The above link leads to one of many articles talking about the joint venture of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile coming together with mobile payment company, Isis.
It's a situation that I see a number of people being wholeheartedly divided on for a very long time, to be honest. Why?
Well, as the short story of this very complicated endeavor: USA cellular giants Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have started a venture in attempting to eliminate the need for any sort of physical trade of money outside of one's cell phone. The idea will be to utilize, it seems, a similar technology as what's used in credit cards and debit cards now when a consumer just flips his or her card across a magnetic scanner, and off they go. (Keep in mind, this is the explanation we received where I work, one of these three 'giants'.)
The biggest thing that I can advise to anyone that intends to use this service, especially early on, is to read up on anything and everything you can about it. If you think from the standpoint of losing your phone: the general cellphone user does not think to lock his or her phone. Even with the easy of securing devices such as the Android line-up (my personal favorite) through a pattern lock that triggers anytime the screen falls asleep, most people don't think to do this.
Couple this with the fact that most people will not realize their phone is missing for at least thirty minutes, depending on the susceptibility and functionality of the program when it goes into full-swing, this could end up with consumers incurring more damage than could ever be wrought with a missing credit card or debit card in that time frame. More over, the cell phone companies certainly will hold no liability to the damages that incur. Well, except perhaps in California, but the technology is so new, I'm sure they haven't developed anything yet for it there.
California consumer law states that any damage done on a missing cellphone is not the responsibility of the consumer (keep in mind that it is possible to see who is using the device). Every other state, damages up to the time that the consumer alerts the company is the consumer's responsibility.
For some people, this is a dream come true. Wave of the future! Perhaps it is! I would just caution anyone wanting to involve their personal finances in this brand new thing to really study it and consider the repercussions before jumping into it headfirst. Hear what the companies have to say, but also hear what tech websites and current users have to say. Most likely, the first phones to get this will definitely be Android and perhaps the iPhone, the top phone types today.
And me? I'll stick with cash and cards, thank you!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
CutCo/Vector Marketing
Honestly, I admit that this started as me not investigating what I was calling, and I'd like to preface this as I'm not at all angry. As such, I think that my story regarding CutCo or Vector Marketing would be a little less biased than those who have fell into its trap.
When I was on monster.com, looking for jobs in my area (a small town; my current job is nearly an hour away), I noticed a posting stating that it was a Customer Service job that would pay several dollars above my current level, and that it was from Vector Marketing. It honestly sounded like a temp agency, and when I saw that my town was listed as one that they needed positions filled, I called the number listed. At no time was I advised exactly what this entailed, so I figured it was what I thought it was. Having applied to a temp agency before, it was a nearly identical process.
So, my time was set up and I got there. The area was pretty standard for an office to be set up in for a company that places employees to satellite locations/other companies.
I went to the office suite and that was where I got the feelings that something was going on with that place. The admin I spoke to on the phone sat at a folding table with a pretty dated computer, and the walls were adorned, not with Vector Marketing, but CutCo. I was handed a clipboard and sent to another room that was progressively filled with individuals ranging in types. Elder individuals and late teenagers alike. They discussed how they were hard up for money, unemployed, but it was clear that we were all from very different walks of life.
Fortunately, with my current job, I can afford a smartphone where I started researching this company to get an understanding of what it was. Here are links to some of the sites I researched at that time (I don't remember all of them as this went on about three months ago or so):
Their actual site
Petitiononline.com petition regarding CutCo/Vector
Rip-Off Report
Now, the over-bearing opinion from the latter two links happens to be that CutCo and Vector, synonymous to each other apparently, is a scam and a pyramid scheme. But there was an overwhelming level of participation from apparently individuals who disagreed with this, so I was intrigued to see exactly what would happen.
To start, we went in to meet the manager who would be interviewing each of us (so they said). They took us in, two at a time, and it was easy to tell that they didn't care much for the pairing, it was just a quick way to process us. Some were dismissed, some of us were kept. Of about 14-15 people, eight of us were asked to stay around.
Then the "group interview process" started. It was more of a sale on joining on board than really an interview process. The manager was friendly, stating that this would be his last interview group before being deployed to Afghanistan. But he was pretty blunt, explaining the hierarchy and the mission statement of the company. And then we got to the products discussion:
Knives, y'all. Basically, the concept of CutCo is that you advertise for yourself all over, and then people call you for a demonstration. Think Avon/Mary Kay meets a Kirby vacuum salesman. You purchase your starter kit, you manage your advertising, and hopefully at the end of the day, you reap benefits from it.
But supposedly eternally sharp knives are not cosmetics. People run out of lipstick and will need to call you to buy more. This company bases sales around a product that, according to them, is indestructible and eternally sharp. (For the record, I wasn't very impressed at anything knife related, but their scissors were pretty awesome.) The kit was something around $170, or you could basically rent them in case you decided the company and the position wasn't for you.
While he stood there, explaining everything, I was pretty quiet at that point. Definitely not a place for me, I decided. It appeared that the other seven were pretty invested in the idea, but I didn't exactly try to strike a friendship with any of them, so I didn't have a chance to ask.
After that, he called us back one at a time. I sat down and said, honestly, "I'm sorry, I don't think this is going to be a good fit for me."
He responded with, "Yes, it seemed that way during the group interview." Probably because I wasn't engaged.
So I just shook his hand and told him that I wish him well, and hope he stays safe during his deployment, and headed out.
My personal opinion about CutCo and Vector Marketing is that... they are definitely a pyramid design regarding how they do things, but they're no different than, again, Avon and Mary Kay. The only thing is that their product is incredibly hard to sell when you're working with home audiences, and they probably have not perfected exactly how to work with their employees. Employees in larger cities or with wide social circles will do particularly well, but not everyone has this sort of benefit.
Or wants it, necessarily. So, I would say anyone that looks at CutCo/Vector for a job opportunity should do their research, hear out worshippers and naysayers alike, and really think if it's going to work for them in the long run.
My two cents! I'm off~
When I was on monster.com, looking for jobs in my area (a small town; my current job is nearly an hour away), I noticed a posting stating that it was a Customer Service job that would pay several dollars above my current level, and that it was from Vector Marketing. It honestly sounded like a temp agency, and when I saw that my town was listed as one that they needed positions filled, I called the number listed. At no time was I advised exactly what this entailed, so I figured it was what I thought it was. Having applied to a temp agency before, it was a nearly identical process.
So, my time was set up and I got there. The area was pretty standard for an office to be set up in for a company that places employees to satellite locations/other companies.
I went to the office suite and that was where I got the feelings that something was going on with that place. The admin I spoke to on the phone sat at a folding table with a pretty dated computer, and the walls were adorned, not with Vector Marketing, but CutCo. I was handed a clipboard and sent to another room that was progressively filled with individuals ranging in types. Elder individuals and late teenagers alike. They discussed how they were hard up for money, unemployed, but it was clear that we were all from very different walks of life.
Fortunately, with my current job, I can afford a smartphone where I started researching this company to get an understanding of what it was. Here are links to some of the sites I researched at that time (I don't remember all of them as this went on about three months ago or so):
Their actual site
Petitiononline.com petition regarding CutCo/Vector
Rip-Off Report
Now, the over-bearing opinion from the latter two links happens to be that CutCo and Vector, synonymous to each other apparently, is a scam and a pyramid scheme. But there was an overwhelming level of participation from apparently individuals who disagreed with this, so I was intrigued to see exactly what would happen.
To start, we went in to meet the manager who would be interviewing each of us (so they said). They took us in, two at a time, and it was easy to tell that they didn't care much for the pairing, it was just a quick way to process us. Some were dismissed, some of us were kept. Of about 14-15 people, eight of us were asked to stay around.
Then the "group interview process" started. It was more of a sale on joining on board than really an interview process. The manager was friendly, stating that this would be his last interview group before being deployed to Afghanistan. But he was pretty blunt, explaining the hierarchy and the mission statement of the company. And then we got to the products discussion:
Knives, y'all. Basically, the concept of CutCo is that you advertise for yourself all over, and then people call you for a demonstration. Think Avon/Mary Kay meets a Kirby vacuum salesman. You purchase your starter kit, you manage your advertising, and hopefully at the end of the day, you reap benefits from it.
But supposedly eternally sharp knives are not cosmetics. People run out of lipstick and will need to call you to buy more. This company bases sales around a product that, according to them, is indestructible and eternally sharp. (For the record, I wasn't very impressed at anything knife related, but their scissors were pretty awesome.) The kit was something around $170, or you could basically rent them in case you decided the company and the position wasn't for you.
While he stood there, explaining everything, I was pretty quiet at that point. Definitely not a place for me, I decided. It appeared that the other seven were pretty invested in the idea, but I didn't exactly try to strike a friendship with any of them, so I didn't have a chance to ask.
After that, he called us back one at a time. I sat down and said, honestly, "I'm sorry, I don't think this is going to be a good fit for me."
He responded with, "Yes, it seemed that way during the group interview." Probably because I wasn't engaged.
So I just shook his hand and told him that I wish him well, and hope he stays safe during his deployment, and headed out.
My personal opinion about CutCo and Vector Marketing is that... they are definitely a pyramid design regarding how they do things, but they're no different than, again, Avon and Mary Kay. The only thing is that their product is incredibly hard to sell when you're working with home audiences, and they probably have not perfected exactly how to work with their employees. Employees in larger cities or with wide social circles will do particularly well, but not everyone has this sort of benefit.
Or wants it, necessarily. So, I would say anyone that looks at CutCo/Vector for a job opportunity should do their research, hear out worshippers and naysayers alike, and really think if it's going to work for them in the long run.
My two cents! I'm off~
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Suspicions
...for some reason, this thing is advising me I have seven posts. I think this thing is lying.
There comes a point when one's actions begin to add up and you can't help but begin to draw certain suspicions about them. Since this blog is primarily about the paranormal, this of course means I mean to say this is in regards to the paranormal vein.
There comes a point when one's actions begin to add up and you can't help but begin to draw certain suspicions about them. Since this blog is primarily about the paranormal, this of course means I mean to say this is in regards to the paranormal vein.
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