think the worst was Primerica, a division of CitiBank or Capital One or some such nonsense. I got a call for an interview with a bank (or I was told it was a bank) and when I got there I was overwhelmed with a sense of dread. They showed us a video of happy people getting their financial services but never told us what those services were. Then they did a pitch about how awesome and helpful they were without ever telling us what the services were. Then they asked everyone to apply and pay $700 to become a consultant. I kept getting visions of Cyberdyne in my head the whole time they were talking. I got up and walked away and some woman at the door asked why I was leaving but I just shook my head no and kept walking. I can’t imagine how desperate you would have to be to pay someone $700 in hopes of getting a job without any idea of what the job actually is or how you will be paid.
I interviewed for a job that helps immigrants - specifically from UAE, India, Malayasia and Indonesia come to Canada. The company was set up to teach them how to job hunt, how to interview and what is common business etiquette etc…
Anyway, I interviewed and was offered a job as an “educator”. They wanted to send me to these countries in two weeks, was my passport up to date. I asked about health insurance - they said I wouldn’t need any, that they would “cover” me if anything happened. That, combined with the fact that I was still nursing our daughter gave me enough reason to turn it down.
Almost a year later I heard that they were being investigated for ripping off the immigrants for huge money and promises of jobs…
I may have missed it, but in case it hasn’t been said yet. IMO Cutco knives are really good knives. They also cost a fortune. However let’s be realistic… How many of us need the best knives made? I mean, seriously if given the choice of the best knife for $100, or the 10th best for $10… I think I’ll take the 10th best and enjoy the $90 I saved.
And that’s just the men!
[Hijack] I have no idea why drug reps are STILL these dumb, pretty women. For years (at last 5, almost 10, too lazy to cite) now women have made up 50%+ of graduating med school classes. Shouldn’t drug reps have become cute men by this point?
It’s hilarious watching the bimbos try to sell their goods when they realize that **lindsaybluth’**s mom is a woman, not a man (her first name is like Taylor, so could be a man or a woman).[end hijack]
Ohhh you young whippersnappers.
Back in the dark days of around '92…the job market was for shit and had been for many years. I noticed that a new trend was coming up. It hadn’t hit hard yet but was increasing…probably was around 10-15% of job openings that I saw
This trend (at least in the area I was in) was ‘pay for interviewing’…that is, you had to pay a ‘fee’ to be interviewed and/or pay a ‘admin/processing/whatever’ fee for applying for a job. AT&T, which was the phone company in my neck of the woods was seeking employees…you called a number to give an address for them to send an application to. The recording then told you that you must send a (IIRC) $50 ‘processing’ fee with the Ap.
This was not uncommon. I was asked twice to pay $100 for an interview and I was a college teacher at the time.
Thing was…this was bad…hitting up the job-seekers - the group needing every penny they had…and making it near impossible to job search if it was to catch on overall.
Also, ripe for scamming. Have a good company name? What a revenue stream! Just keep good job openings up permanent and collect revenue! Maybe even hire someone once every couple years or so.
This was also the time when the head of a large corp (GE?) came out and said that traditional employment was a thing of the past. In the near future (according to him) employees would be hired on a day by day basis. Just phone in to see if you get work that day.
Thankfully, the economy picked up and these companies had to stop doing that shit.
Damn…I hope we never get back to those days. Could you imagine the hell of life today if those trends would have continued? 
Having several clients in the pharma industry…they are. However, the majority are knockout women still.