I worked for Kirby for 3 of the longest weeks of my life! It started at the interview. I sat there listening to the incredible earning potential for a half hour and they kept refusing to tell me what the name of the company was, the name Kirby was nowhere to be found. I responded to an add in the paper advertising for "15 factory positions." It was a factory distributer and I was to sell vacuums door to door. Fresh out of college I was starving and was drawn to the promise of big bucks.
Each morning we would start at the butt-crack of dawn and have a pep-talk meeting where we would sing retarded songs about our product. Which, by the way, the product is great and I would own one if they weren't so dang expensive! Then we would be crammed into a vehicle and drive all over the U.P. Of Michigan. We were dropped off at houses by our "van master" and we had absolutly no choice where we were stranded at. One time they left me at some folks house, who totally didn't want me there, for 3 hours. After an hour they said they had to go to work so I spent two hours in the U.P. Winter weather outside in the driveway sitting on my kirby box, feeling like an idiot.
The sales tactic was to look for a crappy house but with a nice car in the driveway. This was their logic, poor people are suckers for buying things on credit and rich people either already owned a kirby or were too frugal with their money. The van master would walk us to the house and offer an enticing colorful feather duster to the unsuspecting homeowner as a free gift they get to keep, plus a free carpet cleaning. My van master was a complete ass! One lady refused to let us in and while she tried to close the door he actually stuck the duster in the door and dusted her face with it, then ran away laughing his fool head off!
I made absolutly no money because every time I sold one it was repossesed because the homeowner didn't have enough credit. We would take the homeowners vac.in exchange to cut down the price of the kirby and then they would smash it to bits when we got back to the office. Therefore if they couldn't get credit their old vacuum was completely gone!
I was mentally and even physically abused. I had to listen to the crude, sexually inappropriate jokes at my expense all day. And the days were long ones! 7am-10pm. One boy who worked in our group refused to conform to the standards of the nasty salesmen and they actually physically beat him up! They said he was being negative, but I think he was just being realistic.
The potential to earn money is definately at Kirby but you've got to be a real greasy salesperson to make it! The only thing I have to say about the Kirby salespeople I worked with is..."Be Afraid... Be Very Afraid!"
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