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.

That's funny the hippe couldn't get it done so they send in a woman to try LOL

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

...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)]

One word, people: Dyson.

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)]

"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.

+1 Gunnar

You know what else never loses suction?

[This message has been edited by Buck Showalter (12/3/2011)]

Love my Dyson... Best vacuum ever owned...and I have experience with Kirbys and Rainbow etc etc...Dyson beats them all IMO...

Howdy - I rarely agree with you, even though I don't post it, but you are right on the nose with Dyson.

sorry you rarely agree with me, but glad you finally do LOL...Happy Holidays...

SO I take it he is not coming over to clean my carpets

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.

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

ROFL, Frank...on the nose as usual....

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.

The Kirby salesman is in Miles City today.

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.

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.

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.

They where just out in Southgate BECAREFUL

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.

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.