A story about Trebor from someone who discovered the hard way, or Don't quit your day job.
— In the spring of while on a visit to the Toledo area, I answered an ad in the Toledo newspaper for people interested in Human Resources positions for a place called Trebor Distributing. I was planning to move to the area after my soon-to-be wedding, and, being a recent college grad who had interned for such a position, I called the company and asked about the position.
I was informed that the Human Resource position was open and would I come in to fill out an application.
I was excited, thinking that I had just landed a real job in the area I had enjoyed working.
I went to Trebor Distributing and I immediatly filled out the application. I asked questions about what position was open, and was told by the woman I met with that several were open for which they were interviewing.
But as I pressed for more details, they were vague or deflected.
I should have known better, but I was too excited. They asked me to come back. I moved early thinking that this was time sensitive. I was wrong.
It would not be until it was a little late to turn back before I would find out the whole truth about Trebor Distributing.
Trebor is run by some proclaimed salesman guru named Robert. Trebor=Robert backwards.
Trebor's true purpose is to sell Kirby Vacuums and they do nothing else.
I feel like an idiot for falling for the scam but honestly, I came from an area that had no door-to-door kirby salespeople (sounds like heaven?) or door-to-door people at all so I was not aware of this type of ploy.
When I was told that I was to report for training and orientation, I thought all of my questions would be answered then. They weren't. Several of us asked about the HR position and were told that they were auditioning us for it. We kept trying, thinking we were missing something.
But as time went on, it became clear that the audition was the only real job and the HR position I had been lured in with was a myth.By then I had prematurely moved to Toledo, hired a wedding planner to finish the details, and refocused myself in a faux job.
I tried the Trebor-way for over a month. I sold one Kirby (not much for unethical high-pressure sales tactics which are pretty much the only thing that could get a person to buy a 1600 dollar vacuum on a whim.) I made $160 that month.
However, what I learned during that month by listening was priceless and proved to me Trebor is a deceitful, but thriving company.
What they wont tell you —
$1600 is the price... But not really.
$400 of that goes to you, the sales person, if you are lucky.
But if the price actually is negotiable and most crew chiefs will cut $400 off the price (your 400) if the customer even bats an eyelash when he tries to close the deal (or if he is in a bad mood or wishes to punish you for some reason). They tell you that it is because you didn't really sell the product, that you didn't do your job. Meanwhile you have spent (if you are lucky) the better part of an hour vacuuming and shampooing the customers carpets and are too tired to argue. More cuts go from there.
The base price is around $1100 but it can be cut from there all the way down to around $800. If you go there, you get nothing because your crew chief claims there was no profit — but then why sell it?
Meanwhile, let's talk hours.
Your day starts a 10 am with a motivational session at Trebor Distributing Headquarters. This last roughly two hours. During this time you are reminded that it is up to you. You deturmine your sucess. If you aren't selling, you aren't trying.
Then everyone piles into vans, trucks, cars with their crew chiefs and heads off to sell vacuums. Most of the time you will be working an area that was throughly combed by another crew chief but a week or month ago. Good luck. Now the trip to get to this "virgin" territory can be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.
Then, once you are there everyone piles out. A couple of the cuter girls or sharper looking guys go knocking on doors to get interviews. I have to salute these people, they are talented. For doing this, they get a cut of the profits if a person they knock in sells a kirby. You are told you are letting them down if you fail to do so (even if the person you have been sent in to demonstrate is pissed off that he fell for the kirby people again.)
Once inside, you are on your own (after a few days of training) to make a person believe that they want to by a $1600 vacuum from you. You demonstrate. After a while the crew chief comes in looking all official to close the deal. This is where the real high pressure sales begin.in fact used car salesmen would wince at the one-liners I have heard. If you did an exceptional job, and the customer has 1600 burn a hole in their pocket, you will get paid. More likely than not, especially for the beginner (who I hope is independantly wealthy and doing this for fun), some sort of bargain will be struck and the vacuum will go for a significantly lower price. You get maybe 160. But more likely the person will somehow usher you and your crew chief out the door without buying anything. When you get in the car, expect to be told that you are not trying hard enough in a not-too friendly manner.
Remember, "Kirby's sell themselves." If you aren't selling, you aren't trying.
Now don't expect to go home anytime soon. There is a reason everyone is in one car. You are there until they say so. You have to go the bathroom? Knock yourself into a customer. Forget eating. You won't be. They don't stop for anything. They also don't stop (unless a special occasion) until around 10pm or well after dark. ("but people are home then...) So while you didn't start until 10am, you won't be going home until well after 10pm. If you did happen to be part of the lucky crew that drove for a few hours to get to the "virgin" territory, you won't be home til well after midnight.
I never saw my fiance even though we lived in the same apartment. On Sundays I had to sleep to catch up.
Now the likely-hood is that you will not be a wiz at salesmanship when you start out and if that is the case you are looking to the promise of $400 if you complete 15 in-home demonstrations during the week, which is the promise. But getting those 15 is not your crew chief's priority. And while I was there, not many did make that 15. It is not in Trebor's intrest to give you $400 so don't expect to make that number. Not that it is necessarily all deception on their part. The starting out person usually takes a couple of hours to complete the demonstration. It is a matter of numbers. 5 days a week x 3 demonstrations a day = 6 continuous hours of demonstrating every day. That doesn't happen. If you aren't selling, they don't waste persective customers on you.
But Trebor gives you another opportunity to make up those demos! They work saturdays and sundays too. You are expected to work saturday even though it is volunteer and you a pressured to work Sunday because that is how they (Robert) got where he is.
And if you aren't serious about being a salesperson, you won't be a sucessful person, period.By the way, don't expect to see Robert that much.
I did get a personal interview with Robert on what would be my last day. When I was hired, I made sure EVERYONE was informed I would be taking a week off in June to get married. I was informed by the rest of the staff that was OK. Apparently I was wrong. The day before I left for my wedding, Robert pulled me into his office to inform me that because I was taking time away to get married that I obviously wasn't serious about being a salesperson. (meanwhile he is married) He felt that I should contemplate if I was serious about wanting to make something out of my life. I nearly cried, but then something else came on — fury. Here was a man who had lied to me every step of the way, and a company that only paid me $160/mo. For working 12-14hr days 6 days a week.
I didn't hesitate making something out of myself, I never went back.
Now, I know the drill. Someone is going to write in to say I obviously wasn't a good salesperson or I am suffering from sour grapes. Maybe. But anyone who is honest with himself has got to see that something besides my attitude is sour here. Baiting with one job and switching with another, verbally abusing the salespeople, and lack of any pay despite long hours of work don't sound all that honest. Can we say free labor? This company stinks of B.S. And someone has to have the guts to say something. I am not afraid to be called a poor sport of worse.in fact, bring it on. I watched what they did to people — if you didn't see the broken people at trebor, you were too busy trying to climb over them.
Some people can succeed at Trebor. God help them. With their practices, I wouldn't want to be one of them. And by the way, that mythical HR job sort of exists. But the truth I had to find out from an unusually honest crew leader a couple of weeks later. If you sell so many vacuums, you become crew chief. If your crew does well, you may get the "HR" position. But is isn't really HR, it is a head-hunter with motivational speaking duties. Not to split hairs or anything...
By the way, this is in no way a condemnation of the actual Kirby vacuum. They are wonderful. But I would never want to be part of a system like Trebor.in that respect I got lucky — I bought mine at an estate sale for twenty bucks. Robert didn't see a penny on that one.
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