A few days before Christmas, at about 5PM, a woman came to our door asking if she or one of her friends could clean our carpet or shampoo furniture. 15 minutes later, a guy came in with a Kirby Vacuum Cleaner. He proceeded to vacuum the heck out of my carpets, using the "white filter" method. Lots of gunk; wondered where it had come from, as my carpets had been shampooed only 3 DAYS EARLIER! By this time, it was almost 6, and dinner was burning.
The salesman said he had to do so many filters, then he would clean my furniture. My husband and I proceeded to sit down to eat our dinner.
At about 6:15, the salesman started to spread foam on all the seats of my dining room chairs. He never even did a test patch; he didn't spread the foam evenly or all over each seat.
In the meantime, his Manager came in, who tried to sell us the vacuum cleaner for $2,500. When we balked at the price, he asked, "How much WOULD you pay?" We said $700. He scoffed at that, and said that we didn't know a good vacuum cleaner when we saw one. We asked about a machine WITHOUT the furniture cleaning parts, and he said he couldn't sell it that way. OH WELL.
By the time we were ready to leave for an appointment, it was about 6:45. The foam had dried on our chairs, leaving dark lines where the foam had not been spread all the way to the edges. We were assured that "when the chairs dried all the way", the lines would be gone. The manager left, and the salesman had to pack up his box, which took him almost 20 minutes. He then said he had to wait for the return of his Manager.
By that time, we HAD to leave, so we put the guy out on our front porch to wait. We felt bad, but he had been there more than two hours at that point.
Subsequently, the foam lines did NOT go away. I called the manager to file a claim (he had left a flyer with his number). He told me to send him an estimate for recovering the chairs. He also said his insurance company would be calling me, buthe didn't know their name. (!) I send him a certified letter, return receipt. He signed for it, but I have never spoken to him again. The estimate was for about $350. He has not returned any calls. I am really pretty angry at the way we had been duped, and the time we spent!!!
By the way, the Manager lives in Illinois, and we are in Wisconsin. I do not think he even had a solicitation permit!
0 comments