Kirby Vacuum Cleaners Reviews

We have had the vacuum for less than a month and have not made a payment for it yet. They take advantage of young people and high pressure people into buying an overpriced piece of junk. He was in the Army stationed at Ft. Irwin when his wife left him and the baby alone in California. The military gave him an Honorable Discharge so he could raise his daughter. He is so depressed right now. I am afraid of what might happen. He was expecting a paycheck to be able to pay his bills and they can't live on $100.

He quickly ran back to his bosses’ SUV and got out this big box and bag, and I was kinda like, "Whoa" but whatever. He came in and I led him back to my son's room, as we've replaced all the carpets in our house except the one's in both my sons’ rooms. So he got it out and got to work, showing me all the crap in the carpet. I kinda knew it would be bad already because the carpet is about 20 years old, and I live in a desert, so the demo wasn't much special to me, though it did thrill my two sons (ages 4 and 2) to no end.

Anyway, 2 hours later, my kids were getting grumpy from missing their naps, and he was still there. I felt bad for him because he seemed really sweet, so I finally asked him what the machine cost. It took a little poking and prodding, and he finally told me - $3100.00! Yeah, you read that right! I pretended not to be absolutely disgusted, but basically told him that he could leave me some info and I'd think about it. Then he told me (he was only halfway through his demo) that he only got paid if he completed it, so I took him to my other son's room to do the bed as he told me his boss would check the pads and know if he'd done a bed or not.

I had to close my 2 year old out of his own room so the guy could spray some stuff on the carpet, and so my son wouldn't get into the bazillion little pads he'd left all over the floor. Anyway, he went back in to shampoo the carpet, and I decided to tell him (it's almost 3:30 by this time) that I have to go to my office and meet a client at 3:45, so he needed to be done with his 30-minute cleaning now. So, he did start to pack it up and called his boss. His boss came to pick him up (at 4:00) and started to ask if I was gonna buy it. I told him I'd have to talk to my husband about it.

He started going on about me being able to make my own decisions. And I was like, "Well, not for something that costs $3100! I have more respect for my husband than that. We are a partnership." He tried to tell me that he could give it to me for as little as $2 a day, but still I told him I had to talk to my husband about it. He wanted to know if he could come back when my husband was home, but I told him we'd be out, as we had a dinner with my husband's parents that night. I asked for some information on the machine, and he finally gave me a business card and wrote his number on the back. He said they were leaving town around 8pm, and they'd stop back by.

They left, but the boss was muttering something about how the kid couldn't go to Vegas now, because he was leaving my house with the vacuum. Oh, but they did leave me a nice parting gift - the darn little disks all over my son's floor, which he had thrown about, so then I had to get out my vacuum to get all that off the carpet. Luckily for them, they never came back. I told my husband about it, and he was not too pleased. He's training to become a police officer, so he knows the whole drill of that real well.

I did really like the kid who did the sales pitch - Angelou. He was really nice and very sweet to my kids. The boss, JD, was a bit of an **, but not horrible. There's just no way I'd ever pay that much for a vacuum. I'm surrounded by dirt everyday - I live in a desert, and so are my kids, and we're all just dandy thanks! Like the old saying goes, "God made dirt so dirt doesn't hurt!"

I loved the self-propelled aspect of the cleaner, the plethora of attachments, the motor-powered spot cleaner, etc. But the next day when it was dried, the spots were back. Not nearly as bad, but all there. So I'm exercising my 3-day right of Cancellation of the installment contract (sent a signed copy by registered mail - I made a copy of the contract for myself). The person I talked to (who was not at the distributor's location) said that the original salesman (who didn't leave me a card) would be by with my trade-in 15-year-old Eureka canister and my broken Bissell shampooer and would cancel the contract and pick up the Kirby. We'll see. Meanwhile, I have the Kirby as a hostage.

The shampoo part is only good for carpets that don't have any stains. I will say, though, that he wasn't using the pet stain remover because he didn't have any with him. Maybe it works with the pet stain remover. I'm sorry I have to reject the Sentria because it sure cleaned my carpet deeply. Now, I realize what a dud my Eureka is - poor suction - and am on a search for an upright with great suction and self-propelled (I need that for my back). I didn't have any negative interactions with any of the sales people.

At first, I was confused by the situation and then realized I had been sexually harassed, and it scared me that Kirby was letting someone like that into my home, especially alone.

After 2-1/2 hours and visits by two senior members of the sales team (Mac with a Samoan last name and Ray, the manager), I was told that they would not shampoo the carpets until I agreed to purchase the machine. I agreed to purchase the vacuum provided the stains were removed and did not return. It was late in the evening, so I really could not see how well the vacuum/shampoo had worked. It was a really hard sales pitch and I fell for it.

On Saturday it rained, so it was not until Sunday that I could see that the stains had not been removed at all. So on Monday morning, I called and said that I was exercising my right to return the product, as stated on the receipt, "You, the Buyer, May Cancel This Transaction at any time prior to Midnight of the Third Business Day After the Date of the Transaction." The Customer Relations woman asked me why. I explained about the stains, and she said she would send my salesperson, Christian, out to pick up the machine.

Christian came out not to pick up the machine but to try again with different products to clean the carpet. I told him I had already made up my mind. He tried for 1 and a half hours to make me keep the machine. I finally said, "In how many languages do I have to say no before you'll get it?" He reluctantly packed it up and placed it in his car. As he was leaving, I asked if I should sign something. He wanted to take my original invoice, and I told him no. He said he'd have to talk to his manager, Ray, about the cancellation paperwork as he had never had a machine returned. Christian then drove off.

I called Ray after about an hour. Ray said that Christian should have had me sign a cancellation form. I called Christian and left a message to come back to my house with the form. I wasn't feeling confident that this group was trustworthy, so I contacted the credit union who holds my credit card with which I purchased the vacuum and I told them to immediately dispute the charges.

After 10 phone calls, 8 of which I never got past the receptionist because everyone was in a meeting, I found out almost a month later that their office now claims that they do not have the returned vacuum and that the only paperwork they have is my purchase agreement. I told them that I have two eye witnesses who saw me return the vacuum, that I have phone records and have written down every time that I called and who I spoke to. Natalie, their finance officer, then slightly changed her tune to say that she had no problem refunding me the money but that she'd have to do some more research. I again called my credit card credit union representative and explained that I wasn't getting anywhere with this refund. I had also written a complaint to the Better Business Bureau with a web complaint.

So here's what I have figured out. First, their sales pitch is not only aggressive but also full of falsehoods. They claim with their demonstration that the vacuum is only working at 50% capacity. This demonstration includes a special fully enclosed unit that attaches to the machine where the vacuum bag would normally attach. According to my colleague, a Physics professor, this is false, that the area of the special demonstration piece is obviously different than the area of the vacuum bag and that, because of the volume and essentially suction capacity, the demonstration is at 120% of what it would be with the normal vacuum. So, the demonstration is a farce and is fraudulent.

Secondly, that while it states a third business day period to return the merchandise, the business will do everything and anything to ensure that you will pay for the machine whether you still have it or not. They will first try the "don't take no" approach and then make up excuses for not providing the consumer with the proper returned merchandise paperwork. They will then lose the machine (which probably has already been resold) and continue to charge your account unless you are ready for a court battle.

Their employees are incredibly unprofessional. I can get past the hard sales pitch and all the one liners they sling your way, but to call over and over and have your phone call screened by the receptionist, to be promised time and time again that someone will return your call, to waste my time and make me have to fight for my money back, is incomprehensible.

I have worked for consumer advocacy groups back in the 1980s. One or all of these groups should be seriously investigating these companies (of which there doesn't seem to be a corporate entity to actually go after). So don't listen to what your grandmother tells you nostalgically about Kirby vacuums. It's a scam from beginning to end. Buyer beware!

I said, "My credit is bad." She said, "no problem, we can try it with your husband on there," and she told me I could sign his name. So I went through with it because she said that I could return it in 3 days. I thought my husband would change his mind in that time frame but he didn't. So I called her to get the vacuum and she came out with another contract saying, "Sign this one to get out the other one," and I did but she didn't take the vacuum. She said the guy would pick it up and he didn't and I got a call saying there was no way out of the contract, did I agree with their terms, and I said yes. My husband wasn't here so I said yes for him thinking that it was over and someone would be here within the week. They never came. They called me for a payment and the problem started that day. They threatened to garnish my husband's wages so I started to pay them but I couldn't continue do so with this economy. They are still harassing me and I told them to come get their vacuum and they still won't. They just want money.

Still, the sales guy and a lady now, were in my house w/ contracts and other bits of paperwork I wasn't about to sign. Two hours later, my husband arrived home from work. They were still trying to pitch the vacuum sale. Our older kids immediately brought my husband up to speed on what was going on, and that they wouldn't leave. He (my husband) informed them if they did not leave our property, that he would go next door and get the sheriff. They were unfazed by this, stating they had a permit to be here. Really? In my house without my permission? Really?

When they continued their harassing and were slow to leave, my husband got his gun and pointed it at the two. Thank goodness, Colorado is a Make My Day law state (which means you can legally shoot anyone trespassing on your property/refusing to leave). Amazingly how fast they then packed their things up and left. Why does a simple vacuum demo turn into this? Why does Kirby allow this behavior by their employees? My husband worked for Kirby 30 years ago, and it was not like this at all! After the fact, we realized they preyed on me because I'm a very nice person, and busy w/ 4 kids, they thought I was an easy target for their scams. I can only imagine what they do to the elderly! How un-American!

I did not sign any paperwork for these scammers, therefore, I'm not out a single cent! Kirby's sales tactics are dehumanizing and unethical in so many ways. By the way, a 3-day return policy? That should be a red flag right away! Be smart and safe! Do not let anyone you do not know in your house! If they can't get their point across standing outside your door, send them away!

She showed and talked about the cleaner for about 45 minutes before she finally got around to shampoo the carpet. When I told her that I felt the company had been deceitful to get into the home, she initially apologized. But when I told her I didn't think I would buy the product because of false claim to get me to see the demo, she got very angry with me. I told her not to clean the second room and to leave. She called the company and talked about me: "How anyone who could see how good the product is and not buy, something is wrong with her." She kept making rude comments about me, under her breath. The Kirby did a nice job of cleaning the carpet, but I would never buy a vacuum cleaner from a company that employs such false tactics to get into one's home.

My husband repeatedly told Mike that we had had one of these sweepers a long time ago. We got rid of it because we had trouble finding bags for it. Mike continued to demonstrate the sweeper. He had those little filters covered in dirt and dust laying everywhere. He laid them on my new rocker that we have, he had them scattered out on the floor. When I mean he laid them everywhere, I mean everywhere. Every time Mike changed this little filter and turned on the sweeper, dust would fly and my granddaughter would cough. My husband told him several times that we were not interested in purchasing the sweeper but yet he kept right on demonstrating.

Chris had left Mike at our house for 45 minutes by himself to demonstrate this sweeper. Mike told us this was only his second time that he had demonstrated the sweeper. At the end of the demonstration, they were trying to convince my husband to purchase this sweeper. He kept telling them, “No, I do not want this.” Chris said for only $2195.00 this sweeper could be ours. My husband said, “No, I do not want this.” Chris proceeded to tell him that he could bring the price down so we could afford it. Again my husband said no.

As the evening wore on my husband and daughter noticed that my granddaughter was breathing heavier and coughing more. When I got home my granddaughter and daughter were in bed sleeping. I checked on my granddaughter and she appeared to be sleeping fine. So my husband and I went to bed. We could hear my granddaughter over the baby monitor in our bedroom and her breathing became more rapid and congested.

We didn’t fall asleep right away because we were very concerned about the way she was breathing. We got up because her breathing became a lot worse. We just thought she was coming down with a cold so we put her in a steamy shower to help her breathe. I left and told my daughter to get dressed and help me get the diaper bag ready because most likely we would be taking our granddaughter to the hospital. My husband came out of the bathroom with my granddaughter clutching to him and said to call 911 and to get an ambulance here right away because my granddaughter started shaking so bad that he couldn’t keep a hold on her. When the ambulance attendant entered our house he took one look at my granddaughter and said, “Who is ready because we need to get this baby to the hospital?” My daughter rode to the hospital in the ambulance with my granddaughter.

At 1:30am on the date stated above we arrived at St. Joes Hospital in Parkerburg, West Virginia. When we arrived, my granddaughter’s heart rate was over 200. They had trouble bringing it down. We spent 3 hours in this emergency room trying to get her heart rate under control. When we arrived at the emergency room in Parkersburg they had our granddaughter hooked up to a heart monitor, they had her on oxygen and hooked up to various monitors trying to help her. They soon discussed air transportation to the closet children’s hospital. My daughter agreed to have my granddaughter air lifted to Morgantown, WV. When they took her to the helicopter pad, we started our journey to Morgantown, which is about 3 hours from Parkersburg.

Over this past weekend we have spent over $1,000 in gas, food, wear and tear on our vehicle and lost wages. Our stress level is at the max. I have lost 1 week of work because I had to take a leave of absence to help with the care of my granddaughter. My daughter and I have alternated staying with my granddaughter at night so she would have someone familiar with her at all times. She was released from Morgantown hospital on Monday April 6, 2009. At midnight on the very same day we returned once again to the Parkersburg emergency room because my granddaughter's breathing wasn’t good. They kept her over night for observation and the second day she wasn’t doing any better so the doctor decided to put her into a croupe tent with breathing treatments every 4 hours. I am convinced that this sweeper aggravated her condition. She was perfectly fine until they started demonstrating their vacuum.

This condition is still ongoing because at the time of this writing, she is still in the hospital and we have no clue as to what damage she has encountered and the cost of whatever the insurance doesn’t cover we will have to try and cover. I almost lost my granddaughter to these salesmen (if you want to call them that). We have no solicitation order standing at our house. I do hope this can be rectified by reeducation for the sales people that they understand the words, we are not interested and modifications to the sweepers. I think Kirby should be willing to pick up all expenses. Will give update as things progress.

Kirby is a good product, but a terrible place to work. I wish I would have heeded the warnings from others and hopefully, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel will never post their ad again.

Well the dealer I was with and I were there for about 2 and 1/2 hours and the whole time I was verbally harassed by the homeowner. Any time I looked at the dealer, he told me I was fine and everything was cool. I didn't think so, but I'm supposed to keep my mouth shut. The homeowner then had added rum to my drink (I was drinking Mountain Dew) and proceeded to get me drunk, while the dealer did nothing. He didn't even do his show! He just pulled his 100 pads to make it look like he did it and sat around drinking. The homeowner even offered me $100 to blow him! I was put into a bad situation with no way of being able to get out. I'm considering putting a lawsuit against the company because of what they put me through. Also, they tell us that we are going to be home late, which was about 9 pm. No, I finally pulled into my driveway at 1:15 am!

I was hired and I went through training. I asked a lot of questions about how the job worked and what I would be doing. These questions were never properly answered. I felt confused anyone would have left then and there, but I was desperate for funds. I thought the job would be easy and the money was good. After a couple of days on the job, I realized that I had been deceived. The company was a Kirby Company and I worked 14 hours a day for 6 days a week!

When I got my first check, it was $50 and I had done 14 demos and sold 2 Kirby vacuums. My manager I had, had taken almost all my money. He bragged about how he made $2,000 a week and acted like he worked so hard for it; he made all his money by taking his cut in his employees’ commission. When I asked them about it, they said I had signed a contract stating that I was aware that this would take place. It's my fault for not doing more research on the job before I started working there. The company held a lot of parties after work with alcohol, and almost all the employees were underage. I wanted no part of this so I left immediately. I got a better job and in 6 months, I will be a police officer.

My hope is someone will read this and not be taken in by the Kirby Company’s lies. They target young people knowing that their lack of education will allow them to be taken advantage of. They are very rude people and only care about how much change is in their pocket. I apologize to all the people that I lied to by knocking on their door and giving them a false sales pitch trying to make a dishonest living selling Kirby vacuums. I am older and wiser now, and I accomplished my dream by doing the right thing. A message for all you Kirby associates out there: You are liars and scam artists. You don’t make an honest living because you’re not honest. Quit targeting the young people of today. Hire and lie to adults; they can handle your lying crap.

Thank you though for making me realize the importance of honesty. Continue to take advantage of the elderly and disabled and the youth of our time. It will only prove that you are cowards because you target a group that can’t defend themselves. Kirby, don’t ever show your face in my neighborhood. Thank you to all who read this. God bless. P.S. feel free to respond. I apologize if I sound harsh, but I swore and oath to defend the defenseless and help those in need. I feel by writing this, someone will read this and stay clear away from anything that is Kirby on it, or anyone that works for the Kirby Company. Consequence: No damage was done. I am a better person now knowing and realizing the importance of honesty.

At the end, the salesperson said we all had to attend an orientation meeting that weekend in a city 100 miles away. I said I had some prior obligations. In truth, I wanted to go on some other job interviews and wasn't ready to commit without any real information about the job. I wanted some time to think about it. He said if I couldn't drop everything and attend the meeting, then I didn't have the kind of commitment to do the job, so I turned and walked away. I sat outside on the curb with one other guy while we waited for rides to pick us up, while the rest of the crowd went on to the next phase.

I feel like the job ad was misleading, and they used the same kind of high-pressure sales tactics they use to sell vacuums to try and suck us into the business (no pun intended). I don't have the personality to do strong-arm sales so I'm glad I walked away, but I wasted an afternoon when I could have been following up real job leads.

I'm mad at myself for falling for their sales tactics. They called me and asked if they could come to my home to demonstrate the vacuum/shampooer in my home, and promised that all I had to do was fill out a comment card about the vacuum. They said they needed testimonials from people because they didn't advertise. I said okay and made an appointment. I figured that the worst that could happen was that I'd get the carpet in one room cleaned.

First, one salesperson showed up. He started to demo the vacuum, and - I admit - it was impressive. The carpet had been recently vacuumed, and the Kirby vacuum picked up a lot more dust and pet hair. Shortly after the salesperson started working, another salesman arrived, ostensibly to assist the first salesman, who was new on the job. They demonstrated the vacuum and the shampooer, and it was clearly a good product. Then they started the hard sell. They kept asking if I wanted to purchase the vacuum - question after question after question. Sales guy #2 hung around my kitchen and asked a lot of personal questions, read the stuff on my refrigerator, looked in my garage and commented on my new car... It got a little uncomfortable.

Then the sales supervisor showed up. There were now 3 people in my home! They kept up the hard sell, offered to drop the price, offered to sell the demo model for a price reduction, offered free carpet shampoo, etc. I should have resisted their sales tactics; I know I should have. But I didn't. I ended up paying $1672 for the vacuum/shampooer. And now I'm stuck with an expensive purchase that I don't want. And they never asked me to fill out a comment card. During the demo, they used the vacuum. They attached the various cleaning tools. They ran the shampooer. I didn't.

After I used it a couple of times, I found that it's cumbersome and difficult to use. It's inconvenient to use the attachments, and it doesn't fit under furniture. I really want to return it. I have come to a brick wall. They refuse to take the vacuum back; they refuse to give any kind of refund. They said that they were willing to come back to my home to teach me how to use it, but will not consider my request for a return/refund. I'd like to know if I have any recourse. I would like to return the vacuum. I understand that I may not get my full purchase price back, but I'm frustrated that they will not even talk to me about returning the vacuum. Is there anything I can do?

Finally, my husband called on his way home from work and was PO'd to know that my whole afternoon was basically date-raped time wise! So when he arrived, he told the driver/boss man/manager, Brandon, who had just made an appearance, that he had 3 minutes to get himself and his people out of our house and off our property before he calls the police. My husband also pointed out that our community has a No Solicitation policy. So, the dude got all mouthy with my husband telling him, "We aren't soliciting; your wife set an appointment for the demo. I have a permit to do this (which my husband asked to see and he said was at his office)," etc... Basically he was a disrespectful **. So my husband, who was fuming, kept his cool and wisely removed himself from the situation. He said he was going to the convenience store down the road and when he got back, they better be gone! Brandon came inside and smoothly told the sales team to pack it up and get out, so they did. Finally! But while they were packing, Brandon disappeared again for another half hour leaving Jerry and Tanisha loitering on our front yard waiting for him to pick them up.

It wasn't until later that evening that I found the dirt piles they had left behind. Some of the dirt that had been pulled up from my carpet and shown to me on their hundreds of stupid round filters was now on top of my carpet in very visible little mounds in 4 places! And the filters which Tanisha had collected in a plastic shopping bag that she asked me for, were left behind where my 2-year-old could have gotten into (I had been working on dinner and not paying close attention to them while they packed up)! So now I'm ticked and decided to contact The Kirby Company. I filled out a form with my name, address, phone number and left a comment.

From this experience, I realize The Kirby Company and their distributors are a low-class company from the top down! They are a bunch of pushy, lying, time-stealing, disrespectful, mess-making, responsibility-dodging, word-breaking peddlers. I am so glad we didn't buy from them! I have posted a big cardboard sign near our subdivision entrance warning my neighbors: Say NO to the free carpet cleaning offer! Takes hours! Makes mess! Vac costs 2K!

Hopefully when Kirby comes around again, people will remember my warning, and avoid a similarly nerve-wracking encounter!

The man kept returning at least 4 times to see if the woman had elicited a check, credit card or cash from us, ruined an expensive section of our sofa and ottoman from Crate & Barrel Beverly Hills without asking permission to again put the heavy dirty vacuum that had already vacuumed carpeting in an office. It has been on the fitted sheet on a GROSS bed that I immediately washed when she was still doing her demonstration of every attachment from a cruddy attachment holder, after droning on about dry carpet cleaning and no shampoo and not wet, did a wet shampoo with suds overflowing from the vacuum, soaking our carpet which will only take 20 minutes to dry, which is still wet. We will have to have fans going to try to dry it. She said, “I’ll wait while you get dressed,” back to our evening out and we will leave her alone with our belongings while we go behind closed doors unable to watch her.

NOTHING WOULD GET HER OUT OF THIS HOUSE, short of calling the police. Not my ** attitude, stating over and over “We have to leave,” with the phone ringing repeatedly. She dumped the dirt from the vacuum cleaner into a small sink in the bathroom unable to accommodate the soapy suds, dust, whatever else she picked up, and then dumped it into the bathtub. There’s water in the hallway where I slipped on twice. To top it off, she had no ride and stood in front of our house for quite a while once we finally got her out. It took forever for her to pack up this easy to use vacuum. She sat sprawled on our living room floor, very slowly packing up to leave and it was evident she was waiting for payment, which is about 1-1/2 hours before this, took another 45 minutes to explain payment plans. I was ready to call the police.

They both said they were going to have a service center down the street which is ridiculous because they are selling a crappy product for $3,000 that no one will buy in this neighborhood during a recession. I don't think they will be back to our neighborhood. It was a Sunday. Our neighbor across the street used them to clean one room, but I bet he got them in and out in flash without the aggravation the two of us went through. It was my husband who wanted his office carpet cleaned for free. They ruined our day, took up at least 3 ½ to 4 hours of our time and I had to be the one to be the **. Also, there was a terrible stench from the burning motor on the bed the woman vacuumed and gee, nobody could figure out where the smell of fire was coming from. The inside of the crappy vacuum was burning up on one of the beds because she vacuumed over a sheet that I had to race to wash.

There was no way anyone was going to sleep on that sheet, mattress pad and pillow cases. The woman said it was a smell from outside. Meanwhile, the A/C was on. They are well aware an attorney lives in this house. Rafael, who claimed he was from Russia, and the woman told us he is worth $10 million, from selling Kirby Vacuums door to door. The woman whose name we do not know also used our $400 Oreck vacuum to show us how terrible it is! A brand new belt was placed on it a few days ago and it works great.

My husband and I were called by a telemarketer for free carpet cleaning in our home to advertise the opening of a Kirby store in Fredericksburg, VA. I said okay thinking I'd help out a local business & perhaps use them for future cleaning services. A young, friendly couple arrived at my door at the appointed time (6:30 pm Saturday evening) and brought in a new box with a vacuum cleaner. Within minutes, I realized this was a sales pitch to get me to buy an expensive vacuum cleaner. I listened to the pitch and watched them demo the Kirby vacuum. All fine, they were polite & courteous salespeople trying to sell their wares. They showed me the dust & dog hair from my carpets & crud from our mattress that my Oreck wasn't picking up.

Towards the end of the demo, I asked the price and they started the pitch at $1999 for the Kirby system. There were of course many options, credit was available & they'd happily trade in my 2-year-old $500 Oreck Vacuum and give me credit towards a brand new Kirby! I didn't bite. I did a quick bit of Internet based research and found the volumes of complaints against unethical door-to-door sales tactics, poor customer service and misleading contracts. Then I showed the sales people in my home how I can buy the same exact, brand new Kirby on eBay for $500. I offered them $600 since they had been so nice & done a thorough job with their demo.

After a brief call with their less than courteous boss on my home phone (apparently they don't carry their own cell phones!), no way. The boss was misleading, saying Kirby vacuums bought on eBay don't carry any warranty, they are not new and Kirby will NOT service them! Wow! Even if my mom or neighbor handed down this great Kirby vacuum, you are saying Kirby won't stand behind repairing it because I wasn't the original buyer? "NO," said the boss. He realized his number was up when I mentioned the consumer affairs site having many negative reports from misled, unhappy customers. He likened it to GM or Subway Sandwiches being a large company and there would always be someone with a complaint. It was not compelling, in fact, downright poor excuse in my book. Since they were careless enough to use my home phone, I just looked on my caller log and found the boss' home or cell number. He is Archie ** of Spotsylvania County or Fredericksburg City VA, phone **.

I strongly objected to being offered a free carpet cleaning to advertise a new Kirby store in Fredericksburg, VA and sales people who carried no ID trying to pitch a $1999 Kirby Sentia vacuum. I hope the young couple who visited my home move on to a more honorable way to earn a living, like becoming the nurse and electrician they said they were training for. They'll be happier and so will many other people.

They teach them to clean them to look brand new. They will tell you anything you want to hear to get you to sign on that dotted line. I know someone who has the vacuum and I have no complaints at all, but it IS way overpriced. I just want to let people out there know that if someone comes to the door saying FREE CARPET SHAMPOO TODAY ONLY, DON'T DO IT!! They say it only takes me 30 minutes when actually they have a TWO-HOUR demo they have to perform. So just beware. Thank you.

Of course the company selling the Kirby would be of no help getting me out of the financial obligation. UCFS stated the only ways to stop the obligation is for TW Enterprises to advise UCFS of my cancellation or I was to provide proof by faxing the information. I paid $3.85 for the fax service. Well worth it to be free of the $1200 purchase.

I contacted the office and she finally sent the products out about 4 weeks after her first visit. When the shampoo kit came, I decided to shampoo the carpet. Well, the shampoo that I was promised was not a shampoo but a stain remover. I called to ask if I could exchange the stain remover for the shampoo since that was what she had promised. She told her assistant to tell me to go and buy my own shampoo if I want it, that she is not sending anymore free things to me. Okay, fine! About six months after she came to service the Kirby, it lost its suction again. For the past three or so years, it has been sitting in our garage. Every time I think about it or I go past it in the garage, I want to kick myself for ever purchasing such a worthless machine.

Once the gentleman had realized there was in fact a bigger problem, he took some pictures and muttered that someone would be in contact. No, you guessed it. No one did. So I had to contact again this time explaining I would go to a solicitor and a kind man at Kirby headquarters told me that he would sort it out and someone would contact me. No one called. So I spoke again and eventually an apologetic man took my Kirby away for tests and I would be contacted the next day to let me know how it was progressing. There was no call.

I waited a week - no call. I spoke to the kind man at Kirby who assured me he would sort it and he would call back and the franchise would call - no call. I called the franchise and was told the manager had been in interviews all day and would call me back and no call! This was another week since and you see a pattern here... No calls, no nothing and no Kirby.

So I'm writing this and will be seeing a solicitor as I have been treated badly. I have had the runaround, had bully boy tactics, have no hoover and am hundreds of pounds owed and have a ruined carpet. All I wanted was a nice house, not a headache. I would have bought Anadin who by the way I do endorse.

On the 14th, after talking with the Abilene Police Department, I found out that they had not registered to solicit the product. So I called the Team 1 back once again and begged them to pick up the product. During both conversations, I have informed them that I have placed a stop payment on my check, filed a police report and filed with the Attorney General’s Department. I would like to give them the respect of being upfront. Team 1 has threatened to turn me over to a collections firm. I am very sick over this. I had always thought that Kirby was a very honest brand. Paying $1,000.00 for a product, I believe it should be what they promised it was.

It was a very disappointing demonstration. They ended up shampooing a portion of our carpet that had not been vacuumed by the Kirby; it ended up looking worse than when they came in. I asked if someone could come back later (after it dried) just to vacuum my carpet so that I could get it professionally cleaned afterwards. It was such an easy fix as far as I was concerned and would have been satisfied with this. I was not asking them to pay for the carpet to be professionally cleaned. My only reason for contacting you is that this group of people are stating that they are representing Kirby with direct sales and I believe this experience is very bad advertising for your company.

We waited patiently for them to mail out the shampooer which, of course, took longer than the three-day grace period to cancel. Well, it's February and we are still without what was promised to us. When I called to talk to someone, Joe basically told me that I was not promised anything and they would love to sell us the shampooer attachment! Now it is too late for us to return it, and all we are getting is a runaround from everyone we talk to. Advice to others, don't trust anyone that has anything to do with this company! They are a bunch of crooks!

She then requested a second glass of milk, used the bathroom, then wrote on a piece of notebook paper a final quote on the vacuum from the person on the phone. She wanted $1,000 in cash now and $40/month. My grandmother told her she was nuts and asked her to kindly leave as she was not interested in the cleaner, and had already wasted 3 hours. She was very insulting and rude. Not to mention that when asked to leave, she said she couldn't leave the house until my grandmother signed a paper (plain) that verified she was there from 1-4PM. Then told her for verification to print her name, address and phone number.

Wouldn't they already have that as when she came, she knew their name? Then said she needed permission from her boss before she could leave. Then they picked her up in a large white van with no markings on it. These people must be stopped!

Literally one week later, I called them and they said there was no way I could return it because the finance papers had been filed. So a while later, I started receiving bills and it said the price of the vacuum was $1,600, outrageous! Now, I don’t know how to get out of this situation and not to mention, it’s ruined my boyfriend’s credit.

He asked me if I had ever eaten at this restaurant called Taste of Texas. I said no and he said, "Well, they have really expensive, but good steaks. Our boss took us there last week." To be nice, I said, "Oh, that's nice." He said, "Would you ever go there?" I said sure, maybe sometime and he has the audacity to say, "You'll pay for a really expensive steak dinner, but you won't buy a vacuum that will protect your health?" My jaw hit the floor and I began laughing. He tried to insult me every way he knew how. He said I was cheap, selfish, mean, etc. We continued on this exchange for quite sometime and I kept trying to razz him. He kept lowering the price and I just kept saying no. I think he thought he could eventually break me down, but when I heard the initial price of $1,800, it was firm in my mind that this is not the product for me.

At one point, the guy was vacuuming my bed to show me the dust mites and I pretended to lick the dust mites. He was supremely grossed out and I thought it was hysterical. Eventually, I broke him down to the point he gave up and left. I found out during the time he was there that the things really only cost $250. The kid used my house phone to call his girlfriend, smoked on my back porch and drank my bottled water. I think he quit after he left my house. I certainly made him work really hard for a non-sale. I felt bad for the guy. The bosses don't give a crap about them.

At the time of the return, another salesperson came in my house and saw the damage. He admitted the chair was damaged, told me the vacuum had been used incorrectly by the previous salesperson, told the person in the distributor office that the chair was damaged, and promised (writing on the return receipt) that the value of the chair would be replaced by the company. He also promised that the full replacement value of my old vacuum, which they took away at the time of the original sale (for $200 more off the price), would be returned to me.

The people in the Freemont office said I had to supply them with original receipts for these 2 items, and I did more than once. Repeatedly, I was promised the check is in the mail but I have never received any compensation. This company misrepresents itself and its products, and they do not hesitate to lie to the consumer. Because I allowed these people into my house, I lost a $266 vacuum cleaner (and so had to spend money buying a new one), and my living room is missing a $475 chair - which was in excellent condition before they tried to clean it. I am out nearly $750!

She went back out to the van and came back with a young man and a whole lot of boxes with Kirby(?) marked all over them. She then left, mumbling something about having to pick someone else up, and he began setting up (which turned out to be a 20-minute process in itself). It was apparent that the kid was new to the business. He had trouble with the machine, he was awkward speaking with us, and he even accidentally broke a light bulb on our ceiling fan trying to demonstrate how one of the attachments can be used to unscrew light bulbs. (I really did feel bad for the kid. He was young and was only trying to find a way to provide for his family.) After every two seconds of vacuuming, he would remove the filter discs to demonstrate what his vacuum was picking up that ours wasn't (apparently the more discs he uses the better).

After over an hour and a half, Boss Mike shows up. Mike is the real salesman. He took control, vacuuming the room, the stairs, and leaving a trail of dirty filter discs along the way. My head was starting to hurt at this point and I was starving. Yes, it's true that this vacuum cleaner (Mike corrected me it's called a home cleaning system, not a vacuum cleaner) worked very well, so we asked about the price. $2,200! Forget that! Well, Buddy Mike went down to $1,150 for us because he likes us and that's the same deal he could get for one. Still way too much.

Well, Mike fed us some pretty good lines like "If you could see this dirt everyday that your other vacuum left behind, wouldn't you want to do something about it?" Our response was when we are well enough off to pay cash, we might consider it. Well, why pay cash when you could get it for 6 months same as cash financing? It will be like you paid with cash, and you can have it today!? Thank you, Dave **! Our response was, we will live in our own filth like no one else so that's when we are debt free we can then really live like no one else and reward ourselves with a cleaner lifestyle (if that is what we decide we really want). Mr. Mike did not like that very much. And you know what? He wouldn't leave any way for us to get a hold of him should we get the money saved up. Nope, they cleaned their stuff in my sink and got dust and hair all of the dinner I had started making over three hours earlier (my headache was raging at this point). Mike tore up the papers he had used to write his offer and threw them, along with over 100 filter discs, in my garbage.

From reading the other posts, I have no doubt that these guys would have weaseled away from any kind of responsibility. If you are going to sell something as expensive as a car (the kind of car I am in the market for, anyway), and you aren't even going to put your name and reliable contact information behind it, then something is seriously wrong! By the way, I saw someone on eBay selling the exact same vacuum, Buy It Now, for $550. What a scam. And what was up with the laundry detergent?

The pictures on that camera are irreplaceable, not to mention that it was a very expensive digital camera. How dare they do something like this! I feel so angry that the company did nothing about this. I want the camera with all the pictures on it back. They deny they took it but I know that they did!

Tried emailing corporate in Cleveland several times, only for them to tell me that Kirby salespeople are individual businesses and do not represent Kirby well I beg to differ if you have someone selling your product then it reflects on you. I hate this Kirby and now I am stuck because Johnny told me today that since I did not get in touch with him before the 3 days or cooling off law, then I am pretty much stuck with this Kirby vacuum that I don't even like in fact I told him I hate it, it's too bulky and its heavy. I ran over my big toe the first time I used it, this thing is heavy.

Oh well I learned the hard way so now I have a Kirby and am a very dissatisfied customer. I explained to Johnny that I did not get a phone number to call him until today 12-30-08 only after corporate finally contacted him and someone from that number called me and left a message with a phone number, something I had tried to get from corporate for over a month. I think Kirby vacuums stink and so does their customer service. I even read the emails to Johnny over the phone today and after all that talking, he just said, "Well you didn't call within 3 days and they would have mailed a form to us and we could have cancelled this sale."

Okay that's my bad, but I am in the direct sales business and we work one on one with our clients to get them the very best products at the very best prices. I am a consultant with BeautiControl and my company is not a multi-level marketing or pyramid scam. My company trains us to be have complete integrity and honesty with our business and our clients we sale to. I just made a complete assumption that just because Kirby has been in business for almost 100 years and this salesman that came to my home seemed completely honorable. He and his company holds themselves to the same standards as mine! I was shocked and disappointed to find out I was wrong!

At 2:30am I woke not feeling right about the whole transaction and decided to Google Kirby Vacuums and was floored to read so many complaints from so many people! I felt the sales guy being only 24 was working hard to scrape out a future with the hope and dream of winning a huge sales promotion and trip to Mexico, but I also sensed he really didn't really feel right about what he was doing and this business. So I do not fault him for his sales tactics because these kids are brainwashed to believe that their whole life and future can be staked on the sales of this vacuum. I do not fault the product, because it is a good vacuum, it's just not worth spending $2000.00+ on!!!!!

I fault myself for being stupid enough to sign a contract and purchase a product when I was dead on my feet. I fault Kirby Co for setting up these scams, defrauding millions of customers out of their hard earned money, brainwashing these kids in thinking the best way to get thru life is selling and scamming Kirby Vacuums, and #1 on my list is giving direct sales businesses a dirty name! I always wondered why some people shy away from me when I demo my products at a local trade show. I now know why, they are afraid of getting had like I did with Kirby!!!! I will be returning the vacuum as I do know California state laws.

I got hustled into his private office first. He seemed surprised I had a resume and glanced at it. The only remark he made was one of bewilderment at an address (a town about thirty miles away) and then told me to tell him why he should hire me. I told him about my degree, good work history, and to check my list of personal references I had just given him. Then he dropped the bomb. “Have you heard of Kirby?” My heart sunk. Yes, I said. “We are the region's exclusive distributor for Kirby! Are you interested?” I shrugged saying I didn't know anything about selling vacuum cleaners - me being the first person to say vacuum cleaner the time I'd been there. He said “That's okay. We’ll call you later about orientation.” Resigned, I walked out the door and drove off.

I had barely gotten home, still in my suit, and was telling my roommate about how I fell for an ad to sell vacuum cleaners when the phone rang. It was Mr. Babyface Pinkyring inviting me to show up the next day to begin training. I asked if I would be paid for the training. When he said no I hung up. I drove by the same converted house a few months later and a For Rent sign was in the window.

I said I was at work and set up a time for them to come and get it a few days later. When they came to get it, they didn't bring my vacuum back as promised but said they would bring it the next day. When I said I wanted my money back, they said they had 10 days to return it. I challenged them on this and they called their boss. They put me on the phone and she was incredibly nasty to me. I was informed that if I didn't turn over the Kirby immediately, I was stuck with it and would never see my money. I felt trapped so I forced the salesman to sign a receipt for the Kirby. He did and it stated that the money would be returned in 10 days. The next week, we called the Kirby company direct and they were able to get us an address of the group that sold us the vacuum. We then went to the business where were told that they had lost our vacuum. They told us we could take any of the other vacuums in the place. None were in anywhere near as good of condition as mine but I desperately needed to vacuum. Now I'm stuck with someone's old junk and still don't have my money back.

I called Kirby within my 3-day grace period to state that I wanted my old vacuum cleaner back and that I was not interested in their product and requested that someone come to pick it up as a return. Nick stated that the cost of this would be more than it was worth to him and he assured me that this was his mistake and would clear it up with the credit Preferred One agency. No one came to pick up the Kirby and I again called SC Enterprises with my complaint and requested that the Kirby be returned to their company. Nick left a message on my cell phone that he had taken care of the mistake.

Upon calling Preferred One, I was being charged $1600 after the trade-in and down payment. I again called SC Enterprises and they stated that this would be taken care of. I again did not receive the paperwork that was stated to be arriving by mail and I called the credit agency again. Once again no changes were made to my account. I again called SC Enterprises and was told by Julie that Nick had been embezzling money and that his poor service was an ongoing problem and had been terminated. She assured me that this problem would be resolved. I still have not had the issue resolved and I can no longer find SC Enterprises with my mailings, and all phone numbers have been disconnected. I continue to have an outstanding credit account for $1100. This is more than the original purchase price of my Kirby and negatively influencing my credit history and overdrafting my checking account. I don't know what further I can do?

Two hours later, he is cleaning up after vacuuming the carpet, couch and then shampooing one area of the carpet. And of course the pitch which I told him to halt. What a terrible misrepresentation and Like I said shame on me - I was taken. Please advise this scam to the public in order that they will not be taken in also.

And lastly I was not informed that I would be harassing customers and insulting them in order to get them to purchase a Kirby. While I do believe it is a good vacuum, I know for a fact that it cost about 300 dollars and they charge the consumer about 2 grand. I do not in any way want to be a part of a company that is going to belittle, harass, insult, and lie to a customer just to get a sale. So thanks to all of you on this site because tomorrow morning I will be returning my demo Kirby and leaving the company permanently. By the way, the demo Kirbies that they sell you are used. We use them in every demo until they get sold.

So the consequences are that I am not getting paid for the 70 hours that I put in last week. I wasted about two weeks of my time on a job that is scamming not only the customer but the employee too, and now I feel like I violated a bunch of really nice people that didn't deserve it. I'm surprised no one threw me out. Whatever you do, don't ever let a Kirby salesman in your home because while I was smart enough to get out, not everyone is and they WILL push you.

It was late in the evening when they stopped at my home and demonstrated the Kirby. I told them that I am my mother's caregiver and that I have restrictions with both hands due to an injury and was assured that the Kirby was easy to use. If I lower the Kirby lower, it causes me pain to use the Kirby. I was under the Impression that Kirby was the same trustworthy company that my Grandmother purchased her Kirby from. I was wrong. I will be sending a copy of this e-mail to Better Business Bureau and to Consumer Affairs to inform them of Kirby's practice of saying anything to sell you a Kirby and not telling the whole truth when specifically asked a question.

I only used the shampooer once or twice. I went to use my Kirby one particular time and I kept smelling smoke... I checked it, took it in and had the belt changed. Next time I smelled smoke again and next thing you know there was fire and sparks coming from my vacuum. We have always kept up maintenance on it and I feel that my family was cheated. The repair place just shook their head and offered to sell me a newer model. (Yeah, right!) I could not find out about the warranty. I have just been holding on to a piece of junk. When I finally decided that there was no hope and would part with this piece of metal, I decided that I might be able to sell it for the metal. (Why not? $10 back on that thousand dollar investment would be something.) I was new to this. I had just heard of someone doing it.

I asked this guy who I thought might know how to do it and he said just hold off for a minute. Those vacuums are supposed to have a lifetime warranty. I am going to go online and look it up for you. Well this sparked my interest, again. I went online, got the number for Kirby, called. The guy could not have been shorter with me. He just said in a quick voice, "Kirby's have always had a three year warranty. Thank you." He offered no assistance. I immediately felt that he got this type of call all of the time from dissatisfied customers like myself. In conclusion, I would like to say that the Kirby co. boasts about having been in business for sooo.... many years. (GREAT) Be responsible for who is selling your product. Be responsible for all things concerning your product. Do not stay in business off of the backs of the young, disabled and elderly.

I give him a look and he shuts up for a minute. He then continues to ask questions how long have I lived here, I tell him 2 yrs I said that already. Then he goes on about education and how he used to have 10 college scholarships and he got hurt so he had to work a dead end job.. I don't want to hear his job story but he goes on. Then he pros and asks what I do and has the nerve to shout why did I wait. Like there are no possible circumstances for a person to wait to go to school. This is the most unprofessional, rude person I've came across in a long time. He ran his mouth about himself and his life until thank God Jack came along.

They left no business card so I had a hard time tracking down the exact office. I haven't yet. I speak to customer service, they tell me they need an exact office location and I tell them I don't have it. They tell me when I do, they'll assist me. Those ** want me to call every Kirby in America.. So I write the PR and CEO and haven't got a response yet but I will stop at nothing. Scum like these people need to be identified and disciplined. No one deserves the kind of treatment I got. Had I been someone else, I would've cracked that piece of filth's head. He harassed me and when I find out his personal information, I'll be filing a report with his local police department.

Ok so she yells at her boss to come in and I see this huge man dragging in a huge box. The Kirby Vacuum! She introduces him as John. She never gave her name, and then says SHE is going to leave to check on another MAN?! That he will call when he is finished. So he proceeds to start unpacking and asks me to get my vacuum. He starts Vacuuming and counting. All the way to 100. I ask him how long he's going to count. He goes over my floor again with the Kirby. So that is when the sales pitch starts. about the mites, the asthma, the TB, the doom and gloom of my vacuum and my dirty house.

I ask him how much the Kirby is and he says $1895.00. Right then and there, I shut him down and told him he would not be making a sale. He just kept right on vacuuming. I told him over and over I was not going to buy and he kept right on vacuuming and changing those stupid filters. I even told him I had somewhere to be at 4 o'clock. Not to mention I had 20 scattered all over my room. I finally had to literally pull the plug on him and say to get out. He then called his boss and when he showed up, he started in on me. They took their sweet bippy time packing up too. BUT!!! They did not make a sale!! So NEVER, EVER, EVER, answer the door if you do not know who is on the other side. This company needs to be SHUT DOWN!

The sales lady looked like she just got out of prison and just keep vacuuming our carpet and telling us our Dyson was not good. Well we didn't fall for all the crap she said. And then she told us that she need to vacuum the bed upstairs to show how it got dust mites out. By then we had enough and told her she need to leave. She would not leave and keep vacuuming our floor and telling us that our toddler would die if we didn't get the Kirby to clean her bed. Luckily my husband is a big bald bounce looking guy and told her she need to leave but she keep vacuuming.

After the 4th time she decided to pack her vacuum and leave because my husband was looking at her like he was about to throw her out. She was a big bully and scary and she was mean too. We didn't like her the second we talked to her. We thought the lady at the door was going to do the demo but no she jet really fast. I think if you believe in a product you don't have to force someone to buy. I'm a hair dresser so I'm telling everyone that can about how bad this company is.

Our village is very small (<250 people) so it would not take 10 minutes to travel from one side to the other (max of 3 min and that is stretching it). After the boss arrived (in nice attire and huge Chevy Suburban), he told us that we needed his vacuum product and that this was all going to go for a trip for his sales people to travel to Las Vegas. After the boss showed up, it still took us another 5-7 minutes to get them out of our house. Total time they were here: about 40 minutes (this must only be a few minutes to them). The one salesperson was just starting out (Jared) and he only cleaned the carpet, while the lady with him (never told us her name) just sat on the floor with a clipboard in hand and kept telling us how important it was to get these points earned. As soon as they loaded up their equipment, threw away their trash and discs in our trash can, and left, the license plate was written down and called into the sheriff's office.

Next time I heard from them I was getting my wages garnish. I filled out a paper to the courts and then he said, "No you should stop your Retirement until we get paid. Retirement is taken out from your controller you don't have a choice." Okay the thing I don't get is why is this guy so rude. And if he already took $100.00 how do I still owe him $1600 if this is what he asked for in the first place. He has place a lien hold on my credit. I have worked very hard this year doing odd jobs to pay off credit cards and with gas prices, food going up, how can this help? I just think they are trying to rule the world through me.

I am a little person just trying to make ends meet. I will never open my door to a salesperson ever again. The boy said sign this paper, that your payments will start with this voided check. I think this is pretty wrong of the company to assume that I am the one lying. Everybody I know has been tricked by Kirby or Rainbow. I have been taken to the cleaners, it was just bad timing. But I will come back even stronger. It's like bad food. What doesn't kill you will make you fat.

After several minutes two other men showed up at the door carrying boxes, stayed for a few minutes and finally the salesman showed up to do the demonstration. They started unpacking their boxes, and turning the house into utter chaos, then one of the men received a "phone call" from the "boss" and four of them left rather quickly, stating that the girl would bring back the zip brush and floor care kit for the salesman to demonstrate. We thought it was very odd that so many of them showed up all at once and ran out very quickly. The salesman did more talking and "visiting" with me than demonstrating. He dusted a vent on the front of the t.v., and cleaned one spot on the floor with a floor vacuum attachment, which my wife explained to him we have since we bought a Kirby 15 years ago, the only thing we don't have is the zip brush and that is the only thing we are interested in.

He then asked us for a glass of water stating he was thirsty from the work (which he hadn't done any of). The salesman then used an upholstery attachment to vacuum the ottoman, kept hounding us to let him vacuum the beds which I was adamant that he was not doing. I kept telling him that the only thing I was interested in was the zip brush that the gal never returned with. I told him I was NOT buying a vacuum from him repeatedly. He then said "how about you give me a beer and we'll just call it good." I thought that was odd but since he seemed like a nice guy I gave him one and told him to stop trying to sell the vacuum to me and just drink the beer and then call his boss to pick him up.

The whole time he was complaining about his boss and other salesmen and saying he had only been with the company a couple months and has a job interview in a couple days to get away from the Kirby business. Mind you this whole time he was still trying to sell us the vacuum. His last offer was $1,900 without the shampooer. Finally after watching him "try" to get a hold of his boss multiple times and receiving multiple text messages from "the boss" I asked him for his boss' phone number. He reluctantly gave it to me and I called and told them to come and get their salesman and they offered to come talk to me and to write an apology letter. I told them I didn't want them to come back, just pick the salesman up because the only stuff he was supposed to demonstrate for us was never brought back and that it was late and we were going to bed.

Finally at 9:30 pm they showed up to get him. At 10:00 pm our house was egged. After reading on consumer affairs and seeing complaints written about JWL Enterprises and the one from Tacoma that had the JWL Enterprises rep. threaten to "Egg their house" I knew it had to have been them that did it. Those people will NEVER be allowed in our home again! I own a Kirby, have for 15 years and it still works and has never broken down, but I will not buy another one. People need to be aware and not let these people in the door!

My husband & I were just saying how we wanted the carpet cleaned so we thought a good opportunity came our way & let them do it. Well, the man who came to the door (their manager) sent in two men in their early 20's. Scott & Mark. Scott did all of the demonstrating, Mark was just learning. Scott did not care at all about cleaning our carpet. We stood there for an hour watching him give his speech, showing us how dirty our carpet was with the Kirby vacuum. He was supposed to DEEP clean our carpet with the vacuum & then scrub it.

Well he just barely went over our carpet with the Kirby to get out some dirt, missing spots, not doing a through job. He left dirty disks all scattered throughout the house that he NEVER cleaned up! He even asked for a bottle of water! How about bringing your own?! Finally, after 1 1/2 hours got to the scrubbing part he went over the rug - not good at all, not even all the way to the wall. He then said after the it dries I had to vacuum it. WELL!!! My carpet is no cleaner than when he came in to my house. Now it smells like dog pee & has a greasy film on it from the soap!

I'm so mad I let them in. If they are going to promise a free carpet scrub for listening to them, they should do it and do it right! I didn't buy the vacuum and encourage anyone reading this not to buy one and not to fall for the free cleaning scam!! I'm so, so, mad! Never again will I let a salesman in even if they say they have something free! He also sat down at our brand new table we had delivered less than an hour before he showed up. Thanks to him using a pen to write & not placing anything under his paper we now have what he wrote carved into the brand new $400.00 table!

Rob came to "clean" the carpets. He did demonstrate the entire product, every attachment, every perk the machine had. I told him upon walking in the door what "Jessica" had said, that we have hardwood floors, and only the one rug. He said he enjoyed showing the product. He did a small portion of a mattress, how it was on "black" paper to show bed bugs, and our ceiling fan. When he used an attachment on at the floor of the hardwood, which I sweep once a week, there was just a few specks of any dirt, SO he tried harder. When he did the rug, he pulled out his pricing sheet, which I still have because he left it in my son's room when I handed it back and he was showing the mattress.... I'll come back to the next part of that.

Then he started the rug, mind you, I thought he was learning ropes for something so I'm being very positive, but told him I will not be buying a vacuum in the next 2 years, he vacuums parts of the rug, realizing he wasn't going to be selling his vacuum, he starts acting like he was packing up and going home! My rug had bits and pieces vacuumed.

SO.. I get my stern parent voice out and tell him Jessica said there was no obligation to buy and I was doing him a favor. He stated something like he doesn't do this for nothing and meekly asked for me to refer people. I said I didn't give out numbers of friends unless I ask them first. He also said they didn't give the name of who referred out, so I compromised and looked up friends that were in the phone book, had kids, or dogs, etc. Thankfully this took time because he then started taking the vacuum out, no longer explaining it's use or anything, just doing the job.

When I had put down friends I knew that had pets or kids that were publicly listed in the phone book, he almost stopped the job. When he was done, he asked to use my phone (why he didn't have a business phone bothered me a bit but now I have the phone number on my records to call back) his "manager" I believe he said was "Mike **" came on, asking questions, about whether he sold it, most likely because of how he answered, especially the referrals.

First, there was no stain treatment, no free bottle of remover, nor any used on my rug. It took quite a bit longer than he stated. And although I liked the vacuum, I stated to Jessica and Rob that I had no fiscal ability to responsibly purchase their vacuum FOR THE NEXT 2 years. Rob still pushed the payment plan pretty hard even with that knowledge. He gave the name of the person who referred them, AND lied about the amount she had paid to purchase the vacuum (I didn't know she HAD purchased one until the very end when he was pushing so hard) which was $1000 less than the quote sheet.

When he had been given the quote sheet, he came back at 9pm that same night and acted as if I had taken the price sheet, he looked in the couch cushions where I had been sitting. I had no clue that he had left it in my son's room until I was making the bed the next day. I did call him at the phone number he had given me but he never did call back or try to pick it up. I was glad my husband was home when he came back without calling or anything that late at night. He didn't clean the whole rug, he left out an entire foot on one side. It's not a huge rug by any means! I am glad he did what he did because I was able to move my couch to hide what he didn't do this weekend when I had company.

I am horrified of the guilt trip and fiscal irresponsibility they try to encourage. If you like the Kirby and can afford it, great. I don't think that it is a bad vacuum, it cleaned okay. But they LIED, PUSHED and MANIPULATED worse than a car salesman ever had! They started calling the list right away (he said it would take a week or two, it took THAT DAY) AND gave the name to everyone before I could call and let them know. I didn't know they were such liars until they told a good friend that I bought one!!!! Hello? Does the company have any integrity? I've talked to 10 of the people out of the 20 and am afraid the others may be mad/upset for what I started with this irresponsible company. I wish they would do what they say and say what they mean. Although I had no problem with the vacuum and would have considered buying one in the future I will NOT buy from a company with no moral value or ethical conduct.

I will never have anything else BUT a Kirby; you people are really ignorant about this excellent, thorough, and extremely RELIABLE home maintenance unit. You weren't ripped off; rather, you just weren't paying attention, like most lazy Americans today, during the demo, you don't want to read the book, so start whining and try to give an excellent company like Kirby a bad name. They have ALWAYS provided me with EXCELLENT warranty service, a level of service unheard of with Oreck, Hoover, Eureka, etc. I'll put my 27-year-old Kirby up against your cheap, plastic, department store stuff ANY day.

He left to get his manager and come back to shampoo our living room since I just got a new puppy and said yes. While he was gone I looked up Consumeraffairs.com and didn't like what I saw. When they returned I tried to nicely bull crap them that I didn't need them because my landlord has specific people that he wants me to use and no one else is allowed to do it. I thought that would be the end of it but oh no. They then wanted to just vacuum my couch or a few steps of my stairs. I told them I just did it the day before and they told me they were trying to win a trip and if I let them in to just do a couple of stairs that it would help him win.

I persistently said no thank you and they persistently wanted to come and vacuum a bit. I told them that they could just say that they did it and I would sign off on it to help them out but they told me that they were honest and couldn't cheat the system like that. I told them to use the dirt in my yard to fill their meter thingy that they insisted that they had for proof if they wanted but I was not going to let them into my home for anything. After reading reports on this site before they came back, I was prepared for the bull that they were going to try to fill me with when they returned. Finally they left and I watched them drive off in a van that just had temp plates on it so that looked fishy as well.

My husband is somewhat senile. These 2 ladies saw that and proceeded to take advantage of him after I left them downstairs and went upstairs. (I have a home office upstairs, that is where I work). I assumed that they would leave in a reasonable amount of time. A few hours later, when I realized that they were still in my home, I went downstairs to check on what was going on. One of the women had taken their shirt/Blouse off! The upper portion of her body had nothing but a bra on! I was totally disgusted! They came back again around 8 pm! They coerced my husband out of close to a $1000.

She did a very low pressure demo, but there were like ten of us wandering in and out. We took the demo, and the attachments, for cash... The receipt is marked paid in full... and while they DID try a li'l pressure on my grandmother, once they realized it was a cash sale or NOTHING... I got a decent price. Of course, it was useless to push very hard... I saw the one girl choke when my little sister informed her, quite innocently, that my dog cost more than the vac...

Not to say that SOME of the salespersons aren't quite bad! Three or four years ago, I got a scream from my middle sister... COME PROTECT ME FROM THE KILLERS! HUH? OKAY. Oh my, it was just a vac salesman she couldn't figure out how to get rid of :) I tossed him out the door... as I laughed at my sister.. but he was a bad apple, or training has gotten better. Oh.. NOTE: if there are any salespersons reading, we liked the vac, not the attitude, and she would have bought one if the salesperson wasn't an idiot.

The next day I examined the vacuum and its attachments. There are lot of hair, accumulated dust inside hose. The hose has bending mark on them. I was under the impression of spending $1000 to get a brand new home clean system. They never mentioned I get demo system. If that's the case I would not have offer $1000 and not purchase it at all. I have called local office and a lady name Belesty ** is going to have someone call me tomorrow and come by to look at it.

I want to return the product and regret the purchasing because they are not honest. Who knows if the lifetime warranty, customer service ever exist. I don't trust this company anymore. I don't care how good the product I thought it was, but the lady said there's no way they are taking back this vacuum. I am stuck with it now.

At the time that the phone calls occurred a Kirby Salesperson was demonstrating a new model of the Kirby vacuum cleaner to my mother. It was a mystery to me who made the calls until my daughter said she was on the porch and she saw a group of the Kirby salesmen parked in a van using our phone while they waited to pick up the last Kirby salesperson who was in my parents' home.

No one in our household gave the Kirby salesmen permission to take the phone outside the home to make international phone calls. Although my mother was aware that the group of salesmen were parked in a van in front of the house, she was not aware that the Kirby supervisor took the telephone outside the home and gave it to the other Kirby salesmen to use. I feel outraged that the Kirby salesmen took advantage of us by making a long distance call to Texas and two international calls to El Salvador and spend a total of 35 minutes on the phone without any authority to use the phone to make these calls.

I was not interested in the installment plan because the finance charge was $532.70 and would cost me a total of $1,952.70. But I was interested in the 3 month deferred payment because Jason assured me that I would pay only the selling price. To avoid the interest, I informed Jason that's what I want to pay, the selling price that totaled $1,420.00 with a trade-in of my Rainbow vacuum cleaner.

The deal got ever better when Jason told me that he would make the first two monthly payments for me. He instructed me to send him the first two coupons in the payment book when I receive it by mail and he would take care of the payments saving me a total of $130.18. So on 5/30/02, I sent Jason a letter enclosing the first two monthly payment coupons to be paid on the account. On the following day, I sent United Consumer Financial Services a check for the remaining balance of $1,289.82 to have my Kirby account paid in full.

Once settled, I offered to return the merchandise, but I do not feel that it should be at my expense (or my paying upfront and hoping that he will then issue a credit after the fact). I further informed the seller that I would return the merchandise once the claim has been settled but that if I had to return it, at my expense, I would file a claim with Better Business Bureau and Internet Fraud (as he has threatened he has done with me). His last reply was that he would refuse shipment of the return even if I returned it at my expense. Please indicate how I can provide you with documentation of the transaction. I have the item at home in the original box that has not even been opened. Should I attempt to send it back anyways, despite his threats? Would sending it back at my expense hurt my claim against him? I'm not sure what the next step in resolving this dispute is? Could you possibly advise?

I have done a little research on this, and top of the line Dysons and Electroluxes start around $500, plus all the attachments which, depending on what you get, could be another few hundred bucks. I feel like we got a great deal. Who knows, maybe this thing is a piece of crap and breaks in 2 months. However, I read a lot of bad stories on here, and I wanted to share mine. Yes, he was a salesman trying to make a buck, but at the end of the day, who isn't? The salesman was cordial, polite and unassuming. And I got a (hopefully) great product at a great price. Sorry some of your experiences weren't as good as mine.

The delivery confirmation confirmed that they received it, but to this day I have not been able to get in contact with them. I left several messages on their answering machine and even spoke with a person that said they would call me back the very next day and take care of it for me. Finally, after waiting over a month and still calling with no response, I contacted the Kirby Vacuum Consumer Complaint Department and spoke with Susan at 1-800494-8586. I have talked to her several times and apparently, they are having trouble contacting them as well. She told me that I have to wait for this company to resolve the problem and that she contacted the Kirby district office for that area. It has been two months with no resolution from this company.

He cleaned our carpets, demonstrated every aspect of the vacuum and even partially cleaned one of our cars to show how it converted to a hand held. I then proceeded to look up the main Kirby Company number, called them and verified the vacuum that they were selling was the one that we were looking at in our home. I can not remember exactly what the price of the vacuum was, but it has been the best purchase I have ever made.

After 7+ years of use, it has not lost its super suction strength and has not broken once (except for an attachment that I broke for being too rough with it). If you are going to buy something, be smart and research it first. It's your own fault if you get scammed. I was living in Killeen Texas when I first purchased it and being a military family have moved 4 times since and it has survived everyone of them. My ex mother in law even has a Kirby from back in the 70's that still runs like a champ. Kirby's can be very industrial looking or seem old fashion, but if its a real true Kirby, you will never need another vacuum.

Later as I was going to work, he yelled from someone else's yard, loudly, Panasonic. . Two days ago another Kirby salesman come to our house. Same story, but I explained we weren't interested. He didn't take no for an answer. He said that they were just in the neighborhood and wanted to steam clean our carpet. I asked him to leave. Today, this afternoon, another Kirby salesman came to the door. He was talking with my wife as I was coming home for lunch. He asked if he could give my wife a hug. She complied reluctantly. He used the fact that we are Christians and she went on a mission trip to Mexico and build some bond so he could hug her. I asked her later and she said she was uncomfortable with this. How manipulative can they be? I asked him to leave and not return.

I asked that they send no one else out to our house. He explained that there were other companies selling Kirby that they couldn't control what goes on. I explained that they were the same company, J.W.L. Enterprises was the fliers they kept delivering. I couldn't believe it, but later that night, I come home at 8pm and there was another team of Kirby people in my house demonstrating a vacuum cleaner to my wife. I was very upset to learn that my wife let them in. They stepped into our house without her verbal permission. I have shared my frustration with her. She is no push-over, but these people are beyond belief.

You would think after being confronted about hugging my wife, told that we never wanted to see them again, that they wouldn't send out more people. I asked them to leave. I told them they have 5 minutes to get out of my house or I would call the police. The guy smiled, while the girl selling the vacuum looked nervous. He made the comment that the quality vacuum that was selling for $2300 needed a little bit longer to be put away. When they left, I found out that they were there two hours. I then talked with the business owner in a van and he kept telling me he was a Christian and that they do good things like charity work. I explained the whole story to him and asked that the leave us alone or I would call the police and publish this in a local newspaper to warn people.

I told the man (along with my sister, who was visiting at the time), that we just bought our home two years ago and could not afford such a luxury. Then I told him no again, due to the fact that I had two small children and no extra $. After that I told him that I could make such a big financial decision with out my husband. He wouldn't leave he was pushing papers at both my sister and I demanding that we finance this vac. While he did this he called his supervisor and told him that he had just sold 2 vacs.

When he got off the phone he yelled at us (face red) saying that we were obligated at this point to buy, and we were trying to take food off his table...We said no again. At this point he told me that we looked like trash anyway and couldn't afford this vac. We would NEVER qualify for their credit. I repeatly asked him to leave my home. He ranted that my kids would die of kawaski disease, and how that was my fault for now buying their vac. I had to physically take his things and throw them out my front door, then help him out as well.

I didn't call the police because I think the whole ordeal was so shocking. Nothing I'd ever dealt with before. Their company still calls 2x per week, but I was never home to recieve their call. On 9-20-08 they called again. They informed me that WE WON A FREE SHAMPOO! I told them this was a scam, and never to call me again. I wrote to Kirby first to express my concerns, but they never responded.

I think that every housewife is in danger of this company. Their methods should not be legal

I balked at that and got the old Let me call my mananger trick. He came back with $1700.00 and I'd have to give him my old Dyson and they'd throw in the shampooer. $100 down, $75 a month. Back and forth and he took forever cleaning up the machine and putting back in the box. I balked at that and another call was placed.....(he was calling his boss from his cell phone and my wife raised a good point.....was he really talking to anyone?) Anyways, the final offer was $1000.00 cash, plus he'd still take my old vaccum. I didn't bite and he left without incident.

When I asked about the warranty it was kind of brushed over quickly and seems to be a 3 year thing and you can get it serviced for about $175 a shot every few years after the first 3 years.

In any event, I have since completed the payments with the exception of approximately $200 which I have arranged with United Consumer to pay off by October 2008. My complaints are as follows: 1) I felt pressured (extremely) into buying the darn thing in the first place; 2) Due to circumstances beyond my control, I got a little behind on the payments, but I made an arrangement with United Consumer several months ago to restructure and pay the balance, which I have been doing. However, they continue to submit derogatory information on a monthly basis to the credit bureaus. What was the point in making the arrangement if this is continuing to happen?

I disputed the information with the credit bureaus and United Consumer responded and verified information, so I cannot dispute the information again. Furthermore, there is a note on my report that says it will remain on my report until Nov 2014. The report shows numerous continued late payments after the arrangement even though I have held to the arrangement made with them. I do not know what exactly is allowed under the Fair Credit Act; however, I do know that the intent of making an arrangement with any creditor to fulfill an agreement is to correct deficiencies and avoid serious derogatory comments such as the ones made by United Consumer Finanacial Services.

I bought a Kirby once. It was $1200, back in 1986, a huge amount of money and I was young and stupid. I tried to cancel the sale within the 3 days and got some sob story about how it was the salespersons first sale and she wanted to keep her job. This was from the manager! I stupidly kept the thing even though I had a tiny little house which did not need a hmongous vacuum! Eventually I sold the machine at a garage sale for pennies on the dollar. I will never make such a mistake again!

When their van finally pulled up, a man came rushing up to the door and knocked very loudly and rapidly. I opened the door, handed them their paperwork, and said, There is absolutely no way I'm buying anything. It's just not going to happen. His very sarcastic and negative response was Well thanks for putting my $2,000 equipment on the porch, to which I responded Thanks for leaving your [vacuum] in my house and trying to use my wife. He then began to get very aggrivated and started to say some things that were in english, but didn't really make sense. Not wanting the situation to progress, I said Sir, get off my property, or I will call the police. He began taking his things. They also left the trash they had created by giving their demonstration that we didn't want at our house.

If I ever see a Kirby salesperson coming to my door, I am going to call the police b/f I answer the door. After a 13 hour day dealing with students, it's very aggrivating to come home and deal with a pushy, angry salesperson standing on your porch. I don't know the guy. What is he capable of? Now he knows where I live. Now my wife is sitting at home trying to do homework for college, worried about some psycho salesperson coming to the door while I'm not there.

On Sunday I called several times to try and cancel my purchase. I left so many messages their inbox was full and I couldn't leave anymore messages. On monday I sent in the papers to cancel my purchase. Not once did they mention I should send this priority mail. Now they are saying they never received my letter (I found out thru the billing company) and they still have not returned any of my phone calls.

I am a young mother with a baby. My husband is out of work and we can not afford this purchase. I don't want my credit damaged, but I can not afford to make these payments. I have never used this vacuum and I don't want it. I just wanted to get rid of these unwelcome high pressure sales people. Please help me.

I have been threatend to be turned over for collections for a payment I can't afford. My emotional stress about this has made me physically ill.

So the very next morning i got on the phone and finally someone was able to take my call. Her name was Kelly. I explained to Kelly that i tried to cancel the policy the day before, 8/11/08, and was not successful because i was placed on hold twice for over 20 min. Kelly said that their is nothing that she should about that and the vacuum is now my responsibilty. I told Kelly that i needed to speak with someone that would understand my situation so she referred to Eric. Eric called and said the same thing Kelly said. I told Eric that the employees were not proffesonal and i belive that i was taken for a ride and i will be dropping off the vacuum that very next day at the address that is on my contract. I asked Eric to verify the address and he refused and said the address that you see on the contract is the correct address.

On 8/12/08 i drove to the location and come to find out that the address that is written down on the contract is incorrect. That address was an abondon building that was in the process of being refurbished. I decided to circle the block and needless to say the office was at a different location. Once i got to the correct location i spoke to Kelly and told her that i no longer want the vacuum. I gave her the vacuum along with all of the the attachements and walked out the door. I got on the phone and spoke with the companies finacial insitution and told them that the order was cancelled and im no longer responsible for the payments.

The conseqences that im going to be facing is bad report on my credit report.

i am now screwed when i put all of my time and posessions into this company and all i get is eighty two dollars for four two thousand dollar vacumn cleaners

The male representative asked for a drink, used our bathroom and our phone. I kept telling him I could not afford the vaccumm and would not even consider purchasing it without talking to my boyfriend first. He told me that he just wanted to demonstrate the product to get his points and there was no obligation to buy. But the second he walked in, he kept trying to sell it to me aggressively. He continually stated that its the 21st century and a woman can make up her own mind without the consent of her significant other which I thought was completely rude. Every time I told him no, he said let me call my boss and see if I can get you a better deal.

When he arrived to the house the product was $2100 and when he left he got it down to $1600. Every time he called his boss, he would use MY phone and say hi boss this is JARED, the customer cannot afford this much but is really interested . . . To make a long story short, after the 5 hours the only way I felt I could get them out was to buy the stupid thing. I paid in full in cash. He didnt know what to do with the cash and had to call his boss to see how to write out the receipt. Then when he left he asked for a drink to go and a beer. Once he left the two of them were sitting on my porch for a good 30 mins waiting for their ride. The next day I decided I did not want this Kirby so I called the office and said I wante dto cancel my purchase. They said you must have your cancellation into our office within 3 days. I said i know thats why I'm calling today, i purchased it last night. But they claimed you had to have the cancellation sheet in their office w/in three days.

So I fed ex'd their request and it arrived to their office the next day. They told me someone would call to pick up the vaccuum. They did- 7 days later. He said I'm coming to your house to pick it up now. He never showed up. Called me two days later and finally picked the vaccumm up. I have been on the run around ever since for my money which i paid in CASH. I purchased the vaccum on 7/8/08, sent my cancellation on 7/9/08, they picked up the vaccumm on 7/17/08 and today 8/28/08 I am still trying to get my money back ($1665)! Their cancellation policy states it will be returned within 10 business days.

Economically, I will have to pay someone else to clean the carpet because we are on a tight schedule and going away I do not have the time to finish the carpet and cleaning tonight. The house is for sale, and it is being shown less than 24 hours from now.

The first day of orientation we find out we're not getting paid for the 5 day training which equalled up to around 20 hours of my life that i will never get back. The product was great and well worth the money but the recruiter told us on our 1st day of training that we would all be going on an all expenses paid vacation to ft.lauderdale, fl. Then we find out the two training days later that we actually have to sell 15 kirbys in one single month to be eligible for the ALL EXPENSE PAID TRIP TO FT.LAUDERDALE, FL. All she did was talk about doing drugs and it was ok if people she recruited did them but she didnt wanna know about it. We would all be going out to Torch's the bar that next friday in hummer limos for free, but we discovered we actually had to make 55 then they changed it to 35 sales in our little measley 5 day training period between about 20 of us to be eligible to go to Torch's.

She also told them that she knew some of them are underage but as long as they didnt tell their parents how they were drunk with the company thats supposably in the BBB and a fortune 500 company then she didnt care. Are you kidding me, shes planning on allowing minors to drink, isnt that a felony or something? I finally walked out alongside of a few other people who got tired of the lies. Some of their demo salespeople are actually truly sincere and nice, but I guess you dont always get the nice ones.

I like went through a depression phase in those 5 days because I was finding out we werent all going to get the things we were ALL promised. Also because I was told we would have a lot of free time to spend with our families which was obviously another lie or else I wouldnt have quit.

Bob and Nicole then came into my house, Nicole left, and Bob began to set up the Kirby. I told him that I already owned one, and that I was not interested. He then started searching my house for my Kirby. When he found it, he began to show me some problems with it, that were false. Then he BROKE IT! The powerhead, hose, shampooer or whatever attatches to the Power Plant won't stay because the metal latch that holds it broke. He then said that that was a problem for that vacuum, and it had been improved with the sentria. I still refused to buy it, yet he tried to push a bill of sale, and a contract to me.

I took his vacuum, put it outside, and told him to leave. He said no, went out and grabbed the vacuum and got back in faster than I could close and lock my door. He said he had to go to the bathroom, so I let him. While he was in there, i called the police. When he came back out, I let up and let him do the sales pitch. about 10 minutes later, the police then came through my door, and arrested the man, and everybody else. They told me to keep the sentria, so now I have a Kirby upstairs, and downstairs. Keep in mind, Kirby's are ABESOLUTE GREAT vacuums, but their sales tips are horrible

I was determined to give Kirby my best shot and to see for myself if it was true about being scammed....2 months later and 1500 dollars in gas money down the drain, I NEVER RECIEVED MY BONUS! WHY YOU MIGHT ASK? According to the owner he said that I didnt turn in enough leads to recieve the bonus? Now keep in mind during these two months I worked 7 days a week, missed my family and dropped every dime i had into the gas tank to get this bonus and [he] says Im not getting it do to leads? They never tell you that in the orientation all they say is sell 13 and recieve your bonus! I was later told that they wont pay it out and WILL FIND ANY EXCUSE IN THE BOOK TO NOT PAY YOU!

I'm fed up with Kirby and I know that there are honest distributors out there I met some of them at Kirbys annual sales rallys so I know there not all bad. They might even treat you nice for a while like they did to me but the second any type of bonus is on its way to your pocket......SOMETHING will come up..The Kirby is a great machine and well worth the money, I think Kirby needs to take a look at whats really going on at there Concord N.H. Branch.

Damages done were that I lost my secure job I had as a manager at a bar, I got evicted from my apartment due to no money (Half went into my gas tank from driving a thousand miles a week) And just the brain damage done because from now on Im going to think that all my bosses are going to try to screw me over like [this one] did. I forever have a sour taste in my mouth about Kirby and it has nothing to do with the product...Just that distributor.

Sure enough, 10 minutes later 2 men showed up at our door with the Kirby vacuum cleaner. We said we didn't want to buy anything. The manager response was, Sir this is a $2,000.00 machine, are you ready to spend that kind of money for it? so, we let them in...

I was truly impressed with the machine. I think it does what it supposed to do, and very well. I was convinced that the it has better suction than my vacuum cleaner and it does all the other stuff the salesman said it did, including spray painting and blow off leaves from gutters, but I wasn't ready to spend $2,000.00 on it and even after the salesman's manager came over and try to make me feel bad about what he called my broken vacuum cleaner I did NOT give in to the pressure. Even after he brought the price down to $1,500.00 I said a big NO.

In my opinion all they did was to taint the image of this product, by using high pressure, lies, and gimmicks. I think if they didn't pressure people in their own houses they would sell a lot more products. I just cannot believe that a company of this caliber would use such tactics to sell their products. I checked them out on BBB and the 36 complaints that they had were resolved. Very strange due to the number of complaints in the Consummeraffairs.com. Maybe more people should speak up if they feel they were ripped off.

The stories were pretty much the same, don't they (Kirby) company get it? people don't like to buy something they don't want, and most of the time when they buy it they return it because they feel guilt by buying an overpriced piece of machine, which then, they have a hard time returning it because of terrible customer service. I wonder what will take for them to change their sales tactics, maybe slow sales for 3 quarters straight, massive law suits?

For all of you who have had a terrible experience with the Kirby salesman, there have been thousands who have had fantastic experiences, and own and use their Kirby today. The reliance on the internet, and the easy access to information will not kill the door to door sales. The Kirby business in its door to door sales has worked for almost 100 years, and will continue to work. Millions of Kirby vacuums are sold a year, to satisfied customers.

The pitch is one of truth. There is no lying in what we tell you, unlike the used car salesman. If you are not interested, then tell them so. The Kirby company and its distributors employ countless people who are attempting to make a living just as you are, by selling you a product which is far superior to anything you can purchase from a store. I understand the horrible experiences you have had because of the bad business people have done in the past. I ask you to not look at the past, because it does not dictate the future.

If you have someone who is attempting to shampoo your carpet from Kirby ask them who they are with and give them a chance. By slamming your door it does nothing but make you ignorant. See what the demonstration has to offer. If you are not satisfied, that is your opinion, and you can voice it however you wish. But please do not rebuke the man who is attempting to make a living selling a product in the only fashion that truly works.

His cell rings he answers it. I finally say to him that I will not be buying a vaccuum cleaner and that frankly the girl was misleading when she came to my door as this is clearly not a carpet company cleaning promotion. He continues to clean the carpet. After cleaning the parts of the vacuum in my kitchen sink. He asks if he can use my phone to call his ride (remember, he has a cell phone). I said no as I don't allow anyone that I don't know use my phone. He then proceeds to state that he won't be able to get a ride. I ask him why doesn't he use his cell phone. He claims the battery is dead. Then he asks if I can call. I said no, use your cell phone.

My husband walks in and then the salesman asks him and I interject and say that I just told him no. He then proceeds to make rude comments such as What's the matter are you guys cops or something. In absolute shock I asked him What's with all of the questions. He continues to ask if my neighbor will allow him to use the phone. UNBELIEVABLE!He finally left muttering he now had to go find a phone.

We were so shocked by the whole ordeal that my husband immediately jumped on the internet searching for any complaints regarding Kirby. Surprise, surprise we found this website. I have never puchased a Kirby product and frankly after this, never will. I will also tell everyone I know about this so that they are not subjected to this type of treatment and disrespect in their own home. Kirby is absolutely responsible for these sales people. I highly doubt it's simply a coincidence that all of these complaints (going back as far as 2002)are so remarkably similar. TRUELY DISGUSTED!

We did manage to get out of our purchase and I'd like to let others know how to as well. There are two things you should do. First, you should fill out the cancellation slip and mail it in within three days of signing the contract. Just sign both spots and send the whole contract back. If you'll notice there is no name or account number or any way for Kirby to tell who is canceling what on the actual cancellation slip, SO MAIL THE ENTIRE CONTRACT. (It's probable a good idea to make a copy first, if you can, but more than anything just get it signed and postmarked.)

Secondly, and most importantly, when the finance company calls you a few days later(after the day of the sale, not the day you mail the cancellation) tell them you've canceled. The sales man was back, unannounced, the very next day to pick up the vacuum cleaner. We haven't heard from them since. I'm assuming the finance company will call, they did us, but if they don't, try calling them. That's all I had to say. Maybe my advice will help someone wondering, "What just happened? And what do I do now?"

I paid way too much for the vacuum first of all I really couldn't afford it but they were very pushy, and hid some facts about financing.

I gave the young guy 15-20 minutes to vacuum the floor. He'd vacuum for 10 seconds, then change out the filter disc. He did this probably 25 times. Then he said he needed baking soda and salt so he could do a demo between the Kirby and my vacuum. (Why would I give him something to mess up the carpet when he's supposed to be cleaning it??) When I said no, he said he wouldn't get credit for the demo unless he did baking soda, salt, and mattress tests. MATTRESS TEST? No way! None of that was part of the deal! So, I refused. I reminded him that this was supposed to be a quick simple carpet cleaning -- not a sales demo. Suggesting this was just a waste of his time, I told him to pack up to find a willing customer because I wasn't buying anything.

Of course, he couldn't just leave because they'd left him! I finally got the number of his "manager", Margie, and called her myself to explain I wasn't proceeding with the cleaning and to come get her guy. She came a few minutes later and tried to convince me to let him finish so he could get paid his $15. I refused (over and over), they finally packed up, and, because I'm not normally that assertive and did feel bad for the guy, I gave Xavier $15 cash to compensate him for his time. I didn't feel he should suffer because his managers misrepresented themselves.

The carpet does look cleaner just from the little bit of vacumming, but the room reeked of the cigarette smoke emanating from these guys.

I don't know what I was thinking -- I should have known better. I let strangers into my house with no knowledge of who they actually were. I told my husband I'm never allowed to answer the door for a stranger ever again!

The other time I was another residence, instead of staying in the van, the man was waiting in the walkway outside with the box. As soon as they heard that the consumer did not ever here of Sentria they came closer to the door. I then told them they were not welcome because of the experience I had with them a few weeks back. They denied the prior experience and left. A few minutes later I met them in the road as I was leaving. I asked them if they had a license or permit to do what they were doing. They said they did. When I asked to see it they would not show it to me. They said they did not have to show it to me because they were not on private property.

One of the men then asked me if I didn't have anything better to do than harass them. I then said to them that they were the one's harassing me at 9:15 at night. They then said they could go door to door until 10:00pm. I told them they were not welcome in this neighborhood. They would not leave and said that was not my decision. The first time they tried to give me a bottle of cleaning liquid, the second time was a bulk pack of paper towel. They were driving a beat up Astro type van.

I am a senior citizen who lost her job in Nov 2007 and have only social security on which to live, pay my mortgage, etc etc. I want to be out of this contract and return the vacuum.

If someone comes to your door asking to come into your home for any reason demand who they are with and if they say Kirby close the door, pour yourself a glass of Chardonnay, and smile at the realization that you just saved yourself 2 hours, $1750, the cheesiest sales pitch you've ever heard, and a slew of belittling remarks.

First of all, this is in regards to the girl who wrote about she wouldn't be paid if she didn't do 15 demos in a week, or 60 total in a month. If she worked 5 days a week, as you do in any full time position, and performed 3 Kirby demonstrations a day, which is standard, that equals 60 demonstration, and she would be paid. Obviously she didn't take her job seriously and didn't apply herself because I can assure you that there are PLENTY of people in the world to demonstrate this amazing product for. Like any other job, if you don't apply yourself, THEY WON'T PAY YOU!

Second of all, for all of the people bashing all of the sales representatives in Kirby, you need to remember that all people are different, including sales men/women! If you are walking down the street and someone is very rude to you, do you automatically assume that EVERYONE on that street is rude? No, you think, "Wow, that person was a real jerk." Yes, sometimes people can be mislead in some way so that a Kirby representative can enter the home. This is only because in todays world, there are so many scams and faulty products being sold, that when there really is a good product that is extremely beneficial to everyone, PEOPLE WON'T EVEN GIVE IT A CHANCE! And why is this? Because the REAL scam artists have made it impossible for truly kind-hearted sales people to make a living today without dealing with such obstacles. The REAL SCAM is all the 150 other vacuums on the market charging you hundreds of dollars to pick up 10% of your dirt and leave 90% behind! If you think that selling a product that is more expensive because it gets the job done is bad compared to selling a product that doesn't work at all, then you are either stupid, or insane!

I sell Kirby vacuums because they are a necessity in the cleanliness of every home and healthiness of everyone's family! I would never sell a product that was not worth every penny or valuable to anyone who owns it. I personally believe that EVERY home should sit through one of Kirby's demonstrations and make a decision for themselves as to whether or not they want to buy a Kirby to rid their homes of this filthy condition we call DIRT. It contains germs and bacteria which belong outside, not in your house!

If you think of it this way, how many of you people complaining about the Kirby or saying it's not worth the money, have slept in hotels? How many of you know anything about dust mites, millions living in every mattress just from ONE person occupying it? And how about the fact that it is one of the leading asthma, allergy and skin irritation causers? Does it make you feel nice knowing that thousands of people share hotel beds, shedding dead skin for dust mites to feed on and regenerate, making hotel beds the DIRTIEST mattressed anywhere!! OR would you feel better knowing that a hotel mattress is cleaned with a Kirby on a regular basis to prevent this condition, therefor keeping you healthier and cleaner? Every hotel should own Kirby's specifically for this, and mostly every hotel DOES NOT! So you can enjoy this thought the next time you're on a lovely family vacation.

In closing, people need to open their minds to what is in front of them. If you don't care about having a filthy home and mattress (which everyone does, without this machine), then that is your unfortunate choice. But do not ruin this company's good name because you get aggravated sitting for too long, or would rather have pizza delivered and have On Demand than own a product that will keep your carpets and furniture beautiful and fresh, and your dirty mattresses clean, which saves you MONEY IN THE END!

For those of you who have honestly just experienced rude sales people, I apologize for their behavior. Do not penalize all of us for their disregard for your respect or space. Most of us just truly care about the quality of others' health and homes and love to offer people a great product that really works.

we read about all of your terrible expierences and were shocked. the first part of all of your stories sounded just like ours. So i went outside when they arrived and told them my girlfriend and i had to leave, there was a family emergency. The gentleman (who looked like a 15 year-old in a shirt and tie) was not responsive for HIS phone number so i could call when it was convient for us.

he offered to come back later, and i responded with, no we wont be back today. GUESS WHAT HE SAID! - what in new hampshire? A very rude remark, wouldnt you agree? WHY would i have ever let this person into my house in the first place? Very rude people. And again, thank you for sharing your terrible expierence's with KIRBY home cleaners, or vacuum's or whatever they want to be called.

Five minutes later the doorbell rings again and the female, accompanied by a young, very clean cut male enter along with the 2 telltale boxes. I've never been solicited by a door-to-door salesman, but figured this was it and told them I had very little time (it was almost 8:30) I asked how long this would take - more than 10 minutes? more than half an hour? they looked at each other and confirmed that the presentation would take less than half an hour. All I have to say is HAH!!! Xavier my salesman was a lovely person, allegedly a junior at Trinity College in Conn and supposedly would be earning credit for this job. I weeded out that they were actually promoting a scholarship program (incentive for me to spend $2000 on a vaccuum?) for the salespeople.

This presentation would have taken at least two hours if I hadn't chased him out of here. But at 9:30 when I told him he had to leave, he called his supervisor to come discuss/confirm that the presentation had occured and it took him another 30 minutes to pack up - but he left me presents - the dirty disks layed out all over the room. I can not believe that this company is actually having their sales reps LYING about earning college credit to get into your house. This is ridiculous. I owe alot to those who participated in my surveys and presentations throughout school and I thought I was just re-paying the courtesy. Never Again. Kirby, thank you for ruining it for students everywhere.

they drop people off in vans and hand out flyers for free vaccume shampooing. they dont even shampoo your carpet. they just do a demo and convince you to buy it. this place is not a reliable place of employment. I feel bad for people that dont know about this terrible company. i have wasted 4 days of my life. UNPAID. they probably wouldnt even have paid me in a month like they said they were going to. these people make 2400 a month supposively to do 60 demos a month and its like... what if i dont make the 60 demos? I DONT GET PAID.

no response to question on yesterday

Despite being repeatedly told by personnel that all appointments with customers were prescheduled, the manager training us talked several times about what to do during impromptu demonstrations, and how to make a sale when a potential customer only has a few minutes to talk and wants us to leave. Obviously, the appointments are not prescheduled, and the company managers fully expect that some people will not even want to see the demos. Furthermore, I was told by the hiring manager that the training was paid, only to find out during the training that paychecks are contingent upon completing 13 demos a week. As I previously mentioned, the demos were clearly not prescheduled, which means customer service reps would have to arrange their own demos, and would not necessarily be able to arrange 13 in a week.

We were told that we would give demos between 1 pm and 9 pm, but the fact that the demos would be out of town and we would not get back to the distribution point until 10 pm was overlooked until the end of training. We were also encouraged to attend unpaid meetings at 10 am every day, making work days 12 hours long with no lunch or bathroom breaks. Personnel additionally encouraged us to work AT LEAST 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday. Finally, they told us that if we worked hard, we had the potential to make $10,000. a month, which was perhaps the greatest lie of all.

Kirby's business practices with potential customers are equally, if not more, disturbing than their treatment of employees. We were directed to enter people's homes under false pretenses, by telling them we were offering free carpet shampooing. The sample Kirbys that we used for 10 hours during training and for the demos are also the ones we were supposed to sell to customers. During the training, we spent an hour learning how to clean our Kirbys and repack them so they look like they've never been used. And, one of these "new" Kirby Sentrias costs $650 to manufacture, but is sold for approximately $2,500. to $3,000! The "lifetime warranty" is also a sham: the warranty is only three years and excludes normal wear and tear; after three years, the owner has the option of having their vacuum restored to its original condition, but FOR A FEE.

Overall, Kirby has the most unethical practices when dealing with employees and customers that I have ever experienced, as an employee or a customer. I advise people to absolutely avoid working for Kirby, and to avoid purchasing Kirby products so as not to support the company's deeply unscrupulous business practices. As for myself, I most definitely regret the 4 days I wasted dealing with this company, when I could have been looking for work with an honest business.

I only left Kirby because I simply put too much pressure on myself and didn't trust other people to help do my job, and I was just overworking myself because I cared. I won 5 trips, so yes, the contests are real and very attainable. Look, my thought was, if someone really didn't want me in their house, I didn't want to be there, I will just go to the next one. I apologize for all Kirby Distributors out there. For every one bad apple, their are 100's of good natured, positive, and good hearted sales people out there.

To all you straight Kirby sales people, stay that way. And to you possible consumers, you don't know you need a Kirby, but one demonstration and an open mind, you will see you do. If you don't like the Kirby guy or gal when they come in, call and get a different one.

I told her that I already had a Kirby and she told me that it was old. I asked her to put the lid back on the box - our conversation was over. I told her that she totally misled me and asked her to get out. She told me not to be so aggrivated and kept talking. I asked her again to get out. She then told me that I was being a jerk and wanted her free soap back. I showed her the door. She stood at the end of the driveway until her ride came back. They barely slowed down long enough for her to get into the van, then they sped away.

I called the sheriff's office and they said that every summer this happens and a group of these people are arrested for soliciting without a permit. The sheriff explained that these young people are recruited by Kirby and put up in a hotel and trained. They are told that if they sell 10 cleaners they make $5000. If they don't make their quota, they are kicked out of the hotel and have to find their own way back home.

I wouldn't have purchased a Kirby from her even if I was interested. I'm going to hand over a check for a couple thousand dollars to this person? She was totally unprofessional and very, very pushy. She was poorly dressed and unclean. I called all of my neighbors to warn them about this scam. I, for one, will never buy another Kirby product... ever. This is disgraceful.

For example, when they go to your door and knock, they wont identify themselves as who they really are. It is also true that they go into homes and persist consistently for a sale, even if it means keeping the owners busy as long as possible. They also constantly ignore the no soliciting signs, although they are better than nothing. They are even trained to act when they are cleaning your house, to create excitement in a potential customer, so that when they pull dirt from your carpet or matress, you can get grosed out. They know tricks to get to customer into a buying mood, such as giving them yes answer questions so that their thought process gets trained to say yes.

The female took off in the van to scout the neighbor so as the gentleman said.That really alarmed me because I had never seen such progressive selling tactics. The guy then proceeded to get out his dirt pads and started cleaning everything from the living room sofa to the carpets. He then collected in total about 30 demonstration dirt pads and laid them on the dining room table which I did find to be rude. He never gave any though to collect them seeing as they were part of his sales pitch.

The real shocker came in near the end of the presentation. I stepped outside for a brief moment to speak with some visitors my grandmom had. I came back to find that he had made his way all the way to back of the home in none other than her bedroom. At this point I got extremely annoyed. The total presentation time was about 2hrs which I felt was too entirely long to be in anyone's home. Overall it was an unwanted as well as a bad experience. If you ever see a Kirby vac van or vehicle in your yard. Please duck and hide. These are very high pressure sales tactics.

There was no real harm done. I wanted everyone to know to Please be wary of these people. Dont let them in if you should see them in your yard.

The economical affects by this company was that , I quit my steady job that I had to work for this pathetic company and all I ended up doin was wasting my gas, and losing my apartment and my car. I was yelled at by the owner on a daily basis and now that I know that there is a group fighting back to shed some light on what is going I can finally relax. I'm tired of hearing horror stories from that company. Lets put a stop to it!

In about a month the finance company FRA LYN called and we talked about my fact that I had traded in the vacuum , it seems that the vacuum was not paid for, as a matter of fact my husband still owed $800.00 on it and FRA LYN was never contacted about any trade in. But they do have the contract for the new vacuum.

Both myself and the FRA LYN company have contacted the store, spoken with the manager and have been promised that they would return the vacuum to me. This has not happened yet and it has been since January, This is now July! I would definitely consider this situation to be THEFT BY DECEPTION!

The FRA LYN company is holding me responsible for the $800.00 and the owner of the store will not budge. He says that if he pays for it he loses money. Meanwhile the account is in mine and my mothers names, it is delinquent on our credit reports since December 2007,and we dont have the vacuum cleaner!

Next thing I know- she leaves and a young man comes in with a Kirby vacuum. Over the next THREE hours he continued to try & sell this machine to us even after we told him vehemently that we were not interested. I asked him three times to leave my house. He ignored my requests and then entered my bedroom where he proceeded to vacuum my bed. i told him to leave again. He agreed and called his boss. listening to his conversation he began to tell this boss personal information about me & my home.

I finally had to threaten to call the police if he did not leave. I never did get my carpets cleaned as promised- He was too busy selling the cleaner.

Again, I'm bombarded by two young people...the male removed my barrier that was placed across my front porch, and proceeded again, to tell me of my free gift. I told them I had cancer, and was not interested. I then proceeded to call Kirby, to again, ask them to remove me from the no-call list. I am told, this might not be possible. You mean I don't have a right to tell solicters not to come to my home? I was given a phone number and reached a Ryan who proceeds to tell me that what I call a barrier on my porch is not considered a barrier. He was rude and argumentative, and I wouldn't buy a Kirby if you gave me one now. I ended up hanging up on him, after I told him what I thought.

I proceeded to call back and report Ryan for his unprofessional behavior, and guess what? I got him again, and he hung up on me. I then called, and asked one of the girls who answered the phone to give me Ryan's superior, so I could report him.....guess what? He must be the manager too....because he answered again, and when I asked for a manager, he switched me over to his voice mail. I am terribly upset. I do not need this kind of treament from a vacuum company. He was worse than being bothered by the sales people. Ryan needs to be reprimanded. He was un-cooperative, un-professional, unkind, and unsympathetic, to a woman who is dealing with breast cancer and it's setbacks.

I am mentally and emotionally upset.

once you get the hang of it you'll find that its so much more than just a vacum cleaner, the sales reps in the UK are not as agressive as in the US mainly because they want to lose the old image of pressurised sales, the Kirby sells itself because of what it does, its so many machines in one and beleive me its not a gimmick, and yes it is expensive but you can always negotiate a deal, I'm really pleased with mine

6-24-08 Dug and Corey come out to the house. I was very nice. While they were setting up the vacuum I offered them a beer or two. We joked had a good old time, then they started their little show. They vacuumed most of my carpet and got a bunch of dirt out that I did not know was there. I was impressed and told them that I have one stain to get out of my carpet. I said, "If you could get this stain out, I will be really interested in you product". Well, sure enough they did. They started out with a price of $2400.00. I said that was far too high for anything thats going pick stuff up off my floor. Then, he calls his boss Mike who gives him permission to go down to $1600.00 with two years of bags and a free gallon of shampoo. Now mind you, this is all before my ONE room is complete.

I offered them another beer and that I still thought the price was too high. Again, on the phone with Mike asking for another reduction in price. Well, this went on until about $1000.00. At that Price I stated that I would have to sleep on it. I will not make an impulse buy with such money. Corey started talking about some contest that the Kirby company has going. I dug or Corey were to sell a vacuum the day of the demo they would be entered into a contest for a free trip. I still said no. It was about then that Corey offered me a used Kirby that has only been used once. He wanted to sell it for 800.00 plus my old G4 kirby as a trade in. I would get a Five year guarantee plus the bags and shampoo. So I did it.

I awoke the next morning to the magic stain that just won't go away but some how kirby was able to get rid of it, so I thought. 6-26-08 I went to the Crystal Lake post office and handed them my envelope with my notice of cancellation. Asked the post office of when it would arrive. On Friday the very next day they told me. 6-27-08 Called Kirby and asked if they recieved my notice. Dana said that they have not and that I should try again tomorrow. 6-28-08 Called Kirby asked if they recieved my notice and again Dana said, no we have not. What is your name she asked? I told her and she said that she would lookout for it. 6-30-08 Called Kirby and asked as before. My name is so and so did you recieve my notice. This time I spoke with a Malania. She said as her coworker stated, no we have not please try again later.

7-01-08 Called up Kirby. Asked the same thing as always. Have you recieved my notice of cancellation. This time Dana tells me that she has not gone outside yet to check the mail. I should try back in a half hour or so. Well, this got my spouse fed up and she called up K&G Distributing. They are the ones that sponsor such companies. She told her story about the vacuum and how upset her and I were. K&G (Gina) said they would fax over a complaint and call them to take care of this matter. One half hour later I call back and they are opening my notice as I speak to Malania over the phone. She states that someone would call me the next day to arange for pick up and drop off of the trade in.

6-2-08 Mike calls me up from kirby asking me why I don't like it and what he can do to make me happy. I just wanted the machine to be picked up and the money returned along with the trade in. He offed free supplies, to drop the price. He also stated that Doug and Corey were kinda new and that maybe someone with a little more training could come out. I still said no and asked for a day of when they could pick up. He said the next day would work.

6-3-08 Corey and Doug come to my home wanting another try at the stain. I refused and so they went on to take the new kirby. As they were doing so, Corey told me that he forgot to bring all of the attachments that went with the trade in. I told him that he can come get the new vacumm when he has all of mine. He asked if I was serious and I said Yes I am! He said that he would have to come back the next day with all of my vacuum. I agreed. 6-4-08 Corey never showed. I called his boss Mike and instead I spoke to nick. I told him I had an appointment with Corey to exchange vacuums. He said Corey would call me back. And he did only to tell me that thing were busy and he could stop by on monday.

6-07-08 Monday, Corey is a no show. Corey doesn't return my calls. To be Continued....

To make a long story short, it was a total waste of my time, the sales lady kept going to the bathroom, taking smoke breaks, outside of course, (which we do NOT smoke) but this was still not professional at all, and still made my whole house smell like smoke. I think she took a total of 3 smoke breaks, and two bathroom breaks. She used my phone a total of 6 times, calling her boss to come back, other people for advise, ect. This was not what I expected at all. 4 hours later the hallway she was cleaning was still not finished. I finally asked them to just take their things and leave. They kept pushing, changing the price and trying to sell their product. At 4 hours and 26 minutes they finally exited my house.

To top it all off, they hit my car pulling out of the driveway, and guess what, they didnt stop and let us know, they took off full speed down the road. Of course,the police has since ticketed them and taken care of the issue, they are currently in the process of fixing my car. Come to find out they didnt have a liscens to solicit in my town or county. Then to add more to it, the owner of the store would not even call me back to listen to my complaints. So here my story is heard.

I went up to Selmore Systems in addition to calling multiple times. No one could give me any information regarding my shampoo syster so I left multiple messages in which the owner was to call me back the next day. I never received any phone call. I have a signed contract stating that I paid for the shampoo system and have yet to receive it. I had the Better Business Bureau contact the company and they also got no response. I still have not received it.

I will continue to use Kirby products as long as I can afford to do so; however, I have to agree with most comments regarding the salesmen. Unless you have made the initial contact to setup an appointment (realizing it will be at least 2 hours of your time), do not let them in your home - regardless of what anyone is selling (not just Kirby). If you have anyone in your home that does not leave when asked, call the police immediately. I am not required to be nice to anyone that does not respect my space and privacy. Unfortunately, I have had to use this tactic - just the threat of calling the police was enough to get the person to leave.

The young man salesman was professional,and polite,(Antonio) and there was nothing objectional about his behavior,but I told him that I had just bought a vacuum,and was both happy with it, and not in the market for another one. He took an hour and a half of my time, then his boss showed up. I have never been treated so rudely in my own home as from this lady. She called me names, spoke insultingly about me on the phone to her boss,refused to stop pressuring (threatening)me even after repeated refusals and requests for her to stop. There is no machine nice enough for me to associate with a company who enters my home without permission, insults me and refuses to leave.

Well, she saw a rug and asked if they could fluff it up also stating that they only needed to do one more house and then they could go home. I said as long as it didn't take to long because we needed to put the kids to bed. So she called the boss in the white van, that had NO company logo on it anywhere, and told them to come back. Mind you, she never once mentioned that she was with Kirby Vacuums. I had no clue of that until two guys came up to the door carrying two boxes that said Kirby on them. When I saw that I knew I was in for it.

The guy went into his Kirby sells speech which lasted for 2.5 to 3 hours. By the time he was done I was so exhausted I would have done anything to just get them out of my house. I told them I could not afford this vacuum. The price started out at $2499 and each time I said no they kept lowering the price. They finally got down to $50 payments and I said ok. And I was also promised a floor buffer, since I have hard wood floors, I was promised that within 5 days. They never mentioned I only had 3 days to cancel the contract. Smooth move, huh?

Needless to say they never brought me the floor buffer and when I called to tell them about it they said they tried to deliver it the next night at 8:30, which I know was a lie because I was home all night, we have 3 kids, where would we be at 8:30 at night. They were very rude to the point where the 2 secretaries had me on speaker phone and they were mocking me in the background and eventually hung up on me. I then called back and got The Owner on the phone and he was very charming in the beginning until I told him I wasn't gonna pay for the vacuum and I didn't care if it hurt my credit or not. He went so far as to call me a liar and he said the the sellsmen never promised me a floorbuffer.

I was shocked. I couldn't believe that the owner of the company would treat a costumer like that. I'm still at battle with them over this stupid vacuum cleaner. But I'll be [expletive] if I pay any kind of money to Kirby. And I also failed to mention they didn't have a peddlers license to be selling stuff from door to door and where I live you must obtain one before you can sell anything.