Kirby Sales & Service

It was the most obnoxious and unethical sales scam I have ever seen. The girl misrepresented her intention to demonstrate "an organic citrus cleaning product". She never even offered to sell it to me. The next 1.5 hours was totally focused on convincing me to buy a $2500 vacuum cleaner, though I repeatedly said I was not interested, could not afford it and wanted her to leave. The problem is that her manager, who briefly met with me and introduced himself as a Kirby representative, dropped her off in a van and drove off without her, so she was stuck in my house until he came back. I estimated the girl to be about 16 years old, so I felt bad that she was stranded in my house alone on a dark, rainy night with no transportation. I decided to babysit her until the guy came back, which I assumed would be in 15-30minutes. However, she would not stop talking about the vacuum and was driving me nuts. At 7:20pm, I told her to finish up by 7:30 because I had plans. She ignored me and continued talking about the vacuum even though I left the room and started ignoring her. She sat in my living room talking about the vacuum to herself for about 30 minutes. Then she told me she needed to clean my mattress. I told her she was absolutely not allowed in my bedroom. She said "But it won't count if I don't clean it." She told me he gets very angry if she doesn't do what he tells her to do. I told her to lie to her boss. She said "He will check it to see if I did it." I told her he was not allowed in my bedroom either. At 8pm I got angry that the man had not returned yet and told her to call him immediately. She tried to ignore me again, but I said in an angry tone "l have tried to be nice. But this was done half an hour ago. Call him now." She did call him, but he told her to keep doing the presentation. She kept telling him that the customer was unhappy, but he didn't care. He took his time arriving, then launched into a big lecture about how I need this vacuum because my house is so dirty. I firmly informed him to pack up and leave immediately. He began presenting as sarcastic toward me. When I said in an angry tone "This has gone on long enough!", his response was "Do you mean the dirt in your house has gone on long enough?" I wanted to punch him in the face by this point. I told him to pack up and leave. He started packing after I pointed out that they were still in my house at 8:15pm even though I told the girl to leave by 7:30pm, but did it very slowly and continued to lecture me. He implied that I was being rude and said I should appreciate the fact that people are cleaning my house for free. They eventually left around 8:30pm. The girl looked embarrassed and apologized. I do not think she wanted to be doing what she was doing. The man looked resentful toward me and did not apologize for his atrocious behavior. I told my friends and family about this experience. They say I should have called police to report a home invasion. I did some research on the internet and learned that Kirby salesman are told to target people who own Asian cars (I have a Mazda parked in my driveway) and elderly people or young women who are home alone (which I was). I read several reports that they gain your trust by sending a young, innocent looking girl so that you will let her in. Some reports say they will even switch out the girl with a man at the last minute, knowing that you would not let a man into your house! They use various other unethical scamming techniques as well. These are con artists. If someone comes to your door about a cleaning product, find out if they are with Kirby before letting them in! I've read several rebuttals from Kirby salesmen online who claim that it is the homeowner's fault for letting them in, or the homeowner's fault for not appreciating the wonderful product they are selling. That is neither here nor there. Responsible salesmen tell you upfront what they are selling, how long the demonstration will take, understand that no means no, and leave when asked. These people took over my home, wasted my entire evening and insulted me repeatedly in the hope that I would pay $2500 just so they would go away.