Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

How about another story about the friendly folks at Kirby vacuums? After work, my wife tells me that she is beyond frustrated because Kirby reps stole 3 hours of her life.  The reps came to the door and told her they were from Kirby.  The wife informed them that she had no money and would not be purchasing a vacuum until her current one broke down.  The reps told her they understood and asked if they could clean just one section of carpet so they could get paid for the demonstration.  [At the end of the day the wife does not believe that they get paid for demonstrations at all.]  After 30 minutes she told the reps that she was not buying a Kirby and that they should go sell to a neighbor who has money. Two and one half hours later, after several lies like, "I just need 15 minutes so I can clean xyz" the reps left after a hard sell. Thankfully the wife did not put any money toward them.  She was mislead to believe that she was going to waste 30 minutes of her life to help a man get credit for a demonstration.  In truth she wasted 3 hours so she could be lied to and hard sold.   Her recommendation is that unless you are lonely  - don't let a Kirby salesman into your home. Do Kirby reps get paid for demonstrations or just a commission on sales?

Frankly, I would not have let them in the house.  There's being nice and then there's being a "door matt" where people will walk all over you.  I called Kirby for a demonstration and had a great time.  The distributor was a really nice guy and did not pull and punches.   He always says to call him if I have any questions.  I have contacted Kirby with questions and they have been very pleasant and helpful.

The only way to buy a Kirby is used. Nice used Kirbys sell for a hundred and fifty to five hundred max for a squeaky clean professionally refurbished one while new ones sell for more than two grand. Let the first owner take the depreciation. Buy it used and see if you even like it. They are great if you have lots of big rooms and long halls with wall to wall carpet. They deep clean and groom the carpet nice. But for hard floors and especially any kind of dusting or stairs nearly any other brand of vacuum is a better choice. I have picked up decent running Kirbys at thrift stores for $20 and cleaned them up myself. It's silly to let a sales person talk you out of more than two large like they do. The machines simply aren't worth that kind of money. No vacuum is.