Beware of Kirby Sales Reps visiting your Neighborhood (Plano, McKinney: how much, house) - Dallas - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

Robzherenow · 11-18-2010, 09:37 PM

Watch out for Kirby Vacuum cleaners sales reps visiting your neighborhood- especially in the Plano area.

They send a girl knocking on doors offering to steam clean a room in your house for free. The girl looks harmless and says that they are doing it so that you would be kind enough to refer them business.

Note: It is illeagle to solicit in most neighborhoods without a permit and so you should not even be letting them in the house.

One of my neighbors actually let them into their house, and they would not leave until you buy their $3000 vacuum cleaners. They stayed almost two hours, and eventually got very nasty and verbally abusive. The neighbor had two small children at home and these thugs seemed like they were going to cause trouble. Thus the neighbor called the police and these "salespeople" ran out the door and sped away.

The police came and said that they received numerous reports about them, and have been looking for them all evening.

So please be aware of these individuals. They have been known to be very abusive and possibly dangerous.
So if someone rings your doorbell offering this type of service, call the police right away.Do not let them into your house.

Vanskills · 11-20-2010, 02:21 AM

I sold kirbys when i went to college.

Its a good company with a great product.

I wouldnt blame one bad salesman on kirby.

jhilde101 · 11-20-2010, 11:27 AM

I don't know what I would do if someone like this would not leave my house after I have asked them to??
Is it legal to use force?

Vanskills · 11-20-2010, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhilde101

I don't know what I would do if someone like this would not leave my house after I have asked them to??
Is it legal to use force?

Not unless your life was in danger.

You let them in, they didnt break in.

You cant just kill someone you let in your house unless your in real danger, than you would have to prove it.

You would probably end up in prison

jhilde101 · 11-20-2010, 01:24 PM

I would not kill, just wondering how much "force" I could use, but thankfully from the original post, I won't let anyone selling Kirbys into my home.

Tim_Barton · 11-20-2010, 08:18 PM

about 7-years ago I had this happen. Of course when the reps from kirby came over, they used the same tactics as mentioned by the OP here.

The guys that came and demonstrated were very polite and was really proud if there product.

At 1st they were trying to sell it to me for over $3K, then it went to $2K and then I pulled one of the 2 reps away from the other (which he was the cooler guy) and asked him no BS and how much are these units worth. He told me and I got it for $1200.00.
To this day, seven plus years later I still use my Kirby and never once has this unit broke down. Most of my house now is tile and wooden floors, but it still cleans those products with the accessories that was provided with my Kirby.

Sorry that your neighbor had that issue and was escalated into trouble. This is where my glock comes out if I was in that type of situation.

Robzherenow · 11-20-2010, 10:24 PM

My neighbor did say that the Kirby cleaner is excellent and perhaps worth the $900 they were asking for it. Its just that their entire demonstration seemed staged. He felt like a victim in his own house especially when the final guy came in to "help pack up" the unites and stated to verbally abuse him.

There actually seems to be a lot of complaints about the marketing company that Kirby uses to sell their cleaners (Consumer complaints about Kirby Vacuum Cleaners In-Home Demonstration )

In any case, its best to be safe and not let anyone that you dont know in your house these days.

Johnhw2 · 01-03-2013, 07:42 AM

I had a Kirby it was a good machine but not worth anywhere near $1200 or $900 imho. Consumer reports happens to agree with me and shows one rated which is priced at $1350.

OP thanks for the heads up, I do not let cold call sales people in my house or on my property and some are very agressive but in the end finally understand a no... when I want a vacuum cleaner is when I will buy one not when some sales team shows up at random in my neighborhood. I am not very helpful to any cold call sales person for the same reason.... prefer not to buy from a stranger no matter the product

ETex2 · 01-03-2013, 07:50 AM

Kirby has a notorious history with it's marketing strategy. I think they were one of the companies that gave door to door salesmen a bad name. Too bad, since it's a well made product.

MckinneyOwnr · 01-03-2013, 08:50 AM

This happened to us in McKinney about a week ago. A fairly large black guy came to the door and rang the bell. I was up in my office, my wife went to answer the door. Started doing his routine, my wife said no, she's happy with her Dyson, etc. At that point, he got pushier and I could hear the entire conversation. So I got up and started walking towards the balcony to where I could see the front door.

Before I got there, Cody (our 90lb Golden Retriever) starts barking loud. By the time I got to the balcony, the guy had backed off and my wife was closing the door. Apparently he had tried to push his way in, Cody saw it, and when the door opened enough so that he could see it was a black man, started growling and barking his head off. Salesman turned tail and left.