April 24, 2014 a woman from Midwest Elite came to my door in Iowa City claiming to be a cleaning service that was new to our area. They offered to clean my couch for free. I said yes, thinking that they were a cleaning service that I could call if I needed upholstery or carpets cleaned. I had no idea they were selling Kirby until they were inside my house and started quizzing me. The woman left a 20 yr old guy to do the selling.
The young man asked where the bedroom was, I said no, I did not want him in there. He walked down the hall, and into my bedroom! All the way down the hall I told him no. Then he started to vacuum my bed.
After he finally vacuumed my couch, he decided to pull out cigarettes! I do not smoke and I do not want cigarettes in my house. He tried to show me how gentle the Kirby is and that it can suck the tabacco out without damaging the casing. He destroyed one on my couch and got pieces all over the cushions. Eventually he vacuumed it up and used it as one of his reasons why my house is so dirty.
After 1 1/5 he finally got around to "dry" shampooing my couch. According to the sales people it would dry in 15 minutes. 3 hours later it was still soaking wet. Today I can still see marks from where they "washed" it. After he got done washing the couch, he had the audacity to ask my dog if he wanted to drink the cleaning solution. I don't care if it's safe for dogs or not, I will not allow my dog to drink it! He's lucky he was already packing, because I was not about to tolerate anyone messing with my dog!
In general, he spoke disrespectfully of elderly people, which in his opinion my dad who is 60 would be "really old". I don't think 60 is that old. He thought it would be funny to tell me a story about him drinking and driving at 16, and about hitting another car at Hyvee. When I told him no to cleaning my bed, he responded with telling me how he does nasty things on his bed & his parents would be upset if they knew because they believe in saving sex for marriage. Being a married woman who's husband was at work, I was not ok with this conversation.
I did not appreciate them lying to me about the service or them going into my bedroom after I told them no repeatedly. I certainly did not appreciate him offering my 1 yr old dog cleaning solution to drink! For that reason alone I will never buy a Kirby!
Kirby-Customer Relations
Cleveland,#2UPDATE Employee
Fri, May 23, 2014
Hello
The Kirby Company takes all complaints seriously and apologizes for the conduct of the distributorship’s representative. We do not condone any inappropriate behavior by our independent distributors and/or their dealers. Although the relationship between The Kirby Company and its distributorships is that of vendor/vendee, we expect the distributors to conduct themselves and their businesses in professional manners.
We would like to contact the owner of the distributorship to review your comments with him. Please make contact with Customer Relations at 1-800-494-8586, Monday through Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm, Eastern Time so they can review your comments with that business owner.
Thank you.