PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Students speak out against summer-work company (The Penn Student Newspaper)
by KYLIE MATTHEWS Monday, Oct. 27, 2003 at 11:13 PM

A group of students are speaking out and fighting back against Vector Marketing, a company that offers summer work with door-to-door sales efforts and has been under fire in the past.

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Students Against Vector Exploitation was founded by previous sales representatives that worked for Vector Marketing in various areas of the country. Vector Marketing works as the sales branch of Cutco Cutlery and offers summer work primarily to college students. IUP has been one of many colleges targeted by Vector Marketing.

SAVE accuses Vector of bringing in new sales representatives by using fraudulent recruiting tactics, as well as encouraging their sales reps to use misleading or false information in their sales of Cutco Cutlery knives.

The organization is trying to gather enough signatures to file a class-action lawsuit against Vector Marketing, and this is not the first time the company has been in legal trouble.

In 1990, they were sued by the Arizona Attorney General, but the charges were dropped after Vector agreed to stop its fraudulent recruiting tactics, and in 1994, they were ordered to stop deceiving recruits under the Wisconsin Consumer Protection Agency.

In 1999, they admitted to deceiving their recruits after being sued by the Australian Consumer & Competition Commission for fraud.

'I discovered that not only is Cutco giving the representatives false or misleading information to sell the product, but that representatives are given false information during the interview and training process to give them confidence in the company and the product,' Kay Bible, a former Vector Marketing employee and SAVE member said.

'They are also taught to lie about Cutco"s major competitor in order to make sales, although they are not told that the information they are given is false.'

Chad, another SAVE member, explains that along with the numerous claims against their name regarding their recruiting and sales tactics, the Wisconsin Consumer Protection Agency found that, in 1992, after surveying 940 Vector Marketing recruits, 'almost half earned nothing or lost money working for Vector and that workers in the state earned less than $3 dollars a day, on average, selling cutlery for Vector.'

Sarah Baker Andrus, the director of academic programs for Vector Marketing said in response to SAVE"s campaign, 'I take great exception to the way SAVE characterizes our company.'

She does not deny that there have been problems as the business has grown but is proud of the response that SAVE has failed to recognize. The cases are historical fact, and we use them to improve our business and continue to operate in those areas.

Andrus explains that SAVE misrepresents the Australian case in which a manager in Tasmania 'violated Vector"s policy, and this was brought to the attention of Vector by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission. The manager was replaced, and Vector continued to recruit and operate in Australia without any further issues until shutting down operations there last year.'

'In my 12 years, every issue, problem, complaint and concern has been resolved to everyone"s satisfaction, to the best of my knowledge,' Andrus said.

She also explains that SAVE 'uses broad statements, but no individuals of SAVE have contacted Vector about personal issues or complaints for personal redress.'

SAVE has an online petition to gather support against Vector Marketing. Out of more than 1,400 names listed, however, Andrus points out that a 'review of the petition shows that very few people have left full names and locations,' items which are considered extremely important in validating the legitimacy of any petition, and 'therefore, it is impossible to know whether any of these individuals worked for Vector or even went through any training.' Also, some names appear more than once.

Andrus admits that Vector"s opportunities are not for everyone, and they do not recruit every person that attends an interview, as SAVE seems to claim.

'It is important to recognize that sales is not a career everyone is cut out for, but if an individual is interested in Vector, they have a wonderful opportunity to pursue in working with Vector.'

Andrus would like to further point out that everyone is recruited strictly from within, and Vector offers management positions upon graduation.

Helen Brown, an IUP alumna and part of the management staff for Vector Marketing said, 'I love it. Working with Vector, I learned to better communicate with people and get my point across clearly. I became more of a voice in student government as well.'

Her recommendation to students looking to work for Vector is, 'as with any job, research the company.'

'It is a great opportunity. I made a lot of money and paid for my college education. I am still working with Vector and have gained a lot of experience,' Brown said.

SAVE can be reached at http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/savecampaign. Vector can be contacted through http://www.vectormarketing.com/contact.htm The SAVE petition is available at http://www.petitiononline.com/vector/petition.html

www.thepenn.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/09/23/3f71b9ee9c0cc

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