Kirby Vacuum Cleaners

Kirby Vacuum Cleaners • In-Home Demonstration • Three-day Return Policy • "Trade-In" Policy • Warranty Service • Poor Quality • Elderly & Infirm • Home Alone • Neighborhood Pests • U.K. Complaints • South Africa Complaints • Andrew's Kirby Adventure --- • Kirby Sweeps Up in West Virginia • Arizona Sues Kirby Distributors • Kirby Salesman Arrested • Salesmen Respond

Susan of Des Plaines, IL October 19, 2006
My 1300 vacuum lost it's suction and I am unable to locate a service/repair service.

It is about 2 years old and should be under warranty.

Monika of Fremont, CA October 10, 2006
A Kirby salesman came to my door. I said "NO" as the last time one came I had to threaten to call police to get him to leave. I mentioned this and the guy still tried to set up an appointment.

He then used two neighbors names that had previously purchased Kirbys saying they were having their carpets cleaned that day, which was not true.  He got my name and later untruthfully said I too was having my carpet cleaned to another neighbor, using my name as well as my neighbors without our permission.

Regardless of how great Kirby Vacuums are I would never buy one because of the poor sales practices we have experienced.

Amy of Plymouth, MA August 26, 2006
I was called and offered a free in-home NO OBLIGATION demonstration as a new home owner from the Kirby Vaccuum company. I agreed only because they offered with no obligation. The man that came to my home was very nice at first and I was thouroughly impressed with the machine. HOWEVER, after almost 2 and a half hours I couldn't take it any more. I had to say NO multiple times in multiple ways and still couldn't get him to leave. The offer went from 1500, to 1300 to 1000 with 10 down and 55 a month. When he was packing up his stuff (FINALLY!), I calculated the figures and realized there was a charge for the low monthly payments that made it almost full price. At the same time he asked me to list family and friends that might like the same demonstartion. I would not have done this except he offered to enter me into a 1000 grocery contest.

Unfortunately I caved and my friends had to put up with the harrassing phone calls and 2 of them even had the same 3 hour demos I had with the same results. I was so appologetic to them for that.

Robert of Salem, OR August 19, 2006
They wanted to clean my carpet and show me a new cleaning method, but turned it into Kirby pitch. The price started at 2499, I said no, then he said 1999, I said no. Then the price was down to 1600, still said no and told him no way am I buying it.

When he finally started to pack up, I turn my back and he stole my cellphone!  I noticed 10 mins after he left. Police said they had many complaints this week of theft by a Kirby rep. Seems like the company keeps letting this happen.

Gary of Hughson, CA August 17, 2006
The sales person was allowed to come in our house but from the beginning he insulted us about our pets and the pet hair on the floor.  When we told him we couldn't afford a vacuum right now but maybe later, he told us that the 'special' price would only be good today. Thankfully we got through to him we did not want a shampoo.

As the sales person was leaving he asked us if we liked living with dust and/or cat and dog hair. Then he asked if we couldn't afford X amount of dollars, we said no, so he tried dropping the price 3 different times.

Shelley of Leesburg, GA August 14, 2006
My boyfriend recently responded to a job advertisment in our local newspaper. It read, Call Monday we need 40 carpet shampooers no experience we train 400/week start tomorrow. He applied believing he will be cleaning carpets. He got the job only to find out 3 days into it that he would be selling Kirby vacums!

He wasted 3 full days of his time before they mentioned this. We were so disappointed. They spent all that time telling him how much money he would make and all about the benefits but never mentioned it was a sales job. Isn't it sad when you have to trick people into selling your product?

After the three days they sent them out to try and sell this 1500 vacum to friends and family. And you would not believe the tricks they wanted him to use to get this done. Needless to say he did not go back and they refused to pay him for the time he spent there. I don't know if anything they did was illegal but it should be.

Rhonda of La Habra, CA July 30, 2006
A young man rang my door bell and ask if he could clean my carpet for college credits. I let him, he then said he was trying to win a trip to Vegas. I said that I could not afford an 1800 Vaccum cleaner. He and his boss left and was kind of rude.

They told me the carpet would dry in 35-45 mins but it did not dry until the next morning plus my carpet has shampoo spots all over it.

I asked for a card when they were here and they never left one so I don't know how to reach them.

Martin of Galway, OTHER July 17, 2006
I worked for Kirby in Ireland in 2003. It sounds pretty much the same everywhere. As an organisation, they are probably the worst you could work for. I will admit that the vacuum is quite good but the suction is not as good when you put on a bag and hepa-filtration is a joke, the smell from the thing after a few weeks would make you want to puke. I took the job because I needed a job at the time, I'm a college graduate and work was scarce in my line of work at the time.

Kirby are basically gangsters as are their distributors. I stayed for 2 months and this is how it worked. I had to work from 1o in the morning till 10.30 at nite, 7, yes SEVEN days a week. They told us to practice selling with family and friends before we called strangers, I did this and some of my family bought it, they were given a discount, but I am still embarrased at what I did, even now, but I didn't realise what they were doing.

Donald of Puyallup, WA July 15, 2006
A Kirby salesman came to my house and obtained permission to enter my house deceitfully. His partner came to the door wanting to leave a sample of Dawn cleaner and asked if I would listen to a demo of other cleaning products. I thought he meant bathroom, kitchen type cleaners such as Dawn so I said yes and before I knew it in came Tony with the Kirby vacuum.

I told them up front I could not afford it.  He said it was not a sales call, so I let them do their pitch. Tony said he needed the sale so he could be promoted to manager at new office.

In the end I decided to buy it because they said I could pay it in monthly installments of 49 for three years on my credit card. Total was 1795.

Unfortunately there was nothing in writing and I now have a credit card balance higher than I would like. I am retired on a fixed income and cannot afford to make large payments to get the balance down. I agreed to buy only because he said I could do it in monthly installments.

Pavel of Sparks, NV June 25, 2006
06/24/06 My wife responded to an ad to clean carpet for free, but instead we were almost attacked by a pushy salesperson named Patrick.  Instead of cleaning the carpet, we ended up with very aggressive and pushy sales person, who tried to sell a Kirby vacuum cleaner to us.  He literally went from one room to another to demonstrate his magic cleaner.

When we told him that we could not afford to buy a vacuum for 2,000 he offered a financial plan with 25% APR.   He  also offered not to take sales tax out of the purchase.  When I told him that was illegal, he said it was okay, that he would take care of it. For me, it sounds like a monkey business, very cheezy.  Patrick mentioned also, if we will bought the vacuum today, he will go to Las Vegas for free.  Why in the world do I need to pay for his trip and entertaiment?

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