Summer sales jobs for college students. Taking advantage of students and parents?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Wondering if anyone has experience with this.</p>

<p>A friend of my son from high school called me to say he was selling a product and asked to set an appointment for a demonstration.</p>

<p>As he was son’s good friend, I made an appointment and was happy to listen to his sales pitch.</p>

<p>I was surprised that he was not well groomed, and even had to return to my house to correct a mathematical error on his order sheet, wherein he looked like he hadn’t even taken a bath or combed his hair. And to top that off, he asked me for a pen to complete his order sheet.</p>

<p>Now, this is supposedly a reputable company, been around for years, but wondering if this boy is really getting good work experience. He says it’s going to be good for his resume, and he’s number five for his office, which surprised me it was that low, as he had completed orders an inch thick in his folder.</p>

<p>He’s working, working, working, rushing around to get from one appointment to the next, and bless our hearts, his high school buddies’ parents are buying from him, but he’s obviously not getting supervision as to his presentation, based on my two encounters from him.</p>

<p>Maybe he’s not putting in the effort to groom himself because we’re all so familiar with him, but is this company taking advantage of these kids, and their acquaintances, by using them to sell their product? </p>

<p>The product is very expensive, though of very good quality, and I do wonder how much of the markup is to pay these kids. But if it’s really supposed to be considered an internship and look good on their resume, it seems that they should at least give these kids a course in presentation.</p>

2

<p>A lot of us own a few very expensive knives purchased only to support our friends’ kids.</p>

3

<p>I mean, it seems to be a good product, but I kind of think less of them in that this young man wasn’t adequately trained, in my opinion.</p>

<p>I mean, it’s one thing to buy a ten dollar box of popcorn from a boy scout, but a thousand dollar set of kitchen cutlery?</p>

<p>What was worse was the push to give ten names of friends. At first, I gave the name of a business associate, who is a good friend, but unknown to this young man. Then the young man suggested I take out our high school directory and get names from there, even of people I did not know, but that he did know but had not hit up already. Thankfully, my business friend’s husband made her cancel her appointment, as he monitors her spending, which was a relief to me. Said husband would have made mincemeat out of this poor boy. </p>

<p>But gosh, how many of these kids think they actually are good at this and can make a career of it? Seriously, would you buy a car from a guy who didn’t even comb his hair?
I’m not one to judge people by appearance, but in the sales field, you’ve got to make a little bit of effort to at least tuck in your shirttail.</p>

4

<p>Is it one of those multi level marketing companies?
My brother sold Amway and a few other things before he joined the Air Force, and I “sold” Discovery Toys, when my oldest was little- but you have to really be a salesperson at heart anyway, to get much good out of those organizations.
<a href=“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing[/url]”>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Which I am not- I also went to school for 2000 hrs to earn my cosmetologist license and while I liked cutting hair & I was good at it, I refused to push selling additional services or products.</p>

<p>If people are buying things without the company having to invest in training for their patsys/salespeople, no wonder that they don’t do it.
Every young person needs a really crappy job or two in their repertoire, cause then you learn more about what you don’t want to do.</p>

<p>My brother did join Toastmasters as part of his selling career, and *that *was a positive influence on him I think.</p>

<p>I also don’t have much respect for these fundraising organizations that hit an already saturated market, and hope that people don’t look too closely.</p>

<p>I did that once also. Political advocacy and education, who could find fault with that?
But we canvassed a neighborhood that was obviously struggling, we were expected to interupt people having dinner and ask them for money?
[Here’s</a> how you can avoid bad charities | Tampa Bay Times](<a href=“http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/heres-how-you-can-avoid-bad-charities/2124087]Here’s”>http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/heres-how-you-can-avoid-bad-charities/2124087)
I only lasted as long as one day, because my car was on the other side of town as I had ridden in their " van".
In retrospect, I would have preferred to pick strawberries in the mud again, as I did one summer when I was 13 to get money for school clothes. At least that was a job that provided something that was needed.</p>

5

<p>Yep…I own a full set of knives to support one friend’s kid…and the soup ladle that I bought in grad,school because I felt sorry for the person peddling it to me.</p>

<p>I will say…that soup ladle is almost 37 years old and looks brand new. And I LOVE the over priced knives! I really do.</p>

6

<p>I believe that this company is Cutco knives. Last year, right after high school graduation I was hit up for an appointment from one of my friend’s kids. I felt sorry for the kid who was nervous and very unorganized and could not answer one question.</p>

<p>Just this week we received an ‘invitation’ to my D for summer employment. Not sure how they got the name and address. Same company. They prey on recently graduated high school kids.</p>

7

<p>In the case of my friend (the one I bought my knives from), the kid never really MADE any money. A bunch of us bought knives from him, but his “commission” was a pittance. He ended up the summer making a very small amount of money.</p>

<p>The mark up on these knives has to be HUGE…and clearly the profit is NOT going to the sales people.</p>

8

<p>I guess my worry is that this kid will think he really can do this as a career. I mean, he’s only number five because he is well connected, from a large family, and had to drop out of college due to medical issues. We are all feeling sorry for him. Now, I did need knives, and I was happy to buy them from him, the set that I needed, but I was floored when he told me so and so bought the big thousand dollar set. I wonder if he didn’t bother to comb his hair or wash his face on his return visit because I “only” spent 350 bucks, not 1200 bucks. But when he came for his initial appointment, he had just eaten lunch and had ketchup still on his face.</p>

<p>I don’t know if it’s multilevel marketing in the pyramid sense. But he can’t “cold call” people. He can only call someone if another customer gives him their name. That made me so uncomfortable, in that he wanted me to pick names out of the directory that he knew, but not me, in that I thought that was kind of a dishonest way to get sales through personal recommendation.</p>

<p>What I found really odd was when he came back to correct his order, I told him I’d be interested in purchasing some more of his product in the future, as gifts for siblings, and rather than jump at the chance to make an additional sale, it seemed that he had met his criteria of getting an appointment, which makes me wonder how these kids are paid. </p>

<p>If they’re paid on commission, wouldn’t it make sense to make follow up sales from an established customer and earn more commission? </p>

<p>He seemed more interested in checking my name off the list, giving me minimal service, as he had no intention of making any more money off of me.</p>

<p>I am looking forward to the product. Husband checks the doorstep every day to see if they’ve arrived, as he can’t wait to use them. But I think this young man would have done better to have gotten a manual labor job and learned the benefit of getting his hands dirty, rather than making money off of people that really can’t afford what he’s selling but don’t want to say no because they don’t want to offend his parents or their children.</p>

9

<p>Oops, cross posted with others. Wow, now I feel worse. This kid is running around like a maniac trying to get appointments. And now you say he’s not going to make any money, either?</p>

<p>I only hope future employers look at his resume and see this as a beneficial experience, rather than a reflection of how gullible he is.</p>

<p>And I’m really mad at his parents for letting him get suckered into this. In fact, he said his uncle had done this while he was in school, and as I indicated, they are a large, well connected family, so I’m sure the uncle did well in sales, also, at the expense of unsuspected acquaintances who felt sorry for him as well.</p>

10

<p>When my daughter was a cashier at Walmart, a nice lady complimented her work… She gave her a business card saying she had opportunities for good workers. Ah, my gullible daughter came home feeling excited about it. I gently expressed skepticism and showed her how to do google of company name and “scam”. It turned out to be Cutco knives or something very similar.</p>

11

<p>Our D and nephew had some friends who also sold this product after freshman year of college. We all felt sorry for them and listened to the spiel (they get paid for each person they present to). We also did purchase an item or two, to get the free or reduced price bonus. I forbade our kids from selling like this, even though the three I heard make presentations were all very professional, well-groomed and memorized and said the exact same patter, down to the same jokes. FWIW, folks who have purchased the product seem happy enough with it. Don’t know how much the sales person is compensated but believe it is a tough way to make much money and would not be a way I would be comfortable imposing on friends and relatives.</p>

<p>Because D knew so many people selling, we only purchased once, from nephew’s GF. My SIL had a party first and then let the GF make presentation. She got LOTS of orders that night.</p>

12

<p>A friend asked me if I would see a kid who was selling Cutco. I agreed, and ended up buying some pruning shears. They were pricey, but actually had a great design that made them easy to use for people with arthritis in their hands who enjoy gardening. My mother–who I bought them for–really likes them.</p>

<p>I would not support my kid in such an undertaking, though.</p>

13

<p>Last summer, my D asked me if one of her friends could come over to sell knives. She said it was her friend’s summer job before college. I declined and told her to tell him that I’m perfectly satisfied with my set of Global knives. </p>

<p>I don’t think it’s an MLM though because he did not attempt to recruit my D as his downline. It turns out she did receive a letter from the company recruiting her to do the same thing I guess. I do think the company is taking advantage of the recruited kids’ parents, relatives and friends. How can you say no to a kid? I only said no because I was happy with my knives.</p>

14

<p>Many years ago I allowed one person I knew well to do the presentation for me. I bought one of the least expensive paring knives and it really is a very good quality item. As I recall, I also was asked for other names for her to contact which made me very uncomfortable.</p>

<p>Fast forward to this year. My co-worker mentioned that her son was doing this and might be contacting me. So far, I have not heard from him. But I did get another call from a young man who said he was given my name and number from a mutual acquaintance (still don’t know how the acquaintance knew him). He gave me the spiel about being a student and earning scholarship money, etc, etc. The red light went on in my head and I asked if it was Cutco. He said yes. He said the acquaintance said that I was a “really, really, really nice person”. I just said I was already told that this other young man would be calling me and I really didn’t want to do two presentations. He asked who the other person was!!! I just said it was a relative of a co-worker. He was very personable, but I hate these sales things. I only do it if I really care about the presenter to want to give them the experience of doing the presentation.</p>

15

<p>I don’t see how doing these kinds of sales presentations to a captive audience of friends and relatives gives valuable experience to any student. Even a job selling Fuller Brushes (are they still around?) would be more valuable, because at least you have to develop enough sales acumen to get your foot in the door with strangers. In any case, I’d would never in a million years have allowed my kids to impose upon anyone I knew in this way. The whole Cutco technique of getting friends and relatives to give the names of more contacts is obnoxious. And at best, this is a one-summer job–once you’ve bothered everyone you know and everyone they know, there’s no one else to sell to. I’ve never heard of anyone selling Cutco for a second stint.</p>

16

<p>I don’t know of any kids selling knives around here, but I do know several other “jobs” that are similar - selling magazine subscriptions, window replacements door to door, etc. IMO, these jobs exploit the kids - promise them lots of commissions that never materialize. Neither of my kids has the personality for sales (too shy) but I would not let them do something like this. Even babysitting is a more valuable work experience.</p>

17

<p>When son’s gf graduated from high school last month, she received a letter for a “job offer” that she showed me. It was from Cutco Knives. I thought it was completely inappropriate for our school district to be used for recruiting like that.</p>

18

<p>Cutco has been doing this for more years than I care to remember. Although I do agree that the quality is ver4y good even for the outrageous price, they totally exploit the kids. Most of them make little if anything for the hours they put in. They do nothing but annoy their family and friends. It is, however, a good learning experience in how to figure out who is taking advantage of you and who is legitimately offering you a good opportunity.</p>

<p>Even the ones who manage to make a little money doing this soon find out that they are considered “independent contractors” and must pay self employment tax on their meager earning which aren’t even enough to have to pay income tax on. They are also offered shoddy bookkeeping advice on how to lower their income.</p>

19

<p>Wow, this is worse than I thought. </p>

<p>I was suspicious in that it was a memorized spiel, when the young man said the fishing knife was his favorite. We’ve been fishing with this boy, and the only fishing he did involved tossing his cookies off the side of his boat. He obviously forgot who he was talking to and just rattled off a rehearsed speech.</p>

<p>His mother is famous for imposing on others to help out her son. I’m sure she has no qualms about imposing on “friends” and family to support him in this endeavor. In my opinion, he’d be better served flipping burgers and learning the value of getting your hands dirty.</p>

<p>I’m relieved that my co-worker cancelled her appointment even more so now, as she would have been put in a very tough spot to refer her neighbors, who are also her clients. Very bad for business.</p>

<p>When our son sold stuff for school, we bought them ourselves. Boy scout popcorn, wrapping paper, candy, you name it. We never went for the Big Prize or the scholarship money, just enough to let him participate.</p>

<p>This is sounding very similar to that kind of operation, but in my opinion, 21 years old, or even 17 years old, is too old to be doing something like this.</p>

<p>I do have a sinking feeling that it will end up costing him more money than he makes. He mentioned that he wanted to make enough to buy his own sample kit. Makes me sick to think of him sinking what he made back into the company.</p>

<p>Well, I’ll be getting the product I need, and I’ll just leave it there. I will share this with my son when he comes home, as one of the many things he’ll need to be wary of out in the real world.</p>

20

<p>It won’t hurt the kid trying to sell the knives for a few weeks or months. The experience will be good for him…he’ll learn from it that money is hard to earn and doesn’t just fall out of trees. He’ll get tired of doing it after a few weeks and can chalk it up to experience after getting scuffed up and bruised some trying to sell the expensive knives.</p>

<p>A college friend of my sister sold the knives one summer…my sister set an appointment for the guy to make a presentation to my dad at his office. The boy apparently got about $20 from knife company for each actual presentation he did to prospective buyers. My dad let him do presentation, but he didn’t buy anything from the boy.</p>