I'm sure this topic has been touched on before with the various discussions on the best (& worst) vacuum cleaners out there, but we had a Kirby salesperson in our home on Thursday evening for just over 2 1/2 hours - just what I needed after working all day. Once I knew it was Kirby I told DH that we were definately not buying one, however it was DH who had been at home alone last Sunday when the saleperson came calling & wanting to visit again for a free carpet shampoo when both of us at home.
I know that the Kirby sales pople are encouraged to be pushy & that they are paid only on a commission basis on cleaners sold, but he was bordering on being rude &very nosey about where I worked & for whom. Also sharing details of other customers who had had displays done/ purchased a cleaner ... I wonder if they knew their names would be used in trying to make another sale.
Anyway this is really just a warning to those not realising the length of time required for a display/sales patter etc plus the house reorganisation required - despite both of us here requesting a small area be cleaned near our fireplace (another whole story - where the cat insits on finishing off the night kill) the salesman was very impressed with a huge rug under our dining room table & cleaned only that. Dining room furniture all moved away, vacuum cleaner & boxes spread all over the floor, piles of rice & dust to test the suction/vibration power of the Kirby & the black cloths spread everywhere .. what a shambles!
But I did start to get really worried when I saw the colour & tufts of rug on the famous cloths (26 cloths in all) spread over the floor "proving" how useless our existing Miele cleaner and my housekeeping skills are. Fortunately DH drew the line at him demonstrating the benefits on cleaing our bed's mattress !!
Lyn

Hi Lynn,
They called here once when I was away and wanted to demostrate the cleaner my DH said yes, they then turned around and charged him $20 for cleaning the only carpet we had that was in the lounge, I was annoyed to say the least when i found out, my DH still had the card so I rang the agent and gave him a righr bolicking and demanded my money back as thr charge was not explained to DH before consenting to the demo.
As it was he only did a piece about a metre square on the carpet.
Was not impressed.
Kay D

We got sucked (no pun intended!) into the Kirby demo too but have to say that was bordering on deciding to buy one when the person showed us what he got out of our (not very old) mattress!! Diisgusssting. Fortunately, reason prevailed and we didn't get one (husband quite liked the wee headlight on it though)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2007 09:21AM by TraceyA.

I have sat through Kirby demonstrations twice. I liked the machine but the price was outrageous. The first time I couldnt afford one but the second time I was seriously considering buying one.

I was about to buy it when my husband found this site [www.thevacuumheadquarters.com] that walked me through the sales process. The sales guy was trying to charge me double what other people had paid!! Needless to say I didnt buy it and am still using my old oreck.

Congratulations on not buying one. May I recommend Miele vacuum cleaners, when you are considering replacing your current one. Here are lots of previous threads about vacuum cleaners and people's recommendations, etc, in case its any help:

[www.foodlovers.co.nz]

[www.foodlovers.co.nz]

[www.foodlovers.co.nz]

[www.foodlovers.co.nz]

[www.foodlovers.co.nz]

isn't it funny the association of things... I had an extremely sleepless night, and I can't remember why or how, but I started thinking about Kirby vacuum cleaners and how years ago we had a presentation and I was thanking my lucky (sleepless) stars that I never went ahead with it. Why the heck I was thinking of vacumm cleaners let alone this experience with Kirby I have absolutely no idea.
Then when I looked at FL this morning,t his link re Kirby was here

(I shall say in a very serious hushed voice.. believe it .. or not)

but that is weird!!!