My son is 19 years old and was recently layed off from a local manufacturing plant. He has been feverishly looking for a job for the last 3 weeks so we can pay rent and not end up homeless. What follows is the story of how he was "tricked" into working for a Kirby distributor for no pay. Thanks alot to all the folks who posted on usacomplaints.com or, (judging by the comments I read), it could have been much worse.
My son and 2 of his friends responded to the following advertisement in a reputable local newspaper (Akron Beacon Journal):
"International firm expanding into Akron. Looking for self motivated, high energy people. No experience necessary. Weekly guarantee of $525.00 minimum plus bonuses and vacations. Call for interview."
After calling the number, all 3 of them were asked to come in for interviews the same day and during the interviews were guaranteed by the office manager that they would be paid $2150 a month to demonstrate (NOT SELL) Kirby vacuum cleaners. They were required to report for training the following day. The second day of training my son came home with a blank sales lead sheet and said that if he could do 10 vacuum demonstrations over the upcoming weekend to family/friends and get them all listed on the lead sheet before the last day of training, then he would be paid a $100 bonus on the Monday following the demonstrations.
When he returned on the final day of training, they collected and copied the full sales lead sheets and then informed him that he would not receive the $100 bonus on the date promised but would have to wait an additional week to get it. They also informed him that the time he spent in training was unpaid time as well. He was told that the demonstrations he performed over the weekend were for training purposes only, but after the first demonstration the office manager tried to high pressure the homeowner into buying the vacuum, therefore they were indeed sales leads and not simply for training (they were also personal friends of ours like everyone else on the lead sheet).
During the last day of training the office manager had them sign a contract entitled "Kirby Independent Dealer Agreement". None of them really understood the contract but they signed anyway along with 3 other documents which included all the information about the pay/bonuses they were to receive. They received a copy of the contract but when they asked for copies of the other documents they were told that the copier was broken. I contacted the office manager directly asking for copies of everything my son had signed but she said it would take time to get the copies because they didn't have a copying machine (Does this sound like an international company expanding... They can't afford a copier?) The Dealer agreement contract specifically states that my son was NOT an employee of the distributor and that he had no authority to bind the distributor in any manner or for any purpose. HEY FOLKS THIS MEANS THEY ARE REQUIRED TO PAY YOU NOTHING!
I started doing some investigating on Kirby when I found usacomplaints.com and over 200 complaints detailing fraudulent hiring/sales practices perpetuated by Kirby distributors and "employees" that were scammed into working long hours for free. He and his friends then quit immediately. The morale of the story is as follows:
(1) Trust no one, question everything
(2) Never sign anything you don't understand
(3) Never sign anything unless you get a copy
(4) If it's too good to be true, it's NOT
(5) Kirby is a disreputable company, don't do business with them... This never happened to us at Sears
It's really sad that in this screwed up ecomony there are actually vultures out there preying on the hopes and dreams of young men that want no more than a job and a decent days pay. I contacted the Akron detective bureau and was told that they had been operating similar scams in this area for years and the reason they don't get called on it is because most out of work people don't have the money to hire an attorney and sue them in civil court. PLEASE DON"T BUY A KIRBY.
Juli *
Barberton, Ohio
U.S.A.
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