I had a person from this company come to sell me a Kirby Sentria vacuum cleaner just 10 days ago. Since then, I have been doing research on the Kirby vacuum on Consumer Reports and on the BBB site, and found that a lot of the claims by the sales rep. Were untrue. She claimed that this company had a AAA rating with the Better Business Bureau, and I see now that it only has an A - rating.in my opinion, it should be much worse, based on the experience I had and how I was treated.
Most good vacuums on the market today (and those best rated by Consumer Reports, like the Hoover Windtunnel) can be bought for around $150, and some higher end vacuums like the Dyson can be bought for around $500. Kirby was not in the top 5 of upright vacuums, so you think their price would be a little lower, right? Wrong! The sales rep that came to my door told me that the new model of the Kirby, the Sentria, retails for $2365! According to Consumer Reports, this vacuum retails for $1350, and can only be bought by the door-to-door salespeople. Somehow the discounted price I was offered was still higher than the retail price that Consumer Reports listed. I was told that I could get a teacher discount for $1500!
Since we knew we couldn't even afford a Dyson (even at $400), I knew we couldn't afford a $1500 Kirby! But this sales rep would not take no for an answer, would not respect our financial situation, and would not leave my home after I repeated explained to her that we could not afford it. She then tried to offer financing with 10% interest over 30 months. I told her we still couldn't afford it, at which point she started to insult me for not buying for myself, insulted my marriage because I told her I would not buy anything without consulting my husband, and was overly rude in general.
After 5 hours of being in my house, while I was hot, hungry and tired and not able to get any of the work day that day that I needed to, I finally agreed to buy a vacuum. I feel like I was bullied into it, along with having to give up my only good vacuum (to supposedly offset their costs for giving me such a low price)! The next day, I told my husband I was so stressed about the money we spent (over $1000), and that I was still upset about how I had been treated by the sales rep and the fact that 5 hours of my valuable work time had been taken away.
The one good thing about this company is that we had no problem returning the vacuum and getting our old one back when we called to rescind our contract the next morning. Now the Kirby is gone and I learned a valuable lesson—never let a salesperson into your home, don't trust they are telling you the truth about their product, their company, etc., and call the police if they refuse to leave.
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