You saw a poster of hiring people for summer work and got the phone call for a job interview, and you are told to sell knives for Cutco Cutlery. So, you land on my site to know, “Is Cutco A Scam?”
If yes, you’ve come to the right place. In my Cutco review, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know before joining. Here is something I will talk about later in this review:
- What Is Cutco?
- Cutco Products
- How To Make Money With Cutco?
- Cutco Pros & Cons
- Is Cutco A Scam?
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Disclaimer: As the owner of Smileaffiliatesuccess.com, I have tracked down special deals for products, tools, and services mentioned herein. When you click my affiliate links on this page to make a purchase, I may get a small commission, and you will definitely get a great bargain. This is a win-win advantage for both of us.
What is Cutco?
-Summary of Cutco-
Product Name: Cutco
Founders: founded in 1949 by Alcoa and Case Cutlery
Product Type: Kitchenware MLM
Price: Free to Join
Recommend: No
Cutco Corporation, formerly known as Alcas Corporation, is a company that sells knives through another multi-level marketing company called Vector Marketing.
The company was founded in 1949 by Alcoa and Case Cutlery (hence the abbreviation of “Al-cas”) to manufacture knives.
Alcoa purchased Case’s share of the company in 1972, and Alcas management purchased the company from Alcoa in 1982. In 1985, Alcas acquired Vector Marketing Corporation. In 2009, Alcas changed the name to Cutco, the name of the primary product.
However, is it a “work from home and be your own boss” opportunity? Let me share more details below to help you make up your mind.
What’s Inside Cutco?
Many knives!
There were so many knives that I didn’t know before I checked Cutco’s website, and I am very grateful for my mother, who is in charge of the kitchen for our family.
Since there are tons of knives, I don’t think I could list all knives in this article. So, I would only talk about the major product lines of Cutco.
Product Lines
- Knives: All kinds of knives you need in the kitchen.
- Knife Sets: Small knife sets, large knife sets, knife sets with a block or a tray, etc
- Shears: Super shears or gift shear sets.
- Cooks’ Tools: Vegetable peeler, sharpener, ice cream scoop, pizza cutter, etc.
- Tableware: Table knives, steak knives, table knife sets.
- Cookware: Sauce Pans, fry pans, skillets, woodblocks, etc.
- Outdoor: Sheaths, knife for fisherman, knife for hunting, lock back knife, pocket knife, etc.
Do Cutco Products Work?
Yes, they work pretty well. If Cutco provides low-quality products, there is no possibility that it could survive over seven decades. They must have the know-how to do things right for the business.
I don’t have any experience with Cutco knives, so I went online to know what other customers said. Taking Cutco Model 77 Super Shears 2.0 as an instance, it got 4.7 out of 5 ratings, showing how good the knife is.
How To Make Money With Cutco?
Vector Marketing Corporation is the primary company selling Cutco’s knives, so every job interview you get is from Vector Marketing. The process will be like this:
- The recruiters ask questions about yourself via phone calls, and you are invited for interviews.
- If you ask questions during the phone call, the recruiters will not answer you but tell you, “our manager does cover that in the interview!” This is where you start your journey to sell Cutco’s knives.
Getting Started
Once you get the invitation for an interview, here is how it goes.
- You join a group interview. Usually, 9 out of 10 could pass the group interview; the one who doesn’t pass might act weirdly or like a fool.
- They will invite you back for a private interview, and you need to answer questions about your dreams, goals, and skills.
- Once you get the offer, there is an unpaid 3-day training. You will learn the sales skill and understand all knives you are about to sell.
- Lastly, you can use your laptop or computer to walk through product options with customers online. No need to purchase a demonstration kit anymore, which is good news.
Cutco Compensation Plan
Unlike other MLMs in the industry, Cutco’s compensation plan is straightforward to understand.
- Retail Commission: Earn 10%-30% retail commission. The more you sell, the more commissions you can earn.
- Guaranteed Wage: Cutco gives a guaranteed wage of approximately $17 to $19 per appointment. Although every appointment might take longer than one hour, you cannot refer to them as an hourly wage.
- Team Bonus: Earn 1%-10% of your downline sales as long as they sell $1,000+ per month
Ugly Truth About Cutco
TOP#1 Lawsuits
If you research Cutco online, it’s easy to find out there were many lawsuits.
- In 1990, Arizona’s attorney general sued Vector Marketing for violating the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.
- In May 2010, Alicia Harris sued Vector Marketing, the company that recruits students to sell Cutco cutlery, for not paying her the time she spent in the training.
- In Feb 2017, Vector Marketing settled a class-action lawsuit with sales representatives who were required to attend training sessions but were not paid.
TOP#2 Prey On Naive Students
Vector Marketing aims to recruit as many college students as possible to keep the business running.
The stable supply of recruits and leads is important because many students quit in the first two weeks.
Once you get the phone calls, the recruiters will use a script to get you to the second and third interviews.
The script is so natural that all students get hooked quickly. In training, all recruits will learn the script, such as asking specific questions to obtain a wanted answer or memorizing canned responses to deal with rejections.
TOP#3 Low Income Potential
When you only get approximately $17 to $19 per appointment without deducting the extra expenses, it’s easy to spend more than you can make.
Students quit their jobs once they run out of friends or family to sell knives.
There is also no official income disclosure from Cutco & Vector Marketing, implying the low-income potential. Otherwise, they would provide some documents on the website.
I am sure there must be someone who made lots of sales with Cutco & Vector Marketing, while the rest failed and quit in the first two weeks.
What I Liked About Cutco
TOP#1 Made In USA
In the world of “Made in China,” it’s nice to see that Cutco keeps manufacturing knives in the USA.
By doing so, it stands for the high quality of Cutco cutlery, which is probably why they are providing a lifetime guarantee, which brings us to my next point.
TOP#2 A Lifetime Guarantee
Cutco offers a lifetime guarantee if you are not completely satisfied with the products. You don’t need the receipt or registration for the replacement or the sharpness services.
If at any time within 15 days after receipt of your Cutco products, you are not satisfied, you can get a full refund of your purchase. This does gain people more confidence to try their knives.
TOP#3 Partner With Alzheimer’s Association
Cutco supports the Alzheimer’s Association of the USA. During Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness month(Jun 2019), Cutco offered limited-edition purple products.
They donated 10% of every Cutco purple product, with a minimum guaranteed total donation of $50,000, to the Alzheimer’s Association. Although this might be the purpose of a publicity stunt, it’s still better than nothing.
Who Is Cutco For?
No one, to be honest.
I cannot recommend anyone to this MLM business opportunity since there are red flags, and they recruit college students who are supposed to focus on their studies.
Is Cutco A Scam?
No, Cutco is not a scam. Cutco provides knives for students to sell, and maybe some of them did make sales during the summer vacation, so we cannot call it a scam or a pyramid scheme.
Good luck to you if you still want to join after this review. Think twice and be responsible for every decision you make.
But, if you change your mind, congratulations, you might be interested in my alternative way to make money online.
My Alternative Way to Make Money Online
My alternative way to make money online is through affiliate marketing instead of promoting Cutco products.
Imagine you sell Cutco products to your friends, family, or anyone you know. Don’t you feel embarrassed or blushed? They might avoid you ever since.
Doing affiliate marketing will save you from that:
- It’s free to start your affiliate marketing business.
- You don’t need to buy physical products and sell them face to face.
- There is no monthly minimum sales quota in affiliate marketing.
- You don’t recruit people to become your downlines to build a team.
- You are not restricted to promoting one product. You can promote anything you like!
- Work on your schedules & you are your OWN BOSS!
You only need to start a blog with quality content. So every time people land on your site to read your product reviews or other articles, they will find insight and value.
If they like it, they may purchase the products or services via your links. Here come your earning potentials.
The platform I am using currently is Wealthy Affiliate. You will find all the proven-to-work training courses, every Friday night LIVE training courses, one keyword research tool called Jaaxy, 24/7 site support, and the most friendly community.
You are more than welcome to check my full Wealthy Affiliate review HERE, or click the button right below to start your online journey with us.
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I hope you find this article useful and helpful in guiding you on the right track. If you have other opinions, you are more than welcome to leave a comment below. I will try to reply as soon as I can. Cheers.
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Hi Matt,
I had never heard of Cutco, but it doesn’t sound as though I missed much!
I’ve never heard of an MLM that takes prospective members through an interview process – that certainly piqued my interest initially, because it seemed quite professional.
However, reading those negative reviews quickly changed my mind and those quotes from the training that the first commenter relayed are no different from the training I’ve come across in almost any MLM.
I’ve always felt that selling over-priced products to friends and family who didn’t really need them is a quick way to lose a lot of friends..!
Cheers,
Martin.
Hi Martin,
Yes, you are correct about the fastest way to lose your friends is to sell over-priced MLM products that they don’t need. Once you have done promotions to them, it’s highly possible that they start to avoid you in the future.
As for the way Cutco Knives uses to recruit people, I don’t like it either. So, it’s better that people avoid this business opportunity and chase another alternative that is legitimate. A platform I do recommend is Wealthy Affiliate. Feel free to check my WA review HERE.
Cheers,
Matt