My AWFUL Experience with Cutco

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile you know I am very supportive of companies that are ethical, carry products I use and like and offer great customer service.

In this post I am going to review a company who I had a horrible experience with, and tell you why you should not support this company or buy their products. 

It all started on July 9th when a friend told me she had given my name and number to a salesperson.  I wasn’t thrilled, but dearly love this friend, so I thought I’d see what it was all about.  A few days later a young woman called to try to set an appointment with me.

She arrived and told me that she was selling Cutco knives and that she was trying for a scholarship and that simply listening to her spiel would give her points she needed, whether I bought anything or not.

I listened.  After about an hour of her over-the-top, these-knives-are the best-in-in-the-world monologue…I was over it.  I got her to cut to the chase, and she made me an offer.  I declined.  I want to interject here that I’m a hard person to sell to.  I’m a great salesperson, have taught sales, made a living at sales.  Each time she led me with questions, each time she tried to close the deal, I kept pushing back.  It irritated that she was trying to teach me things that weren’t true ( I’m a CHEF!); that wooden handles on knives were unclean and dangerous (not true), that wooden cutting boards were unsafe (not true, a properly maintained cutting board is far safer than plastic, it doesn’t get nicked and has naturally occurring oils that are anti-bacterial).

Finally, I chose three items I really did want and need, we negotiated, and I placed the order.  I paid in cash, owing two more payments, she gave me a receipt.  She told me that the knives would take about two weeks to get to me and that the other two payments would be due a month apart.  When I asked her why it took so long she explained to me that these knives, my knives, were not simply sitting in a warehouse, they were made just  for me.  I had trouble not bursting out laughing!  Right!

So two weeks later the day came and went when I was supposed to get my knives.  I went on the website to check the order status and it said pending. 

I texted the rep who sold me the knives and she txted me back to “not worry” and stop “stressing”.   I let her know that I was not stressing or worried and that she had not answered my questions.

The next morning, Monday, I called the company to check.  They explained to me that my order had never been placed, that they never received the order or my payment.  They assured me that the order was now placed and I would receive my knives no later than the following Friday. 

I didn’t.  I called.  They claimed that they had tried to reach me.  They hadn’t.  They went on to explain that they needed me to give them a credit card number because they could not accept a money order.  I told then no way would I pay two payments at once, that it was not what I had agreed to.  They said the person who had sold me the knives hadn’t put the order in, that she had given me the wrong info and that she had used the wrong form to place the order.  I explained to them that THEY placed the order over the phone, that they had never received they order from her when I placed it.  I also explained that well BEFORE I was promised those knives (in fact they promised that they were air fighting them to me over night)…they should have made sure everything was correct, that I had NOW SPOKEN TO five PEOPLE WHO WORKED FOR THEM AND NOT ONE PERSON HAD TOLD ME ANYTHING THAT WAS TRUE…  and I STILL DID NOT HAVE MY KNIVES.

The rep then txted me begging me not to blame the company, that it was her mistake…but if I went ahead and got the knives she would make sure  that I was only billed once and in order to show me how bad the company felt over the whole mess that they would give me…FREE SHIPPING!!

Too little, too late.  I will NOT support a company who has no idea how to place an order, couldn’t care any less about customer service and lied…over and over. 

Further Googling led me to the many unhappy employees and customers who have put in complaints all over the INTERNET.  The Complaint Station, a Web site where consumers can post messages with concerns regarding a product or company, has logged more than 2,000 complaints against Vector Marketing and Cutco.
An online group called Students Against Vector Exploitation, or SAVE, has an online petition against the companies with almost 3,000 signatures since it began last year.  Vector has settled several wage claims that were filed at the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries last year, although it did not acknowledge any law violation.
A Marion County court ordered Vector to stop deceptive recruiting practices as a result of a 1994 investigation.
Most of the complaints refer to recruiting ads, long hours of unpaid training, work pressures and ethical concerns within the firm.

Here are a few-  Better Business Bureau – This is a customer complaint list.

The following links are from Cutco employees;

http://www.petitiononline.com/vector/petition.html

http://radified.com/blog/archives/000055.htmlcutco