Team One Promotions / Kirby Vacuum review: Sales scam! 26

I agree that the people for team one promotions for kirby are high pressure, rude salesmen. They showed up to my house around 8pm asking if they could clean one room in my house. I felt bad for the girls who were knocking door to door because it was freezing outside, so I agreed to let them in. Well they vacuumed and left there filter things all over, took the sheets off my daughters bed, and wouldnt leave when i hinted NO. My 4 year old even went and unplugged the vacuum and said to leave. She had preschool the next day and wanted to go to bed. They didnt end up leaving until after 10...way past her bedtime. She ended falling asleep on the couch. But my husband had some fun them...the price was over $2000 for the system..and he had been reading on the internet about kirby as I was talking to them, and found out no one should pay over $600 for one, as you could find someone to sell you one for that price...after shopping around of course. I didnt think they would lower the price so much...but the final price we got them down to was $665 cash. So the internet was right. I am just amazed at what people pay for them! We had them thinking we going to buy, and then turned down the final offer, which i suppose is pretty reasonable. I guess thats what they get for keeping my daughter up way past her bedtime. And on top of that, leaving dirt all over my stairs while I am 8 1/2 months pregnant. Like I really feel like vacuuming the stairs, especially when I thought cleaning an area of my house was a huge favor, but turned out to be really dumb on my part.

3-14-08

I suppose it depends on the time of day and the personalities of the persons involved but we had Team 1 promotions stop by our residence yesterday. A nice young lady stopped by and handed my husband a paper offering to clean the carpet in one room, it sounded good to me, how often do you get your carpet cleaned for free. The young man who came by to do the cleaning was clean cut and well mannered, though he did have a salesmans gift for gab. I wasn't really in the market for a new vacuum, but what the heck I'm getting my carpet cleaned for free (unless you count the little dab of water he used). I was impressed by the vacuum, it was much better than either of the ones I had used in the past, but then I'm easy to please. Since we had cleaned the carpet with our Hoover shampooer last week I didn't expect a lot of dirt, but having and indoor cat and dog it doesn't take long to mess up a carpet. Our old dog does have accidents of the wet kind and the cat does his bit of upchucking for attention. As I said, we had just cleaned the carpet a week earlier but I really wasn't happy with the results. This young man with this Kirby Vacuum got out several spots the dog had nailed all the cats stains and a spot of floral clay we had been working on forever. I did tell him I wasn't in the market and really didn't intend to get another vacuum but this machine did such a good job, all the salesman had to do was operate the vacuum it sold itself. Now, he did have a few untruths in some of the things he said, such as Kirby having a lifetime warranty, which no one in their right mind would believe anyway. But as I said the machine impressed me and that is why I bought it, and not anywhere near what the joke of the asking price was.

I used to work with Team One promotions and I recall some rather unfavorable things about them. While the Vacuum cleaner is a good machine, some of their sales tactics leave something to be wanted in the tact and etiquette department. One thing that really turned me off of Kirby was the fact that many nights we wouldn't get back to the office till 1:00 am or 2:00 am. The thing that really made me leave was the gender discrimination. I wished to be a dealer and actually go into the houses to seel the vacuum but there was a prevailing belief that males are dealers and females are canvassers. The first week there, the team leaders refused to put me in any houses and had me going door to door to set up appointments. I finally rose a big enough stink so they'd let me go into houses to do demonstrations. After that they purposefully would either put me in houses in which they knew that the person living there only wanted their carpet cleaned and had no intention of buying the machine, or they'd send me into a house with a newer dealer (always a male) for the newer dealer to be trained thus forcing me to split the commision. This was done purposefully (as I found out later) to dissuade me from being a dealer and to try to get me to canvass. I worked 14 hour days 6 days a week for 3 weeks and only made 85 dollars because of the blatant gender discrimination that was practiced by their team leaders. Kirby was recently allowed to clean the carpet at my house by my roomate. I actually knew the guy who came in to try and close the deal. He works at a different kirby office that is based out of a near-by town but used to work at Team One and the way that the office he currently works out of is run quite differently. They don't keep their dealers out till all hours of the night, they don't use annoying or decieving tactics in their demonstrations, and they don't discriminate due to the gender of their employees. If I had reliable transportation, I would seriously consider working for the office he is working for now and I would gladly make the commute.

I have been in vacuum sales for over thirty years. At present I am manageing a small vacuum shop in New Mexico. The tricks that kirby salesman use are the same ones that were used when I was a child. TEST SWATCH OF DIRT ON THE FLOOR . TEST SWATCH OF DEAD SKIN ON THE MATTRESS. PICK UP A BOWLING BALL WITH THE VAC . ETC .ETC. ETC. ... I COULD TELL NIGHTMARE STORIES ABOUT KIRBY SALESMEN UNTIL THE COWS COME HOME AND PEOPLE WILL STILL BE FALLING FOR THEM EVENTHOUGH THEY HAVE HEARD ALL THE STORIES. GET SMART PEOPLE : WHEN THE KIRBY SALES MAN OR WOMAN IS AT THE DOOR THE ANSWER IS NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! SLAM THE DOOR AND LOCK IT! YOU WILL BE A BETTER PERSON FOR IT ... AND ONELESS NIGHTMARE STORY TO TELL ABOUT THE DREADED KIRBY SALESMEN.

my husband currently is a sales rep they so call them but i dont call him that hes a door to door guy...i honestly hate the price of the vacum and i hate the fact that they keep them out to all hours of the night its like these people dont have lives lets just get home at 3 am you know and we were in the navy and for this its not worth it you dont get paid hourly for the hours that are put in this and the pay checks are some what reasonable but if you add it up your still making the same a minum wage or how they go out all day and dont sell nothing its a wasteful day thats not getting paid for i think this whole industry is a complete rip off and i hate it with all my guts!

I HATE THE KIRBY COMPANY! I USED TO WORK FOR THEM. FIRST OF ALL THEY TRAIN YOU FOR 6 DAYS AND THEY DON'T PAY ###! THEY TRAIN YOU TO BE A REP (WHICH DEMONSTRATES THE KIRBY TO CUSTOMERS) AFTER BEING TRAINED THEY MAKE YOU GO DOOR TO DOOR AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOODS ALL DAY LONG AND IF YOU DONT MAKE APPOINTMENTS (AND IF YOU DO BUT HTE MACHINE DOESNT GET SOLD) THE COMPANY WILL NOT PAY YOU AT ALL. THIS COMPANY IS GENDER BIAS . THEY MAKE MOST OF THE GIRLS GO DOOR TO DOOR AND GUYS DO THE DEMOS. YOU ONLY GET PAIDED IF YOU SELL THE MACHINE ! ###ING ### THEY MAKE PEOPLE WORK LIKE SLAVES!

I sold Kirby in Australia for 3 years and helped a lot of people keep their carpets and mattresses clean. The machine sells itself and I never needed to pressure anyone into buying. The Kirby is a machine like no other and if you have carpet in your house, it will never be clean unless you use a Kirby on it.

Sure there's been lot of head salesmen trying all sorts of things to get a sale. Has nothing to do with the product. My advice for anyone that owns a mattress, lounge and particularly carpet in their house is to go and buy a secondhand Kirby. The 10 year old machines G4, G5's work just as fine as brand new ones and you can get them for a few hundred bucks. No need to spend over 4k for new one. I still own the G4 and it rocks just as it did back in '97.

"...I got a Kirby and it's the best!
...it's so good it ###s the rest!"

Business is not family.

In Business the word "promise" is as good as bucket of piss. Any company that "promises" anything is scamming you from the moment you stepped into their offices. They are already doing it by robbing you of your time, which you could put to better use by looking at a real job. They scam you of your trust, by promising you the world and showing you smoke and mirrors and fake checks. They rob you of your dignity, and force you to accept any sort of verbal abuse. They rob you of your principles, by forcing you to go against everything you believe in. They make you take money from people who can't afford to pay for their necessities. They make you their hitman, their mercenary, their pawn and their scapegoat. The moment you sign the contract and your soul away, you become the SALESMAN. You are to blame from now on. You BECOME the criminal. You BECOME the guy who just robbed a family of a big chunk of their income to pay for a stupid vacuum cleaner.

The question is: Do you want to be a honest person... or do you want to be a criminal? And if you want to be a dumb criminal who doesn't even get to KEEP the money he steals?

Be smart... get a REAL job. The economy is bad enough without these clowns running free.

I to have went through this just last week. I decided the next morning that he had scammed me so I called and canceled my credit card, send the cancellation back express mail overnight. They called me later that morning to tell me my credit card was declined and I told them that I cancelled it OT come pick up their vacuum. The girl that set the appointment with me returned at 5pm and asked what was going on. I told her I did not want it, here is a copy of the cancellation notice and they would also get one in the mail in the morning to take it and get off my property. She continued to talk and wanted to offer me a better price. I told her No, they were out scamming people and I had the proof. The salesman had left 6 or 7 of the green sheets that they write on, the one that has the price and they put the payments and keep lowering the price on. We'll these were ones that they had used in other homes to try and scam other people with but he threw them away at my home and I picked them out of the garbage. She said she did not know what I was talking about but the other girl that was with her wanted to see them and I said no, shut and locked my door. The girls started knocking at my door and even tried to open my door. I called the police at this time! The next thing I know I now have three girls pounding on my door and one started looking through my kitchen window. I called the police again and told them to hurry. The police arrived and talked to them then to me, I explained to him that I had done everything I was suppose to to cancel the sale and they had the vac in their SUV already which they did confirm but they wanted the green advertising sheets that the salesman had thrown away in my garbage. I said no that it was my property since he threw them away. The police also noted in their report that the girls confirmed they had picked up their vac. The advertising papers that were left in my garbage also had values listed on them of the property that was in the homes of the customers they had visited. We had all our locks changed in our home. This type of action should be illegal and something really needs to be done about it. I am so embarrassed about the ordeal but have told everyone I know and even don't know so they don't get caught up in this scam. It's a shame that Kirby has to do their business this way, to lie, deceive and pressure people to get in their home to make sale. It's very sad that this company has to hire people like this to sell theri vacuum. The Company needs to take responsibility for the distributors and their employees!

Do Not get a Kirby! I purchased my Kirby on Jan 10, 08 by a high pressure salesman. The next day I canceled after deciding the purchase was a bad idea. It was a good thing I read the fine print because the salesman kept saying that I had ten days to cancel, when in fact, I had only three days. After canceling they said they would refund my money and return my old vaccuum cleaner the following week. After not showing up at all on their schedule day for my refund, I called them. They said they were sorry and the guy that returns vaccuum cleaners sometimes runs late. I rescheduled and he showed up only about a half hour late the following week. YAY! I recieved my refund and I returned the Kirby. Turns out, he didn't have my vaccuum cleaner. He just wanted me to pick a different one from out of the back of his truck...uuuhhh no. So I told him that I would fax him a pic of my vaccuum so he could bring the right one. After about a week I didn't hear anything from them so I called. Jerry said that they were waiting for the "guy" (whoever that was) to return it. Why did someone already have my vaccuum when I canceled the day after I got the Kirby? Who knows. He said he would return my call by the end of the week...So almost 3 weeks later I called them back after not hearing from them. JERRY said that they could not locate my vaccuum and would bring my another instead. UHHHH WTF! I thought that they knew where the vaccum was and was waiting on the "guy" to return it! He said they dont make my vaccum anymore and haven't for 5 years. (even though i bought mine 6 months ago).. Today is March 4th and I am still waiting on my vaccum... DON'T BUY FROM TEAM ONE PROMOTIONS IN TOPEKA KS!

ANYONE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WHO HAS BEEN BENT OVER BY KIRBY'S 3 DAY RETURN POLICY AND WOULD LIKE RETRIBUTION, EMAIL ME AT IHATEKIRBY@GMAIL.COM. I AM GOING TO TRY AND ORGANIZE A PROTEST TO TAKE THIS SALES OFFICE DOWN!

My wife and I were told that our new Kirby guy in town was needing to clean some houses for free to qualify for some certificate. We were blatently told there was no sales pitch at all. Then Brandt Lindgren-the sales rep showed up. He didn't clean our carpets but rather gave a 1 hour "demonstration". After telling him I felt duped he said how else was he supposed to get into my house. I told him I would never do business with him and he told me I was a horrible Father for letting my kid roll around in filth. He also told me he wouldn't be surprised if I went to the hospital due to asthma attacks. I was very level headed and explained that we could not afford the vaccuum. Plus I was very put off by his demeanor and lack of honesty. He continued to berrate me and tried to show me how good the vaccuum was. After 30 minutes I had to tell him to leave or I was calling the police! He left while making insults to me. Unbelievable! He told me I was trying to scam him for a free carpet cleaning. I told him that is what was promised. All told it was 2 hours of my wasted time, no clean carpets and humiliation! I will never buy a Kirby because of Brandt Lindgren. I hope others read this before doing anything on an impulse or a high pressure sales tactic!

Kirby ruined my girlfriends $5000 silk rug. Claimed that there shampoo cleaning was the best to clean any rug, even silk rugs. So I bought the vacuum the rug looked clean at first, but as the rug dried I could see that the black ink in the rug had spread every where in the lighter ink stains. They ruined my lady's silk rug.
I'm looking to sue and get my money back.
Kirby is a good vacuum, but there sales reps that claim they are know it all's in the carpet cleaning business ruined a $5000 silk rug!
Don't let these people in to your home. They get you to believe that you are getting a free service to clean your rug, or carpets. Next thing you know they are hitting you up to buy an over priced vacuum that cost under $200 to build, thats a 1800% mark up!
In the process a $5000 rug with sentimental value is ruined!

Anyone who doesn't know Kirby = A$$ Rape, needs to get out more.

MER

I was visited by a young lady telling me they were in a contest to win a cruise curtesy of the Kirby Vacuum Company. She said she didn't want any money but if I would let this young man demonstrate the vacuum then they would get credit towards their trip. They already has 6 names on the list and I would be the 7th. It sounded OK, and since I was in the process of moving into a new apartment, and was dog tired, I thought I could rest while he did a little demonstration. He told me he was a GI and was going to get into our local university this next semester. (Sounded logical) His girl friend didn't want him to continue in the military as a career. He was from Houston and was Hispanic with a good command of the English language. Very polite, jovial and
pleasant. He did the normal routine of spot cleaning, tearing up my bed. I had, that very day, purchased a new Eureka in a lime green color with a round handle. He would give me double the price I paid for the Eureka. The listed price was $3417., which I thought it was terribly high. Then he showed me the self-propelled feature - and I was sold. At my age I have not vacuumed for several years. The price ended up as $2800.something with payments on a 3 year program. He called someone (?) and got credit approval for me to purchase it. I signed at least 3 or 4 pieces of paper, with 3 copies each. I got the yellow copy and he kept the original and the pink copy. I put no money down but he took my new Eureka as a down payment. His "boss" came in and co-signed the papers and they left, leaving the Kirby vacuum with me. I knew the yellow copies of the papers I had signed were on the kitchen table - and to this date, Nov. 9, 2009, I have not located those papers. A few minutes after they left the first girl came in to thank me for helping them go on this cruise. I was at the sink when she came in quietly, surprising me with the thank you. If she took the papers with her she was very slick about it. They have my Social Security number. They wanted me to pay by check on the 15th of each month, sending the check to the office in Topeka.
I haven't tried the vacuum since they left and I am assuming it does work as he had it running for nearly an hour. They were here from 4:15 until 6:30 p.m. on November 1, 2009.
I do not know either of the names of the demonstrator or boss. At my age I don't remember very good. I just figured the names would be on my copy of the receipt.
If the 15th goes my and I have not paid a payment, they can come back and "repossess my vacuum and I would have no papers to prove I had a right to the sweeper and that I did not know who to send the payments to. Plus this is a 3-year contract.
My next option to report this transaction to the police.
Beth

I've worked for the kirby co. for 18 years out of texas and i'm and tired of hearing all this negative ### about the company. If you sell one you get paid, if you buy one it's only because the pieces of ### you've been using don't work and you'll end spending more money trying to replacing vaccums or carpet . There is 2 things that don't go together that's good and cheap, things that are good aren't cheap and cheap things aren't good. So if you want to buy a kirby off the net go right ahead but don't be crying when you have no warrenty! also for the people complaining about all the time we spend at there home, well if you weren't so a dirty person we would'nt have to be there so long trying to clean your carpet, water and dirt make mud if mixed so we try to clean it before we leave the house or you can pay your local cleaners to come make mud in your carpets at your expense. TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, EITHER YOUR A BUYER OR A WHINNER SO PLEASE QUIT YOUR DAM ### !

Hi, I bought a kirby a couple of weeks ago. Yes the price is insane but if it's the last vacuum i buy for my lifetime, then I am satisfied. I do think it's the best made vacuum. I will see in time.

I bought a Kirby from the door to door sales rep in August 2009. I have a black lab and loads of dog hair, dander, and dust from radiators. Yes, the price was high, but the demonstration was impressive. My husband and I are not idiots and wouldn't buy a vacuum we can't afford nor buy something due to pressure. The sales girl was very young, but nice and did a good job. The sales guy who picked her up was nice too. We financed it and paid it off early and had no issues whatever. It does a fabulous job on my carpets and all the accessories are good too. My only complaint is since it's heavy, it's a pain to lug up and down my stairs.

Kirby vacuums are about as good a cleaner you can buy. BUT DON'T GET SCREWED! The door to door hucksters are trained liars. They have a very high turnover in employees mainly because they are lied to just to get them to work for them. Most I've known develop real guilt feelings in what they are expected to do to get a sale, and all but the real creeps quit fairly soon once they discover they are scamming people. IF you pay more than $1200 for the top of the line product, you got screwed! Buy it on the internet or from a store that is an authorized dealership that repairs them (but barter them down at least 50% on list price). NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM A DOOR BELL RINGER. Tell them to leave your property immediately or you will (and should) call the police for trespassing after warning. I did it to a magazine salesman a year ago and the cops ran the whole operation out of town. Same should happen to Kirby hucksters.

I just bought a Kirby less than 4 hours ago. One man was very very nice. He showed me his poems and kept me company and when his partner left for a while he told us that we can lower the price down to 800 if we're very persistent. So we did what he said and we lowered the price down to 1200 and no paying for 3 months. He was a very nice guy. He threw us a few pointers to make it cheaper for us. His partner on the other hand was a true salesman...Pushy and persistent. I like the Kirby I don't like pushy and persistent salesmen though.

Lisa from Central California

A Kirby guy rang my doorbell yesterday and before I knew it there were 3 of them standing at my doorstep. They would not take no for an answer and I finally caved and let one in to do a demonstration. He seemed nice but extremely chatty in that "salesman" type way. After he finished the demo he called his "boss" and proceeded to tell him everything he had found out about me, which was later used to pressure me into buying the thing (think about how good this would be for your baby, etc.). The guy showed up and I was immediately uncomfortable with him, he came in and plopped himself down on my couch without even asking. He was trying to haggle me into buying the vacuum and I wasn't budging. Even tried to get me to call my husband so he could come home and see this machine in the hopes that we would decide to buy it. Saying that they could sit and wait there until he got back. He asked me what price they could sell it to me so I would be happy. I told him $200 because I knew that would get them out the door. They were trying to sell it for nearly $3, 000! Meanwhile the salesman is out of my sight and decides to use the restroom without even asking. Pushy, persistent and RUDE!

I want to find them to reposses thier vehicles most of them must not make much money doing this job cause they are all out for repo..

Most of these complains are laughable. I bought a Kirby complete home care system 20 years ago.My furniture carpeting and steps look great. I have saved thousands of dollars being a Kirby owner. I also believe I do not get sick like other people because of my Kirby. Cleanliness in the home is HEALTHY! I love how some of these people say they left dirt all over the place. Let's think about that. The dirt was already in your home hidden in in the carpet. if they got it out of hiding in the carpet than they did you a service not a disservice. Kirby is a great product, None of these complains say the Kirby did not do the job they paid for it to do. I do not see how a company can be a scam if the product does everything it is suppose to do. I paid over $1200 for my Kirby 20 years ago. That's $60 bucks a year or $5 a month for a clean healthy home. I remember the salesperson telling me if the Kirby stays the dirt leaves. That is true. Amazing people would cancel their Kirby order and make the choice to keep the dirt in their homes and get rid of the Kirby. I guess once the dirt is out of sight and everything "look" clean you figure your home is clean so you get rid of the Kirby calling it a scam.

Is it the gaming server?

I too worked for Kirby. Best job i ever had. Has been seven years now since i worked there. And haven't been as happy as o was there. And still own my own Kirby. Won't ever own anything else. So all you people complaining about price? Do you really think the car your driving you got it as cost price. Absolutely not. Thise commericals and ads for so much money off and clearance aln all that jazz. That is just there to make you feel like your getting a deal. You want to pay cheap for product you will get a cheap product.so go pay your 35 for a hoover. And by the time you pay 2000 in vaccuums and replaced carpet, i hope your happy. Cause you could have saved that money. And yes, they are lifetime warranty. Your probably just not smart enough to figure it out.

They are trying to sue for stopping payment on a vaccum that I never received and are refusing to come the vaccum I have now when I cancelled the contract on this to begin with...