Cutco Knives is one of the most popular brands of kitchen cutting tools in the United States (US). It won About.com’s Best Cutlery Brand of 2011, a recognition given by the website to the product gaining the majority of votes from its readers. This year, Cutco Steak Knives has garnered 67% of the votes, beating well-cited high-quality brands such as Henckels and Wusthof (which both received 3% of the total votes, respectively).

The Product Is Good

A random search on the best cutting tool for amateur cooks and average homemakers will also show that CUTCO Steak Knives are always on the consumers’ list. Most of the comments include good customer support through their “Forever Guaranteed” Policy, wherein they provide a set of privileges for customers who are unsatisfied with their product. Such privileges include “15-Day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee” policy as well as replacement and sharpening services.

The Company Behind

However, significant reviews also show the dangerous side of the company behind the company. Most of these comments are related to the treatment of Cutco Corporation to their sales agents.

According to them, Vector Marketing – the company in charge of selling Cutco Cutlery and Cutco Steak Knives through direct sales – recruits new agents from high school graduates and college undergraduates. Moreover, they allegedly give unjust terms of reference to their employees.

Cutco Knives Review: Pay To Get Employed

An online petition against Cutco Corporation narrates how these terms are imposed on young recruits. For instance, the writer of the petition notes that newly-recruited sales agents have to spend $180-200 for the knives set used in their marketing stint. This amount, according to him, will rise to $350 if the agent does not purchase the set within the day. We have not been able to confirm this statement.

Cutco Knives Review: Online Petition

Some of the details in the online petition are affirmed in Scott Schlimmer’s article in Yahoo!’s Associated Content. According to him, the quality of the product is high as manifested in the satisfaction of the consumers. However, he contests the perception that one will earn $18 per hour [as promised to him when he worked for Vector before], saying that one will only earn such rate per appointment. Furthermore, he recounts that their marketing strategy works because it taps family relations and sympathy of customers for young sellers.

Cutco Knives Review: No Formal Charges

This is a classic example of networking, and this practice has been banned in many countries. Something like this makes it hard for consumers to separate the product from the company, which is a shame because the Cutco Knives are far better than most sold in the market.

Furthermore, despite these alleged injustices, no government action has been reported against Cutco Corporation. This may be due to the self-regulating nature of the marketing and direct sales industry in the US. Looking into the cases resolved by private sector organizations such as Better Business Bureau (BB), the highest-ranking complaints involve “problems with product/service” and “advertising and sales issues”. However, all 108 cases filed in BBB in the last 3 years have been settled, and only 3 of these involve unsatisfied parties.