Kirby Vacuum, Kirby Vacuum Distributor, American Eagle deceptive sales tactics, total misrepresentation of who they were, and very high pressure and manipulative sales practices. Ripoff Ft. Myers Florida ohio

Hi Everybody!
I would like to share my experience with Kirby Vacuum.

I first heard about the job on Craigslist, the job was very vague, and said something about receptionist, so I thought I would check it out.

They scheduled me for an interview, and they explained the different job openings they had.

They told me how much I could make as a receptionist, and then they showed me how much I could make cleaning carpets.

I CHOSE the cleaning carpets myself, because I wanted to make more money to get out of debt.

I went to orientation Wednesday, listened to the distributer talk about the company,and I was impressed.He told us we don't have to worry about trying to sell them all because we are new, we just have to show the people the vacuum, and he will close the sales for us, he told us he is a very good salesmen, and he will close all of the sales, he just needs us to do a good job showing the customers the vacuum :)

Well I was in orientation Wednesday through Friday. (Not paid, and he told us we wouldn't be getting paid)  I was okay with that. I really wanted to learn how to make all this money, so I stuck with it.  Saturday I got to take the vacuum home, and practice doing demonstrations at my families house, and friends house.  They all fell in love with the vacuum, so I got to sell a few,and got some cool bonuses :)  Like a free gift certificate, and cash!  Plus whatever I made on the 2 vacuums. lol.Then Monday came around, our first day of real work.It was definitely different, it isnt your average job. Me the owner, and 3 other people all got into the van, and we drove 45 minutes to a small town, and the owner got us all into our own houses, on the spot.  When I got there, I was kind of nervous, but tried not to show it.  I cleaned the carpet for the old couple, and explained to them, the different tools, and showed them all the dirt.  I was trying to be friendly, and nice, then after  2 hours the owner came, and talked to the customers, and they bought it!  I sold my first vacuum, and I was so proud of myself, the negotiated the price a little bit, because they were seniors, but yeah!  I was very proud of myself.
This is how we got paid, if you sell 3 Kirby's a week, you get $300.00 guaranteed.  Plus you get money from each Kirby you sold!

So if I only sold 2 Kirby's for $1,500.00 and the other for $1,115.00 then my paycheck would of been $300.00 :)  Because I got Half of over $1000.00 So anything over $1000.00 would be split in half with my boss. 
Well, I kept working, and putting in a lot of hours, I was very dedicated, and made good money.  The only problem I had with the job was that I didnt have enough time to see my boyfriend, so I had to quit.  We were working sometimes until 10 o clock at night, and I had no social life. :( 
If I was single, I would definitely still be there, because I made very easy money.  All I had to do was be nice to people, show them how good the vacuum worked, show them the dirt, and they wanted it!   I don't know why people on here are complaining.  I am sure there are a lot of businesses out there that are not running it the way they are supposed to, but that doesn't mean that EVERY Kirby business is bad.  It doesn't mean that every person that sells Kirby products is a bad person.

I don't have any criminal backround, but I do see a lot of people that have had simple misdemeanors that are hired, and there isnt anything wrong with that.Kirby has a law, where they CANNOT hire anyone that has a felony.  You can call them and ask.They will NOT hire a felon, they do backround checks.   Maybe in the past someone did hire  a felon, but now if they do that, they will get their business shut down. There was a point in time where I made over $1000.00 a week.
This isnt a regular job.  You have a chance to run your OWN company with this job, you have the opportunity to make A LOT of money.  It just depends how MOTIVATED you are, and how much TIME you have to invest in this.  If you sell a Kirby you WILL make profits of each one.  

I wasn't a victim of the sales scam, I was a victim of them as an employee, as well as my 18 yr old son with a 1 week old baby. We both were out of work and were very excited to get started working for a company that guarantees an income of $300-$500 a week. We worked for the company for 3 weeks and I made an AMAZING $21.00 TOTAL after 3 weeks of 12-15 hours days of walking and harassing people. Unfortunately my son NEVER got paid by the company. I know first hand the tactics they use and if I hadn't been desperate for some kind of income I would never have agreed to set appointments for this company. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed as well as my son, we got evicted and went to live with a friend. I have since gotten on my feet and so has he thank goodness. 

I was the person in house doing demonstration....The house was a wreck, peanut butter and jelly smeared on tile floor, dog with runny eye wiping it all over furniture, kids everywhere. I went in started cleaning house a new person named jason was watching me clean... I got to part that cleans mattresses and went into boys bedroom pulled down bed sheets to find dried vomit on sheets lady said "oh we had roto virus a couple weeks ago" well i thought a couple weeks ago you havent washed sheets with vomit yet? oh well Im not sleeping on it ..so I cleaned another mattress. Went back out to family room and cleaned sofa that dog was rubbing gooey eye all over..lady was in the kitchen talking to new guy jason for along time they were talking about sex therapy and that she had like ten kids shes roman chatholic they dont believe in birth control. Im trying to get ladys attention shes to busy talking about sex with jason.. I finally said to jason to go out to van to get more shampoo cause I wanted to show her how to clean tile(it had peanut butter and jelly all over it) I scrubbed tile made it look new. lady asked about cleaning service I told her when you purchase machine anytime you want all carpet or tile or furniture cleaned its 35.00 per service..ex..all tile cleaned = 35.00
all carpet cleaned in house =35.00 she said great with all the kids I have that will help me alot I showed her the price and payment options she bought machine. I was only person in house not 5 or 6 people..jason stayed for about the first hour then left, over a week went by then she called to cancel, I told her that florida law states she had 3 business days to cancel, she then brought machine to office either late at night or first thing  in morning cause when we got to office it was out front on door step.. I looked up serial number called her told her to come get...her husband called back had friend thats  lawyer review contract everything was legal on contract so husband wrote check and paid off machine.. the story lady told is not totally accurate.. I have worked for company for 10+ years and very rare do people act like this one.

I go door to door selling Kirby Home Care Systems. I too believe it to be criminal to sell to the same old person 4 times but that was a crooked heartless salesman. What you did to that young guy is unacceptable as well.  

   You have no idea the anxiety that i feel when I have to get off the van and ask a stranger to let me vacuum their home. I would NEVER do what the salesman on 20/20 did, if he in fact did it because may i remind you, 20/20 is a show and as one, the depend on ratings which forces them to maybe change the truth themselves.

   Why would you treat another human being the way you did? worse yet, you LAUGHED at him. You completly disrespected him. You are no better than the crooked salesman.

   This nonsence of "looking hot" has absolutely NOTHING to with the matter at hand. Why would a young man who is staying out of gangs and other trouble by selling vacuums to put food on the table deserve to be treated the way you treated that man?    

   I hope you read this and repent. As for the trips, they are real but only for those who SELL a scertain amount. At least that's how the distributer i work for does it. 

   The Kirby is the best vacuum out there and if you don't believe me and its 95 year lagacy, ALLOW a representative to "kill" your vacuum with the baking soda test or any other test that we have. every vacuum that i have been lucky enough to put up against the Kirby has failed misirably: Dyson,eureka, Rainbow, even a piece of 50 dollar bissel. They all fall short to the Kirby's power.   

I spend a good deal of time perusing the reports on Ripoff Report. Not only do I find them entertaining, but they provide a very valuable resource for consumers looking how NOT to get "taken".

I first heard about Kirby sales tactics on a "hidden camera" investigative report television show years ago. I had a good feeling that they would have a few pages here on the Ripoff Report -- sure enough!

As LUCK (??) would have it, I got a knock on my door a week or two later. I was cleaning (imagine the irony), and was looking very attractive (ha) in sweats and my hair pulled up in a ponytail. I answered the door and unlike many of the salesmen that I've read about on here, they guy identified himself as a Kirby salesman right away. Very young looking guy - maybe early 20s.

His story was that he wanted to give me a "free cleaning" and would win a trip (another lie I've heard on here) if he could PROVE that he demo'd the vacuum at so many houses. Prove meaning, he had to collect so many DIRT SAMPLES! I'm dying....

Before he could take a breath to tell me another lie, I stopped him cold. In no uncertain terms, I told him that I know all about Kirby vacuums and their sales tactics (in the 20/20 show I saw about them, they got into the homes of elderly people and were there for HOURS until the poor old folks finally gave in, I'm sure out of sheer exhaustion...and even had one instance where they sold a woman with Alzheimers a vacuum FOUR DIFFERENT TIMES - now, if that's not predatory, I don't know what is) Anyway...back to the story...

I told him that I was hip to what he was doing and there was no way I would allow him to set FOOT in my house, I didn't care about any trip, and that it was probably a lie anyway, and I wouldn't take a Kirby if someone was GIVING them away. I could have shut the door in his face right there, but no....the look on his face was priceless!

He stammered a minute and then said....(get ready).... "Um...are your parents home?" HAHAHAHAHAHA - now, granted I was a young homeowner, but not that young. I was 27 at the time, and maybe with no makeup and my hair in a ponytail, I looked a little younger....but to ask for my PARENTS? I was cracking up.

THAT'S when I shut the door in his face, but not before I called him an idiot.

AHHHHH that felt good! Try it!

I have since found out that preferred credit inc works hand in hand with American Eagle corp. and Kirby vacuum.

American Eagle sold them the contract even BEFORE the official three days were up!

So now I have Preferred credit calling me, harrassing me actually, and threatening to take my cars, my house, my dog...but wait...my dog is dead...thats why I had the nervous breakdown.
but if he weren't dead, they would take him too.

I admit to being clueless.
I never heard of the three day law... never knew that it's easier to get a divorce in this country then to get rid of an unwanted Kirby.
I wish there was some way to warn people (especially new stay at home mothers) of this.
Anyway...The sales persons came to the house on the 11th, the dated the contract for the 15th on one side then on the other side they put the 11th, and indicated that the 18th was the last day to call.

Had they known how far gone I was in my nervous breakdown. Truth be known, two weeks before the 11th my dog got terminal and I had to put him down, my kids all had the stomach flu, I contracted walking pneumonia, and with the baby etc...I hadn't had sleep for several days when these sales people darkened my doorstep perporting to be house cleaners.

I really just wanted a cleaning service, not a Kirby.

...and when I tried to explain this to them, the girl at American Eagle laughed at me....

And it's pretty pathetic, but there you are.
They are predators.

They didn't need to trick me like that...but they made the effort.

So when I cluelessly called on the 18th they were ready anyway to tell me that the 3 days were up anyway. that's when I totally lost it and had to to be treated. I tried to appeal to the basic decency that I had once assumed existed in most people.

No deal.

Anyway...my husband is handling it now.
I just wish I could somehow warn most new stay at home moms about this because lets face it...stay at home moms now don't have a clue about door to door sale men, and there really is NOTHING to protect people from them.
A week after all of this I had to help an elderly (89 yr old) friend from church move because she was being evicted from her little apartment.
WHY??

well since you asked I will tell you.

Another sales man came to her door and convinced her to buy his very expensive product. And they got into her accounts and cleaned her out.

These sales people are vultures.

They are creepy, mean spirited, horrible greedy people.

I only hope that the same compassion they showed to me is visited upon them and theirs in spades.

I have thrown out my 'Brave little toaster' tape.

well, you know.....one of the hero's is a kirby vacuum...and I'm sorry...that just doesn't fly.
Kirby and everything associated with them are dirtbags...literally.

anonymous

My wife fell for the Kirby pitch when I was away on business and signed on for a $1200 PIECE OF CRAP!! The Kirby vacuum requires constant repair, and when it does work, it's about as effective as a dustbuster.

Even worse, it is so heavy that my wife can't carry it upstairs to do the second floor.

What I do have to compliment them on, is that now whenever I feel the need to zing my wife a little, I just bring up the matter of the Kirby.

We ended up scrapping it before it was even fully paid for. I bought her a Roomba for about 1/4 the price, and the roblem is solved.

I know that that calling the police may seem the obvious solution, but I have read of so many people getting snagged by this I think a real psychological paradigm takes place, similar to manipulation techniques used by cults.

They upset a persons equilibrium, use an organized peer group, make fantastic claims, invade a persons 'space', Apply interpersonal pressure to promote conformity, manipulate the the person's social environment by invasion of their home, ie safe place, and use guilt and other techniques to make the person submit to the sale.

Why else would you read about house wives neglecting their kids or people putting up with this stuff for hours????

There has to be a real applied Coercive persuasion dynamic here.

I totally agree that the these high pressure sales would loose a lot so steam if it were forced on them a law to allow a 30 day cooling off period...not 3 days. Thats just ridiculas.

As it is...I personally would not pay.
Just give them back the product and write to the credit agencies about the scam. It will be disregarded as it should be.

I know that that calling the police may seem the obvious solution, but I have read of so many people getting snagged by this I think a real psychological paradigm takes place, similar to manipulation techniques used by cults.

They upset a persons equilibrium, use an organized peer group, make fantastic claims, invade a persons 'space', Apply interpersonal pressure to promote conformity, manipulate the the person's social environment by invasion of their home, ie safe place, and use guilt and other techniques to make the person submit to the sale.

Why else would you read about house wives neglecting their kids or people putting up with this stuff for hours????

There has to be a real applied Coercive persuasion dynamic here.

I totally agree that the these high pressure sales would loose a lot so steam if it were forced on them a law to allow a 30 day cooling off period...not 3 days. Thats just ridiculas.

As it is...I personally would not pay.
Just give them back the product and write to the credit agencies about the scam. It will be disregarded as it should be.

I know that that calling the police may seem the obvious solution, but I have read of so many people getting snagged by this I think a real psychological paradigm takes place, similar to manipulation techniques used by cults.

They upset a persons equilibrium, use an organized peer group, make fantastic claims, invade a persons 'space', Apply interpersonal pressure to promote conformity, manipulate the the person's social environment by invasion of their home, ie safe place, and use guilt and other techniques to make the person submit to the sale.

Why else would you read about house wives neglecting their kids or people putting up with this stuff for hours????

There has to be a real applied Coercive persuasion dynamic here.

I totally agree that the these high pressure sales would loose a lot so steam if it were forced on them a law to allow a 30 day cooling off period...not 3 days. Thats just ridiculas.

As it is...I personally would not pay.
Just give them back the product and write to the credit agencies about the scam. It will be disregarded as it should be.

I can't remember if it was Kirby or Elextrolux, anyway one of those high-priced vacuum salemen came to my house. My wife didn't know what it was about and let them in.

I told them after the presentation to leave it here for a couple of weeks and let my wife try it out. They did. (They wouldn't take 'no' for an answer)

3 weeks later, I get a knock on my door. It's the vacuum salesmen. They asked me if I am ready to sign a contract. I say, 'what for?' They said for the vacuum, I say 'What vacuum?' They say the one they left with us 3 weeks ago. I tell them they must be mistaken, I have been in New York on business for over a month. I just got back today. The didn't like that remark, still they had no choice but to leave.

I got no less than 10 phone calls in a week, threatening to sue, and everything else under the sun. I insisted they have the wrong house, that I was never here, and never accepted a vacuum.

Finally I get a call from the 'Director of Marketing and Sales'. He tells me that unless they get their vacuum back in 24 hours they will send the police out. I told him that I've been trying for over a week to return it to them but nobody will come and get it. SILENCE. The next day, the same rep that came out over a week prior knocks on my door, I had the vacuum all ready for him, I open the door, drop the vacuum 1/2" from his foot and slam the door in his face.

I really hope they got the message. The wife and I were in tears from laughing so hard.

If you want someone to leave your house and they will not, call the police. I know it sounds silly and extreme, but the police will respond if needed and it is your house/apartment/condo/etc.

Chances are you won't even need to make the call. Just tell the sales person they are no longer welcome in your home and if they do not leave, you will call public safety to escort them from your property.

I've never actually had to make the call, but I have had to make the suggestion. It works.

Just this week I observed their tactics for a couple of hours. One person gets his foot in the door while four more people circle the block in a van. After a few minutes they descend on their victim. I had to laugh because one of the "salesmen" was a deadbeat tenant that I evicted about five years ago. Somehow they made the sale, too. To a woman that has been on welfare for as long as I've known her, and just had her water shut off. They are in for a surprise because later that day she said to me, "They know I have no money and am not going to pay them, but they persisted, so I'll just use the vacuum until they take it." Now what I can't see is why did they bother with her? She's obviously a deadbeat and they know it. Creditors don't scare her one bit.

Kirby et al would have their sails trimmed if the law forbade in homesales of anything over 500 dollars, and a 90 day cool off period for returns....not this 3 day nonsense.

Most of the time they get in under false credentials. Then they bring in a team to work on you.....
When you're cornered in your home it is very different then being at a store.
The pressure is very different.

When your home you are basically a captive audience...no kidding. The basic boundries are very different, and even tho' the person is a sales person, the need to be polite and a good 'hostess' is suddenly triggered.

There has to be a psychological syndrome to define what happens to people pressured to pay $2000+ for a VAcuum for crying out loud!
I'm starting a letter writing campaign for this reason!
What Kirby does is criminal.

Under the advise of a lawyer, I wrote a detailed notarized letter to Charlie Crist, Florida's attorney general, and claimed protection as a consumer under Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

I also gave the vacuum back, got a receipt, albeit grudgingly given, along with registered letters to the credit companies stating I am a victim of a scam to offset any and all marks against my credit with a receipt for the returned vacuum.
I also sent a copy of the letter I sent to Crist to Kirby.

I only hope that the Attorney general puts a stop to this kind of thing.

I think if everyone did this, Kirby would soon be reeling in unethical sales personal.

Oh...and I also put a 'no solicitors' sign at my door.