I bought one for my mom. But it was only because I was madly in love with the sales girl. It didn’t work out. But the vacuum was great - It’s lasted almost 2 decades…
Joe
I’m still curious about why the company uses those sales tactics, instead of selling through normal retail channels. I’m also wondering … if you buy a vacuum cleaner, it should be yours. You should have the right to sell it, as with any of your belongings, because it’s your property. Why is it “illegal” to sell a Kirby vacuum?
It seems like some types of products are more often than not sold in a somewhat shady manner. I wonder how they got that way. Why are mattress dealers so slimy, with high pressure sales and literally hundreds of names for the same type of mattress to prevent price comparison, while regular furniture sales is mostly legitimate? Why are car dealers often so shady, but real estate agents – selling a much more expensive product, which earns them much more commission per sale – are much more low-key, in my experience?
A followup post: I never owned a Kirby or dealt with any of their salespeople, but I used their vacuums a few times. My impression: meh. Even with a new bag, they really didn’t have as much suction power as a $150 Hoover or Electrolux from Target. I guess their old-school appearance and construction appeals to those that believe everything the products of the past are always more powerful and more durable than their modern equivalents; those that don’t acknowledge survivor bias and believe “they just don’t make 'em like they used to”.
It’s too bad. Kirbys are one of the last vacuum cleaner brands that are made in the United States. I’d jump at the change to buy an American-made Dyson, even if it cost a bit more than the Chinese variety.
It isn’t. Kirby does say that only Kirby can sell a “NEW” Kirby vacuum.
I bought a Kirby from my niece when she was selling them. It is a fantastic machine and we agreed on a price that would make her about $100 commission. Still, she had to keep checking in the office about every 20 minutes because she had to stay at least an hour in any client’s house.
When it came to paying, I could have written a check but she was told if I financed it she would get a bonus. There was a clause about no finance charge or interest for 30 days so I signed the paperwork then paid it off a week later when I got the info.
She later told me she didn’t get paid the promised “financing bonus” because I was a horrible horrible customer who had no idea how to use credit properly. The account stayed on my credit report as open for about two years–the entire length of the loan even though I paid in full in less than 10 days AND I still got calls from the finance company telling me I hadn’t made a payment this month. This went on for at least six months. They tried to say even though I had a zero balance, that did not excuse me from making monthly payments according to their contract.
To sum up, awesome machine, asshat business practices.
Because an aggressive salesman can persuade the customer to pay 3 to 4 times what they would pay if they saw it in a store window.
Now, in a legitimate sales operation, the salesman would keep most of that excess as his commission. But in the vacuum-cleaner biz, the salesman’s boss keeps most of it, and the salesman ends up making less than minimum wage.
I once worked as a Rainbow salesman. The managers spent as much time selling the job to us, as we spent selling the product to the customers.
I had a Kirby salesguy with fantastic timing in my house once. My husband and I had been sick since the previous day with a nasty stomach bug and, joy of joys, the toilet overflowed a massive amount of intestinal Evil. In our carpeted bathroom. I cleaned it up as best I could with rags and spray cleaner but the rest was going to have to wait until payday when I could go rent a carpet cleaner.
So Kirby Boy starts going into his Kirby Spiel, and tells me about the carpet shampooing function. A light bulb went off over my head.
“Do you really want to impress me?” I asked.
Five minutes later he’s obligingly shampooing my bathroom carpet. Did a good job, too. I kind of felt bad I couldn’t afford to buy a vacuum from him, but I couldn’t see the sense in owning a vacuum that cost twice as much as my car.
Did you really have him do that when you never had the intention of buying the product?:eek::mad:
Frankly, that’s a hazard of the occupation. No sale is guaranteed, including homeowners who are happy to take advantage of your presence and the presence of the equipment you’re selling. I seriously doubt that Marlitharn was being falsely enthusiastic prior to getting the idea to have the salesman clean the bathroom carpet. A decent salesman knows which way the wind is blowing well before the demonstration begins. The salesman had no obligation to do this task.
I call no foul. It’s not like the guy moved their furniture and shampooed their combined living/dining room.
Well, I’d been telling him since he walked in the door that it was a nice vacuum, but I couldn’t buy one, it wasn’t in my budget, I couldn’t afford it, I didn’t want it, it was against my religion, anything I could think of, but he insisted on breaking the whole thing out and giving me a full demonstration. I just asked him to demonstrate in the bathroom instead of the living room.
…and not all dead. I’d hate to be guilty of zombie thread resurrection.
BUT…last night (12/19/08) we had a weird experience with a Kirby salesperson, and a quick SDMB search turned up this thread.
6:15pm, and RuffLlama and I are ducking into the family room for his evening episode of Dora the Explorer when, ring! We were passing right in front of the door (with glass panels, so we were clearly visible) on our way to the TV room, so there was no avoiding her. Of course, RuffLlama’s “PEOPLE, MOMMY! PEOPLE!” made it hard to avoid as well.
I’d like to point out, we have a “NO SOLICITORS” sign right next to the doorbell. Didn’t do a damn thing to deter “Britney” (that is the name she gave me), though.
I got a rapid-fire explanation that they were offering a cleaning service thisistheonlywaytheydobusinesstheydon’tadvertisecanwecleanaroomonlytakesahalfhour? Huh? Meanwhile, next to me RuffLlama was bored and demanding I open a toy, so when she asked what room (OPEN IT, MOMMY! OPEN IT!) we’d want cleaned (OPEN IT, MOMMY! OPEN IT!), I mentioned our hallway (OPEN IT, MOMMY! OPEN IT!) was the dirty spot. “Oh, let me take a look,” saleslady says, and she barges past me (OPEN IT, MOMMY! OPEN IT!) and a bewildered Ruffian found herself showing off the filth in the hall carpet, the casualty of many a toddler’s dropped and dribbled sippy cup and snack.
I thought she was going to go get her cleaning stuff and begin working, but instead she said someone would be back to clean. Mm…whuh? Sure enough, “Edna” arrived with her Kirby Sentria about 20min later. She re-explained there was NO push, no pressure, no gimmick…they’re just doing this as it’s the only way to get business, etc, and oh the vacuum is $2000. I laughed and said, “Um, no…we won’t be buying it.” It was only about then that I realized they were selling the vaccum, and not a cleaning service.
She did the whole thing with the paper discs that_darn_cat described, and it was gross as hell. But–I hadn’t vacuumed in a week, which is long enough for carnage to accrue, and on closer inspection a lot of what I was seeing on the discs was just carpet fiber.
It didn’t make me want to buy a new vacuum–it just made DeathLlama and I want all the more to rip up the carpet and refinish the wood underneath. For $2000, I could either replace all the carpet in the house or rip it up and refinish the wood under it.
While Edna was cleaning, we all mostly ignored her. A few times she asked about how often I vacuum, what carpet shampooer I use, how much water does it use, how much carpet shampooing we do, etc. We did later tell her we wanted to just rip up all the carpet in the house, and after seeing those discs, it affirmed carpet is just GROSS (though comfy).
7:15pm, I told her it was time for RuffLlama’s bath. She’s almost done, she said. True, within moments she was. Strangely, no sales pitch followed. Instead, she just needed to borrow my phone (?) because she’d forgotten hers (??) and she needed someone to come pick her up (???). Um…okay, here. Sure enough, she used our home phone (which comes up as “restricted” on caller ID, so they weren’t getting it), asked someone to come get her, and she went out and waited on the curb for 10min or so.
What. The. FUCK.
First of all, I’m pissed at myself for letting them in. They seemed legit enough in that they weren’t casing the house–she never left the foyer or hallway, and the doors to all the other rooms were closed–but seriously, I hate door-to-door solicitation.
Second of all, I’m wondering what in the world happened. There was no hard sell, no pressure, no ugly tactics as described in this thread. They don’t have our name or phone number (unless she unblocked it, which is possible), so I fear they’re coming back for more some how. That, or they realized they were NOT making a sale with us.
Third of all, WTF with the need to call someone to pick them up?
Bizarre.
What the hell was that?
Sounds very much like the people that round up a herd of kids and drive them to a neighborhood to fan out and sell “entertainment” coupon books or candy, then pick them all up later. While these kids are going around, the wrangler is shuffling another herd of kids to another neighborhood, and they just keep leap-frogging kids across town.
With nothing to back it up, I suspect the using your phone thing is a way to make sure their cult members actually got into your house and aren’t just sitting around popping goofballs. If they call from their cell phone, they didn’t get in.
Great vacuums tho. Got a Dyson because Kirby sales are so annoying, but Kirby’s are bulletproof.