Complaint Review: Kirby Vaccuums - Scott Fetzer Corporation - Brian & Company - Cleveland Ohio

I, too, found an ad in the local newspaper for Customer Service Representatives. I had worked in malls as a customer service rep, so I thought I would be behind a desk, reading the same speech about a "fantastic" product over the phone. I was looking for a second summer job to help with tuition costs, as I am soon entering my third year of college. The salary promised in the ad seemed too good to be true - $300 a week with a chance of at least $500 - I was right, it really wasn't true.

I scheduled an interview for a Wednesday morning. I resigned from the company the following Tuesday morning. When I walked into the hotel conference room, a short but energetic man introduced himself, told me a minute amount about the company and what the job entailed, looked quickly at my resume and application, shook my hand and told me I pretty much had the job, but that he had to run everything through his boss first, and would let me know that night. Sure enough, I recieved a voice mail around 8pm that I had the job.

I met the new hires the next morning at orientation. I took little notice to the fact that I was only one of two females in the room. The recruiter claimed that he was honest and straightforward and did not "sugar coat anything." Our eyes lit up when he spoke of all-expense-paid vacations, digital cameras, plasma televisions, and gold jewelry. We all left excitedly, our brains freshly washed with lavendar-scented carpet shampoo.

On Friday we had training, a one-day crash course in home care on account of Monday's holiday. The four of us were split up, I was with the other girl and the two guys worked together. After going through the steps of the demonstration, we were to clean it and put it away, twice, and to be quicker than the other group. His demonstration took 5 hours, in a small hot rented room next to an insurance agency. We were told that if we had 5 shows that weekend, we would get $50. If we were the first of the weekend to sell one, we would get $100. If we sold 4 cleaners, we would get $1000. He went on lilke that, drawing up scenarios on a sheet of paper, getting everyone excited and betting eachother who could sell the most.

I didn't buy into it, I didn't believe it, but I needed the money, so I showed up on Monday for my first day of shadowing. Anywho who has written about Kirby has described what shadowing is like, so I won't go into that. I will say that out of the 8 people, I was one of two who were actually getting a degree. But, EACH represenative told the customers that they were all in college and "desperately" needed a scholarship from the company, so it "would be great if [the customer] could help [them] out." Aside from all the other lies they feed the people, they use this to guilt them into "helping out."

Here is the real beef I have with the company: I feared for my own safety. While on the way to a town 2 hours from our center, nine people were stuffed into an eight passenger van. The ninth sat on a wooden box between the driver and passenger seats. No one was buckled, not even the driver (the Manager and owner of Brian & Company) and I couldn't find the other half of mine. The manager drove like he owned the highway, neglected speed limit laws, and was on and off two cell phones the entire way and back.

Most of the time he held the phone with his right hand, and the index finger of his left hand plugged his other year, leaving only his elbows to drive. While the other girl was out training to be a "knocker," I was left in the van with 6 other men. I had to put up with bawdy comments, comments about their ex-girlfriends, comments about how they had sex with all different girls. A guy I trained with turned to me and asked me, "Some conversation, huh?" wondering why I was putting up with it. One comment was even directed towards me, personally.

I called the manager when I got home after that 10 hour day (which was short, the manager said). I told him I was not happy with the way the day went, and that I was going to leave the company. He didn't seem too surprised by my actions, but also didn't seem to see anything wrong with his actions. I handed in my set to another worker the next morning.

I don't hope for any legal action to ensue. I just wish I found this site and read the other stories before I accepted employment with the company.

Monica

Altoona, Pennsylvania

U.S.A.

Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Kirby Vacuum