My friends and I were three out-of-school kids looking for a good job to help us pay the bills because we're finally out and about in the adult world. We saw an ad in the paper that read something to the effect of:
Carpet cleaners needs, $350 a week.
We thought "Hey, that shouldn't be too bad." We'd all had jobs involving physical labor, and we thought we'd just be cleaning rich peoples houses together, and that it would be a fun job with good pay. A "secretary" answered our calls and set up "interviews." The next day, at the interview, I was a bit confused because the office was very old and dirty (strange for a cleaning company) and there was not a computer in sight. All the employees coming in and out were dressed very shabbily, another red flag. The "boss" was a very nice and charming man, he told me that they were looking for people who "wanted to make a lot of money." When I said I wasn't going to college anymore, he told me they had scholarship programs for employees. He told me to come in for training the next day. When I showed up, the other trainees were from the bottom of the barrel—single mothers, ex-cons, all very tired and haggard-looking people. At the interview, they said they had completed a background check on us all and that we were the ones who made it (including me and my two friends) but when talking to the other trainees, it became clear that their background checks were either not done at all or not very thorough, because they were ex-cons and had been convicted of DWIs, DUIs, and possession among other things.
The first couple days of training were very confusing, but I stuck it out because I really needed the money. The boss, the same man who had interviewed us, told us a sob story about his life and about how the company had turned his life around. He could afford all sorts of things now, but obviously not new clothing, because all his clothes were very out of date. Finally they told us we would be "demonstrating" Kirby vacuums, and proceeded to tell us about the wonders of this modern marvel.
During training, the trainees were told there would be absolutely NO SALES. They were just to demonstrate the vacuum, and then their manager would come in to make the sale. This was just another of many lies. They also told us we would be going in to appointments which were previously set up, and that we'd just show them the vacuum and leave.
When the first day of work came, we found out that we all had to pile into a van and travel up to 3 hours away from the office, driving from street to street knocking on doors. Each car had a "canvasser, " a girl who "knocked us in" to homes. Pre set up appointments, huh?
The employees, who, by the way, were all dressed pretty shabbily for all the hype given to us on "looking nice, " preyed on the elderly. They would drive past a house, say "Grandma's House!" and stop to knock on the door. Every appointment I sat in on was for an elderly woman (we were told in training that "old people have the best credit!"). The demonstrater that was training me started the high-pressure sales pitch right from the beginning. They actually made these people feel bad for not being able to buy the vacuum!
We left at around 10 and then didn't get back home till after 11PM. At $350 a week (which I found out later was only a month-long thing, after that it was straight commission!) 14 hours a day, 7 days a week which is what they were hinting at us working, is only around $3 an hour! Also, they basically told these poor old women that they in fact WERE going to see the demonstration, and after the fact they told them they WOULD buy the vacuum, no matter how much they protested. The final straw was when the "manager" made a poor little old widow cry because she couldn't get the vacuum, she called her "grandma" and told her that if she bought the machine the demonstrater would get to go on a trip to Cancun. The poor woman hugged me when we left and apologised over and over because she couldn't afford it. She was a bit senile and told me (because she was afraid of men) all about her deceased husband and her two sweet little dogs. I told her to NOT WORRY ABOUT IT! I told her they shouldn't have treated her like that and that I was sorry for getting her involved in this. Nobody deserves to be treated like that! Ever! I came home at about midnight and decided I would never go back to that horrible sham of a business.
KIRBY LIES! They lie to get employees, they lie throughout training, and they lie to their customers! They tell them anything to sell the machines, which, by the way, the mark up around 75% from what they pay for them. We could sell the machine for about $700 at the lowest, but they told us to start to bidding at $1800 because we got paid for anything we sell over $1000!
Kirby has a pretty good vacuum, but their sales practices, management, and in general sales program is a complete and utter shameful scam. Never let these people into your home, no matter how sweet the girl seems, or how hard she sticks her foot in your door! They will do absolutely anything they can to rip you off as much as they can. Don't let them tell you your house is filthy and that you should get the machine to stop it—you can do it on your own with other equiptment. Kirby lies and will screw over anyone who gets in their path!
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