I used to be a Craftmatic rep and this post is for those thinking about Craftmatic as a business-sales opportunity. Craftmatic advertises that their reps earn $3-4k a week the catch was that you had to drive to San Diego and participate in a 3 day training whereby you pay $200 for materials on the 3rd day. You are encouraged to pay for your own hotel and told you will be reimbursed in 30 days. You are told that the reason for their success is the quality of their leads and that they are in the “lead business”, and will be provided with 2-3 quality appointments a day. The catch is that the appointments can be up to 100 miles away. I didn’t understand that part until I showed up for training.

Here is what happened: There was a total of 5 of us that stuck with all 3 days of training. (1 person dropped the first day). We paid the $200 fee and were told for the first time that there would be an additional $200 that would be taken from our paycheck for the “materials” which consisted of forms, a massager, 6 videos, 2 dvds, some brochures, etc. Certainly not worth $400 but I figured I’d make it back with my first sale.

Training ended on the Friday, and some of us got 2 appointments for the next day, Saturday. We all had exchanged phone numbers so that we could know what everyone was experiencing and offer support. My first lead was a one legger 30 minutes away and my second lead was in a poor area. Both leads were apartments. Another guy got 2 appointments where they did not let him in because they thought they won a mattress. A third guy also got 2 apartments in a slummy area. 3 people quit before Monday, one of which because 1 of his Monday appointments was in Watts, which is a slum that has an average income of $6, 000-year. Two of us stayed on to see if Monday would be any better, as we were told Saturday is the best day for sales. On Monday we only got 2 appointments each. No one got 3, also we were told in training that if one of our appointments didn’t work out, that they would set us up with a back up appointment. No one got a replacement appointment. My first appointment was in a gang area, and my second one was in Compton, after dark. I refused to go to Compton after dark, as it is notorious as a gang, high crime area. My first appointment I refused to do because it was in a bad area. Mo Mageri, VP of Sales jumped on the phone yelling at me and saying that I don’t know what a good lead is. I told him that he had a bad attitude, and he said “Fuck You!” and hung up on me. The last person stayed on a couple more days but gave up because the leads were so bad that she couldn’t get in 2 presentations a day and get her $50 per presentation.

Now I have a $200 box of garbage that, from what I hear, they don’t refund you back. Part of the reason for that could be that in the fine print where it says that you lose $100 for every appointment that you miss, and you have to give 48 hours notice if you want to take a day off. Also, you sign something that says Craftmatic can take $200 out of your paycheck for the box of materials, which makes the box of materials $400 instead of $200. Fortunately I was able to get back the money I had to spend on a portable DVD player for the presentations.