A teenage girl rang my doorbell on 2/12/10 at approximately 7pm. She asked to demonstrate a cleaning product by cleaning my rug for free. I told her I was not interested and tried to shut the door. As I was shutting the door, she stated "Please just let me clean your carpet. My boss won't let me go home unless I do one more carpet tonight!" I told her I didn't have any carpet. She pointed at my area rug and said "How about that area rug?" I decided it would not do any harm to let her clean the rug because she was young and seemed harmless. I believed she was by herself. I assumed she was with a local cleaning service, of which we have many in the area. I assumed it would take no more than 15-30 minutes to clean a small rug. She then told me she had a van driver. A middle aged man introduced himself as a Kirby salesman. He said "The owner is old and looking for new people to take over the business. So we are trying to prove to him that we can take over the business." They both seemed polite and professional up to this point. He collected my information and drove off, which virtually stranded the girl in my house with no transportation. The girl proceeded to unpack a lot of equipment and launched into a 1 hour presentation on a $2500 Kirby vacuum cleaner that I was not interested in buying. I kept telling her I was not interested in the vacuum and told her to stop trying to sell it to me, but she would not stop talking about the vacuum. She proceeded to clean everything in my house except the area rug, even though I asked her to finish the rug and go home. I then realized that she had lied about her offer to clean the rug and go. At 7:20pm I clearly informed her that she must finish the presentation before 7:30pm because I had plans. However, she ignored me and continued the presentation long past 7:30 even though I went into the kitchen and stopped listening to her. She even insisted on cleaning my mattress. I refused to let her into my bedroom. She said "But this won't count unless I clean the mattress." I told her to lie to her boss. She said "But he will inspect it to make sure I did it." She said he gets very angry if she does not follow his directions. I told her he was not allowed in my bedroom either. At this point I was angry and knew I was being scammed. I wanted her to leave, but I didn't want to turn a young girl out on a cold, dark, rainy night alone without transportation. I told her to call the van driver to pick her up, but she stalled by proceeding to clean the rug very slowly, one inch at a time. At approximately 8:00pm I firmly told her the presentation is over, I am done being nice, and she must immediately call the man back. It took her a while to convince him to come pick her up. He kept pressuring her to continue the presentation, even though she kept telling him that the customer is unhappy. It took him some time to arrive. Then he continued pressuring me to buy the $2500 vacuum, even though I repeatedly stated I was not interested, could not afford it and wanted him to leave immediately. I firmly told him to pack up and get out as quickly as possible because they were still in my house at 8:15pm even though I very clearly told her to leave by 7:30pm. He implied that I was being rude and should appreciate people cleaning my house for free. He twisted my words in odd ways. For example, when I said "This has gone on long enough", he responded in a sarcastic tone, "You mean the dirt in your house has gone on long enough?" I felt he was trying to provoke me. They finally left at about 8:30pm. I felt manipulated and violated because theye took advantage of my hospitality, using a young innocent looking girl as a decoy, stranded her in my home, misrepresented their intentions, wasted 1.5 hours of my time, tried to guilt and shame me into buying a product I cannot afford, and refused to leave when asked. They were in my house for 1.5 hours, but they clearly intended to stay a lot longer if I had let them.

I have since learned from friends and family that this company is legendary for using these practices in our town. A friend in California told me she had the same experience, so this is not a local issue. I have also learned that Kirby salesman target people who own Asian cars (I have a Mazda parked in the driveway) and they target people who are home alone at night (which I was). I would have called 911 if they had not started packing up the vacuum when they did. In hindsight, I should have called 911 anyway. I felt confident in my ability to handle the situation in a reasonable manner, but I have now learned my lesson about dealing with con artists. They do not care about your feelings or time if they think you are a good target. My friends and family tell me I should have called police to report a home invasion.

I certainly will never trust another door to door salesperson, no matter how young and innocent they look, which is a shame because we have many small, ethical family businesses in my area that should not suffer because of these con artists. I am also concerned about the working conditions of the teenage girl, who clearly felt uncomfortable, intimidated by her boss and apologized profusely as she was leaving. The man, who was clearly directing her actions, did not apologize and in fact appeared to resent me for standing up to him.

Lie throughout training claiming the employee does not go door to door but participates in pre-made appointments. One must do 50 demos to get paid, but rarely has the chance to do so and wont get any money unless successful in pressuring customers to purchase. RUDE managers. PUSHY sales tactics putting one in an uncomfortable position. Lie about financing and leaving a family with a bill they cant afford.

KIrby distributors treat their workers as independent contractors. This is a violation of tax laws. IRS publication 15-A has a definition of an employee and an independent contractor.

If you have worked for Kirby and were paid as an independent contractor you can submit search for IRS form SS-8, fill it out and send it to the IRS.
This will allow you to amend your tax return for when you worked for Kirby and get more money back.

ANYONE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WHO HAS BEEN BENT OVER BY KIRBY'S 3 DAY RETURN POLICY AND WOULD LIKE RETRIBUTION, EMAIL ME AT:

[email protected].

I AM GOING TO TRY AND ORGANIZE A PROTEST TO TAKE THIS SALES OFFICE DOWN!

They do not tell you about their return policy and when I called within 2 days, the number provided DID NOT WORK! When I finally got a hold of someone they were extremely rude and unforgiving. If that is not pulling a fast one on someone I don't know what is. I want to make their lives a living hell!

My grandmother got over pressured and intimidated into buying a kirby sentria vacuum package, she told him she wasnt interested many times, but shes 78 and just to polite to get angry and threaten to call the police to remove this young, energetic salesman 'real good snake oil salesman'. After several hours of high pressure sales techniques she caved and is the new owner of a kirby sentria cleaning system for $1476. When my grandfather found out grandmother was pressured into buying a vacuum that cost more than the truck he was driving she has been depressed and humiliated for days and hes been pissed off and in disbelief. I was so angry at these guys running around scamming senior citizens but i didnt wanna tell my grandmother she got ripped off big time and humiliate her more and then tell her we should cancel before the 3 day cooling off period. So i decided to check out the vacuum in the hopes that i could let this deal stand and still sleep at night. First thing i noticed is this thing is a heavy beast, my grandmother cannot lift it off the ground, first thing i did was put on the suction hose to see kirbys legendary power for myself. Just to hook that hose up you have to disengage the belt turn a couple clips and remove the entire front half of the vacuum and then clip the hose on, remember my grandmother cant even lift this thing or bend down long enough for this task. I took out our 2 year old eureka boss bagless that we bought refurbished at alco for around a $100 and half full of dirt and dog hair and compared side by side with the kirby that was only used in the demo. It wasnt even close, the eurekas suction clearly trumped the kirby in my judgment. I then vacuumed and the lil rocks larger than sand where left behind. Kirby's legendary power and cleaning ability might of been true decades back but in this day and age it is a total marketing myth in my opinion Their legendary reliability seems to be a decades old myth as most of todays electric motors last a very long time and high strength plastic renders their use of aluminum just for marketing, operating 5 minutes 2 times a week for 10 years is nothing special for todays electric motors. We have ceiling fans that last that long running almost run 24/7. 1 day left in the cooling off period and to me the moral thing to do is not reward these strongarm practices and cancel payment if possible, which ive read its almost impossible. well see. There is 1 reason kirby is sold door to door, if it was in a store being offered with competing vacuums it would be totally absurd to buy 1 and they know it! The power assist helps you push this heavy vacuum nicely, but thats only when it running.