Kirby Salesman
Posted by whitneyann (+277) 12 years ago
Just to let everyone know i had a Kirby salesman at my door this morning asking me if we used tissue in our home. This time i knew better and shut the door. I know a lot of us had a hard time with the last crew that came through this town. Once they were in our homes they were almost impossible to get them out. So i just wanted to give a heads up that they are back and they usually ask if you use tissue or baking soda. Inless you are in the market for a new "expensive" but nice vacuum, tell them no before they get into your home.
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Posted by Dustin Lynam (+188) 12 years ago
thanks for the warning!!
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Posted by CRK (+117) 12 years ago
Yep, I got them also. A closed door between them and myself took care of it.
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Posted by Ryan (+477) 12 years ago
What were they driving? Cops are in front of our house at the 700 block of S Center talking to people in a van with Wyoming license plate. It looks like they are checking them out.

[This message has been edited by Ryan (11/22/2011)]
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Posted by william nelson (+32) 12 years ago
they were @ my house yesterday in a white mini van!! relentlessly knocked on door and rang door bell!
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Posted by David Schott (+19040) 12 years ago
Sounds like a great idea for a "Dawn of the Dead" sequel... zombie Kirby vacuum cleaner salesmen in white vans converge on smalltown America and relentless terror ensues.
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Posted by Kelly (+2873) 12 years ago
Unbeknownst to the town, the zombies have refashioned their vacuums to be brain suckers. They go to demonstrate the BS attachment and bam, you're dinner.
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Posted by David Schott (+19040) 12 years ago
Yep, BAM, they suck the life right out of you. This was supposed to be fiction, but it's sounding closer to reality.
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Posted by Gunnar Emilsson (+18757) 12 years ago
I've heard that while one Kirby salesman is conducting the demonstration, an accomplice sneaks into the house to steal old people's medicine.
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Posted by luckycharms (+47) 12 years ago
Those guys pissed me off last year. The same guy knocked on my door 3 different days. The first 2 times I told him I had a Kirby and was not interested in a new one. The 3rd time I told him if he showed up again that I had his tag # and would report him to the police for harrasment. He finally left us alone!
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Posted by Jody K (+114) 12 years ago
lucky, they came to my house more than once too. I told them I already have one. I really dislike these guys. I think they are usually from out of state.
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Posted by TDF (+154) 12 years ago
Same white van with two men and Wyoming plates was at my house this morning. Wanted to know if I used kleenex. When I said no, he wanted me to give him a second opinion on something. He mentioned several times that his boss was watching him from the van. There was another man in the van who was the driver. First man ran to the van, came back with a box with Kirby written on it. Said he would just take a minute to get my opinion on something. Told him I didn't need a Kirby. He repeated that his boss was watching him. Guess I was supposed to "save" him. Shut the door and they sat for several minutes in the driveway.
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Posted by Gunnar Emilsson (+18757) 12 years ago
Wyoming plates.....nothing screams "lawless criminal" more than that.
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Posted by Toni Rentschler (+1517) 12 years ago
At my moms house this Am too. North Custer by SH school!
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Posted by RS/SS (+32) 12 years ago
What does this say about the Kirby Company !!
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Posted by David Schott (+19040) 12 years ago
RS/SS wrote:
"What does this say about the Kirby Company !!"

They suck?
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Posted by Josh Rath (+2332) 12 years ago
I'm waiting for them to show up at my house over by garfield school. Especially because police are across the street.
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Posted by Richard Bonine, Jr. (+15582) 12 years ago
What county were the Wyoming plates?

[This message has been edited by Richard Bonine, Jr. (11/24/2011)]
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Posted by Dan Mowry (+1437) 12 years ago
Just snap a picture of the van and post it to 4chan. Let them have at 'em.
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Posted by cubby (+2694) 12 years ago
They were just at my parants house just a minute ago, I told the kid to go pound sand and leave us alone it is Thanksgiving after all. Silver KIA van is what they were driving but forgot to get a plate number
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Posted by Matt Smith (+794) 12 years ago
^ I got a picture of the van. I told the little hippy thanks but no thanks.
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Posted by Jay Hirsch (+1) 12 years ago
Just had a short visit with Kirby crew, sent them down the road. Told them to keep pedalling away from MC no one on Wyttenhoven interested.
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Posted by Patty O. (+220) 12 years ago
Just who you want kncking on your door after a Thanksgiving meal. WTH? We sent him on his way as well. Go home have a turkey sandwich....lol
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Posted by howdy (+4943) 12 years ago
they must be awfully desperate to make a living...sad...
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Posted by Wendy Wilson (+6173) 12 years ago
It would have been nice to offer them some dinner. These guys are desparate.
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Posted by Hal Neumann (+10381) 12 years ago
>>desparate

They could desperate too. Maybe even disparate under the right circumstances.
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Posted by David Schott (+19040) 12 years ago
Is that anything like das pirate?
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Posted by Hal Neumann (+10381) 12 years ago
Hard to generalize when it comes to Pyrites - they are a disparate lot.

[This message has been edited by Hal Neumann (11/25/2011)]
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Posted by Chuck Schott (+1284) 12 years ago
I heard they wanted to suck all the live out of everyone BUT.....IT WAS TOO LATE.
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Posted by Chris Sirchia (+626) 12 years ago
Just tell them that your brothers Smith and Wesson are sitting in the living room getting itchy. They might get the hint! LOL
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Posted by MG (+105) 12 years ago
Oh come on now, no need to be so quick to judge these poor fellas. Let them clean your living room before you decide to give them the boot.
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Posted by luckycharms (+47) 12 years ago
I bought my Kirby 13 yrs ago from a well groomed gentleman in a suit. He did not ploy me with kleenex or paper towels. I guess now days they have seriously lowered the bar for their salesmen, but their product is still awesome.

I saw them lurking around South Gate on Thanksgiving Day. My hubby asked what he should do if they came to the door. I told him he better not answer because I would have to give them an a** kicking for being so disrespectful!
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Posted by worldmom (+423) 12 years ago
These guys came to our house Thanksgiving night. I thought that was a little uncouth, but my husband told them "no thanks" and they left without incident.
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Posted by Richard Bonine, Jr. (+15582) 12 years ago
[color=darkred]Ahem!........What county were the Wyoming plates?
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Posted by keefro (+78) 12 years ago
Friday 12-2-11 3:30
Woman in a blue van came to my door wantin my opinion about tissues. I told her i didn't need a Kirby. Told her the whole town knew what their scheme was and to leave. She amitted being employed by Kirby but said she just got into town today and didn't understand what i was talking about. I told her other salesmen were in town 2 weeks ago.
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Posted by cubby (+2694) 12 years ago
That's funny the hippe couldn't get it done so they send in a woman to try LOL
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Posted by kirbyguy (+3) 12 years ago
Miles city residence,
I'm one of the people from the kirby company in town. First I would like to say I've been to miles city 3 times over the last year and we always enjoy coming here.this is a great town and for the most part your hospitality is usually very good.
There will always be a stigma with door to door sales. Before you start judging anyone for being slimy and "hippies", I'm clean cut, as are my dealers. College educated and our company does background checks so nobody is at risk. We are part of the BBB for 14 years with an a+ rating. We don't do bad business.
If you are still against door to door soliciting, walmart sells $.89 signs that say no soliciting and we won't knock your door. I know its a dollar but if we ruin your day its probably worth it.
The people that come to your door get paid as a form of advertising to clean for you. Everyone on earth wishes they had a maid but if its someone with a kirby people act differently.
None of us want bad blood with the community, we understand its a privledge to work here in miles city and we must be curteous all we ask is the same.
Thanks for reading and giving us the opportunity.
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Posted by Scott (+255) 12 years ago
There must be a serious lack of training then or something. We had one stop at our house when I was out of town working. My wife was home alone with at newborn when someone came and rang the doorbell and knocked at 930 at night. Who does that kind of crap. I will never purchase a kirby because of this person being rude and treating my wife poorly when she chewed his ass for showing up so late. He begged to come in after that. This just happens to be the same time someone checked to see if they had a business lic. for mc, and.....THEY DIDNT. So, if you want to do business thats wonderful. I will never fault anyone for trying to feed their family but do it in a respectful manner in our town.
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Posted by kirbyguy (+3) 12 years ago
I can't speak for the entire kirby company, we are broken down into distributors and teams so every group is different. Miles city does not regulate door to door aside from dealing with complaints, easy way to tell if a crew is legal would be to see if they have Montana license plates. Even if their from out of state they must purchase temporary plates for Montana. I apologise for your experience but hopefully you won't let that reflect a 97 year old company. If you ran into a salesman at the chevy dealership who was down in the dumps it could be a bad experience but you wouldn't have to swear off chevrolet for a lifetime.
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Posted by nevets (+352) 12 years ago
My sister has a clearly posted sign, they still came and harrassed her to the point she texted me asking me to come get rid of them. It shouldn't take your brother showing up with a .45 to get a salesperson to leave. It's sad that a company thats been around for as long as kirby has cant teach there sales people no means no and please leave means get the heck out of my house.
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Posted by kirbyguy (+3) 12 years ago
I'm sure plenty of people have bad stories about kirby. Keep in mind there are thousands of people who are proud kirby owners. These freak incidents are not common or we wouldn't be in business. How do you think he felt, he's vacuuming someone's house and instead of the person infront of them communicating the problem, however severe. Some guy walks in the room unannounced and threatens their life... Because they were vacuuming. Something tells me that person was not willing to put their life at risk to vacuum someone else's rugs. You can find negative reviews on every company on the planet. You can read about people sueing charity organizations. I'm just the only one stupid enough to try and mediate these issues. I'm not saying buy a kirby all I've done is educate our rules and ask people not be so quick to judge a book by its cover.
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Posted by snickers (+819) 12 years ago
If you are serious about wanting to clean carpets for free........... I have some super nasty carpeting and no money to buy a vacuum BUT I will be happy to post before and after pics
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Posted by cubby (+2694) 12 years ago
It's not the product that people are concerned about, it is the way the product is trying to be pedaled around our town that worries me. I mean if a nicely dressed and clean cut gentleman came to my door wanting to know if I could spare a minute or two for a demonstration, and then is nice enough to leave on the first time being asked, I don't think any one would bother you. But these guys are def and just don't listen that's why everyone is being rude to them. Anyways good luck with selling vacuums I know their good products just don't need one right now.
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Posted by Dan Mowry (+1437) 12 years ago
...can you judge a book by several of its pages?


No offense, Kirbyguy, but on one hand you speak representing the company but on the other hand you say you can't speak for everyone. You're trying to have it both ways and that likely won't be successful diplomacy.

You said your bit and it's probably true - not everyone is a bad Kirby seller.

However, it sounds increasingly that some are and in spite of your rules and training... it's not happening in reality enough to stem what sounds like a trend in Miles City.

Not sure if you should bow out now and just get your bosses to look into this or if you're going to dig yourself into a hole trying to defend people and situations you weren't privileged to or end up defending people who had bad behavior you may not be willing to accept took place?

They represent the company too, I might add.

Right now - YOU are representing the company. You have a nickname and are representing a major corporation with your posts. Are you entirely sure they approve and clear you to to handle representation of what amounts to potential harassment complaints?

[This message has been edited by Dan Mowry (12/3/2011)]
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Posted by Gunnar Emilsson (+18757) 12 years ago
One word, people: Dyson.
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Posted by Dan Mowry (+1437) 12 years ago
Or, two words...

"Wiki" and "pedia"

As I suggested above... I don't know that I'd want the task of speaking on this issue with all its potential pitfalls.

/two pennies tossed on table/

Would I use a Kirby? You bet - very nice machines.
Would I want to be the guy to mediate complaints? No, I wouldn't.

[This message has been edited by Dan Mowry (12/3/2011)]
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Posted by Scott (+255) 12 years ago
"If you ran into a salesman at the chevy dealership who was down in the dumps it could be a bad experience but you wouldn't have to swear off chevrolet for a lifetime."

Your right I wouldnt!!! But you can bet your butt I wouldnt purchase a thing from that dealer.
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Posted by Richard Bonine, Jr. (+15582) 12 years ago
+1 Gunnar
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Posted by Buck Showalter (+4461) 12 years ago
You know what else never loses suction?

[This message has been edited by Buck Showalter (12/3/2011)]
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Posted by howdy (+4943) 12 years ago
Love my Dyson... Best vacuum ever owned...and I have experience with Kirbys and Rainbow etc etc...Dyson beats them all IMO...
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Posted by Barb Holcomb (+407) 12 years ago
Howdy - I rarely agree with you, even though I don't post it, but you are right on the nose with Dyson.

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Posted by howdy (+4943) 12 years ago
sorry you rarely agree with me, but glad you finally do LOL...Happy Holidays...
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Posted by snickers (+819) 12 years ago
SO I take it he is not coming over to clean my carpets
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Posted by cbadnmb2001 (+37) 12 years ago
So last evening about oh I would say 6:45 P.M. my wife and I get a knock on our door, and thanks to our fellow Miles City.commers we know there is a chance it is a Kirby saleman/saleswoman. My wife is not very good with conflicts so we go to the door together; so at my door is a woman who is not very professional looking, who pulls an individual kleenex pack out of her pocket and says" Public Opinion poll, do you use these" My wife as cute as she is and to my shock says "your a Kirby salesman, sorry" I then added "good bye and have a great evening" To me this is priceless.
My wife and I have nothing against someone trying to make an honest living, however we do have an issue with someone who cannot be honest as to why they are at my door and use a tissue pacakage to sell vaccuum cleaners.
So Kirbyguy...if you door to door sales folks are just trying to sell Kirby, then why not say that at the door instead of the nice line of trash "Public Opinion Poll"? The folks of Miles City may or may not need your very high priced, but good quality machines, but at least we can pass on that the salemen/women that visit are homes are up front about why they are at our doors. This my friend may at least earn you door to door sales people the respect of the Miles City residents...just my opinion.
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Posted by Frank Hardy (+1731) 12 years ago
This FINALLY explains the difficulty my new company has been having. I was contracted to undertake a survey in the Miles City area regarding tissue softness and I have been aghast at what some of my pollsters have been encountering.

One young man reported knocking at a door and upon it being opened the occupant screamed "Know what the difference between a Kirby salesman and a Kirby vacuum is?? NO??? They BOTH SUCK!!!" SLAM!!

Another young lady reported that when she knocked on several doors the people kept calling her "Kirby" and slamming the door in her face. Since her name is Kimberly, she couldn't figure out how everyone could be so close to guessing it but just not quite right, and why that would make them so darn angry.

Any way, I still haven't heard back from the guy who thought it would be funny to pretend to be a vacuum cleaner salesman before revealing that he was really just there to take a public opinion poll about tissues. If anyone sees him could you call me? He is driving a van with Wyoming plates. He usually lives in it, down by the river....but that's another story.


FH
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Posted by howdy (+4943) 12 years ago
ROFL, Frank...on the nose as usual....
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Posted by whitneyann (+277) 12 years ago
you know, when the kirbyguy said something about going to a chevy dealership and getting a guy with a bad attitude...his key word in there is GO...if i want a new pickup i will GO buy one! if i want a new vaccuum, i will go BUY one. this day and age it is to risky to let someone into your home that you don't know. especially when they don't identify who they are and what they are selling when you open your door. they instantly LIE to you. and the guy who posted that his sister couldn't get the guy out of her house and it took him to go over there with his gun....i can believe that she asked him a dozen times to leave and that she didn't want his product because we asked a dozen times for our salesman to leave and he wouldn't. we even offered him a pop and told him to sit...he told us that if his boss knew he was sitting down he would get fired, poor guy looked scared to death. he told us that his boss wouldn't come pick him up if he couldn't sell. we told him we were sorry. i don't know if this is a scheme to get us to feel sorry for him and buy the vacuum or if he was truly scared of his boss. (crappy way to live your life) i understand that these people are trying to make a living and feed their families but if they are "screened" and "good" people then they should get a different job. they know going into this company that the economy sucks and people can't afford a 1600 dollar vacuum. they also know that being a salesman is hard work and they have to learn to take "no" for an answer. i just think that they need to be honest when selling a product they are proud about instead of lying their way into your families home.
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Posted by B&M (+210) 11 years ago
The Kirby salesman is in Miles City today.
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Posted by Amorette F. Allison (+1917) 11 years ago
I am glad that my house isn't all fixed up. It looks like such a dump that I haven't had any problem! That I have almost no carpeting.
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Posted by jabba (+13) 11 years ago
Last time he was at my house I watched tv while he vacuumed. My carpet was really dirty when he got there, and only mildly so afterwards.
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Posted by Lindsey (+279) 11 years ago
Yes he is back with same story, my boss is watching... in a wy van again... there is a women and man in the van smoking... the van is beat up.
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Posted by Kari (+111) 11 years ago
They where just out in Southgate BECAREFUL
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Posted by nativemc (+913) 11 years ago
Maybe someone in Miles City should propose a Green River Law.
Green River Ordinance


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


This article refers to the prohibition of door-to-door solicitation. For the band from Fort Worth, Texas see Green River Ordinance (band)
The name Green River Ordinance is given to a common United States city ordinance prohibiting door-to-door solicitation. Under such an ordinance, it is illegal for any business to sell their items door-to-door without express permission from the household beforehand. Some versions prohibit all organizations, including non-profit charitable, political, and religious groups, from soliciting or canvassing any household that makes it clear, in writing, that it does not want such solicitations (generally with a "No Trespassing" or "No Solicitations" sign posted.)

The ordinance is named for the city of Green River, Wyoming, which in 1931 was the first city to enact it.[1] The ordinance was unsuccessfully challenged on constitutional grounds by the Fuller Brush Company in 1932.[2]

The ordinance has been challenged before the Supreme Court on several occasions.
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Posted by Roger Miller (+50) 11 years ago
I bought a Kirby from a really nice salesman about 15 years ago. I have used the heck out of it, sometimes use it to blow out my rain gutters. It's heavy, it has a loud high pitched squeal, but it cleans very well and I have only put one belt in it.
That vacuum really sucks! Sorry, I just had to say that.
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