Tristar Vacuums, Calgary AB

Tristar Vacums

Star Industries

Calgary, Alberta


Truth About Tristar


This is for all of you consumers out there, that have been sucked in by Tristar Or are about to. Please read this carefully as I am going to tell you guys the truth about Tristar, how they work and what they do.

I was broke for a while, and checked the newspaper for a quick job, I had just lost my last one due to lack of work, So I came across this add that said “16$/hr set up and display call XXX XXXX. So I did, they asked me to come in for an interview and I did, at first it looked a little shady, and I wasn’t sure why there was so many vaccums around but I didn’t think much of it.


So once I had my very brief interview, they called me the same night and asked to come in for training on the weekend, so I did.

It was a Saturday, and as soon as I walked into the room I noticed another 10 people sitting around not knowing what was about to happen, and a big cardboard box in the corner of the room. We all sat there aimlessly, waiting for a manager or just anyone really to come in and tell us what was going on. A few minutes past and maybe another 5 people came into the room for “training”.


After a while, 2 guys walked into the room with paperwork, welcomed us and we just chatted about what everyone wanted to do in the near future, how much money the wanted to make and whatnot. Then he pulled out the big cardboard box and pulled out a VACCUM! Apparently its called an air purifier, but by the looks of it, it’s a machine, with a hose, and a brush at the end, and you use it to suck up dust and clean your home, so IT IS A VACCUM! The 2 managers seemed to be very offended once everyone was convinced it was a vaccum, and they basically started to do a demo, that took about ohhh 30 minutes. They let us use the vaccum and try it out, It was a neat machine, but at this point I knew what was happening and they were recruiting sales people.

Then they went over to the whiteboard and wrote the price of the machine on the board…yes $2900, and asked all of us to write down in our notebooks how much money we should get for selling one of them things. Everyone had a different answer, I wrote down $100-$150, I didn’t want to cross any lines or anything and I wasn’t exactly sure so that was my guess, I mean $150 bux per sale isn’t that bad, They had a look at everyone’s answers and went back to the white board.


Now get this, A Junior Sales person makes $400 PER MACHINE SOLD!!! INSANE HUH?! After selling 30 machines you make $800 per sale, and once you have reached your goal of selling 50 machines you get $1200 a POP!

Don’t believe that bullshit story about how they get paid by just demonstrating the machine to you, we get $25 bux if we’re lucky.

No one there was a starving student, They were hiring people and training them to become professional sales people!!!


So at this point all of us were in shock and thinking…ohh well that’s good money, but how easy is it to sell one of those machines. They were chatting for a while and then let us have a lunch break.


2 hours later we returned and there was about 7 or 8 people out of 15 left, the rest of them realized it was bullshit, I stayed, unfortunately.

Then the training started, we sat there for hours and hours almost every day, and finally they had us team up with the professionals that sell 4-5 machines a week and makes $1200 on each sale. All of them drive nice cars, and shop a lot, you might want to follow your salesperson out the door, because they’re instructed to park their nice car a few blocks away to not attract any attention.


So the work started, every morning at 10AM we would meet up in different areas around Calgary and deliver little scratch and win cards to peoples doors and stick them in the door or somewhere it was visible, we did that for 2-3 hours every morning, you weren’t allowed to go home, afterwards to shower because you had to be back for an hour training again and afterwards it was off to do shows, this gave people enough time to wake up, find their cards, scratch them and win…Oh by the way…EVERY CARD IS A WINNER, and ALL of them ARE THE SAME THING, you get a piece of paper that lets you book a hotel room for 3 days at a destination your choice, there is one in Calgary, and one in Kelowna, all the other ones are far away, and chances are you’ll never use them.

So after we had training (once delivering those damn scratch cards) we noticed that there was about 3 girls coming into the office and had their own special room set up in the back with phones and whatnot, we were waiting around for the other sales people and our managers were in their offices on the phones trying to sell the machines.

A buddy of mine and I snuck into the room and checked out what the girls were doing, they were following a script (there were strict rules about following it) and there was phone books stacked in the back. Each girl had several pages ripped from the phone book and was just going thru every single name on the list and calling, that’s when they do the survey, and apparently one girl said that you had to do about 15 pages of surveys a day, and there is 10 slots on every page for a survey…THAT’S A LOT OF PHONE CALLS. Once the surveys are completed they give them to the manager who hangs on to them for a couple of months, then there was another girl who had all the survey pages cut up and started calling everyone letting them know they won a prize for doing the survey a while back (the survey takes 30 seconds so chances are you wont remember it) and to claim your prize we have to come to your house and demonstrate an air purifier. THAT AT THE END WE WILL TRY OUR VERY HARDEST TO SELL IT TO YOU!!!


People started calling in a few hours later that they had found a bingo card at their doors and they had won, a lot of people were excited, surely id be too if I won something, then the sales pitch comes in and the managers tell them that to claim their prize they have to watch a demonstration first about the amazing air purifier..its a damn VACCUM!!!


80% of people hang up and forget about it, the other 20% of people fall for it, and that’s when we get sent out on our missions. I felt really bad for older folks that were on their pension and cant exactly afford a machine like this at all, but they would fall for it, and the salesperson would maybe give them $200 bux off or something for a trade in their old vaccum. The old vaccums are SOLD on EBAY! So the company makes EVEN more money.


Don’t believe the story about the demo taking 15 to 20 minutes, it takes a good 2 hours to do a successful presentation, once we come in we HAVE to call our manager from YOUR phone and pretend like we care and how nice you and are how many kids you got and a dog and what not, this gives the manager more info on how much dirt there could be in your house, which will make the sale go even smoother later on, then we get on with the demo, afterwards we HAVE to call your manager again and that’s when the sale really starts, they do not let off, I felt so embarrassed whenever I had to put the clients on the phone with my boss as he just kept pushing and pushing and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I had to do my job, but if people didn’t want it, they didn’t want it, and there was times where I told a few clients that this machine really isn’t a big deal and I don’t get how they can save money on it down the road, sure it takes out all the dirt, but so does every other vaccum, except the really cheap ones at walmart without the brushes, those are crap! And don’t buy those, im serious! If you want to invest in a good vaccum, spend 100 bucks on it, and if it breaks in 2 years, whatever buy a better one, because they get better and better each year.


They made us work from 10am till about 10pm every day, without really making any money, because HEY, you’re self employed and why do they care.


What the machine is bought for is $500, the owner of the company gets $500 from every sale that is made by everyone, the manager that talks to you on the phone makes another $500 from EVERY sale that is made by everyone, and the rest is for the sales person because they are the ones out there selling them.


So technically, $2200 bucks is just for the sales people?!?! Is that right?!?

That’s why, if you cant afford the $2700 machine, they will keep dropping the price till about $1500 so they can still each make some money off it. Tristar is a deceitful company. All they want is your money, which is why I quit shortly after.

Its not worth your time watching a demonstration that takes over 2 hours, then someone pressuring you and making you feel low about not buying the machine, and in some cases get insults thrown at you, because YES, the salesperson or at least the couple I was with, were pretty offended after they were about to get kicked out, their mood suddenly changes and they become hostile. They will NOT leave your house if you try and kick them out, so either you DON’T let them in, or you have to call the cops on them. We are instructed to use your phone no matter what happens, only if you are in danger should you leave the house.


I warn all of you, if you really want to buy the vaccum, buy a new one over ebay that costs you $200 bucks, I got one myself, spend $250 on it, including shipping and handling and that was over a year and a half ago, it still works great and cleans my house, but NEVER would I buy anything from them directly. If you find a bingo card, burn it!!


Just thought I would post this for everyone and warn all of you, it’s the best I could do, If you feel like dropping me a message please do so and maybe we can share our experience.


Thank you,

Mark L.
[email protected]