Complaint Review: The Kirby Company - San Francisco California

You have to be the original owner to get the rebuild plan.  Kirbys bought on the web, craigslist, or in a garage sale won't get the rebuild agreement because they won't be the original owner.  READ THE FRIGGIN' LITERATURE THAT COMES WITH THE MACHINE!!MAN, PEOPLE ARE IGNORANT!!

I am from Australia and responded to a job ad weeks ago to find out that this was a job selling a vacuum cleaner. the manager refused to give me the job description over the phone but asked that i came for the job interview. so there I was with 14 other new recruits who had no idea what the job actually was.

the man who recruited us claimed that Kirby was a product of the US and was trying to expand in Australia. and apparently we were the lucky people who were going to help the business. I slowly discovered that our manager was constantly trying to find new recruits behind our backs.

day after day, employees seemed to vanish. I initially blamed them for laziness until I began to doubt the sales tactics of the kirby. my fellow employees were skeptical as to why we had to make 'closed calls' over the phone with our managers knowing the customer wouldnt buy the machine anyway.

The Kirby is now being sold at a little over $3000 AUS dollars and many of us were astonished as to how anyone would want to purchase one at such a high price.

Also, we were being made to use our own cars to get to appointments. Those who didnt own a car had to use the company van. We were told that our petrol/gas would be reimbursed through tax.

Our manager constantly compared the latest Dyson to the Kirby, constantly poking fun at how it couldnt live up to the higher efficency of Kirby. We were being trained to tell customers that their own vacuumes were crap compared to what we were trying to offer them. But I have now come to realise that hardly anyone in Melbourne even owns a Kirby.

I've been told KIRBY wont advertise on tv since it costs $100000 which they'd rather use to help train employees, but I still havent gotten my pay yet...

ah the dishonesty

I am not trying to bash the product or the company, But your sales tactics are to guilt the customer into buying the vacuum saying " Is this really what you want your kids sleeping in" or " Do you care about your familys health enough to buy this vacuum". To all consumers who want a good vacuum buy the kirby but try ebay or even a garage sale or craigslist. anything from the Sanitronic 50 to the Legend II you could probably find there. Opposed to the 1500 to 2000 dollar price you could probably get one for 10 to 500 dollars. Of course make sure you get the manual with the ownership card if you want the rebuild plan or you could probably get someone to do it for you for a fraction of the price.

so, I was suckered in by the ad in the newspaper that offered "400 dollars a week working for sales!". I needed a job and thought it sounded good. I got the job but was definitely disappointed. anyway, on my first day of training, there was about fifteen people. by the third day, there was just eight. after two week, there was just five people left, including myself from the first day. I had a hard time trying to pack that stupid vacuum and thought it was just a pain in the a*s. the kirby salespeople I worked with were a bit too happy for my taste. they had this stupid "sales song" every morning which got on my nerves and rang this bell to start the day *GAG*. anyway, I was promised that I would have set up appointments to my demonstrations, what a big lie. That's what I was told on the first day, that I would have appointments set for me and didn't have to worry about it. the first week, I went around with these really immature guys who just liked to talk about getting high and partying. they really annoyed me the first day by speeding for no reason and trying to pick up some girls on the side of the road. I found out that two of the guys who drove the van were previously in jail. surprisingly, the kirby people didn't care and hired them. these idiots were my "managers", what a funny thought. the bosses at my job was this Jamaican couple who were nice, but were annoying. they didn't care about me as a person, but only cared about me as another number. imagine leaving me at just 18, walking around the streets of the bronx, looking for sales for this vacuum? to make it worse, it was getting hot outside and most of the people didn't speak english. I wasted three weeks out of my life with this stupid company and even more pathetic people. my last day on the job, I was told I was supposed to go to the bronx, again. I wanted nothing to deal with it, and got the hell out of there. I got a ride back to the office and went home, they must've thought I was retarded to go ahead and waste more of my time working for them.

I honestly cannot believe so many people have so much to say bad about the kirby company! I currently work for a kirby office in pennsylvania, and I have never been happier at any other job in my life! I went through the exact same thing many people went through: the blind ad in the paper, the blind interview, the tricks to get me hired, the door knocking, and everything everyone is complaining about. the greatest trick that was ever played on me in my life, because I however didn't allow it to affect the oppurtunity that the recruiter had told me about. I really wanted to be a business owner and make a lot of money. Since I've started in april of this year I have recieved two promotions, I make more money than any other job I've ever worked, I no longer have to knock on doors, or sell kirbys! I am in an office all day and I only work 40 hours a week. If you people would have spent as much time working as you do complaining you would have seen wonderful results and would have loved kirby like the other thousands of people that make a living out of selling kirby vacuums, instead of miserable and griping about a company that has been around a lot longer than you have been, and will be here when you are gone. I am a dps at kirby. I hire people every week, I don't lie to those people to get them hired, I tell them exactly how we operate and how we sell. the people I hire make good money and they seem to be pretty d**n happy to me. people can say all that they want about kirby, but they should at least get their facts straight before they go bad mouthing an entire corporation over one bad example. There is a tremendous earning potential at kirby, lots of oppurtunity for advancement, but only for the true and strong. it isn't a job for everybody and if you failed at selling kirbys maybe you should take the time to analyze why you failed instead of concentrating your efforts loking for excuses as to why kirby wronged you. a wise man once told me that "people who fail are quick to explain why, but the excuses never really are aimed at the real reason for failure". I am not typing this in defense, because for almost a hundred years now the kirby company has built a reputation for quality, reliability, and performance that no man or woman can tear down with some negative feedback, I am only touching on a couple things I thought you all should know before you go passing judgement on a lot of hard working honest individuals who chose this as their career path! Just in case you are interested in a career with kirby, the lazy, negative, looking for excuses, complainers of the world please don't apply for a job with kirby because guess what? WE WORK HARD FOR A LIVING!!!!!!!!!!!

Have you ever dealt with a new or used car salesman? Anyone that has knows that you negotiate the price. Door to door salespeople are no different. Hell, you can request the department manager at Target, K-Mart, Walmart, Sears, etc. and negotiate the price of items that are worth negotiating. Bottom line is....don't whine when you allow yourself to be out-negotiated. Sounds like your wife is a little nieve. You need to take away her check book and credit card or give her a minor spending limit until she learns the above.

You are obviously uninformed. Kirby is run like a cult. The distributors pay under $350 for the entire system, but of course the distributors will tell you they pay more and some of you are stupid enough to believe it. I worked for 4 different distributors and everyone of them was a dirtbag. They lie, cheat, steal and humiliate people and laugh about it. One of my ex-distributors rode around smoking pot, doing cocaine and stopping at every go go bar in town where he would attempt to solicit sex from the dancers. The product is great, but the company and most of their employees are bad news. To the guy who stated Raimnbows were better than a Kirby. You must be kidding! I traded in a 10 day old rainbow once because after vacuuming with the rainbow the kirby puilled up and incredible amount of dirt left behind by the rainbow. The buyers showed me the rainbow trick they call out with the bad air and in with the good. the put your sofa cushion in a bag and use the hose to such the air out of the cusion making it flat. they do it a second time and tell you it's dust free. I used to get them to do that and then vacuum the cushion with the kirby and it was always jaw dropping. The rainbow was useless. During my 7 years with Kirby I traded in dozens of rainbows and proved every one of them to be a oiece of plastic crap that didn't work.

I am a new Kirby dealer and I am convinced that a few people out there have had a bad experience with an over zealous salesperson. Sales people live on commission only and are extremely hard working individuals with families to support. You try working 12 hour days and going into peoples homes and cleaning up their filth! If you have never had a Kirby demonstration, then you really don't know what it's all about, but take my word for it, the Kirby is still the best one on the market. Is it worth $1800.00? If you stop and add up all the money you spend over a 40 year period buying other cleaners, bags, allergy shots for your kids, etc., how can you put a price on a machine that is guaranteed for 3 years, bumper to bumper, and then for just $175.00 (the cost of a cheap machine), you can take it to an authorized dealer and have it completely refurbished (and I'm talking like new), every 3 years for the life of the cleaner? Sorry folks, but all those other cleaners do not have that kind of warranty plan. And those tests we do? Your vacuum cleaner really is leaving all that dirt in your carpet and wearing it out every time you walk on it. So, sit in your nice clean (?) home, watching TV and think about us hard working Kirby dealers that are trying to make your life healthier and cleaner by showing you that your home is really making you sick. When a Kirby dealer knocks on your door, YOU tell him what it's worth to you to keep your old vacuum cleaner and continue your kids allery shots and how you don't ever think about the DUST MITES in your pillow when you lay your head down at night!! Sweet Dreams

Ok -- think about this for a second! Kirbys are just an overpriced Hoover as far as I'm concerned! Sure! Kirby's suck dirt wonderfully when they are in the house selling it to you. But the consept is exactly the same, only they use a thicker bag than a Hoover. Go buy a brand new back for the vacuum cleaner you've had for the past five hears and do the coffee filter test yourself - you're gonna pull just as much dirt as the Kirby! WHy? BECAUSE ITS A BRAND NEW BAG! Once the bag cloggs up -- which is probably after the first 10 minutes of use, your Kirby isn't going to work any better than that 2nd hand 30 year old vacuum that Grandma gave you! Think about it! Where is the exhaust on a Kirby or any other bag vacuum? IT IS THE BAG! Yeah! All the air is going through the little holes, or the bag would blow up! All your funk and germs are in that bag -- warming up from the motor and being spewed out into the air! Think for a second about that vacuum cleaner smell! You can tell that someone vacuumed 20 minutes before you walk into a house! Rainbow people! Rainbow filters through water --how much stuff can get through water? not a whole lot! And you dump it out right away so you're not putting all that funk back into a dark closet so the germs can have a little party in there while they wait for you to use the vacuum again so they can be released into the air! I just don't get any of you -- Salespeople or the people who are sucked into buying a kirby! I am just curious what these salespeoples arguments are for making the Kirby something better than a $100 Hoover from Walmart! Gosh people! Don't get sucked into buying one of those things! If you want a nice vacuum -- one that not only cleans your carpet, but also filters your air! PLEASE!

Ok -- think about this for a second! Kirbys are just an overpriced Hoover as far as I'm concerned! Sure! Kirby's suck dirt wonderfully when they are in the house selling it to you. But the consept is exactly the same, only they use a thicker bag than a Hoover. Go buy a brand new back for the vacuum cleaner you've had for the past five hears and do the coffee filter test yourself - you're gonna pull just as much dirt as the Kirby! WHy? BECAUSE ITS A BRAND NEW BAG! Once the bag cloggs up -- which is probably after the first 10 minutes of use, your Kirby isn't going to work any better than that 2nd hand 30 year old vacuum that Grandma gave you! Think about it! Where is the exhaust on a Kirby or any other bag vacuum? IT IS THE BAG! Yeah! All the air is going through the little holes, or the bag would blow up! All your funk and germs are in that bag -- warming up from the motor and being spewed out into the air! Think for a second about that vacuum cleaner smell! You can tell that someone vacuumed 20 minutes before you walk into a house! Rainbow people! Rainbow filters through water --how much stuff can get through water? not a whole lot! And you dump it out right away so you're not putting all that funk back into a dark closet so the germs can have a little party in there while they wait for you to use the vacuum again so they can be released into the air! I just don't get any of you -- Salespeople or the people who are sucked into buying a kirby! I am just curious what these salespeoples arguments are for making the Kirby something better than a $100 Hoover from Walmart! Gosh people! Don't get sucked into buying one of those things! If you want a nice vacuum -- one that not only cleans your carpet, but also filters your air! PLEASE!

Ok -- think about this for a second! Kirbys are just an overpriced Hoover as far as I'm concerned! Sure! Kirby's suck dirt wonderfully when they are in the house selling it to you. But the consept is exactly the same, only they use a thicker bag than a Hoover. Go buy a brand new back for the vacuum cleaner you've had for the past five hears and do the coffee filter test yourself - you're gonna pull just as much dirt as the Kirby! WHy? BECAUSE ITS A BRAND NEW BAG! Once the bag cloggs up -- which is probably after the first 10 minutes of use, your Kirby isn't going to work any better than that 2nd hand 30 year old vacuum that Grandma gave you! Think about it! Where is the exhaust on a Kirby or any other bag vacuum? IT IS THE BAG! Yeah! All the air is going through the little holes, or the bag would blow up! All your funk and germs are in that bag -- warming up from the motor and being spewed out into the air! Think for a second about that vacuum cleaner smell! You can tell that someone vacuumed 20 minutes before you walk into a house! Rainbow people! Rainbow filters through water --how much stuff can get through water? not a whole lot! And you dump it out right away so you're not putting all that funk back into a dark closet so the germs can have a little party in there while they wait for you to use the vacuum again so they can be released into the air! I just don't get any of you -- Salespeople or the people who are sucked into buying a kirby! I am just curious what these salespeoples arguments are for making the Kirby something better than a $100 Hoover from Walmart! Gosh people! Don't get sucked into buying one of those things! If you want a nice vacuum -- one that not only cleans your carpet, but also filters your air! PLEASE!

Ok -- think about this for a second! Kirbys are just an overpriced Hoover as far as I'm concerned! Sure! Kirby's suck dirt wonderfully when they are in the house selling it to you. But the consept is exactly the same, only they use a thicker bag than a Hoover. Go buy a brand new back for the vacuum cleaner you've had for the past five hears and do the coffee filter test yourself - you're gonna pull just as much dirt as the Kirby! WHy? BECAUSE ITS A BRAND NEW BAG! Once the bag cloggs up -- which is probably after the first 10 minutes of use, your Kirby isn't going to work any better than that 2nd hand 30 year old vacuum that Grandma gave you! Think about it! Where is the exhaust on a Kirby or any other bag vacuum? IT IS THE BAG! Yeah! All the air is going through the little holes, or the bag would blow up! All your funk and germs are in that bag -- warming up from the motor and being spewed out into the air! Think for a second about that vacuum cleaner smell! You can tell that someone vacuumed 20 minutes before you walk into a house! Rainbow people! Rainbow filters through water --how much stuff can get through water? not a whole lot! And you dump it out right away so you're not putting all that funk back into a dark closet so the germs can have a little party in there while they wait for you to use the vacuum again so they can be released into the air! I just don't get any of you -- Salespeople or the people who are sucked into buying a kirby! I am just curious what these salespeoples arguments are for making the Kirby something better than a $100 Hoover from Walmart! Gosh people! Don't get sucked into buying one of those things! If you want a nice vacuum -- one that not only cleans your carpet, but also filters your air! PLEASE!

Here's an idea...If you get sucked into this scam as an employee, find out where these so-called sales-people/distributors live(follow them home after work if you have to). Then pay them a "sales" visit after you realize they've been scamming you. Then proceed to give them a free colon cleansing with their awesome Kirby vacuum. This should deter most of these scumbags from scamming more unsuspecting employees. Unfortunately, a lot of these guys would probably love the free cleansing.

I dont understand why you people come on this website to degrade other peoples profession. It is understandable that some salesmen can be unpleasant. Why is it though that whenever you ask for advice you shoot it down if it isnt exactly what you wanted to hear. People respond and you just dont want to hear it. Open your mind just a little. You dont know everything. You people are rguing for the sake of arguing. These people arent scamming you-its a SALESMAN. Do you realize what a salesman is. And unfortunately every salesman is not going to be what he should but thats no reason to rip all that is kirby. If you ask for advice then take it-quit being so ignorant.

All right. So I've read through the majority of the responses listed here and felt compelled to actually sign up here and write a response. I worked for Kirby for awhile, say 7 months or so. I have worked in most positions the company has to offer, from door-to-door sales rep, to crew leader, to DPS (trainer) to the guy who is on the other end of the line when those sales people call in from people's homes to try and "get you the best deal". I was so, regretfully, good that I'd been sent to other offices as a recruiter to try and hire people on. I did the presentations, I did the interviews, I called the people to tell them they were hired. I did the training and I was the one who sent the new "hirees" home on their trial weekends. I helped them "close" their sales. I did this in 6 or 7 different cities as I can recall. It's been awhile mind you. Please take all of the above into consideration when reading the below. I know for a fact that the "FD's" or Factory distributors buy these units for around $175.00 each. I know because I've placed the orders and because I've seen the invoices from the "Kirby" factory. Now then, just because the FD buys the units for that price doesn't necessarily mean thats what he pays. Allow me to explain. Whenever an FD buys a Kirby unit from the factory that FD is given the option to invest in a Profit Protection Program. The gent I worked for added $100.00 for each unit he purchased to be stuck into this thing. At the end of the year the FD gets that money from the Profit Protection program back as a sort of end of the year bonus. For FD's buying lots of units this can mean significant cash flow. I don't recall if there is a certain mandatory amount required to be added for this program. With regard to being an "employee": You'll notice that when you go into for your interview you fill out a Personal data sheet or something of that nature. The only person who is an employee, with all the rights of that status, if the Factory distributor you work for. You are not an employee, you're an independent contractor. Now lots of people out there are independent contractors and there isn't anything wrong with that. However, I again know for a fact that Kirby uses this "loophole" so as not to have to pay into programs like unemployment. They're also not directly responsible for the actions of their so-called employees because, technically, the company has no employees, they're all independent contractors. With regard to payment: I will tell you that I have never known an FD to short a sales person on what they have coming to them. I will say that most of the sales people simply didn't realize what they actually had coming to them. Rarely was any deal ever closed at "full pop", meaning full price. As I was the person training the "new hires", the person talking to them, helping them close their deals on their trial weekend, I was naturally the first person they came to asking about the size, or lack thereof, of their first pay check. Incidentally I also wrote the ads placed in the newspaper. This is the reason I left the company. These people worked hard (some of them) to actually try and do this. Most of them didn't come from the most affluent backgrounds and they were honestly trying to make something of themselves, albeit selling vac's door-to-door. I was so incredibly tired of uttering phrases like, " Fake it till you make it", that I almost couldn't look myself in the mirror. I was the one who had to tell these people who'd been trying to sell machines to their friends and family all weekend that the reason their paycheck was only $75.00 was because their friend or Family member had bad credit, or because they could only afford to pay $675 for the machine. With regard to cost of the Vacuum: Again, the people reselling these units to the public pay around $175.00 for each unit, not including their profit protection add-on. There is no set price for these machines. There are no unwritten rules within the structure of this company regarding what units can and cannot be sold for. The general agreement is "Sell it for whatever you can get for it". I have helped write up sales contracts and receipts for units sold at full price, usually around $2400, and I have written up deals selling for as little as $450.00. The price of the unit depends solely on how much they want to let the machine go for. With regard to the In-home Sale: Every morning, or I should really say every day around noon all the sales people going out for the day get together and figure out who is going out with what crew leader (driver). Some offices sing songs, some talk about sales, some (most) stress the importance of pulling 100 pads. I'm referring to the little white "coffee filter" looking things you see the sales person pulling in your home. As many previous posters have noted, these machines inevitably sell themselves. Much is mentioned about creating a $2400 "need" for the machine so you're willing to pay that for it, though few people pay that much for these things. The sales person is required to call the office to let the "guy" know they have an interested party. The person on the other end asks if they have anything to trade in and, if so, what it is. Sometimes, I know because I've done it, they'll ask yes or no questions about the condition of the persons house. I.e, are you in a nice place? Do you think they've got some money? Are there nice things in the house? These types of questions help the "guy" in the office determine what the first offer should be. I say first because, as I'd mentioned before, everything about these things is negotiable. With Regards to the Lifetime Rebuild Agreement: This is often referred to as the Lifetime Warranty. Make no mistake, this is not a "No questions asked" Lifetime Warranty. If your machine breaks down or you do something to it the company "Kirby" will agree to rebuild your machine. The cost of rebuilding the unit depends on what's wrong with your machine but it can range from $100 up to $400-$500 if there is something wrong with the motor. This is not a charge the company takes care of. It's billed to you and you pay for it before anything is done to fix your machine. A word of warning, many of these "dealerships" frequently change names and it may be difficult to get in touch with someone locally to have repair work done. It's best to call the 800 number on the box or in your manual. In my time working for this company I was never, ever told outright to lie to anyone, cheat anyone, hold anything over someones head or intentionally mislead someone. I was taught and shown how to innocuously goad a person into doing what I wanted them to do. I was forced to leave out information that could give a perspective customer the wrong idea about the company and I was forced to leave out information that could give a potential new hire the wrong idea about the company. It's true that new people are guaranteed $1900-$2400 a month if they do a minimum number of demonstrations. In all of my time at the company I never saw anyone paid this money. You must realize that if you do not sell anything you will not be paid anything. Don't lend as much credit to the trips you're told about either. I've been and it isn't really what you're told it is. It is incredibly difficult to work for this company. I rarely felt good about what I was doing and what I had to do to make money. You have to realize that it's very very hard to try and walk into someone's house and sell them something they had no intention of buying for a price likely greater than the car parked in their driveway. In all of the offices I've visited as a trainer, all of the working conditions I've seen and all of the distributors I've met, there is one gentlemen who does not fall into the category of money grubbing tyrant. This guy actually does everything he can for his people. There are still some nefarious happenings in his establishment but I'm certain it can't be helped as it's the nature of the business. He works out of Nebraska and runs the shop out of all of the ones I've seen. He helped me deal with some of the things I went through and he helped me realize one crucial fact. For all of the deceit, all of the heartache you feel when you realize it isn't what you thought, all of the homes you're kicked out of, all of the times you wondered how you were going to pay your bills cause you didn't sell anything that week, all of the times you got home a 1 in the morning, all of the times I had to explain to a mother or a father the reasoning behind their $50 check for that week, all of the unbelievable things you see and are exposed to, all of the things you'll say to someone just to make a sale(it happen), all of the times you'll wonder what the hell you're doing there and all of the times you'll think you're better than where you're at, one fact holds true. In all of the land, in all of the sales jobs in the world, there is not a more difficult way to make money than by selling Kirby Vacuum's door-to-door. The experience you'll gain from doing is absolutely invaluable. To be honest I hated my time there and all the different people I worked for. My opinion is that they're liars, they allow people to believe things they know not to be true, they make promises knowing they can't be fulfilled and they prey on people not strong enough to stand up for themselves. I do not feel good about my time there and I regret many things I had to do to make money. I have used the sales experience there to move on to much greener pastures and learned from my experience. Take this for what you will because it's as close to the truth as you can get. People who've said they love the company haven't been exposed to many goings on there. They've said that the customer may have just gotten a bad sales person and that not all salespeople are like that and that's true. But I promise you they can name 5 or 6 people they work with every day that fall into the category.

I was suckered into a Kirby sales seminar, it was just like the man from New Jersey described. Lots of hype, lots of pumping-up. The ad in the paper read "must be bondable". I was a veteran with an honorable discharge. I thought they meant "able to become bonded" as in, packing heat. What they really meant was "must easily become emotionally attached to others' expectations of your performance". I was in for some fun. The first meeting after I was "hired" began with me noticing a very cheesy "R U E" sign by the projection screen at one end of the room. (the E was red. Get it? R U red-E? Har HAR!) The explanation for that was that this was just before the G5 was released, back in '97. So everyone files into the room, and I and a couple of other new people look at each other in discomfort as they all begin SINGING. Yes, I mean singing praises to By-God Kirby vacuum cleaners! Of course the head distributor for that branch (Missoula, Montana) was not there. He had more important things to do, like dust the underside of his keyboard drawer. If that was as bad as it got I might have stuck with it. I was taken out on a couple of days demos with a very motivated young woman. (singing to their god every morning) I have to give her credit, she knew all the right things to say. Honestly, I think the kirby is the best vacuum cleaner on the market, next to the royal (not the dirt devil, the real one), which licenses the split-fan technology or something, and does kirby one better by building the brush head area heavy enough for commercial use. For home use, you won't need anything better than a kirby. Just do your best to get one as cheap as you can. So it comes time for me to do some demos. I ring up some friends, and do the deed. The vacuum sells itself, honestly. Who wants a junky old vacuum after seeing the left-over garbage the kirby pulls up? The worst is the mattress test ... SHEESH I thought I was gonna be sick once. Blech. Anyways, my fiancee's dad wants one, and they're on a tight budget. So I call the distributor. He's at a party or something. I ask how low can I go to close this sale to a family member? He tells me one thou. I know that he can go lower to close the sale if he wants to, and I tell him so. He says tell him one thou. I ask him, "This is my future family we're talking about, are you saying I should tell him something I know is not true?" His response, "Hey, business is business." I says, "Well you can keep that business", hung up and returned the machine the next day. Dirty. If sales means lying, then I'm no salesman. I mean, I have this constitutional aversion to lying. I consider it one of my better points. So yeah this was like a trip to Old-School Reverend Moon-land. Sho' am glad I didn't marry the girl, though, because she found it a lot easier to lie. But that's another story ;-)

I am no expert on the Kirby thats because I dont own one and I went to one training seminar they held.From the start it was all deception to get people to become salesman.I answered the add in a newspaper and it looked promising it promised $2400. a month to start great training company vehicle. I got a call from the guy the next day I asked what it was and he said a Demo job.I went for the interview and the guy tried building me up for a fall right away I could tell.He pointed to boxes of paper stacked 10 feet high and said they are all applications and out of all of them he picks ME wow.Says I am hired.Funny I never filled out an application?I asked a lot of questions but he kept on giving me the run around. I went the next day for training and all I knew was the job paid 2400. amonth to start I got a company vehicle and THEY set up appointments for me to demonstrate a product which he called a QUOTE indoor environmental breakthrough in technology product? When I got to the office for training I found out about 10 rough looking characters got hired the same day as me.WOW he must have went through a lot of applications to pick this hard to find bunch.I had to sit for 4 hours while this guy told us of the fortune we would make in months time.He showed pictures of mansions and exotic cars and said this could be ours for the taking.Finally IT was time for him to tell us what would guide us to riches.He pulled out a vacuum cleaner WHAT? I almost fell out my chair.One trainee got up took off his tie and left.The rest looked sick.Everyone was quiet and it lookrd like he punched them all in the stomach or something.By then the guy was starting to entertain me with his B.S.I just had to stay a little longer.The company vehicle was a van we all were going to car pool in we didnt get paid for the next 4 days of training we had to do 8-12 hour days or more 3 demos a day 3-4 hours each 6 days a week for a month or no pay.The list went on and on.I dont know how this company survived as long as it has.I think they lie to employees and probably teach employees to lie to customers.They take advantage of people and it shows.I dont know a whole lot more. I never went back.

I have read this entire thread and although it was quite long, I found it perversly entertaining. I have come to the conclusion that most of the Kirby salespeople commenting here keep missing the point trying to be made by Tom, Mellissa, and other ex-Kirby salepeople. The point doesn't have to do with how much the Kirby (G-whatever) really costs factory distributors, or how much is ethically acceptable to mark-up (500% is ridiculous-my opinion), or that everyone is entitled to try to run a business that makes a profit...... the point is that the Kirby entity directly or indirectly contributes to the creation of a greedy money lusting envriroment. No "sucessful" Kirby affiliate is going to admit that an "unwritten code" of ethically questionable practices exists.They have a million excuses and rebuttalsready to spin the truth to make the practices seem normal. Kirby vaccuums have been around 90+ years because they ARE a great product, but somewhere along the line the Kirby corporation became infected with an unscrupulous, unethical, I'll even say evil business undertone. The point is that MONEY has the tendency to make people do greedy, evil things. A few people near the top of the Kirby pyramid have embedded this evil spirt (ever so subtley) into their business practices and has trickled down to their salesman resulting into the complaints we have here. We now all know that Kirby gets away with illegal business practices by exploiting common courtesies. " No officer we aren't soliciting?....We're just giving away free gifts and signing folks up for a free professional carpet cleaning"..{Sucker!} " No sir, we are not going to try to hard sell you on the most expensive vaccuum on the market while pretending that we didn't know the price could be lowered below $1800 'til we had an enlightning conversation with our superiors on your telephone and they told us it would be all right, but just this one time as long as you can provide us with TWENTY names and phone numbers of your closest friends and family, you trade in your Rainbow your Dyson and yourHoover, your first born and your old big screen TV. Should we as consumers tolerate these people in our home. Hell No! I am related to some people, mentioned above, that are pretty high up on the Kirby pyramid. Latley I find myself avoiding their social functions because 1: I get bored listening to them talk about all the stuff they just bought with all the money they' ve scamming people. People don't like to be deceived. The Mercedes dealer doesn't come knocking at my door at dinner time trying to get me to buy his product. The Kirby sales structure, just as all other pyramid structured businessess, SUCKS!.....that is for everyone except those few at the top. The ones standing on everyone eles's faces smothering everyone else including their own self created snakes trying to slither their way to the top in hopes of taking their turn to screw everyone. Pro clubs=Free Vacation? Pro clubs=Kirby Cult Seminar! Kirby sales reps exploit a good product. Sure it's a great vaccuum, but does that give you the right to price gouge customers who don't know any better?

I have read this entire thread and although it was quite long, I found it perversly entertaining. I have come to the conclusion that most of the Kirby salespeople commenting here keep missing the point trying to be made by Tom, Mellissa, and other ex-Kirby salepeople. The point doesn't have to do with how much the Kirby (G-whatever) really costs factory distributors, or how much is ethically acceptable to mark-up (500% is ridiculous-my opinion), or that everyone is entitled to try to run a business that makes a profit...... the point is that the Kirby entity directly or indirectly contributes to the creation of a greedy money lusting envriroment. No "sucessful" Kirby affiliate is going to admit that an "unwritten code" of ethically questionable practices exists.They have a million excuses and rebuttalsready to spin the truth to make the practices seem normal. Kirby vaccuums have been around 90+ years because they ARE a great product, but somewhere along the line the Kirby corporation became infected with an unscrupulous, unethical, I'll even say evil business undertone. The point is that MONEY has the tendency to make people do greedy, evil things. A few people near the top of the Kirby pyramid have embedded this evil spirt (ever so subtley) into their business practices and has trickled down to their salesman resulting into the complaints we have here. We now all know that Kirby gets away with illegal business practices by exploiting common courtesies. " No officer we aren't soliciting?....We're just giving away free gifts and signing folks up for a free professional carpet cleaning"..{Sucker!} " No sir, we are not going to try to hard sell you on the most expensive vaccuum on the market while pretending that we didn't know the price could be lowered below $1800 'til we had an enlightning conversation with our superiors on your telephone and they told us it would be all right, but just this one time as long as you can provide us with TWENTY names and phone numbers of your closest friends and family, you trade in your Rainbow your Dyson and yourHoover, your first born and your old big screen TV. Should we as consumers tolerate these people in our home. Hell No! I am related to some people, mentioned above, that are pretty high up on the Kirby pyramid. Latley I find myself avoiding their social functions because 1: I get bored listening to them talk about all the stuff they just bought with all the money they' ve scamming people. People don't like to be deceived. The Mercedes dealer doesn't come knocking at my door at dinner time trying to get me to buy his product. The Kirby sales structure, just as all other pyramid structured businessess, SUCKS!.....that is for everyone except those few at the top. The ones standing on everyone eles's faces smothering everyone else including their own self created snakes trying to slither their way to the top in hopes of taking their turn to screw everyone. Pro clubs=Free Vacation? Pro clubs=Kirby Cult Seminar! Kirby sales reps exploit a good product. Sure it's a great vaccuum, but does that give you the right to price gouge customers who don't know any better?

I have read this entire thread and although it was quite long, I found it perversly entertaining. I have come to the conclusion that most of the Kirby salespeople commenting here keep missing the point trying to be made by Tom, Mellissa, and other ex-Kirby salepeople. The point doesn't have to do with how much the Kirby (G-whatever) really costs factory distributors, or how much is ethically acceptable to mark-up (500% is ridiculous-my opinion), or that everyone is entitled to try to run a business that makes a profit...... the point is that the Kirby entity directly or indirectly contributes to the creation of a greedy money lusting envriroment. No "sucessful" Kirby affiliate is going to admit that an "unwritten code" of ethically questionable practices exists.They have a million excuses and rebuttalsready to spin the truth to make the practices seem normal. Kirby vaccuums have been around 90+ years because they ARE a great product, but somewhere along the line the Kirby corporation became infected with an unscrupulous, unethical, I'll even say evil business undertone. The point is that MONEY has the tendency to make people do greedy, evil things. A few people near the top of the Kirby pyramid have embedded this evil spirt (ever so subtley) into their business practices and has trickled down to their salesman resulting into the complaints we have here. We now all know that Kirby gets away with illegal business practices by exploiting common courtesies. " No officer we aren't soliciting?....We're just giving away free gifts and signing folks up for a free professional carpet cleaning"..{Sucker!} " No sir, we are not going to try to hard sell you on the most expensive vaccuum on the market while pretending that we didn't know the price could be lowered below $1800 'til we had an enlightning conversation with our superiors on your telephone and they told us it would be all right, but just this one time as long as you can provide us with TWENTY names and phone numbers of your closest friends and family, you trade in your Rainbow your Dyson and yourHoover, your first born and your old big screen TV. Should we as consumers tolerate these people in our home. Hell No! I am related to some people, mentioned above, that are pretty high up on the Kirby pyramid. Latley I find myself avoiding their social functions because 1: I get bored listening to them talk about all the stuff they just bought with all the money they' ve scamming people. People don't like to be deceived. The Mercedes dealer doesn't come knocking at my door at dinner time trying to get me to buy his product. The Kirby sales structure, just as all other pyramid structured businessess, SUCKS!.....that is for everyone except those few at the top. The ones standing on everyone eles's faces smothering everyone else including their own self created snakes trying to slither their way to the top in hopes of taking their turn to screw everyone. Pro clubs=Free Vacation? Pro clubs=Kirby Cult Seminar! Kirby sales reps exploit a good product. Sure it's a great vaccuum, but does that give you the right to price gouge customers who don't know any better?

I have read this entire thread and although it was quite long, I found it perversly entertaining. I have come to the conclusion that most of the Kirby salespeople commenting here keep missing the point trying to be made by Tom, Mellissa, and other ex-Kirby salepeople. The point doesn't have to do with how much the Kirby (G-whatever) really costs factory distributors, or how much is ethically acceptable to mark-up (500% is ridiculous-my opinion), or that everyone is entitled to try to run a business that makes a profit...... the point is that the Kirby entity directly or indirectly contributes to the creation of a greedy money lusting envriroment. No "sucessful" Kirby affiliate is going to admit that an "unwritten code" of ethically questionable practices exists.They have a million excuses and rebuttalsready to spin the truth to make the practices seem normal. Kirby vaccuums have been around 90+ years because they ARE a great product, but somewhere along the line the Kirby corporation became infected with an unscrupulous, unethical, I'll even say evil business undertone. The point is that MONEY has the tendency to make people do greedy, evil things. A few people near the top of the Kirby pyramid have embedded this evil spirt (ever so subtley) into their business practices and has trickled down to their salesman resulting into the complaints we have here. We now all know that Kirby gets away with illegal business practices by exploiting common courtesies. " No officer we aren't soliciting?....We're just giving away free gifts and signing folks up for a free professional carpet cleaning"..{Sucker!} " No sir, we are not going to try to hard sell you on the most expensive vaccuum on the market while pretending that we didn't know the price could be lowered below $1800 'til we had an enlightning conversation with our superiors on your telephone and they told us it would be all right, but just this one time as long as you can provide us with TWENTY names and phone numbers of your closest friends and family, you trade in your Rainbow your Dyson and yourHoover, your first born and your old big screen TV. Should we as consumers tolerate these people in our home. Hell No! I am related to some people, mentioned above, that are pretty high up on the Kirby pyramid. Latley I find myself avoiding their social functions because 1: I get bored listening to them talk about all the stuff they just bought with all the money they' ve scamming people. People don't like to be deceived. The Mercedes dealer doesn't come knocking at my door at dinner time trying to get me to buy his product. The Kirby sales structure, just as all other pyramid structured businessess, SUCKS!.....that is for everyone except those few at the top. The ones standing on everyone eles's faces smothering everyone else including their own self created snakes trying to slither their way to the top in hopes of taking their turn to screw everyone. Pro clubs=Free Vacation? Pro clubs=Kirby Cult Seminar! Kirby sales reps exploit a good product. Sure it's a great vaccuum, but does that give you the right to price gouge customers who don't know any better?

I was called one night by a friend of many years telling me about the really good paying job she got. I was interested and also out of work. So I car pooled the next day and found out I would be doing Demo's for Kirby. I sat through the training and enjoyed my free lunches. On the last day of training. The agreement papers were signed for "Free training" "contractor disclaimers" and everything else I'm sure you all are familiar with. When I recieved my Kurby and took it home, I first read the papers I already signed. Turns out the Demo's I did this weekend probably wont qualify because I was never equiped the the "Customer Evaluation Form" or the "customer survey Form" both required for the Demo to quilify according to the contract I signed. This is Fine, I have very little time invested, and my carpets at home are clean :) What concerns me is my friend and her father have already been sold into the hiring scam. They have already sold 3 Kirby machins to family members in thier practice demo's. I wish them the best of luck and hope they dont get scammed. As far as the Kirby goes, If you put a filter on any machine they will pick up dirt and get dirty. Clearly the vacuums work because the bags do get full. Kirby just has a decieving marketing stratigy. Next I would like to cover all the money promises. I am a very skeptical person the the first thing I did on my first break was look at the cars in the parking lot and I figured out what the "Teacher/Top Salesman/Interviewer" Was driving. It was a Neon. This office was runned down, dirty and had no computers. When I questioned about why there was no computers. I was told "We keep costs down to pay you more" okay sure... The final thing I was told is how to turn a B loan into an A loan.. This didn't sound leagal at all... We were asked not to share this info because he didnt want everyone doing it, and his office wouldn't be "Number one in sales anymore" Here is how it works.. If the Machine is to be sold at 1499 we would add 100 to it if the customer would fill out a check for 100 (down payment) from there we would drop the 100 back off the load, write VOID on the BACK of the check and fax this to the finance company to show comitment to the loan. and then give the chack back to the customer. this is a LIE to the finace company... Yes We are "Gutter Rat" trying to get quick money. The class was full of lower class people getting of the City busses driving beatup cars and lack of education wich explains my typos and spelling errors, But I know it is right and what is wrong... What Kirby is doing to my friends is wrong... The Father was working manufacturing for 30 years and the plant closed down. My friend was just in between jobs. They also are from lower class neigborhoods. and now thier family is in dept another 6 grand becuase they sold 3 Kirbys using these shisty sales meathods, and probably wont get paid for what they did, because like myself signed the contract that states "All DEMONstrations must be on demo evaluation sheets." and "The cunsumer reaction report or questionnaire for each demonstration must be turned in to the office with the pay per demo sheets no later than Monday morning before the meeting to be paid on Saterday" This is not fair and Dirty. No one in the class recieved these "sheets" we were all rushed through this paperwork. and did not have time to read it. I learned a lession from this. I will follow up when I quit.

People need to make a living.. I can accept that, but isn't theer something innately wrong about the idea of mass selling a $1k vacuum? I was in college and wanted a flexible job so I did this crappy job for 3 months. I sold 22 units got paid @ 300 each and felt guilty everytime I picked up my check. Some people have the ability to do this job.. I don't applaud this ability... it is a sickness but I understand it. People need to survive... I look back at that job and really appreciate it more now.. I would do about 5 "shows" on saturdays and 4-5 during the week... I dreaded every one of them. they took about 2 hours each... 12 hour saturdays, the gas, driving up to 30 minutes each way, making b.s. calls to my "supervisor" to see if i could go down to 1200.00 cause "they weren't going to pay more than that for this thing"... the hastle of finding these d**n houses in the dark, the time wasted and the money i stole from these poor suckers... and i mean poor... there was never a house that i went to and expected someone to just write a check for or take out their credit card... i knew they didn't have the money.. but i also knew i was going to get them to buy one... over $6k in 3 months is a lot of money to a college freshman.. i am sure the experienced reps made more but I think that the day I left they just hired another stupid kid or desperate adult with few options or knowledge about what they were going to do... vacuums, like any other consumer product should be sold in stores... the very idea that there isn't a "Kirby Showroom" shows you the very fallacy of their approach... I feel sorry for the people that buy these things when they can't afford them, I feel sorry for the people that sell them to people who can't afford them and I feel sorry for the owners who keep this machine moving...

I personally think the Kirby is the best and most versitle vacuum cleaner ever made. It is simple, durable, well designed and will last for years and years. I see all of the whiners complaining that they paid $1200 or $1500 for one of these machines. Well it's their own fault! If you have the oney to spend folks, go ahead and buy a new one. It is likely that, under normal household use the machine will last a lifetime and never NEED to be rebuilt. HOWEVER, if you are like me and don;t have any money, here is how to do it! I went out and found a machine for $75.00. As I said, these machines are very well made and even the used one I bought wil likely last the rest of my life! Even if it does break, the service guy here is really helpful. (I have had to replace several belts and a fan because of operator problems-not the machines fault) Now, I have somewhere between $1125 and $1425 to pay someone to vacuum the house for me. Granted I don;t have a BRAND new one to show off, but hey? Who wants to show off a vacuum cleaner anyway? I have had my Kirby for more than ten years now and it still goes like mad. I also made a special attachment that allows me to pull a vacuum on a can that in turn sucks the oil out of my car crankcase when it is time to change the oil. Very versitle machine. These machines can be found at estate sales, garage sales, (I got mine at a VERY nasty divorce sale) or even on "E-Bay" The bottom line people is this: Learn your market BEFORE you buy! Don;t buy the same day as the demo and if you can't afford the new one, these machines are so good, buy a used one, polish it up and tell your friends its new! Most of 'em will never know and may go out and buy a brand new one making the salesmen happy.

I personally think the Kirby is the best and most versitle vacuum cleaner ever made. It is simple, durable, well designed and will last for years and years. I see all of the whiners complaining that they paid $1200 or $1500 for one of these machines. Well it's their own fault! If you have the oney to spend folks, go ahead and buy a new one. It is likely that, under normal household use the machine will last a lifetime and never NEED to be rebuilt. HOWEVER, if you are like me and don;t have any money, here is how to do it! I went out and found a machine for $75.00. As I said, these machines are very well made and even the used one I bought wil likely last the rest of my life! Even if it does break, the service guy here is really helpful. (I have had to replace several belts and a fan because of operator problems-not the machines fault) Now, I have somewhere between $1125 and $1425 to pay someone to vacuum the house for me. Granted I don;t have a BRAND new one to show off, but hey? Who wants to show off a vacuum cleaner anyway? I have had my Kirby for more than ten years now and it still goes like mad. I also made a special attachment that allows me to pull a vacuum on a can that in turn sucks the oil out of my car crankcase when it is time to change the oil. Very versitle machine. These machines can be found at estate sales, garage sales, (I got mine at a VERY nasty divorce sale) or even on "E-Bay" The bottom line people is this: Learn your market BEFORE you buy! Don;t buy the same day as the demo and if you can't afford the new one, these machines are so good, buy a used one, polish it up and tell your friends its new! Most of 'em will never know and may go out and buy a brand new one making the salesmen happy.

I personally think the Kirby is the best and most versitle vacuum cleaner ever made. It is simple, durable, well designed and will last for years and years. I see all of the whiners complaining that they paid $1200 or $1500 for one of these machines. Well it's their own fault! If you have the oney to spend folks, go ahead and buy a new one. It is likely that, under normal household use the machine will last a lifetime and never NEED to be rebuilt. HOWEVER, if you are like me and don;t have any money, here is how to do it! I went out and found a machine for $75.00. As I said, these machines are very well made and even the used one I bought wil likely last the rest of my life! Even if it does break, the service guy here is really helpful. (I have had to replace several belts and a fan because of operator problems-not the machines fault) Now, I have somewhere between $1125 and $1425 to pay someone to vacuum the house for me. Granted I don;t have a BRAND new one to show off, but hey? Who wants to show off a vacuum cleaner anyway? I have had my Kirby for more than ten years now and it still goes like mad. I also made a special attachment that allows me to pull a vacuum on a can that in turn sucks the oil out of my car crankcase when it is time to change the oil. Very versitle machine. These machines can be found at estate sales, garage sales, (I got mine at a VERY nasty divorce sale) or even on "E-Bay" The bottom line people is this: Learn your market BEFORE you buy! Don;t buy the same day as the demo and if you can't afford the new one, these machines are so good, buy a used one, polish it up and tell your friends its new! Most of 'em will never know and may go out and buy a brand new one making the salesmen happy.

I personally think the Kirby is the best and most versitle vacuum cleaner ever made. It is simple, durable, well designed and will last for years and years. I see all of the whiners complaining that they paid $1200 or $1500 for one of these machines. Well it's their own fault! If you have the oney to spend folks, go ahead and buy a new one. It is likely that, under normal household use the machine will last a lifetime and never NEED to be rebuilt. HOWEVER, if you are like me and don;t have any money, here is how to do it! I went out and found a machine for $75.00. As I said, these machines are very well made and even the used one I bought wil likely last the rest of my life! Even if it does break, the service guy here is really helpful. (I have had to replace several belts and a fan because of operator problems-not the machines fault) Now, I have somewhere between $1125 and $1425 to pay someone to vacuum the house for me. Granted I don;t have a BRAND new one to show off, but hey? Who wants to show off a vacuum cleaner anyway? I have had my Kirby for more than ten years now and it still goes like mad. I also made a special attachment that allows me to pull a vacuum on a can that in turn sucks the oil out of my car crankcase when it is time to change the oil. Very versitle machine. These machines can be found at estate sales, garage sales, (I got mine at a VERY nasty divorce sale) or even on "E-Bay" The bottom line people is this: Learn your market BEFORE you buy! Don;t buy the same day as the demo and if you can't afford the new one, these machines are so good, buy a used one, polish it up and tell your friends its new! Most of 'em will never know and may go out and buy a brand new one making the salesmen happy.

I didn't read past Bob because I became sick of hearing people with no brains. Bob... please... use at least the intelligence of a turnip, okay? What you say doesn't even make sense and it's completely wrong. Tom... if you felt this way, why did you work for the distributor (not Kirby... he worked for a man who sells Kirby, not the Kirby company... but maybe he would know that if he were telling the truth) for SEVEN YEARS? You are such a liar! I saw the exact same story on another post, with a different name! What a crock! As for "buying" one for $500... you DID NOT!!! Sometimes they allow you to pay a reduced price as a reward for making a quota. The salesperson can sell the machine and make some dough or he can get a product worth every penny of the $1900.00 retail for much, much less. You apparently heard about this bonus program and got your facts screwed up. I guess one of the few bad apples selling Kirbys, and yes there are a few out there unfortunately, came to your door and you cooked up this bunch of crap to make your complaint sound better. Buddy... I'm sorry if one of the few bad ones rubbed you wrong... but if you're going to practice slander, at least get your information correct and believable!!!

Actually, I'm not surprised. I always come up with this stuff because I always cheat the big company before they cheat me. You see, I expect to be cheated, so I always get them before they can get me. Anyway, here's what you do. You go in and do your normal demo. When it comes time to close the sale, here's what you say. This here's a $1600 machine, but my company doesn't pay me any more than minimum wage to sell it. So, here's what I'm going to do for both of us. I'm going to let you have this vacuum for less than half price. That's right, just $750 for it. Here's the catch. I want you to write me a personal check for $200. That way, you still end up with a great vac for less than $1000 and, I make $200 on the deal. We both make out like bandits. And, the Kirby company still makes $50 on each vac. Now, you make $200 plus your regular commission. I'd be the top salesman for my state. Hell, probably the whole country. But, every vac would be sold for the absolute minimum price. Ya' always have to take care of yourself first. The company always comes last.

My boyfriend is a former employee of Kirby. From his experiences and from what I've read recently I believe action needs to be taken. Sadly, it seems that Kirby and it's affiliate Val-Co distributers is one of those cases of marginally legal corporate abuse. That is, no matter how many people complain about lenthy demos, overpriced machines, or shady salesmen no legal action will ever be taken. It would take some large-scale financial blunder or human rights abuse to even recieve attention. As Kirby is neither Enron nor Dow- like in its corporate m.o., I don't see that happening. However, I do believe there is some hope for a type of grass roots campaign against this company, at least here in Southern Cali. Here are my reasons (again this applies to SD Kirby- but could be true elsewhere): 1. Kirby approvingly calls its employees "gutter rats." This was over heard in a phone conversation between a team leader and the main office. This leads me to believe that Kirby targets kids from low-income neighborhoods, many of whom don't even have the benefit of a high school education. These kids would be gullible to their promises of 1600 + a month income, management possibilities and owning your own franchise after 5 years employment. 2 Kirby distracts its employees from the cold, hard and poor truth. With mock disco halls in the office, cheesy videos about cruises, and a strict ban on asking "negative" (read: perceptive) questions about the company, Kirby keeps the lid on that oh-so long contract the "gutter rats" signed. Yes, you'll make 1600 a month - if you make at least two demos a day, 6 days a week. Even when my boyfriend was gone 13 hours a day, he would find this impossibe - many days not getting in the field until 5pm, if that. (Other full work days are devoted to "positive" thinking and obvious sales techniques - with no work in the field at all). Moreover, many hours in the field are spent "knocking in" other employees for demos. In the end, 2 demos a day becomes a challenge. "Commission": $50 for a "B-loan" - which is what someone with normal credit gets, no matter what price she pays. If she buys the floor model for 1 grand (wow what a steal!) the salesman sees NOTHING. Good luck getting an A loan or cash up front. Maybe a dealer or celebrity. 3. Already poor employees keep on despite all this , motivated by more and more promises. And yes, his boss too flaunted and bragged about the cash he was pulling in, the women he was bedding because of it. Promises outweigh the math for the few that stay on. With the poor commission, the impediments to the demo quota, and the grueling hours, these "gutter rats" are more often than not pulling in far below minimum wage. 4. Surprisingly, for the first few weeks he worked there, my boyfriend's team only canvassed very low income neighborhoods, often traveling very out of the way to find them. A machine that costs as much as a crappy car in a near-ghetto? Come on, they're out to make suckers. 5. No it's not a bad machine. However, this door to door technique relies on ignorant consumers. The new Ultimate G series Kirby goes for (on average and rounded up) 500 on Ebay- all those nifty accessories included. Don't be a sucker. If you were already made a sucker, put a stop on the payment and cancel the contract. 6. The sales techniques we all gripe about have one general purpose, to envoke consumer pity. That's why they ask to use your phone. That's why they seem green and unprepared, notes in hand. That's why "gutter rats." You think, 'These poor kids, they just don't know any better.' You let them in your house. You buy the floor model. No one is better for it except the higher-ups. This is my proposal: Kirby is a BAD corporation. I believe there are ways to be a GOOD corporation, ways like using a fraction of the millions you rake in to treat your employees and consumers with a little RESPECT. As is, Kirby profits from the humiliation and ignorance of its employees and consumers. We are all being used- We all lose. There are countless acts of corporate irresponsibilty far worse than this being committed EVERY DAY. But unlike chemical plants in India and trade policy enslavement of African nations, we can do something about this crap right NOW. Dig up dirt on Kirby. If not, put up signs with some info you find here. If not, write to them. If not, warn your neighbors. If not, warn those poor "gutter rats" that come to your door that they're victims. If not, just scream it from the rooftops. Come on, we've established that we're all angry. When I'm steamed, I can't sit still. Let's hear what people are DOING about it.

I worked for Kirby for 3 years. I made a lot of money, just got sick and tired of the long hours so I quit. Its a wonderful machine but let me just say the general business practices of this company are highly deceptive. Hiring/recruiting: 2"x2" or 3"x3" ads were placed in the newspaper stating $1500+ per month, factory outlet, no experience, start immediately. Call ###-###, ask for Mr Smith. When people called about the ad, the receptionist immediately knew because they would ask for Mr Smith (take a wild guess - Mr Smith doesn't exist!) When asked what company it was, the answer was typically "..we are a wholesale distributor for an american manufacturing company blah blah blah". The receptionist wasnt allowed to use the words "Kirby" or "sales position". Most people believed the job would be at a warehouse. Interviews were conducted in groups. Again the words "Kirby" or "sales position" were not allowed at the interview. It wasn't until the 2nd day when you come back from training that you first see the Kirby. Oh god. But you are told you won't be selling Kirbys....all you do is setup and display with appointments the office makes. DECEPTIVE? Absolutely! Selling (first week): After the 1st day of training, you are asked to create a list of friends and family you can demonstrate to for "practice". After your 2nd and final day of training you are ready to "practice" on your family. This is where the real profit is for most distributors. Your family feels so bad for you that they purchase a Kirby to "help you out" On a typical $1300 sale to a family member, the salesman will pocket $250. But the distibutor walks away with $600, and thats after factoring in business expenses!! h*o h*o h*o - Merry Christmas. If the average training class of 5 people sell an average of 2 Kirbys, the distibutor will profit $6,000. Selling (by appointment) Ok you got your feet wet, sold a couple Kirbys just practicing to family (wow these things seems easy to sell!) Remember those appointments the office sets? Well the people you have an appointment with have absolutely no clue whatsoever you will be hauling a Kirby into their house. They are told "we are demonstrating our new patented dry-foam method of carpet cleaning and will shampoo one room for free" Most people figure a carpet cleaning company is coming and if the results are good they might decide for the company to shampoo other rooms...for a charge of course. About half of the time when arriving at the appointment you were turned away..."what the $!%^&!! is all this, no nevermind I dont want my room shampooed" The other half of the appointments were run down homes in bad neighborhoods. But you need to make 50 demos a month to get your guaranteed $1500. DECEPTIVE? Absolutely. Everybody is pissed off for the moment....the people who thought they were getting a free rug cleaning and YOU because the appointments are worthless so.... Selling (via canvassing) Now its time to do some cold-calling. You would go around with a group of people in a van. One person runs up to a house with a gift, usally a 12-pack of coke or a kick-knack and tells the homeowner "Hi my name is Mr Liar with 'Some Company Name', and we are in the neighborhood today doing some free advertising, giving everybody a free gift to show you something nice for your home....Hold that, I'll be right back". Next thing you know you got a Kirby on the porch, but the homeowner says "No I'm not interested, here is your gift back". We would always say it will only take a few minutes. If they still balked we would say just about anything - we just wanted IN. After a 2 hour demo, the driver comes back to start "closing". Always starting at $1389....the price would fall in $100 increments everytime the homeowner said no. If they didn't buy it at $500 the closer would piss them off telling them they were cheap for not caring about the health of their family. It was routine to sell someone a Kirby for $1300 just a couple of hours after selling the nextdoor neighbor one for $600. The lowest I saw one go for was $425. My commission was $10 on that one. After you got more experience they would let you close your own, and that boosts your commission a bit. By this point (2 or 3 months) your conscious doesnt bother you anymore - you've been sucked in and all that matters is getting that next $400 commision check from the next sucker. I was so good at one point I knew exactly what when and how to say anything based on a persons body language. At my peak I was closing 60% of my demos, most of them over $1000 per unit. But I eventually got burned out from so many hours. I look back on it and realize I gained a tremendous amount of experience and lots of money. I can smell deception 2 states away and can tell right away what kind a person is just by looking them in the eye for a few seconds. But...would I ever go back to selling Kirbys - hell no. Too many lies.

I have been reading a lot bad things about the Kirby industries. I worked for Kirby for 8 months. The only reason I quit is because of a move. To start things off I am tired of people saying that they got ripped off and They paid this amount and found out some got it for this amount. Have any of you ever worked a commission job before? Amazing isn't it? Kirby employees depend on commission as most employees do not get the required amount of shows to get thier base pay. Logically, like most sales people they are going to try to get it for a higher amount. My lowest amount I could sell it for I only got 50 bucks. That is not enough to pay the bills. That was when I first started they soon changed it to anything below 1300 you got 25 bucks. After that you got the amount exceeding it. Only distributers themselves can sell a Kirby for as low as 500 hundred dollars. We could only go to $999.99. I read where some one was saying that Kirby employees brag about how the ripped off people. Not true our meetings in the morning were for motivation and we would talk about our sales to get us excited about the new day. We tell how and what made the customer buy it. I have noiticed the ex-employees of Kirby that complain about the company and how it worked are those who either were not very good at it or quit with in a week. Interesting isn't it? They have a high turn over rate because people can not handle the job. It requires long hours and working between 6 to 7 days a week for a lot of people. Because if you sell nothing that week and don't make your requirement then you don't get paid. Now I do know of a few shadey Kirby salesman, but there are few and far between. Majority are honest people trying to make an honest living. The ones to be wary of are the ones who ask for merchandise(other than your vacuum) as a trade in. Kirby is a gret product and worth whatever amount you pay for it. The sales pitches are 100 percent right. They will last a long time and get the job done right. They have a great warrenty system and if you have a problem with a distributer than you can always call one of the two factories. Kirby would not have been around for 90 years if they were a bad company and selling bad products. They are one of the last remaining few companies that actually do door to door. Kirby is a great product and vacuum that will get the job done.

Why would a company with a good product need to use door-to-door salesmen to force it on unwilling customers? That's not right! If you make a good vacuum, you can sit back and market it honestly. You don't need to scam an army of salesmen who then turn around and triple the price when they force their way into your home for their free demo. Sean, the former vac salesman, from New York said it best: I think Kirby (as a manufacturer) would do MUCH better if they got rid of the distributor chain as it currently exists.... sell the d**n machine through major retailers like Sears, Macy's, Etc... of course nobody would pay $1800 for a vacuum... but if they cut out the dozen-layer distribution chain as currently exists, they wouldn't HAVE to charge that. Current distributors pay somewhere around $500 per unit... so sell them for $500 (or even $400 since the volume would be much higher) to the retailers... then they can retail them for around $600-650. There's no reason for an army of resellers to mark up the price of something 500%. Yeah, they may get rich that way. But it doesn't do much for the customers or the company that actually makes the products. Alissa from Michigan hit the nail right on the head too. A Mercedes might have more get up and go than my Toyota Corolla. It might have more options. It might be an overall better car. But I can't afford it. And neither can most of the general population. Same thing with these vacuums. Even if they ARE truly THAT much better than other vacuums (which in my mind remains to be seen) I really couldn't justify paying that much for a vacuum unless I was making at least 100K or more a year (and being a lowly college student, just getting on my feet, I definitely do not make that.) And even then, I would need a lot of convincing. Therefore, I will just stick with my dirt devil for now, until I hit the mega-millions jackpot at least. Want to put a Kirby in 1 out of 10 homes? Two words: reasonable markup. That way, Kirby makes a lot of money. And, customers get cleaner homes for a price they can actually afford.

When I still lived in the states a Kirby "sales professional" came calling to my partner's auntie's place in San Diego. The neighbourhood is of 600k-100000 homes and gets hit up by all types of door 2 door sales. Anyway she was home as was I and her son. She is about 63, Vietnamese and doesn't possess a great command of the english language. the kirby guy also had a trainee with him who lugged in the machine and supplies. He keep disappearing outside for cigarettes which he deposited all around the front door and garden. The salesman was in his 3rd hour of demonstration before he tried to close the sale at $1500. she firmly said no and asked for a brochure or something should she change her mind and want to add to her collection of 2 vacumns,a carpet shampooer and a steam buggy. The guy wouldnt budge. I had gone upstairs to surf the net and came down 45 minutes later and he was still there asking " are you buying? are you buying? are you buying? "you need it, you wanna live in a clean house dont you?" She said not today, thank you, leave me a card and you would be the only person i'd buy from if the need arises. He put a pen in her hand and literally tried to get her to fill out something (sales contract?) She came to me and asked me to get the guy out. It was now at the point of embarassment for all parties when I asked the guy to leave, it had been over 4 hours now. He said well your aunt was just going to finalise the sale, I said no she wasn't we're done now thanks and goodnight. He said I cleaned your living and dining rooms I'm expecting this to be a sale, come on your American you gotta realise she has gotta buy this machine. At that point I picked up the Kirby and began towards the door, said if you'r not out the door in 60 seconds I'm chucking this machine out onto the street with intention of it not making another demonstration if you know what I mean. He said he was gonna call the cops I said go ahead I'm ready for a little Jerry Springer action tonight as I'd no plans for the evening. He finally silently signalled the trainee who had been the brunt of many of his belittling jokes through the evening to pack it in. I was so truly taken aback by his brusqueness towards the end that I could see how people end up buying just to get these guys out of their homes! Hadnt I been home I'm sure she would have bought the machine when she really did not need it. All the rubbish about "a few bad apples" or "a few bad seeds" is absurd, the bad stuff is now that of legend as this thread provides. In closing I too will be quick to note the machines are fantastic, and I for one am MORE THAN WILLING to pay double or triple the amount for a product made in USA, Australia, Canada etc to support manufacturing in Western nations and keep jobs for us. However my Kirby sales experience was something that I cannot condone under any circumstance!

This is to Dawn in Virginia and Kirt in California: The G-6 was a great machine. Just wait til you see the Diamond Edition. It came out in December 2003/January 2004. There are a lot of differences, but the pick up power is a lot more. You gotta check it out! To tom in New Jersey: You are kind of right. We do care a lot about the sales. But when you have babies at home that is depending on you to put food in their mouth and a roof over their head, you kinda do get a little side tracked on getting rich. But Jason from Illinois says it the way I was thinking when I was reading your comments. To Jason from Australia: You said it just like it is. I worked for about 2 months and made less than $500 and almost quit, until I found out what really made me the money in Kirby. Canvassing. To Bob from Washington: You are a complete idiot! When someone tells me they work for the Kirby Company, I get very hyper and ask them all sorts of questions because I don't believe everything that I hear. I ask questions and find out the trueth later on. So, people, don't be an idiot like Bob here and sound like a complete jackass and get caught lying, it looks bad. To Joseph in Delaware: You are a good guy. If only there were more men like you to weed out the men like Bob, this would be a better place. To Jessica in Utah: You obviously didn't listen or watch the dimo. There WAS dirt on the filters, just not enough for you to see, that or the dirt don't bother you like it does to everyone else (that, or the belt was not on - therefore you don't, then the Kirby don't work right). And as for all you Rainbow fans (this includes you too, Mr. Don From Texas) #1. Rainbow is an electric toilet. Everytime you vacuum, hou have to clean it out very thoroughly. If you don't, it smells like nasty out-houses. #2. Rainbow sets up shop in any town and sells the heck out of them and as soon as they slow down, they move. Leaving all the customers out to dry. No warrenties, no number to call for anything. Kirby is always here or there. Also 100% made in USA. To keep the American people working. I support that, don't you? #3. Any type of canister vacuum is recommended for above the floor cleaning. NOT THE FLOOR ITSELF! I will let you do a little "suction test" on your Rainbow verses my Kirby. You need your vacuum and three playing cards. Unplug your brushroll bar, turn the suction end upside down, place one card on each end of the suction plate and one in the middle. Now, flip it upright. Do any of the cards stay on? Didn't think so. If there is a card on there, then it's in the middle, am I right? Okay, now we are getting somewhere. That is the only place that it is picking up. And probably poorly at that. Kirby, all three are on. Better suction equals better cleaning. To Sean in New York: The new word is "Positive". I freaking hate that word. I never liked to use it either. And the logo is "Get-R-Done" which is stupid too. To Melisa in Alabama: You are pretty much the only one here, other than me, that really knows what's going on. I do have to say that I never even heard of you as being the best canvasser in the world or whatever. It took me one and a half months to be the 3rd top canvasser in March, April, May 2004 in the West Central Region with 63 one month and over 100 for the three months combined and the top canvasser for March 2004 Great Plains Division. I sat at the head table in Veil, Colorado for the 100% Club(after losing one of my best friends on the way). But anyways, Canvassing is the easiest jobs and at the same time the hardest. You get more no's than anyone in the world. But all you have to do is as easy as 1 2 3. And to everyone else, it is worth what you think it is worth, not what someone else thinks it's worth. Who decides for you? You or them?

This is to Dawn in Virginia and Kirt in California: The G-6 was a great machine. Just wait til you see the Diamond Edition. It came out in December 2003/January 2004. There are a lot of differences, but the pick up power is a lot more. You gotta check it out! To tom in New Jersey: You are kind of right. We do care a lot about the sales. But when you have babies at home that is depending on you to put food in their mouth and a roof over their head, you kinda do get a little side tracked on getting rich. But Jason from Illinois says it the way I was thinking when I was reading your comments. To Jason from Australia: You said it just like it is. I worked for about 2 months and made less than $500 and almost quit, until I found out what really made me the money in Kirby. Canvassing. To Bob from Washington: You are a complete idiot! When someone tells me they work for the Kirby Company, I get very hyper and ask them all sorts of questions because I don't believe everything that I hear. I ask questions and find out the trueth later on. So, people, don't be an idiot like Bob here and sound like a complete jackass and get caught lying, it looks bad. To Joseph in Delaware: You are a good guy. If only there were more men like you to weed out the men like Bob, this would be a better place. To Jessica in Utah: You obviously didn't listen or watch the dimo. There WAS dirt on the filters, just not enough for you to see, that or the dirt don't bother you like it does to everyone else (that, or the belt was not on - therefore you don't, then the Kirby don't work right). And as for all you Rainbow fans (this includes you too, Mr. Don From Texas) #1. Rainbow is an electric toilet. Everytime you vacuum, hou have to clean it out very thoroughly. If you don't, it smells like nasty out-houses. #2. Rainbow sets up shop in any town and sells the heck out of them and as soon as they slow down, they move. Leaving all the customers out to dry. No warrenties, no number to call for anything. Kirby is always here or there. Also 100% made in USA. To keep the American people working. I support that, don't you? #3. Any type of canister vacuum is recommended for above the floor cleaning. NOT THE FLOOR ITSELF! I will let you do a little "suction test" on your Rainbow verses my Kirby. You need your vacuum and three playing cards. Unplug your brushroll bar, turn the suction end upside down, place one card on each end of the suction plate and one in the middle. Now, flip it upright. Do any of the cards stay on? Didn't think so. If there is a card on there, then it's in the middle, am I right? Okay, now we are getting somewhere. That is the only place that it is picking up. And probably poorly at that. Kirby, all three are on. Better suction equals better cleaning. To Sean in New York: The new word is "Positive". I freaking hate that word. I never liked to use it either. And the logo is "Get-R-Done" which is stupid too. To Melisa in Alabama: You are pretty much the only one here, other than me, that really knows what's going on. I do have to say that I never even heard of you as being the best canvasser in the world or whatever. It took me one and a half months to be the 3rd top canvasser in March, April, May 2004 in the West Central Region with 63 one month and over 100 for the three months combined and the top canvasser for March 2004 Great Plains Division. I sat at the head table in Veil, Colorado for the 100% Club(after losing one of my best friends on the way). But anyways, Canvassing is the easiest jobs and at the same time the hardest. You get more no's than anyone in the world. But all you have to do is as easy as 1 2 3. And to everyone else, it is worth what you think it is worth, not what someone else thinks it's worth. Who decides for you? You or them?

This is to Dawn in Virginia and Kirt in California: The G-6 was a great machine. Just wait til you see the Diamond Edition. It came out in December 2003/January 2004. There are a lot of differences, but the pick up power is a lot more. You gotta check it out! To tom in New Jersey: You are kind of right. We do care a lot about the sales. But when you have babies at home that is depending on you to put food in their mouth and a roof over their head, you kinda do get a little side tracked on getting rich. But Jason from Illinois says it the way I was thinking when I was reading your comments. To Jason from Australia: You said it just like it is. I worked for about 2 months and made less than $500 and almost quit, until I found out what really made me the money in Kirby. Canvassing. To Bob from Washington: You are a complete idiot! When someone tells me they work for the Kirby Company, I get very hyper and ask them all sorts of questions because I don't believe everything that I hear. I ask questions and find out the trueth later on. So, people, don't be an idiot like Bob here and sound like a complete jackass and get caught lying, it looks bad. To Joseph in Delaware: You are a good guy. If only there were more men like you to weed out the men like Bob, this would be a better place. To Jessica in Utah: You obviously didn't listen or watch the dimo. There WAS dirt on the filters, just not enough for you to see, that or the dirt don't bother you like it does to everyone else (that, or the belt was not on - therefore you don't, then the Kirby don't work right). And as for all you Rainbow fans (this includes you too, Mr. Don From Texas) #1. Rainbow is an electric toilet. Everytime you vacuum, hou have to clean it out very thoroughly. If you don't, it smells like nasty out-houses. #2. Rainbow sets up shop in any town and sells the heck out of them and as soon as they slow down, they move. Leaving all the customers out to dry. No warrenties, no number to call for anything. Kirby is always here or there. Also 100% made in USA. To keep the American people working. I support that, don't you? #3. Any type of canister vacuum is recommended for above the floor cleaning. NOT THE FLOOR ITSELF! I will let you do a little "suction test" on your Rainbow verses my Kirby. You need your vacuum and three playing cards. Unplug your brushroll bar, turn the suction end upside down, place one card on each end of the suction plate and one in the middle. Now, flip it upright. Do any of the cards stay on? Didn't think so. If there is a card on there, then it's in the middle, am I right? Okay, now we are getting somewhere. That is the only place that it is picking up. And probably poorly at that. Kirby, all three are on. Better suction equals better cleaning. To Sean in New York: The new word is "Positive". I freaking hate that word. I never liked to use it either. And the logo is "Get-R-Done" which is stupid too. To Melisa in Alabama: You are pretty much the only one here, other than me, that really knows what's going on. I do have to say that I never even heard of you as being the best canvasser in the world or whatever. It took me one and a half months to be the 3rd top canvasser in March, April, May 2004 in the West Central Region with 63 one month and over 100 for the three months combined and the top canvasser for March 2004 Great Plains Division. I sat at the head table in Veil, Colorado for the 100% Club(after losing one of my best friends on the way). But anyways, Canvassing is the easiest jobs and at the same time the hardest. You get more no's than anyone in the world. But all you have to do is as easy as 1 2 3. And to everyone else, it is worth what you think it is worth, not what someone else thinks it's worth. Who decides for you? You or them?

I use to work for the Distributor of Kirby Company in Wichita, Kansas. It was the best job I ever had in my life. I have had the one of the best times of my life there and had the worst experience of my life there. Not all Salespeople are a like. That I know from experience. My ex-boyfriend and I were the complete opposites. I was nice and polite and he was to the point. If you didn't buy one from him, you were a dirty filthy pig. If you didn't buy one from me, I felt sorry for you cause you couldn't see what the Kirby can save you in carpet alone. Plus your health and the health of your family, you can't exactly put a price on that, now can you? But there are all types of sales people in the Kirby Company. If you experience a bad one, it is your duty to report them his the distributor, and if you don't, then it is your fault that person is still in the business. The more complaints on someone, the faster it is for them to get out of the business. I hear a lot of people complaining about bad sales people, but what did they do to stop that person from going to someone else's house? If nothing, then shut up! If you called and reported them, then that sales person shouldn't be in the business anymore. But I do appoligize for all the bad salespeople in the business though. Kirby takes all kinds of people from people that is currently on probation for whatever to people straight out of the crazy house (if you know what I mean). But it isn't all bad people. There are some of the nicest people in the world just trying to make a living for their family. I know, cause I was one of them. I had, still have, a heart of gold and wear it on my shoulder. I also hear a lot of people complaining about the price. And let me tell you, they aren't that pricy for what you are getting. Tell me what other cleaner can do all the stuff a kirby can do. Plus have the pick up power. They say that an Orek can pick up a bowling ball, well, who in their right mind would have bowling balls to vacuum up? Get real. You also have to take into consideration of the work they do in your home. If they clean a lot, don't you think they are worth more than getting 0 profit? They only get commission, there is no wages at all. They are pretty much going to work, hoping to get a sale so they can pay their rent or utilities or food. It is really hard trying to work 10 - 13 hours a day six days a week on commission only and some mean people are wanting to get the Kirby for less than what they can, come on, that ain't right. These people are wanting to make money and at the same time, wanting to help you have a cleaner home for your health and the health of your family. Do you really think it is fair for no one to get paid and you get the machine. Get real!

TO MELISA: You mean to say that the finance company gets not only their own outrageous finance charges (24%), but also the entire profit on the sale??? You're saying that the Kirby distributer only gets the net cost of the machine, its' wholesale price, just what he paid the factory, but no more, no profit? Even if the customer makes good on the loan, the Kirby distributer gets nothing more, EVER??? The finance company gets it ALL??? I doubt it... Especially if the finance company is affiliated with, or owned by Kirby people... I think its more likely that all of the "risk" is being assumed by the salesperson on these bad-credit deals, and he or she loses whether the customer makes good on the loan or not. There may be some risk involved, but the finance company is richly compensated for assuming that risk, at 24% interest per annum. And I will guarantee you that the Kirby distributer gets a lot more than his cost on the machine. I suspect that the finance company holds back or discounts a portion of the loan, and the Kirby distributer dumps that on the salesperson. Either way, the distributer gets his money back on the machine, plus a profit, if a little smaller one. The salesperson gets screwed, and he/she did all the work. For nothing. No wonder they can afford to throw you trinkets and free trips: You've already paid for those "gifts," through the nose!

The guy in charge bragged about all of the money he was making and frequently flaunted it in front of us. This is completely unprofessional in my opinion. He did not really care if we stayed or went just as long as we crammed vacuum cleaners down as many throats as possible. The training was good but unpaid. However, the promise of big bucks was going to make up for any non-paid training. Supposedly. It was high pressure and long hours but I did it for a while. I quickly got sick of busting my hump for no sales and no respect. So I quit. The product itself is awesome. The price is rediculous but I believe in Kirby's. I just will not work for them ever again. I found it funny that when people would not pay the $1800.00 the price quickly came down. This just proved to me that the company knows their product is priced out of site. Anyone considering working for them should consider it again. Sell hookers instead. At least people know right away they are going to get screwed.

I saw where someone asked about the 3 types of loans for Kirbys and why all deals are not paid on to the dealer... This is why... I know the types of loans and their "names" are based upon which finance company is used. For us they are "a loans" Sub loans and Krp loans. A loans are cash, check, credit card, and people who pretty much have perfect credit. We are paid full commission off those deals. A sub deal is people who have slow or bad credit with some good accounts, they are referred to as substandard... we are not paid off these deals because the finance company will pay our dist. enough to replace the Kirby and pay the taxes they may make a small profit but not enough to cover what our commission would be. On a Krp deal, these are people with rotten credit who somehow got bought by the finance company. On these loans the Dist. is only paid enough to replace the machine.. they end up paying the tax out of their pocket not the profit. We are not paid on these deals either. But... sub and krp deals count toward all trips we win and any other contest put up at the time.. so we don't mind them. The only thing to remember is to work good clients in quality type neighborhoods and you wont end up with deals you're not being paid on. People know this coming into Kirby though, we don't lie about it, we are upfront about it. Say you are about to win a trip that is paid completely for by the Kirby company and you need one more sale to be able to go... would you take one that you didn't get paid commission on in order to take a 5 day paid vacation? I would. Or would you take one to win things like cars, rolex's, motorcycles, ect? I would. So I don't mind them. I don't complain. We are paid well on the ones that are payable so it evens out in the long run. That's the bottom line of the loans we accept or do not accept and why we are paid or not. It isn't because the company cheats you out of money. Trust me, I've been there a long time, worked every position possible other than Dist. but I have been in the office, saw the reports from the finance company, saw how much they paid my Dist. so I know its not a load of bs.

Kirby salespeople's commissions are based, in part on whether the sale is paid for by cash/check/credit card, through Kirby's affiliated(?) finance company(s). The quality of the loan, based on the borrower's credit rating, can result in a commission of zero dollars to the salesperson. I've heard this is bogus, and it certainly seems unfair. Anybody know the scoop on this? Can you explain how and why this is so? After all, if the Kirby company gets paid by the finance company, why shouldn't the salesperson get his or her usual cut? And if Kirby is not getting paid, how does the sale go through???

The vacuum itself is fantastic, even if the owners manual is a little hard to follow (typical for most appliances). The price negotation is the part of the process that is so frustrating. Some of you say "Do your research." How? There is no reliable source of MSRP and price comps are hard to determine because you're not even sure what model/generation you're comparing. Questions like "how much did your friend pay for her Kirby" let you know that they are going to charge you as much as they can get away with. The auto industry has even moved to more realistic sticker pricing, even though they still need 'room' to negotiate. At least you can easily find MSRP in most cases for a car. And you can definitely find it for most other vacuums on the market. This is the primary problem with Kirby vacuum sales. Of course the 'one hour carpet cleaning demonstration' ploy to get in your house is also annoying. I am in direct sales myself, and I know there is a lot of competition to get to those willing to make a purchase. But the bottom line is this...treat your customer with respect, make them feel confident and assured in the purchase they made (that the product is good and the price is fair) and you will reap the rewards 10x over. I love my new vacuum - but having overpaid for it (at least according to what I'm reading here), having wasted 3 hours of my day (after I told the salesman I had an appointment in 1 1/2 hours), and having my phone calls ignored by the distributor (I purchased the zip brush, but it was not included with the attachments left behind - shame on me for not checking!), I feel foolish in referring these people to anyone. And that's no way to build a business.

The vacuum itself is fantastic, even if the owners manual is a little hard to follow (typical for most appliances). The price negotation is the part of the process that is so frustrating. Some of you say "Do your research." How? There is no reliable source of MSRP and price comps are hard to determine because you're not even sure what model/generation you're comparing. Questions like "how much did your friend pay for her Kirby" let you know that they are going to charge you as much as they can get away with. The auto industry has even moved to more realistic sticker pricing, even though they still need 'room' to negotiate. At least you can easily find MSRP in most cases for a car. And you can definitely find it for most other vacuums on the market. This is the primary problem with Kirby vacuum sales. Of course the 'one hour carpet cleaning demonstration' ploy to get in your house is also annoying. I am in direct sales myself, and I know there is a lot of competition to get to those willing to make a purchase. But the bottom line is this...treat your customer with respect, make them feel confident and assured in the purchase they made (that the product is good and the price is fair) and you will reap the rewards 10x over. I love my new vacuum - but having overpaid for it (at least according to what I'm reading here), having wasted 3 hours of my day (after I told the salesman I had an appointment in 1 1/2 hours), and having my phone calls ignored by the distributor (I purchased the zip brush, but it was not included with the attachments left behind - shame on me for not checking!), I feel foolish in referring these people to anyone. And that's no way to build a business.

The vacuum itself is fantastic, even if the owners manual is a little hard to follow (typical for most appliances). The price negotation is the part of the process that is so frustrating. Some of you say "Do your research." How? There is no reliable source of MSRP and price comps are hard to determine because you're not even sure what model/generation you're comparing. Questions like "how much did your friend pay for her Kirby" let you know that they are going to charge you as much as they can get away with. The auto industry has even moved to more realistic sticker pricing, even though they still need 'room' to negotiate. At least you can easily find MSRP in most cases for a car. And you can definitely find it for most other vacuums on the market. This is the primary problem with Kirby vacuum sales. Of course the 'one hour carpet cleaning demonstration' ploy to get in your house is also annoying. I am in direct sales myself, and I know there is a lot of competition to get to those willing to make a purchase. But the bottom line is this...treat your customer with respect, make them feel confident and assured in the purchase they made (that the product is good and the price is fair) and you will reap the rewards 10x over. I love my new vacuum - but having overpaid for it (at least according to what I'm reading here), having wasted 3 hours of my day (after I told the salesman I had an appointment in 1 1/2 hours), and having my phone calls ignored by the distributor (I purchased the zip brush, but it was not included with the attachments left behind - shame on me for not checking!), I feel foolish in referring these people to anyone. And that's no way to build a business.

Whoever it may be, needs to resign. First off, yes Distributors do pay less for a Kirby, no, it's not around 300. It may have been a few years ago when G-6's were out, but there has been 2 models since then, therefore they pay a little over 400 now. So yes, there is a huge difference for the general public than a dist. But you have to think of it as buying in bulk. When a dist. buys a reno unit (kirby & shampoo'r) they do not buy ONE, they buy in sets of 8, 12, ect... Therefore they are paying less, but buying many more than any of you would at one time. That is common sense. Now, as far as the Kirby person who "could not figure out" how to show the difference in a Dirt Devil and a Kirby, well he should just quit anyway.. Plain and simple. Obviously he was not taught ANYTHING in training. Speaking of training, not all DPS's (recruiters in Kirby) fill you with bs to get you to stay there. It is true that if you do not want to knock doors you don't have to, we have canvassers who do it for you, but yes, if they want, they may. I teach my classes a door pitch in training. I tell them during the interview it is Kirby. I am upfront. Our deal is not 50 a month, it's 15 demo's per week. They have 6 days to do it, how freaking hard is that? It's less than 3 a day. I know in my van we never came in with less than 12-15 demos per day, which is why I was the #1 canvasser in the world for over a year, until I started to DPS. Knocking doors does not take a freaking rocket scientist, nor does it take a liar. When we say we will shampoo one room for free, we will. I mean d**n, if you don't buy it, it was free, was it not? Not all of us get mad and pitch a fit if you choose not to purchase it, some of us have class and move on to the next door. Afterall the national average is 1/3 sells. Therefore you don't give up after the first demo! Then there is the "lifetime warranty" I read about.. umm that is a LIE. Kirby does NOT have a lifetime warranty.. we have a lifetime rebuild agreement, which means you ship the Kirby to Cleveland OH and pay 175.00, they rebuild it for you and ship you new attachments... the Kirby has a limited 3 yr warranty which covers everything except the bags, belts, lightbulb, and rollerbrush. That is the truth.. it is in your owners manual! Perhaps you guys should do some research before blaming all of us, afterall the manuals are in the home the entire time you are watching the demo! Don't blame all of us just because there are some morons in Kirby who choose to lie to you or do not know what the hell they are doing! Some of us are honest, some of us are educated, some of us love our jobs and make a lot of HONEST money doing it. Not everyone is out to steal your money! There are bad people in EVERY business, but that does not make us all conartist! Tom, you worked for Kirby for 7 yrs... ok.. now you don't.. Well SOMETHING kept you there scamming people out of money for 7 yrs now didn't it? You say we're scammers.. what the hell were you for SEVEN YEARS?! It sure wasn't empty promises that kept you there or someone's bullshit. You stayed because you saw the money!!

My fiance and I are 20 years old, and had a Kirby salesman come to his grandparents house, and try to sell us a Kirby (since he saw the grandparents weren't interested) for $1600. My fiance was very impressed with the vacuum demo and I could tell he was actually considering signing up for the payment plan. I have to admit, I was a little impressed myself, however I also kept in mind that I had never had the chance to watch salesmen from any other vacuum companies demonstrate for me (and the Kirby guy "couldn't seem to figure out" how to show us how much our existing typical department store dirt devil picked up) so I really had nothing to compare to. He kept saying, "Look at how much dirt it's picking up. Did you know that was in your carpet?" And when we said, "Well, it hasn't been vacuumed for over two months, and that's the main walk way, so yeah, I guess we expected that." He didn't really know how to respond to that, so he just kept on repeating the same thing, "Did you know that was in your carpet?" Anyway, he was pushy, and while he didn't take 3 hours...he did take an hour and a half to two hours. Even after I told him that we did not have the funds, and that my fiance cannot even afford to get his car in working order, let alone buy a $1600 dollar vacuum, he still didn't give up! He never went down in price. And he kept telling us that he had to win this vacation for his girlfriend by selling as many as he could. He was a nice guy, but a VERY poor salesman. Now, I'm not saying that Kirby is a bad company OR that all the salesmen are bad. But I think Kirby is over-priced for the general public (made clear to me by the fact that the salesman told us he chose houses that look "financable" aka WEALTHY!) I like the car analogy. A Mercedes might have more get up and go than my Toyota Corolla. It might have more options. It might be an overall better car. But I can't afford it. And neither can most of the general population. Same thing with these vacuums. Even if they ARE truly THAT much better than other vacuums (which in my mind remains to be seen) I really couldn't justify paying that much for a vacuum unless I was making at least 100K or more a year (and being a lowly college student, just getting on my feet, I definitely do not make that.) And even then, I would need a lot of convincing. Therefore, I will just stick with my dirt devil for now, until I hit the mega-millins jackput at least.

I worked for my local (at the time) Kirby distributor for just about 3 weeks... sold 2 my first week and made about $500. Not bad money, but horrible pay considering that $500 was after pounding the pavement, getting blistered feet and a sore back from lugging that heavy d**n vacuum around for what totalled somewhere around 70-80 hours (the first week!!!) and several hundred miles on my own vehicle I finally decided I couldn't (or didn't want to) deal with that anymore. When I left, I went to my manager to collect my commission check and tell him I was leaving, that I didn't feel this career path was for me. He got all snotty and threw me my check, then he showed me (after some sifting through the checks... probably for the highest dollar amount) and said "See this? you'll never see a check like this anywhere else". The nerve!! Since I felt this was a bridge I didn't mind burning, I asked him "how many hours did he bust his a*s for that check? and how many miles did he put on HIS OWN vehicle that isn't reimbursed? You're d**n right I won't be seeing a check like THAT anywhere else!" and I left. I think Kirby (as a manufacturer) would do MUCH better if they got rid of the distributor chain as it currently exists.... sell the d**n machine through major retailers like Sears, Macy's, Etc... of course nobody would pay $1800 for a vacuum... but if they cut out the dozen-layer distribution chain as currently exists, they wouldn't HAVE to charge that. Current distributors pay somewhere around $500 per unit... so sell them for $500 (or even $400 since the volume would be much higher) to the retailers... then they can retail them for around $600-650. finally, a question to all the current and former Kirby salespeople reading this... do they still say "SUPER" so many times that you want to vomit or punch them in the mouth? LOL that's super. I think I used to piss them off because I never said it... I'd say "great", "awesome", "cool".... anything but SUPER hehe

i'm a former employee of the kirby company, i have no qualms with the company they sell a good product for an outrageous price pretty much like any other "good" company, for instance how do u justify paying 100k+ for a mercedes when you can buy a similar car for half the price. sure it does the job its suposed to but than again so do other products on the market. what i find funny is the fact that every kirby employee that had positive things to say have repeated word for word the first day of training at kirby. "when u buy a vacum u want it to do the whole job not only half the job" "steam cleaning rots your carpet" bla bla bla. even funnier are the rival sales people who are trying to pawn off rainbows. having worked for electrolux, kirby, and rainbow i must admit the kirby is the best of the bunch and rainbow the worst. as to why a rainbow is a bad investment do the research yourself, unlike others i'm not here to sell a product. here is the straight story. my boss used to purchase kirbys for 600$ and sell them for 1800. i used to make 600$ commision per unit if i sold them at 1800$. so ya it is a rip off. all the "attatchments" in the demo do not come free with the machine, despite what the salesman tells you. remember nothing is free kirby is not a charity but a business and just like any other business its main goal is to make money. yes the "sell your familty a kirby" is true many people sell their first kirby to a family member or friend, but again its a business. yes some sales people are overly aggressive in selling the product, but you have to remember that they are simply trying to make a living and when your rent is due and your kids are starving you tend to get a little worried so yes may be they become pushy. kirby does not advertise door to door despite what all the sales people tell you. kirby sells vacums door to door. the reason they don't sell in stores is because nobody would spend 1800$ on a vacum, face it if i'm spending that much money i expect the kirby salesman to personally come to my house once a week and vacum for me, but thats just me. so lets recap, yes they are expensive, yes they are good quality, yes the bags and "dry shampoo" is not cheap either if i remember correctly bags used to cost somewhere along the lines of 30-40 $ and they get full quick despite the " its only because you just started to use a kirby and now its picking up the extra dirt your vacum left behind" line "this is only temporarry" (not so true unless the kirby definition of temporarry is differnt from webster's) but in the end if you can afford one buy one its a good investment. just like if you can afford a mercedes i'm pretty sure you're not going to opt out for that shiny new pinto even though ultimately they do the same job. (ok i understand the analogy may be somewhat stretching the point and yes i understand the difference between the 2 types of cars bla bla bla this is just to avoid people distorting the analogy and making dumbass coments later on) so to conclude with a kirby you get what you pay for. o ya haggle. you can get one for 900$ most times depends how new the salesman is or how desperate he is to make quota so that he can be going on a trip or win some kind of prize. i personally never lowered my price i worked for kirby 3 weeks first week i sold nothing but i had fun, you would be surpised what kind of interesting people you meet, second week i sold 3 kirbys for 1800$ a piece sure the people tried to haggle but i was thinking more along the lines that if i lowered the price i would not make my commision so why lower it, third week i didn't need money so i quit. its not a job for everyone but if you don't mind long hours for sometimes no pay its worth it eventually you will make money doin it.

Well after being with the Kirby Company for a while now I have to say that I find some of these comments to be very harsh considering I am only trying to make a living. Although I understand some of your frustrations because as with any other occupation most always there are employees who can be catergorized as bad seeds. My apologies to the few who feel like they were badgered by a salesman . it certainly wasn't me . I have never and will never twist an arm or break a neck to get a sale. As a child in my home I remember my MOm using Kirby, growing up with the wonderful benefits it provides, naturally I know first hand it is a great cleaner. My job is to just advertise the product . I can put it back in the box just as easily as I took it out. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I respect that but please don't throw the whole lot of us to the few guys who take advantage of whatever. You probably have seen them waiting your tables or not serving you I should say. These types of people exist outside of Kirby. I am proud of my job because I know that it is a great product. and that I work for a good distributor who would never advocate some of the techniques described above. Thank you for allowing me to stand on the soapbox for aqminute.

About 7 pm a Kirby sales person comes to the door, but does not identify himself as someone selling the Kirby, instead he says he is at my doorstep as a carpet cleaning company and wants to clean 2 rooms of my house free, and if I like the way they clean my carpet, I am to tell family and friends. He asked to come inside at take a look at my carpet, once inside he calls a buddy of his who shows up a little while later, with the Kirby, as they begin to set it up, I ask, are you vacuume salesmen or carpet cleaner, I hear this hmmm and haws for a couple seconds not getting a straight answers from these clowns. Finally, I realize they are here to sell me the Kirby, ok,, they lied from the get go, they got into my home with under false pretence, as the night drags on during the painful demonstration, its now 10 pm these jokers are at my house 3 hours later and cannot take no for an answer, as I tell them I will not buy today, I also say, I will not do business with a company that uses such, buy today or tough luck policy. I almost had to call the police to get them out of my home. The price went from 2000 to 900. But I told them no, this was the hardest high pressure sales I have ever seen. To correct this from happening again, ask "carpet cleaners" up front if they selling the Kirby, if your lucky enough to get a straight answer from them. Shut your door at once and bolt down your windows. The Kirby sales staff are bad news!

After an impressive, not-needed four-hour demonstration I agreed to buy a G6. The three salesmen had been polite and two of them were trainees. Being a car salesman at the time, I purposely avoided asking about the price until it came time to buy (a decision I had made even before they started their "show."). The senior representative told me I could "steal" the entire system for a low $1,800! I happily pulled out my checkbook and promptly wrote him a check for $900.00 including sales tax and handed it to him. His mouth dropped as he reluctantly accepted my offer ONLY after asking to use my phone at which time he proceeded to make a "pretend call" to his "boss." After a few Oscar-winning head nods and verbal assurances he hung up and said he'd make an "exception" and sell it to me for $1,000.00 plus tax. As I took my check back and thanked him for their time he spun around and accepted my offer. The two trainees then became "not-so-nice" and one of them quit then and there. Yeah, I still paid too much but I'm very happy with my vacuum after 3 years and those guys deserved to get some pay for their effort. Moral of the story: Bad salesmen don't mean bad vacuums!

I am new to the kirby company, but I will tell you what, it is the best company I have every worked for. I have just sat and read numerous people complaning about the high price. Let me ask everyone a question. Do you want a cheap product that does only 50% of the job it is supposed to, or do want to pay a little more a have the satifaction of knowing that the product you bought is going to do 100% of what it is supposed to? In life you get what you pay for. why do some people feel the need to buy shoes that cost $100.00+, when you can go over to payless shoe source and pay $20.00 for some that look similar? If your the type of person who appreciates quality then of course you would probably pay the $100.00+ assuming you know that the shoes are quality shoes. If you don't care about anything but the price then of course you would go to payless shoe source when they have their buy 1 get the other 1/2 off sale. In 2 months you'll do the same thing unless you never wore the d**n things, because you choose to be cheap. If you would of bought the $100.00+ shoes you probably wouldn't have to buy another pair (assuming you took care of them) for another year or two. I ask every person I do a demo for when I am comparing vacums, when you bought your vacum did you buy to pick up some of the dirt or all of the dirt? Everyone tells me all. So think about that. I have never been to a home and not been able to pull dirt out of the carpet after the homeowner just got done vacuming with theirs. When I enter a home, I always tell the people I am not here to sell you a machine. The truth is I don't sell them. If someone buys one it is because they sold themselves. I just show what the kirby can do and what is being left behind from what ever brand vacum they have. The kirby will out do any vacum. When we go door-to-door it is to advertise the kirby. Kirby don't advertise on t.v. or radio, or anything like that. We advertise by doing in home demos, because seeing is believing. If we believed every t.v. commerical that came on we would all have a lot of useless crap laying around the house. Bottom line if someone buys a kirby it's because they were impressed with it's performance and felt it was worth the money. So if you payed more than someone else then get over it, because obviously you were impressed and thought it was worth the price you paid. Don't be bitter because someelse got a better deal. That is just plan childish and you need to grow up!!!!

Most of my Kirby customers are upset about the price they paid after they learned more about filtration and pollution. ANY dry filter vacuum cleaner {bag or bagless} is unhealthy and by design cleaning efficiency. Unhealthy due to the bag contents stored, and the leaked back into the air. Lack of cleaning effiecency due to loss of air flow because the bag and or filters clog up. Folks, WATER is the answer. Wet dust cant fly, nor are there any holes in water to clog up. I have years of information about unhappy Kirby customers, but the most important bit of information is what should you be using and why. I sold Rainbow Vacuum Cleaners for 15 years because I believe in the product and have used it the entire time. I have always sold the best cleaning system available, and now there is one far superior to even the Rainbow. Its called the DELPHIN. German Engineered and brand new to the market here in the United States. I traded my personal Rainbow in and have switched companys. The Delphin is a much better product and more user friendly. For more information feel free to contact me @ Kn1ght@hotmail .com {note the "i" is a number "1" in Knight}

Okay people, We had a kirby sales man come to our house, he was a beginer. He had a partner with him, he was very un-profession, which we could excuse because he was a beginer. But he could have learned his practices speach before he came! He stuttered, he swayed and he rocked back and forth. Yes, I agree that we shouldn't base the company on 1 bad sale, but what if you get 3 other demos all the same way? A Rainbow vaccum sales woman had come to our house 3 days before, we decided to get the vaccum. When the Kirby came, they couln't pick up any dirt almost. They were here for 3 hours trying to pick up at least 1 full coffee filter. We had coffee filter lining our whole living room. It must have been embarrasing for them. We felt so bad for them. They left with a down cast face, and whole garbage bag full of filters. If you ask me the rainbow is much better, it's cheaper, has more uses, and they even replace it for a newer model for free, plus if some problem happens they'll replace it for free! I say buy the Rainbow, it's a much better deal than the Kirby!!!

I bought my kirby from my brother in-law who was a sales person for Kirby. Yes, I payed a rediculous price for it. But you know what, fifteen yeas later, that vacuum is still going strong. My mother as well purchased a Kirby the same time I did and hers is still running too. I am now looking into buying a G6 because they are self propelled, but this time, I'm going to buy a used Kirby. I see them all over the internet and in used shops for less that half of the new sales price. A used one is just as good as a new only much cheeper.

I bought my kirby from my brother in-law who was a sales person for Kirby. Yes, I payed a rediculous price for it. But you know what, fifteen yeas later, that vacuum is still going strong. My mother as well purchased a Kirby the same time I did and hers is still running too. I am now looking into buying a G6 because they are self propelled, but this time, I'm going to buy a used Kirby. I see them all over the internet and in used shops for less that half of the new sales price. A used one is just as good as a new only much cheeper.

I bought my kirby from my brother in-law who was a sales person for Kirby. Yes, I payed a rediculous price for it. But you know what, fifteen yeas later, that vacuum is still going strong. My mother as well purchased a Kirby the same time I did and hers is still running too. I am now looking into buying a G6 because they are self propelled, but this time, I'm going to buy a used Kirby. I see them all over the internet and in used shops for less that half of the new sales price. A used one is just as good as a new only much cheeper.

I bought my kirby from my brother in-law who was a sales person for Kirby. Yes, I payed a rediculous price for it. But you know what, fifteen yeas later, that vacuum is still going strong. My mother as well purchased a Kirby the same time I did and hers is still running too. I am now looking into buying a G6 because they are self propelled, but this time, I'm going to buy a used Kirby. I see them all over the internet and in used shops for less that half of the new sales price. A used one is just as good as a new only much cheeper.

i have just been employed by kirby 2 weeks ago,i was surprised on my training day i was the only one there, anyway they told me to get 10 names of family & friends in order for me to practice my demo's low & behold they tryed to get me to sell the machine to my friends and family which i thought was a bit not of the truth, but know they want me to go knocking door to door in order to get their sales. BEWARE THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

I don't belive some of you whiney people. Take any vacuum, run it over where another vacuum was just used, you will pull up some dirt. Take a third vacuum and it will pull up more dirt. Is Kirby expensive? Yes. Is Kirby overpriced? Yes. Are some salesmen dishonest? Yes, just like some people in any line of work. Does the Kirby satisfy my wife? Does my wife feel her carpets and floors are cleaner? Yes and Yes. You see I have a happy home. If it makes my wifes life easier then Im all for it.

I have been working for the Kirby Company for almost 2 years now and i get so sick of everyone complaining about how much they pay for these systems.First, if you know where you can buy a Kirby system for $300.00 let my distributer know, because I know first hand he pays more than that. We price our systems at $1,570.00 + tax. The lifetime rebiuld warranty cost customers $175.00 to get there machine rebiult which is much cheaper than buying a whole new system. There also is no " unwritten codes" in the Kirby business. I'll admit that the classified ad is misleading because it does not say Kirby in it, but if you don't know what it is, then don't respond to it. We sell probably 70% of ours Kirbys under $1000.00. This company is like any other sales company out there. Ther is always alot of mark-up because they need room to move around. If you were to sell cars for a living, you would realize that some people pay sticker price and some want a better deal. I've had days where I sell one for $800.00 and turn around and sell the next one for $1400.00, it just depends on the customer. Being a salesman is nothing but a big game. I'm out trying to make as much money as possible, at the sametime, the customer is trying to pay as little as possible. I gaurantee if I switched places with any of you people for 1 day you would all understand what it is like to talk somebody out of as much money as possible so you can make as much as possible. Sales is like any other job in this world if you think about it. If you worked in a factory you want payed the most you are worth. You ask for a raise so you get more money, but it comes out of the owner pocket. We do the samething as every other person in this world, including the government. So if you want to complain about how much money we make off each sale and how much you lose, then don't get mad when your boss refuses to give you a raise. Everybody's #1 priority in life is to get rich, or get as much money as possible. You're not gonna go to work and want to get paid $10.00/hr when you know you can be making $20.00/hr. We're not gonaa sell a system for $800.00 if we can sell it for $1,400.00. That is just the way this world is. Kirby does recruit 52 weeks a year. They do this because the business grows 52 weeks a year. There are always positions to fill and emplyees needed for them. Don't b***h about job opportunities, because there aren't that many jobs around anymore. Just for the record, how do you figure distirbuters make $1,000.00 off every sale, when you figure in buying machines,paying dealer profit,office fees, taxes, electricity, phone bills, and appointment setters. They pocket only about $200.00 per sale. Also, as far as the demo being fraudulent, that would mean the dirt would be coming from thin air. We don't come in and dump dirt on the carpet, and we're not God so we can't create the dirt. The only other place to come from is....... ding ding ding, you guessed it, FROM THE CARPET!!!!! There seems to be an equal amount of dirt on every pad because there is an equal amount of dirt acrossed the carpet. One spot isn't gonna be cleaner than the other unless it is an area that receives no traffic. We don't use the bag because how effective is the dirt as a selling point if you can't see it? That would be pointless and stupid. Plus, Kirby bags aren't expensive but if you were to do 3 demos a day and in order to make the dirt effective use 3 bags per demo, then it does get expensive considering that we would use 9 bags/day, 6 days/week. Last but not least, if I came into your house and you said you used to work for Kirby, I wouldn't just assume you aren't going to buy one, that would actually make my job even easier knowing you already know some about the machine. So, for everyone who complains about these systems being "High Priced" DON'T BUY THE d**n THING IF YOU KNOW YOU'RE GONNA GET ON THE INTERNET AND WHINE ABOUT HOW YOU PAID TOO MUCH FOR THE KIRBY!!! We didn't force you to sign you picked up the pin and you put your "John Hancock" on the paper, not us!!!

When the little kirby man knocks on your door and forces his way into your house he will want to show you how crappy YOUR vacuum is compared to a kirby. Let him clean your house, but don't buy the BS. He will hook up a demo attachment, and suck all kinds of dirt out of your house, leaving it lying everywhere on his little coffee filter pads. Notice how there seems to be a similar amount of dirt on each pad? Why can't they just fill up a vacuum bag and leave it on your couch? Because it wouldnt work. Once the dirt covers the filter in the demo attachment, or the lining of your kirby bag, the suction and all of that amazing kirby power is gone. So, unless you plan on replacing your bag after every pass. Tell the little kirby man the you yourself were formerly employed by kirby, that's the only definite way to get the dirtbag out of your house.

I work for Kirby in Sydney, Australia. I found that Kirby is usally a fine company to deal with. I have known of over 200 sales reps. and only about 5 of them were bad for the company. With selling the units, I think they are a little over priced. As for the lady who worked for Kirby... The reason you hate it so much is your not prepared to work for the company. There are 3 types of reps. 1. Don't make it through training. 2. Don't make it past 2 months 3. Make a career out of it. I am 3 and I don't even work that hard, my hours are long 9am - 7 pm but I make around A$ 1500 - 2000 per week. When I first started I made around A$200 for about 3 months. It's like any job, you start of low, and get more as you get better, and more experienced. With Kirby and the REST of direct sales, its a high turn over industry, and there are no victims, the law is on the consumers side, so stop complaining.

I recently purchased a Kirby G6 vacuum cleaner. I didn't pay the 'list price' of $2000, but it was not cheap. I know the sales business, and have sold most everything there is to sell door to door. Perhaps some distributors are abusing the recruits and overcharging. That is an individual game plan, as it is in all sales areas. The reason I purchased the vacuum was the demonstration. Using the coffee filter attachment to show the dirt picked up leaves no room for trickery. We had been using an Oreck for years, because it is widely known as one of the top end vacuums. Watching the Kirby pull massive amounts of crud out of the carpet after a thorough go with the Orek was an eye-opener. The power assist system is remarkable, too. No switches, it senses what direction you want to go, and how fast. An ingenious design on the front whees, too. They eliminated unreliable caster wheels, and it is still easily turned. The bottom line is, I feel more comfortable on the carpet, knowing I am not wallowing in pet hair, dirt and God knows what else. My mattress is no longer full of skin cells and bugs, the drapes and upholstery are cleaner than ever before, and pulling dust and crud from behind and under the appliances is now quick and easy. No, the Kirby is not cheap, but cars, jewelry and shoes cost many times their production costs, also. Are they overcharging? Perhaps not!

In reading all the nasty letters written to belittle and discredit a persons character, I must say how sad it is. People are so quick in this day and time to judge and critize another. The old saying ones bad apple turns the whole bunch bad maybe true for apples, but come on, not every one in life that sells Kirby are crooks. My husband just got in a company that the owner is a good moral christian man. They don't pressure, lie or try to cheat anyone. Doesn't matter what line of work you are in, you want to suceed in your business. If you were buying a car you would want the best for your money, so why should a vacum cleaner be any different. We have had several and they are the best built and service all the needs of any family. Not only do you have a vacum, but you have a rug shampooer, hardwood floor cleaner, car shampooer, pet cleaner, which works great for all that loose hair. Plus many many many more uses. So before you judge a person or item, you might want to look close at your self and you past motives in life, before you defile someone else.

Why are you mad at the Kirby company? You should be mad at your wife for buying one at such a price. They are a good vacuum and I think that they are resonably priced. I work for the Kirby Co. in Moline, Illinois and they have a very good reputation. Our sales Reps are willing to negotiate prices and I fell that just becuase one Rep was rude, that all the companies should NOT have that same reputation. Also, I don't know if you know this but the kirby picks up a considerable amount of dirt that no other vacuum picks up. And, if you choose to steam clean your carpet I wouldn't. The reason for that is, the new Kirby G6 layes a dry-foam down that does not saturate the carpet so, there is less water to pick up.I would get a G6 if you are into cleaning your carpet all the time. It's a vacuum and a shampooer in 1. Steam cleaning, on the other hand RUINS your carpet. It ruins it because it makes the carpet so wet that it turns the dirt under your carpet into mud. Also, it will mold the padding. So if I were you, I would go back to school learn to type, and then have some sense about what you are trying to say.

I am an independant sales agent for the Kirby Compnay. I am sorry for your bad experience. Kirby itself is a great company with a good product, but what selld the product is the salesman, who id trained by the manager. From what I have read you had a bad salesman who probably is not working for the company any longer. That,in part, is the fault of who trained him, the manager. As a friendly and caring salesperson, I am truly sorry. I hope in the future you will think of Kirby as your choice of vaccum cleaner again.

If that isn't a sales pitch. I used to work for Kirby for about 7 years. I also own a G6, but I paid $500.00 for the complete package including the hose & attachments, and the shampooer. Kirby distributors pay a little over $300.00 for the complete system. If you pay more than $500.00, you paid too much. Yes they have a lifetime rebuild agreement, but it is not cheap to have the rebuild done, it's not free. Kirby distributors have an unwritten code that says don't sell for under $1000.00. Some of them don't follow this code and are called whores. The company pressures distributors and even threatens to cancel their franchise if they don't follow the rules (unwritten of course). Kirby vacuums are a great product, but way, way over-priced. Their #1 priority is to get rich. They don't give a d**n about you, or your family, or your allergies. And as far as the scam that the price they offer you is only good for today, Bullshit. They want every sale they can get, today , tomorrow, or next week, the price is the same. If the public refused to pay more than $500.00 per unit, they would eventually have to offer their product at a reasonable price, instead of taking advantage of an unsuspecting, possibly uneducated consumer. Another scam they use to make money is their constant recruiting. Some distributors brag that they recruit 52 weeks a year. This is the biggest scam of all. They place blind ads, so you don't know what the job is about. They put you through hours of hype about how you are going to get rich, and finally a cou[ple days into your traing, they spring it on you. Your going to sell vacuums door-todoor, or by pre-set appointments. What's the real deal here? After your 3 or 4 days of unpaid training, they have you sign a dealer agreement stating that you are guaranteed a certain dollar amount, based on you doing so many demonstrations, usually 50 in a month. They offer this because they know you will not make the quota. It's almost impossible for a new person to achieve this. If you do make it, they keep track of the demos you do, and then the tell you why some of your demos don't qualify, so they aren't obligated to pay you. The true goal they have in mind when hiring you, is to get you to do practice demos for you friends, relatives, and neighbors. Then they pressure your family into buying at a high price too help you out. So now your mom buys one to help you. Aunt Mary buys one and the lady down the street buys one. Two weeks later when you haven't made anymore sales, you quit. they pay you $50 to $150 for each sale and pocket $1000++ on each sale themselves. So they hired 40 people, 15 made it through training, 8 of them stay the first week, 5 the next week and within 2 months, everyone has quit. But, they had 20 sales from the group you were in, or about $20,000.00 in profits. Some weeks are better than others, but they probably make at least $5000.00 a week off of the families of their victims. Don't be a victim. $500, no more with the attachment and shampooer. Stop the insanity

I recently bought a Kirby G6 vacuum cleaner and did not experience any of the problems people have listed here. The salesman was honest, upfront, and even returned the next day to bring me additional shampoo and bags. As far as the price is concerned (I paid $1200), it is worth it to me. I have white carpet on two stories and hardwood on the other. I also have 5 kids, a dog, a cat, and allergies. Prior to the kirby, I bought 3 vacuum cleaners and 2 shampooers in 2 years, for a total of $850.00. Since the Kirby has a lifetime warranty, in my case the cost (even had I paid $1800) was worth it. On a side note, my allergies are much better, I didn't have to pay $1,200.00 to have my hardwood floors buffed and waxed, and saved the $700.00 I was going to spend replacing the carpet in the family room because of serious wear (which is much better now). I feel bad for all of the people who have had problems but I think that is the exception, not the rule.