Kirby Vacuum Home invasion to try to sell a vacuum ripoff Alexandria Virginia

Since when did allowing a stranger to enter your home constitute a home invasion?? Even a very young child understands to never open the door to strangers, let alone allow them inside.

Personally, I do not open the door for ANYONE unless I know who they are, like the Fed Ex or UPS delivery person in uniform and I can see their truck. Opening the door to a stranger is incredibly dangerous-what's to stop them from forcing their way in? Even with your husband there, if you let someone into your home, they can pretty much do whatever they want. Home invasion robbery, casing your home to rob it later, whatever-be safe, be smart, pretend you aren't home when a stranger knocks on your door!

It's true that you don't have to let Kirby salespeople into your home, but the problem is they use false pretenses to get in the door. a young lady came to my door and I was told that a new home cleaning company was opening an office in my area, and to drum up business in the area they were going around offering a free cleaning of floor, carpet, furniture, whatever. The person who came to my door was alone with no vehicle. I showed her a couch which is a bear to clean, and she got on her cell phone and called "the cleaning crew", then she left to "have a smoke outside". Shortly afterwards two guys showed up with a box full of cleaning equipment. One guy left while the other guy started setting up. Right up until that moment I had no reason to expect a sales pitch for a Kirby, but something about the way these guys acted made me feel that maybe it was a scam to case the house, so I made sure I watched the other guy get back in his van and leave. Meanwhile the other guy starts talking about the Kirby, I told him I don't care HOW you clean the couch, just get started. He than made up some story that he had to use a certain number of filter discs as part of his demo (like I care!) I told him if he didn't get to cleaning the couch he was going to have to leave, so he got started. Meanwhile he kept talking about his filter discs and the vacuum, of course I had decided to watch this guy like a hawk. After a while he finished and tried to demo the cleaner on carpet, I only let him spend about a minute dorking around, then told him it was time to pack up and get out. He then sat down and scribbled on some paper for a while, and said I could buy the cleaner for $700. I explained to him that the couch cleaning is all I was after, not a vacuum cleaner. He then called his "boss" and sounded upset that I wasn't buying, a few minutes later the "boss" showed up and said I could have the cleaner for $700 - meanwhile the demonstrator guy was very slowly packing up the equipment, I guess to give his boss a chance to continue the pitch, and I said that if they didn't get out I was calling the cops. This worked like an amazing catalyst! BOTH of them started tossing equipment into the box as fast as they could, then left. I should explain that while these guys were fairly pushy, they were not overly rude or anything, but still I came pretty close to physically tossing the demo guy out. Even after they left I continued to keep an eye out around the house, because I wasn't convinced they were legitimate - they never provided any business card or other form of ID.

Kirby seems to be a company stuck forever in the golden age of the door-to-door salesperson, like maybe the 1940s. Things that people accepted back in those days do not apply today. These people lied to get into the house, did not identify themselves as Kirby reps, there were three of them and made sure that the most I had in my range of vision at any one time was two, and it was very creepy in the way that people kept coming and going and also in the way te demonstration is performed. They work EXACTLY like a group of criminals casing a joint. I told the "boss" guy that I would never buy a Kirby specifically becase of the way they conduct their sales pitch. True, you don't HAVE to let them in your house, but they do not present themselves as vacuum cleaner salespeople or even as Kirby reps, they lie to get in the door.

If you were becoming uncomfortable, you should have asked him to leave.

This is hardly a "home invasion" as you call it. You didn't have to let him in and after he was inside, you could have instructed him to leave at any time - whether he had a ride or not is not your concern - you should have said "leave please."

Kirby does use home demos to sell their cleaners - it's the only way to buy one!

If you go to their website and ask for a demo, someone will call you to set up an appointment.

I have heard of other distributors who to some "blind house visits" and this is what you describe.

Again, you should be more assertive. Never let anyone remain on your property if you don't want them to remain. Once you tell the person to leave, if they don't you can (at least where I leave) use any and all force to remove them. However, another method is to call the local police and have them removed if necessary - and file a criminal tresspass complaint as well.

I hope that in the future you speak up for yourself and assert yourself.