Kirby Vacuum Cleaners

I have been a Kirby owner for over 18 years now and have just replaced the brush roll again. I paid $1,500 for my machine back then and it was a pretty good machine. But now the replacement parts I am forced to buy are very poor quality. The bristles on the brush are softer than the ones in a baby's hairbrush. My daughter and I both have long hair and 3 house cats.

After vacuuming the living room and the hallway to the bathroom, there were only 5 hairs wrapped around the brush and no cat hairs tangled in the bristles. It's useless but it cost me $90! The bag filler hose has lasted for more than 2 years this time, but only because I wrapped it completely with duct tape before I installed it. I'm finished with Kirby. Kirby has become a very inferior product which I wouldn't recommend to anybody. My 25 year old Tri-star is a much better product!

At 8:00PM, dark, rainy night, the doorbell rang. Two clean-cut looking gentlemen, one perhaps Hispanic and the other white bald head, wanted to clean my carpet. I explained this is a brand new neighborhood, therefore, all carpeting in all of these homes are new and don't need cleaning. I then called 911 due to late hour and an officer returned my call saying they were Kirby vacuum cleaner salesmen.

The manager of the local Kirby Vacuum company preyed on my 84-year-old mother and sold her a vacuum cleaner that is too big for her to use, talked her into allowing a bank draft automatic payment method to pay for it monthly and took her old Electrolux. Mother mentioned to the man she had some dementia to which he replied, "Well, you're not diagnosed!" Mother is not always very clear-headed. When I called to try and talk to him about the transaction, he was extremely rude and informed me he could not talk to me about someone else's account. He informed me my mother was quite clear!

Is there not some way she can get out of this when he clearly took advantage of her?

Financed and have been with Kirby making regular payments till one day a salesperson said I can do upgrade and he can get it refinanced. Got newer Kirby vacuum but they said I could keep old attachments. Said he was working on refinancing but had another company that would finance and pay off the balance on my old account. But I ended up with two companies wanting payments. I found out that the pay off was never made, etc. Went back to contact sales. They said I would have to decide which company to go with. So I told him I stay with the first company since they would not do a pay off. Salesman said to return the new machine. I did after a weeks but they would not take it back and no longer had my old machine there.

The place was just a repair shop for Kirby machines now. Took long time but they finally got hold of the salesperson. Now, he said the old account was paid off but he had any overpayment and they would send be a check for that. Never got this either! This salesperson was very rude, unprofessional, blaming, and disrespectful over the phone. He even accused me of not paying for my phone so it could get a hold of me. He wanted me to go with the new finance company he found. I did not receive a copy of this contract with the new finance company's name on it. I did not want to deal with him on the phone so I said I can't talk with him anymore and I would see what I can do. I do not recommend anyone on buying from Kirby, especially this guy that represents Kirby sales. No customer satisfaction!

It sounds like the same thing is happening in UK. 2 years ago, I reluctantly bought this Kirby Vacuum Cleaners with a free carpet clean even though I only had 1 carpet at that time. They told me I could pay back at any time and make extra payments, etc. I called them today to find out what small balance was left, only to be told it was over 500. I asked why and was told it was the interest.

My credit agreement/purchase agreement didn't quote any APR or interest rate, and when I challenged Kirby they told me that I should have asked. They have ripped me off totally. Their customer service is disgusting and I have never spoken to a ruder employer than at Kirby Liverpool. Nobody cares. Warning, do not buy from them.

My name is Curtis **. I'm a sales manager for a Kirby distributor in Bend, OR. It makes me sad to see all these complaints. I'll tell you I don't agree with Kirby at all. Their high pressure sales tactics are ruining the company's name and I intend to change that. I have never spent more than an hr demonstrating a Kirby vacuum, and never once have I had anyone kick me out of their house for being rude or pushy. I have developed a new non-high pressure sales course for all my reps to be trained with. I'm trying to get the whole Kirby company and all of its distributors to use it. I know I don't have to but I want to apologize on behalf of the Kirby company to anyone who has had a bad experience with Kirby. I will make a change. Thank you.

I live in a very private lane, with signs posted land owners only. 2 guys came to my house and the driver left the one guy who asks if he could show me the vacuum, and also gave me a candle for letting him come. I told him that I already owned a Kirby but he insisted that he show me this model. I told him I was not interested but he showed me any way. When he was done he called his boss whose name is Harris, and he came back after him. Before leaving, the boss told him to come back to the door and ask for the candle back. What kind of leadership is this? I would not ever buy from them.

Today, I had two salesmen come to my door pitching what I believe is a free carpet cleaning of one room. And based on how well they do the job, you will advertise how awesome the service is. I assumed they were a carpet cleaning business. When they came back, they talked about the product, a Kirby vacuum. The two salesmen left with the guy who does the demo. Before his demonstration, he talked about selling one or selling so many will get him a free trip to Disney World and he had never been to an amusement park and ridden a roller coaster.

While he was vacuuming, I started looking up consumer reviews and I came across this site, which I am so glad that I did! Right after I read some reviews and complaints, he asked to do the bed demo. Because of what I read on your site about someone messing up the sheets, I told him to stick to cleaning the room. I also told him how I didn't know you were going to try to sell me anything and I heard about stories so I wasn't interested.

He was dumbstruck and kept wondering what he was going to tell his boss. I told him I will tell his boss that I refused the service. I talked with the boss and then the salesmen popped up and told the salesmen of the vacuum that he should never had the phone to the customer. I then explained how I wasn't interested, but they wanted to finish cleaning the carpet. After they all left, my carpet still looks the same and he left wet clumps of dust and dirt in certain places in my carpet. Again, I am extremely appreciative of this site because I didn't fall for their product!

On Friday January 13, 2012, approximately 9:15 at night someone knocked on my door. I only opened the blinds because it's dark, and late. I asked, "Can I help you?". The girl just smiled and waved. I asked again, and again, she smiled and waved. I thought this was a little strange, and told her to leave. I looked past her to the street, and saw an SUV in the street. I knew someone else was with her because the brake lights were on.

I walked away from my door, and thought about calling the police. I went to my living room, got my phone and dialed 911. As I was waiting on them to answer, I went back to my front door and looked out the blinds, she was still standing on my porch! I was totally freaked out by now and asked them to send the police. I told the girl to leave, she smiled at me again and waved! So I went and got my shotgun.

I was armed now, and 911 is on the way. I asked her one more time who she was and she told me finally her name was Angelina, and she worked for Kirby.Well, Kirby, 2 calls to 911, and a shot gun in my hand, your "sales tactics" almost got Angelina shot! You need to realize in this day and age, door-to-door sales is not the way to do business. And never at 9pm.

They have people selling their vacuums who are liars and cheaters. We had a demonstration on December 16, 2011. They sent a young white male to the door asking if we have carpet that needs to be cleaned. We said, "Yes." He told us that they have this new product that is great and the demonstration is free. So we told him, "Ok. There is no cost." He said, "No."

About 20 minutes later, 2 Hispanic men came to the house with all this equipment to do the demonstration. The person who did all the work was very good, very polite, and he was very helpful. The person who came after who we agreed to buy the product, is the real ripoff artist. He is an older white male with a good talk. He told us that we could not be financed but that he would finance this out of his pocket (boy are we dumb) but we trust people.

So we agreed. He told me to give him $185.00 today and to give him 3 post dated checks for an additional $200 each and that he would return to collect the rest as they came due. He returned to our house the next day and told me that we had been approved through the finance company after all. I told him, "Ok good. Just destroy the other checks and we will set up payments with them via direct withdrawal from the checking account." He told me, "Ok. I will destroy them."

Well he did not. He cashed one of the checks and when I called him, he told me that it was a misunderstanding. He told me that he would call the finance company and have them not take this month's payment out of our checking account. I then called the finance company to verify that and they told me that they have not heard from him in regard to this matter, nor had the money been placed against our outstanding balance.

I called him back he told me that he would come and return our money. He has not. The name of the company that he runs this is MGB. His name is **. Please do not buy from this person.

The sales representatives of Kirby came over to our house and asked if they could take some of our time to demonstrate how good the Kirby vacuum cleaner is, since they were in the neighborhood. "Okay," I said. Within a few hours, a representative came over to demonstrate and talk about the Kirby vacuum cleaner. I was impressed eventually, and got my wallet ready to make a purchase! Well, the Kirby representative didn't tell me I had only three days to decide if I didn't want the vacuum cleaner.

Unfortunately, I changed my mind and decided to return the vacuum cleaner. Then when I called Kirby that day, they said it was past the three days stated on their policy that I had to return it. I spent a lot of money and felt cheated! I was very angry and felt I wasn't given a chance! This sales representative just swooped in on me, and charmed me with his bright humor, and before a couple of hours, I spent $2300 on a vacuum cleaner. I find out later, and through research of other good quality vacuum cleaners, and a housekeeper I recently hired who told me her experience and how she had been fortunate enough to somehow avoid the scam, I was very disappointed and angry. I felt victimized.

Person came to door offering free carpet cleaning from a new store in the neighborhood. 2 men then came to the door, and went through their little speech. I knew what they were doing, so figured I'd get a free cleaning out of the deal and refuse them. At the beginning, the guy said, "After this is done, just tell me yes or no, deal?" and I shook his hand.

After everything was said and done, I said a hard "No" and was told I was basically a bad parent for letting my kids play in filth. He said this to me and my wife, basically saying that, if we didn't spend the money on this vacuum cleaner, we were bad parents who didn't care at all about our children. Finally, I signed on the dotted line just to get him out of our home. He also told me the return policy is that I can return the vacuum within 90 days. I also was not left with the vacuum as their finance company would have to call me back within 7-10 days for some follow up questions. They were so pushy and almost made me late for work.

Finally, after work, I came home and read the contract I signed that said I had 3 days from 1/10 to cancel. This worried me, so I Googled reviews and found this website, where many other people report the same thing. I have both called and written to Kirby, and my father will be driving to that company and dropping off my signed cancellation slip and getting a signed receipt showing it was delivered. I do not know what is going to happen next, but depending on how tomorrow goes when Kirby is supposed to call me back; I will more than likely be writing to the BBB and/or seeking legal advice.

I got a cold call from the Kirby telephone people just during the time I was looking for a carpet shampooer. So,I agreed to let the salesman come over to show me how the Kirby worked. After 4 hours of explaining the Kirby system, he finally showed me the shampooer which I determined was too big for me to handle. I have COPD, and I am 69 years old. He had me go in and out of my house to show me my Electrolux and the parts to it.

The vacuum demonstration was very impressive, even though I only have one room of carpet upstairs. I just can't handle the size, and I don't need a vacuum but I was impressed. While I was saying that, the salesman called his boss several times, each time bringing the price of the Kirby, and even offering to throw in the shampooer, which I immediately said I didn't want.

Over and over, until finally I thought the offer was too good to resist, I thought I could purchase the vacuum. Two more hours went by and he wrote the contract. I wasn't given a number to call, I wasn't told I had 3 days to rescind. No matter which number I called for direction, there was no answer or no recourse. Kirby makes themselves very scarce.

It was a long holiday weekend, Monday included, and I spent two days waiting for Kirby to return the calls. I finally called the financial department, and they immediately argued that it was too late to cancel! What kind of a scam was Kirby running? An over priced, heavy old fashioned vacuum, and salesmen take advantage of the senior folks with their endless demonstration and offers until you just want them to leave.

Yesterday, I tried to carry the vacuum downstairs. In doing so, I had an asthma attack, and had to lay on the steps until I could get help. I know I shouldn't have tried, but I live alone, so I have no help. I was lucky my niece and her fiance came in when they did. They were here from South America for the holidays, and so there was a whole day I spent with the salesman instead of my visitors. I haven't used the vacuum, its ready to be picked up anytime Kirby is ready. I will not be allowing any payments leave my account, so it's in your best interest to pick the vacuum up ASAP. You can keep my old Dirt Devil, which he took in trade. It does have a new belt on it, and a new bag.

Our adult son received a call from Kirby offering to service our vacuum cleaner for free. This happened a while ago. He was at home when the Kirby engineer arrived and then proceeded to "service" the vacuum cleaner. My husband arrived home to find him sabotaging the cleaner with a knife and then trying to pass it off as though he was not responsible. He was duly expelled from our house with haste.

Since then, every time someone calls from Kirby, we hang up and they call every two weeks. Kirby needs to clean up their act and find some way of ensuring that these rogues are eliminated.

A lady came to my door on a Sunday afternoon with ripped up jeans and said she was from Kirby but wasn't here to sell me anything. She told me that they were pushing a new product and service inside their company. It was free to me and I should just find comfort in that. They weren't there to sell me anything. They just wanted to let me try out their scotch guard. So, I said okay.

The lady went out to her van and came back with two other people and a Kirby vacuum in a box. She started trying to be my friend and started slipping in vacuum talk right away as she and a big dumb looking teenager and a young lady tried to put together this $3,495.00 vacuum. Within 5 minutes of being in my house, I realized I let 3 idiots in my house and the big dumb teenager asked to use my bathroom. As soon as the main lady running this 3 ring circus had this vacuum put together, she left. The big kid stayed and started trying to use this vacuum. After 30 minutes of vacuuming maybe a 4 ft. by 4ft. area, I told him this was going to take way too long and that I knew what they were trying to do. I told him to just wrap it up.

He continued to clean and told me that he didn't have a ride and he just had to stay. I told him he had 15 minutes to finish up. He began to panic. After 15 minutes, I said, "Times up, stop, and put this stupid vacuum back in the box and leave." He of course couldn't figure out how to put it back in the box. I asked him while he was trying where the scotch guard is anyway. He took out a water bottle out of his bag and held it up. My wife and I started laughing out loud. I finally got him out of my house and told him to go wait by the street for his ride.

About 30 minutes later, he rang my doorbell and asked if I could refill his water bottle. I said, "Wasn't that the scotch guard?" He laughed that he forgot he told me it was scotch guard. He said it was hot outside and he had on all black and he was just dying. I said, "Didn't you just tell me you were going into the marines?" I laughed again and told him he was going to get worked over there. However, I doubt he actually was even going into the marines.

Two people showed up while I was at work. My girlfriend was at home and she was very persistent in telling them that she didn't know when it was when I would get home. I showed up at home shortly after 3 pm from work and it wasn't but about 45 minutes later, they were on my doorstep. Almost seemed like they were staking the place out. Okay, so I let them in, etc.

Typical sales tactics, persistent in not "wanting to nickel and dime you to death." Not complaining about that but the "rookie" salesman went through the whole sales pitch without breathing and about hyperventilated. The senior rep left for another appoinment and then later returned to check up. After negotiating the price down to the lowest price, the junior rep could go, the senior rep came in and went even lower, claiming that "he" would not be making much commission on the sale, if at the listed price. Even after I said no to the first price, she came back with a price that almost seemed too good to be true and even worked out a 36 month plan. They were very persistent in the entire program for four *** hours!

Your company ripped me off. I paid over 2000 total dollars for a new Kirby Vacuum and they left me with their sample vacuum and no attachments. I expected a new one and got their used one at a new price with no attachments. I called them twice now and I am getting ready to file a suit against your company for selling me an incomplete used vacuum and never bringing a new one with attachments. Horrible. Your company should be ashamed of themselves. All I really want is for the people who sold me the vacuum is to come get their demo and bring my new vacuum with the attachments as promised. They would rather ignore me.

Some how we got referred by a coworker of my husband to get a free carpet cleaning. When my husband found out it was Kirby that they were using, he specifically asked if this was going to be a sales pitch because if it was he did not want them in our home. Christina, was her name; she said, "No, no, no. It's all been paid for it's just a courtesy cleaning." I did not understand how this all came to be, but when they got here (an hour and a half late), Christina said that they could clean our mattress if we liked. I jumped on the opportunity and left my husband to deal with the guy who of course started trying to sell the product. I came back to check on them and was shocked that the guy was running the vacuum over my Egyptian cotton sheets! He pulled out half of the fibers from the sheet before we finally got him to listen and to stop. We were then told that it would all get taken care of and we would be reimbursed for our sheets. It has now been three weeks and we are just now getting a phone number of another office that we have to contact because Christina doesn't want us to call her any more. Well, mind you, we have been dealing with this for three weeks and nothing is getting resolved.

What is the problem? If you don't want me to call, then you should fix the problem! So now I have two invalid phone numbers, a woman who hangs up on me if I call and sends me a text back saying "quite calling me", and I am out my brand new Egyptian cotton sheets. This is the most unethical representation I have experienced and I find it completely unfair that we were lied to on two occasions throughout this process. First, that it would not be a sales pitch, and second that we would be reimbursed for the sheets that they ruined!

These are the hings I learned tonight. Door to door salesmen = misrepresentation. Also, 15 minutes = 2 hours. At least the carpet is cleaner. It's Kirby. They actually cleaned the living room floor. It works pretty good but I'm not willing to throw down $3000 for a vacuum right now.

First, a lady came by and said that she was with a carpet cleaning service and they were looking for testimonials. She asked if they could clean a room for free in exchange for the advertisement of a word of mouth testimony. We thought it over and said sure, after she said it would only take 15 minutes. Then they show up with all this gear in Kirby boxes and I'm like, I should have known better.

After 2 hours of demonstrations and cleaning our floors, stairs, and couch, he pulled the hard sell on me. It's hard to consider buying one knowing they like to push them on people. He gave me the whole "you wouldn't want your daughters playing in that filthy carpet". Also, he was going to give us a discount because we were Christians? He was pulling out all the stops.

I'm sold on the product to an extent but completely hate being "sold" to. For the most part, Gen X and Y abhor being sold to. Thus, door to door sales might not be the best option anymore. In my opinion, if it's a legitimate product. Market it and sell it like normal products. He was preaching to us about the wonders of this vacuum like it was the gospel or something. I don't know if I could make a living as a salesman, I truly hate the process.

Do not do business with the San Diego representative on Mercury. Briefly, I did purchase the vacuum and returned it the following day with the cancellation. The owner would not take the vacuum back. I had to wait for the representative to come to my house to pick it up. After numerous calls to him saying he would be there, never showing up, and never calling, and after making a nuisance of myself with the corporate office, the local office repeatedly calling the representative, I did get the vacuum picked up.

There was a four-day opportunity to cancel this transaction via an 800 number to my credit card company who was waiting for the call. The corporate office knew it, the owner knew it, and the sales representative knew it. The owner would not do it. I now have to wait for 10 days for them to issue me a check and seeing how things have been handled so far, I am anticipating some excuse on delaying it. The vacuum is extremely heavy and bulky and not practical for my application. This was one of most stressful business dealings I have encountered ever.

I had a guy come to my door yesterday at 12:30 offering a free carpet cleaning of one room, to introduce a "new product". I told him I had a doctor's appointment at 3PM, and did not have a lot of time. He said he only needed 15 minutes. He came back in about 10, with another guy, who was carrying two boxes that had the Kirby name on them, and a briefcase. I made the mistake of letting him in, and learned a huge lesson from it!

The first thing I told him was that I will not be buying a vacuum, and he said no problem he just wants to demonstrate. After 15 minutes into it, he tried to get me to buy it for $1,697.00. I told him again, no. As he went through the demo, he tried every 15 minutes to get me to buy, and I continued to say no. A little while later, he said I really think you need this vacuum for your family's health. I then started getting mad, and told him I did not approve of his sales tactics. I should have booted him right then! It was not much longer he then said he could sell it for $1,482.00. I, again, said no. We were getting close to 2:15, and I told him I have to go. He tried again this time for $1,199.00. I said no again, and told him he had to pack up. He took his sweet old time, and I just made it to my doctor's appointment. I have posted this on Facebook, and I am on a mission to let everyone I know to be on the lookout for these scammers! I will never again talk to, or listen to another door to door salesman!

Kirby's door-to-door sales tactics are both aggressive and dishonest. Their goal is to get into your house, period! Today a young girl approached me outside of my house in freezing and windy weather. She wasn't dressed for the conditions and looked very cold. I told her I had two very negative previous experiences with dishonest Kirby salesmen and would never buy one. I asked if she needed a jacket. She said she needed a warm house. I invited her in to warm up for a few minutes. She said she had to bring her vacuum in and use it if she came inside. I told her I was busy but if she wanted to push it back and forth a couple times so she could warm up, it was okay.

She quickly returned with a vacuum, a salesman named David and a supervisor. I told David I was busy. I repeated several times that I would not buy a Kirby and said I would give him 10 minutes so he could get credit. I even smiled as I yelled over to my son to start the kitchen timer for ten minutes. With only two minutes to go, David started switching new filters on and off the vacuum to show the dirt it was collecting. Having spread 12 filters across my floor, I asked how many of those he had to do to get credit.

He said 100. I told him sorry but that was going to take too long. Instant attitude change from David! I'm not sure he could cope with the fact that I was being honest when I said I wasn't going to buy a vacuum. He slowly packed up his equipment, stepped over the dirty filters he had spread out over my floor and walked over to the front door. I asked if he was going to pick up the filters and he said, "Nope!" Unbelievable! I followed him outside and talked to his pickup driver, Dennis **. Dennis said he was the number two man in the OKC office and apologized for David's conduct. Dennis came inside and picked up the filters and again apologized.

Since this was my third straight negative experience with Kirby over the past few years, it was not just a misguided salesman. It is the way they do business. A good product will sell itself, you don't have to be dishonest with your customers. I will never buy a Kirby from a Kirby salesman! I will never again explain to a Kirby salesman about the negative experiences I've had with them in the past! I will simply tell them they have ten seconds to get off my property or I'll be calling the police, period!

A Kirby salesman named Dan ** came to try and sell me a Kirby one day. I already had one but wanted some parts and attachments for my vacuum. He sold the items to me and took a check for the items. The parts never arrived. When I confronted Kirby of Greenville, SC, I was informed that Mr. "I'm a thief" ** worked for Kirby of Orangeburg, SC, and that Orangeburg and the Kirby home office knew of this piece of sleaze and his lack of ethics and morals. Upon contacting Kirby of Orangeburg and Kirby's home office in Chicago (with receipts and check number), I was told, "Too bad, so sad. Tell somebody who cares. We're not going to deliver any parts to you. Mr. ** has obviously committed forgery and cashed your check. But since the funds have not entered our hands, the parts are not going to enter yours."

Honestly, everyone in this company is fake. They want to try to sell more. Mean bad thing. I will never buy a new one, period! Anyone's good idea that vacuum move to China manufacturing! Anyone, you need to call the company to go out of business! Move to China; cheap piece like $200.00. Does that sound okay?

About 3 years ago, I purchased the then new sentria. Have used it for 3 years and love the product. Today, a sales woman came by to pitch the product when I told her I had one. She asked if they could show the new sentria to me and just passed the word about it. I was amazed by how much better the new one is to the old. So I wanted a price to talk to my husband about. Needless to say they made great deal, with a trade in for my old sentria. I got the new one for less than the old vacuum and they threw in some extra goodies for my enthusiasm. I tell everyone how great my product is and how much I love it. Both sales teams I have had, 3 years ago and the team today, were extremely nice and compassionate. My old salesman (prior to moving) would even stop by each time he was in the neighborhood to see if I needed any bags and make sure I still loved it.

I feel I was ripped-off. Sam came over and he did not tell me that he was a vacuum cleaner salesman. He told me that I would get a prize for the demonstration of the humidifier but I did not get the gift. I will go online and to the local paper and tell them how the company ripped me off, if I won't get the gift that I was promised.

My granddaughter became a Kirby salesperson and had to do a number demos in a week. I let her do one at my house and was interested in buying one because I have a lot of allergies. I signed the contract thinking it was the answer to my prayers. Well, it wasn't. My cheap old vacuum and shampooer did just as good a job and I had difficulty attaching the equipment. I have osteoarthritis and two total knee replacements and could not hook them on. This vacuum has sat in the middle of my front room floor, where it was delivered 3 days after I signed the agreement. When I tried to find out how to return it, I was told there was no one I could contact to do this. I will not pay for this vacuum to sit and watch it take up space in my home and not do anything. Refer a Kirby? Never.

On Monday, November 14th, a young dark-haired lady showed up at my front door at around 6:00. She claimed that her company was moving into the area, and wanted some free advertising. She said that they wanted to clean some spots on my rug. I didn't even say okay, and they showed up 15 minutes later with a "supervisor" and his demonstration man.

They walked in with the entire Sentria system. I explained to them that I was cooking dinner, and that I didn't want them there long. That, of course, didn't stop them from staying for 2 1/2 hours. The demonstration man's name was Shelby, and he claimed that they were out of Pensacola, Florida, and that they were opening an office in Valdosta, Georgia together. It was then that I realized that they were trying to sell me the $2,500 system.

His "boss," Mr. **, was rude and disrespectful. After 2 1/2 hours of them bragging about making $120,000 a year, telling me how disgusting my carpet was, accusing me of being a bad mother for letting my children play in dirt, and skin cells on my couches, getting angry because we weren't going to help them make their bonus, or receive the all-expenses paid trip to a skybox at the Jacksonville Jaguars game, or a cash prize. I was fed up. Mr. **, the 21-year-old boss, argued with my husband about the machine, refused to let it go that we weren't buying one, and slammed the door as he said, "just let them keep their dirt!" This was extremely disrespectful.

Shelby completely changed his tune after that. They began being so fake, and when we didn't buy a machine, they turned into very rude and distant men. If they had come into my home with better attitudes, and more of a truly kind personality, we might have eventually considered buying a machine. But I guess telling them that we were expecting another baby, that I'd be out on maternity leave for a while beginning in January, and that we couldn't afford another payment due didn't really stop them. I did not need another smoke and mirrors sales pitch thrown at me.

I would be shocked if you've never received such complaints about these men before. If they treated me like this, it's likely that they treat every customer like that as well.

After "winning" a free room of carpet cleaning that would take 45 min. I discovered it was a 2 hour sales pitch for Kirby vacuums. Since I was actually looking to buy a new vacuum, I decided to let them stay and demonstrate. The "owner" left a young woman to do the demo and cleaning and then came back to sell me the product. I asked him, my daughter was here as a witness, what was the return policy.

What if after using it for a month I didn't like it? He replied no one had ever returned one that he knew of ( I now know why-- it can't happen), and that there was a three day legal window to return. I said that I didn't think it would work out. He then said you can have 90 days to return it but there would be a 5% cancellation fee. So I agreed and completed the contract. As he was leaving, I noticed there was nothing about the 90 clause and called him back. He wrote in on my copy, and I thought I was all set.

After using the vacuum twice, both my husband and I tried it, we determined it was not a good fit for our house which has many small rugs over carpet and different flooring throughout the house. You had to lift the whole vacuum each time and secure, in addition it proved too hard on our backs. I started calling about 3 weeks prior to the deadline to make arrangements to return. After many unsuccessful requests for a return call by the owner, I finally got to speak with him and asked how to arrange for return. He told me I had three days only and to forget it. I explained I had his note on my receipt. He said his receipt had no such note. That is when I realized he had written it on my copy of the receipt and not the original. I accused him of purposely tricking me and he just laughed. I said I would take him to small claims court if I had to and he laughed again and said "you won't win no one ever has." After another exchange he hung up.

When I called Kirby to report what I think are deceitful and dishonest practices by someone representing their product, the rep also dismissed it as inconsequential, repeating the 3 day law and said they didn't really care. Specially since he was an independent owner and not a franchise owner.

I purchased a Kirby after a demo. After which I tried it out on a carpet in my home and it didn't function as easily as it had at my son's home. It was difficult for me to lift, the lock on the base didn't hold when I tried to lift the machine and move it, and I was unable to remove and replace attachments as easily as instructed. We immediately tried to report this so we could cancel the purchase. When we finally were able to speak to someone, they were rude and told us to read the contract and follow the instructions.

By this time we had gone over the 48 hours, but we followed the steps anyway. Kirby has refused to pick up the vacuum and or cancel our contract and the purchase price has now grown from $2000 to $2500+. We are harassed at least 5 or more times per day on two phones seven days a week by "Preferred Credit' who paid Kirby the $1,800 balance. The initial complaint was made on a Friday and the paper work was mailed that Monday. We also followed up with subsequent phone calls. When "Preferred Credit" called the Kirby office in Honolulu, they denied hearing from us concerning our desire to return the vacuum thereby not recognizing our desire to complete the return of the unit.

The vacuum is in pristine condition, it was used for less than five minutes. It has all the original packaging except the large packing box for the main unit. I was told they recycle that so I was never given that box. I have told them they can keep the $200 I put down and take the cleaner back. Kirby should be the ones held accountable not us.

Well, I answered an ad that was on Craigslist - a job paying $800.00 bi-weekly, shampooing carpets! I went to the interview and came to find out, hey, there's a manager's position. They say, "You just work for us for 30 days, showing your dedication. Do what we tell you. That's all we ask." Sales, marketing, sales, marketing, sales, marketing, bing, bing, bing! Hey, supposedly you are not selling. The product sells itself. You're just putting on the presentation for the customers.

In the training, they go through stuff briefly. Wow, 3 days of training without pay. Then, they send you to sell Kirby's to your family. They want you in there for an hour and a half, pulling 100 pads to make you and your vacuum feel like you're a dirty filth. They send you to the bedroom to vacuum your bed with the vacuum that's been on the floor already, vacuum your pillows, and pull dirt from everywhere.

Plus, it's not easy to carry the box and shampooer everywhere. I'm a fit guy. I know the females will have a hard time. Don't get me wrong. The vacuum does work, but for the price, it only has more power than the other vacuums, and it can also blow air.

I called 'Consumer Relations' to report an accident I had with a Kirby vacuum on 10/27/11, where the control pedal got in my right big toe and torn off the nail completely. Their rep 'Paula' got very defensive right away and started blaming me for misuse of the machine and did not let me finish explaining the reason why I thought this product should change the position of the control pedal so this type of accidents do not happen to other people.

I own a 20-year-old Kirby Generation 3 that I bought used for $30 with all the attachments. I have to say that they are very powerful and versatile machines. There is no other like it. But, if you buy one new or used, you are on your own. The service is terrible and so are the sales tactics and people that sell them. It is a shame that such a well-built machine should be sold by the crooked gypsy scum that are in charge of demonstrating them.

20 years ago, I moved to a new state and needed a job fast. So I answered an employment ad for selling Kirby vacuums. However, the ad did not state what you would be selling. Just that it was a "well-known electrical appliance". I did take the job, of course, because I was broke. After one month of selling the Kirby Generation 3, I left the job. I could not stomach their sales tactics. I made almost no money despite selling enough Kirby's in one month to win a free one, which I sold to pay rent.

Do not let these "sales people" into your house ever! No matter what they say! They will steal from you in more ways than one. Most of them are addicted to some kind of substance, legal or illegal, so they do not care if you can afford it or not. All the phone calls to their "manager" negotiating price during the demonstrations are fake and planned. Their training directly instructs them to make you feel like a nasty pig if you don't own a Kirby or refuse to buy one. Most of the sales tactics are illegal but they have every one of their "independent representatives" act as a "self-contracted" rep. This insulates the company from all the seedy crap that they pull inside your home. I know much, much more than what I say here, but you get the idea.

My branch manager's name was Dan ** and he was an expert at avoiding complaining customers. It was an unbelievable experience that I learned from. Good thing for Kirby that I have never seen one of their reps show up at my door in the last 20 years. They are taught to target the elderly and mentally infirm. As well as new wives whose husbands are not home, and the list goes on. It is total unscrupulousity at its finest (I just invented that word). If you want a Kirby, you can buy a nice used one at about one quarter the price. Just make sure that it was not stolen. Look for the serial number. All Kirby's have an etched serial number on the outside of the case. Yes, their "representatives" also often steal the very products that they are selling and pose as Kirby sales "staff". Beware, do not let them in!

One of your employees was at the house doing a demo. After an hour, he was asked to leave and he acted like he hadn't heard me. I again asked him to leave and he ignored me and continued to talk to the wife. I ordered him out of my house and he ignored me again. The prick just didn't get the message. After I voiced that some physical harm may come to him, he started packing his wares. The whole time he was saying what a shame it was, that we were using an inferior vacuum and living in filth. As he was heading out the door, he got on a cell phone and talked to somebody. He said that I could have the machine for $799.00 and that was his discount for us. I said that if the machine was a dollar, I would not buy it. I am thinking about getting a lawyer and getting this crap resolved. I told others about my experience and got a lot more complaints from others. These people are your employes and Kirby should be held liable for their employes. I did hear later that the local police did escort the two guys and the van out of town. I will wait for your response to these charges and maybe you can do something about it.

I bought my Kirby 30 years ago for $885.00. About six years ago, it was updated to a HEPA filter. The chrome was polished and everything was checked for about $300.00. This machine will keep on working forever. If I ever made a lifetime purchase, it was this Kirby.

I am reaching out in order to warn others, due to my distinct and real frustration in dealing with one of the companies that sells Kirby vacuum systems door-to-door, NWDC in Gresham, OR and their financing company, Merchants Acceptance Corp. in Bellevue, WA.

For the past three months, from the day their reps first solicited their product at my home, I continue to be mystified that businesses in this country choose to operate under lack of integrity or responsibility. I am a solid believer that we are now experiencing a shift away from the old ways of conducting business in deceitful, cheating and misguided ways. The disheartening evidence is apparent that this is not the case with either NWDC or Merchant's Acceptance Corp.

I purchased a Kirby vacuum from NWDC in good faith and was told after delivery of the equipment I would receive a follow-up visit for a full equipment demonstration. After weeks of runaround and no successful follow up, I returned the equipment. I'm now being bullied into fulfilling "my" end of a contract, yet NWDC continues to pursue their business without integrity. Their vigilant and formidable lack of care toward their customers reflects heavily on the Kirby product and its reputation as a whole.

When I recently made contact with this Steve at NWDC, he answered the phone as "contest desk". He was rude and bullying and said he didn't care if I picked up the equipment or not but I had to pay for it. Just for the record, I'll be heading back over there to collect this unfortunate circumstance I felt misled to commit to.

The young woman who did the demo was great. She loves the product and it showed, however at the end another woman came in to "close" the deal and was rude, insulting, and worse, I had to go outside my own home to get away from her ranting. She pulled the bait-and-switch. I told her what I could afford in a payment and she went wild- slamming things, yelling she would have to lose a bet at the office. It was horrible for both me and the young demo person.

The product is amazing but the reputation of Kirby in our community just went out the window. I think I need an apology and that woman fired.

In a home sale for Kirby vacuum, I purchased the product on 8/24/11 and according to the contract; I have 3 days to cancel. On 8/25/11, I called to cancel and followed all directions to let them pick this order up. They still haven't picked it up.

As of this date, 9-21-11, I have stopped the draft on the Kirby vacuum I was pressured into buying under false pretenses. I was not allowed to use or see how heavy the vacuum was. The young man who showed us the vacuum did it all. If I had known how heavy the Kirby it was or how hard it was to change attachments, being disabled, I would have never bought the vacuum. You may send a box and I will return it all, attachments have never been used and the vacuum was used very little due to its weight. I have spoken to the BBB about this issue and they have told me of my rights. Also, I reported the three salesmen who came to my house. You may tell Preferred Credit that I will dispute any and all attempts to put this on my credit!

Harold & Rita **

At one time, Kirby Vacuum was a company that answered to a group of shareholders interested in profits and company growth. With the understanding that this will not happen, unless all entities of of the business work in tandem, alas, not anymore, not since being acquired by Berkshire Hathaway holdings, a Warren Buffet company. Sure, they were not the poster child on how to run a perfect business before. But somehow, something has been lost in translation with a revolving door of leaders that have a six to twelve-month shelf life. It is no wonder that a moral code of conduct does not exist. They generate well over a hundred million dollars in profit annually, and that is nothing to sneeze at, regardless of a few blogs on the Internet. Others in this industry have implemented severe and drastic change when confronted with the same circumstances and they no longer exist.

I recently purchased a Kirby vacuum and it's easy to use and the best investment I have ever made for a home appliance. I was very skeptical about the demo and the cost of the machine; however, I must say after seeing the demo, I couldn't help but be impressed. The price was a little high for a vacuum cleaner; however, it does so much and is easy to use. I fell in love with being able to go from a vacuum to a shampooer in a matter of seconds. In the end, the machine is definitely worth every penny because it is amazing and has a lifetime warranty. I'm glad I let them do the demo.

Shame on anyone who says these machines are anything but amazing. If someone thinks there is a problem with the machine, I think that it's more or less the user. I recommend this vacuum to anyone who likes to clean efficiently. Take the demo because most distributors run monthly specials, so you may get a great deal on such a wonderful appliance.

Kirby came to my home and asked to demonstrate their vacuum. At the end of the demonstration, I was interested in the vacuum, but couldn't afford the $2099 price. The salesman (Richard **) said that he would take any trains (as in model trains) in trade towards the vacuum. He ended up taking a large HO gauge collection and a 22 caliber hand gun in trade, discounting the price $900. Garvin, his supervisor who was driving the Kirby van, was well aware of this trade and the price, as he wrote up the contract.

The following day, I decided to cancel the transaction, because it wasn't a fair deal for me and called Chittenden County Kirby. They told me to sign the notice of cancellation and mail it back, which I did and the same day, Kirby received the cancellation notice. Garvin came to my home and retrieved the vacuum, and stated that Richard would return my property in the next day or two.

I never heard from Richard and after two days, I called him. He informed me that he had been working late all week and couldn't get back to me for another couple of days. I never heard from him or Chittenden County Kirby. Finally, I tried to call Richard again only to find that his phone had been disconnected. At this point, I called Chittenden County Kirby and was told that Richard no longer worked for them. They tried to reach him but he had skipped town, taking my property with him. Their claim is that Richard was a sub-contractor and that they aren't responsible for his actions, although I was never told at the time of the sale that he was a sub-contractor and that Kirby wasn't responsible for his actions. They also claimed that his references didn't check out and that he had scammed them as well.

I have lost a substantial amount of property, to a thief employed by Chittenden County Kirby. They never check out Richard ** adequately. They put this individual in my home and allowed him to perpetrate a fraud while representing their company. I have placed several phone calls to both London and Debby (owners of Chittenden County Kirby) which are never returned. I have been told by them that they are not responsible for his actions. I either want my property returned or to be compensated for my loss.

Kirby Sales has hired a convicted felon, Melanie **. She was in prison for BURGLARY! Sending her into people's houses is probably not the best idea. She never came to my house but she has been hired there. I would like to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. I don't want her coming to my house.

to get a gun(due to the noise and my husband is disabled) and I also told him, Kirby was just here 6-8 wks ago and he said he was out of the west columbia, sc office.

second person said the first ones were not them...and they all had background checks and the lady is Margaret....I only want the visits to stop and I have a no soliciting sign up! The second one also saying you opened the door and let her....NO I didn't the second time. And then he wanted my personal info, ph # and address...

deal with a KIRBY professional person in demeanor or character....BE GLAD. And by the way my husband did tell MARGARET we were not buying up front....she needed the credit of our home!

Demonstrated vaccume on white small pads that were used appeared more was picked up than with my vaccume but thats why vaccume bags hold 10,000 times those pads do. After confronting his tequniues he admitted was only with company for 1 week. Many places on my new carpet showed signs of freying after the abuse of using this vaccume on too low of a setting to prove a point. Supervisor arrived and negotiated this fine 2,600 dollar product all the way down to 500 CASH! After confronting the supervisor on the issue of my dammaged carpet he grabbed his product and split would not look back or give contact info.

My husband I live on a military base, which selling door to door is illegal on post, so I'm not sure how a Kirby salesman were allowed to sell here. But we were well aware of the Kirby vacuum, both of our parents have had good experiences with the vacuum, so we figured if we ever had the chance we should purchase one.

It was near the time of a government lockout and we new that we would not be able to purchase a vacuum with a down payment. Actually that was our main concern. So the guy wrote out a contract. Gave 3 months for my first payment with no money down. I signed it, and signed for my husband since he was out of state doing training. He shook my hand, thanked me for my purchase and left.

A couple of days later, I went off for retraining out of state. My sister was here taking care of our kids for about 3 months til we got back. When we got home in June, we had a collection notice stating we had 7 days to pay the full amount of the vacuum. Which sort of blew me away because the date on the collection was only 5 days after our first due date on the Kirby. It didn't make sense, so I called the contractor who sold me the Vacuum, Ferrin Enterprises. They told me, a few days after they sold me the vacuum they couldn't get us financed for the amount we agreed and SIGNED too, unless we made a down payment. They tried calling me, but since I was without my phone during this time I didn't get their message. They stated they had also sent out ONE LETTER and it was addressed to the wrong name. My first name was completely wrong and my last name wasn't spelled right. Funny but the collection notice was made out to my husband and everything was spelled correctly. Imagine that.

I tried pointing out to the lady, I didn't sign a contracted stating I had to make a down payment so it doesn't make sense that I'm a fault on any of this. She basically stated that they gave me ample time and it was my fault for being in training for those 3 months, not theirs. And that we should have opened the piece of mail that was not addressed to anyone in our home. Which I could have swore was a federal offense. I tried contacting the Kirby Company itself and feel I have gotten no where. I emailed them copies of the Contract and Collection Notice. They said they would contact Ferrin Enterprises and ask them for their copies of everything and then have them contact me. I still have heard nothing. And today, again I receive a collection notice. It stated their claim was valid and gave copies of what Ferrin Enterprises sent them. A letter that was addressed to someone else but with my address on it and what looks like a copy of their phone call attempts. A total of 4 starting the week following the purchase of the vacuum. Funny they did not have a copy of the contract, just a letter stating that we could not be financed for the amount on the purchase agreement.

I do not know of any company that runs such a shady business. You do not buy a car, drive off with it and have the salesman call you a week later saying that you have to actually pay more that what was agreed upon. That's just crazy. And there is no way to get out of the contract and return the vacuum because you, the consumer, has 3 days to return the vacuum.

My experience with Kirby vacum sales people are one night I was home and resting from work and someone knocked on my door. A young girl said she wrked for a carpet cleaning company and they wanted to clean my carpet for free. I showed her my carpet and she said we can clean that, so she went to get her crew and in came a young guy dressed nice with a kirb vacum cleaner. He came in an started his sales pitch then another woman came to the door and she was his boss, he also was working to get a free trip to Can Cun I believe it was.

I was aware of Kirby vacums because I already owned one of the diamond series. He said I needed to p date and that he new kirbys were lighter and bette. The woman who was the boss came in and was very overly friendly. She talked alot and had not had anything to eat. She had a tv dinner with her and wanted t borrow my microwave. I let her then she wanted to use our bathroom and I let her. Well needless to say my husband came in and he decided to buy one cause he knew the heavier older model was hard for me to push. While we were filling out the forms the girl asked to go to the bathroom again. She was gone for sometime but I didn't think anything about it at the time.

I had a ring that belonged to my Mother who had passed away. A week later I went to my jewelry box that was sitting on my dresser right across the hall from our bathroom, where I kept the ring and was going to wear it that night and it was gone. I looked high and low and searched everywhere, but it was gone. I told my husband and he helped me look and he said he bet that girl had taken it the last time she went to the bathroom. She was very nosey looking around our house and even made a reference to the rings I had on. I feel like a part of me was taken away and it is a treasure I will never get back, ut it is only our word against theres. I know deep down she took it and I hope she can live with the guilt because there will be a payday one day.

Ok I won't lie I LOVE spending money. Thank god this one time in my life I used my brain and did not fall for this scam. Heres what happened : I just got done cooking dinner and eating with my USMC husband and our son. I was on the way to put my 20 month old in the tub and we here a knock on our door and its this tattooed jail bird lookin guy whos like my boss pays me to come inside and show you how to clean and after I'm done, you can have this free bottle of mean green cleaning stuff. He then told us that if he sells this last vacuum today he gets to go on a trip to vegas from his boss. yeah right.

I went and put my kid in the tub bc one i didn't have a bra on and 2 i really didnt want the mean green, my husband did so he could clean our car motors haha. soooo after spending 30 min in the bathroom with my kid in the tub I;m like what the heck is taking this guy so long to leave, then i hear this crazy noise like a vacuum. so i take my son out the tub and low and behold there is the shiny space object lookin thing in my living room. im a neat freak so im like hmmmm this looks pretty cool. i wont lie i did get sucked into its shiny-ness lol after he went thru all the different parts and whatnot then he was like lets discuss a payment plan. his first plan was $900 down $250/month and $25 trade in on my BRAND NEW (literally just bought 3 days prior bc we moved into a new house) bissell vacuum that does a damn good job for only $89. of course he ddint tell me the upfront cost so i asked him and he comes out with an insane $3,*** amount and im like...umm that could buy me a 4 wheeler ive been wanting for a while and $250 is more than my car payment!!

he would not settle for a no. he kept lowering the price while annoyingly saying if i say you could get it for so and so could i say welcome to the kirby family over and over again. he finally stopped at $900 with no money down and $60 monthly and my smarts kicked in and i told him well im a review junkie so i want to do some research on this thing before i make my decision then he was like well this offer is only good for one day which is today but i can step outside if you need a minute to talk it over with your husband and i was like no that wont be nessesary so by then (1 1/2 hours later) it was time for my kid to go to bed so i just slipped away and texted my husband to get this weirdo out of our house. and after doing my research and found this website THANK YOU ALL seriously. i knew this was fishy from the beginning. and i dont care 1 bit about his trip to vegas even though im pretty sure he made that part up.

A person came to my home to clean my carpets. It actually turned out to be a sale of Kirby vacuums. Unfortunately, I purchased one and was told I had 3 days to cancel my order. I just spoke with Kirby and they still say the customer has only 3 days to cancel the purchase.

At about 7:00 pm after a long day, I was about to leave when there was a knock at my door. Two Kirby people -- one head salesman, and one "supposed" trainee. I told them, "Sorry. We are leaving, and no I do not want a Kirby!" They kept on and on and on. I live on a fixed income and I do not have extra money for a vacuum cleaner that cost more than my car. I asked them again to leave but they kept standing there and telling us about how dirty my carpet was, and wanting to give us a demonstration and free cleaning. It's their usual scam tactics as most people already know, and why most of us despise seeing them anywhere in our neighborhood.

Why would I need or want a Kirby vacuum in a "trailer home"? I am on disability and told them that. He also kept using his phone to set up imaginary deals for me, and calling his boss; and a van full of other Kirby people came over to my house, and were out looking in my yard. And then in came 2 more strangers in my house -- talk about invading my privacy. And why would I want these nuts in my house, anyhow, or looking around at my things? These people and this company needs to be stopped. They harass people, and especially low-income or elderly people who can't fend for themselves, or are home alone and even at night. This is terrible; and I think that something needs to be done.

I was at my parents house when a young lady knocked on the door asked if we would be interested in watching her do a demo of the Kirby vacuum. She was not "pushing" or "rude" and did the demo as fast as she could. I was skeptical at first and then decided to purchase the Kirby for $1300. I was and still am impressed with my Kirby. I feel that the representation of the Kirby salesperson(s) is bad however they do not advertise any other way. People have a bad attitude of the Kirby only because of the salesperson. I have been researching the Kirby and have not found any complaints on the machine itself or dissatisfaction with the company. I have 3 dogs, 2 cats and plan on having kids and feel that my house is actually being cleaned when I vacuum and "Sweep" my tile. I have been through numerous vacuums and even if my Kirby lasts 10 years it will pay for itself.

I received a call from a vacuum distributor and proceeded to let them show me their product. I am familiar with Kirby vacuums, having used one as a child in my home. Since that time, I have received permanent disability from the VA and Social Security. I have severe back issues and chronic pain from birth defects. I was never allowed to use the vacuum presented and have found that since using it, it has caused severe pain on my low back.

It is a cumbersome vacuum. I was charged an exorbitant amount of money for this Kirby and was told after several attempts to return the vacuum that I had three days to do so. Finally, I got in touch with the distributor and was told it was too late to return it. I also needed to put it in writing and bring a letter to the distributor within that three days of purchase. Never the whole time (four hours) did these people mention any of this until after the fact.

This Kirby vacuum is the worst product in the United States and needs to be banned from the market before someone really gets hurt from its use.

We have a "no solicitation" policy. The Kirby company distributes through C&J Enterprises. I constantly have sales people solicit on the property. These sales people signs a form that they are responsible and not C&J Enterprises. Therefore, if I have a sales representative arrested or trespassed, C&J is not affected at all. Chris & John (C&J) have actually said they don't give a ** if their people are arrested because they are untouchable. They say ** you if someone does not like their practices. They did not say that to me, but to the staff below them. I heard it directly from a staff member.

Please tell me what I can do to stop C&J from coming onto the property.

Two Kirby sales people visited my home on a Friday night around 7:00 pm. The girl's name was Christine, but I didn't catch the guy's name. The card they gave me said they were with Volkert Distributing, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio.

They led me to believe they were with a new carpet cleaning company in town and were trying to get their name out there, which is why they were offering free carpet cleanings to people in the area. I made the mistake of letting them in my house.

They spent the next 3 hours in my home. The girl vacuumed my stairs and went into my bedroom even though I asked her not to. She spent a half hour cleaning my bed. This made me very uncomfortable. At one point, the power went off since it was storming outside. It didn't come back on for a half hour, but the sales people still wouldn't leave.

The girl ended up cleaning the carpet in my living room downstairs. Meanwhile, the guy was wandering through my kitchen and family room unsupervised. It made me very nervous to have a stranger wandering through my home without my permission. They both asked for something to drink and the girl even used my bathroom.

About two hours into the sales pitch, the girl claimed she had to make a phone call. She went outside on my front porch and called someone with her cell phone. She came back inside crying and said her mom was in the hospital and needed to have surgery on her gall bladder. Maybe I'm just cynical and she was telling the truth, but the whole thing seemed like a sympathy ploy to me. While she sat on my couch crying, the guy continued to show me what the Kirby could do.

Someone was parked in a car in my driveway for the last hour of the sales pitch, and the sales people said it was their boss. The guy went out to the car 5 or 6 different times to get his boss's approval to lower the price of the Kirby for me. I told him repeatedly that this was not in my price range, but he was relentless.

Around 10:00 pm, my 3-year-old daughter was crying because it was way past her bedtime. The sales people sat on my couch while she screamed and would not leave. I finally had to usher them to the door to get them out of my house.

While the Kirby may be a decent product if I had that kind of money, the sales people who represented it were extremely unprofessional. They wasted 3 hours of my evening despite my efforts of telling them I was not interested.

ONE THING ABOUT A KIRBY SALESMAN EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW....IF THEY STOP BY YOUR HOUSE, ASK THEM HOW MANY FREE KIRBY'S THEY HAVE BEEN AWARDED IN THE PAST YEAR FOR SALES, (THEY ARE GIVEN SWEEPERS AS INCENTIVES TO SELL AT WHATEVER COST THEY WANT...) IF THEY SAY ONE OR EVEN MORE THAN THAT...ASK THEM IF YOU CAN BUY ONE OF THEM. OFFER THEM $250.00 FOR THE SWEEPER. THEY WILL SELL IT...DO NOT PAY FULL PRICE FOR ONE, THIS IS HOW WE GOT OURS. WE PAID $175.00 FOR OUR KIRBY, AND HE EVEN THREW IN THE BAGS....

I WILL TELL YOU ABOUT OUR RECENT EXPERIENCES....We had a young man stop by our home, knocked on the back door, told us he was given our name by the school system since our husband was a teacher at the time. Wanted to take the time to clean one of our rooms for free. I told him, I was not interested, we currently owned a Kirby, and did not need anyone stopping by to show us how they worked. So, he asked me if he could use my phone since the manager just dropped him off and left. I told him I was not letting him in the house, and he asked us why, if it was because he was black, started using the racial comments as a reason we would not buy a Kirby from him. This was my 3rd experience with them, I purchased a Kirby 10 years ago, and needed an updated on, so I had gone online and found a person to deliver one without all of the demos. This young man did not want to take no as an answer, if you get them into your home, they do not leave. We had one gentleman in our home for 6 hours, said his ride would not be back until he sold 3 items. Well, he waited on my husband to get home, and asked him if we could afford a new Kirby, and we both told him NO, we were not interested. He called for the next 5 days, and FINALLY got our lawyer involved.

Do not let them into your home, they do not pay for any damages done, and completely deny the fact that anything has happened. JUST BE CAUTIOUS...and do not fall for their free gifts, or just 10 minutes because they do not leave. They love to pray on women, and they made the mistake of coming into my home and not leaving when I asked them to leave. I ever so kindly threw the Kirby out the front door, and gave him the option to leave, or I was calling the police. Amazing how fast they walk out the door then.

My Mom, who is 87 years old came to the door thinking that these people, one male and one female, were from the church doing visit. They came into her home and would not leave. When she discovered that they were selling Kirby Vacuum Cleaners, she asked them to leave and she did not want to buy one. The female left the male at my mom's home and did not come back for 3 hours.

He was rude to my mom insisting that she should buy a vacuum. The female finally came back and picked up the male. They had no cards. My Mom was sick and she told them that and they still would not leave. I'm trying to find out their names and if I do, I'm going to have my attorney contact them. Old people who are sick shouldn't have to go through this act of disrespect. I vacuum for my Mom. I surely would never buy a Kirby Vacuum Cleaner after this event.

I have never seen something like Kirby Vacuum cleaner before in my life. What is important is that two guys came to my house to advertise (promote) their vacuum cleaner Kirby. One of them, without stop, was talking for 2 hours and demonstrated to me the possibilities of Kirby. I was impressed until they told me about their selling price of $4000 = 138000 Ruble. I thought for 10 minutes and asked them to repeat their selling price to me again and again. Then, I did my offer price to them at 2000 Rubles (around $66/month). They informed me that they could help me about this if I am willing to pay every month $66 for 6.5 years. That's it. I didn't buy.

I am writing to you on behalf of my aunt. She has a mental disorder and cannot make financial decisions on her own so I handle all her finances. The Kirby sales people, while i was at work, tricked her into buying this vacuum cleaner that she cannot afford since she only gets social security. Can you please give us some advice on how we should handle this matter?

I have read several complaints about two Kirby representatives, Helen ** and Jerry Wayne **, who have been operating in Alabama and Mississippi. Please, be aware that they have extensive criminal backgrounds, and you should use caution if they come to your home to sell Kirby products. Contact your local police department immediately. Below you will find Helen's mug shots from the state of Florida. She has an arrest record in other states. Jerry Wayne ** is a registered sex offender in Florida and Fayette and Marion County, Alabama. Helen ** and her husband owned and operated a Kirby store in Fayette, Alabama, but it was closed in May 2010. They continue to sell Kirby products door-to-door. Here is the link http://**.

Kirby vacuum ruined my tile floor. I was told by their salesperson that I could use Kirby vacuum on my stone tile floor. I followed the directions in the manual and the Kirby vacuum left scratches all over my floor (not repairable). I contacted Kirby, they told me it was my fault for not reading directions--after I told them that I was told by an employee in their company that I could use this on my floor. They also told me that I did not read the manual. I tried to tell them that I did. They refused to help me replace my floor that their product destroyed.

A Kirby Vacuum cleaner rep visited my 84 year old grandmother and coerced her into buying one of their vacuum cleaners. She asked them repeatedly to go and take the vacuum with them and they left it in her home. They would not leave. She also told them to call her daughter, who is in charge of her finances and this was ignored. My 84 year old grandmother who lives alone was preyed upon by these two men who work for Thomas Distributing Co. She did not understand that she would have to pay for this vacuum for 3 years with a finance program. I have called and tried to work out a return on the vacuum and I was told to call customer relations for Kirby. I think there is a law against preying on senior citizens. I plan to file a complaint with the better business bureau, whether it does any good or not. The more complaints they get the better. If you are reading this do not buy a vacuum from this company.

My mother and I both have had to make numerous phone calls to try to get this resolved and my grandmother is distraught.

There were two Kirby vacuum cleaner salesman at my house to demonstrate the Kirby vacuum cleaner. After I decided not to buy the vacuum cleaner, they dump back on the floor all the dirt they gathered on the pads, instead of dumping it into the trash can and left. This caused a lot of dust and pollen in the air, causing us to cough, sneeze and have red eyes.

The rug was left with a pile of dirt and salt on the floor. The Kirby pads were put in the trash can, and the dirt put back on the floor. I had told these guys that their time here was up and they need to leave. The white guy became very pushy and started going from room to room. My brother then came in and insisted that they leave. This upset-ted my mother very much. The white guy was especially very pushy.

My sister has a Kirby and has raved about it. My mother-in-law had a Kirby and when we mentioned to a friend that we were looking at buying a Dyson he encouraged us to go with a Kirby. So when two young men showed up at my door saying they wanted my name for a gift card drawing for gas I didn't at first put them together with Kirby. They were not pushy and didn't even mention Kirby until I asked who they were associated with in this drawing. They honestly told me they sold Kirby vacuum cleaners and then asked if I would like one of my carpets cleaned in demonstration. I told them that our house was being remodeled and that we had no carpets to clean as they were all torn up. We only had a throw rug or two on the bare floors. He said he could clean our couch and when I asked him if he could do suede leather he said, "Yes. "

Knowing we needed our couch cleaned I said, "Sure. " He said he would be back in about ten minutes. He followed that up with, "We know you probably aren't looking to purchase a vacuum cleaner so I'm not going to pressure you. I'm just going to clean your couch and we'll go from there. "

He did come back in about ten minutes as he said and his colleague helped him set up and then quietly left. He was friendly and positive and did not pressure me at all. When my husband got home they chatted about common interests and he went over some of the things with him that he had already gone over with me. As he went through his demonstration cleaning our television and air vents and a rug we had under our coffee table and then he cleaned our couch and let me try some of the features myself. He answered all of our questions and the "pushiest" he got was when he asked, "So, is this something that would interest you?" We were both impressed by the product and its results and said that we were interested.

He cleaned our hard wood floors and our window sills and even our ceiling and ceiling fan in the living room. He was very kind to our son and very upfront about everything and didn't try to push any additional attachments on us. What was interesting was that because he was vacuuming a rug and not a carpet we could actually lift up the rug and see all of the dirt he was vacuuming up through the rug that we previously had to sweep up because our old vacuum would leave it behind. He said he'd never done a rug like that before as he was fairly new to sales and thought that was pretty neat. We all kind of experimented with that rug and actually had a few good laughs at what it was able to do. He let me take my time reading his promotional materials while he worked on our couch. It was my husband who actually said, "We'll take it. "

The salesman was gracious and congratulated us. We filled out our paperwork and he helped me do a hands-on practice through all of the attachments. He shook our hands and left and I vacuumed our only other remaining rug in the house with fantastic results.

I feel very sad for people who've had horrible experiences with Kirby and their sales people. We had a fantastic experience as did my sister and our good friend who, years later, still recommend their Kirbys. I think it was a good purchase and I was glad they took our old vacuum as I would have had trouble getting rid of it anyway. It was on its way out anyway.

One evening I got a phone call saying that one of my relatives had given my name to a company for a free carpet cleaning. At first I said 'Thanks, but no thanks' and the woman said 'But it's free! ' so I said, "Okay, fine." I could use it. I asked if I could schedule it for the following week and she was insistent that it happen the next morning.

'Okay,' I said, 'but I have plans tomorrow, so it has to be fast. ' She promised it would be fine.

The guy shows up, and hauls a bunch of ** into my house. This was mid-February. I saw the Kirby name and was instantly wary. Anyway, I figured, he's going to clean the carpet and go, right? Wrong (I had never gone through one of these demos before).

Before he even started, I told him, "Okay, it's 10:30 right now. I need to be somewhere at 12:30. So, you have to be gone by 11:30, okay? " and he said 'No problem! This won't take long! "

Throughout his demo, he kept making comments about the way I looked. Then, he saw some brand new shoes on the table and asked me to model them for him, because he likes shoes on women. I had just received them in an order and I was trying them on anyway at the same time he was asking me to and I took them off so fast, you'd have thought they were on fire. He also noticed the mudroom door open with my shoe collection and told me I should call him sometime when I get new shoes in. I was like 'uh, maybe you should order some for your wife! ' (since I noticed the wedding ring). To which he responded something like 'Oh no, there's no wife to speak of anymore' and I'm thinking 'maybe he's separated? widower? ' Who knows. I still felt creeped out by it.

He parked himself in my dining room and even though I said four or five times that I wasn't comfortable purchasing it then, he still pushed, and pushed, and pushed. Here I am a single woman who is also a rape survivor, so I was increasingly uncomfortable by this guy making comments about me and refusing to move. I felt like I needed to agree to get this guy the ***l out of my house so I could move on with my life. So, I agreed to some miniscule monthly payment and figured I could just return if I really hated it.

Looking at the paperwork after I left and returned from my prior appointment later, I saw it said 'three days', but then, on the one line, there was a date that looked like 7/15/2011, and I thought 'oh, okay, since payments start in May, that must be when I can return it but lost what I paid. ' No biggie.

I've used it a handful of times since then and I hate is so much! So, once I returned from traveling overseas for work, I sent in the cancellation notice and waited for them to call me. They called. Today.

A man called and said that I couldn't cancel it.and I said 'But it says I have until July, just look at the copy I sent you.' and he said 'That's stupid. You can't possibly be serious. ' To which I responded 'Of course, why would I have waited this long and tried to use it several more times before returning it if I didn't think I had more time?! ' And then he said 'You had three days.' My response was 'What sane person, after having their carpets cleaned and vacuumed, goes through and does it all again within three days?! Are you insane?! '

We went through this a few more times, and he tried to tell me that I didn't like it because I didn't know how to use it, and he'd happily send someone over to help me learn how to use it. I told him I didn't want anyone from Kirby at my house ever again after the way the salesman behaved, and he could forget it. I then gave him a brief overview of my salesman experience, and he said 'Ma'am...you can't slander a happily married man for the heck of it.'

What?! He calls ** and now I'm a liar?

We went back and forth a few times over this, and he told me there wasn't anything he could do besides send someone over, and I told him learning to use a machine I didn't want from someone who represents a company with shady business practices wasn't going to help the situation. He told me that you can't just cancel a loan, and that I was pretty dumb if I thought that I could.

Oh my gosh, I'm so livid. I have this ** vacuum cleaner that I don't want, that I was bullied into buying, and then the guy tells me that I'm a liar.

In late October of 2010, a Kirby salesperson came to my home on the premise that he was going to clean the carpet in one of my rooms. He started by assembling the vacuum then three hours later, he was still here and no carpets had been cleaned. I felt sorry for the newly hired salesman. He filled out all the paperwork and made numerous calls to his boss to get the best deal. From $2700 down to $1700. After six hours in my home, I signed a contract. The vacuum sat in the closet for a week before I was able to take it out and use it for the first time. After using it, I realized that this was not going to work well for me; it is heavy and awkward to use and it doesn't go under beds and is difficult for long flights of stairs.

I am not accustom to the work needed to switch from carpet to tile/wood or to use any of the other attachments. I have to get down on the floor to make the changes every time which he made it look so easy. I tried several times to contact the company for more bags and no one ever returned my calls. I was left with only one bag and it filled up. The vacuum has sat in the closet ever since; unused!

At the end of March, I tried calling the company again with more persistence to ask about returning it. I left a message with someone named Kim and never heard back from them. I called again today and spoke with the store manager, Robbie, and was told that there are no returns ever, period. I signed a contract and had a three-day window to revoke it. It wouldn't do me any good to try going over his head because they would all say the same thing. He said he would pass my information onto the sales department, but not to expect a call back because I can't return the vacuum anyway. He did offer to give me an extra bag and if I wanted to come pick it up (the one he said I should have received to begin with).

So, I called the company (First Credit Corporation) and I made the loan and see if they had any ideas on what I could do about this expensive product I now have and can't use. The two different women I got on the phone both yelled at me (loudly and rudely) about signing a contract and being legally bound and they should have to waste their time educating me! Third phone call to same company, I finally got the office manager who was much more sympathetic and suggested I sell the vacuum on eBay. I am now a very dissatisfied customer and would never purchase another Kirby again.

I was fooled into buying a Kirby vacuum cleaner. A very young lady dressed in very tight white shorts and very, very sexy looking knocked on my door asked me if she could do a demo cleaning of my carpet? I said, "No" twice and said my wife is not home. She then asked me my age, I answered and told my age. She asked me if I could show her the rest of my body? Before I could reply she sped off. Three hours later and male shows up and asked my wife if he could clean one room to show just how good the Kirby was. She allowed him in. I was in the backroom paying bills.

About an hour later, he was still demonstrating. Hmm, so I went out asked what was going on? A male. I have to admit was working hard and really wanted to make a sale. At first I said no again. He started packing up the machine. I started thinking, oh this poor guy is being used by Kirby and needs the sale. Yep, I fell for it and told him I would buy it. Total regrets on my part. The machine doesn't work as promised. The shampooer is junk. Otherwise, I bought $1000 plus piece of crap. Sure looks good sitting in the closet! My recommendation is: buyer beware. Don't buy a Kirby for any reason! I should have checked the Internet. They sell the same machine for 400 to 600 bucks. Live and learn. Too bad we have to learn the hard way some times. Sad.

I bought a Kirby machine in December 2010 and I still have not received it. I have called the guys and they made promises that they didn't keep. Now when I call them, they just say that it is not their problem and that they don't have to give me a machine or my money back. I don't know what else to do. I lost R11,000.00.

I was told I won a carpet cleaning and it was not a sales call. He spent 2 hours of my time. I told him I would not and could not buy it but he went on an on trying to make me feel bad. The demo of the vacuum took 95% of the time. He emptied my box of baking soda into the carpet, worked it into the carpet, and never removed the same volume of debris from that area.

The carpet cleaning took a few minutes. He started out saying they needed to get all the dirt out before shampooing the carpet, yet set up to shampoo it, without ever vacuuming the area under his supplies! Two hours of my time for a 5 minute shampoo foam that only sat on the surface of the carpet. He never got all the dirt out of the carpet before applying the shampoo/foam.

My husband called to get the carpet cleaned at our house, as the Kirby salespeople were listed in the yellow pages under carpet cleaners. Of course, the name wasn't Kirby.

A lady and a boy came by and gave my husband the shpeel. We already knew we wanted to buy the Kirby so my husband tried so hard to get the sale done. I got home from work that night to find they were still there. I love my Kirby and given that my mom has had one for as far as I can remember, it makes sense to pay for this and not have to buy another vacuum again.

We also hid our vacuum from the sales guy so he couldn't take it with him after they gave us the credit. If they want to be shady, guess I can be as well.

I am an independent contractor for the Kirby distributorship in Wichita, Kansas. I am not here to complain about them. I am here to say "shame on you" to all the Kirby people who have responded to complaints here in such an ill, uneducated, rude obnoxious manner. You are exactly the people that these consumers are complaining about! How disgusted I am to see name calling and customer bashing. If a customer was uncomfortable with their dealings with Kirby people, that is our fault and not theirs!

To the consumer: we are not all the same. I have been in Kirby for nine years, struggling to overcome the ill reputation that some Kirby people give us! I love this company, I love the product, and I love the customers. For every bad Kirby person out there, five others of us are doing it right. I show the product, it is amazing, and I do what I can to help a customer get one (including shave off my commission to make it affordable--which is where the price cut comes from). But if a customer does not want one, or can't afford it, then I understand that my job, at that point, becomes making sure that they had a good experience so they will have good things to say whether they get one or not! I am sorry for your bad experience if you had one, and am ashamed of these Kirby peoples' responses to you voicing your discontent. Thanks for letting me get my cents worth in!

I had bought my Kirby vacuum cleaner sometime in 2008 for $2000 at 25% interest rate making payments for the next three years. Boy, was that a big mistake. I am happy I am not the only one who is complaining about it. At this time, the Kirby does not work at all, the green light does not turn on, and it doesn't take a genius to learn how to use it. I am well aware in how to use appliances. I found the representatives when I did bring it in to be looked at in 2010 to be rude and demeaning in the Salem, NH office. I wish I remembered the exact address. I feel like something needs to be done, a lawsuit against the company and owner who is Warren **. We need to gather together and fight for our rights and hard earned money. I tried to sell my Kirby on eBay and craigslist. No one is willing to buy it. It's ridiculous.

We feel like we had been hood winked. We had two salesmen knock on our door tonight and offer to clean our carpets in exchange for us to watch a demonstration on this Kirby vacuum cleaner. We didn't think it would be a problem. Four and a half hours later, this guy would not leave. He ate dinner with us and all. We did not get the vacuum, Thank God, but my husband and I are so paranoid. Then some young girl showed up and asked to use the restroom, as did he. Neither of them flushed, so weird. I don't know everyone please be careful with these people, so fishy acting. We are so skeptical now of anyone.

I am responding to Diana of Belleville, MI.

November 4, 2010, I went for an interview today at a SMB Maintenance in Salem, NH. I was given a call that was very misleading. I thought this was an administrative position, but it turns out I was hired on the spot to sell, wait not even to sell, but to show people how to use the Kirby vacuums. This all struck me as weird. The man that interviewed me, his name was Josh, had very good salesman skills. He did not have a full head of hair, wore his wedding ring on his right hand, not the traditional hand. He did have an awkward smile, almost like the Joker on Batman.

While in the interview, Josh had said he would like to hire me full time, and if I wouldn't mind if he called his boss. I feel as though he made a fake phone call. The whole place looked like a scam. None of the furniture was new and he never showed me a backroom where the "vacuum cleaners" are or anything.

I'd really like to think this helps you in some way. I'd like you to email me back at **. Thanks so much and I hope you the best of luck recovering from this!

I bought a Kirby vacuum from Bradley ** on 11/30/2010. He told me I had a 3-day trial that if I did not like it, I can just call and he would pick it up. Well, I didn't like it. It is very heavy and hard to use with my carpal tunnel issues and I called him on the third day and requested that he pick it up. It was snowing and he said he would not be able to make it that he would come tomorrow and the paper work was in order, don't worry. Well, we played phone tag and I continued to get him to pick it up, but he always had an excuse.

So I took it to the shop on Slone Dr where they said I was obligated to buy it since the 3 days was up and I didn't respond in writing like the contract says even though I had contacted the salesman before the 3 days was up. I figured he was a representative of the company and his word was good. Bradley ** never said I had not followed the contract instructions in the return just that he would pick it up later. I guess I would still be waiting on him. I am stuck with a vacuum I do not want and a balance of over $2000.

This is one of the most worst things that has ever happened to me. I moved here with my friend from Nevada 2 months ago. My friend decided that she didn't want to live in Texas. It just wasn't for her. So she moved to Chicago. I started working for a company by the name of Kirby. I got hired right on the spot because I had sales experience. Mike the manager said. "All you need is a vehicle and punctuality, and you can make lots of money. What do you think Jessica?" That sounded great at the time.

To anyone who is not familiar with this company, it is a vacuum business and how shady of a business it is. I have been working for Kirby for over one whole month until I quit 2 weeks ago. I am broke, have no money and soon might be living on the streets. I thought I knew what I was my getting myself into. Boy was I very wrong. I feel this needs to be addressed as soon as possible, so here it goes.

I never received money from Kirby since day one of employment. The whole time that had been working for Kirby, I was scared, confused and frustrated. Mike and the other managers would make sexual comments towards me and the other female employees. Not to mention they touch us close to private areas that did not need to be touched at any time. Me and the other girl put up with it because who are we going to complain to, the manager? Yeah, right! All I could think about was the money and just bit my lip.

I sold over 10 vacuum cleaners and was promised commission plus promotion with the company since I was one of the best they had ever seen. Mike told me that my commission would be in the thousands after 30 days of completed sales. Every day we came back to the office, I felt tired and confused. The only thing that I got was a bunch of cheers and pats on the back from the managers. I never revived a check, not once. I have been waiting to get paid for over one month and one week. When I came back last week, the office was closed. I took a glimpse inside and they had took off. There was nobody inside.

I figured that they just stole from me and the rest of the Kirby employees. I am so angry and upset. I wasted over a month selling these overpriced vacuum cleaners and didn't get a dime as for the time and effort I spent. I had hardly any money and food the whole time I worked there. I was in bad shape but kept on working because I needed the money. I am currently living in a motel and don't know how long this will keep up. I had a car but I needed to sell so I could buy food and some warm clothes. I only got 350 dollars for my used car. I have spent over 150 dollars on food and clothes.

I am almost broke again and living on the streets sounds horrible. So to get back to Rio or where ever, I need to find another job quickly. I'm planning on finding a shelter to stay at since I do not know anyone in Houston.

After reading the complaint by Marla from Corinth, MS, I felt compelled to respond after noticing that she had an encounter with two Kirby vacuum cleaner representatives, Helen *** and Jerry ***. They are a husband and wife team that have scammed many customers from Alabama to Mississippi. Both have an extensive criminal record that Kirby is aware of. Helen is a convicted drug dealer and shoplifter from Florida and her husband is a convicted sex offender and has committed robbery in Alabama. Both have served time for their crimes.

Kirby allowed them to open a store in Fayette, AL under the name TTL Enterprises without doing a background check before allowing them to represent their product. This store closed in May 2010 due to customer complaints similar to Marla's. Before closing the store, they filed a report claiming their store had been robbed and were able to collect thousands of dollars through a bogus insurance claim.

Now they are operating their business out of an apartment in Winfield, AL under another name. Kirby is now directing all customers who have complaints to call their local police department. Kirby is aware of this but they refused to take responsibility for allowing dangerous criminals to sell their products. I am truly alarmed that Marla, a vulnerable, trusting customer was put in a dangerous situation. Shame on Kirby for allowing this to happen.

Male (#1) came to our door stating that they were offering a no contract; no money required one room rug cleaning. He did not say what the company name was but was in the area trying to promote the business. I asked if carpeting in a stairwell would be ok and he said yes. It seemed innocent enough and I agreed to the offer. Also we were told it would be only 45 minutes of our time. It was only once inside the house that we were told that this was a demo for a 'Kirby floor cleaning' system.

They (males #2 and #3) were surprised we never heard of "Kirby". Male #2 remained in our home and went on to show the unit and all the various tools - this became the classic hard sell scenario with a price point of $3000. After about an hour, he finally went onto the shampooing of the stair carpeting and I will admit that he spent a considerable amount of time on this area. He was not able to remove what seems like permanent dirt on the edges, but it was cleaner.

All along he would follow the script of trying to say how poor the other major brands of vacuums are and repeating how good an investment the Kirby is. This 45 minute session went to become 3 hours. At the end of it, male #3 returned to see how the sale was going and kept trying to sweeten the deal. He actually reduced the price to a low of $850. In hindsight it was clear that they were saying all the right things in order to make us feel comfortable with their presence - complimenting our belongings trying to find common ground with us.

You literally feel like a hostage in your own home during this time. It was an exhausting experience for all of us. The lesson learned - don't give door to door sales reps your time and attention. Do internets search of the company/product first if you're at all curious - I wish I did.

I brought my vacuum to be repaired and they talked me into a complete service for $98.50. They said they would take it apart and clean, tighten screws and buff it. I did not have the head with me as it was not associated with the needed repair. They said they would send the brush plate with my vacuum. They must have forgotten about that. It was supposed to be back to me by the next Monday but it did not arrive. I gave it a few more days and finally called them. The person who answered the phone happened to be the one who actually does the service work and he informed me that the fan was cracked so in order to get my vacuum back I would have to send the payment for the part. No one called to let me know about the part or payment.

When I finally did get the vacuum back, it did not even look like mine so I checked the serial number against my original receipt and it was indeed mine, only they had added a few rust spots, scratches, and there is glue seeping out of the seam. I have no idea why it needed to be glued as the plate is screwed in place. It also makes a sound I have never heard before, and it is not a good sound. I feel the $89.50 was a complete rip off.

I feel some of the life was taken out of my vacuum cleaner. I have taken very good care of it and I don't appreciate it coming back in worse shape than it was when I left it to be serviced.

Kirby carpet cleaners will not stop calling for solicitations. We are on a do not call list. They call with a private caller number so the phone comp has no access to block the call. Unbelievable. It's like every other day some weeks. Can you stop them from calling?

I bought a Kirby from the door to door salesman because it seemed like a good vacuum and I needed one. I bought it in November 09 and I used it for the first time. A few months later and it started smelling really bad. Found out the belt broke. Replaced it and it worked ok, not nearly as good as they said. I have used the vacuum half a dozen times in the year since I bought it and I have had to replace the belt 3 times, and now the vacuum won't even roll smoothly over my carpet or pick up anything. I can't get a hold of anyone to talk to about trading it in. I am very upset at the amount of money I spent and it won't even work. I bought a $80 vacuum from Walmart and the first time I used it, it worked better than the $1200 Kirby. I want to return the Kirby, I don't want it fixed, I don't like it and it has turned into too much work to try and keep up just to vacuum my floor.

The door to door salesmen (3 total) did not have a business card nor did they offer one. My wife wanted the demonstration after they offered free belt change and carpet shampooing. They spread a substance onto the carpet that was claimed to be baking soda and used our old Kirby to vacuum it up over 100 sweeps. Question: Was this really baking soda and/or some other harmful chemical or abrasive that would intentionally damage our old Kirby vacuum cleaner after a period of time? Does anyone out there know the answer to this question? If so, please report it.

The salesmen entered my 83-year-old mother's home with the intent to sell a Kirby vacuum to Marian **. This occurred two months ago. She had her new Electrolux setting in her living room and said, "No." The men would not leave.The owner is Carlos **. One of his employees, during the three hour stay, robbed cash and prescription drugs of the lady that has lung cancer. This was during the bait-and-switch of asking for food, the use of a restroom, her phone and could they 'see the upstairs of her home". The men even asked if she would rent rooms to them. This was totally inappropriate. There were three men on the escapade.

A police report was later given to Neodesha, Kansas police. Mrs. ** identified them in a line up soon after. Ron ** was the police officer who has maintained contact with Mrs. ** and her daughter, Karen **. Mrs. ** is highly intelligent but her octogenarian secure status in the small community of Neodesha, Kansas has been violated.

On October 23, 2010, a Kirby salesperson showed up at our door. My husband let him, saying we didn't have to buy, but he needed to present a demonstration to get credit. We were expecting company from out of state and informed this young man. He did not get a hurry, and proceeded with his demo. He asked to use our bathroom, etc. He was in our home for over 3 hours.

The vacuum started out at $2795.00, and by the time he was done it was $1,365.00. My husband and I decided to buy it. After the weekend and our company had left, we then had to go out of town due to illness in the family and was unable to try the vacuum out until the following weekend. After trying it out, we decided the vacuum was not for us. On Monday, November 1, I called the company and advised them of our decision. I had also emailed them during that weekend. A nice man at first talked to me and said someone would be calling me back within 10 minutes.

The man called back, I explained that we were not happy with the vacuum and wanted to cancel the contract. He said that was not possible. I advised that I would take him to court. He told me to go ahead. I told him I was going to drop the vacuum off in Jackson, MI at their office. He advised that I could drop it off, but I would not get my down payment back. I hung up the phone on the rude man.

I was hired by Kirby to work full time with the base pay of $9.00 per hour plus commission on what ever vacuum cleaners was being sold by me. I went through a normal five-day training along with several other candidates for that position of a sales representative. I completed the trainingg and worked a schedule of 6 days a week, some hours exceeded 8 to 13 hours in a one working day. I was left to work with a crew, none of whom I completed training with. I also sold several vacuum cleaners.

The first two weeks, I noticed that I didn't receive a paycheck. When I asked the acting group leader Vinny when will I be paid, he replied to talk to the manager in which I did. The manager told me checks were in the mail and that we should receive them shortly. This went on for about 4-5 weeks. Frustrated, I talked to the manager. I let him know that I had just bought a car, was planning on giving my current landlord who was at the time someone who I just inquired about an apartment with the security deposit so I can house me and my seven-year-old daughter. He replied to me, this usually happens and that I would be receiving a base check plus a larger check in large commission sales shortly.

He offered me a job working in the office for extra hours. So i started work originally three hours before normal staff all of which I didn't know. I grew really desperate and confided in another staff about my problems, my bills, tickets, car note, security deposit, my daughter and no gas to travel. I asked to take the next two consecutive days off to try to square away and borrow money to pay of some of my debt that I know was almost a month behind. When I returned to work, the whole establishment was gone. Everything gone, no employees ,no vacuums, no nothing. There was a lady who rented the place next door that said I was the fifth person to come looking for their employer and check.

I was devastated. I worked long work weeks and long hours. Some hours varied from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. I didn't know what to do. I went to the town hall and made a complaint. I've been looking for these guys for approximately three years. I was even told to get a soliciting permit which I obtained. I was new. I really didn't get a chance to know the employees. We were loaded into Vinny's van. We drove around soliciting knocking on doors and selling vacuums. I was good. I sold majority of the vacuums.

How could something like this happen to me. I have no knowledge of the manager, not a first and last name. The employees seem funny. The whole thing seemed shady but I needed work. I had bills to pay. I was offered a interview on the spot. I cannot come to terms with what happen to me. I suffered major major set backs after that. I'm asking to be advised on some other ways I can get justice and my money I worked long hard hours to obtain.

On October 19, 2010 I was vacuuming my floors with a Sentria Kirby Vacuum. Sparks came out of the cord, (by the upper cord hook) hitting my face and shirt. I was in shock and very upset this happened. I have only had the vacuum for almost two years.

I called Kirby Consumer Relations and told them about the incident. I asked them to send me another cord (This is the 2nd cord for my vacuum because my first one shorted out and they sent me another cord on November 24, 2009). Paula said she wanted me to take the vacuum to a repair center. I told Paula, at the closest repair center was 2 hours away or the other 3 hours away. She verified that it was a distance then told me to ship it to the repair center. I replied, "Are you going to provide me a replacement vacuum?". Paula said no and offered to send me a box to send the vacuum to a repair center. Paula was very rude.

I was on the phone for about 10 minutes. By the time I got off, my face was really burning badly from where the sparks had hit me. I looked in the mirror and the left side of my face looked terrible. So I went to the clinic to see my doctor. My doctor gave me a letter for documentation of the incident. The letter reads:

"Cassie Marian is our patient and was examined in our office after an incident involving one of your vacuum cleaners. While vacuuming this morning, the cord to her machine began sparking burning her face and the shirt she was wearing. She came to our clinic immediately and photo documentation was obtained. It should be noted that the burns were dangerously close to her left eye and she does have some slight blistering. We have advised her to follow up in the next few days to be sure that the burns are healing nicely. Sincerely, Michele **/ ** Family Practice CHC"

My husband called the Kirby Consumer Relations and left a message. Paula called my husband back, leaving a message, that she wanted to go over the options she had given me and to discuss this in further detail. I called Paula on the 20th of October and she said my information was being reviewed and that they would be contacting me. Paula was very arrogant. On the 21st of October, I received a letter from Kirby:

"Dear Mr. & Mrs. **, I am writing in response to the claim you file with The Kirby Company's Customer Relations Department on October 19, 2010. During your conversation with said Department, you alleged that the replacement cord you had purchased from the Kirby distributorship in Grand Junction, Colorado recently sparked at the base of your Sentria cleaning system. You apparently purchased the replacement cord because the original cord that came with your Sentria also had sparked in the same place. Accordingly, the Department recommended an immediate examination of your Sentria cleaning system. You have declined the Company's offer to inspect the machine, instead demanding another replacement cord. The Company strongly encourages you to reconsider and remains willing to have the Sentria picked up from your home at no charge to you.

"It is highly unusual for one cord to spark, let alone two on the same unit. The company want to ensure that nothing with your Sentria is causing these cords to spark. If you prefer to have your Sentria examined by a local, authorized service center, the Company can make the requisite arrangements. Southwest Service Center is willing to inspect your Sentria and make any necessary repairs. Southwest is able to loan another vacuum to you while it conducts an inspection. You may make any arrangement through the Department, or you may contact Southwest directly. Please call me at ** with any questions. Thank you. Sincerely, Halle **/ Manager, Customer and public relation and Business Compliance."

I called and left Halle a message on October 21st at 3:30pm.Then I called Kirby Western Slope in Grand Junction Colorado at 970-244-9136. I talked to the office manager. She said, Paula had called her yesterday and told her not to send me anything and to redirect (me) back to her. That she was not to deal with me. The Office Manager did tell me that they shipped the cord on November 24, 2009 overnight. But she could not fax me that information because of the phone call from Paula. She also said that the cords are not covered in the warranty so it was nice to them to send me the first cord and if I needed anything else to contact Paula. On October 22 at 11:03am, I receive a call from Halle. She was calling me back from the message I had left the day before. I told Halle that I did not purchase another cord. This was the cord that Kirby Western Slope sent me. The last cord did not spark. It shorted out.

This was the only cord that had sparked and it was not at the base of the machine. I also told her that I did not want the machine. The only way for them to look at it is to buy the machine back from me because the vacuum is evidence in court. I told her that I would like for Kirby to buy the Kirby back from me and pay my doctor bills. Halle replied, from her understanding was that I wanting the cord replaced and that with this being the second cord to spark, that they wanted to look at it because it is dangerous and unusual for the vacuum to do this. I replied, at first I need just want to cord replaced. But after seeing my face and what could of happened for instance, my kids could have been vacuuming and that would have been much worse. I do not want the vacuum.

Halle said that she wanted the vacuum look at a repair center and that they would arrange pickup for the vacuum and provide me with another one. I replied that I did not want to run or have another Kirby in my house. You don't grab an electric fence twice and I was not going to use another one of their vacuums. My husband has had to do all the vacuuming since this incident because I don't want to turn on another vacuum in fear that sparks may come flying at me again. I told her that I did not want this to go to court but if I had to, I would. Court for them would be far more expensive than the vacuum itself because your Sales Representative came to my house to sell the vacuum and the incident happened at my house so it would go to court in San Juan County. Halle said that they do not want to take the route either, but they would like the opportunity to look at the vacuum.

I told her that is not going to happen unless they buy it back and since they will not do that, I would have my attorney contact them. I am not at all happy with Kirby. Kirby's logo is "For those who appreciate Quality, Reliability & Performance". Their vacuums do not back this statement, nor does corporate office! I do not recommend anyone to purchase a Kirby. I paid $2081.96 for this vacuum and they took my old Hoover vacuum from me. I purchased this vacuum on November 10, 2008 because the sales representative would not leave. He told me that it would only take a few minutes to do the demonstration. He was here at my home for 4 hours. I even feed my children dinner, while he kept vacuuming my carpets and stairs.

I thought if I ignored him long enough, that he would leave! He was here so long that he even took a smoke break with my husband outside! My husband told me to buy it so he would leave, so I did. My last vacuum that I had before Kirby took it, was a Hoover and I paid $269.00 for and it was 3 years old. Now I have an expensive vacuum that does not work; a burnt face; doctor bills; and having to have someone else vacuum my floors!

Me and my wife live in a senior complex in Oceanside CA. An 87 year old neighbor calls me and told me a company out of San Diego CA was offering free carpet cleaning to increase their business. I called this company which did not state they were Kirby and spoke with Sharon who answered the phone. She answered Carpet Cleaning Company Sharon speaking. I asked her if I could change the time my friend had set up for us to get our two rooms cleaned for free. Lori my wife being sure that this was free due to medical conditions with amount of money we had to come for this was a worry.

Lori called Sharon back asked her if this was free, told yes by Sharon, then asked if we liked the way they cleaned the carpet how much if they were to return in event we might use them again. Sharon stated $39.00 for three rooms. Lori and I went on to ask why this was free. Sharon told me it was to increase business. We both are disabled SSI & SSD. Lori has OCD GAD Ptsd Phobias, I have cervical dx with chronic pain, both on medications. Daniel arrived at seven that even on 7/7/10. I asked why he was by himself. He did not respond other to say he could do the carpet himself. He seems to be a very nice guy. Still not aware he was a Kirby sales person he came in and started to put all this patches and freaking out Lori with the dust mites and bugs so one. We asked him why he is using a Kirby. He goes on to keep showing us all the dirt and mites and then goes on to the bed bugs. We tell him we cannot afford anything since we also just found out Lori was having major surgery on her mouth costing $20,000.00.

This amount was going to be borrowed and we could not afford anything. He began to the bedroom and told rob if I had all these disorders how could he let Lori sleep with bugs showing Lori lifting up our Mattress which freaked her out crying. She would not stating crying sleep in the bed or sit on the couch. At this point the carpet still has not been cleaned. My chronic pain goes up having to take medication to calm her and myself down. He then goes back and forth asking us what we can afford so rob would not be mean to let me sleep with bugs (Lori that is. I told them as Lori we had no money left over barely making it and her surgery which we found out a week prior if she did not have it she would die.

Daniel refused our no asking can u pay $50 a month we said no $40 no $35 no then stating so you will let Lori sleep with bugs what kind of guy are you. I felt forced to sign to get him out of our house the time now 11pm, this was a Wed on the next day we had doctors apt and Friday we canceled over the phone with Kirby. They told us we could not cancel at this point that sale had gone thru to preferred credit I them called credit company and they told me I was stuck/ I have been since day one trying to give this vacuum back to Kirby.

I get told I signed a contract and the only they will do is a charge off. I thought this was good thing only to find out I would still owe. I have tried to resolve this and the stress with Lori and I have been over the top. Ten calls a day from Credit Company, screaming from Kirby, they took are vacuum told by Nikkia the who handles the money end of it they would return our vacuum and cx contract states the company changed their mind. Nikkia has been at our home very nice four times.

I and my wife live in a senior complex in Oceanside Ca. A 87 year old neighbor call me and told me a company out of San Diego, CA were offering free carpet cleaning to increase their business. I called this company which did not state they were Kirby and spoke with Sharon who answered the phone. She answered Carpet Cleaning Company Sharon speaking. I, Roby, asked her if I could change the time my friend had set up for us to get our two rooms cleaned for free. Lori my wife being sure that this was free due to medical conditions with amount of money we had to come for this was a worry.

Lori called Sharon back asked her if this was free, told yes by Sharon, then asked if we liked the way they cleaned the carpet how much if they were to return in event we might use them again. Sharon stated # 39.00 for three rooms. I Lori went on to ask why this was free. Sharon told me it was to increase business. We both are disabled SSI & SSD. Lori has OCD GAD Ptsd Phobias, I have cervical dx with chronic pain, both on medications. Daniel arrived at seven that even on 7/7/10. I asked why he was by himself. He did not respond, other to say he could do the carpet himself. He seem to be a very nice guy. Still not aware he was a Kirby sales person. He came in and started to put all this patches and freaking out Lori with the dust mites and bugs so one. We asked him why is he using a Kirby. He goes on to keep showing us all the dirt and mites and then goes on to the bed bugs. We tell him we can not afford anything since we also just found out Lori was having major surgery on her mouth costing 20,000.00.

This amount was going to be borrowed and we could not afford anything. He began to the bedroom and told Rob if I had all these disorders how could he let Lori sleep with bugs showing Lori lifting up our Mattress which freaked her out crying.

She would not stating crying sleep in the bed nor sit on the couch. At this point the carpet still has not been cleaned. My chronic pain (Rob) goes up having to take medication to calm her and myself down. He then goes back and forth asking us what we can afford, so Rob would not be mean to let me sleep with bugs (Lori that is. I told them as Lori, we had no money left over barely making it and her surgery which we found out a week prior if she did not have it she would die. Daniel refused our no asking can you pay 50 a month. We said no, 40 no, 35 no, then stating, so you will let Lori sleep with bugs what kind of guy are you.

I felt forced to sign to get him out of our house the time now 11pm, this was Wednesday and on the next day we had doctors apartment and Friday we cancelled over the phone with Kirby. They told us, we could not cancel at this point, that sale had gone through to preferred credit. I then called credit company and they told me I was stuck/ I have been since day one trying to give this vacuum back to Kirby. I get told I signed a contract and they only will do is a charge off. I thought this was good thing only to find out I would still owe. I have tried to resolve this and the stress with Lori and I has been over the top.

Ten calls a day from credit company, screaming from Kirby, they took our vacuum. Told by Nikkia the who handles the money, end of it they would return our vacuum and cx contract states the company changed their mind. Nikkia has been at our home, very nice, four times. Please help us.

The Kirby Salesperson who came to our door was named Alaina. She arrived late and became so intent on making a sale that she neglected to clean the entire rug, as promised, and neglected to clean up after herself when it was time for me to bring my daughter to her dance lesson. Alaina made a big deal of letting me know we bothered her manager, who was at a meeting, to discuss a payment plan option. She mentioned that she would give me the home care system for $1500, but then rushed me into signing a form that laid out a payment plan that would end up costing me over $2,000. She did not mention verbally that there would be a 21% interest rate via United Financial Services, nor that the store gives customers 3 days to relinquish the deal without penalty.

That is stated below the signature line (shady!). I yesterday, 10 days before my first payment is due, to try to arrange a return and "undoing" of the finance "relationship" and was told it was not doable. I think this is so aggressive. I have not used the machine yet and do not wish to put an extra $500 or so into a financier's pocket. When I called Kirby, the sales rep said that it is out of their hands and that the deal is only between me and United Financial. I have a hard time believing I am at such a stalemate and cannot return this big-ticket item. These people are so shady in their sales behavior! I am about to also complain to the BBB and call my attorney general's office about the matter.

My financial situation may be in jeopardy due to looming increased condo fees. Cannot do this. Need to bring the machine back so that Kirby can reimburse United Financial and I can regain my $93.75 in sales tax.

In May, 2010, a team of 2 (two) sales people from Kirby Vacuum went to my mothers house to sell her a vacuum/carpet cleaner. My brother, who lives with my mother, saw the team and asked them several times to leave. When they finally left, he then left to run some errands. When he returned, the sales team had returned also this time with a third person (the closer). By this time, the deal had been completed.

My mom signed a contract $68.99 a month for thirty (30) months with $200 down. My mom is 79 years old. She is suffering from dementia. She has a hard time telling people no, especially to young males. My father passed away in '05 and I believe this is part of the problem. This is only one of many contracts that she has been roped into since my fathers passing (preying on the elderly).

The vac/carpet cleaner has been in the downstairs closet since May. I think she tried to use it one time and was frustrated. The vac/carpet cleaner weighs about 25lbs. Her house is approximately 1,900 sq.ft. and is a two story model. It is to heavy for her to take it upstairs and also vac or clean the stairs. The down stairs is 3/4 hard wood flooring and tile. Also, the carpet in the entire house is about 20 years old. It doesn't need cleaning, it needs to be replaced.

I am her youngest son, and didn't find out about this purchase until about 4 weeks ago when I took over her bill paying. My mother lives on social security and this is a bill that is deducted from her checking account.

On Thursday, Oct.7, 2010, I made my first call to ''Phil'' of Kirby. The assistant took my complaint and told me her boss would call me by the end of the day. He never called. I called the next day, and they said he was off that day and to call back tomorrow (Sat). I called on Sat. and they said he was in meetings all day, but that he would call before the end of the day. He never called.

I then called Monday, Oct. 11, and they said he was in a meeting but he does have my message and he will call me back. ''Phil'' finally called me back at around 1:30 pm. He basically asked me what I wanted from him. I said to stop all payments and come and pick up your vac. He told me I should have done this within the first 3 days of the sale date and there is nothing he can do. I asked him about Kirby's salesman practices and ethics and he told me he sells vacuums to people of all ages, even 95-year olds. I found that odd. I said that we were willing to ''eat'' the money we already spent, and just stop the payments and pick up your product. He told me that he would have to research it and get back to me with a offer. Not sure what that means. It's now Tuesday, Oct. 12, and have not heard from ''Phil''.

I am incredibly stupid and gullible because I fell for the sales pitch. My parents had purchased a TriStar (another high end machine) when my siblings and I were young, and I knew how much they paid for it. So I was very upfront with the reality that it was way beyond my price range. When they asked to do a demo so the girl (in casual street clothes, weird) could earn $25, I told them I couldn't afford a Kirby but eager to help the girl make some quick money. I relented. She was left at my home for the duration of the demo which was over 4 hours! I kept looking at the clock, wondering how much longer this would take. I repeatedly told her I was a single mother and could not afford a Kirby and that even 60 bucks a month was grocery money or gas money.

I knew by the girl's mannerisms she was totally ** me, but I am guilty of being way too nice for my own good, and hoped that some genuine kindness on my part would deter any foul intentions. When I mentioned I was fixing myself something to eat because I hadn't had dinner yet, I was hoping she'd get the hint and wrap things up. No luck. When I told her I get up at 5:30 in the morning to drop my kids off and get to work on time, I was hoping she'd get the hint and wrap things up. No luck. Finally, at 11:15 p.m., another vehicle pulled into the driveway and I almost sighed in relief hoping it was the van full of guys that left her there and that she was going to pack up and leave.

A blonde-haired woman, also in casual clothing, just walked in my front door without even knocking! This is the manager! Despite my numerous explanations that I was a single mother, worked very hard on a minimal budget, they continued to offer one deal after another, and then wanting to know why I couldn't just spare 50 bucks a month! I kept telling them I do not receive any child support, I do not receive any sort of government assistance and at present I'm working for a shoddy paycheck at a temp agency while going through the application process of a better-paying city job.

$50 bucks right now is a trip to the grocery store, or gas money so I can commute to work. At the end of 4 and a half hours, I was exhausted and beaten down. I admit that, as an avid housekeeper, I was appalled at what a lackluster job my old hand-me-down vacuum was doing, but I already knew that. And I've owned my own home less then a year, so I was impressed by the Kirby's power to pick up stuff out of my meticulously cared for furniture and carpets. I told them I would clean up all the little disks because I honestly just wanted them to leave.

Having worked all day, and in desperate need of a shower and sleep, I bought the thing as I believed they made me a good deal at $1200. I was made aware what the percentage rate was as well as the duration of the loan, and in truth, the only reason I agreed to is that is that tax season is around the corner. While I didn't voice it openly, in my mind I'd already planned to pay the thing off within a few months with my tax return. I needed a new vacuum cleaner, and Kirby has a reputation of producing great machines. But a part of me knows I was taken for a ride and wishes I would have just said no before letting them in the house. When reading all this, I could not believe that so many people have experienced the same thing. I just want to pay this thing off and chalk this up to a very painful lesson learned.

Kirby vacuum machine sales people came to my home and offered to deep clean and shampoo one room with no charge. After the demonstration, they tried to sell me the vacuum machine, but it was too expensive so I refused to buy it. Then they told me it has a lifetime guarantee covering for two generations. They said I will get a lifetime guarantee and I can give it to my daughter later and she would still have the warranty.

I decided to buy it because with that kind of warranty, the high price might be worth it. However, my husband found out from the company website they lied to us right after I filled out the form and they left in hurry. It has only a 3-year warranty. If I knew it, I would never buy that vacuum machine. So I called the office to cancel it. The man answered my call told me that he would check if the sale people are still around my town then he hung up the phone.

I waited for his call, but he didn't call me. So I called him back and he told me they were still near my town so they would come by my home to pick the machine up same night. It was almost 9 pm, so I was surprised. I asked him they would come that late hour, and he said yes.

I waited and waited until midnight, but they didn't came. I called back the office so many times, but nobody answered the phone. I had a really hard time to leave a voice mail to the manager at the office because the system was very strange. I had to call about 60 times straight, then finally I get his voice mail service. Not only did the sales people lied to me, the representative person also lied to me and didn't care anything about a client. I am very upset and angry about the lying and the attitude towards other people and the ridiculous system. I hope other people read this and know how cautious they have to be when the Kirby vacuum machine sales people try to sell it to them.

Today, I was totally misled by a woman who came to my door. She told me she wanted to show me a new carpet cleaner, that was Eco-friendly and good for the environment. After I allowed her to come into my house (big mistake) another man came in with the entire Kirby vacuum set/supplies. I told them that I did not realize they were selling Kirby and that I would not be making a $2000.00 purchase today. After an hour and a half, I finally got him to leave. He was not even half way through his sales pitch.

I felt very misled and I do not think it is ethical for any business to be run this way. I will never buy a Kirby because of this and I will tell everyone I know to beware of this scam! I also do not feel it is fair for anyone to make you not want to answer your door but that is exactly how I feel and I will never let another salesperson in my house again. You Kirby people should be ashamed!

After two hours of trying to get the sales rep to leave without success, I went to my room to get my gun and let the guy know that he has five minutes to leave. He left in three.

I am reading these reviews of Kirby and laughing in agreement. I replied to a customer service job posted on Craigslist for some unknown company. Well being that I needed the money, I decided to check it out. I called the number (no email was listed) and was told to come in for an interview and speak with Rachel. I arrived at the office and was greeted with a blaring musak and furniture that looked like it came from the Salvation Army and felt like it. Still I signed in and went for it. Rachel came in to get me for the interview.

We sat and talked a brief 15 minutes in which she explained the job ends at 9pm but never mentioned the start time. She also said I would just set up demos. Also, I was told a background check would be done and if all goes well, expect a call but if I heard nothing, call and ask for Vanessa. Okay, no problem. The next day I called and spoke with Vanessa who told me I was hired to come in the following day for orientation. I came in for orientation along with other individuals and we sat in a room from 2-4pm to listen to a man named Ed brag about how he loves to buy things, the money he makes, trips he goes on and other employees' personal business (the guy that was homeless, the lady that never comes in), which I thought was rude and now I see it as a shtick.

I am almost 40 but I look way younger so I guess he figured everyone in the room was young and he ran his spiel as such please never trust a man that wears a chain over his tie. He would ask questions or phrase statements that made his answer the only right one and had a problem with me anytime I easily told him otherwise. Little by little he started referring to our demo as a sale. This caught my ear. At the end of the training, we were told to go in the break room and look at all the big checks employees have made. Also, he told everyone the company would have snacks and provide lunch the next day but bring your own if you are picky. The next day I showed up for the 1p-9pm phase 2 training and took notice that for a company that brags on its money; it's run down.

I brought my lunch just in case I did not like the food. When I went to put it in the fridge, I was greeted by the nastiest fridge ever! The only thing comparable was the urinal with urine still in it along with the dirty sink. Also none of the cars were very pricy. Well this time we were sent in the training room and were to listen to the next con man, Bryan. He came in badly dressed for a guy making 6 figures. He was dressed more like a mail clerk and honestly looked like he was living paycheck to paycheck. He started his farm fresh bs where Ed left off, and doing his amateur comedy/infomercial routine. He also asked inane questions. We were then told to move to another room for demo training.

This room was filthy and the carpet was dirty. How can you sell vacuum cleaners and have dirty rugs?Then he broke us up into groups and gave us two boxes. One contained the Kirby, the other contained the cleaning supplies. He then went through a demo on how to assemble this heavy clunker. Seriously, he even stalled by going over how to open the box. Bryan proceeded to ask stupid questions and I could see that when I did not give him the proper answer for his rebuttal he got annoyed. Hilariously, he actually argued about why we need to list horsepower. He looked at me and I asked if he was serious or being facetious. I guess he thought he was gonna put me on the spot and shut me up so he asked me to explain. Well I did and other trainees also answered. Note to Brian get a new shtick. Four hours later everyone got hungry and asked about the lunch that was promised. Bryan looked confused and the entire class repeated what Ed told us.

Bryan then pointed to the pack of Ritz crackers and M&Ms and said that is it. ****! I died laughing. He was serious! He said he would go ask Ed but never did and continued with the course. Next he pulled out some stupid attachment and asked if anyone here cleans their keyboards. A lot of people stayed quiet. I raised my hand and he asked how. I said canned air. He asked if I would use the method he showed with the Kirby. I said no, he asked why. I replied I am not gonna go grab that machine when a can of air is far more convenient and portable. Thirty minutes later (now 5 hours into the course), I told him I needed to eat. He seemed upset and said I usually don't eat lunch. I told him okay but I do and I brought food. To his dismay we left for lunch.

I think he didn't want people to leave because he was afraid they would not return. Well during lunch I went to eat in my car. I walked back in afterwards and past a bunch of hungry trainees that stood around with Bryan and seemed to marvel that I brought lunch. I told them "Joke's on you. Read ya money it says in God we trust. That's ya'll mistake." Once we got back in, three ladies left. Ha! Bryan went back into his spiel and this time, asked me if I would buy it. I gave him a hypothetical answer and said I would have to talk with my wife. He looked at me ** off and instead of informing us how to deal with that comment; he asked the same question to another trainee so he could get his response. Then a trainee asked if he would be out in the field with us selling. He smirked and laughed and gave a fake maybe.

Now I became curious and I stopped the demo to ask a question. I stated that when we came in we were told we were not hired to sell yet we are constantly referring to this demo as a sale and every system of pay is based on a sale so are we selling or simply doing demos and our pay is negated if a sale is not made. That seemed to confuse some and ** him off, so I asked again in a more layman term. He danced around the answer then got back to his presentation and asked everyone if they vacuum. Everyone said yes and asked if we would switch our vacuums. I decided to say nothing. So he asked everyone individually. I said nope and that my daughter has allergies and the vacuum we have is bag less and that is what the doctor recommended we purchase. He pulled out a printout that stated the Kirby was perfect for people with asthma. I told him that is fine however my daughter does not have asthma, she has allergies.

Bryan told me its the same. What!?! I told him they are not the same. Again he decided to question it. So I told him asthma is a breathing abnormality. An allergy does not always result in breathing problems and hers are strictly topological. He then said how do you know?. What? I'm her dad and I take her to the doctor, that's how. I think he felt he was losing it so then he decided to use his knockout blow and told me that since my daughter has allergies that the Kirby rids mattresses of dustmites and other allergy causes and that is a reason to want it. Now I felt it was getting personal. I stayed quiet and he asked me again would I buy it since my daughter's health was at stake. I told him no. He looked shocked and said why.

I told Bryan that any vacuum with hepafilter rating of 9 or more will remove dustmites and spraying with lysol afterwards will help protect. And since we have a very good Dirt Devil that is compliant why would I buy a $2395.00 vacuum cleaner with attachments I would not use. Well Mother Nature called me at 7:30pm for the second time and I went to the bathroom. As I was coming back, I was greeted by Bryan who told me he could tell in his extensive time there (3months) when someone is serious or not and that was the second time I got up. I said yeah to use the bathroom. He said he was gonna be done in 45mins. I said great but I did not know, I had to go and I didn't think we needed your permission to pee especially since I would wager I am older than you.

I then stopped and said, "** this, I'm not gonna argue to stay as a damn door-to-door vacuum salesman from a broke con man in a fly-by-night office". A warning to all that see a job on Craigslist (currently offering $2200 per month), it's a scam from Kirby. Go and watch the bs happen.

Wow. I think I just dodged a bullet. I was getting ready to run errands. A young girl who talked super fast said she'd been walking all day (but it was only mid-morning) and asked if she could clean my carpet. I said ok thinking it would just take an hour. She said she'd be right back. I was speechless when 2 men entered my home with her. Red flag 1. I should've trusted my instinct to kick them out right then. They had no problem making themselves comfortable asking about my yard, piano, etc. 2. Then the girl and one of the guys leave. 3. The salesman said they're from Cali which is not the state I live in, calls in my name-ph.-address, and asks if he can plug in his phone to charge.

He does the demo. I get out a trash bin so he can put those filters in the trash. He continues to put them on the floor. Odd. He asked about my Dyson, and then puts it outside on my porch without saying why. Weird. All the while I'm telling him there's no way I'm going to buy one because it's not on the priority list and we're doing some renovations. The others return. Why? I guess to add more pressure. Maybe they were lazy, but they seemed to give up easier. The whole time the salesman was trying to sweeten the deal & saying he needed this to win a trip to Miami. He said we could trade in and that we could finance the vacuum. I asked them about interest which they admitted to, but never would've mentioned it. I told them the best thing I could do was talk to my husband about it and call them back.

Sorry, no business card. He left his cell number (a no-no) but no voicemail. Buckets of red flags. He packs up and leaves & on the way out he asks for a soda. Now I only have time for 1 errand and as I leave he's out there waiting for the others to pick him up. I forgot to mention that they were driving a green suburban. One thing that makes me kick myself is that criminals use rouses like that all the time--get someone to lower their guard then Bam! I feel like a sucker, but at least I didn't lose any money! Hopefully, this prevents someone from becoming a victim.

I was done the same way about a Kirby vacuum cleaner. A woman came to the door well dressed. I was under the impression she was with the Census Bureau and let her in. She said they were advertising a vacuum and I did not have to buy. She said they just wanted to clean 1 room and I advertise for them. She wrote down my address and name and opened the door back up. All of a sudden, the van full of people that had parked out of eye shot pulled up. A bunch of them came up in the house with all the equipment. I said, "You are doing this now?" They said yes. This was at lunch and I asked how long. They said it was not long. Not long was 6 hours!

After the main guy came in with the spill, they brought in your salesperson. Whoever the shoe fits, so to speak, if the customer is young white female, that's what you get. The van was filled with every racial and misc aged salesperson to fit the situation and they even admitted it. The van then pulled off and left this salesperson here for hours on end using this vacuum cleaner. The salesperson was throwing the dirty discs all over my house, trying to impress me on how good the cleaner is or how nasty my house is. I was so irritated.

It was all a scam. You could not get any of your own work done, because they wanted you to stand right there for hours while they did the same thing with those discs. I had hundreds of them everywhere. They go all through your house then they go to your bedroom with a scam. They pull off all the covers of a made bed and drag the vacuum across it, the whole time saying they will straighten your house back. But no, they did not. I constantly told them I could not afford it. I have 4 children and only 1 person is working in the house. They did not even listen, and they just kept on with their sales pitch. I was so aggravated but was brought up with manners. So, I hated to be rude hoping it would soon be over. They get you with that crap about "Don't you want to help them in college." I have 4 of my own I need to go to college.

I was so stressed. I didn't know what to do and I have nerve problems anyway. They just keep on pressuring you and the salesperson can't leave because they left them there! When I looked this situation up and saw all the same exact stories by people on here, I am so mad I don't know what to do. I told them several times we could not afford it and my husband was out of town. They just stayed until he got home at 7 pm. I had already told them not to confront my husband to buy this vacuum. I told them I would speak to him in private and let them know. They totally disregarded what I said and did it anyway and put me on the spot with my husband. My husband also has a hard time standing up for himself and got the thing. We kept telling them, "Show us how to use it before you leave." Of course, they said they would, that is before that got that signature, and then they took off.

I had told them to let me speak to my husband in private and I would call them and give them an answer. Of course they said, "We are only here for today and go back to Alabama and this deal is only for today." This was all a lie. They had the nerve to drive back up 2 days later because they had done the contract on an Alabama paper instead of where we live. At the time they drove up, I was packing my car. Because of them and their pressure tactics, my husband and I, married for 20 years, separated over this due to finances. I tried to explain to them that we could not afford it but they kept on and on. They did not even have the decency to leave when I told them what this had caused.

They stayed until my husband came home to get him to sign the new contract. Can you believe the nerve of this?! Please do not let this happen to you. There are no numbers listed to try and contact these people about this incident and I don't know what to do. I am out my old vacuum cleaner they took away, $300 cash money, and a debt of almost 3 thousand dollars for a vacuum cleaner in pieces in my closet because I don't know how to put it together.

Two women came to the door of my apartment in a private complex at 7:00 PM on September 18, 2010. They tried multiple tactics on me to gain access to my home. They first said that they just want to do a free carpet cleaning but no purchase necessary. They handed me a pamphlet that only stated a free carpet cleaning and a phone number but no business name or location. When I declined twice and told them that I already have a steam cleaner and vacuum, they said they needed to do it for college credits so I accepted. They said they would return in 10 minutes. I quickly googled the phone number, the only identifying information on the piece of paper I was given, and up pops a slew of websites stating this is a scam.

Being a photojournalist, I quickly grabbed my camera and looked for them. Sure enough they were in a white, unmarked van, ****. They continued to go to my apartment carrying about 5 large unmarked boxes of equipment. I took pictures of the van and them returning to the street where I took the photos. One very large man was exiting the van and going behind me and the two women accompanied by a new large man for a total of four individuals were approaching me, berating me with questions and asking what I was doing. I told them that this was clearly solicitation and that I was a photojournalist in the area for the local police department and news groups. When they realized I had pictures of them they tried to grab my camera away from me breaking the lens hood in the process. They also got on the phone with, what they said the police' who sounded more like a boss and were stating very demeaning things about my appearance and my apartment.

I went back to my apartment and continued to survey the area from the balcony until they finally left. I now warn people about these white van scams'. They will try to gain access to your home using two vulnerable but manipulative looking women and then have very large, creepy men carrying unmarked boxes from an unmarked van into your home.

Dan offered to clean one room in exchange for sale of Kirby vacuum cleaner but did not return.

My nephew went to work for this guy and I bought a vacuum just for that reason. The problem is this owner is training his salespeople that these vacuums have a life time warranty on everything except the belts and bags. My nephew and I did not know otherwise until I started reading the material. I will bet most people just take the salesman's word for this warranty and it is not the fault of these young men and women because this is what they are being told in training.

After one week, this owner brought my nephew into the store to work as a recruiter because he was "so personable and good". I quote because I am the one that called this guy and called him out on his misleading of his product. He proceeded to tell me that my nephew just misunderstood. First of all, my nephew graduated with honors and is now taking college classes. He is not stupid.

Anyway, since I was mislead, the owner offered me a floor waxer for free. Since I had already bought this machine, I accepted it, but I wonder how many other people he had to bribe. The offer he gave my nephew was that when he went to work in the office, he would be paid $2,000.00 per month base and $100.00 more for every vacuum one of his salesman sold. After three weeks and a lot of badgering, he finally paid my nephew $400.00. From what I have read, this must be the way the company conducts business across the board.

I bought a Kirby vacuum from the door-to-door salesman. I wanted a Kirby for some time and finally went for it. The price was $1,849. I went online two days later to order additional bags and found that I could get the same thing with free shipping for $999! I was ticked off! So, I called the dealer and said that I wanted to exercise my 3-day return policy (which they never told me about-I read it online) and they were a little reluctant. When I said what I saw online, they said they would call me back.

This went on for three to four calls over the span of an hour. After refusing to take no for an answer and say thing that I would show up with the machine at their location and send a notarized certified letter to the BBB, they gave me the price of $999. They are overcharging by at least $850! Then, when I met with the manager he said to be quiet about this! What! They are ripping people off and he had the guts to tell me to be quiet about it. The machine is a great machine but scamming people for an extra $850 (even more if you choose the financing at 25% which is ridiculous) It's not right. I even called the 800 number on the contract and the representative said to be sure I get something in writing because they are known for this kind of thing.

Order online if you are interested in a Kirby. They discounted the price because I showed how persistent I was. If it was not for that, I know nothing would have been done.

A female knocked on my door telling me that she was in the neighborhood offering two-room carpet scrubs. She replied that it would not take that long and that nothing would have to be purchased. I agreed and she said she would be back in 15 minutes. Sure enough, she came back along with two men. At that point, I had thought about it and changed my mind. I told her, "No thank you." The two men walked up with the equipment and asked what's wrong. I told him again, "No thank you." He insisted that it would not take long. So I agreed.

The man and woman left the one guy there. He wanted to show me how the vacuum was made from airplane and everything else. Two hours later, I was told that the vacuum was $2400 but I could have it for $2000. I declined, told him no, I am not about to spend $2000 for a vacuum/steam cleaner. They kept insisting to go in my room and show me bed bugs. Huh! He finally got the picture and he text to the other two something. They came back 20 minutes later asking me why I didn't want to buy or finance it. I said, no. They left but before they left the sales guy asked to use my restroom. He left with an attitude. I never got my free two-room clean, only demonstration of how much dirt was in my carpet.

The Kirby Vacuum Company, (salespeople unknown), keep approaching my senior parents to sale them a vacuum cleaner that they don't need! Six months ago, they sold one to my father. At the time he was 79 years old and doesn't do house cleaning. He also has a perfectly good vacuum cleaner! How do you get these vulture to stay away from people's homes? I had to confront the Kirby company of Bay City, Michigan, to get his money and old vacuum cleaners back. It wasn't fun for me and it was very humiliating for my father. Is there anyone that cares? This is the 1930-60. Even though, times are rough, it is even for my parents that have problems with their health, just like many others. Please give me some direction.Thank you. No, I'm not just venting.

I purchased a Kirby vacuum (with 90-day same as cash agreement). Tried it at home over the weekend and it was not fitting my expectations. Since I was two days over the contract's return policy, I get nothing. I even offered to let them keep the $600 I gave up front and let them keep the d**n thing just to get out of the contract. When I attempted to get a contact number for the finance company, I was rebuffed. The experience has been very disappointing.

We received a knock on our door on Saturday, August 21 at around 6 pm. A man named Danny said that his business was opening an office at Rayford in I-45. They were offering free carpet cleaning for one to two rooms in our house for free. And hopefully, in the future we would use them. I explained that we were renting. He said that maybe we would use them when we move out and that it was toxic free. My husband agreed to let him do two of our area rugs. He said he'd be back in 15 minutes and they would have to move quickly to get as many done since it was free and time is money. About 10 minutes later, they knocked on our door. It was two different guys. They brought in a vacuum and some boxes. My husband was surprised to see a Kirby vacuum since they did not say that they were with Kirby. I had to take care of my 9-month old baby so my husband stayed out with them. One of the guys left. The other one named Cliff goofed off for a while saying he didn't have enough white pads to do the job and needed to wait for the other guy. He showed my husband the vacuum who patiently watched waiting for our rugs to get cleaned. My husband kept letting him know that we would not be buying a vacuum.

After a couple of hours, the other guy returned. We told him also that we just wanted our rugs cleaned and would not purchase the vacuum. At 9 pm, he told them they really had to leave because our baby had to go to bed. They guy asked for Windex to clean his machine and went into our bathroom without permission. After they finally left, another 15 minutes later, Cliff sat outside our house smoking for another 45 minutes. They left their dirty pads everywhere. We are very upset. They misrepresented themselves as a cleaning service to get inside the door. They would not leave after we asked them to several times. They wasted three hours of our night and left our house dirty.

The next day, I went into the bathroom and the guy left dirt, fuzz, and junk in our sink, on our bathroom rug. Even worse, he left stuff all in our bathtub! This is my baby's bathroom and her bath time mat and bath toys were in the tub. He dumped all of his debris in there! This is ridiculous. We took pictures. We are so upset at their scheming tactics to get into your home and not leave when asked. And to leave debris and dirt all over our house. I have read complaint after complaint on Kirby salesman. Something must be done! We turned them into the Better Business Bureau of Texas. To misrepresent yourself has to be illegal.

Name appeared on ID as Caldwell Banker and she identified herself as from Kirby Company (vacuums) offering free cleaning and said my name was picked in a drawing. We I asked her why the caller ID came up as Caldwell Banker and she said they don't know why it happens that way. Either someone is selling Kirby on Caldwell Banker company time or someone is calling directly under their name illegally. Anyone else complain about this?

I have been engaged in a trivial dispute with one of Kirby's "independent" distributors in Waterbury CT. The Kirby Company has refused to take any helpful action to resolve this dispute. Kirby should understand that its reputation rests not only on its products, but also on the people who represent it.

My mom agreed to let the salesman in for a free cleaning because the little girl who knocked on her door lead her to believe that they were a new carpet cleaning business in town. Then the salesman appeared with his Kirby vacuum box. I've heard about Kirby's reputation before and wasn't surprised by the trickery to get in to the door. My mom said it's a free cleaning, and with four dogs and two cats, you never say no to a free cleaning! He was here forever, but both my mom and I are naturally good-natured and we both weren't doing anything, so we humored him for his time. We told him from the very beginning we were not going to buy anything, so it's up to him if he wanted to waste his time. So he decided to waste his time.

He tried. He tried guilt. He tried insults. He tried the I am a hardworking individual just trying to make a buck bit. He really did try. He even asked my mom if a gun was pulled to my head, couldn't she find the extra $50 bucks a month to save me. She is sweet and tried to remain sweet faced, but I couldn't help but laugh. He was comparing a vacuum to a life and death situation! He asked if we could trade anything, like our car! Or, if we could get rid of some extras in life, like our phone! Internet! Food! For a vacuum?

I was shaking with laughter. My mom had to excuse herself. I mean really? Who falls for that sort of sales pitch? We told the man we lived a very thrifty lifestyle (and we do) and my parents don't even have health insurance. Wouldn't it make more sense to use this extra $50 a month to place towards health insurance. If anything, we would use the $2500 (Yes, a $2500 vacuum! I would hate to know how much money you would have paid after interest, probably $6000.) to put in a hardwood floor. That sort of derailed him.

So he switched to guilt. He threw those little paper discs on the floor, covered with dirt and grime and we should be ashamed that we allowed ourselves to live in such filth. It was gross, disgusting and we were liars. How dare we! We watched as he vacuum the same spot over and over. Even the Kirby couldn't seem to come up with a clean paper disc. He tried to guilt us about not using American products. We were a disgrace to the American race because we didn't own a Kirby! We are horrible people because we weren't willing to work a little bit harder in life; get that second job, sacrifice things in life - to own a vacuum cleaner?

Though we found it amusing, it is disheartening to know that these men prey on people who can be in guilt, feared or pressured to buy a product they really don't need. This man stood there in our house, trying to persuade us that we were scum of the earth because we didn't own a Kirby. Such sales tactics should be outlawed. A salesman should be making you feel good about the product, not bad about yourself because you didn't own the product.

If a sales person refuses to leave your house, don't hesitate to call the police! Even the act of calling is enough for one to leave quickly. And before you let a stranger enter your house, make sure to ask for photo ID and make note of the name (If you have a copy machine at home, make a copy). Even that small act makes a sales person more wary about how s/he treats you. If s/he refuses to prove ID, then shut the door on his/her face. Door-to-door salesmen typically need to be licensed by the state, and if they cannot prove they have a license, again, shut the door (It is also good to make note of the license). It is your home and it is up to you to be careful in who you allow into your home. These salesmen are trained to harass their potential victims, wearing them down through hours of fear, guilt and doubt. They employ sales tactics that make a used car salesman blush.

I politely reminded our salesman as he dug his heels in our foyer that the only reason he was still here (for 2 hours) was because we kindly let him. I had no qualms with calling the police on a man who refused to leave our household. He took the hint and hastily left. As he went to sit on our curb to wait for the van, I also reminded him that in Colorado, we do have the good ol' "make my day" law, and there are some people around here who would claim that a man with a vacuum was a danger to the household.

Case in point: Never buy anything until you research the product! Never finance anything until you research the company! Especially, for a $2500 vacuum cleaner.

My girlfriend and I answered the ad like many others due to the economic times. We're down to a few dollars. We sat through the first two days with enthusiasm. The Kirby is a well engineered vacuum. I would guess the retail value for the vacuum and shampoo kit is $500.00 at best. On the third day, the truth was told. We wanted to leave and were already assigned a vacuum to take home. We took the Kirbys home and I only took the DVD out of the box to watch it. I fell to sleep while watching it.

Then my girlfriend woke me up to go see some of the things about Kirby on the internet. I called the guy James that gave us the training the next morning. I told him we were not interested in trying to sell the Kirbys and we would be returning them. I made sure he gave us something showing that we returned both units in better condition than he gave them to us. People beware! What this type of distributor is selling is a demonstration vacuum. You only get an unused unit if you insist on one. Think about this. Where was this vacuum they use for demonstrations prior to them bringing it to your house? We're thankful we made the right choice and did not attempt any sales. We are good people that only lost some time. We sleep well...

I live my at parents that had a demo done and when the saleman finished, he never left. I had to leave to eat. I had left-overs in the fridge to eat and had to go spend money because of unprofessional salesman. I had left for approximately 95minutes and the man was still in our house. I didn't appreciate that one bit. We have things to do other than babysitting one of your salesman. You really look into the distributors that send these people out into homes when people have things to do. I am sorry I was vague on the info of the business name and person but he was from the Springboro,Oh office and was Oriental.

A Kirby salesman came to ask if he could shampoo one room in our home. I've had them do this before. My husband and I said he could, but we will not buy! He said that was okay as he would get credit for showing it to us. He went on and on and onfor three hours. His supervisor came three or four times checking on him and he kept making phone calls and kept coming down in price.

I kept reminding both of them that we said we would not buy! Then we started to get high pressure. They kept running down our present vacuum and I said, "When you run down ours, that guarantees I would never buy from you" and he said, "I'm not doing that," which was an out and out lie. He said ours was like running the sweeper not turned onI couldn't tell you how many times and different put-downs he said. It got more and more and more pressure. I said it was supper time and they kept pressuring us to buy and finally I said, "You are beating a dead horse." He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "You keep saying the same things and running down our sweeper." I only let him do the cleaning to help him win his trip, etc.

I'll never let another Kirby salesman in our home. I don't think high pressure is going to get anyone to buy. I told him so and I reminded him that we told him to start that we would not buy and he admitted that I had, but he said that people eventually buy. It won't work with us.

A nice lady came to the door and offered me a free gift of dish washing liquid to see a quick demo of a product. When I said I wouldn't mind the free gift or seeing the demo I definitely would not be buying anything. She said no problem, they get incentives just for showing the product.

Fine, I think. She comes in with a big box and starts putting it together, and a man comes in with a smaller box and starts to help her put it together. She then says, "Here you go, make sure he does a good job!" and off she goes. So now I have a strange man in the house. Having been brought up to be polite isn't a help in such a situation. So he plods through his demo and an hour later, I have dusty disks all over the play table and he is still going. Three times, I say I have to start dinner but it's like he can't hear me. He just keeps saying the things it can do.

An hour and a half in, I start cooking dinner around him. I also finish off a patch on my youngest sons pants and put the dishes on to wash. Two hours in, and he finally finishes and starts on the selling. Like I have the money for a ** vacuum cleaner, it had more bits than the space shuttle and worked about as well as my husband when it came to house work. He even tried the competition card, the "Can you please help me to win a trip by buying the vacuum. "

Talking to his supervisor on the phone (my phone) he got down to $10 down payment and $68 per month. I laughed at him. If I had that kind of money there would be more food in the house and I wouldn't be patching the knees of my kids trousers. His supervisor shows up (and now I have two strange men in the house and can't seem to get them to go away! ) and sees it's a definite, no! After trying several times to get me to buy it, so they start to pack up in a grumpy way, very jerky and short tempered.

Now, I am pretty good with people, so actually managed to get him into a better humor, talking about our birds, hunting and the like, and they finally left. I now have kids who are over an hour late for their dinner, and a table covered with dirt and my carpet from inside the front door in the middle of the living room.

After reading about this crowd online, it seems I got off easy. Don't ever let them in your house. They have no respect for you or your needs, they just want to sell you a ** vacuum. Good thing I think dirt is good for kids or the disks of dirt and the veiled comments about health and safety would have made me feel really bad about myself. Oh, and to top it all, off he packed up my "free gift" when I wasn't looking.

I will no longer allow anyone to enter my home that I am not doing legitimate business with. My husband and I live in a rural area and so knocks at the door are not super common. I was home on this day with my 3-year-old and my 6-week-old baby when I got one of these uncommon knocks. It was a "friendly" young woman that offered some "free" carpet cleaner and gave me the line of wanting to clean a room with a Kirby vacuum and it would only take 10 minutes.

At first I told her no that I was trying to put my children down for naps, but she told me she could just clean a small section and that would earn her the points she needed to win some contest. This is where I become the idiot for believing her. After agreeing to let her clean the small area for 10 minutes she went to get the vacuum and returned with some guy and her husband, the "boss". She and her husband walked out the door and although I didn't realize it at the time, they were taking off in their van full of the "lost boys" to find other houses to drop them off at. Basically, the salesman stayed in my home for over 3 hours. So much for our naps.

We have a farm and so my husband was nearby and even came in about 30 minutes in to the pitch and told the guy that he could buy 3 cows for the cost of the vacuum. Thanks but no thanks. My husband thought he was leaving right then so he went back to work. The salesman said he was calling his manager to come pick him up, but after several phone conversations between the two, the manager didn't show back up until 3 hours later. I couldn't believe it. Not only is it incredibly inconvenient, rude, and downright deceptive (10 minutes?), but that is really dangerous to leave a young man in someone's home without any transportation, dangerous for me and him.

I didn't know him from Adam and would have never let him in my house if he had come to the door. Now I know not to let anyone in no matter what they look like. He ended up being some college kid with dreams of making big commission, whatever. He did tell me they call the job the girl does "trolling". Nice. That sounds like something a serial killer does. I talked him into giving me his number on the premise that I would buy one later. After he finally left, my husband called his number and got his manager's number. He called and pretty much told them off and warned them not to come down our road again. He was livid that a stranger was left alone with his wife and children.

The truth is while they may be decent vacuums, they are not worth that much money. No vacuum is worth that much. They go door to door because they know that using pushy, deceptive sales tactics are the only way they can sell them.

The reason they are still in business after "90 years" is because they prey on the vulnerable and they have been wildly successful with their "trolling" strategy. If your product is so wonderful, then allow word of mouth from satisfied customers to sell your product (maybe some of those folks that you hoodwinked into biting off more than they could chew? Maybe they love the vacuum they can't afford) and quit the ancient practice of door to door. I'd like to warn as many people as possible about the sales strategy this company employs. In my opinion, it's pretty unethical.

The Kirby Sentria is the best home care system I have ever used! I truly thank God for a system that cleans like the Sentria and I thank the Kirby Company for designing a machine with the consumer in mind. Most cleaners I have used always seemed to be working fine for a month or two and then my carpet and the cleanness of our home would always end up in the same dirty condition. When the Kirby salesman came to our door, we were dumb to Kirby and what it was. I am so glad we let the young man demonstrate the Kirby!

It is the best at suction and even has a lifetime warranty that really doesn't have any catches. It is not heavy and is very easy to push, it actually gets the dirt out of the carpet, and not just from the carpets surface but deep down dirt. I have three indoor cats and it is great with pet hair removal. I have allergies and since we started using the Kirby Sentria, I can tell our home is clean, our carpet looks 100% better and the air is much cleaner. I dust much less and we even don't have to change the air conditioner filters out as often and when we do, they are not near as dirty as they used to be.

I absolutely love that I can vacuum my and my family's mattress with the Kirby and get all of the dust mites out of our bedding. If you have never seen a Kirby, I would highly suggest you do it! If you have been a skeptic about door to door salesman, you may be right about some of them but Kirby is definitely something you should see! One last thing, it also has a shampooer that comes with it along with a floor buffer and electric broom for those with bare floors that I love using in my kitchen. The shampooer is the best at removing spots and it even leaves a scotch guard on the carpet! You must see this! I highly recommend the Kirby Sentria it is a great investment for the home!

They were deceptive in everything they told us. First they interrupted us cooking dinner on a Saturday night. The girl told us that she need points toward a scholarship and that it would only take 15 minutes for the foam used on the carpet to dry and then they would be gone. She also stated they were going to open a store in the area and were doing a promotion for the store and offering a free carpet cleaning.

Two and a half hours later and after vacuuming the drapes, hall carpets then proceeding to start to clean a 8' x 10' rug all the while giving a Kirby vacuum demonstration. Near the end when we told them we would not be buying a vacuum they left leaving part of the rug not cleaned. Also, we were under the impression the first girl who came in by herself was doing the work, she then let 2 more additional people into our home and left the one man, Derek to do the work.

We bought and financed a Kirby vacuum through a door to door salesman. We have in writing that we agreed to pay United Consumer Financial company $80 on the 5th of every month. Another finance company, Castle Credit Corporation, is calling and sending mail saying we are late on payments and we owe $160. Now that all three companies are aware of the mixed up, no one is fixing their mistake. I won't be paying two companies and I won't pay for someone else's mistake yet that's what the Kirby company expects.

On April 26,2010, I bought a Kirby for $1200.00. After the sales man left, I notice scratches, dents hair and carpet under the brush. On the 27th, I called but I was directed to voice mail. No response for over a month, I called consumer affairs. Finally on July 22,2010, a Mr. T contacted my husband said he was bringing a new vacuum.

He showed up around 2:30 pm. He came in and expressed with attitude that he was upset, he claimed that I told consumer affairs that I had spoke to him and he offered a new vacuum. I explained that until now I didn't know his name and all I said to consumer affairs was that I was sold a used vacuum when it was to be new, that it had dent, scratches and carpet and hair from someone else's house and for $,1200 dollars. I didn't appreciate it. Mr. T brought in a new Kirby, he demonstrated the one I already had. I explained to him that it wasn't that it didn't work, again it was used.

He started yelling at me saying that I put the dent and scratches on the machine. He proceeded to walk out the door with the new Kirby. I asked why, he told me that I was a child and nothing wrong with the machine. I said "excuse me, you called me a what?" He said a child (remind you that he is yelling at me). I told him, "if you buy a new car and you bring it back and notice scratches, dents, etc what do you do?" He said take it back and I said that's what I'm doing. He said no and called me a child and walked out the door. I immediately called consumer affairs and spoke to Candice. She said that he had already called said he told me that I knew it was a "demo" at the time of sell and he wasn't going to replace the machine that he is the owner and they cant make him replace it. I told them that the demo conversation was never spoken about. If I had known it was a demo, I wouldn't have bought it.

How are you going to sell a demo to someone? My husband called an hour afterward and spoke to Mr. T and that conversation did not go well either. I don't know what all was said so I can't document that. I have contacted BBB, local newspapers and news channels. I want my new Kirby that I am paying for and I expect nothing less. Who comes in your home and disrespects them, yelling and calling name? You really don't have a good representative working for you.

I was recently laid off from my job, and responded to an ad for a " Customer Service Rep", for a growing Scott county company. I called, was asked to come in, and hired on the spot based on my resume. Yeah right! I went to a week of unpaid training, at an hour drive every day, and brought along a friend, who was also interested in the company.

We worked 7 days a week, 12-14 hours a day, while these people tried to push their way into unsuspecting people's homes, using a "free" rug shampoo as a way to get in. Once inside, they made us demonstrate, and sell Kirby Vacuum cleaners, using high pressure sales tactics, and often the crew leader Kevin **, a known felon, would not leave until the people bought them or threatened to call the police. He would ask to use their restrooms, and steal jewelry, prescription drugs, and anything he could find from these innocent consumers.

He also would bum rush the girls out of the van, a brown mini van, and tell them to leave their purses, that they didn't have time to get them. When the girls would get in the van and count their money, voila, it would all be gone, and he would cuss them out like they did something wrong. He left us out in the 95 degree heat for more than 12 hours with no food, nothing to drink, and would often come by and degrade us for not getting into houses.

It all gets so much better. After a month of 75-80 hours a week, 7 days a week of this grueling work, the owner, Patrick ** refused to pay us. I sold 4 Kirby's, and he owed me thousands of dollars, and my friend, just as much, and would not pay us a dime. As it turned out, he had his crew leader Kevin** steal our money, and they split it.

The story is much worse than this. Everyone there is a felon, drug dealers, and con artists. They are all sleeping with each other, and pride themselves on robbing the good people of the state of KY. They like the area's of Lawrenceberg KY, Danville, Lexington, Frankfort, Florence, Georgetown, and so on. If you see these people in your neighborhood, be warned. They will scam you and rob you. The Police and government agencies are well aware of this Ponzi scheme, and are trying to shut this operation down.

If you are thinking of working for them, be warned you will work for free. Actually, you will be paying these scum bags! Between me and my friend, we are out over $400 in gas and food we bought for all the workers, and owed $3000 plus dollars in pay, plus over $1000 in commission, not to mention the petty theft of our spending money, more than $200 plus and our jewelry.

I am just another unfortunate individual who was searching Craigslist eager for work. I see the post that says "sales and marketing job 500 per week". I got duped into sitting through one training session which ate up practically my whole day. They completely misled me and said that if I could get 6 appointments of my own over the weekend, I would get a free 4-day cruise to Bahamas.

I knew that sounded too good to be true so I went home, found this site and was completely appalled at what people were saying as I was all excited to start making money. I went to the training the next day, asked to speak with the manager. I said, "If I am going to be working for this company, I need the following: 1) a letter of employment which guarantees $500 a week, ..." The sleazy soliciting trainer guy named Gary said, "You already signed for that, we already discussed it" while the manager goes, "Buddy, nothing is guaranteed, we provide you with 15 appointments and from there on the money you make is based on the referrals you get." Then I said, "Okay, I got the wrong impression."

Then the sleazy trainer guy just just shrugs his shoulder like he could care less; he will just solicit another poor soul. They don't make it clear; you need to inquire early on to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. The only thing that stopped me from marching up to that training room and warning all the other people is that the manager was very respectful to me. If he wasn't, I would have assaulted every single person in the office. People, be leery. I had loss in gas money driving to training session and lost other potential job interviews.

A Kirby salesman came to my home and showed the vacuum. He said they were not selling for $2601.00 and if I traded my old Kirby in, there would be no down payment. In conversing with my neighbor, he bought the same vacuum with a trade-in on the same day. His cost was only $2000.00. I have receipts to prove the discrepancy in price. His contract terms are for 24 months at $103.00/month and mine is for 36 months at $96.00/month. I called J&J Enterprises to question it.

The lady who answered (did not give her name), just answered "hello" very unprofessionally to the point that I thought I had dialed the wrong number. I told her what happened and she took my name, address and phone number and told me someone would call me back in a few minutes. Three hours later, I called again only to get an answering machine. I left a message for someone to call me back and I have not heard from them. I have been scammed by this company and I would like to know what my legal rights are in this situation. I also need to get my old vacuum back from these people.

A salesman came to our house while we were sitting on our front porch. He told us that he was a new local carpet cleaning company. He asked if he could clean one room to show us how good he is so we would use him in the future. Our encounter was a nightmare. Turns out this guy is a Kirby salesman. We could not get him out of our house and the high pressure sales tactic is nothing like I've ever experienced. He left late in the evening promising to come back to pick up his Kirby and give us time to think. I checked out Consumer Affairs and it's all true what's being written. These guys are complete rip-offs. I had to forcefully remove the guy from my house. I also had to call the cops because he wouldn't leave. During this situation, he hurled insults at me the entire time--even after my door was closed. Please don't fall for this. Once they get into your home, the nightmare begins.

Door to door salesman gave presentation. Was very time consuming and waistful of product during demonstration. When I refused to pay $3,000 for a vacuum, the supervisor of the demonstrator got very nasty with me. I was forced to throw them both out of my house. He further refused to give me a phone number to his boss.

I was bullied into purchasing this $2000 vacumn that I cannon afford. within two days I called and requested someone to pick it up and to reverse my payment arrangements. I left a contact phone number as well as the times I would be available for pick up. To date i've received no return phonecallls and the vacumn is still in my home unused. Please help.

The Kirby that Mike B sold me was a used Kirby. I did not realize that until I had to take it apart to put the shampoo attachment to it & found that there was so much built up dirt in the suction head of the vaccum that it was literally dried up mud. I bought the vauum in Jan 2010 but it was not until 05/25/2010 that I was going to shampoo. I called & spoke w/Erick C on 05/26/2010 explained the situation & was told he would "make it right" & would call me back.

I have been trying to talk to Mr. C again since 05/28/2010 but have been unsuccessful. I have called & left numerous messages for him but he has not returned my call. I also left messages for the salesman, Mike B. He never returned my call either but a gentlemen named Travis gave me his cell # & I called & talked with Mike on 06/09/2010. He told me he was about to begin a demonstration & would call me back after 4:00pm. I told him I had left several messages for him to call me back & never did. He said well then you call me back. I did & he did not answer. He has not answered my calls nor has he ever called me back. I will be filing a complaint with the BBB as well.

On Saturday May 1st I was taking a nap when my husband came in and told me that Kirby was here and they would clean one room for free. I agreed and got up. A young woman came into my house carrying several boxes, a man following behind her with more stuff. The woman states that she is going to run down to another house and check on another demo. The guy that did our demos was fairly nice but was taking forever (more than 4 hours) to complete the demo. After vacuuming my walls, bed and floor there were about 125 round filter laying around my bedroom. He then states that he is going to shampoo the carpet.

I do beleive when they came into my home they stated "one room free" not "vaccum your floors and walls and shampoo a 4x4 area of carpet". The dealer then puts on the whole sales pitch. I told him that I have student loans and cant afford it. The dealer then calls the "crew leader" who just walks into my home several minutes later trying to wheel and deal. I tell him that I cannot afford this and he drops the price to $2,100. After a more than 5 hours and getting very frustrated I decided to purchase.

After signing the contract and the "crew leader" called the finance company and got me approved I asked if I would get my new vacuum today. He states "yeah its right here and points to a vacuum he just cleaned my home with (how many other homes were cleaned with it). I told him that that was not oikay with me. He said that it was new this morning. Meanwhile the woman comes in (who was just sitting in the van) and said that the bags were stolen from their van and they would need to run 30 minutes away and get some. They left the demo guy at my house after I told them I didnt need additional instructions as my mother in lay and neice has the same model. Before I knew it the "crew leader" and the young girl were gone and I was stuck with the demo guy for another hour.

When they returned I told the leader and the girl that I would like a new vaccum and they pretty much refused. So i say you know what forget about it and I will call them tomorrow and get my new $2,100 vacuum. I called the next day and was promised that someone would call me that Friday and set up arrangements to have a new vacuum deliverd. Guess what no one called me and by this time I cant cancel the contract. Then I called again and had a man yell at me for trying to request a new vacuum. He said he would have someone call me on Friday. No Call.

I then call the finance company and tell them that they are not keeping there promise in getting me a new vacuum and that I would like to return it because I dont want to do business with them. The woman at the finance company told me that she will try and get ahold of them. The finance lady then calls me at work a few days later and asks if I got my new Kirby. I told her I did not and she told me that they have tried several times to contact them with no return call. I was also instructed by them to call other numbers to help get this resolve. Keep in mind at this time I wanted to dispute the contract and have them pick up the vacuum. I was given numbers to Kirby Customer Services. I spoke with a lady who was EXTREMELY rude to me and gave me another number to call.

I called Kirby Consumers Affairs and was also talked to in an unfriendly manner and then again was told to call another number. I called Kirby Factory and alls I got was a rude person who didnt want to hear my story and states that I need to call the company (Hawkeye QCK) that sold me the vacuum. I got no where. I called these numbers several times a week and got nothing done. I waas starting to get very angry. I was wasting several hours a day being yelled out by a company I spend so much money on. I decided to call Customer Service one more time. The woman who was also rude told me she would get in contact with the company ans get this resolved. The comapny finally called me on May 24th and May 25th.

On May 26th they talked to my husband who offered to bring us a new vaccum and free prducts. He told them that he would need to talk to me because I was wanting to return it. I recieved a certified letter in the mail saying that they have tried to call me and have a vacuum delivered. The next day I got a call from the finance company and she left a message that said "due to YOU not calling the company and getting a new vacuum delivered they would be unable to help me--GOOD LUCK". I wasnt returning there call because i was told that the finance company needed to talk to the dist. that sold the cleaner. I called the company that sold me the cleaner and spoke with the woman that called the phone and sent the letter. I told her without them returning the finance companies phone call I could not file a dispute. (this is what the finance company had told me previously) The woman says "Oh really because we talk to the finance company several times a day". I told her politely that I have called different Kirby numbers and have attempted several time to reach them and she was so rude. I got feed up and told her that I would be going to contacting a lawyer and the local news to invvestigate the scam. The woman replied "Go for it...CLICK".

I have no idea what to do or what legal rights I have. Am I stuck with this thing or was i being thrown around from different peeople within different companies within Kirby. They are willing to give me a new Kirby now. I DONT WANT TO DEAL WITH THEM. I have wasted not only the 5 plus hours they were here for the demo but many hours a week trying to resolve this. DONT BUY FROM KIRBY IT IS A JOKE!

They ,the representitives for KIRBY,sold me on the vaccum ,trying to help out a friends neice,I was charged $1926.00 that doesnt start with the original price of $2399.00,plus they took my dirt devil and i find out a gentleman got his for $1010.10 ,i LOVE KIRBY ,MY MOM HAS LOVED KIRBY ,for at least 55 years ,why was i raked over the coals when this other gentlman paid less than $900.00 dollars what I paid for mine .! never trust or help anybody again .I will no longer support ,Haiti ,ASPCA ,AMERICA CARES,send this to MR.KIRBY whatever

On May 20, 2010 Michelle W and James P and Asha S stopped by my home to illustrate Kirby vacuum. I first stated I did not want the vacuum. They continued to sell their pitch line. I kept the vacuum thinking everything was okay. Never used the vacuum in the three days. Went to use after the three days and the vacuum belt was off. Called and requested service no call no show to this day. I am being told I am liable for this vacuum because it has been three days. And yet no one has returned a call or showed up to service.

I work from home and today my doorbell rang. There were 2 people standing at the door stating they would clean one room of carpeting "for free" (I should know, nothing is free) and they did mention "Kirby" in their intro. I owned a Kirby vacuum 30 years ago, so I felt a "pitch" coming. I said "is this going to be a pitch because I will tell you up front that I don't want to waste your time or mine if it is, I'm not going to buy anything" - he said "oh, no - we just want to clean your carpet, see what you think and get you to spread the word". I asked again if there would be any "pitch". I made the mistake of agreeing for them to come back later in the afternoon at 4:00 but also stated I had another appointment at 5.

They came on time, only this time with a young woman who was allegedly "overseeing this - to make sure they did it right" - she was clearly the "driver" because no car was in front of my house after she left. "Richard" had a very young man with him who had a piercing projecting below his lower lip and continuously loudly bit his nails and "discarded" his droppings on my floor - the youngster was in training. There's no way I would let the young man in - he looked too young to know anything about vacuums let alone his annoying nail biting/discarding habit. Richard brought in this huge box and started to assemble the vacuum all the while talking. I have both Riccar and Miele vacuums which I'm happy with.

Richard vacuumed with the Kirby and I will say that it's much lighter than the one I had 30 years ago. He did the "let me show you how superior the Kirby is to your vacuum" routine and the results were indeed impressive. What I didn't appreciate is that he continuosly made my vacuum sound like a piece of garbage (which it isn't) and also made me feel like I was a lesser person for tolerating such a poor vacuum. The pitch was over the top - offensive, way too pushy. I reminded him that I told him up front that I wasn't going to buy anything, but nothing deterred him. The cost started off ridiculously high, he then called "the manager" who shaved off $. I told him we had other expenses we needed to take care of right now, we have 2 perfectly working vacuums, etc. - that didn't stop him - all I got was "what's it going to take", etc. Nothing I said stopped him from asking what it would take - I think I could've said I was going to die in a few days and he still would have pushed.

He then said he had to go to the bedroom (that's creepy) so he'd get "credit" for his demo - by now my husband was home, so I allowed this (I'm sorry to admit this). He comes upstairs and roughly pulls back my entire bedding to do a demo of the mattress cleaning - I was speechless. He never paused to ask "do you mind if I completely destroy your freshly made bed" - no, he wanted to creep me out with what he vacuumed up. If indeed he wanted to demo the mattress, the correct way to do that was to ask my permission before ever going to the room. The whole experience was disturbing. I had to leave and my husband was left to watch them shampoo the carpet.

By the time I returned, they'd shaved off additional dollars - the price went down to 1/3 of what their documentation showed. The machine itself seemed very good, but the sales pitch completely turned me off. There's no way I'd ever buy this product only because of the really poor representation by all of the reps that came into our home.

If indeed Kirby is so superior - they should hire properly dressed, articulate, well mannered people to represent their "superior" product. Another helpful hint - listen to your audience, when they say they don't want a "pitch", they generally mean it. Maybe Kirby should consider selling their product in stores like other manufacturers - the "home invasion" approach isn't appropriate and they lost a sale/customer because of it.

Had a coworker recommend me to a sales person for a *free carpet cleaning*. When the company called to inform me of this they did not disclose that they were from Kirby ... they said they were from RG-something Cleaning. So I had no idea until they showed up at my house that they were Kirby.. I thought it was a local business just starting off looking for business. First, they showed up hours early when I wasnt home. Then when they came back at the appointment time, they (there were two girls, one was 24 the other 18) said it would only take 30 minutes. They were there for 3 hours. Dress was very unprofessional... the one doing the demo was sloppily dressed, the 18 yr old was popping out of her shirt and made sure to stay near my husband.

The appointment time was 7pm. i have a 3 yr old and a 1 yr. with the demo going on and everything else, both kids were up until 10 pm when they left -- as an parent can tell you, this is not good. Also, the tactics used were terrible.. like others there were the little discs that they show so that you see how dirty your house is and all the dead skin and dust mites etc... then she took my vacuum and ran it then redid the area with the kirby and asked me to take that disc and breathe through it -- of course it was dirty and she kept saying "now why would you want this around your kids" "dont you want to provide the best for your family". All this and more pressuring, nevermind the fact that the room they did was connected to a bathroom that we just renovated... so yes, its gonna be dirty.

In the end, after the demo we sat down to discuss price.. which of course was too much and they offered to drop and reduce and all that. i explained that we couldnt afford it because of the recent renovations... more pressuring. Now its getting late, and kids need to get to bed. So finally I just say fine, just to get them out of my house... plus the 18 yr old kept saying she was hungry and eyeing my kids' happy meals that they had for dinner! My husband and I continued talking after they left, the next day I called to cancel. I was told that the manager would call me. No one called. I called at least 3 times each time being told I would be called back. I finally took the papers and signed the cancellation on the bottom and faxed them in. then I called to confirm receipt. ONLY THEN did they say they recieved anything. a couple of days later they sent someone out to my house to pickup the machine.. which was sitting right where the girl left it, with water and everything.

The guy who picked it up was nice enough, although scarey looking. and he kind of chastised me for not picking up my phone when he called -- never mind the fact that I was in a business meeting!! he cleaned up the vacuum and asked for the box.. wich the girl did not leave. I told him this. He said ok, and took the vacuum and left. The next day we went out of town for a week... during this week I expected the deposit to be refunded to my account, it had not.

Today is June 4th and I called the office to ask about the refund of the deposit. The girl who answered said she had to talk to her manager. She called back hours later and said that they would cut me a check. I asked why couldnt they just refund my account like a normal business. Check with manager again.... a few hours pass. A manager calls me and says our guy who does refunds is out until Monday, a refund will occur on Monday. So.. now I get to wait until Monday to see if I get my money back. This whole thing is terrible...it was very evident that the company tries to put you off when you want to cancel or rescind the agreement until your window to do so has passed. Luckily i saw the cancellation line on the paper and had a fax and followed up with a phone call until SOMEONE checked their fax machine.

few month old vacuum, I'm not very happy with it. for the money we paid for it itis no different than other cheeper brand vac. We went tru 4 belts. the salesmn never called to follow up if we havein problem. and when we call the phone no. no answer. I think we made the wrong discion buying [their] vacuum. I wont recomend to any one

a young man named RJ knocked on my door, telling me he was from Nebraska Promotions and wanted to demonstrate and product to me and he would be paid $20 by his boss just for demonstrating to me. I told him my house was a mess and wasn't really wanting company as I'm a stay at home mom of 3 year and 9 month old little girls. He said it would only take 30 minutes of my time and he would even clean the carpet for me. The carpet needed cleaned anyways so I allowed it.

He then runs to a van full of people and a man gets out and goes to the back of it and they unload a couple boxes and a totebag...the guys name was Steve. They come into my house and start unloading everything...EVERYWHERE. Steve then leaves and takes the van....leaving RJ at my house...all alone with me and my kids...I was VERY uncomfortable..He then started vacuuming and showing me all these dirty filters by placing them all over my carpet where my girls always are. 30 minutes turned into 1 hour...my kids are getting hungry...I ask him to please leave because I needed to tend to my kids. He said he had to stay until his boss picked him back up.

I asked him to call his boss to come get him. He said he didn't have much longer. So I made lunch for my girls and he still wasn't done. After lunch is nap time for my kids...as I go to lay them down...RJ goes into their room...strips their beds..and starts vacuuming them. So I couldn't lay the girls down...both were crying and very upset. I then ask him to leave again because I am not interested in the vacuum. It did a great job but was much too expensive. He once again told me he had to wait until his boss came back. Once his boss came back I told him I didnt want their product...he then told me he would give it to me for half price. I then told him I don't make financial decisions without my husband and my husband would be at work all day.

The manager, Steve, then told me that apparently my husband doesn't trust me then. And made it sound as though my husband was trying to keep money from me. I agreed to purchase the Kirby just to get the idiots out of my house, knowing I could just cancel the next business day. He then had me fill out a credit application. In which I put in my name...when he called the credit company he told them my name was something else, gave a different social security number, gave a different job then what I do, and gave a totally different monthly income. He called this place using my phone! He then hands the phone to me and tells me I have to verify the info with the credit company..

I got on the phone and the lady asked for the name Steve gave them..I said I didn't know who that person was...she then asked to speak to Steve again, he got on the phone and told the lady that the persons name he gave her was just here and had left to go to work! I'm completely ****** off and he still wouldn't leave after this. He then saw my checkbook laying on the kitchen table and tore a check from it and wrote VOID and said he had to have that for automatic withdrawal each month. I told him he wasn't getting anything and to give my check back...that I wanted them to leave. He kept telling me all this crap about how my husband doesn't trust me with money, how I need to make my own decisions. I finally just told him to leave and I would be cancelling the service the next day. None of the phone numbers given to me work. So I have now cancelled the check he took.

At 6:30, Friday evening, Memorial Day weekend, a very beat up van full of men drove down our street. Shortly there after, a man carrying a Gladware box walked up to the house and began talking to my wife. I was out mowing, and didn't notice at first. The man was offering gift certificates, entries into drawing, and everything but what he actually wanted. He finally got around to offering the free room cleaning. I knew there was some kind of scam afoot, the coupons were worn, and poorly photo-copied.

He would not offer a business card or any brochures, he had to go back to his van and dig around for some one else's card (no one answered the phone number, and there was no voicemail.) I'm in sales too (though a far more legit organization,) so I had some bit of sympathy for him, and did have a section of carpet I wanted cleaned.

Long story short, we ended up seeing the famous cleaning demo, I was able to rush them through it, but the whole experience was just way too creepy. If this is what they have to do to sell their products, I want nothing to do with them. Having slept on the whole affair, I'm very skeptical of the dirt they pulled up from our carpet. I'm also extremely upset that a 6' 2" man will try and push past a 5'4" young woman who is very obviously scared by the whole affair. Citizen's beware! It's not worth it! That's an hour I'll never get back.

When the salesperson representing the Kirby's local distributor came to sell the Kirby Vac Cleaner to me, I was told that Kirby's G6 has a lifetime warranty on this product.

Now the G3 is having problems and I took it to the same sales office where they have a service department in Reno, NV. I'm told that the Kirby's warranty is for three years only and I need to pay for it. I was given a phone number in Illinois to call for further information. The lady on the phone told me the same thing: 3 years warranty only.

Now my question is: did I hear the salesman wrong? Did the salesman lie to me in order to make the sale? I checked with a few other Kirby owners, they all believed that the warranty is for lifetime. The Kirby lady told me the lifetime warranty is for rebuilding the cleaner but at a cost to the customers. However this information was not revealed to me and I believed that the lifetime warranty is for free.

i can only suspect that he was searching for drugs. but the invasion of my privacy and the fact that i let him in my home is very disturbing. after he left i went in to my restroom to look and noticed my medicine cabinet door was open and my drawers were now open. the next morning i noticed the pad and his writing on it and what it was. and the fact that it was actually shoved into the drawer

WHAT A NIGHTMARE! they came into our home, stayed for 3 hours, and then got [upset] at us and called us bad parents for not buying this vacuum. i was so upset and drained that they acted this way. completely repulsive. and to add to that they left the salesman outside on my drive way for an hour with no phone. and i didnt dare let him use mine... again. They were ignorant, rude and distasteful. they picked up my child, they invaded our home, wouldnt leave for anything, then offered to trade some of our PERSONAL ITEMS to clean more of our house! DISGUSTED!

On May 19, 2010 I received a call on my land line. Caller ID identified the above info. It was a telemarketer wanting me to let Kirby come and clean my carpet for free. I have gotten these calls several times a year over hte last 10 years and always advise that my number is on the do not call registry and for them to put me on their dnc list. This lady had the audacity to keep on trying to sell me even after I advised her there was a penalty for ignoring the requests for no calls. Apparently the Kirby Company continues to give out my number to telemarketers.

I used to work for the Kirby company for 2 years in which time I did many different things in the company from door knocking, cold calling, selling and training. When I started I was promised $3000 a month plus commission but after the first week I realised it wasnt so. I was brainwashed into being a jerk salesman and had to put up with a Jerk team leader. For someone that had never worked before and didnt have any qualifications as I had dropped out of school i assumed it was normal practice. But within a few months the emotional stress of lying to people to make money and pretending that being insulted didnt affect us all caught up and I was forced to argue with the company.

The kids that are hired are not monsters. They are turned into monsters by the company. The company is a pyramid. And the sales staff are slaves that dont have the [courage] to talk up. Which is sad to see. I was then "promoted" to other positions which still didnt pay me anything. And i got transfered around when someone quit to fill in their position. In the 2 years I worked there I averaged $500 NZD a month which is nothing.

These kids dont want to be [rude] to people. They just have no choice. Ive read 30 pages of complaints. Next time dont let them in but be kind to them if you can. It lifts them up and all they are trying to do is make a buck. A lot of them that work are genuine hard workers that do physical work for sometimes 17 hours a day. A lot of them dont have qualifications and cant get any other work and they have no choice but to do this to feed their babys. Trust me, I know how much pain they could cost you in 3 hours but sometimes they walk for 15 hours and get hundreds of doors slammed on the faces, get sworn at, get dogs released on them and everything else you can think of. I am no longer directly working for them but I am working with the sales staff to train them in more civilised ways to go about thier work.

On Sunday, May 2, 2010, after lunch, a young woman knocked on my door and introduced herself, but I couldn't say her name or remember it. She handed me a free sample of Lysol wipes and a flyer and said they were opening a new office on Ambassador Caffery and were giving demonstrations on the products they used. I asked if they were cleaning products and she said they were. She asked if I had carpet and I told her only the stairs and upstairs bedrooms did, but that we having them replaced with wood flooring. I said I only had furniture to clean. She said that they did that too. She called her supervisor who was on the next street cleaning someone's carpet. They would be right over. I left the room for about 3-4 minutes and I heard them come in.

Jose and the oriental man came in and I was asked if they could be their equipment in a certain area of my living room. I gave my approval. Immediately, the girl slipped out the front door along with Jose. That left the oriental man with me. He proceeded to pull out the Kirby vacuum cleaner. When I saw what they were up to, I stopped the man and explained that I was NOT interested in purchasing a Kirby vacuum cleaner because within the next few months I would NOT have carpets. He proceeded to show me how it could change a light bulb, blow up a balloon, etc. I told him that I didn't care and that he was wasting my time. He told me he got paid if he stayed an hour in my home and said the he had to go through the demonstration before he could clean my furniture. I asked how long the demonstration would take and he said about an hour. I told him no. We had plans for the afternoon. He did not want to leave. I told him that if I had know that the girl was soliciting for Kirby, she would not have gotten in my door. He said they had several techniques they use to get in homes. He asked to use the bathroom.

Afterwards, he proceeded to clean his equipment in my living room. He shined it with a soft cloth. Why I don't know because he didn't do anything to dull it. What really made me angry is he proceeded to clean his brushes by pulling out any lint and dropping it on my floor! I told him to call his pickup partner and leave. He hesitated --- stalling for time. Trying to let an hour pass so he would receive payment. He used his cell phone, but said he couldn't get it to ring. I then asked for the number and called it on my phone. They answered immediately. By this time I was fuming. I called my husband who was upstairs to come down and wait with me while he got his gear together to leave. I told him that he could wait outside. He wanted the flyer back because he said they were running low on them. I told him no because it was given to me.

I gave him back the free sample of Lysol wipes. No where on the flyer does it have Kirby vacuum cleaners. It only has the following: "Free Today! Dry Foam Shampoo. Other services include: 1 set of stairs, 1 heavy traffic area, 1 deep clean one set of runiture, and 1 deep mattress cleaning (removal of dust mites)." I told him that I would be contacting Kirby with a complaint and the Better Business Bureau. I felt that this was misrepresentation of their product. They weren't selling cleaning products, but vacuum cleaners. I want to know when did Kirby sink so low that they have to get sales this way.

EMAIL MESSAGE TO KIRBY VACUUMS, PER THEIR WEBSITE, SUPPOSED WEBSITE, RIGHT! THIS BELOW IS MY COMPLAINT: "i am the daughter of the residence of the submitted address, as well i presently reside w/ them. recently while i was out of town, this past week, april 26th, a supposed representative of the kirby company dropped by the house @ 7pm. my mother had had surgery that day and was not thinking as clearly as she normally would, per allowing this person/the rep to begin and demonstrate a kirby product in the house--this knowing she was not interested in a purchase to begin w/.

"w/ that, from the information i gather, this person was not professional, made comments that were not acceptable, used the bathroom, used my mothers cell phone, etc such as, the person(s) that she arrived w/ left her at the house to leave and go who knows where! when it was (pass the) time for the rep to leave she had to use mother's phone to call for a ride! the ride was not there so she proceeded to take whatever she had entered the house w/ and walk to the end of the drive. oh, she also said if she sold one more vacuum in the day she could afford to take her very sick mother, who has cancer, on a trip, for a last "farewell". ARE YOU SERIOUS?!

"this is unacceptable, and to "prey" on folks such as my parents and grandmother--i certainly wish i had been home. i ask you to remove this address from any mailings, "drop by solicitation visits", or anything else from your list. why so upset? many reasons but to note again, a few, the person, the so called sales rep was NOT professional, was close if not right out suspicious, and in today's world--or any for that matter--it's not wanted or needed. life is (can be) tough enough w/out someone coming to your door to add to it, not to mention now one must maintain an even higher guard that the ppl might return, solicited or unsolicited, and when. what are they up to? selling vacuums?

"my sister read a posting on one of your sites, some site, about a man who had the SAME type of experience w/ a supposed rep of kirby's. the same bathroom, phone experience, the same story of wanting/needing to sell enough to take a mother on a last farewell trip...WHAT'S UP? this is not right. make a sale another way! i'll pass the word to take heed and will copy and report this to the better business bureau, for what that may matter.

" pls leave my family alone. i am simply appalled. think about it. someone that drops by @ 7pm, anytime really, needs to use the bathroom, needs to use the phone, the ppl she/he drove up w/ had to leave? while the other person is still here? many things come to mind and it's not for someone to sell a vacuum, but more so a possible meth-head, drug-user going through cabinets, can't afford a phone. WHO KNOWS THESE DAYS. again, pls notify your supposed reps throughout the area to not visit this address again. we prefer not to purchase a kirby vacuum and if we do purchase any type of vacuum, we'll visit a store. pls know that i'll inform each person here/in the surrounding area, i'll contact each neighbor to make them aware of this "incident" and if need, we will call the police, no questions necessary."

Two young sales people showed up at my door. They went into a sales pitch, wanted to clean my carpets. I told them my carpets didn't need cleaning. I had to pry out of them what company they represented. I told them I don't like Kirbys. They were so obnoxious, I thought I may have to call police. They finally said, we'll see you later. I thought I heard them wrong. Sure enough two men showed up a couple of hours later, with machines in hand. I didn't answer the door. They knocked harder as they yelled out hello.

They circled my house and banged on both front and back doors as they yelled hello. My husband opened the door. They said they had an appointment, my husband told them we weren't interested, and they said where's grandma, grandma made an appointment with us. If either of these creeps ever show up at my door, I'm calling the police. We thought we may be getting cased out or robbed. I will be roporting this incident to our local police department.

A friend who bought from Kirby referred me to the company as a candidate for a free carpet cleaning. I have declined numerous times and asked numerous times to be removed from their call list. Each time, the caller assures me that my name will be removed. It resulted to numerous unwanted phone calls!

We live in a small village. Kirby vacuums have rented a property next door to us, Telesales etc. They have made the life of the village hell! The council and neighbors have appealed to them re parking etc. The police have been called and spoken to Russell ** (Manager) on many occasions. But he ignores them. They take their reps and call center staff out by coach early in the morning to 'team building' and 'sales seminars'. They come back late at night drunk as skunks. On Monday night 26/04/10, we had to dial 999 for the emergency police. There were over 20 staff in a brawl, screaming at each other (women included) swearing and throwing glass beer bottles over our hedge. This is just one incident.

They hold 'team motivational meetings' in the back garden. Whereby, we all have to listen to 20+ reps shout " what do we want? Money! Money! Money! " The village have formed a group to record all this behavior and contacted the area council, police etc. But Kirby seem to be a law unto themselves with no regard for anyone. Destroyed the peace and privacy of an entire British village.

Sentria Kirby called me saying that I had been given a free polishing and rug cleaning by my godmother. Since I understood that it was a gift, which is the way it was presented to me ("she took care of the cost"), I allowed them to come into my home. After 3 hrs of senseless and slow demonstration, he started the sales pitch. When I decided against buying a new Kirby (I already had an old one), his boss told him to leave and I never received the free rug cleaning, and the floor polish was a simple brush over with water. My hooked rug is ruined, since he vacuumed it so much he tore the fibers out of the rug, and now it is all piled up. I want compensation for the rug that he ruined, which matches two other rugs in the kitchen.

I purchased what was supposed to be a new Kirby Vacuum Cleaner and just two days ago, another sales person came to my door knowing I already had a Kirby, hoping to upgrade me to present. I am glad he came, because I found out that Kirby sales people use the same vacuum over and over to demonstrate, so the one you buy is very much used. You are not buying a new machine. Not only that, the person who sold me a vacuum had already sold the vacuum to another family, where find print says you have 3 business days to change your mind. Well, that family possibly used that vacuum to the fullest and then returned it.

So, I find out I have something that has been used over and over to demonstrate, in addition another family used it before returning it. We must stop this abuse. If you purchased, tell them to ship you a new vacuum from the factory. And my paperwork, Original Purchaser's Registration, has the name of the first people and I have nothing.

I called the company and two people played dumb and the second one in computer relations was very rude. Then he transferred me to someone in the Rebuild Program, she verified the original first names of purchasers and said she would have someone to call me. No one did and had the seller had enough sense to take the original purchasers paperwork out of the box, I would never had known.

The new salesperson said my vacuum needed a lot of work, that dust was seeping from around bottom of bag. That means the dust has been blowing back into the rooms all this time.

First off, this is not a complaint but I couldn't find a link to make an "non-complaint," so I'm sorry for that. I first read some of these complaints while a Kirby salesman was in my home and I was trying to decide if I should by the product or not. The approach used to enter my home was the same as many listed here, and I find it funny, really, because when you're taken unaware by it. It all seems a little strange, but then when you look back at it, you see that what is being used are just sales tactics.

A small, young woman knocked at the door of my home around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, as I was leaving, offering to carpet clean one room for free. She said her company was looking to open a business in the area and made it seem like they were offering "test-samples" of their product for free. She said none of my neighbors believed her and they kept thinking they had to buy something, but that they didn't. It was an absolutely free cleaning that she would get paid $25 for. She asked "please, please, please, please" and I relented because there actually were some spots on my carpet that I wanted cleaned. She then got excited and asked to use my phone to call her boss! I was a little freaked out by this action, I must admit, and became a little worried when she called her boss and said "I got one." I was leaving but told her I'd return in 15 minutes and that she could come back then to clean the carpet. I made sure to lock my door too.

A little while later, the "carpet cleaners" showed up. It was the girl along with two other guys with what turned out to be Kirby boxes and I thought, "You *** ***! (lol)." Sneaky, sneaky. The original girl and one of the guys left and left one guy there to clean my carpet. He began to sell the product, a Sentria model Kirby and I must say, he was a fantastic salesperson. A young, college guy who was just great with my kids and really knew his product well.

The selling point for me was when he took my regular vacuum and vacuumed the already fairly clean carpet that we had just had professionally cleaned the month before (costing $250) then he took the Kirby and vacuumed and I was amazed at all the dirt it pulled up. He explained a lot about the Kirby's motor and how it worked, showed me all the useful attachments and spent about four hours overall in my home. He did clean one room's carpet, getting out troublesome spots. I was really happy about that. We bought the Kirby, though I am forbidden to tell my selling price. I will mention, though, that your Kirby salesperson will probably negotiate with you so don't be afraid to investigate different options. The shampooer was even thrown in for free.

I am more than happy, thus far, with my Kirby and am extremely happy that I purchased it, so far. It does the job it did for the salesperson. My carpets look fantastic when I vacuum with the Kirby. I just thought I would throw this info out there since I had a pretty pleasant experience with my team of Kirby salespeople though I am aware that their sales tactics are slightly pushy and just a little sneaky.

Anyway, my salesman, Keven, worked his buns off in my home. He did use my phone for all of his contact with his boss, which was a little unnerving but it can all be explained through sales tactics and I don't blame any red-blooded American male for wanting to make a sale where his profit is hundreds of dollars. What's the alternative after all? 7-11? Burger King? As far as I'm concerned, I'm glad there are Kirby sales jobs for Americans and that they haven't managed to ship those overseas somehow too.

The salesgirl came to door, offering to clean any one carpet plus the hallway for free. She had a flyer that made the company sound as if they were a new carpet cleaning company. I said okay. She said she would be back in 20 minutes with the equipment. She and Nick came back. Nick dropped off the equipment and left.

She proceeded to go into a Kirby sales demonstration. I told her if I knew it was a sales demonstration, I would have never let her in. I was upfront and told her I would not purchase the equipment, but she would listen since she told me she would get $35 for giving the presentation. Two hours later and still not having my carpet cleaned, I told her she had to leave because I had things to do.

She asked me questions about the purchase. I told her I was going through a divorce and would not be purchasing one. She called her manager and explained the situation. She was getting the line (used car salesman) to repeat to me: If I could get you a lower price... I told her no and that I am not financially able to right now and that if a high-pressure sales pitch is coming, I will turn into a witch and forcibly ask her to leave. She said no high-stress sales pitch is coming.

I helped her gather her things; she packed them. Brian shows up to the door and comes in. He said he was not going to sales-pitch me, but then he led into his pitch. I grab the stuff and start walking towards the door. He treated me as if I am rude! I told him I was upfront and would not be purchasing the item and they needed to leave. He continued on. I told him to leave and walked to the door. I finally got them out of my house, but he continued on and treated salesgirl as if it was her fault for not making the sale. By the way, salesgirl is his live-in girlfriend.

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I feel this was a bait-and-switch because of the flyer presented. The flyer and initial offering made the company sound as if it was a new start-up carpet cleaning business.

In June of '09, salesman Ron ** sold my 76 year-old mother who has Alzheimer's a $1,745 vacuum. My sister had called my mother as she was finalizing the sale. My sister asked what she was buying. My mother asked the salesman, "What do you call that?" Obviously, my mother was not in her right mind. I found the receipt for the vacuum in July and was shocked by how much my mother paid for a vacuum that was sitting in her dining room for 2 months. She didn't even know how to work it. They told me that she could call them and they will show her, but she would not remember from one minute to the next.

I got in touch with the store manager, Alberto. I explained the situation to him, and he said he would get back to me. He then called and said too much time has passed even though the vacuum was never touched. Everything was still in the box. I called customer service and spoke to Dean who blew me off. I have been paying my mother's bills for months before that because she had difficulty writing out checks and addressing envelopes. This company has taken full advantage of an elderly lady with Alzheimer's. I am still perturbed and this needs to be brought to everyone's attention.

I had a Kirby van pull up in my drive way. After trying to convince me to come in the house and clean some carpets, I bargained that they may clean the garage carpet, since we were right by it. I told them from the beginning that I wasn't going to buy, and kind of made fun of the vacuum. After 10-15 minutes of it, he called his boss to pick him up, who broke 2 of my driveway lights, when backing up and leaving the first time. He then stood in front of the house, waiting for about 20 minutes for the van to come get him. My impression of Kirby is very low. They had horrible "beat around the bush" sales tactics. and were just as rude as I was. All in all, Kirby was a bad experience. Avoid it at any cost. I have 2 broken drive way solar lights, and trash left on my driveway.

I was laid off from my job and was working at a daycare barely surviving while I searched for better jobs. I feel like a fool for getting sucked into the Kirby Vacuum ad on Craigslist which said at minimum I would make $600 per week. I went to the interview in Woburn, MA and Jennifer the manager hired me immediately with no background check or even checking my ID. That should have been a red flag right there. However, I was enticed by the fact that she said I would be making way more than $600 a week, probably more close to $1000. I was so desperate for money that I fell for this scam and quit my daycare job immediately to go to the training that started the next day.

Jennifer promised that we would not have to make any cold calls and would not have to set up any of the in-home demonstrations ourselves. This turned out to be a complete lie. About an hour into the training, I began to smell their bull. Jennifer went on and on about the huge sums of money we could make and that it was possible to make more than $3000 a week. I began to realize that this seemed to good to be true. Conveniently, an "established Kirby salesman" walked into the session at what must have been a planned on time and said that he made $5000 in one day!

As soon as he left, Jennifer informed us that we would have to set up our first weeks worth of in-home demonstrations after we were promised that we would not have to make cold calls or set up demonstrations. There were also very strict guidelines on who the appointments had to be with: 30-65 yrs old, a woman, a homeowner, had to own a vacuum that wasn't a Kirby and had to have a landline telephone. I began to panic because all of my friends are in their early twenties and rent apartments and have cell phones. I grew up with just my father (who because he is a male does not meet the criteria) and my grandparents who were too old.

Then my great pal, Jen, said we had to have all the appointments set up by tomorrow morning! I began to freak out as I imagined myself huddled over the phone book making a fool of myself calling the entire neighborhood. "Hi this is Lauren, I know I have a college degree but I got laid off and now I'm selling vacuums. Could you please help me out?" Jennifer then berated us by saying those people who could not fill all of their in-home demonstrations were not hard enough workers and could not work for the company.

I went home and decided to do some research which should have been done sooner. I found this site with hundreds of complaints against Kirby from both targeted customers and employees. I read how employees were never paid the base pay they were promised and never received the "free" vacations they were supposed to get. I felt like a fool. Some other interesting points: Kirby never had us fill out any official paperwork such as W-4 and I-9 forms. All the new trainees were young adults my age in their early to mid-twenties. It seemed they were preying on those who were naive and struggling financially. They told us that our $600 per week check we were "guaranteed to receive" would be tax free. How can they get away with that?

I also once sold Kirby Vacs. I will agree with a lot of the responses here on this site. Yes, there are a lot of people who are running these sales crews for Kirby distributors who are criminals/scam artists etc. There are, however, honest distributors out there in the world of Kirby.

First, when you interview for the position, everybody willing to give it a try gets hired. It's a numbers game. You never can tell who is going to be the Salesperson, and who is going to be a flop. Yes, they promise you a weekly income, and a bonus if you sell "x" number in a month. The weekly income is based off the number of presentations you do. You must do a minimum of 3 demos per day for each day of the month you work.

Unfortunately a lot of the responsibility is placed on the dealer's shoulders to learn how to secure their own demos. At first, a manager will help/ teach, may I say, them how to get the appointment. Gradually as confidence is built, they allow the dealer to take on the responsibility. If you do not complete three demos in a day, each day of the week you work for the entire month, no, you do not get the weekly guarantee. Actually, you are told that during your interview, if your manager is ethical. Most people are so excited about the money you are going to earn, that they don't listen to the last part.

Yes, there is money to be made in Kirby. I personally made $2000 in one week. Yes, they do have trips they send you on if you are successful. I have been on several. The problem lies in the pressure put on these field managers to produce. They make a big monthly income and get used to it, then are asked to run a crew. Their out of pocket expenses are upwards of $300 per week when you factor in fuel costs, lease/payment on their van, insurance, and the number of dealers who come to work with no money to buy lunch (which is why sometimes dealers do not eat). Managers get tired of buying them meals. Then the owners tell them if they don't sell "x" this month, they are out on the street. At that level in Kirby, the money is to hard to walk away from. So that's when the honest manager turns crook, if they were not already.

I was a manager at one time, I did work for a crook at one time, but then he was busted for drugs. A new manager took over. He kept having the lights turned off because he mismanaged his business, and was cancelled by the Kirby Co as a distributor. Then I was given the opportunity to run the show. Personally, I did not hire anyone till I had the money for the guaranteed income in the bank to pay it. And I did! I paid all the gas expense for my managers, and sometimes even gave them a van to run out of. Nobody would go out into the field until they fully understood their compensation plan, and the signature was on their dealer's contract stating in plain English how they were paid, when they were paid, and how many demos per day they needed to do each day before they were entitled to it. If they were not willing to sign a statement acknowledging that it was a commission only job after their first month of training, regardless of the number of demos completed, they did not work for me.

I am not sticking up for Kirby, but there are some honest business people running Kirby offices and most of the crooks are being weeded out of the business, but there are always going to be a few.

On Monday February 15th, a salesman for Kirby, Bill **, knocked at my door and before I let him in, he stated he wanted to do a demonstration only so he could be registered for a trip, I told him I had a vacuum and did not need another. He stated again, this was just a demonstration. I let Bill in and this was a mistake. I am diabetic and also bipolar. I live on social security and have limited means. After a few minutes had passed, I felt myself getting weak, my sugar was dropping and Bill would not leave. He was on the phone to his manager. When my sugar gets low, I am ready to go into a coma and am not capable of communicating.

I was in the kitchen trying to get me a snack to get my sugar back up and Bill still did not leave. I wanted him out of my house, I was scared about my sugar dropping and he pushed a paper in front of me to sign and because I was so ill, I signed and My Visa has been charged $1500. I had to lay down and rest after he left. The next day I called Bill ** back and told him I did not want the vacuum, to come and get it and credit my Visa. Bill did not answer phone. I left a message.

Shortly, his manager Andy ** called and I told him I did not want the vacuum, to come and get it. I have called and neither gentleman has returned my calls. I told my sister in Myrtle Beach on Saturday the 20th and she called Andy ** and told him to come and get the vacuum, that I was sick and they took advantage of me. I don't need the vacuum and I can't afford it. Because of my illness, I was taken advantage of. I want the company to get their vacuum and credit my Visa account.

I have been emotionally distraught ever since Bill ** did this to me, I have migraines and the stress of this event has my sugar moving up and down. I cannot afford this payment and I think companies like Kirby should not be allowed to prey on the elderly or people who are ill and cannot afford their product.

I answered an ad for assembly and customer service in the Danbury News Times. It turned out to be sales of Kirby vacuums. I drove out to Orange Ct from Danbury, a 50-minute ride, and was told about the job. One of the promises was no cold calling. Went back the next day for more training and was asked if I could line up ten demonstrations for the next four days. Ask your family and friends.

I went home that night and thought about the situation I had allowed myself to get involved in. I am so glad I did not take this high pressure sales job. I don't need a $2,200.00 vacuum with a bunch of attachments, so why would my family and friends? If I want or need something I'll purchase it myself online or at a store. This same vacuum sells for half the $2,200.00 in other parts of the country. I have since gone on-line and looked at all the complaints about Kirby and their sales techniques. Unless you have no integrity what so ever do not allow yourself into taking this sales job. Mental anguish. I'm just glad I didn't get sucked in.

On October 17, 2009, two representatives came by my home in Roseville California to demo your vacuum/shampooer. They shampooed the carpet in my den. When I asked the Kirby representative if putting the furniture back on the wet carpet would damage it, they said the it would not damage my carpet. One week later, I purchased a hoover steam vacuum, and steam cleaned the carpet myself. First the water that I vacuum up was filthy and when I moved my sofa and love seat to clean under them the carpet had rust stains as a result of the Kirby representatives shampoo job the week before.

Also, they said that it would dry in a few hours, and it actually took almost 24 hours. I know for sure that it was from the Kirby shampoo job because I moved and vacuumed under the furniture two weeks prior to the Kirby representative shampooing our carpet and there were no rust stains at that time. I contacted the Kirby company from a phone number on a brochure that was left behind, and asked them to replace the carpet in the one room. A Kirby representative name Paula said without the name and phone number of the representative that came into my home, there was nothing they could do.

I was about ready to head to town when I was approached by a young college-aged person named Shane. He went on to say that he wanted to clean an area in my house, for free. I asked him, "What's the catch? " He said there was no catch, and that he would take 30 minutes to an hour for the demonstration. Well, needless to say, my carpet wasn't terribly dirty, but there were a few spots left over from the holidays. He brought out boxes out of his car and set them on the hood of my Jeep. I didn't complain, but I thought that in itself was rude.

I knew that this was a Kirby sales pitch, but I figured that, at least, I don't have to do the cleaning! Never in my right mind did I think that this would be a disaster. I did inform him that I possessed a perfectly fine Bissell machine and that I was not interested in purchasing it. He went on to say that they were cheap Walmart vacuums. Wrong. My Bissell does the job well and lasted three plus years.

Anyways, I lied and said that I had an emergency and had to leave. He had no intention on leaving. Fortunately, my husband, a retired state patrolman, walked in from running errands. He demanded the boy to leave. Still, he kept on sprinkling all this stuff on the carpet and was rattling on. My husband told him to get out and it was as if he was talking to the TV!

I told the boy that I might be interested, but all in all, I figured that it would be nice to have a clean living room rug and for him to earn cash even for no sale. I told the boy that we had to leave, but again, he did not pack up. It took my husband to go to the laundry room to cut the breakers for him to pack up. Then, he accuses me of being a cheapskate and was very rude.

He slammed all his belongings into the box and came across a floor tool with a slight gouge. He said that I would have to pay for it. I didn't even touch the floor tool! My husband gave him the ultimatum to leave or face the police. He gave a tongue-in-cheek look and continued to rant and rave about the scratched tool. Finally, a sheriff's deputy arrived and had to escort him off our property. He was lucky to avoid jail.

I was upset at the fact that I opened my home to him so he could win a vacation,I now know this is not necessarily the case, and when I asked him to leave, he refused. We had to shut off the breaker to the living room to get him to stop! And I thought that I was doing him a favor of letting him clean my carpet to get brownie points, while I get my living room stains, which still remained off the floor.

My husband and I are retired and in our early 60s, and while we may be a little more fortunate than some retirees, it makes me wonder about some little old lady or some poor family being literally pulled into this scam. In all honesty, I kind of felt sorry for the boy, even though his attitude was poor when I told him that I wasn't interested and that I simply was doing him a favor while he did me a favor. I used to own a Kirby until it finally quit years ago, but experiences like this make me just to want to keep buying the cheap $50 vacuum off the shelf at Walmart.

Never would I have thought that, with my husband and I living in a rural area, that I would be solicited. I guess that's not the case, but then again, we're only forty minutes from crime-ridden Lakewood/Tacoma.

I worked for Kirby for a month. You see the scam in all of these reports, but the personal statements from the employees tell the absolute truth. It is a good vacuum, cleans the ** out of your carpet and makes your living conditions a lot easier. But, the lies that get you into that house, the CDs titled "Selling Women Alone" and searching for middle class credit worthy homes are a scam.

Knocking doors gets tiresome so we rely on appointments. Time is a big factor, too. When we show a vacuum, even if it doesn't sell, we want the people to give references so we don't have to knock doors. But most of these people that don't buy are harassed by the dealer and are left with a load of dirty pads to clean up.

I have just read other people who have problems (in USA) with Kirby. Well, they seem to be taking over the world! I live in New Zealand and we have Kirby companies here. I needed work about 2 years ago and I got a job with a company called Globalized Business Technologies near to where I was living. I got an interview and felt great about it. In the interview, they told me that I would get $2600NZD a month no matter what for working with them selling their "products". I would only have to work Monday to Friday from 11AM till 9PM. I thought, "okay, that's great". Later that night, I was at home and I got a phone call from these people saying "Congratulations, we loved you at our interview and we would like to offer you the job". I was over the moon about it and thought "great, a chance to challenge myself".

I got to the premises and it started out great meeting other people who were also successful, then we had to go inside to start the training on the "product" we were selling. We got into the room and the manager goes right "welcome to GBT" to sell Kirby Vacuum cleaners. Now I haven't heard about them before so I wasn't aware about it. Now at that stage, I was still only young - about 18 - and i had only worked in customer service retail roles and call centers so sales was a bit different. So I was of course naive about it and listened to everything they had to say. We learned about the vacuum cleaners and how to sell Kirby vacuum cleaners. I was gobsmacked near the end of it when I found out the people they "target" to sell the cleaners to. The "targets" (as Kirby puts it) are elderly people.

To think that elderly/retired people have money stashed away and $4500.00NZD is nothing to them. They also target people who are obsessive about being clean and keeping their house clean, people who are ill and have just come out of hospital or have cancer, asthma, etc. Indians (because they think their wallets are always full in this country) as well as people with lots of children (who are most likely to be on a benefit and can't afford a lot) and general people like that. They do not try and sell to the upper class people because they know they won't part with their money so easily. Anyway, we were told that we could own our own office of Kirby and get $1500.00NZD from every sale our team make, etc. and I could earn up to $30000.00NZD a week if I sold enough vacuum cleaners, etc.

That was when we also found out that if you work for Kirby, you can go on trips around the world to USA (which I have always wanted to visit) and Australia and Europe, etc. which gave me some motivation to do it. You can live full-time in penthouse hotel rooms and drive 4 flash cars etc. We also found out that the "guaranteed $2600.00NZD" a month was only if we made 60 demonstrations in that month. We also had to go and ask friends and family to let us do our demonstrations just as training purposes so of course, we went away and done that. Now, I contacted people who I knew to get as many appointments in one weekend as I could so that I could be in to win $100.00NZD in the following week. I also contacted family of close friends that I knew and got a lot of appointments. I went back in the next day and found that I had the most training appointments, so I would get the $100.00NZD the following week.

When I started my first training appointment, I went through what I had been taught and it was going great until I had to call the office quite often to tell them how the customer was looking and what stage I was up to and relay questions that I was being told to ask (which to me seemed unprofessional). Anyway, when I made my last phone call to say I was done, I then had to give offers to my "training" demonstration people and try get them to buy it. It actually got pushy and I was really embarrassed because they did not tell us that they were going to make us sell it to them. We were just told it was for training before getting out onto the field. After the training period of 5 days was complete, we got our contracts which we had to sign right there and then on the spot before we left and gave them to the manager to file, which to me seemed odd and strange but I really needed money so I did it and stuck it out.

It was all glory in the beginning. We would arrive in the morning and do a song and dance with everyone with strobe lights etc. and seemed like an upbeat atmosphere. We then did sales stories of how people did their sale of a Kirby and then into training. About lunchtime, we would go out with our team leaders who just got to sit on their butts and drive around all day while we did the work. We were told that someone would knock on doors for us and we would just have to demonstrate, but we didn't.

We had to knock on doors and practically say whatever we had to get in the door so we were not allowed to say we were from Kirby. We had to say free carpet shampoo, etc. I found that a lot of people didn't like Kirby. Who can blame them? I know how they felt and I was a salesperson. So it was hard to get the demonstrations and when we were able to get in the door when we made our last phone call, we had to do whatever to force people into buying this machine by doing comparison tests with their current vacuum cleaner, etc. and it was embarrassing for me.

I also found out that the hours we were told were not correct at all. We would leave the office at mid-day and we were not allowed to return to the office any earlier than 9PM. If we did, we got into trouble. So it was about 11PM before we got back to the office and I was really tired. We also found out that Monday to Friday was a joke. We were expected to work Monday to Saturday, 11AM till after 9PM that night and every Sunday was "sell a Kirby day" where you had to be more pushy than ever to sell cleaners and those hours were 9AM till 3AM the following morning. I was there for 2 weeks (including the 5-day training period) and I only got $141.00 for over 151 hours of work that is less than $1.00NZD an hour! I never got my "guaranteed" $2600.00NZD at all and I never got my $100.00NZD from making the most "training" appointments.

The only reason why I got money was because a family member who was on a benefit brought it off me because she felt that was the only way to shut them up and so I could get a little bit of money. In that time, I lost my house, I got into debt with the rent and my bills. My partner had to pay for everything for both me and him which wasn't fair as he had to pay child support and a loan he took a few years prior. Since Kirby, I am wary when applying for sales jobs as they don't tell you it is Kirby. I've had another interview a little after that for Eagle Home Tech and as soon as I saw the word Kirby in their office the day of my interview, I told them I don't want anything to do with Kirby and so I'm not doing the interview.

My advice is never ever work for Kirby or anything that might sound like Kirby because they lie to you in the interviews, make all these promises that never happen and it's embarrassing when you have to practically force a customer to buy it which I hated and feel sorry for everyone out there that has been in this situation. So if you are elderly/retired, very sick, just came out of hospital, have lots of children, an Indian or Chinese, etc., beware as you are the "Kirby targets" and they never say what actually happens.

I recently almost got duped into working for the Kirby company selling vacuum cleaners. I was pretty naive to this whole ruse and found my self taken aback on the first day of orientation. Jeff, who posted an ad online was very misleading when he described the job over the phone to me. I told him I'd have to drive over an hour to get to the interview and wanted more details concerning the job.

He then made clever play-on-words in an attempt to just get me there. I got suckered into the first day of orientation and immediately came home and started researching this company and what it does. It led me to this site, and I was horrified, yet immensely relieved my shady suspicions were made a reality. Never have I heard a so-called "trainer" curse so much during an orientation! Appalling behavior!

Kirby sales reps were knocking door to door, offering free carpet cleaning, no obligation required. I said, "Sounds great. Are you sure no obligation?" "Yes," he responded, "can we clean your carpets?" I said ok, and they proceeded to their work, which began about 8 pm (one room approximately 12x24). They completed about 9 pm and then started their sales line about quality, etc. I know after hearing them out I said no once. I do believe I said no again but they kept on over and over. I started to wonder if I could afford it just to get them out of my house. After a confusing 30 minutes I thought I said no again when Dave said according to the numbers he saw me put together I could afford it. I was tired and confused and I don't know why I agreed to say, "Yes, I would sign on the dotted line."

The next morning I was unhappy I let them in, and got advice on how to get out of the mess I got myself into. I took all info and three days after they had left, I called to say my family takes care of my finances and definitely don't have the monies to pay and I will bring the vacuum back. I was told it's too late to return, it's mine now. On 10/22/2009 I received a letter from United Consumer Financial Services stating they would not accept my credit application for the Kirby vacuum.

I then went to the Kirby sales office to physically return the vacuum. They told me I could leave it but would not be given a receipt because they don't take return period. My boyfriend called the city police to see what course of action to take, and without money to travel or hire an attorney here I amhelp. I have not once used it; the vacuum is still in box. I forgot to mention that Kirby knew I wasn't credit worthy before I got the letter because on 10/02/2009, it was 20 days before Kirby got Firstline Financial, Inc. to approve my financing. The financial company that denied me must have good reason, though I believe that Kirby has helped give me bad credit as my bank had told me a corporation was attempting to do.

I made the mistake of letting them into my house to demonstrate a Kirby vacuum. They would not leave. To get rid of them, I signed a form which they told me would allow me to use it for 3 months, then I could return it. Of course, this was a lie. They will not pick it up. And I now owe $1600.00 to United Consumer Financial Services. The ink won't dry on the form before they turned it in. Now I find out they have a 30day return policynot 3 months! They lied and I'm angry! They came on the 18th of December. I have family coming in for Christmas.

Since I was told I had 3 months, I did not even look at paperwork until January. I have back problems and my daughter-in-law was diagnosed with MS a week after this. I can not afford to pay this outlandish price for a vacuum I don't even want. I'm a teacher on a fixed income. My husband lost his job. I should have known better! I live in North Mississippi. What are my options? Should I drive the 3 hours to Fayette, AL and leave it in their shop?

I asked my 10-year-old to write about his weekend (in his own words). "This weekend, a guy ran into our house. He said he had a gift so he ran to the back of his truck and got boxes and ran to our living room and took out a vacuum cleaner out. And he said he was from Florida, and if he sold nine of them, he would get a trip to Florida, and he said his grandpa lived on a chicken farm in VA. Then after he showed us the vacuum, he said he had to call his boss. And he didn't even have a cell phone, so he asked if he could use our house phone. After that, he asked if we would buy it and for how much. He said it's $1650.00. Then he washed his stuff off in the sink and left 10 minutes later."

On January 6th 2010, I went to an interview and was hired on the spot to demonstrate Kirby vacuums. I was told to report the Wednesday of that week for training at 11:00 am. So anyway, I was also told we would have appointments which turned out to be one of many lies. So I went through training for three days and they sent us home with the equipment and we had to show it to six people over the weekend which I did. Anyway, the following Monday thru Thursday, I sat in a van while these other people knocked on doors. I got one appointment per day.

They promised me three. Come Friday morning, I was told I needed a tie and a shirt. I was wearing a pullover shirt that looked fine. I told them I would go get it from home and be right back. After leaving, Jack ** paged me and said, "Sorry, this is not going to work out." So what am I getting paid for all my time? They say they owe me nothing. The bad part is the Kirby does a great job and all they have to do is an honest demo and they will sell. I worked for nine days and they say they owe me nothing. I was guaranteed $400 a week and not only that but I would show up for work at 11 am and not get back to there office till 11 pm or 12 pm

Their customer service is not helpful. We traded our generation 4 ( which is great by the way) for this new piece of ***, the Sentria. We had it not even 1 month and the fan broke. They were fraudulent and misrepresenting their product when they told us the full lifetime warranty. We paid another $42 for the fan to be replaced. The authorized repair service told us that they tell you this all the time but it is not a covered part. Now 2 months go by and the belt breaks. In 15 years of owning the generation 4, I think we bought a new belt twice for it. We called Kirby and told them to keep our down payment and our 3 monthly payments already made. All we want is our old vacuum back and they said no way. They lie about their product and the warranty that goes with it. I am very dissatisfied and feel like we were scammed all the way. I feel like this was a lemon to begin with and the company was fraudulent and misrepresenting.

I have had my Kirby vacuums for many trouble-free years. They do an excellent job, and the lifetime warranty is outstanding. It's an excellent product. I will buy another one when needed.

On 12/09/09 Kirby vacuum cleaner did a sales demo (shampooing one room) as a sales promotion. I filled out paper work to buy a vacuum and paid a $100.00 deposit to D.J. Enterprise in care of Paul C. The next day they called and said my credit did not get approved and came (while I was not at home) and took the vacuum cleaner back. Today is 1/11/10 and I have not received my $100.00 back. I have called them and talked to the Fremont office and to Paul, and they said they "will mail it out today" or that "Paul will drop it off at your house tonight," and I still have not got my money. Now they are not answering my phone calls at all. This is totally unfair and I need my money. I am permanently disabled and on SSI, which gives you $845.00 a month. I am having severe health problems and cannot afford to even buy food and will be on dialysis if I do not eat a certain diet. Is there something that you can do? Please let me know.

I was bullied into buying a Kirby at R12600-00. The very next day, I phoned to say that I cannot really afford it and exercise my right of the 3-day trial period to return it. I was told it is the holiday season and I would have to wait till the New Year (2010). I phoned early in the New Year and they said they will reverse the money. On the 3rd call (now 9 January 2010), I am told that they do not actually have a return policy. What the **! In the meantime, my husband has had a heart attack and not having medical aid. I urgently need that money back! Please help me!

I received the telemarketing call just as Terry G.'s statement claimed. I had to postpone once or twice because my Father was ill, then passed away. The salesman came who was obviously in good shape to handle this machine & made it look easy. As he was starting his sales pitch, I received a call from a client (I do childcare in my home), telling me I was going to be getting part-time hours instead of full time. This really upset me and I had a really hard time concentrating on what he was saying, and I told him so.

I was already struggling, my church made my house payment in Nov. and I told him I couldn't afford it, plus it was really heavy and hard to handle. He proceeded to show me how it "drives itself". I was excited because it did clean well, but was still telling him my concern about the money and awkwardness of the machine and it affected my neck and back. At one point, I told him I might get a small inheritance but didn't know when or how much.

He did a credit check and I was approved for 6 mo. same as cash. He and Mike said I wouldn't have a payment for 6 mo., but when I called the finance co., they said my payments start in Feb. I explained to United Consumer (the finance co.) that I couldn't afford it, they said I still had to pay for it because the 3 day waiting period was up. I didn't have an opportunity to use it during that time.

I took the machine back to Kirby on a Sat. and an elderly gentleman was there. I explained the situation to him and he said "Well, we don't usually do this" but he signed the copy and I left the machine there. I found a part belonging to the vacuum so I took it to the store on Mon. (12-14-09) and a gentleman named Mike, I believe, said he had just left a message on my home phone that I needed to pick up the machine because it is mine and I have to pay for it. I really didn't know what to do then, so he put it in my van because it was too heavy for me, and I brought it home.

I have good credit up to this point and I don't want it ruined over a vacuum cleaner but I cannot afford it physically or financially. I cannot afford to pay for this machine, especially if I am not able to use it. This has affected my health from the day it started. I truly thank you for any help you may be able to give.

I bought a Kirby vacuum cleaner for $1500 on 12/8/09. I changed my mind about the vacuum and submitted a cancellation form (within the contract specified time) to the distributor on 12/10/09. The contract clearly states that I would receive a refund within 10 business days of cancellation. Today is January 7, 2010, and I am still trying to get my money back. The distributor would not return my calls initially. He called twice and said he was coming with the $1500, but he didn't show up. I've complained to Kirby's Consumer Affairs Department, but nothing has been done.

The Kirby company was set up, so that independent distributors work under the Kirby company as separate businesses. I am going to small claims court for the return of my money. Can I name the Kirby company (headquartered in Ohio) as well as the distributor (Leonard **) as plaintiffs in this situation? I think the distributor has spent my money and is having difficulty recouping it. I am afraid I will not get my money back, and I assumed that the Kirby company backed the sale.

I purchased a Kirby Sentria Vacuum from an Independent dealer/distributor, Helen ** on December 23, 2009. I wrote her a check for the full purchase price of the vacuum and ask her to hold the check until the following Monday, December 28, 2009. She promised me that would not be a problem and she would not cash the check before then. She also was to bring me the carpet shampoo and vacuum cleaner bags on Saturday, December 26, 2009.

I checked with my bank on December 24, and she had already cashed the check, after promising not to. She also did not show up on Saturday to bring my supplies, nor did she call. I called the Fayette AL office on Monday, December 28, 2009, to speak with Helen. The secretary told me she would contact her and call me back. She did. She said Helen would be at my house on Tuesday, December 29th between the hours of 2pm and 3pm.

She did show up around 6pm with all sorts of excuses for cashing my check early and not showing up to deliver my supplies. I had given her some phone numbers as possible referrals for her to contact and while she was here, she asked me to show her where one of them lived. I agreed since it was less than two miles from my home. I drove my car over there, parked in the grass, so she could get everything out of her van.

When she left, with her demonstrator/salesman, Jerry ** still inside the home demonstrating the vacuum, she backed in to my car, smashing the front drivers side bumper. She did not bother to come inside and tell me. I went outside to get into my car and noticed that my car had been ran over. I went back inside and informed Jerry H. He told me that Helen M had insurance and it would be covered.

About an hour later, after Jerry called her; she showed back up at the residence and came inside telling me about how she had hit my car. She gave me her insurance information and I called and reported the accident the following day. The insurance adjuster called me today and informed me that the policy was not in effect at the time of the accident. They had spoke with Helen at this time and she told them she would pay for the damages out of her pocket. However,she will not answer her phone or return my call!

I also need to mention that the friend who I recommended, ended up purchasing a vacuum cleaner. It broke the very next day. She called Helen and left a message for her to return her call. Helen called her back and left a message stating that she would be at my friend's house the following day. Helen did not show up or did not call. My friend drove several hours to Fayette AL the following day and returned the vacuum cleaner. Helen is representing the Kirby Company and is supposed to be opening a store in Corinth, MS. Conducting business like she is doing; she is making Kirby look very unprofessional and the service she is providing is beyond belief!

These Kirby guys just came to my home to give demo, and believe me they took 2hrs of my time and after the demo I said I am not interested. Guess what, they stole my money which left on my table. Please never let these guys inside your houses.

A young woman showed up at the door offering my wife to clean a room of carpet for free, that a friend of hers from Michigan was starting a business in this area and was offering free cleaning to promote his business just for the advertisement. My wife agreed but told her that we could not have it done tonight (New Years Day). Not 15 minutes later two guys showed at the door carrying a Kirby vacuum set up. I over heard her explain that she had told the girl it was not possible tonight. They opened the door and stepped inside anyway.

I immediately stepped to the door and told the salesman we were not interested. He attempted to continue and I told him again we were not interested and that he needed to leave immediately. He was a rather rough looking character and became agitated. I told him I was not appreciative of the scam tactics to get in the door and to get out. As he moved toward the door he continued mouthing off in a threatening manner. I had reached my limit and gave it right back. His last statement to me was, "What's your ** problem old man? Shut the ** up." I directed him to get the off my property. He wanted to fight with me.

What kind of company would allow someone like this to represent them? I would not buy a Kirby if I had to take the carpet up and outside to shake it instead of vacuuming. This intrusive, bait and switch, lying, cheating, underhanded method of marketing should be outlawed. There is no remedy for the anguish caused by this jerk, but people should know what they're in for if they let one of these people in the door. No economical damage occurred. Mental anguish occurred as a result of this individual's aggressive, threatening nature. I understand no legal remedy is available but I posted in an effort that others may head off the problem before it reaches this level.

they talked me into buying a cleaner i couldnt afford , i changed my mind within the three days you have to cancel an agreement i took back the cleaner , they were supposed to refund my money within 7 to 9 days it has been 2 months and they still have my money.

a Dyson animal DC14 gray and purple,I have been trying to get it back and they set up a time for me to be home but don't show up All I want is my vacuum back I gave their stuff back.

I purchased a Kirby vacuum with my credit card on Dec 1st. The salesman (Will)was aware that I might not be able to keep it (63 years old and two back surgeries). I could not physically lift it to carry upstairs. He picked the vacuum up on the 7th of Dec and said the charges would be taken off of my credit card. By the 14th the charge was still on there. I called the Kirby Eagle River office (very upset) and left a message. Approximately and hour later Bill (area supervisor) returned my call and told me that instead of calling him (which I didn't ) and cussing him out why didn't I call the "bastard" that sold me the vacuum? This from an area supervisor who is a representative of the Kirby company. Later that day Mel Money, another area supervisor called me and assured me that the charge would be reversed by the 17th or 18th. On the 18th it was still on my credit card , I called and left a message for Mel and he still hasn't returned my call. This is not what I call a reputable business transaction and I personally would not want either of these men to represent my company.

They put the add sa a office work, receptionist and wen you get there is for sell Kirby vaccums door to door plus you dont get paid until you sell more than 5 vaccums.....

Two evenings during the past week we have had people at our door around 8:30 in the evening, well after dark, wanting to demonstrate a Kirby vacuum. The first time we opened the door and told the guy we weren't interested. Tonight, there was a man and woman who came to the door, rang the bell, knocked on the door and started yelling for us to open the door before we could even start to the door. Then the woman was yelling for us to turn on the porch light and when we just called back that we weren't interested, she said that we needed to open the door to see what it was, that they wanted to give us a free carpet shampoo. I used to think I liked Kirby vacuums, but wouldn't even consider buying one now!

My friend found an ad on Craigs list about this job. He went in and they showed him unbelievable numbers and told him he could bring in people. He told me and another friend about the job and a base pay of $400.00 weekly. I never had a job and this job was extremely tempting so I agreed along with my other friend.

When I came in with my friends I just talked with a woman for about 5 minutes at the most about my interests and her's. She didn't run a background check on any of us, after that we were led into a room full of other people where they began our training. We did not receive any payment for training.

My brother googles Kirby and finds this site so he immediately wakes me up one morning and I begin to read a few complaints. I'm surprised, I can't believe that the people over at Kirby lied to me. So what did I do? I decided to work my first day, and how the reviews started speaking the truth.

First of all, YOU go door to door and try to set up appointments. You will try and nab people with a FREE COMPLIMENTARY CARPET SHAMPOOING and the only catch is we only do one room. I left my house at 8:30AM and got there at 9:45AM, 15 minutes to have a nice coffee and cigarette before I start work. Work starts at 10:00AM where we sit for an hour or two singing and clapping and jumping. Finally we get into teams and go into our van full of Kirby Vacuums.

We drive for an hour till we finally get to some apartments where they tell us to get out and go door-to-door and try to get appointments set up. I'm on my feet from 1:00PM to 4:00PM trying to get some appointments set, mind you that I haven't had anytime to eat anything, and my manager finally offers me a demo. Sure, this is what I really wanted to do.

So we get to the house and I meet this really nice guy who doesn't have a stable income. This is sick! I'm going to try and sell a poor family that's trying to survive on whatever they can make? So I felt like I was 2-inches tall. I told him nah man I understand it's cool you don't need to buy this thing. I get paid just for doing this demo. So I'm there cleaning his carpet when my manager shows up and does a mattress test for the guy which surprises his but it's not that bad. He has a 4-month old son and a 6 year old daughter. Anyways my manager leaves and I'm there doing the next step and I try to call the office to check in, which was horrible and was put on hold. How professional does it look when I'm put on hold in front of a customer?

Anyways I hang up and I begin my next step, me and him are just talking about hard times. And I can't believe the words that were coming out of my mouth, but it was the truth. I kept blabbing on about how much I wanted a Kirby Vacuum and with my first paycheck I was going to put a down-payment on one. What I was going to use first and the most, blah blah blah. I knew talking about this was going to make the guy think twice about getting one. And honestly he almost did buy one. I would bet my life on it that if at that moment when my manager came in to close a deal that if I looked at the guy, smiled and nodded in approval that he would've bought one.

In training there are 10 steps, Step 1 is called "Front Talk". The first line under the title is "Make A Friend". Honestly, I did make a friend with this guy. We could've chilled the whole night if we wanted to. My manager was pretty upset that we didn't sell, and I guess I was too because I knew that this day was my last and I wouldn't receive any payment. So my manager hooks me up with another demo, the time is 7:30PM.

This time it's an old lady with a 12 year old daughter. She has the latest Kirby model and I was supposed to show her that the Kirby Sentria out-performs the old Kirby G-6. But...Since I hated this [spiel] I did something different with her. I skipped talking about the vacuum and it's attachments. I went straight to vacuuming, didn't want to do any front talk. After I pulled some pads, she was surprised because it's mandatory that we vacuum their carpet with their old vacuum first then with the Kirby to show that their vacuum is junk.

Anyways we get this dirt meter which replaces the hose, only the company employees are allowed to use it. She asks me to put it on her Kirby and normally I would've said Sorry I can't do that because __________. But I said sure lets see, we're all interested. I put the dirt meter on her's and vacuumed. Her Kirby pulled the same amount of dirt the new Kirby had done. Her Kirby was perfectly ok. I went to vacuum her mattress and that was new to her and she was disgusted but knew she could do that now with her Kirby, and I was happy.

After the mattress test my manager showed up and attempted to close a deal. She stated that she claimed bankruptcy and had a foreclosure in the same year. He nodded and made no further attempts to close a deal, knowing that her credit was [bad]. He quickly shampooed her carpet while I quickly packed. After the shampoo we were on our way heading out the door. I was following him and he looked back at the carpet. No, not at the carpet but what was on the carpet. The dirt pads I pulled were still on her carpet. He didn't tell me to get them or do anything, all he did was smile at the pads and walk out.

What's worse is I didn't clean them up but I didn't want to drop everything and put the pads in the trash because that would hold my manager up and he would've probably been all over me on that. EVERY REVIEW ABOUT THE KIRBY ON THIS SITE IS TRUE. People complaining on how we try and sell is all true. So beware, don't give Kirby any second of your time. Remember, nothing is free. Not even complimentary carpet shampooing.

I'd like to also state that I'm very sorry for the people that I've tried to cheat people into spending time with the Kirby and to the two people that have spent time with me and the Kirby.

Around 2:30 today we get a persistent knock on our door. My husband answers to a man offereing a free carpet shampoo. He says he will shampoo one high traffic area of our carpet for free to help promote his company. My husband and I being naive agree to let the man do so. He tells us it will only take 30 minutes because we both tell him that we have to go to work. He says he is sending in his best guy to do the job and sending in a trainee to watch him. The man that offered us the deal gets in a van and leaves. The guys that are supposed to shampoo the carpet start setting up a booklet and taking out a vacuum with all sorts of gadgets. He then starts doing all sorts of demonstrations and pointing out how dirty our home is and insulting the vacuum that we already owned.

I tell the man I don't have time for this I have to get ready for work- meanwhile I walk off getting lunch together and brushing my teeth while he just keeps talking and following me around. He insists on going in my bedroom to perform a test. I tell him "NO" he goes in there anyway I curse at him he doesn't mind -He performs his test on my mattress and pillows. He gives me and my husband a credit application to fill out I tell him I will "NOT" fill it out however my husband does. He asks about our credit my husband tells him his credit is extremely poor the man doesn't listen. He borrows my husbands phone (makes up a lame excuse that his phone doesn't work, which I now know is the part of the scheme that all of these guys do). He talks about some deals that he wants to give us if we give him canned goods he will give us a better value, also we can trade in our old vacuum to get better deal. He hangs up and tells us how is trying to win a new car for his son if we help him by purchasing a vacuum.

I leave the guys there talking to find out that my husband did not get approved (thankfully) for the vacuum and the only reason he applied for it was to get the guys out of our house because he was already late for work. The guys insult my husband saying why didn't you tell us your credit was poor my husband said I tried to tell you you didn't listen to me. They finally left our home at around 4:00. Our carpet never got shampooed it was just a scheme to get you to let them in your house.

I come home and my wife Brenda tells me she bought a Kirby Sentia Vacuum. She says the saleman took our old yellow vacuum (new value < $250) and gave her $300 credit on it. I saw the vacuum and asked her why did she buy it. She said that Mark, the saleman cleaned up our couch and she was impressed with the job. She said that we need a good vacuum cleaner. When I asked how much did it cost, Brenda said about $2300. I guess my wife was looking for my approval, but when I said that is too much for a vacuum cleaner she didn't say anything. I said that we should research the internet for information on Kirby vacuum cleaners. I did this and consumer organization reports state the the Kirby is the best vacuum cleaner around. It is solidly built and will last for years. The reports recommended purchase with a reservations. They said that depending upon resistance to purchasing the vacuum and buyer negotiating/bartering power, you can get the vacuum from $700 to $2700 depending upon how hard you bargain.

When I asked Brenda for the purchase price, she gives me the sales sheet that Mark used to convince her of the sale. I look on the internet for more information and come across this site(consumeraffairs.com) and read all the horror stories of other consumers. They kept stating of a loan contract to United Consumer Fiancial Services Company. I get suspicious as to financial details that my wife never told me about. Last night the saleman called three times trying to get a hold of me. I didn't want to answer his call and neither did Brenda. A quick search around the house and I find a "Conditional Sale Contract" between Ros Holdings and me. It has what appears to be my signature, dated Nov 28, 2009. I never even saw the contract before, nor did I sign it. My wife Brenda must have forged my name and the saleman, Mark signed below it as dealer. The signature does not even match the buyer's name. I told Brenda that we can't afford to buy this vacuum. Especially now since I've looked at the contract and it is for 36 months with monthly payment of $91.90 and annual interest of 28.9%. Total cost of vacuum is $3308.49 Canadien.

Mr. Robinson demostrated a Kirby Vacuum cleaner in my home and I was very impressed. After talking me into buying it, I have had nothing but problems with the vacuum cleaner. Every time I try and use it, either the belt breaks, comes off or something happens to it. I have to continually work on it.

Since I have arthritis and cannot work on the machine, I have asked over and over for the person who sold it to me to come and get it and let me return it for a full refund. No cooperation at all...the Kirby Vacuum is such a ripoff especially when it is such a pain to use and for the money that it costs. it is a shame that they take advantage of elderly people and make it look so simple to use, when in fact it is not. It is very complicated and not easy to use at all. besides it is not worth the time and trouble it causes.

I want to return this vacuum cleaner and get my money back, but as of this date, I haven't had any luck getting this done. Someone should put Kirby out of business. Black streaks on my carpet when the belt came off. shampooer does not work...will not clean carpet at all.

i have written to the BBB about 2 of the names but they get no response and close the cases, now i do not know what my options are except a legal battle with Ms A., but i fear i will never see my money again, plus i would have to hire a lawyer, and that would make no sense to me at all seeing i need my money back, and not give it to someone else. Can you please help me as i am a 100% service connected Disabled Veteran and need all the help i can get, thank you.

On Wednesday afternoon, with the front door opened while taking an important phone call; a salesman knocked on the storm door. I had to tell the person that I would call back. Once the man gave his name (which I do not remember) and asked if I had heard of Kirby? I politely told him "I was not interested, thank you." He continued to harass me demanding to know what I had against Kirby. At that point, I told him that he was trespassing and to leave. I think he would have continued arguing except at that point my husband started towards the door. Is this the way you train your salesmen?? Now, even if I was interested I would not consider your product.

I have been home sick with the flu for several days, and was here when a large SUV with 4 men in it pulled up in front of my house. A young red-haired man (Dave) came up to my door with a can of Febreeze air freshener in his hand. When I opened the door, he said he was handing out free gifts to all the homeowners in the area, and was I the homeowner? I asked what company he was with, and he rattled off a company name so quickly that I couldn't understand him. I asked him to repeat it, and again, he rattled it off very quickly and asked again if I was the homeowner. I guess I looked confused at this point, because he said "Great!" and leaped off the porch back in the direction of the SUV, where the driver jumped out and said, "Great job, Dave!", and they proceed to quickly grab boxes out of their SUV and RUN back towards my house.

All of this was extremely disconcerting - for all I knew, these guys were criminals and about to try and rob me or do a home invasion. As they were running up the sidewalk towards me, I noticed they had vacuum cleaner (Kirby) boxes in their hands, and I said "STOP RIGHT THERE!". They stopped, looking confused, and I handed them back the Febreeze and told them to leave. They refused to take the Febreeze at first, saying, "Can't we just come in for five or ten minutes?" I said, "NO - take this and leave - now!". They insisted that it wouldn't take but a few minutes to demonstrate their product - I told them I was not interested and they needed to leave immediately.

They did finally get back in their SUV, but they sat in the SUV glaring at my house (where I was standing in the window watching them), and the driver was gesculating wildly as he explained something to the others in the vehicle - obviously how to get past the next person who acted as I did and refused them entry to their home.

I had been laid off recently and bills were stacking up so when I saw an ad in the local paper Love loud rock music?? Want to make 900$ biweekly? It sounded great. I called and got an interview and the lady who interviewed me, her name was Shalimar, said I would be an office assistant and I would make 920$ biweekly, after a brief waiting period(15mins) I was hired. When I went in for training they were showing me how to pack and unpack a vacuum! So I asked what was up she said I had to sell vacuums for 2 weeks and then I would get the assistant job..okay, whatever I thought. As long as I get paid I said, she said oh yes you will definatley get paid.

So I show up for work and they put me on a van full of guys! I'm 22 and they were looking. Some tried to feel me up when I was in the back seat. When I sat up front I always got shoulder massages..GROSS! I kept going out though because I needed the money. Then I started getting home later and later. One night I didn't get home till 1am! My fiance was getting worried about me because I would come home sleep get up and do it all over again the next day.I said as soon as I get a check I will quit.

I was sent out everyday knocking on peoples doors trying to get into a house to do a demo, my boss would tell me say whatever you need to say to get into houses.(red flag#1) then when you get into a house you have to pressure these people into buying a 2,500$ vacuum. I felt horrible everytime someone would say they can't afford and I was forced to pressure them into buying it. I actually started crying one day because I felt so bad.

Anyways, 2 weeks later I went to collect my paycheck and there was nothing there! They said because I didn't sell anything I didn't make any money. Would have been nice if they told me that from the get go! Half the people there have been to prison, if not all of them. Most of them have drug addictions and all of them talk nasty. Even Mike and Shalimar the owners! I am in serious debt now and have no way of fixijng it .if you are a lawyer or whoever can help please contact me! I beg you, they owe me money and I need it! If you have these people come to your door don't let them in! If you have an interview with them, run like a bear is chasing you! These people need to be shut down and punished for what they have caused.

I own three (3) Kirby machines. One from 1972 one from 1978 and a Gen III from @ 1993. I have had absolutely NO problems with any of mine and would highly recommend them. The Kirby is a heavy machine which is a negative, but I guess that is why I can use a vacuum from 1972. I use the hose attachment to clean out my car instead of paying @ carwash. I bought ALL of mine used which makes mine an even better buy. I hate having carpet but I love having a Kirby to clean the carpet!

I want my item back not something else that may or may not work. They had no right to donate it until everything was completed. What can I do. I have the New Kirby at my house.

On June 24, 2009 my father called me and wanted me to come to his house to see a new sweeper he said he had just bought, saying he wanted to make sure I knew how to operate it. He will be 88 in December and I do all his cleaning, laundry, etc. I went over right away and found Kirby salespeople there. It ended up I saw four of them including the owner. My dad was on the verge of having to move to a place where he was safer as he had been having a lot of forgetfulness and dizziness, and did not need a new sweeper!

When I arrived at his house, I asked him if he really wanted to buy the sweeper and he said he already had. Since I do most of his banking, I asked him how. He said they rode with him to the bank in his car for him to get a cashiers check and he had given it to them. I told him he could get his money back. I then told one of the salepeople to give him his check back as this deal was not going to happen. They called in the owner of the company (at least he said he was the owner) and he got very rude with me. I told him to leave the property and not to come back or I would call the police.

My father said he could not get these people to leave, no matter what he said to them. He is frail and not very forceful anymore and seems to be afraid of confrontation. The gave us the check back but certainly weren't happy with me. I felt I should report this when I ran across this website because it is likely that if they did it to him, they would certainly do it to other elderly people. My father said he called me with the excuse of wanting me to see how it operated because he knew I would come and take care of getting them out of there. He was very intimidated by a total of four salespeople in his house. We have been busy getting him moved and have not taken the time to report this to the Kirby Co. but plan to do so.

I wonder if those rip-off artists might leave sooner if they're told that you can get a Kirby for 750 sent to your home and that if they can't match that price to please go.

Hello

Here's a brief overview of my situation:

A Kirby salesman (justin) came to my door offering a free rug shampoo and furniture clean to demonstrate the vacuum. I agreed. He explained the various features of the vacuum cleaner. About halfway through the presentation I agreed to purchase the vacuum. He presented me with a contract at that time and I signed and he was preparing to leave. I asked him about the shampoo and furniture clean and he then wrote down what I thought was his cell phone number and his name and told me to call him and he would come back out in a week to do the shampoo. I called him later that evening (he said he would leave me bags and he didnt) and the number he had given me was disconnected.

I became upset at being deceived. I looked through my contract and changed my mind about the purchase. I followed the cancellation instructions and sent the cancellation notice certified mail to the address they had indicated on the contract. I also told the company financing the vacuum that I was going to cancel.

Then out of the blue I received a ton of phone calls at work from Mark Todd, who said he was the president of Kirby. He offered me 1 free gallon of shampoo, 2 free 6pks of bags and $50 if I reinstated my contract. I agreed.

He came to my house that same night with the shampoo and 1 pack of bags instead of 2 and no check, saying he would send the other things later. I signed the contract. He left.

In the course of all of this, I received the original cancellation notice I sent (to cancel the first contract) back in the mail stating the cancellation address does not exist!!!

Also, I am questioning the validity of the contract because both contracts have the same cancellation adress on them, which were written out at 2 different times by 2 different people, for an address that does not exist!! Per the contract, there is suppose to be a way to cancel but if the address doesnt exist how could someone who's unhappy with the service cancel? They can argue they never recievd the notice and of course they would not because the address is bogus!!

Consumers beware!!!

I purchased a Kirby about 3 years ago, was not happy with it about a weed later, and tried to cancel the deal. I was not instructed by the salesgirl who was new to the job, that I had 3 days only. I spoke to a man at the store, extremely rude and obnoxiuos, who stated that was my tough luck. I have taken the vacuum back to the company and asked for a cancellation and deposit return. They also received several payments after that while trying to clear this up and keep my cradit.

In the meantime, they apparently took this to civil court, I spoke to someone there about the situation, and today I find I have no vacuum (over 2 1/2 years since I gave it back) and found a "levy" for one solid withdrawal from my bank acct of over $2300.00. I knew nothing of this, and feel punched in the face after trying to do the right thing with them in the beginning.

In the meantime, I am negative in my bank account, have a mortgage to pay, & 2 small children in my house to feed. This company has apparently had multiple complaints about their product and even a website with complaints across the world about Kirby. I am at a loss in more ways than one, and would like to know if I can do anything about reimbursement to me and my family...the company has the vacuum, why can they take money from me? over $2600 and mental stress to me over this ordeal. Honesty apparently does not pay with Kirby, because they are screwing everyone over.

Temporary summer jobs are difficult to find, but when I saw a vague ad for summer jobs that pay $400 a week, and I calculated that that would be a bit more then I would expect to make on a normal full time job, I gave the number a call.

Being nave about the vague lingo slung at me, I think I got the impression that the job that I would be interviewing for would be some kind of delivery job of cleaning equipment, perhaps to hospitals or something?

I found the office on the appointed day and time, and still knowing very little about the job, I was asked to fill out an application. I saw some boxes labeled KIRBY, looked up at the Manager who was watching me fill out an application, said, 'Kirby, that's the vacuum from The Brave Little Toaster, isn't it?' He confirmed this.

My actual interview was with a Junior Manager (?) who was wearing obnoxious gold cufflinks and a gold watch. After revealing that I was applying for a job selling vacuum cleaners, he started talking about big money, contests, trips to Vegas, and so on. I wasn't interested in any of this (as I had made it clear that I had other life goals and I had no interest in visiting a city synonymous with desperate people gambling their rent money for false dreams, or turning to uncaring prostitutes to pacify their hopelessness, all beneath a tacky veneer of bright lights, high kicks and painted smiles) but questioned him about what the job entailed. I got the impression that I would be selling to people who were already interested in the product and wanted an in-home demonstration; basically going in to close the deal. Also, as long as I reported to work every morning and went to all of my appointments, I was guaranteed at least $200 a week.

The first appointment I went to, I can't remember the details exactly but the person indicated that she wasn't expecting a demonstration, already had the previous model, or something else. I apologised, said that the appointment had been made in error, grabbed my stuff and took off. When I got back to the headquarters, the junior manager said to me, 'You walked out of a house.' I said, 'Yes, the appointment was made in error.' I didn't realise until much later that I had done something wrong.

Every morning I would drive to the office, shaving with a bic disposable razor from the gas station where I stopped at on the way up, where there would be these horrible company songs, and each person who had sold a machine the previous day would describe how he did so, followed by applause and high fives. Then we would be given appointment slips that the telemarketers had arranged. Most of mine were due in half-an-hour's time and would be at least an hour's driving distance away (we used our own cars, I spent almost all of my $200 weekly income on gasoline back when it was about $1.10, and supplemented that with gas from grateful hitch hikers that I would pick up (I would plant a seed early on when they asked me how I was by mentioning that that times were tough for me with this job, listen to their life story, and by the time I dropped them off they would almost always offer to top off my tank)). I would drive like a maniac to not be too late, arrive flustered, apologising for the incompetence back at the office, and for the next several hours of the 30 minute appointment, do my very best impression of a 1950's vacuum cleaner salesman.

As things went on, I became a living example of the famous Milgram experiment. It's interesting to see where I succame to the influences of no longer being myself, but a representative of the company acting under their direction, and where I maintained my values. I did follow the directive of barging into a home, ignoring all hints that I should leave, and turning around any objection to a purchase with some horrible line. When I offered to take a trade-in on the person's old machine, however, and they asked what we did with the trade ins, I would say, 'Well, we are meant to say that we give them to "charity" but actually we sell them to someone who cleans them up and sells them to resale shops. It's basically an excuse to knock a couple hundred off the asking price.' While I was impressed by the design and workmanship of the machine, I didn't truly believe that most of the people I visited needed one, but did my best to pretend like I did.

I actually lost a lot more money then I made that summer, blew an engine block on my 89 Grand Am, got a few speeding tickets, learned to drive with my knee, visited my first adult bookstore (coming back from an appointment in Zion and depressed as hell), saw a lot of really bad neighbourhoods in Chicagoland, and begged for gas money a few times. I also ruined a nice family's new sofa when a machine malfunctioned (I do hope the manager rectified that). Working as an independent contractor did hell on my income taxes.

I think that I sold a total of three machines that summer.
Quitting was also an interesting task. I only stayed for the whole summer because I made a commitment, it would be difficult to find a new summer job that late, and I kept being told that soon things would turn around. I quit over the phone and got some horrible replies about what a great opportunity Kirby was, and wouldn't I take a $100 bill on the table it it were offered me.

I would just like to apologise to anybody who has ever been terrorised by a Kirby salesman. I'm pretty sure that the only people who are successful in that company are truly evil. I've learned from a former employee who now works as a landscaper and was doing some work on the trees out front of my mother's house that Arlington Heights Kirby has since closed due to people not being paid and a sexual harassment lawsuit.

On 9/14/09 at approximately 5:30 PM, a gentleman appeared at our door just as we were about to take our oldest daughter to dance class. He informed us that he and his wife had just moved to town and opened a carpet cleaning business, and that they were asking people in our neighborhood to allow them to clean the carpet in one room of their house, as a way to advertise for their company. We informed them that we were about to leave, and he asked if he could see the room we would want cleaned. Before we could even say yes, he pushed his way by us and let himself into our home. He then asked if we would be willing to allow them to do it the next day. We agreed.

Today (9/15/09) the same man came to the door, asking if we were still interested in having our living room carpet cleaned. I said "sure" and he informed me that they were finishing up with a neighbor's home and would be here shortly. About 30 minutes later, two completely different young guys come to the door. They let themselves in and I see that one of them is carrying two boxes with the word Kirby on them.

As someone who was scammed into working for this company 9 years ago, I knew exactly what was about to happen. I immediately told them that I knew what they were doing and would not be purchasing a vacuum from their company because their company was a scam. They said "ok" but continued to unload the items from the box and put together the vacuum. Then one of the guys left, and the other guy asked to use my phone to call his boss. I should have known better. Now this scam artist has my phone number.

Anyhow, after telling the guy vacuuming my carpet about how I used to be him once upon a time, a young person that was conned into promises of all this money, he started noticing red flags that he had noticed with the company himself. I googled the company name, Gold Circle Industries, and showed him all the complaints that had been filed in different states about this company. Then he asked to use my phone again to call his boss, because he said he needed his boss to come sign his demo card.

When the guy arrived that had come over with him before, I asked him if his boss was with him. He said yes and went out to the car to tell him that I wanted to speak with him. I could see the smirks on their faces which made me even more angry. I asked him for a business card, which he grabbed from his car and handed to me. It was not a business card, rather it was an advertisement that you would normally find on your door, for a carpet cleaning business. I asked him why he felt the need to misrepresent himself to me the day before, and repeated to him the same schpiel that he had given me the day before. He then told me flat out that he had not said any of those things, that he had represented himself as a salesman wanting to demo a new product.

So basically he called me a liar. Needless to say, I did not buy a vacuum from these scam artists, nor will I ever agree to a free carpet cleaning ever again. I sincerely hope that the guy that cleaned my carpet wasnt just putting on an act to get me to open up to him, and that he was merely an innocent pawn in this scam. If that is the case, I hope for his sake that he gets out and away from these people before he wastes anymore of his time working for them for nothing.

I was told it was easy for me to use being handicapped, but the truth is that it is too heavy for me. Would not take it back.

They came to my house for a demo( door to door). Did not give me a card did about half my room amd left. I am diabled and cannot clean up Kirby's mess that was left in my home. I want the demo finished and them to clean up their mess that they left in my home. It is as they left it. As stated they left me no names or business cards

Thursday, Sept 10, 2009, a woman came to my door and said she represented a "cleaning supply company" and they were offering free carpet cleaning for one room in my house to gain new customers in the area. I assumed it was a carpet cleaning business. I agreed, thinking that I would have more time to think about it but she then told me someone would be coming immediately to clean the carpet. It was 1:30 and I told her I had to pick my son up from school at 3:00, she said "no problem" so I let them in and only when I saw the box did I know it was Kirby.

I told the demonstrator that there was no way I could afford to buy one and over the next 3+ hours she continued to vacuum up carpet and fabric fuzz, trying to show me how dirty my house was (not a way to win me over). She continued to call her boss to get me lower prices but I told her I could not afford it. We have 1 in college, 2 in private high school, and I can't work do to health problems. Literally, while she was there a plumber was at my house and I had to pay $500 for a new water heater, our dishwasher is broken and we need a new car. I was very clear with her.

She also spent at least 30 minutes telling me about the trip she wanted to win. I just told her the financial problems I'm having and she's telling me about this fantastic trip she's going on...again, not winning me over.

At 3:15 I told her I had to go to pick up my son, she seemed to move quickly but didn't begin to shampoo the carpet. Finally, my son got a ride home. At this point I just wanted her to leave but she hadn't cleaned the carpet. When she began I watched her, I was interested to see what the machine could do (it's not that I didn't want one, I just can't afford one).

Well, after doing 2 small areas that might equal 3'x4', she was done! Where was the free cleaning for one room? I would have asked her to do more but it was almost 5, the plumber needed to be paid, dinner wasn't done and my husband was on his way home. She wanted to speak with him but I knew he would say no, too. I just wanted her to leave. And here's the kicker...she gave me one more "lower price" and explained how she could give me that price the next day (so I could talk to my husband) because he wasn't home to see the demonstration. But...she never called back the next day.

I am not a confrontational person, I did not say anything to her, I know she's just doing her job. But I do know when I'm being "worked" by a salesman and I don't appreciate it (ex.telling me how much money I'll save using one...ok, but where do I get the $2500 to buy one now?). I also don't appreciate the fact that the ONLY reason I let them in was to have them clean the living room carpet. She did NOT do this. Also the area she cleaned did not look any better and smelled funny.

I just want Kirby to know that someone is very unhappy with their company. I know that one person like me isn't much, especially when I can't buy a Kirby but now I don't know if I would if I could. I am very disappointed.

Yesterday around 6:30 a lady and a guy showed up at my home asking me if I wanted a "free" carpet cleaning. (red flag number one b/c we all know nothing is free). I was VERY upfront with her and told her that I was NOT interested in purchasing a vacuum cleaner. She went on to say that she just needed to show me the demo and clean my carpet because she really needed to meet her quota. After assuring me it was free and I was not obligated to purchase anything I said, "what the heck. Go ahead and clean the carpet, but I DO NOT want to purchase anything."

The guy came in to deomnstrate basically how dirty my carpet was and to tell me that my "expensive" vacuum was a piece of crap. I was impressed by the demo but not by the guys professionalism or appearance. He had on dirty shoes and he had the cleaner in a Dasani water bottle. Then he started trying to casually flirt with me and asking me personal questions. Once he was finished vacuuming my carpet with the Kirby vacuum he told me that the vacuum would be $2600.00. My exact words to him were you are smoking crack if you think I would pay 2600 for a vacuum.

He then said that he could come down off the price and it would be 1600. WOW! How could he amazingly come down off the price by that much money. Not to mention he had all those little dirty demo pads STILL laying on my floor. That is when he called his manager and said that he would be hte one that would be "authorized" to give me a better deal. His manager came in and the price amazingly went from 2600 dollars to 1600 dollars. I was still laughing and after telling the guy several times that I needed to feed my child and I did not want their vacuum he did not move from off of MY couch. I was so shocked that all of this took me totally off guard. I live alone therefore I was becoming very afraid for my son and I with these two guys there. They would not leave.

I called a good guy friend of mine and told him to IMMEDIATELY get to my house. Once I "finally" gave in to the price of 1200 dollars the guy finally shampooed my carpet. (three hours later!) By this point I was just ready for them to get OUT of my home! They even had the audacity to ask me what I had to drink. Um...If you are working for a company selling thousand dollar vacuum cleaners can they not supply you with water, milk, and juice? He, the manager, then proceeded to point out the fact that I had a Coach purse but would not pur more interest into the health of my son. His whole tone and attitude was very condesending and unprofessional.

Once my HUGE friend got there, the manager left-after the sales transaction-leaving the guy there to shampoo my carpet. By this time it was 9:30 and I was mentally and physically exhausted PLUS my child and I had not eaten! When the guy shampooed my carpet he still had his dirty shoes on and he did not even move the furniture to shampoo the entire room like he said he would. When he was finished he had to call the mamager guy to come pick him up and it took him an additional 45 minutes to come get him. He did not leave my home until 10:30. To add insult to injury he poured the water down my kitchen sink!

Something in my spirit did not sit right with me and this whole deal.I woke up this morning to google Kirby Vacuum cleaners and was literally SICK at how many complaints this company has against it. It was not my intentions to find complaints AT ALL! I wanted to research how "good" the vacuum cleaner is. Unfortunately I WILL NEVER do business with this company again. I don't care how good the vacuum cleaner is.

I tried calling the company number they gave me and no one answered. It always went to someone's voicemail. On a Saturday during business hours? hmm. I went to the store around noon and told the girl to cancel my order and that THEY needed to come and pick up the vacuum. She informed me that they are a part of hte BBB and she had NEVER had any complaints on this guy in three years. She went on to say that she has worked there for two years. Somebody can't do math? She went on to tell me that the "reason" they get a bad reputation is because it is door to door sales. HONEY PLEASE. I have had many door to door sales-Girl Scouts, school sales, etc., but none as "slick" as this!

She tried to open the door and hold it for me as if she was telling me I could leave after I told her about the unprofessionalism of the company. I told her I was not leaving until I had copies of ALL papers I had signed. I made sure she gave me front and back copies. She proceeded to ask me why I didn't bring the vacuum with me. And me being 130 pounds I was not going to try to stuff this USED vacuum into my car. Yes people, they are used. I checked the hoses and found hairs and other things. They TRIED to clean it up but I should have known something bacause the box he took it out of was very beat up.

If the vacuum is all that it is cracked up to be why not sell it in stores?

When I read over 30 pages on this site of the people that HAVE complained ACROSS THE COUNTRY, my stomach was literally in knots. They need to shut this company DOWN! ALWAYS GO WITH YOUR FIRST MIND!

I am a young single parent of 3 children and thought this company was exactly what I needed to start bringing in the bacon for my family, although I was completely mistaken by these gimmicks. I found an ad on craigslist stating "Carpet Shampooers needed", so I applied in person and immediately was hired. "ThaT WAS WIERD" I thought to myself..... I was indeed excited to know I am finally going to be working.

Once we had been there for about 3 hrs. we called our supervisor to come pick us up as we stall this non english speaking family. Once we had all the equipment packed up and ready for our ride, we are still waiting. Our supervisor finally showed up an hour later which made it a total of 4 hrs. we have spent in the person's home, she proceeds to try and talk this Korean man into buying the Kirby. First of all, he has NO clue what she is saying, and secondly this man isn't even the man who lives in this home, and she knew that.

The second day out on the field with this same crew, I was told to drive my own vehicle to save me the time and gas when i my day has ended, we all arrive at this ladies house in a very BAD neighborhood, and my supervisor says "you should leave your car here while I take you to another house down the way" I agreed because it sounded logical. Once we made it "down the way", I was told to jump out of the van she was driving, and set flyers on everyone's door step in the ghetto. I was hesitent, yet i went on to do what I was instructed to. Once I finished a 8 block hike through this neighborhood, I was taken to a potential customers house to demonstrate the benefits of this Kirby machine. My supervisor then again leaves me there to do my job.

Everything went well with this ladies home and I was obviously very well liked by her and her 2 yr. old lil boy. Once I was done with the demonstration, I called my supervisor to give her a lil time to arrive back to the home to close this deal. I left a message for her, and never heard back from her. I continued to show this lady more about the Kirby, until she kindly interupted me and asked " How much longer will you be here?" I explained to this lady that i am just waiting on my ride. This lady had a life, and needed to get going with it, and I really felt horrible for already taking up her precious time. Eventually I explained to her that it would be better for me to wait outside for my ride so she could continue on with her busy day.

I then went out to the curb with the Kirby, and sat as I waiting, and waited, and waited. 45 minutes goes by, I call my supervisor and I tell her I am going to find a ride and try to find my car (wherever I left it). My supervisor then arrives another 30 minutes later and tells me how sorry she is for the delay. I made a bit of a fuss to how this company runs, she then goes on to tell me that it isn't always this way. I explained to them that I NOT only skipped lunch for the day, but I didn't get why my car had to be in an unfamiliar area,and why I was being placed in a very uncomfortable situation. I AM NOT a sales Rep, I was hired to demonstrate, not to mention I had NO proof of identity.

I felt like they were dishonest with their initial sales tactic and if they had said we want to sell you a vacuum I wouldn't have let them in. Such a disappointment to waste my time and theirs.

A young girl comes to the door at around 7:40pm with another guy who was supposedly a trainee I had just come home. My 7yr old daughter rushed to open the door when the doorbell rang.The young girl said she was in the area to do some cleaning. She proceeded to say that she was offering a free one room shampoo cleaning. She said that the company was not a shampoo company, but was offering a one time only free shampoo cleaning with there product. I said that there must be a catch. She said of course, she wanted to show me her product the Kirby vacum. I told her that I was not feeling well and It was not a good time. She said what better time, you sit back and relax while I clean up for you, she said that it would be fast. I agreed, but I made it quite clear that I was not going to buy the vacum, she said that was fine and said that she would be back in about twenty minutes. I waited. Twenty minutes turned into fifty minutes, at 8:30 I was ready to go to bed, I turned all the lights off and proceded to put my children to bed. Just as I was headed to bed they knocked on the door. This time it was the young girl, and her sales manager. I said, that it was long after twenty minutes and I was headed to bed. The sales mananger Kevin said that it was his fault that they were late, she was waiting for him to arrive.. I said that I was tired, Kevin the sales manager said that they would be so fast that I would never even know they were there. I foolishly agreed to let them in.

Kevin was quite friendly at first, as I explained to him the same thing that I had told the young girl-- that I was not going to buy the vacum. He said ok and just asked me to keep an open mind. He left for a short time. The young girl began to clean. The vacuming took forever, as she was doing her sales pitch, and showed me all the dirty filters and how the kirby had this fabulous suction. I was not disputing that, but I knew that I was not going to buy a 2000 dollar vacum. The manager came back and basically brow beated me until 12:00 am about buying the vacum. He even went upstairs with out asking and started to vacum my childerns bed, and woke her up in the process.. He became rude and indignent in his sales tactics, as I refused to buy the vacum. He was insulting, and was policing my finances. He was pressuring me without respecting my boundaries. He kept making these peusdo phone calls to his manager lowering the price. He wasn't calling anyone, he was pretending it was really quite obvious. I let these sharks into my home and they didn't leave for 3 1/2 hours. My poor 23month old son was exhuasted and I had to get rude before they would leave. He even asked me to help clean up the dirty filter pads they left all over my floor. The worst decision I made that night was letting them in the door,but the best decision was sticking to my guns and refusing to buy this product. Any buisness who would use rude sells tactics and not take no for answer is not the type of buisness that is trustworthy. I was appalled after they left and quite traumatized from all the brow beating. Please do not let them into your home. hard lesson for me but very valuable one.

My sister is a breast cancer patient. She just had surgery and was released from the hospital the day before. I stopped in after work to check on her and fix supper. When I came in the house there stood a Kirby salesman with equipment and filter discs spread throughout the house. Here stood my sister, off work due to the surgery, supposed to be resting. She had a fever. Here she was standing while this young man took over her house. I thought he was just ignorant and let him know she'd just gotten out of the hospital and needed to be resting. He just smiled and shrugged it off, saying she'd been resting.

I thought he would take some hints, but that was not the case. I was in disbelief as he would not leave and continued to pressure my sister to purchase the vacuum. Then when he had the nerve to ask to use her bathroom I questioned my sister about his being there. He had already been there two hours before I arrived! He got in the door by offering a free gift and saying they just needed a few minutes to show her something.

They didn't reveal who they were and they left the equipment hidden in the van. They ran and got the equipment and after getting it into the house, the van full of other sales people drove off, leaving this person in the house with my sister. She tried to get him to leave many times, but he just ignored her and continued with the gimics of 'getting credit' for showing her everything, making multiple phone calls to a manager to secure a 'better deal' for her, trying to convince my sister that her purchase was needed for him to meet his quota and get to go on a trip...it went on and on. Telling him my sister just had surgery the day before didn't phase him. He wasn't ignorant, he just didn't care.

I heard my sister tell him more than once that this needed to come to an end. He just persisted. He made no move to clean up the mess and get out of the house. To top it off, he supposedly couldn't leave until his 'manager' returned and inspected his work, to make sure he got credit for it. I started to attempt supper but he invaded the kitchen, using her sink to clean out all his equipment. It was unbelievable.

It was now about seven in the evening. He had been there 3 hours. When a van pulled up outside and the 'manager' stepped out and approached I went up to her and told her he needed to leave. I told her my sister just got out of the hospital after having surgery and that this guy wouldn't leave. I told her this was ridiculous and that they needed to leave. The woman seemed to understand they weren't going to make a sale, and after she followed me into the house, she suddenly turned around, opened the front door and called to the person jumping into the driver seat of the van, and told them a couple times not to go yet.

Apparently the plan had been to now drop her off and leave her there for an undisclosed amount of time. She did seem to understand they needed to leave and she quickly started collecting all the equipment and things scattered all over the floor. The young man came in and seemed confused at why she was packing up. I guess he expected her to finish pressuring my sister and get the sale for him. She simply said 'we need to go'. I give her credit for that.

This salesman and the techniques of the company were so unthinkable that I stood in disbelief. Then I found out they'd been at my mother's house, just down the street, earlier in the day and that she was very upset. I went to her house to check on her. I would like to note that my parents are in their seventies. They both have had cancer in the last two years. My dad has a rare and usually deadly cancer and it has resurfaced in the last few months. With the economy they are struggling and hoping to be able to keep their home and pay their utilities this winter.

When I visited them, I found a similar experience had happened to them. But mom was home alone when they invaded (and yes it is like a home invasion when someone is asked to leave, and it's made clear they are not welcome, not going to make a sale, and they still refuse to leave). During that time she tried to get them to leave when it was lunchtime and she said she needed to fix lunch. The guy told her she could go ahead and have lunch, but he didn't leave. She later said she needed to get errands run before the post office closed, etc. He responded by saying he just needed to show her 'one more thing' and stayed on and on.

He asked to use mom's phone, even though he had his own cell phone with him, to make a call to his 'manager'. But it was a long distance call, and mom doesn't have long distance service on her phone. He said "You don't have long distance?" and reluctantly stepped out on the front porch to use his own cell phone to make the call. I would like to make it clear that mom actually did ask him to leave and let him know very clearly that she would not buy anything. Because of his persistence, she finally told him flat out that she and dad are both cancer patients, that dad's is on the rise again, they have no money, and if they did have extra money they would use it to put a new roof on the house, not buy a vacuum cleaner. Their roof needs replaced, but they can't afford to replace it. His response? He just went right on with his agenda. Unbelievable.

By the time dad got home mom was in tears and very stressed. I asked if they have any identifying information of who these people were, or which Kirby location they came from. They left nothing identifying, such as a business card, that would tell me a name or where they came from. She did say they were from the Indianapolis area. We live in a rural area about an hour from there. I found out it was the same salesman who had visited my sister that day. How can anyone operate with such a lack of concience? I can't find an appropriate word - unbelievable what they did.

I saw an add on craigslist saying Rug Shampooers needed! The pay was $1850 a month plus bonuses. Sounded like great money to me. I go to the interview and 15 mins later I am hired. They didnt even ask for id or do a background check. I was a bit put off, but I was working at a gas station and I was not making squat, so it sounded like a better offer.

How wrong I was. I found out (TA-DA!) that I would be selling kirby vacuums! Well after the 3 days of unpaid training ( I wont do there on how stupid it was), the whole sales pitch sounded easy. HAHAHA. I must have been the world's bigget fool. We would come in at 10 am, sit there and do nothing for an hour, sing stupid songs, Then drive an hour and a half to 2 hours to where ever we would be selling.

They said we could have people setting appointments for us. Not. We had to walk around neighborhoods knocking on doors all day trying to practically push our way into houses. You hvae to skip lunch half of the time, and you get to walk around in freezing weather knocking on doors.

The Management is a joke. They are allowed to talk to you however you want and sont have a problem with telling you that you are worthless. A manager and I almost got into a fistfight because he thought he could sit there and insult me just because I didnt get into a house. Everyone is the office is either a felon, druggie, or both. The majority of the people you work with are sleeping with each other.

I worked for these for a month and a half and I never even saw the $1850 I was promised. The owner will do whatever he can to make sure he does not have to pay you. I posted an ad on craigslist, and [the owner] was texting my cellphone saying he was going to put me in jail for slander. I told him to stop and he continued to harass me. I am still trying to catch up on all the bills I have because of these scam artists.

If you see any add like that on craigslist, avoid it. IF you got to a job interview and they tell you it has ANYTHING to do with Kirby, run out the door like your pants are on fire. IF you are in liverpool, this is the Address for Lamaan Hill's scam of a company:

(315) 451-6300

GO there and tell him what a scam artist he is. Get him out of our city!